India file

Quarter-final groupings: Group X : Bengal, Kerala, Services, Karnataka. Group Y: Goa, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Maharashtra.

Fixtures: April 9: Tamil Nadu vs Punjab; April 10: Bengal vs Karnataka; April 11: Tamil Nadu vs Maharashtra, Kerala vs Services. April 12: Goa vs Punjab; April 13: Bengal vs Services. April 14: Punjab vs Maharashtra, Kerala vs Karnataka; April 15: Goa vs Tamil Nadu; April 16: Services vs Karnataka, Bengal vs Kerala; Goa vs Maharashtra; April 18: Rest day.

Semifinals: April 19: Winners of Group X vs Runners-up of Group Y; April 20: Winners of Group Y vs Runners-up of Group X. April 22: Loser’s final. April 23: Final.Nilavoli wins
JAMSHEDPUR: Unseeded H Nilavoli of Tamil Nadu beat top seed Baisakhi Das of West Bengal in the girls’ third round of the National under-18 chess championship.

Baisakhi gave her two rooks for her opponent’s queen and obtained superior position but Nilavoli bounced upon the opportunity to sacrifice her exchange and build up a fortress like position. When the game was heading for a draw Baisakhi blundered her queen on the 41st move and resigned immediately.

The other player to join the lead at three points with Nilavoliwas Y Prathiba of Tamil Nadu who made short work of K Prajeesha of Kerala.

Air-India champs
CHENNAI: Air India women won the CricInfo-Rani Jhansi Cricket Championship title at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Saturday. In the title-clash, the new entrants outplayed Indian Railways by 48 runs.

Brief scores: Air India 178-6 in 50 overs (Anju Jain 40, Mithali Raj 45 not out; Neethu David 2-16) bt Indian Railways 130 in 45.2 overs (Renu Margaret 43 not out; H Smitha 3-19). West Zone 116 in 47 overs (A Sinde 40; G Bindeshwari 5-16) bt Central Zone 115 in 44 overs (K Sangeetha 3-15).

Points: Air-India 12, Railways 10, West Zone 8, Central 4, North 4, South 2, East 2. Special awards: Best player of the tourney: Hemalatha Kala, Best batswoman: Kalyani Umbrani, Best bowler: Neetu David.

Rau to lead
CHENNAI: Purnima Rau will lead the Rest of India team to play the Senior National women’s cricket champions Indian Railways in June.

Team: Purnima Rau (captain), Kalyani Umbrani, Anju Jain, Mithali Raj, Anjum Chopra, Amrita Shinde, Vanitha Viola, Bindeswari, Goel, G Jhulan, Swarna Laxmi, Kavita Roy, Rumeli Dhar, Sangeetha Kamath, Varsha Reffiel, Gulshan Sharma. Reserves: Mamta Krishnan, Vaishali Lange, Seema Pujare, Rakhi Mehra.

Bindra demands probe
CHANDIGARH: Former president of Board of Control for Cricket in India, Inderjit Singh Bindra, has demanded probe into the recent allegations of match-fixting involving South Africans, including captain Hansie Cronje, in the one-day series in India from March 9 to 19.

Bindra, who is also president of the Punjab Cricket Association, said the case should be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation for thorough investigation. As the South Africans are involved in the recent match-fixing charges, the Indian Govenment should also involve Scotland Yard and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to find out the truth.

TN in last eight
CALCUTTA: Tamil Nadu XI outplayed Bengal Nagpur Railway (BNR) 2-1 to sail into the quarter-finals of the 105th Beighton Cup hockey tournament.

Tamil Nadu scored through Cedric D’Cruz (15th) and Arun Kumar (62) while Anmol Ain scored the only goal for BNR in the 26th minute. All the three goals came off penalty corners.

In another match, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Delhi, edged out Sikh Regimental Centre (SRC) through an extra-time golden goal by Mangra Munda to move into the quarter-finals.

SPG enter final
MUMBAI: Holders Shivaji Park Gymkhana (SPG) did not have to wait for the second day to enter the final of the Young Comrade Shield Cricket Tournament. They beat Shivaji Park Youngsters (SPY) by seven wickets at tea on the first day of two-day semi-final tie on their homeground, on Saturday.

In the other semi-final, centuries by left-hander Amit Dhulap and Prashant Shetty helped hosts MIG Cricket Club pile up 464-8 after being put in to bat by Karnatak Sporting Association.

SPY, after winning the toss, elected to bat but ran into trouble against the medium-pacers and were struggling at 48-4. Left-armer Rupam Malviya captured three and Bharat Karnik one. They did not recover from this setback as off-spinner Bhimesh Shah then put on the brakes on them, eventually packing them off for 87. Bhimesh returned remarkable figures of 8.3-2-9-4, while Malviya finished with 3-31 and Karnik 2-27.

SPG’s openers Raja Adatrao and Amit Pagnis gave them a good start, putting on 35 before Pagnis was out for 12. Thereafter, they lost two wickets for 24 runs. However, Adatrao, who was going strong, found an able partner in Shreyas Khanolkar, saw them through. Adatrao’s innings of 38 had six fours, while Khanolkar hit four hits to the ropes in his 20.

