Currently in 69th position on the Asian Tour Order of Merit, Kapur gave himself a huge boost of retaining his Tour card when he charged into contention with a superb 67.

He made the turn in 35 before adding a birdie on the 10th hole and closing strongly with three consecutive birdies, including a 20-footer at his last, even though he felt it could have been better.

“All in all, it was a frustrating day because I hit it close to the flag but couldn’t buy a putt. The way I struck the ball I should be at least 12 or 13-under. Luckily for me, I ended with three birdies and that turned an average day into a good day,” Kapur said

Kapur, who needs to finish in the top-65 to keep his full playing rights on the Asian tour.

“The greens are pretty tough here but fair. My putting has let me down and if I can get my putter hot during the weekend I should have a good chance,” added the 2005 Rookie of the Year.

Among other Indians in the fray, Vikrant Chopra (140) carded one-under 71 to lie tied 13th and stay in hunt for a top 10 finish.

One shot behind at tied 15th was rising star Anirban Lahiri, having returned an identical 71 in the second round.

Kolkata pro Rahil Gangjee (142) was at tied 23rd after carding 72, while Amandeep Johl (145) was tied 48th after carding a similar even-par round.

Amateur Rashid Khan (147) went for 74 to miss the cut by two strokes.

Opener Gautam Gambhir conjured up yet another marathon innings of 114 runs, result of his six-and-half hour vigil, before Sachin Tendulkar (100 not out) took the centrestage to chase down yet another milestone of 30,000 international runs en route to his 43rd Test ton.

With VVS Laxman (51 not out) also chipping in with his 40th Test half-century, India batted their way out of trouble to maintain their impressive home record against the Lankans.

Going into the final day’s play needing just eight wickets to snap their 14-match winless streak on Indian soil, the exasperated Sri Lankans could only watch haplessly as the hosts showed the kind of application and determination that had been missing in their shoddy first innings display.

Resuming with 144 runs in the arrear, the Indians finished the day at 412 for four with Gambhir, Tendulkar and Laxman scoring bulk of the runs on a shirtfront of a wicket that simply had nothing for the bowlers.

Both the teams now move to Kanpur for the second Test starting on 24th November.

Milestone man Tendulkar reached yet another landmark in his glittering career when he turned swing bowler Chanaka Welegedara backward of square for a single to take his tally of runs in Tests, ODIs and T20 internationals to 30,000.

Overall, it was a poor advertisement for Test cricket as nearly 1600 runs were scored while just 21 wickets fell over the five days’ play leading to this stalemate.

The match also saw the highest number of centuries — seven — being scored on the sub-continental soil.

Tendulkar’s unbeaten 211 ball knock included 11 hits to the fence.

Trailing the visitors by a massive 334 runs in the first innings, India wiped off the deficit in the last over before tea.

The two Indian batsmen out on Friday were Amit Mishra (24), who did an excellent job in the unaccustomed nightwatchman’s role, while Gambhir virtually threw his wicket after notching up his seventh Test century.

Earlier today, Mishra stuck to his task for over 45 minutes after India started the day 144 runs behind the Lankans at 190 for two.

The leg-spinner was eventually dismissed by Angelo Mathews, caught brilliantly at leg gully by Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Tendulkar straightaway started stroking the ball sweetly as he cover-drove the accurate and miserly Mathews for a four and then hit danger man Muttiah Muralitharan for successive fours in one over.

Gambhir, batting solidly from the other end, also opened out and raced to his hundred by hitting left-arm spinner Rangana Herath for two fours before he glanced Mathews to the rope. It was his first hundred against Sri Lanka.

India lost Gambhir in the sixth over of the second session. He was lured by a well-tossed up ball from left-arm spinner Rangana Herath and, in trying to hit it into the vacant leg side area, got the leading edge to be caught at mid-off by Dammika Prasad.

It was the Delhi left-hander’s third hundred this year and in as many Tests since making his marathon match-saving 137 against New Zealand at Napier in March.

The ICC Test Player of the Year faced 230 balls and struck 13 fours in his six and a half-hour stay.

Tendulkar was joined by Laxman and the duo ensured that no further wickets were given away to either pace or spin by forging an unbeaten 137-run fifth wicket partnership.

Chinese men survived several anxious moments before getting better of Japan 3-2 in a marathon final, while their women counterparts overcame Singapore 3-1 at the Uttar Pradesh Badminton Academy in Lucknow on Thursday.

