Sports Zone

Monday, December 27, 2010

Shiven Khosla beats Chiel; Abhijeet shocked by Rotstien

Groningen: Seeking his third and final International Master norm, Shiven Khosla defeated VIM Van Oosterom Chiel of Holland to move to joint seventh spot after the end of the fifth round of Groningen International Open chess tournament here.

Second seeded former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta was shocked by Arkadij Rotstein on a day that saw as many as six players emerging as joint leaders with four points apiece.

With four rounds still to go, Abhijeet slipped behind in the title race and will now need to do a lot of hard work in the remaining games to stage a comeback. It was from a position of strength that the Indian was outdone by Rotstein.

The other two Indians in the fray had good results as both International Masters Sahaj Grover and Ashwin Jayaram registered emphatic victories. While Grover defeated Woman Grandmaster Olga Stjazhkina of Russia, Jayaram had it easy against Christian Hess of Germany.

At the top of the tables, defending champion Illya Nyzhnyk played out a draw with overnight co-leader Dejan Bojkov of Bulgaria after surviving some anxious moments.

Mark Bluvshtein of Canada, Daan Brandenburg of Holland, Peter Prohaszka of Hungary and Rotestein joined Bojkov and Nyzhnyk as joint leaders.

Khosla is in the next group of 3.5 pointers while Abhijeet, Grover and Jayaram are all on three points.

Whiven was a little lucky in pressing home his advantage from the white side of a King pawn game against Chiel. The Indian obtained a good position in the middle game but could not keep pace with the clock and fell under sever time pressure.

At one point, the Indian had less than three minutes to make 20 moves but in the end all was well as Chiel could not find the best defense.

Abhijeet almost outplayed Rotstein from the white side of a Queen pawn game. The German was saddled with a very passive position and gave Abhijeet a huge advantage on space count and better placed pieces.

However, in the first time control, Abhijeet blundered and fell in to a simple tactical sequence that spelt disaster for him.

Grover faced the Petroff defense from Olga who played black. The middle game gave the Indian better prospects that he correctly calculated to lend in a better ending. Olga was sight of losing a handful of pawns when she called it a day.

Ashwin Jayaram is back on a track after his third victory in the tournament. The Indian won with black against Hess to set up a clash with Abhijeet Gupta in the next round.

Important and Indian Results round 5 (Indians unless specified):

Dejan Bojkov (Bul, 4) drew with Illya Nyzhnyk (Ukr, 4); Abhijeet Gupta (3) lost to Arkadij Rotstein (Ger, 4); Peter Prohaszka (Hun, 4) beat Sipke Ernst (Ned, 3); Mark Bluvshtein (Can, 4) beat Robin Van Kampen (Ned, 3); Davit Lobzhanidze (Geo, 3.5) drew with Zaven Andriasian (Arm, 3.5); Daan Brandenburg (Ned, 4) beat Jan Werle (Ned, 3); Friso Nijboer (Ned, 3.5) beat Roeland Pruijssers (Ned, 3); Shiven Khosla (3.5) beat Van O Olga Stjazhkina Oosterom Chiel (Ned, 2.5); Sahaj Grover (3) beat Olga Stjazhkina (Rus, 2); Chiristian Hess (Ger, 2) lost to Ashwin Jayaram (3).

Rahul Dravid registers record 200th Test catch

Durban: Indian middle-order batsman Rahul Dravid achieved a rare milestone in his career when he took his 200th catch in Test matches to stay on top of the list in the five-day format of the game.

An accomplished slip fielder, Dravid achieved the feat when he brilliantly caught Dale Steyn off Harbhajan Singh, diving in a flash to his left, during South Africa`s first innings in the ongoing second Test against India at Sahara Kingsmead Stadium.

Dravid now tops the list of most number of catches in Tests. He registered the feat in his 149th match.

Former Australia opener Mark Waugh is at the second spot with 181 catches from 128 Tests, followed by Australia skipper Ricky Ponting (174), former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming (171) and West Indian batting great Brian Lara (164).

Nicknamed "The Wall" for his stubborn and gritty display with the bat that holds the foundation of his team`s batting line up, Dravid is also considered to possess the safest pair of hands in world cricket.