One-drop Dhulap was involved in two useful parterships, initially putting on 189 runs with Prashant Shetty for the third wicket, Shetty’s contibution being 105 off 94 balls with two sixes and 13 fours. He later added 131 runs for fourth wicket with Amit Velaskar. Dhulap’s marathon innings of 167 was studded with 25 fours off 227 balls, while Velaskar had 13 boundaries in his 104-ball innings of 89. Thereafter, MIG lost wickets at regular intervals and were 464-8 at draw of stumps.

Brief scores: Shivaji Park Youngsters 87 (Rupam Malviya 3-31, Bhimesh Shah 4-9) lost to Shivaji Park Gymkhana 88-3 (Raja Adatrao 38 n.o.). MIG CC 464-8 (Sandesh Paralkar 42, Amit Dhulap 167, Prashant Shetty 105, Amit Velaskar 89) vs Karnatak Sporting Association.

CRMD down RBI
Central Railway Mumbai Division (CRMD) took a step closer to making the semi-finals of the Mucos Pharma-sponsored Karnatak Veterans Football Tournament when they ended Reserve Bank of India’s unbeaten run with a 2-0 victory at the Karnatak SA ground, Cross Maidan, on Saturday.

RBI held the edge in the first-half with better cohesion but were unable to penetrate the CRMD defence. However, after the change of ends, a defensive error by relieable Ratnakar Sapaliga proved costly for the bankmen. The RBI right-back, in his attempt to clear with a reverse kick, shot over the onrushing goalkeeper Salim Mohammed into the roof of the net.

The goal proved to be a shot in the arm for CRMD who then combined well and struck again ten minutes from the end through a brilliant piece of combination between Madan Lal on the left flank and Francis Fernandes on the right. Francis harnessed Madan Lal with a neat square pass on the left and ran to the top of the box on the left before sending a grounder between a slow-moving Salim and the left upright for CRMD’s second goal.

Earlier, Karnatak Sports Association trounced Indian Oil 3-0 through goals by Prakash Shetty (2) and Derrick Anchan, while St Xavier’s Vile Parle whipped IDBI 5-0. Santan Pereira (3), Derrick Pereira and Colin Santos were on target for Xavier’s.

Other results: Tatas 4 (Camilo D’Silva 2, Surendra Kumar, Joaquim Menezes) bt Mumbai Customs 2 (Conrad Pereira, Albert Pinheiro); Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers 1 (Sushil Kumar) bt Air-India 0; Mumbai Port Trust 1 (Nasir Ahmed) bt Century Rayon 0.

Agnello wrests lead
Reigning champion Agnello Castellino shot a level par 70 to take a three-stroke lead in the second Kores Open Amateur Golf Championship at the par-70 Bombay Presidency Golf Club course, Chembur, on Saturday. The 36-hole strokeplay event concludes on Sunday.

Agnello was rock steady on a humid day playing level par 36 on both the front and back nines. He hit three birdies on the dog-leg, 16th and 18th and three bogeys after twice being trapped in the bunker.

Three strokes behind the leader on 73 is another big-built golfer, Shivas Nath who has been in good form this season. Shivas was also steady, shooting birdies on the par-4 ninth and par-5 16th. He completed the front-nine at level par 35 with just one bogey (par-5 1st), but fumbled over the back nine where he had four bogeys before rallying with a birdie on the 16th.

Lanky youngster Amit Nigam is a further three strokes behind on 76. Nigam, who hit three birdies (all on par 6 – 4th, 16th and 18th), played the back nine better at 37. One stroke further behind is Avnish Dhall, who played level par 35 over the front nine, hitting a birdie on the first. But he struggled over the back nine where he had a double-bogey on the par-4 14th.

Leading positions (after 18 holes, par-70): 70 – Agnello Castellino; 73 – Shivas Nath, 76 – Amit Nigam, 77 – Avnish Dhall, 78 – Deepak, 82 – Dalip Tripathi, Ratan Ball,- 83 Paras Bhuta, Rohit Goyal, 84 – Rahul Sood, Srikant Nagraj, R Dandekar.

Ladies: 84 – Sonia Malhotra, 86 – Rani Maheshwari, 90 – Baby Malkani.

Balbhavan slam 11
Fr Agnel Balbhavan went on a goal-scoring spree when they trounced BPCL Refinery 11-0 in a Fourth Division tie of the Bombay Hockey Association Championship at the Mahindra Stadium, Churchgate, on Saturday.

Pandi Devar (2), Surinder Singh, Tohnny Jose (2), Ashish Urankar, Vikas Lauzare, Mahesh Shinde (2) and William Rodrigues (2) were the goal-getters for Balbhavan.

In another game of the same competition, Blue Dragon Sports Club drubbed IPCL Nagothane 4-1. Sheldon Mendonca, Savio D’Sa, Glenn D’Sa (2) scored in that order for the winners. Sunil Kumar netted IPCL’s consolation goal.