World Number 16 Zhang Jike, who beat Mizutami Jun (3-1) and Kenta Matsudaira (3-0), was instrumental in China’s victory in the four-hour-long high-octane summit clash.

After starting on a losing note with Xu Xin going down 1-3 to Matsudaira, China fought back through Jike in the second match.

Xin also shrug off the hangover to outplay Mizutami (3-2) when China was one down after world number two Ma Long’s 0-3 snubbing at the hand of Kishikawa Seiya in third match.

Chinese women reclaimed the honour with some impressive performance by world number nine Ding Ning, who beat world number 11 Wang Yue Gu (3-1) and Feng Tianwei (3-0).

China, which got a winning start through Fan Ying (Feng Tianwei (3-0), lost only when world number four Li Xiaoxin went down to Sun Bei Bei 1-3 in the best-of-five match.

Indian men finished a distant seventh out of eight teams in the Champions Division when the hosts overcame Singapore 3-2 in a keenly contested play-off.

In the men’s play-off, Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal led the hosts’ challenge as the world number 70 first beat Cai Xiaoli 3-0 and then overcame Zi Yang 3-1 in his return tie.

Soumyadeep Roy lost to Yang 1-3 in the opening clash and Anirban Nandy was also outplayed by Xaejie Pang with an identical scoreline.

Roy later proved his mettle in a see-saw fifth and final encounter, in which the Indian got the better of Xiaoli 3-2, giving the motley crowd present at the stadium some reasons to cheer.

In the women’s category, six Indians, including reigning national champion Kumaresan Shamini, entered the second round of singles event.

Shamini beat Lam Lai Wa of Macao 4-1, while former national champion Mouma Das and young Divya Deshpande blanked Nepalese Muna Basukala and Yara Saegh of Jordan respectively, with an identical 4-0 scoreline.

Pooja Sahasrabudhee beat Amani Khader of Jordan and Mamata Prabhu overcame Rahima Akter of Bangladesh — 4-0 each — while Madhurika Patkar eliminated Sengdavieng Douangpanya of Laos (4-1).
Poulomi Ghatak was lucky to get a bye to the second round.

Among men, Anirban Nandy beat Mustafa Billah (4-0) of Bangladesh and compatriot Aman Balgu outplayed Sengsathid Soukathammavong of Laos (4-0).

Sharath was among the five Indians who got byes to the next round of men’s singles.

Somdev was seeded sixth in the tournament, which began on Monday, and has been replaced by lucky loser Cecil Mamiit of Philippines.

Now Indian challenge remains only in the doubles event with Harsh Mankad and Purav Raja participating with their respective partners.

Harsh and his partner Treat Coard Huey of Philippines are seeded second while Purav and British Richard Bloomfield are unseeded.

The international body’s Executive Board has not yet taken up the six doping cases from India on the opening day of its meeting on Wednesday as it had too long an agenda to discuss.

“The IWF Executive Board did not make any decisions since it will hold a second day of meetings tomorrow. The agenda is so long that we couldn’t finish and get to the doping problems,” IWF legal counsel Monika Ungar said in a statement.

The Indian Federation, which has been banned twice in the past, faces the prospect of a third sanction after six of its lifters tested positive for banned substances last month in out of competition testing.

Under pressure from the Sports Ministry and the Indian Olympic Association, the officials of the Indian Federation resigned en masse a couple of days ago after an emergency meeting in New Delhi.

Despite the mass resignations, the Indian Federation is being represented at the meeting by now former General Secretary B R Gulati.

Under international rules, if four or more lifters test positive in a calendar year, the national body can be banned for a maximum of four years.

But resignations by officials has somewhat brightened the chances of a lenient view from the executive board of the IWF as one of the international body’s demands, in its letter to the IOA after the dope cases, was to change the whole set up of the national federation.

What the Indian officials are banking on is that considering India is hosting the 2010 Commonwealth Games for the first time, IWF chief Dr Tamas Ajan, who is close to IOA officials, can influence the other members of the executive board to take a lenient view.

A one-year ban may give a chance to the country to participate in the Commonwealth Games though it does not solve all the problems.

The seventh seed Indian squandered a first game lead to lose 21-17 8-21 13-21 to Xie in a 52-minute battle.

Compatriot Arvind Bhat also became a second round casualty after suffering a straight-game defeat against Indonesian Dwi Kuncoro Sony in the men’s singles event.

Arvind lost 15-21 16-21 against the eighth seed Indonesian in a 39-minute battle.

Xie was clearly the better player on the day as she gathered nine points against Saina’s five.

