Lille (France), Nov 7 (IANS) Pakistan are looking forward to an emphatic win in the World Cup hockey qualifiers final here Sunday after winning four of its league matches convincingly.

Basle (Switzerland), Nov 7 (DPA) Friendship will be on the back burner when Roger Federer faces childhood mate Marco Chiudinelli in a battle of Basle boys for a place in the final of the Swiss Indoors.

Top seed Federer has won the last three editions of his home event, claiming his 18th straight victory at the tournament with a 55-minute win over Russian Evgeny Korolev 6-3, 6-2 Friday.

Bangkok, Nov 6 (IANS) The Indian women’s hockey team edged past South Korea 3-2 to enter the final of the Asia Cup and also qualify for the 2010 World Cup in Argentina.

India led 3-0 with two strikes from Jasjeet Kaur and one from Rani Ramphal before Korea came back strongly in the final moments through goals from Eun Sil Kim and Mihyun Park here Friday.

New Delhi, Nov 6 (IANS) Jarnail Singh, the Sikh journalist who made headlines for hurling a shoe at Home Minister P. Chidambaram for not bringing culprits to book for their roles in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Friday released his book on the subject.

“I wrote the book so that the culprits feel ashamed. So society wake and hit them. After the incident, everyone talked about the death toll. But no one thought about the sufferings leashed by these planned massacre,” he said.

Kolkata, Nov 6 (IANS) Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Friday announced that former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly will lead the side in the Indian Premier League (IPL) season-III next year, replacing New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum.

The management in a statement also appointed Australian Dav Whatmore as the new coach.

Guwahati, Nov 6 (IANS) After the run-feast at Hyderabad, fans can expect another high-scoring entertainer between India and Australia in the sixth One-Day International at the Nehru Stadium here Sunday.

Chief curator of Assam Cricket Association (ACA) Sunil Barua said the batting friendly track could produce a 300-run chase.

Lisbon, Nov 6 (DPA) Portugal are set to call Real Madrid star winger Cristiano Ronaldo for a key play-off en route to the 2010 World Cup even though he is out of action due to an ankle injury.

Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) president Gilberto Madail insisted Thursday that Ronaldo would be on Sunday’s national team list for the crucial November 14 and 18 matches against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

New York, Nov 6 (DPA) Eight-time Grand Slam winner Andre Agassi said that revelations in his upcoming autobiography that he used the drug crystal meth during a period of 1997 depression needed to be made public.

The tarnished tennis icon told the television programme “60 Minutes” in an interview to be broadcast Sunday that he does not regret telling all in his book.

Hyderabad, Nov 5 (IANS) Sachin Tendulkar played one of his superlative one-day knocks and crossed the 17,000-run mark in limited-overs cricket, but India, chasing a whopping 351, lost a heart-stopping match by a mere three runs to go down 2-3 in the seven-match series against Australia here Thursday.

Tendulkar scored a scintillating 175 off 141 balls and such a knock deserved to be on the winning side. He carried on manfully even after losing Virender Sehwag (38), Gautam Gambhir (8), Yuvraj Singh (9) and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (6) for 162 runs before the half-way stage and found in Suresh Raina (59) a lively partner who could hit big shots when required.

Hyderabad, Nov 5 (IANS) Sachin Tendulkar, two weeks short of completing his two decades in international cricket, scored a brilliant 175 as he crossed his personal milestone of 17,000 ODI runs in the fourth One-Day International against Australia here Thursday.

Tendulkar crossed the 17,000-run mark while taking three runs off Ben Hilfenhaus in 4.6 overs. Tendulkar now has 17,168 runs from 435 matches since making his debut in 1989. The 175 against Australia here was Tendulkar’s 45th ODI century.