• Indian swimming prodigy is world's fastest
• 4th ODI: India beat Sri Lanka by 7-wicket, win series in style

• Tendulkar's World Cup milestones
• 'Ganguly' has given solidityin batting'

Having set innumerable records in his five World Cup appearance, Sachin Tendulkar would look to add another chapter to his glittering career as cricket's biggest extravaganza gets under way in the Caribbean Islands from March 13. Despite being one of the senior most cricketers who would be in action in the West Indies, he appears still hungry for more glory and motivated to set new marks. The batting maestro already has many firsts to his credit in 33 matches he has played so far in the World Cups. He was adjudged as man of the match on an enviable eight times, the highest so far by any player, besides being declared Player of the Tournament at the 2003 World Cup in South Africa where he was also Man of the Match on three occasions. Tendulkar also tops the list of stars for most runs in World Cups, highest strike rate and batting averages among the current players and joint first for most number of centuries. Tendulkar has amassed 1732 World Cup runs in 33 matches followed by Javed Miandad (Pak 1083), Aravinda De Silva (Sri Lanka 1064), Viv Richards (West Indies 1013) and Mark Waugh (Australia 1004). Among the contemporaries, Aussie captain Ricky Ponting is sixth with 998 runs. Former World Cup winning Indian captain Kapil Dev although has the best strike rate so far in World Cups with 115.14. Tendulkar, perhaps the richest cricketer in the world, is joint leader in the list for most number of centuries (four) in World Cups along with compatriot Sourav Ganguly and Mark Waugh of Australia. Tendulkar's centuries were 127 not out against Kenya at Cuttack (95-96), 137 against Sri Lanka (Delhi 95-96), 140 not out against Kenya (Bristol 1999) and 152 against Namibia at Pietermaritzburg South Africa in 2003. The exploits against Kenya helped Tendulkar surpass the World Cup aggregate of another batting legend Vivian Richards, who had then tallied 1013 runs in 23 matches. For Tendulkar, the records did not end there. He also happened to be the fastest century maker from India by scoring in 140 not out off just 84 balls, aided by 16 fours and 2 sixes. He broke the record of Sunil Gavaskar, who had scored a century in 85 balls against New Zealand at Nagpur in 1987. It was also the third fastest World Cup century after Clive Lloyd's 82 ball effort (against Australia at Lord's in 1975) and Brian Lara's 83 ball ton (against South Africa at Karachi in 1996).

Courtesy: www.hindustantimes.com, February 25, 2007

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It may come as a big surprise but the plain truth is that the world's fastest 15-year-old swimmer is an Indian. The honour goes to six-foot two-inch tall Virdhawal Vikram Khade, who is the world's fastest in his age group by virtue of his timings in three different categories. Virdhawal, born on August 29, 1991, clocked 23.92 seconds in 50 metres freestyle and 1:54.18s in 200m freestyle at the recent National Games in Guwahati, where he bagged six gold, to go with his 52.12s in 100 metres freestyle at the Doha Asian Games in December. The 100m and 200m freestyle timings are the best Indian performances. "Based on the information available, Virdhawal Vikram Khade is faster than any 15-year-old in the United States, Europe or Australia," according to Virendra Nanavati, Secretary of the Swimming Federation of India. Virdhawal has already surpassed the 2004 Athens Olympic qualifying time in two events and is at present the closest Indian male on the brink of qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the window for which opens on March 15. "He is India's potential Olympic medal hope in 2012," said the youngster's coach Nihar Ameen, also the programme director and head coach at KC Reddy Swim Centre here.

Courtesy: www.dailypioneer.com, February 22, 2007

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Skipper Rahul Dravid on Saturday said the successful return of Sourav Ganguly has given the Indian top order much needed "experience and solidity", and hoped the former captain would sustain his good form into the World Cup. "We have got a good opening today. Sourav has come back and the manner in which he played in the whole series was noteworthy," Dravid said after India's series-clinching 7-wickets win against Sri Lanka. "He has done exceedingly well. He came up with solid runs under his belt and gained confidence ahead of the World Cup. "We hope he will keep up the momentum. His experience and solidity at the top is good for the team and he had led the team in the last World Cup will definitely be an advantage to us." Dravid said Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh being among runs was a welcome news ahead of the next month's quadrennial event in the West Indies. "I am pretty happy about it. It will give them confidence and the way they placed is very heartening and good for them and good for the team," he said. The captain sounded upbeat after the series win and said the team would "hit the ground harder" in the Caribbean. "It is a great series win especially to come back from 0-1 and win the last two matches successively. Winning the series has given lot of confidence to the team in total," he said.