Even in the nets, Saina managed just 12 points compared to Xie’s 20.

In the first game, Saina opened a 2-0 lead and although the Chinese drew parity six times, the Hyderabadi girl was able to hold on to the game.

However, Xie raised her game in the second and pushed Saina on the backfoot.

The Chinese first took a 2-0 lead and kept herself adrift of Saina who was forced to do the catching up act as Xie from 15-8 down, pocketed six straight points to seal the game.

The decider was no different as the unheralded Chinese kept stepping up the gas and after a 6-4 lead romped home comfortably and shut the door on Saina’s face.

After being buried by a massive 334-run first innings lead mainly built around a world record sixth wicket partnership between Mahela Jayawardene (275) and Prasanna Jayawardene (154 not out), the Indians reached 190 for two in their second innings at stumps on the penultimate day, still trailing by 144 runs.

The hosts still have a daunting task to prevent the Lankans from recording their first Test triumph on Indian soil as they have to bat out the entire last day on a Motera track which was expected to deteriorate and assist the spinners.

But the Indians have an experienced batting line up and should fancy their chances of saving the match which has turned out to be a nightmare for the bowlers.

Gautam Gambhir (74) and night watchman Amit Mishra (12) were at the crease at stumps on a day which saw Mahela and Prasanna breaking the 72-year-old world record for the highest sixth-wicket partnership in Tests by putting on a 351-run stand.

The home team first lost Virender Sehwag (51) and then Rahul Dravid (38) was distincly unlucky to get a dubious leg before decision at the fag end of the day.

Brief Score:

India first innings 426 all out.

Sri Lanka first innings: 155 for one in 34 overs (T Paranavitana 35, T Dilshan 88 batting, K Sangakkara 23 batting; Ishant Sharma 1/36).

Earlier, left arm swing bowler Chanaka Welegedara got the important breakthrough early in the morning by getting rid of the well-set and ominous-looking Rahul Dravid at his overnight score of 177.

The Indian innings folded up an hour and 10 minutes after play commenced today, with the home team losing their remaining four wickets for the addition of 41 runs to their overnight total of 385 for six.

In the remaining time to lunch, Lanka made 37 for no loss in reply with openers Tilekaratne Dilshan (18 in 22 balls) and Tharanga Paranavitana (18 in 26 balls) at the crease.

Dravid, looking all set to score his sixth double hundred, fell to the 10th ball he faced without any addition to his overnight score. He dragged a ball from Welegedara on to his stumps while trying to drive on the front foot.

In all, the Bangalore stalwart batted for 19 minutes over six hours, faced 261 balls and struck 26 fours and a six.

Dravid’s departure just a quarter hour into day two dashed India’s hopes of taking the score to the 500 mark.

Harbhajan Singh (22), not out 2 last evening, and Zaheer Khan (12) put on a brief stand worth 25 runs, but it was just a matter of time before they fell.

Zaheer, who was felled by a beamer from fast medium bowler Dhammika Prasad after having struck two successive fours with slashes off the right-arm bowler, was trapped leg before when he played back to left arm spinner Rangana Herath.

The pace bowler’s dismissal came soon after India crossed the 400-mark in the 96th over just past the half hour.

Harbhajan, who played some good drives off the pace bowlers, was castled by Muthiah Muralitharan while trying to reverse sweep the wily off spinner who then accounted for last man Ishant Sharma in the same over to bring down curtains on the Indian innings.

Harbhajan’s stay of 83 minutes yielded him two fours in 64 balls. Amit Mishra remained unbeaten on 7.

For Lanka, left armer Welegedara deservedly grabbed the bowling honours, grabbing 4 for 87 – the prized scalps being those of Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Dravid.

Murali, snapped up three for 97, taking two wickets today for seven runs in 23 balls, while Prasad, who was not shy of using bumpers and got a warning for the beamer bowled at Zaheer, picked up 2 for 106. Herath took the remaining wicket.

Lankan openers Dilshan and Paranavitana then prevented the home team from creating an early breakthrough before lunch to leave Lanka 389 runs behind the hosts’ first innings total.

Brief Score:

India first innings 426 all out.

Sri Lanka first innings: 155 for one in 34 overs (T Paranavitana 35, T Dilshan 88 batting, K Sangakkara 23 batting; Ishant Sharma 1/36).

Earlier, left arm swing bowler Chanaka Welegedara got the important breakthrough early in the morning by getting rid of the well-set and ominous-looking Rahul Dravid at his overnight score of 177.

