The deflating ODI loss behind him, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson Tuesday said he is excited about the prospect of testing unheralded players against a "top" team like India in the T20 series starting Wednesday.
New Zealand have drafted in two debutants -- all-rounder Daryl Mitchell and right-arm pacer Blair Tickner -- in the T20 squad besides all-rounder Scott Kuggeleijen, who has played just one T20 and wicketkeeper Tim Seifert (8 T20s). The Kiwis lost the five-match ODI series 1-4.
Williamson said with Martin Guptill ruled out due to a back injury, some rookie players will be in action in the three-match T20 series against India.
"Martin (Guptill) has been ruled out of the series because of a back injury. We have a different squad altogether with some new faces. We are going to see some debutants throughout the series and it is really exciting," the Kiwi skipper said on the eve of the opening T20.
"It's a positive thing that a number of guys are getting opportunities to have ..

Excited to test NZ's bench strength in T20 series against India: Williamson

PTI Automatic

Bangladesh on Tuesday called up uncapped pace bowler Ebadot Hossain for this month's Test series against New Zealand, replacing the injured Taskin Ahmed.
For the three-match one-day international series that starts in Napier on February 13, Taskin will be replaced by the experienced Safiul Islam.
Taskin has been ruled out of the tour with a torn ligament after he was recalled into both the ODI and Test squads following an impressive show in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) Twenty20 tournament.
He was the competition's leading wicket-taker with 22 scalps until he was hit by injury on Friday.
"We've chosen Ebadot for Test because he bowls hitting the seam. Shafiul will come into the ODI side as he is in fine form in BPL and he is also experienced," said chief selector Minhajul Abedin.
Newly called-up Ebadot was a finding of a talent hunt programme in 2017. The 25-year-old has claimed 59 wickets in 19 first-class matches.
Bangladesh will play three ODIs and three Test matches .

Bangladesh call up uncapped fast bowler for New Zealand

Smarting from a heavy loss in the final one dayer, the Indian women's team will aim for a solid showing in the opening encounter of the three-match T20 series against New Zealand, beginning here Wednesday.
The three-match series, which was part of the Women's ODI Championship, was won by India 2-1 but they suffered an eight-wicket loss at Hamilton on February 1 after being bowled out for 149 at Hamilton.
Harmanpreet Kaur, who did not get to do much in ODIs in which Mithali Raj was captain, will lead the T20 side. It will be India's first game in the format ever since that infamous loss to England at the Word T20 in the Caribbean, where Mithali was dropped for the all-important semifinal.
That decision of the team management triggered a massive controversy and Ramesh Powar was replaced by W V Raman as the head coach.
Questions were raised over Mithali's strike-rate in the shortest format and it remains to be seen how she approaches the series, having played a record 200th ODI at ...

Indian women eyeing another series win in New Zealand

India are among the six countries that have presented bids to host the next edition of the hockey World Cup, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) announced Tuesday.
India have proposed conducting the event for either men or women in the January 13 to 29, 2023 window, which has also been preferred by Australia and New Zealand. India have hosted the men's World Cup thrice, the latest being last year in Bhubaneswar.
Spain, Malaysia and Germany have proposed organising the event in the July 1 to 17, 2022 window.
"Bidding countries had to indicate until the deadline of 31 January 2019 also their preferred time window, either 1-17 July 2022 or 13-29 January 2023," the FIH said in a statement.
FIH will now start the evaluation process of the bids and its Executive Board will make the final decision on both hosts in June this year.
"FIH is glad to have received such strong bids. This confirms how appealing our events are," FIH CEO Thierry Weil said.

India bids to host next hockey World Cup

Cristiano Ronaldo's move from Real Madrid has seen Juventus's popularity rocket in China, up nearly 70 percent by one measure, as top European clubs vie for supremacy in the Asian country.
The Portuguese forward has made his presence felt on the pitch, netting 17 goals in 22 Serie A games to put Juventus well on course to retain their Italian league title.
Ronaldo, who cost Juventus about 110 million euros last summer, was at it again at the weekend, scoring twice before the Turin side were held 3-3 at home by Parma.
Off the pitch, the Portuguese -- who turned 34 on Tuesday -- has made a similarly emphatic impact in China, the world's second-biggest economy and home to a growing number of football supporters.
In the week of Ronaldo's transfer in July last year, Juventus added 308,000 followers across the Twitter-like Weibo, social media and messaging app WeChat, and video app Douyin (known elsewhere as TikTok), the Italian club said.
That popularity has held, Juventus say, its number .

Ronaldo effect: Chinese fans drop Real Madrid for Juventus

They have hit the homestretch of a memorable three-month tour and a rampant India will be fancying another series win when they clash with under pressure hosts New Zealand in the opening T20 International here on Wednesday.
While regular skipper Virat Kohli is getting the much-needed rest, the Rohit Sharma-led squad will be hoping it has enough left in the tank to record a maiden T20 series win in New Zealand, following a record 4-1 result in ODIs and a historic tour of Australia.
"We too are humans and our bodies need a bit of rest. Of course, we would be looking to the win the series and carry the momentum back home for the Australia series," opener Shikhar Dhawan said on the eve of the game.
The preceding ODI series solved a part of the puzzle as India look to finalise their 15 for the World Cup. But there are still a few spots up for grabs and the T20 series can help the team management zero in on the squad for the mega event in England in May-July.
Young wicket-keeper batsman ...

