Blow by blow: India win 1st ODI by five wickets

A 100-plus partnership between MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh helped India beat Pakistan by five wickets in the first ODI at Guwahati on Monday.Chasing 240 to win, India scored 242 for five with three overs to spare.

Earlier, Pakistan won the toss and guided by a well-complied 83 by Mohammad Yousuf, they scored 239 for seven. The Indian spinners dominated the Pakistan batsmen and gave them no chance to set up a daunting total.

India lost the early wicket of Sachin Tendulkar, but good partnerships saw them overhaul the target with ease even as they lost two wickets towards the end.

With this win, India have taken an important 1-0 lead in the five-match series. The next match will be played at Mohali on Thursday, November 8. That will be a day-night affair.

Misbah cannot forget shot that cost Pakistan the World Twenty20 title

Misbah-ul-Haq said Saturday that he will always be troubled by his shot that cost Pakistan the World Twenty20 title in September.Attempting to flick the ball to fine-leg off seam bowler Joginder Sharma, Misbah holed out to Shantakumaran Sreesanth in the last over, giving India a five-run win in the World Twenty20 championship’s title contest.

As Pakistan prepares for a limited-overs series in India starting Monday, Misbah said “I’ll regret that shot all my life”.

“It was a rare opportunity of winning the World championship, you don’t come so close often,” said Misbah, who was Pakistan’s top scorer in that final.

Misbah was criticised for twice failing to secure victory in the final over against India during the World Twenty20 championship. He also failed to hit the winning run off the last two balls with scores level against India in the preliminary round, leading to a bowl-out that India won.

“Media criticism is one thing, but one always has to live with a feeling of sadness” Misbah said.

WTA Championships: Serena eyes comeback

MADRID(AFP) – Serena Williams is determined to accelerate her revival into one of the great comebacks by challenging for the title at the year-end WTA Championships which starts here on Tuesday.The former holder of all four Grand Slams seemed headed for such a comeback when she started 2007 by winning the Australian Open, fully two years since last contesting any final.

That made her the lowest-ranked player to win a Grand Slam title in nearly 30 years.

Williams was then at 81 in the world; now she is up to five. But her year stalled with injuries to her groin, knee, calf, and thumb, damaging her chances at Wimbledon and causing her to miss four American hard court events later in the summer.

Although she made a partial recovery in two European tournaments, she then suffered a thigh problem while losing last month’s Moscow final to Elena Dementieva, something Serena claims will not hinder her in the coming week.

“Can you believe I played my third event in a row?” the injury-prone star asked, referring to a three-week sequence in Stuttgart, Moscow and Zurich.

“I don’t believe I have ever done that in my career.

“I am determined to make good at the end of the year,” she insisted, and few doubt that she can – but only if all the ailments have receded.

Perhaps only Serena herself and maybe one or two physios know whether she is genuinely fit enough to capitalize on her having qualified for the year-end event a fourth time.

If she is, the world’s best known player will still have to contend with one of the strongest ever fields, even though it will be without elder sister Venus Williams.

Following the dizziness Venus suffered at the US Open in September, she took a series of tests, plus follow-up tests after tournaments in Asia. The doctors’ conclusions were inconclusive.

They felt, apparently, yet more tests were needed. So Venus decided to take a break.

“The accumulation of matches has taken its toll,” the Wimbledon champion said.

“I have received several medical opinions to delay my return to competitive tennis.”

A different view of a long-lasting ailment has been taken by Maria Sharapova. The former world number one has decided to compete in Madrid despite a shoulder problem from which she has been suffering most of the year.

Sharapova’s first match in almost six weeks ended in a straight sets defeat to Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in last month’s Kremlin Cup in Moscow; it was also only her first match since a loss to another 18-year-old, Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, in the US Open third round in September.

“This has been a very frustrating year for me physically, but I am a big competitor and I am determined to compete at the Championships,” Sharapova said.

But the real front runner for the tour climax title is the holder Justine Henin, who will be presented with the year-end world number one award before the tournament begins.

For a player who started the tour six weeks late and in despair after the break-up of her marriage to Pierre-Yves Hardenne, this is a remarkable achievement.

Henin has won the French and US Opens, taking her total of grand Slam titles to seven, and the 182,000 dollars she received for winning the Zurich tournament a fortnight ago raised her season earnings so far to 4,367,086 million dollars, the second highest in WTA Tour history.

The Belgian is also certain to be sixth equal on the all-time list of world number ones with a total of 98 weeks at the top by the time the 2008 season starts.

All the stats therefore say she should win the title.

But there are two obvious threats. One is Serena Williams regaining the form which enabled her to save a match point and defeat Henin in the Miami final back in April. The other is tiredness. Henin has played a lot of tennis.

“I need to recover now and take a few days off to be with my family and friends,” she said after winning in Zurich.

“I’ve always been getting to the semis and finals of tournaments this year, so the weeks are very long for me.”

This is arguably the toughest tournament to win, because the best players oppose each other from the start. But Henin also claims it is her favourite event.

To what extent she still feels that at the end of the week will depend very much on how well the outstanding player of the year has been able to recoup her energy.