The Indian innings folded up an hour and 10 minutes after play commenced today, with the home team losing their remaining four wickets for the addition of 41 runs to their overnight total of 385 for six.

In the remaining time to lunch, Lanka made 37 for no loss in reply with openers Tilekaratne Dilshan (18 in 22 balls) and Tharanga Paranavitana (18 in 26 balls) at the crease.

Dravid, looking all set to score his sixth double hundred, fell to the 10th ball he faced without any addition to his overnight score. He dragged a ball from Welegedara on to his stumps while trying to drive on the front foot.

In all, the Bangalore stalwart batted for 19 minutes over six hours, faced 261 balls and struck 26 fours and a six.

Dravid’s departure just a quarter hour into day two dashed India’s hopes of taking the score to the 500 mark.

Harbhajan Singh (22), not out 2 last evening, and Zaheer Khan (12) put on a brief stand worth 25 runs, but it was just a matter of time before they fell.

Zaheer, who was felled by a beamer from fast medium bowler Dhammika Prasad after having struck two successive fours with slashes off the right-arm bowler, was trapped leg before when he played back to left arm spinner Rangana Herath.

The pace bowler’s dismissal came soon after India crossed the 400-mark in the 96th over just past the half hour.

Harbhajan, who played some good drives off the pace bowlers, was castled by Muthiah Muralitharan while trying to reverse sweep the wily off spinner who then accounted for last man Ishant Sharma in the same over to bring down curtains on the Indian innings.

Harbhajan’s stay of 83 minutes yielded him two fours in 64 balls. Amit Mishra remained unbeaten on 7.

For Lanka, left armer Welegedara deservedly grabbed the bowling honours, grabbing 4 for 87 – the prized scalps being those of Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Dravid.

Murali, snapped up three for 97, taking two wickets today for seven runs in 23 balls, while Prasad, who was not shy of using bumpers and got a warning for the beamer bowled at Zaheer, picked up 2 for 106. Herath took the remaining wicket.

Lankan openers Dilshan and Paranavitana then prevented the home team from creating an early breakthrough before lunch to leave Lanka 389 runs behind the hosts’ first innings total.

Left arm swing bowler Chanaka Welegedara got the important breakthrough early in the morning by getting rid of the well-set and ominous-looking Rahul Dravid at his overnight score of 177.

The Indian innings folded up an hour and 10 minutes after play commenced today, with the home team losing their remaining four wickets for the addition of 41 runs to their overnight total of 385 for six.

In the remaining time to lunch, Lanka made 37 for no loss in reply with openers Tilekaratne Dilshan (18 in 22 balls) and Tharanga Paranavitana (18 in 26 balls) at the crease.

Dravid, looking all set to score his sixth double hundred, fell to the 10th ball he faced without any addition to his overnight score. He dragged a ball from Welegedara on to his stumps while trying to drive on the front foot.

In all, the Bangalore stalwart batted for 19 minutes over six hours, faced 261 balls and struck 26 fours and a six.

Dravid’s departure just a quarter hour into day two dashed India’s hopes of taking the score to the 500 mark.

Harbhajan Singh (22), not out 2 last evening, and Zaheer Khan (12) put on a brief stand worth 25 runs, but it was just a matter of time before they fell.

Zaheer, who was felled by a beamer from fast medium bowler Dhammika Prasad after having struck two successive fours with slashes off the right-arm bowler, was trapped leg before when he played back to left arm spinner Rangana Herath.

The pace bowler’s dismissal came soon after India crossed the 400-mark in the 96th over just past the half hour.

Harbhajan, who played some good drives off the pace bowlers, was castled by Muthiah Muralitharan while trying to reverse sweep the wily off spinner who then accounted for last man Ishant Sharma in the same over to bring down curtains on the Indian innings.

Harbhajan’s stay of 83 minutes yielded him two fours in 64 balls. Amit Mishra remained unbeaten on 7.

For Lanka, left armer Welegedara deservedly grabbed the bowling honours, grabbing 4 for 87 – the prized scalps being those of Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Dravid.

Murali, snapped up three for 97, taking two wickets today for seven runs in 23 balls, while Prasad, who was not shy of using bumpers and got a warning for the beamer bowled at Zaheer, picked up 2 for 106. Herath took the remaining wicket.

Lankan openers Dilshan and Paranavitana then prevented the home team from creating an early breakthrough before lunch to leave Lanka 389 runs behind the hosts’ first innings total.