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Ponting joins the 10,000 club
May 31, 2008 09:34 IST on 05/31/2008 at 10:13am (UTC) | | | Australia captain Ricky Ponting [Images] became only the seventh batsman to reach 10,000 runs in Test matches on Friday and declared himself proud of his long career.
- Scorecard
Ponting went to the crease needing 61 on the first day of the second Test against West Indies and become the third Australian to reach the milestone following former captains Allan Border and Steve Waugh.
Katich ton puts Australia in strong position
He reached that target with a well-placed drive through the covers to take two off West Indies captain Ramnaresh Sarwan but was dismissed soon after for 65.
"I'm actually prouder of the amount of games I have played, my longevity in the game than how many runs I've scored," he told reporters.
"I've played 118 tests now and I guess if you bat in the top order and play that many games, you are probably expected to be around the mark that I am around at the moment.
"I am proud of everything I've achieved in the game but probably more proud of how many winnings teams I've played in rather than how many runs I've scored.
"They are the things that motivate me to keep playing, whenever I am confronted with a situation, whether it be to go and get a 100 or bat a session through, they are the things that excite me.
Ponting said he valued competition far more than breaking individual records.
"The one-on-one contests of the game of cricket are what keep me going," he added. "Milestones and stats have never been anything that's motivated me about the game."
The other players to have entered five figures are Brian Lara of the West Indies and Indian trio Sachin Tendulkar , Sunil Gavaskar [Images] and Rahul Dravid
Ponting is the third fastest to get to five figures in terms of innings and second fastest for Tests.
He admitted he had the statistic in his thoughts before going out to bat.
"It was on my mind a little bit today actually. It's nice to get there, disappointing to get out when I did but nice to get to that figure.
"I've never been anyone that's really focused or worried too much about milestones or statistics but to be the third fastest player in history (to reach 10,000) is a nice little thing that I will be able to look back upon when I'm finished," added the 33-year-old.
Ponting looked at ease on a flat track until, the record in the bag, he chased a delivery from Jerome Taylor [ and was caught in the slips.
Nonetheless his team had a comfortable day in easy batting conditions as they made 259 for three.
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India reopens air force base near China border
May 31, 2008 14:17 IST on 05/31/2008 at 10:11am (UTC) | | | The Indian Air Force on Saturday reopened an old air base in the mountainous Ladakh region in Jammu and Kashmir that was closed 43 years ago.
An AN-32 transporter plane carrying Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (Western Air Command) P K Barbora landed at the Dawaltbaigh Oldi air strip around 8.50 am after flying from Chandigarh.
The air base was set up in 1962 during the Indo-China war and closed in 1965.
Barbora had last week said that the operationalisation of the base would demonstrate to the world that India is capable of manning an airfield at such a high altitude.
The air base overlooking the strategic Karakoram pass is just 8 km south of the Chinese border. IAF plans to carry out regular AN-32 transport aircraft flights from here in the future.
"It is a part of our efforts to improve air maintenance of far-flung posts in the region bordering China and Pakistan," IAF sources said.
Besides, IAF's MI-17, MI-26 helicopters, Chetak and Druv helicopters can land at the helipad to ferry much-needed supplies to troops deployed in the region.
The air base was operational in 1962 when China launched an attack on India. An IAF AN-12 aircraft flying from Chandigarh on October 20, 1962, came under fire as Chinese troops launched an aggression in chip-chap valley in Aksaichin belt in Ladakh.
The Dawaltbaigh Oldi air strip is strategically located on ancient trade route connecting Ladakh in India to Yarkand in Xinjiang, China.
The IAF now plans to revive airfields in Chushul and Fukche along the Indo-China border, sources said.
Besides, India plans to construct a 608-km road network along the Line of Actual Control bordering China and Pakistan.
Before 1962, the place used to be a stopping point for traders traveling along the Silk Route. After the 1962 war, both India and China sealed their borders.
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China says ,200000 evacuated because of flood risks
By WILLIAM FOREMAN, Associated Press Writer on 05/31/2008 at 10:07am (UTC) | | | MIANYANG, China - Chinese authorities had evacuated nearly 200,000 people by early Saturday and warned more than 1 million others to be ready to leave quickly as a lake formed by a devastating earthquake threatened to breach its dam.
The confirmed death toll from China's worst quake in three decades was raised Saturday to 68,977, an increase of about 120 people from a day earlier. Another 17,974 people were still missing, the State Council said. The increase was the smallest since the government started issuing a daily death toll shortly after the quake hit.
Hundreds of Chinese troops have been working around the clock to drain Tangjiashan lake in Sichuan province. The lake formed above Beichuan town in the Mianyang region when a hillside plunged into a river valley during the May 12 quake that killed more than 68,000 people.
The official Xinhua News Agency said work on a runoff channel had been completed. It quoted Yue Xi, deputy chief of the water and electricity section of the People's Armed Police, as saying water was expected to be discharged between Sunday and Tuesday.
Xinhua said 197,477 people were evacuated to safe ground by Saturday morning. It did not say how the exact number was arrived at, and many of the people may have moved just short distances to higher areas.
The news agency said Tan Li, the Communist Party chief of Mianyang, had issued another order that calling for all 1.3 million people in the area to be evacuated if "the barrier of the quake lake fully opens" and floods the area.
An official with the press office of Mianyang City Quake Control and Relief Headquarters, who would give only her surname of Chen, said Saturday's drill would involve testing the command system of various levels of government officials to ensure that any order to evacuate — if it comes — would be passed on quickly to everyone in the valley.
No public broadcast of the evacuation order would take place.
There was no sign that the dam was about to burst. Troops have sealed off Beichuan to the public.
Tangjiashan is the largest of more than 30 lakes that have formed behind landslides caused by the quake, which also weakened man-made dams in the mountainous parts of the disaster zone.
Millions of people in Sichuan are already living in tent camps and prefabricated housing, which have taken on the tone of new villages.
In Mianyang, about 200 families left their camps in flood-prone areas of the city and moved to higher ground in a wooded park on Fule Mountain. Most had camping tents and shelters made of tarp pitched under trees amid ornate gazebos and tea houses with tradition sloping yellow tiled roofs. Red signs on the buildings said, "Dangerous building, don't come near."
One woman, who only gave her surname, Wang, said life was uncomfortable but fine under the circumstances. "We've got all the basics. Those who are out of work are being given food, but my company is taking care of me," said Wang, who was living in a camouflaged camping tent set above the ground on wood planks.
A man who also only gave his surname, Zhang, said his family of three has received no food or shelter since they followed orders to move to the camp two days ago.
"I had to rig this up myself," he said, pointing to the simple structure of tarps they were living under. "We've just been eating instant noodles and bread that we brought ourselves."
Nearby, a woman selling tomatoes, green peppers and eggplants along the narrow park road was loading the vegetables back on her three-wheel motorcycle cart. "I'm packing things up because no one is buying," she said. "They have no pots or pans. No way to cook the food."
Xinhua also reported that President Hu Jintao arrived Saturday to check on relief efforts in Shaanxi province. Just to the north of Sichuan, Shaanxi also suffered damage in the May 12 earthquake.
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