Man City vs Sunderland Preview: Corluka vows to repay fans

MANCHESTER (PA SPORT) – Croatia defender Vedran Corluka believes Manchester City owe their supporters a big performance at Eastlands tomorrow when they face Sunderland.Despite the Carling Cup victory against Bolton in midweek, he is still hurting from the mauling by Chelsea.

Corluka, 21, is aiming to help City bounce back in the Barclays Premier League and record their seventh straight home win.

He said: ‘We want to show everyone we are a better team than the one that lost at Chelsea.

‘Hopefully it was just one bad day. We all felt horrible. It was a horrible display.

‘We did not defend well as a team but now we have to move on.

‘It was important to get that victory against Bolton after what happened in London.’

The Chelsea match apart, City have played some free-flowing, attractive football under manager Sven-Goran Eriksson.

Corluka likes the way the former England boss sets his teams up.

He said: ‘We like to play the ball on the floor and people enjoy that.

‘We have a lot of skilful players and our results overall have been good.

‘No-one really expected us to be high in the table at this stage but I feel we can still improve.’

Corluka looks set to switch to the centre against Sunderland – Micah Richards has a knee problem – with Nedum Onuoha returning at right back.

That would not be a problem for the former Dinamo Zagreb star, who arrived in the summer for a fee believed to be in the region of £7million.

Corluka said: ‘I partnered Richard Dunne against Aston Villa so I am used to that role.

‘I am happy at centre half as well as right back and will play wherever the manager decides.’

Bulgaria winger Martin Petrov could return after missing the cup victory against Bolton because of a toe injury.

Eriksson, however, remains guarded about whether Sweden’s Andreas Isaksson will retain his place between the posts and keep out Joe Hart.

‘They are both good goalkeepers, who deserve to play,’ said the City boss. I have not made my mind up.

‘While Joe did not play at Bolton it had nothing to do with the Chelsea result. We had decided before that game to change goalkeepers for the cup game.’

Bell Challenge: Davenport bookends short season with another win

QUEBEC CITY (AFP) – Lindsay Davenport won the 53rd WTA title of her career here Sunday, defeating third-seeded Julia Vakulenko 6-4, 6-1 in the final of the 175,000-dollar Bell Challenge.It was Davenport’s second victory in just three tournaments in 2007.

After taking nearly a year off because of pregnancy, the three-time Grand Slam champion and former world No. 1 returned to win the title in Bali in September.

She ousted three seeded players on the way to that unexpected title, the followed up with a semi-final appearance in Beijing the following week.

A month later, the 31-year-old American was still showing no signs of rust in Quebec City.

In five matches at the indoor tournament she posted four straight-set wins. Only second seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva was able to mount a real challenge before falling 6-2, 6-7 (3/7), 6-3 to Davenport in the semi-finals.

Although she had never faced Ukraine’s Vakulenko before, Davenport dispatched her with relative ease.

Vakulenko, 24, was playing in her first career final.

Davenport broke Vakulenko to love to take the first set, and used her powerful serve to dominate the second.

“My game plan was to serve well and just hold my serve,” Davenport said. “Once I was able to break her at the end of the first set, that helped my momentum. I was focused on my serving and knew the rest of it would take care of itself.”

With the victory, Davenport is tied with Monica Seles for eighth on the WTA’s all-time list.

Davenport had said she didn’t plan to return to competition after starting a family. But she admitted she began to feel the urge to play just weeks after giving birth to her son, Jagger, in June.

She said her brief experience of playing since she became a mother had put a different spin on the experience, and she was clearly looking toward 2008.

“Just the journey back has been greater than I could have anticipated,” Davenport said. “It has been a much different experience coming back this time around – I just feel a lot less pressure, and I’m just trying to enjoy it as I go. I haven’t set any goals. It’s kind of undefined.

“Obviously things will change in Melbourne when I’m playing Justine, Venus or Serena. But but I consider it a victory just going out and playing a big match, after such a great year off the court.”

250 visas per match for Pakistan cricket fans

As many as 250 visas will be issued to Pakistani fans for each cricket match to be played between the two arch rivals in India, Indian Deputy High Commissioner Manpreet Vohra has said.Cricket visas will be issued to ticket holders, he told reporters here.

Vohra said that the media officials and guests of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) would be issued extra visas.

Those holding a one-day cricket match ticket will be able to stay in India for four days and those with test match tickets would be allowed a seven-day stay.

Surprisingly, Vohra said the Indian diplomatic office had received only a few queries on the visa-issuing procedure and required documentations.

The PCB has assigned the distribution of tickets to the American Express, the Daily Times quoted Vohra, as saying.

Indian and Pakistan will soon review their bilateral visa agreement and this will be further liberalised, Vohra said.

The new visa agreement will have sufficient leverage and flexibility, and will make special concessions for categories like senior citizens and create more categories, he said.

Under the present visa regime, there is no tourist visa category, he added.

“But we have been liberal in issuing visas and our policy actually outstrips the visa agreement,” he said.

At present, the only categories that exist are that of visitor visas, which are given to members of divided families and visas to pilgrims in additional to the usual business, diplomatic and government visas.