Indian news round-up

Lancashire managed only a tie in their National League Division one match against Leicestershire at Old Trafford in Manchester on Sunday even after Indian captain Sourav Ganguly hit his first half-century for Lancashire. Indian spinner Anil Kumble went wicketless in the game but helped Leicestershire to tie the match by scrambling a bye off the last ball.

Chasing a target 178 for victory, Leicestershire got off to a shaky start losing TR Ward and CC Lewis cheaply. Then BF Smith (90 off 118 balls) waged a lone battle and kept Leicestershire in the hunt. But his dismissal proved crucial as the tail was unable to close the match in favour of them. But the only consolation for Leicestershire was that they managed their second tie for the season.

Earlier, put into bat, Lancashire began by losing JP Crawley (1) but Ganguly (61 runs off 78 balls) joined Michael Atherton (46 runs off 84 balls) and the two put on 95 runs for the third wicket. But the later order batsmen squandered the initiative and managed to put up 177 on the board.

India all-rounder Robin Singh and his Tamil Nadu team mate and keeper Reuben Paul won the second Ramakant Desai Memorial double-wicket tournament played at the Shivaji Park Gymkhana in Mumbai on Sunday.

The Tamil Nadu pair won the four over final against SPG pair of Shreyas Khanolkar and Amol Rane. Chasing a score of 34 for a win the pair romped home with two balls to spare with Robin (27 runs with four boundaries) and Reuben (12 runs with one six). Earlier, Khanolkar (20) and Rane (22) ran up a score of 42 runs but with Rane getting out twice eight runs were reduced from their overall total.

In the semifinal, the Tamil Nadu pair defeated the Kenyan pair of Thomas Odoyo and Kennedy Otieno. Speaking after the Victory, Robin Singh said ``I love to play fast cricket like single and double-wicket and that is the reason why I am so good in one-day cricket and not Tests.''