April 7, 2001
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Australia struck back with a vengeance to claim the five-match Pepsi One-day series by winning the last match at Goa by 4 wickets and two overs to spare. A fighting unbeaten 87 by Michael Bevan guided the Australians home after the Indians put them on the back foot in the middle overs. Australia won the series 3-2 to become the first team since the West Indies in 1987-88 to win a bilateral one-day series in India. Sachin Tendulkar who earlier during the series at Indore had crossed his 10,000 runs in the shorter version of the game also claimed his 100th wicket at Goa. Nearly 50,000 tickets were sold for the Goa one-dayer, for a stadium that could accommodate only 30,000 people. The large number of fake tickets and inadequate security arrangements led to a stampede and police had to resort to a baton-charge outside the stadium before the start of the match. A couple of journalists too were injured in the process. The hazards that the press had to face at all the venues during the Australian tour with regard to entry passes continued at Goa too. Most the media persons were issued their press-passes around midnight on the previous day. 
At close of play on the first day of the fourth Test at St John's, Antigua, South Africa was 210-7. Skipper Shaun Pollock once again came to the rescue with a brave 36 after his side had collapsed to 148-7 at tea. For the first time since 1976, the West Indies went in to a Test match with just two pace bowlers - Courtney Walsh and Mervyn Dillon. The last occasion this happened was in April 1976 at Port of Spain against India when the home team went in with just fast bowler Michael Holding and left-armer pace bowler Bernard Julien. West Indies lost this match by six wickets when India emulated Australia by becoming the only second team in Test history to win a match while chasing over 400 runs in the fourth innings. Since this Test match the West Indies have played 205 matches, with at least three pace bowlers in the side. Former West Indian fast bowler Andy Roberts said the selectors were adopting a defensive approach and not thinking about the future of West Indian cricket. He was of the opinion that Courtney Walsh should give way to aggressive young fast bowlers. Naming a few like Kerry Jeremy, Colin Stuart and Ricky Christopher, Roberts said they should have been tried out in the on-going Test series against South Africa. Following the resignation of Asif Iqbal from the CBFS, the Sharjah cricket authorities were in for another rude shock when the sponsors of the tournament Coca-Cola too decided to back out. The reason for the soft drink company withdrawing its sponsorship was that it had a commitment to sponsor India-Pakistan matches in Sharjah. With India pulling out of the tournament in the last minute Coca-Cola realised they did not have to be there either. Meanwhile, ARY Jewellers, a Pakistani company based in Dubai, has come to the rescue of the Sharjah organizers and has offered to sponsor the tournament. The Pakistan squad arrived in Sharjah for the tri-nation tournament beginning this Sunday. Pakistan's latest skipper Waqar Younis felt it was a shame that India could not play, but since the government of India was involved, he did not want to make a comment. He felt that it was India-Pakistan matches that had always drawn the crowds in Sharjah. He also added that he was here to play positive cricket. Sir Paul Condon, head of the ICC's anti-corruption unit will deliver his first report by the end of this month. He is to deliver a set of recommendations to try and evict the problem of match-fixing that has pervaded the game during the last decade or so. Among the recommendations will be an analysis of the role of the ICC itself. The chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), Lord MacLaurin, said it would be necessary to curb the indiscipline on the field by players these days. He said he had written a letter to the president of the ICC regarding his concerns over umpiring and refereeing. He also felt players guilty of misbehavior should be handed out severe punishments as suspended sentences served no purpose. Mudassar Nazar is likely to be hired as the new Pakistan coach for the summer tour of England. Mudassar who lives in England may be asked to take over on a short term basis as there may not be sufficient time to hire a foreign coach before the tour of England which begins in May. Mudassar will be an asset to the team in England has he lives there and is familiar with the conditions. Meanwhile the PCB is keen to hire former South African batsman Barry Richards as a full-time coach of Pakistan. Both Baroda and Railways appear to be in a strong position at the end of the second day of their respective semi-final matches against Orissa and Punjab. A career best 181 by keeper-batsman Nayan Mongia enabled Baroda reach a huge total of 568. In the other semi-final, former India and Punjab pace bowler Harvinder Singh, now playing for the Railways, took five wickets as he restricted Punjab to a modest 249. In reply at close of play, Railways reached 203 for the loss of just three wickets, needing just 47 runs to take the vital first innings lead.
Australia vs India 5th One day International at Goa India: 265-6 in 50 overs (S Ganguly 74, VVS Laxman 101, RS Dravid 31; I Harvey 2-49) Australia: 269-6 in 48 overs (M Hayden 36, A Gilchrist 76, M Bevan 87 not out; J Srinath 3-62, SR Tendulkar 3-35) Result: Australia won by 4 wickets (Australia won the series 3-2) Man of the match: Michael Bevan (Aus) Man of the series: Matthew Hayden (Aus) West Indies vs South Africa 4th Test at Antigua (1st day) South Africa:210-7(HH Gibbs 85, ND McKenzie 35, S Pollock 36 not out, N Boje 29 not out N McGarrell 4-57) RANJI TROPHY SEMI-FINALS BARODA vs ORISSA 1st semi-final at Baroda (2nd day) Baroda:568 (Satyajit Parab 60, CC Williams 35, Nayan Mongia 181, Jacob Martin 86, TB Arothe 86, I Pathan 48 not out; DS Mohanty 3-110, Sanjay Raul 3-76) Orissa: 4-0 (SS Das 4 not out, Suresh Kumar 0 not out) RAILWAYS vs PUNJAB 2nd semi-final at Mohali (2nd day) Punjab:249 (Ravneet Ricky 33, Vikram Rathore 44, Ankur Kakkar 53; Harvinder Singh 5-66) Railways:203-3 (Sanjay Bangar 77 not out; RS Sodhi 4-46) Yesterday's News News Roll archive 
Compiled by: Mohandas Menon
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