Tendulkar has been in form longer than some of our guys have been alive: Vettori

Published>Tue, Nov 02 10 12:22 PM

Ahmedabad, Nov 2(ANI): New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori has identified Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar as the biggest challenge awaiting his team during the Test series in India.

Tendulkar, who has been in stunning form this year, is one century shy of becoming the first player in history to score 50 Test hundreds.

"He has been in form longer than some of our guys have been alive," Stuff.co.nz quoted Vettori, as saying.

New Zealand coach Mark Greatbatch also pointed out Tendulkar as a huge threat, and recalled playing against him when the right-handed batsman was a teenager in 1989.

"I think he played his second test against me. It's amazing. I am looking forward to watching him bat for about half an hour before getting caught at point," Greatbatch said.

Tendulkar had raced to his 49th Test century in the recent Bangalore Test against Australia, making him the first Indian to score six centuries in a calendar year.

During the innings, the 37-year-old had also achieved the milestone of becoming the first batsman to score 14,000 runs in Test cricket. (ANI)

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Americain wins Melbourne Cup for France

Published>Tue, Nov 02 10 12:18 PM

French raider Americain overhauled fading favourite So You Think up the home straight to win the $6 million Melbourne Cup at a rain-soaked Flemington racecourse on Tuesday.

Gerald Mosse kept a patient hold on his six-year-old mount before unleashing a devastating sprint to hit the front 100 metres from home to win by more than two lengths from Maluckyday, becoming the first French jockey to win the marquee handicap.

"This job is so easy when you're in the best race on the best horse," a delighted Mosse told reporters.

The heavily backed So You Think, who was hoping to give Australian champion trainer Bart Cummings a 13th Melbourne Cup triumph, had stormed to the front 250 metres from the end of the 3,200m race but just failed to stay and finished third.

"I bided my time and saw a gap and let him go," Mosse added. "He was very, very strong over the last 250 metres and I knew I was going to catch him (So You Think)."

Americain may be American-bred and trained in France by Alain de Royer-Dupre but it will be Australian owners celebrating on Tuesday night.

"It's a dream come true. I will have to keep pinching myself," co-owner Gerry Ryan said.

"We sat down five years ago and said let's try and find a runner for the Cup and our third time was lucky."

Despite the wet weather, more than 100,000 people packed the course for the 150th running of Australia's best known and richest race.

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Bereaved Ponting to skip opening ODI against Lanka

Tue, Nov 02 10 12:08 PM

Melbourne, Nov 2 (PTI) The struggling Australian cricket team would have to do without skipper Ricky Ponting in the first ODI against Sri Lanka here tomorrow as he has decided to skip the match to attend his grandmother''s funeral. The Aussies lost a Test and ODI series against India last month before being defeated in the one-off Twenty20 match against the Lankans on Sunday. Ponting will miss the opening one-day international at the MCG to attend his grandmother''s funeral in his home town of Launceston. His grandmother died last weekend. "I will be flying out tomorrow morning to attend the funeral and then flying straight back to the ground tomorrow afternoon," Ponting was quoted as saying by ''The Australian Associated Press''. "I wanted to be here yesterday and today to maximise my time around the team and get my preparation right for the coming games." Michael Clarke will lead the team in Ponting''s absence. PTI PM

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Razzaq's match-winning innings could be 'turning point' for Pak team: Alam

Published>Tue, Nov 02 10 11:44 AM

Abu Dhabi, Nov 2(ANI): Pakistan team manager Intikhab Alam believes that all-rounder Abdul Razzaq's match-winning century against South Africa in the second ODI will lift the team's morale in the lead up to next year's World Cup.

Razzaq had played an innings of sheer class on Sunday to lead Pakistan to a morale-boosting one-wicket win at Abu Dhabi's Zayed Cricket Stadium.

The 30-year-old scored an unbeaten 109 off 72 balls, as Pakistan reached 289 for nine with one ball left in reply to South Africa's 286 for eight.

"This could be the turning point for our team. Things haven't gone well for us in the recent past, but I'm sure all of it is going to change," the News quoted Alam, as saying.

"This knock will lift the morale of the entire team, I'm sure about that. We needed such a flash of brilliance after losing the two Twenty20 games and then going down tamely in the first ODI," he added.

The team manager further insists that Pakistan is now in a perfect position to launch an assault to win this five-match series - a result that he reckons will put Pakistan back on track in their preparations for the World Cup.

"Our team has shown a lot character. It was time it did because our results were not up the mark and because the World Cup is not far away, the team has to get back on track and I'm sure that it will after the way we won last night," Alam said.