World Cup countdown: Time for Pant to make strong case in New Zealand T20s

India's top singles players Ankita Raina and Karman Kaur Thandi will have to punch above their weight when the battle to qualify for Fed Cup tennis tournament's World Group II, begins here Wednesday.
India have been placed in Pool A where getting past Thailand on Thursday is not expected to be a problem. The real challenge would be to upset hosts Kazakhstan, who have two top-100 singles player, on Friday.
Kazakhstan's world number 43 Yulia Putintseva and Zarina Diyas, ranked 96, won't be easy to beat for the Indian players in their quest to top Pool A.
The winners of Pool A and B, which has four teams, will clash to determine the nation which will qualify for World Group II.
Pool B has China, featuring world number 40 Shuai Zhang and world number 42 Saisai Zheng, along with Korea, Indonesia, and Pacific Oceania.
In all likelihood, China will top Pool B and it will be toss up between India and Kazakhstan in Pool A.
Last year at home in New Delhi, Ankita, in her unbeaten singles ...

Ankita holds key as India aim for Fed Cup World Group II

Isacio Calleja who won two league titles with Atletico Madrid and the 1964 European championships with Spain died on Monday aged 82, his former club announced.
Born in 1936 Calleja joined Atletico in 1958 and the defender remained with the club until his retirement 425 matches later in 1972.
"Today is a sad day for the rojiblanca. Atletico Madrid is in mourning after the death of our ex player Isacio Calleja" the club announced on their website.

Atletico's Isacio Calleja dies aged 82

Liverpool wasted another chance to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League as a sub-par performance from Jurgen Klopp's men was punished in a 1-1 draw at West Ham on Monday.
Less than a week after missing the opportunity to go seven points clear of Manchester City with a 1-1 draw against Leicester, Liverpool's lead is now just three over the champions, who can now go top with victory at Everton on Wednesday.
Sadio Mane put the visitors in front at the London Stadium, but Michail Antonio quickly levelled and West Ham had the better chances to claim all three points when Declan Rice and Mark Noble failed to hit the target.
After posting a perfect record against opposition with the top six in their first 23 league games, Liverpool have now slipped up twice in as many matches to mount the tension in their chase for a first title in 29 years.
Klopp's side looked like a side playing under pressure in a lacklustre display as the absence of the injured Jordan Henderson, Georginio ..

Lacklustre Liverpool slip up again at West Ham

Neymar celebrated his 27th birthday with a glittering party in Paris on Monday evening joined by family, Paris Saint-Germain teammates and a smattering of celebrities.
DJ Bob Sinclair, Brazilian singer Wesley Safadao and world surf champion Gabriel Medina were among the 200 guests at the fashionable Pavillon Gabriel near the Champs-Elysees.
The world's most expensive footballer, nursing a right foot injury, greeted his guests leaning on distinctive red crutches in keeping with the colour theme for the 'Nuit Rouge (Red Night)'.
Among his club colleagues in attendance were captain Thiago Silva and goalkeeper Alphonse Areola.
Neymar, who turns 27 on Tuesday, will miss both legs of Paris Saint-Germain's upcoming Champions League last-16 tie against Manchester United with a metatarsal injury suffered last month.

Neymar celebrates birthday in style and on crutches

Much has changed at Manchester City in the three seasons since Pep Guardiola took charge tasked with turning the wealth of the club's Abu Dhabi backers into domination of English football.
However, if Guardiola's men are to reel in Liverpool to become the first side in a decade to retain the Premier League, Sergio Aguero is likely to be the primary source of goals just as the Argentine has been for the past seven seasons.
Aguero was a City legend from the moment he won the club's first title in 44 years with virtually the last kick of the campaign in his debut season.
But the 30-year-old is now staking a claim to be regarded as one of the Premier League's greatest ever imports, particularly if he spearheads a fourth title triumph in eight years in England.
Already firmly established as City's all-time leading scorer, Aguero's hat-trick in Sunday's 3-1 win over Arsenal was his 14th for the club, his 10th in the league - just one short of Alan Shearer's all-time record.
It also took his 

Aguero still Man City's go-to goal getter

British sports minister Mims Davies has said she plans to meet with football authorities following recent incidents of racist chanting and abuse at major matches.
Davies, speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, said she planned to hold talks in the coming weeks with England's governing Football Association, Premier League and English Football League.
Campaign groups including Kick it Out and Stonewall will also be invited to discuss what else can be done to clamp down on racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic abuse at matches.
In December, Chelsea suspended four people from their Stamford Bridge ground in west London pending a police investigation into alleged racial abuse of Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling during City's 2-0 defeat in a Premier League match.
The same month saw a Tottenham Hotspur fan fined by a court for throwing a banana skin at Arsenal's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Meanwhile the FA are investigating alleged racist chanting by some Millwall supporters during .