Apart from his exploits with the bat and in the slip cordon, Dravid is a handy wicket-keeper who has don the hat many a times for the Indian ODI side in times of necessity.

Dravid also ranks third in the list of top run-scorers in Tests with a total of 12,025 runs in 149 matches.

India names 23-member squad for Asian Cup

New Delhi: Promising striker Mohammed Rafi got the axe as India today announced a 23-member squad, to be captained by Bhaichung Bhutia, for the Asian Cup football tournament starting on January 7 in Doha, Qatar.

Apart from the omission of the Churchill Brothers striker, selection was on expected lines as there was not much option left after injury hit several key players during the nearly two-month long camp in Dubai since early November.

Rafi, who was named the best player of 2009-10 I-League, was laid low for a while due to injury in October, before the Indian players left for Dubai, but later played in the international friendly matches last month.

Bhutia himself is yet to fully recover from the right leg calf muscle injury and sports medicine expert from Chennai, Kannan Pugazendhi, is now in Dubai to treat the skipper.

Out of the eight players left out of the squad from the 31 who were in the camp, three -- Dempo left back Sameer Naik, Churchill Brothers goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharya and Dempo winger Anthony Pereira -- are injured.

The other five left out players were Churchill Brothers striker Rafi, midfielder James Lukram and defender N Mohanraj -- both from Mohun Bagan, East Bengal striker Baljit Sahni and JCT midfielder Jagpreet Singh.

AIFF XI goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu who was called to the camp after injury to Bhattacharya, was retained.

The Indian team will reach Doha on January 6 and will play Australia in their Group C opening match on January 10. India's next match will be against Bahrain on January 14 while they take on South Korea on January 18.

Meanwhile, Raul Carmo Fernandez, the managing director of Gulf International Promotions, has been appointed manager of the Indian team for the Asian Cup in place of Pradip Chowdhury who had returned home after a tiff with coach Bob Houghton.

"As Pradip Choudhury is not returning to Dubai and subsequently will not travel to Doha with the Indian senior team, Raul Carmo Fernandes has been appointed manager of Indian team for AFC Asian Cup. Raul has been working with the team on various operational fronts for the past couple of years and more specifically in the past two months during the camp in Dubai," an AIFF release said.

AIFF vice-president Subrata Dutta will accompany the team as the Chef-de-Mission while executive committee member, Larsing Ming, will be the head of delegation for the Asian Cup.

The Squad:

Goalkeepers: Subrata Pal, Subhasish Roy Choudhury, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu

Defenders: Surkumar Singh, Gouramangi Singh, Anwar, Mahesh Gawli, Syed Rahim Nabi, Deepak Mondal, N S Manju, Rakesh Masih and Govin Singh

Midfielders: Steven Dias, N P Pradeep, Climax Lawrence, Clifford Miranda, Renedy Singh, Mehrajuddin Wadoo, Baldeep Singh.

Strikers: Bhaichung Bhutia (Capt.), Sunil Chhetri, Abhishek Yadav and Sushil Kumar Singh.

My dream is to win Davis Cup for India: Somdev

Agartala: Tennis star Somdev Devvarman on Monday said his dream is to win the Davis Cup for India.

"Our country has now entered the World Group and it would be my dream to win the Davis Cup title for my country," he said during a felicitation organised by the Tripura government.

Somdev said a lot of youngsters in the country and Tripura were now playing tennis players and he would want to help develop the game.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, Sports Minister Tapan Chakraborty, Somdev's father Pravanjan Kishore Devvarman and mother Ranjana were also present at the felicitation.

The chief minister said, "Now you are the source of inspiration for the whole country and not only for our state. We would look forward towards your achievements. Your success and achievements only prove that there is no dearth of talents in the north eastern parts of the country."

A gold medal, a tennis racket made of silver, Rs 5,00,000 in cash, a plaque were given to Somdev during the felicitation.

US-based Fernandes shoots best at All India Junior golf

Bengaluru: Rigel Fernandes may be just 14, but the quality of golf he showed in the first round of the All India Junior and sub-Junior Amateur Golf championship at the Eagleton Golf Resort was way beyond his age.

Fernandes, who plays at the IMG Golf Course Academy in Florida and featuring in an event in India for the first time, carded an even par 72, the best score for the day across ll age groups.