Pakistan had lost the opening ODI and both Twenty20 internationals of the tour so far, but have now squared the ODI series at 1-1.akistan and South Africa will play three more ODIs in Dubai before a two-Test series that concludes on November 24. (ANI)

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Breaved Ponting to skip opening ODI against Lanka

Tue, Nov 02 10 11:22 AM

Melbourne, Nov 2 (PTI) The struggling Australian cricket team would have to do without skipper Ricky Ponting in the first ODI against Sri Lanka here tomorrow as he has decided to skip the match to attend his grandmother''s funeral. The Aussies lost a Test and ODI series against India last month before being defeated in the one-off Twenty20 match against the Lankans on Sunday. Ponting will miss the opening one-day international at the MCG to attend his grandmother''s funeral in his home town of Launceston. His grandmother died last weekend. "I will be flying out tomorrow morning to attend the funeral and then flying straight back to the ground tomorrow afternoon," Ponting was quoted as saying by ''The Australian Associated Press''. "I wanted to be here yesterday and today to maximise my time around the team and get my preparation right for the coming games." Michael Clarke will lead the team in Ponting''s absence. PTI PM

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I had to apologise for calling Narayan hard-arsed: Gibbs

Tue, Nov 02 10 11:18 AM

Johannesburg, 1 Nov (PTI) Herschelle Gibbs had to apologise to Delhi Police''s Crime Branch Commissioner, Ranjit Narayan, for having publicly called him ''hard-arsed'', the out-of-favour South African opener disclosed in his autobiography, ''To the Point''. In the book that was released yesterday, Gibbs also disclosed that he had indulged in ''tonsil hockey'' (deep kissing) with a German girl at the Taj Hotel the night before be questioned by police here. He was drunk and he could not even remember anything the next morning, Gibbs revealed. Gibbs wrote about his return to India to face questioning following his role in the ''Hansiegate'' saga (telephonic conversations of then captain Hansie Cronje with an Indian bookmaker were intercepted by police) in 2000. After initially refusing to be part of South Africa''s squad for an India tour for the fear of being arrested, Gibbs, accompanied by his lawyer, Peter Whelan, travelled to the country to face grilling by a four-man panel. "Our flight to India was via Dubai and Peter spent about eight of those hours coaching me on the upcoming grilling I was sure to get," Gibbs wrote in the book. "Remember that the King Commission (in South Africa) had been five years earlier and we knew the Indians would be looking for any discrepancies between my testimony back then and what I would have to say to them now. "I think the Indians were pretty taken aback when I turned up with both my lawyer and the High Commissioner. I was hustled inside to see K K Paul, who had been my Indian nemesis for the past six years. ''Hello, Mr Gibbs,'' he said. ''I''m a big fan of yours''. Not exactly the reception I had been expecting from him!" "a four-man panel, headed by the joint commissioner of the Delhi Police Crime Branch, Ranjit Narayan, bombarded me with questions for about three hours. It was a hostile situation, make no mistake, and it wasn''t helped either by the fact that I''d publicly said Commissioner Narayan was ''hard-arsed''. "The Commissioner wasn''t happy about that at all, and he even brought it up during the questioning. I had to apologise. His arse was not so hard after all," Gibbs wrote.

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We''ve been declared guilty without any evidence: Butt

Tue, Nov 02 10 11:08 AM

Karachi, Nov 2 (PTI) Pakistan''s suspended Test captain Salman Butt is furious with not just the ICC but also the PCB for the way the spot-fixing case against him and the pace duo of Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer is being handled as he feels they have been "declared guilty without any evidence". Butt went on air on several television channels shortly after returning from Dubai after attending the ICC appeal''s tribunal hearing which rejected his appeal and that of his teammate, Muhammad Aamer against their suspensions. "I have no choice now but to now plead my case like this. Initially we didn''t say anything because we didn''t have any direct interaction with the ICC and the Pakistan Cricket Board was handling things on our behalf. Also we were bound by the code of conduct we had signed with the Pakistan board. But now after having seen from close range the way the ICC is handling our cases, I am disappointed," he said. Butt said he was a bit disappointed by the attitude of the PCB. "I don''t know why they are doing this but no one from the PCB has even bothered to give us a call or find out what is happening with us. We have no choice but to now plead our cases ourselves and let the people know what we feel is happening," he said. Butt said he was surprised at the tribunal decision because the ICC''s anti-corruption unit had shown no other evidence except for the video and reports of the British tabloid ''News of the World''. "They have shown us no evidence at all and yet they rejected our appeals without giving any reason why they were doing it. I can only say this is a biased decision and they are trying to corner us and Pakistan cricket," he said. Butt said he got a feeling there was a conspiracy against Pakistan cricket. "You can see what is happening with Pakistanis the world over now. It is the same in our case. It is strange that someone is supposed to be considered innocent unless proven guilty. But in our case we have been declared guilty without any evidence and are now being told to prove ourselves innocent," he said. "If anyone or someone has anything to show we were indeed involvement in corruption they should bring it forth." MORE PTI COR PM

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