The defeat to Chinese Taipei followed a 0-3 loss to Vietnam and a 0-7 drubbing to North Korea, a release from the All India Football Federation said.

The Indian eves notched up their only success against last-placed Malaysia 3-0, with Manipur's Tababi scoring a brace and Bengal's Sujata Kar netting once.

EB pip Jagarani CALCUTTA: East Bengal opened their campaign with a 1-0 victory over Badda Jagarani of Bangladesh in a Group B league match of the 105th IFA Shield football tournament. Saroj Das struck the match winner.

Safin for Chennai
CHENNAI: Marat Mikhailovich Safin, the 19-year old Russian ranked No 26 in the world, became the latest entrant to the ATP Gold Flake Open tennis tournament to be held here from January 3-9, according to apress release from the promoters.

Bowlers rattle T&T
NEW DELHI: India A bowlers Amit Bhandari and Rahul Sanghvi had Trinidad and Tobago tottering at 123-6 on the third day of the rain-marred four-day cricket match in Port of Spain.
Bhandari finished with 2-33 while Sanghvi took 2-22.

Kapil's gesture
NEW DELHI: Coach Kapil Dev kept an old promise when he handed skipper Sachin Tendulkar Rs 1000 on completing 10 years of international cricketing career. But Tendulkar, who touched the mark on Monday, said he had to remind Dev about the promise made years ago.

BSF retain title
JALANDHAR: Border Security Force retained the Surjit Hockey Memorial Trophy defeating Punjab and Sind Bank 3-2 via tie-breaker after being locked 1-1.

Cuba beat Russia
NAGOYA: Cuba beat Russia to win the World Cup women's volleyball tournament for the fourth time in a row. The Cuban women scored a 25-19 25-15 25-19 victory.

Kazakh pulls out
kuala lumpur: India will have an easypath to the semi-finals of the Asia Cup hockey tournament with Kazakhstan pulling out of the event citing financial constraints. Pool A is now left with four nations India, Japan, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
Pakistan, placed in Pool B, will have stiff competition from South Korea. China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka are the other teams in Pool B.

--ENS and Agencies