Sports Bar

SA tour dates finalised

New Delhi: The Test series between India and South Africa will start on February 6 in Nagpur. The first Test will be held in Nagpur and then in Kolkata from February 14. Jaipur will host the first of the three-match ODI series on February 21. This would be followed by one-dayers on February 24 and 27 in Kanpur and Ahmedabad respectively.

Flintoff out of IPL III

London: Andrew Flintoff will skip IPLs third edition in March-April as he recuperates from a knee surgery which has also ruled him out of the World T20 Championships. A routine arthroscopy on his injured left knee will keep him off the field for the next six months. It is disappointing,but I want to give myself the best chance of extending my career, he said.

Improve domestic structure

New Delhi: Rahul Dravid has said that players should be given enough time between two Ranji Trophy matches so that they can give their best. The amount of cricket we play at the domestic level needs to be looked into. There should be a proper gap between the Ranji Trophy games, said Dravid.

Virat to lead North Zone

New Delhi: Delhi skipper Virat Kohli will lead the North Zone in the Duleep Trophy match against West to be played at Rajkot from January 26 to 29. Squad: Virat Kohli capt,Shikhar Dhawan,Ravi Inder Singh,Rahul Dewan,Mithun Manhas,Sunny Singh,Paras Dogra,Rajat Bhatia,Love Ablish,Vikramjeet Malik,Manpreet Gony,Parvinder Awana,Puneet Bisht,Uday Kaul,Vikas Mishra and Abid Nabi.

Big wins for Suranjoy,Nanao

Suranjoy Singh,the gold medal winner of the President Cup,streamrolled Kalpataru Mandal on the third day of the Super Cup Inter zonal Boxing Championship in Mumbai. Suranjoy blanked his opponent 7-0 in the flyweight 51 kg bout. Nanao Singh registered a crushing victory over Sanesh in the Light Flyweight 48 kg division,winning 12-3. In an other match,Maharashtras featherweight boxer Narendra More shocked current national champion Kuldeep Singh 9-4.

Mahindra go top of league

Hosts Mahindra United moved to the top of the I-League with a 5-0 win over North-East club Shillong Lajong at the Cooperage. Paresh Shivalkar 9th and 14th and Muritala Ali 50th and 57th scored a brace each while Mohd Rafi 35th also registered his name on the scoresheet. With this win Mahindra United have 20 points from 10 matches,and are followed by Dempo Sports Club and Chirag United,who have 18 points from nine matches each.

Abhishek upsets GM Kotsur

Causing a major upset,young Abhishek Das stunned Kazakh Grandmaster Pavel Kotsur in the third round of the Parsvnath International Open Chess tournament in New Delhi. Andrey Gutov of Russia and Niaz Murshed of Bangladesh also lost their third-round encounters against Shiven Khosla and Atul Dahale respectively. Top seed Grandmaster Le Quang Liem of Vietnam and veteran Indian Grandmaster Praveen Thipsay were forced to split points against Vikramjit Singh and R K Bagdi respectively.

HI gives keeper Baljit cheque

Hockey India presented a cheque of Rs 2.5 lakh to goalkeeper Baljit Singh towards his rehabilitation expenses on Friday. Baljit,who met with a serious eye injury at the training camp in Pune in July last year,was treated in the US where he underwent three surgeries but has still not regained full vision. HI president AK Mattoo handed over the cheque to the relatives of the player.

More players needed: Torres

Injured Liverpool striker Fernando Torres has called on the clubs American owners to improve the struggling team by bringing in top quality players. Torres is out of action for six weeks after tearing knee cartilage,while captain Steven Gerrard and fellow midfielder Yossi Benayoun are also injured. If we want to compete with United and Chelsea we need a much,much more complete squad. We need more genuinely first-class players Its frustrating, Torres said.

Dementieva routs Serena

Russias Elena Dementieva defeated a hobbling Serena Williams 6-3 6-2 to win the Sydney International for the second year in a row. Dementieva completely outplayed the American world number one,who was troubled by a sore left knee that restricted her movement.