England hold firm after Bell loss

LONDON: England kept Sri Lanka at bay after losing dangerman Ian Bell in the first Test at Lord´s on Thursday.

England, after losing the toss, were 195 for four at tea on the first day with Bell having fallen early in the second session for 56. But Joe Root and debutant Mooen Ali, both 43 not out, repelled Sri Lanka with an unbroken fifth-wicket stand so far worth 75.

England had struggled to 98 for three at lunch after debutant opener Sam Robson, captain Alastair Cook and Gary Ballance had all fallen cheaply in the morning session.

But Bell, in his 99th Test, was unbeaten on 41 and looking in excellent touch. Shortly after lunch, he drove left-arm spinner Rangana Herath for six to complete a 69-ball fifty also including seven fours. But he was out soon afterwards when, hitting across the line, he was lbw to seamer Shaminda Eranga although Sri Lanka had to challenge Australian umpire Paul Reiffel´s original not out decision before Bell was finally on his way.

Ali, one of three debutants in the England side, began cautiously but the left-hander found his form in slog-sweeping Herath for six.

Earlier, Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews won the toss and elected to field in the first of this two-match series against an England side playing their first Test since suffering a 281-run defeat by Australia in Sydney that condemned them to a 5-0 Ashes loss in January.

Although the sunny blue skies above Lord´s suggested ideal batting conditions, the pitch was a greener-looking one than usually associated with the ´home of cricket´ at this time of year. Mathews´s decision yielded a quick reward as England lost both their openers inside the first half hour.

Australia-born Robson, playing on his Middlesex home ground, fell for one when he was drawn forward by a full-length Nuwan Pradeep delivery that took the outside edge and wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene, diving to his right, held a fine catch. And 14 for one became 22 for two when Cook exited for 17, the left-hander bottom-edging an intended cut off Nuwan Kulasekara into his stumps.

Ballance, promoted to number three in only his second Test, was on one as Bell, taking over the number four slot from the exiled Kevin Pietersen, walked in.

Bell demonstrated his class by easing first-change Eranga through the covers for four with a textbook drive.And the Warwickshire batsman also dealt well with Mathews, Sri Lanka´s fourth seamer, by cover-driving and straight driving the all-rounder for elegant boundaries.

Ballance looked less assured but the Zimbabwe-born left-hander brought up a fifty stand with Bell when he clipped Pradeep off his pads for four.

However, Ballance´s 73-minute innings ended when, to Pradeep´s fifth ball back, he drove flat-footedly and was caught behind for 23 to leave England 74 for three. (AFP)

Delayed clearances result in loss of 12 mt of coal production

 

The Hindu Delays in environmental and forest clearances occurred mostly in the Bhubaneswar-based Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd. (MCL), which accounted for 10.5 million tonnes of the 12 million tonnes lost.

Around 12 million tonnes of coal was lost due to the absence of regulatory clearances in 2013-14 The Hindu has learnt.

This accounts for nearly 60 per cent of the 19.5 million tonne shortfall reported by Coal India Ltd (CIL) in the just closed financial year.

Enquiries revealed that of the 19.5 million tonnes, five million tonnes was lost due to Cyclone Phailin, two million tonnes due to CIL’s internal reasons, while as much as 12 million tonnes was lost due to delays in environment and forest clearances by the Central and State governments.

Delays in environmental and forest clearances occurred mostly in the Bhubaneswar-based Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd. (MCL), which accounted for 10.5 million tonnes of the 12 million tonnes lost. However, it also occurred in Northern Coalfields Ltd based in Varanasi and South Eastern Coalfields Ltd based in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur.

The single largest loss, of 6 million tonnes, was due to the delay in forest clearance at the Bharatpur Colliery in MCL.

“Since we already had on hand the Stage I clearances, we had expected the Stage II clearance, which is really just a formality, by October 2013. But this came in February 2014. We had environment clearance for 15 million tonnes but we had land only for 6 million tonnes and needed forest clearance for the remaining portion,” a senior official said, who did not wish to be identified.

“In a similar manner, we lost production at the mines of Lakhanpur, also in MCL where we cut back our production from a potential of 40,000 tonnes daily to 2,000 tonnes just because the clearances were not in place,” sources said, adding that nearly 3.75 million tonnes was lost in this case.

Chasing a stiff target of 507 million tonnes in the current fiscal, CIL has decided to pursue the respective State governments for the clearances, which are often delayed due to bureaucratic reasons.

No loss of life in Rawalpindi cracker explosion

RAWALPINDI: A cracker exploded outside a house located near Dhok Rataimral in Mohalla Mazharabad, but fortunately no loss of life occurred on Monday here, Geo News reported.

Police said that the cracker explosion occurred outside the house of Mobinullah, which sent the entire area in great panic and harassment, however, no loss of life reported.

Police and rescue teams have rushed to the scene of incident.

Ukraine facing loss of its navy

UKRAINE: Lashed by the wind as it whips across Crimea's biggest lake, a third of Ukraine's warships have nowhere to go and nothing to do but rise and fall on its choppy waves.
Russian forces have blocked their only exit point to the Black Sea by sinking two ageing vessels there, and Russia's well-armed Moskva missile cruiser can be seen treading water a short distance off the coast, with menace.
With six more of Ukraine's two dozen warships similarly blockaded and Russian forces building up their strength ahead of a referendum that seems likely to result in Crimea becoming part of Russia, Ukraine is facing the humiliating loss of its navy.
Pacing up and down a spartan room in an outbuilding overlooking a row of warships, support vessels, and tugboats, Brigade Commander Vitaly Zvyagintsev says he can't believe the Russian Black Sea Fleet with whom the Ukrainian navy regularly held exercises in the past has turned hostile.
"I have two theories," he told Reuters in an interview. "The first is that they want to prevent Ukrainian ships leaving their base and blockading them as they are us now.
The second is that they want to make sure that if and when Crimea joins Russia, Ukraine can't get its ships back."
"Georgia doesn't have a fleet any more and the same thing could now happen with Ukraine," he said gloomily, referring to the 2008 Russia-Georgia war which ended with Russian forces taking control of a fifth of Georgia's territory.
The Ukrainian navy has around 25 warships including one submarine, 15 support vessels of different categories and around 15,000 men under arms, 10,000 of whom are based on the Crimean Peninsula.
Zvyagintsev and another senior commander decline to say how many Ukrainian sailors serve on this desolate base, which nestles in a landscape dotted with little apart from wind turbines and rundown Soviet-era apartment blocks.
They say they don't have the technical equipment cutters and cranes to remove the sunken ships blocking them in. Though facing what they euphemistically describe as a "complex situation," black humour prevails.
"It's even quite satisfying that the Russian Black Sea Fleet considers my ships to be so battle-ready that they have left behind the Moskva, a ship that is designed to sink aircraft carriers," said Zvyagintsev with a wry smile.
Eight warships from Russia's Black Sea Fleet initially blockaded the Ukrainians' exit to the Black Sea here, but now that the scuttled ships prevent navigation, only the Moskva remained, he said.