TOWNSVILLE, Aug 12: The West Indies’ decision to base themselves in Australia ahead of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup provided an immediate outcome here on Sunday, when they beat two-time champions India by four wickets.

The West Indies kicked off their campaign with a successful run chase against India, who were restricted to 166 for eight.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Smit Patel top scored for the side, hitting a patient 51 before being bowled by paceman Ronsford Beaton, who finished as the most successful West Indies bowler with three for 33.

Right-arm medium-pacer Kyle Mayers claimed the important wicket of India captain Unmukt Chand (22) and was consistent, ending with two for 35 from 10 overs.

India’s fast bowler Sandeep Sharma (2-27) snared the early wickets of the West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite (four) and Sunil Ambris (four).

But John Campbell (36) and Anthony Alleyne (52) put the West Indies back on track with a 58-run third-wicket partnership. For the fifth wicket, Alleyne and Kyle Mayers (43) put on another 58 runs after the West Indies had slipped from 71 for two to 75 for four.

India’s left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh was handy with the ball picking up three wickets but unfortunately not enough to successfully defend the Indian total.

Mayers, who was adjudged player of the match, later said: “India had some quality spinners and I thought they bowled really well with great variation. I tried to bowl as tight as possible to create some pressure and eventually it worked out.”

In the other matches on Sunday, South Africa got their tournament underway by overcoming Bangladesh by 133 runs, New Zealand did not miss a beat against qualifier Scotland by winning their Group B match by 39 runs, and England bounced back from Saturday’s defeat to Australia to beat Ireland by seven wickets in a Group C match. IANS

MONTREAL, Aug 12: India’s Leander Paes and his Austrian partner Jurgen Melzer moved into the semifinals of the men’s doubles Rogers Cup while Sania Mirza and her American partner lost in the quarterfinals of women’s doubles.

Paes and Melzer won a tough match against Polish duo Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 7-6 (5), 4-6, 10-6 in Toronto Saturday.

The fifth seeds will next take on Olympic champions Mike and Bob Bryan of the US, who sealed their spot with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Australia’s Paul Hanley and Serbian Nenad Zimonjic.

Meanwhile in Montreal, Sania and Bethanie Mattek-Sands lost to third seeded Russian-Slovak pair Nadezda Petrova and Katarina Srebotnik 6-1, 5-7, 5-10. IANS

LONDON, Aug 12: It was close, but the gold medal isn’t going anywhere. Kevin Durant scored 30 points, and LeBron James closed with two huge plays in the final three minutes to lead the US men’s basketball team to a 107-100 victory over Spain for the gold medal on the final day of the London Olympics on Sunday.

It was the second straight victory for the US, after also defeating Spain in the final at the Beijing Games four years ago.

Kobe Bryant said it was his last international game after winning back-to-back golds to avenge the disappointing bronze medal in 2004 that led to a renovation of USA Basketball in the effort to get back on top.

Krzyzewski pulled Durant, James and Bryant with 37.6 seconds to go amid a thunderous ovation at the O2 Arena and big hugs from their teammates. “Born in the USA” played after the whistle blew and the players leaped into each other’s arms in celebration.

The game was close throughout, far different than most of the games the Americans had played here.

Pau Gasol and Marc Navarro kept Spain in the game with 24 and 21 points, respectively. But the Spaniards could not keep up at the end, despite being within four with 6:51 to go — much like four years ago.

James scored 19 points, including a thunderous dunk and a three-pointer back-to-back that sealed it with 1:59 left, while Bryant added 17 points. Durant became the highest-scoring American ever at a single Olympics, after starring for the national team at the 2010 world championships. Agencies

LONDON, Aug 12: India will return with its best-ever Olympics medal tally from the London Games. If there is anything missing, it is a gold and that has been somewhat made up by two silver medals out of a total of six.

The performance of the Indians is indeed creditable as the expectations were also realistic, though some might argue that Indian men should have got medals from the boxing ring and the women from the archery arena.

While shooting and wrestling led the charge with two medals each (one silver and one bronze in each of the disciplines), two other finishes on the podium were from badminton and women’s boxing. India finished 55th on the medals table, 10 rungs higher than their count at Beijing.

The Indians would now leave this historic city, having doubled the three-medal tally from Beijing four years ago. However, there was a gold in Beijing, the first by an individual - Abhinav Bindra, who won it in the men’s 10m air rifle.

Curiously, it was in the same event that India began its medal account here with 29-year-old Gagan Narang winning the bronze, aggregating 701.1 (598 qualifying, 103.1 final) at the Royal Artillery Barracks range.

After three unproductive days, luck again smiled on India as army shooter Vijay Kumar scooped up silver in the men’s 25-metre rapid fire pistol.

Kumar ensured a finish on the second highest podium scoring 30 in the final. He shot a perfect five in the first series to take joint lead and followed up with series of 4, 4, 3, 4, 4 and 4 and 2 to grab the silver.

Shooting has lately emerged as the most productive sport for India at the Olympics. India have so far shot one gold, two silvers and a bronze from the ranges since the 2004 Athens Games.

In contrast, hockey still holds the record for the highest number of medals - 11 (eight gold, one silver and two bronze), but the point is the last medal success from the discipline came way back in 1980, a gold.

The Indians also achieved spectacular success on the mat at the Excel arena, with Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt getting a silver and bronze respectively.

Sushil lost the men’s 66 kg freestyle final to Japan’s Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu 1-3 and settled for a silver, becoming the first Indian to win individual medals in back-to-back Olympics.

In the 60kg class, Yogeshwar clinched the bronze after winning the repechage round.

The Haryana grappler churned out a great performance against North Korean Jong Myong Ri to win the bronze medal play-off 3-1.

Yogeshwar, who was in his third Olympics, also became the third Indian wrestler after Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav and Sushil to win an Olympic medal. Jadhav had won bronze in the 1952 Helsinki Games.

On the badminton court, Saina Nehwal etched her name in India’s sporting history by winning the country’s maiden medal from the competition to become the second Indian woman to stand on the Olympic podium. Lifter Karnam Malleswari won a bronze in the 2000 Sydney Games.

Women’s boxing saw Manipur’s MC Mary Kom scripting history by becoming the country’s first woman pugilist to win a medal at the Olympics when she finished with a bronze in the 51 kg event.

Amid these highs, two sporting disciplines provided the lows. Despite much hope, none of the Indian archers came even remotely close to a medal, as they mostly fell at the first hurdle.

Hockey, where India were for long the reigning monarchs, saw the country’s standards having sunk to the lowest depths. The Indians came up with their worst performance, securing the last position among 12 teams.

The highly rated male boxers also disappointed. Two of them - Laishram Devendro Singh in 49kg and Beijing Olympics bronze medallist Vijender Singh in 75kg - made it to the last eight, but that was the end of the road for them.

In track and field, women’s discus thrower Krishna Poonia and her male counterpart Vikas Gowda made it to the finals, while the Indian participants rewrote the national records in 50km and 20km walks.

The glamorous tennis stars also gave heartbreaking performances. Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna, who had forced the tennis authorities to pair them up in men’s doubles, lost to a much lower ranked duo in the second round.

Leander Paes and Vishnu Vardhan also crashed out at the same stage, but not before a lion-hearted fight against Michael Llodra/Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France).

There was much hope on the mixed doubles pair of Paes and Saina Mirza, but they crashed out in the quarterfinals.

Indian participants joined the action in three other disciplines - rowing, judo and weightlifting - but failed to make any impact. IANS