"One great thing about our team is that we have so much of depth and flexibility. Whichever the 11 out of 15 players we play in a match, we have to win each game. "For this match Sachin Tendulkar was not there and played an eleven today and the team performed to our strategies." Dravid denied injuries were a concern with the mega event less than a month away. "We did not want to risk them (Munaf Patel and Irfan Pathan). Munaf had a stiff back and Pathan this morning bowled couple of overs at the nets and he was bit underdone. "The World Cup is not happening tomorrow and these injuries are not a concern because they are minor in nature." "We will hit the ground harder during the World Cup, which is a different tournament held in different atmosphere and hope these players will be hundred per cent fit by then," he said. The 33-year-old Bangalore batsman said the team should keep its momentum going into the World Cup. "There are many teams in the run as contenders like the West Indies and Sri Lanka besides others. I have faith in my batting and the team's batting and if we keep the momentum going, we should find success in World Cup. "We got to keep bettering our performances. If we win matches like this in the World Cup and perform to our potential and keep consistency in tact it will be better." Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene insisted the series loss would not hamper the team's chances at the World Cup. "The Indian side is a balanced one. Playing at home, they cherished the atmosphere but World Cup is a different aspect and we will sure peak to our abilities there," he said. He admitted that a "lot of things went wrong" for his team on Saturday. "Losing a lot of wickets early on was one of them and we did not capitalize on the situation on a good wicket. "We knew the pitch was very good, and the top order failed miserably. Only pride was Chamara Silva batting well with a couple of other guys chipping in." Right-handed Silva hit a run-a-ball 107 not out to help his side recover from a top order collapse and post a challenging 259 for seven. "We always knew the talent Silva possesses from the way he batted in New Zealand. It is brilliant to see the way he batted and gives us confidence for the World Cup." Jayawardene said his new ball bowlers failed to provide the necessary breakthroughs. "Defending a total like 260 on a pitch like that, it is crucial we get early wickets with the new ball, which we did not do," he said. "We bowled both sides of the wicket and gave too many wide and no balls. We had no momentum from that point on." On his personal batting form, Jayawadene said, "personally I'm very disappointed with the way I have been batting in the last couple of months. "I have been hitting the ball pretty well in practice, but not spending time out in the middle."

Courtesy: www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com, February 17, 2007

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India defeated Sri Lanka by seven wickets in the fourth and final One-Day International at ACA-VDCA stadium in Vishakhapatnam on Saturday, winning the Hero Honda series 2-1. Winning the toss, Indian skipper Rahul Dravid decided to put Sri Lanka to bat in the series decider. Both the teams had won one match each of the three encounters, with the first ODI getting abandoned due to rain. India again managed to send the top four Sri Lankan batsmen back to the dressing room for just 56 runs. Again, India failed to tighten the grip on the match and bowl out the visitors for a small total. An unbeaten maiden 107 by Chamara Silva helped Sri Lanka post a fighting total of 259 in 27 overs. India started the chase in an uneasy manner as Sourav Ganguly had to return to the pavilion in the first over itself due to an injury. After Ganguly got retired hurt, Robin Uthappa took charge with Virender Sehwag and smashed swashbuckling 52 in just 37 balls before being caught by Jayasuriya off Maharoof at covers. Soon, India lost two more wickets -- Dinesh Karthik (1) and Virender Sehwag (46) -- in quick succession. Sehwag gave some hints of his vintage self but could not finish a well-deserved half-century. Ganguly, who came back to the crease, and Yuvraj Singh started piling up runs and gave no room to the Sri Lankan bowlers. The duo picked up 108 runs and reached the target in just 41 overs. Yuraj smashed 95 with 11 fours and 3 sixes while man-of-the-series Ganguly scored 58 with three boundaries and similar number of sixes. For India, Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar picked two wickets each while Ganguly, S Sreesanth and Sehwag shared one wicket each. Man-of-the-match Silva shared a 68-run fifth wicket partnership with in-form Tillakaratne Dilshan (28) and added 64 for the seventh wicket off just 49 balls with Farveez Maharoof (28). Dilhara Fernando and Fervez Maharoof took one wicket each.

Courtesy: www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com, February 17, 2007

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