Short Corner — Chandigarh

Punjab on top
Spinners Navdeep Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Sandeep Sawal helped Punjab restrict the Services to a first innings total of 178 in their North Zone Ranji Trophy league match today. At the end of another rain-marred day, the visitors replied with five without loss when play was called off due to poor visibility.

Aussies win
Ricky Ponting and Michael Bevan hit half centuries to haul Australia out of trouble and set up a five-wicket win over Pakistan in the second one-day match today. Australia now lead the three-match series 2-0. Ponting struck a sweetly timed 55 and Bevan 57 not out as Australia overhauled Pakistan’s 217 for seven in 50 overs with 11 balls to spare.

J&K fight back
A fine knock of 84 by Rohit Matto and unbeaten 71 by skipper Sanjay Sharma helped the hosts Jammu and Kashmir (J-K) to score 249 for 6 in reply to the Haryana total of 310 in the first innings on the second day of the ongoing 4-day North Zone Ranji trophy league match here today.

Windies’ crisis
West Indies players’ representative and former skipper Courtney Walsh told reporters here on Saturday that the reinstatement of skipper Brian Lara and vice-captain Carl Hooper would be a big step forward in saving the Windies’ tour of South Africa. After they were sacked last week over a pay crisis, other Windies players were ordered to travel to South Africa immediately but stayed in London to support Lara and Hooper.

PSB win
Hot favourites and runners-up Punjab and Sind Bank outplayed Indian Airlines by 5-0 in a pool `B’ league fixture of the 15th Indian Oil Surjit Singh Memorial hockey tournament today. Russian XI gave another disappointing performance as they lost to Punjab State Electricity Board by 1-4 in a pool `A’ outing.