With three birdies on the first, fourth and 16th against three bogeys on 11th, 14th and 15th, Fernandes led the Group B for 13-15 years.

In the A category (15 - 18 years) Saqib Ahmad from KGA is leading along with Ainesh Ahluwalia from DLF Gurgaon at two-over 74.

At three-over 75 are Trishul Chinnappa (KGA) and Chikkarangappa (Eagleton).

In Group B, Fernandes who has been living in the US for the last five years and won several tournaments including a third position in the under-14 category of the US Kids World golf championship, outdrove all others. He then captialised on it well with some good iron play and putting.

In the C Category (11 to 13 years), Piyush Sangwan from DLF and Prakhar Asawa from Rambagh Golf course, Jaipur are leading the field with 72 and 73 respectively.

At four-over 76 is Karandeep Kochar from Chandigarh. Tanvir Kahlon from Delhi and Arjun Prasad from Hyderabad are tied at fourth position with a score of nine-over 81.

He is followed by Kelly Rao (75) and Viraj Madappa (Tollygunge-Kolkata) and Subhankar Sharma (Army Golf Course, Delhi) at 76.

Jairaj Sandhu and Shivnaren Srinivasan are tied for the fifth at 77.

On the Second day, 30 players each in A & B Category along with 21 players from C category will be playing. Joining them will be six girls each in Category A, B and C along with 30 boys and Girls in D Category (below 11 years) and five children under 8 years.

NZ mobile company calls Pak team manager Intikhab Indian

KARACHI: Pakistan team manager Intikhab Alam was in for a rude shock when the voice recorder of his mobile phone in New Zealand attributed him to be an Indian.

The Pakistani media and others were stunned when they called Intikhab in New Zealand after the voice recorder of his phone kept on saying that the manager of the Indian team was not available at the moment and will try to return the call later.

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Irked by the mistake, the Pakistan team management had to remind the host board -- New Zealand Cricket -- that Intikhab was not an Indian after the former Test captain had to bear the brunt of jokes because of the goof up.

"The telephone numbers are provided by the host country's board, which in this case is New Zealand Cricket and they are also responsible for providing all other details of the squad to relevant departments from which the touring side require services," a source in the Pakistan Cricket Board said.

"In Intihkab's case the telephone company was mistakenly informed that he is manager of the Indian team," he added.

Pakistan team is presently touring New Zealand for three Twenty20 Internationals, two Tests and six ODIs.

Keen contest in offing in Nashik dirt track racing

Nashik: The second round of the Gulf Cup dirt track racing series will be held here from January 8 next year.

The two-day event has so far attracted record 130 entries, which will be restricted as per rules in qualifying rounds on January 8, Shrikant Karani of Sportscraft, Mumbai told reporters today.

He said the rally is sponsored by Gulf Oil Corporation limited and organised by Sportscraft, mumbai in association with Nashik Automotive Sports Association (NASA).

The year's first motorsport event promises thrills aplenty following the engrossing fare witnessed in the first of the three rounds held at Hyderabad on December 4-5.

Bangalore-based TVS racing team riders C S Santosh, H K Pradeep and Arvind K P cornered the glory in the Indian expert class for foreign motorcycles Group A and B at Hyderabad and will be looking to build on their fine show and garner more points to seal berths in the final round, which is billed as the clash of the titans, he said.

However, this Nashik leg, which will be staged at the Idgah ground, golf club could see local riders and those from Mumbai, Nagpur and Pune.

The private expert class should also witness stiff competition as Nashik's Vineeth Kurup showed much promise at hyderabad leg winning one of the two races in group A for foreign motorcycles upto 250cc. Nagpur's Jatin Jain who won one race and Mumbai's seasoned campaigner Badal Doshi, who stood second in both the races.

The locals who are in fray are: Shamin khan, Vineeth Kurup, Ganesh Lokhande, Kaustubh Machhe, Kalyan Jambekar, Jatin Jain, Badal Doshi, Snehal, Pinkesh Thakkar and Mansingh Thakur.

With over Rs one lakh prize money and trophies up for grabs, the second leg at Nashik should provide rich and entertaining fare, Karani added.