British sports minister to meet with football officials over racism

A talent scouting and development  initiative to nurture future kabaddi stars was announced  Monday by organisers of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL).
The PKL organisers, Mashal Sports Pvt Ltd, announced  the programme titled Future Kabaddi Heroes (FKH) 2019, which  is divided into three phases, a media release said.
In the first phase, the programme will be conducted  across 11 cities, commencing on February 5 in Mumbai. The  other locations are Patna, Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad,  Delhi, Lucknow, Nagpur, Guwahati, Bengaluru and Jaipur.
Launching the third edition of the programme, Anupam  Goswami, League Commissioner, PKL, said, "With the FKH  programme, our aim is to identify promising talent and build  successive generations of higher quality kabaddi players."
Former Indian captain Anup Kumar praised the  initiative.
He said, "This is a unique initiative that serves as a  strong base for young kabaddi players to move towards their  dream of playing the sport at a professional ...

Future Kabaddi Heroes' programme announced

Black Hawks Hyderabad beat Ahmedabad Defenders 3-2 in a keenly-contested match on the third day of the Pro Volleyball League here on Monday.
The Hyderabad side won 15-11, 13-15, 15-11, 14-15, 15-9 in the match played at Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium here.
Skipper Carson Clark led from the front with 15 points (12 spikes, 1 block and 2 serves) in his side's victory.
For the Ahmedabad team, Russian Victor Sysoev scored 12 points (11 spikes and 1 block).
Hyderabad won the toss and decided to receive and broke Ahmedabad's serve pretty easily. But both sides looked rusty, gifting points on errors.
At the first Technical Time Out (TTO), Hyderabad took a two-point lead as scoreboard read 8-6.
Coming back after the TTO, Hyderabad called for a Super Point but wasted the opportunity and Ahmedabad got the two points via Novika Bjelica's spike, levelling the score at 8-8.
A Super Serve from Dilip Koiwal gave Ahmedabad a 11-10 lead and to press advantage, they immediately called for a Super Point ...

Black Hawks Hyderabad beat Ahmedabad Defenders in PVL

Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra and Services shared the spoils with two freestyle gold apiece on the final day of competitions in the Junior National Wrestling Championship here on Monday.
For Delhi, Sumit Gulia (86kg) and Anirudh (125kg) won a gold each while Vishal Kaliraman (70kg) and Viaks (65kg) bagged a yellow metal apiece for Haryana.
For Maharashtra, Vijay (57kg) and Harshad (97kg) took a gold each while Akash Dahiya (61kg) and Viky (92kg) finished on top of podium for Services.
Bouts in all 10 weight categories were held on Monday.
In the team championship, Haryana stood first with 190 points, followed by Delhi (150 points) and Services (124 points).

Four states share spoils in Junior National Wrestling

Three Indians, N Vijay Sundar Prashanth, Arjun Khade and Sumit Nagal advanced to the second round of men's singles main draw of the Chennai Open ATP Challenger 80 tennis tournament, here Monday.
Wild card entrant and local player Vijay Sundar Prashanth stole the show with a
6-2 2-6 6-2 win over Carlos Boluda-Purkiss of Spain in three sets.
He started in flamboyant fashion, stroking smoothly on both flanks and served with precision, breaking his rival twice in the first set to run out an easy winner.
In the second set, the Spaniard improved his first serve percentage and held his serve despite facing six break points. The Indian appeared to lose concentration and lost two of his service games to let Boluda-Purkiss take the set 6-2.
In the decider, Prashanth found his form and took advantage of his opponent's short returns by moving forward and putting away crisp volleys. From 2-all he took the next four games to seal a second round berth against compatriot and 11th-seed Saket ...

3 Indians progress to second round of qualifiers in Chennai Open ATP Challenger

Board President XI registered a 152-run win over England Lions on the second and final day of the warm-up match here Monday, ahead of the two-match unofficial Test series.
Set 235 to win, the visiting side finished at 83 for 2 in 30 overs.
Board President XI made 246 for 6 in 59.3 overs in their second innings riding on half-centuries by captain Ishan Kishan (55 not out) and Ricky Bhui (51 retired hurt). Danny Briggs was the most successful bowler for the Lions with 2 for 40.
Bhui was involved in a 81-run partnership with Akshat Reddy (49) to steady the BP XI innings after the fall of Delhi batsman Dhruv Shorey (16) to Jamie Overton.
Ishan Kishan followed up his first innings score of 40 not out with an enterprising 55-ball 55 which included 5 fours and 4 sixes.
In their second innings, the Lions lost Test discard Ben Duckett for 9, lbw to Aniket Choudhary.
Steven Mullaney made only 2 runs but skipper Sam Billings (36 not out) and Will Jacks (21 not out) played out the rest of the ...

Board President XI beat England Lions in warm-up match

Services Sports Control Board (SSCB), Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Canara Bank on Monday registered crucial wins in their respective pool matches to stay in contention for a quarterfinal berth at the ninth Hockey India Senior Men National Championship (Division A) here.
In a pool A match SSCB defeated Association of Indian Universities 5-1, while
Haryana eked out a close 2-1 win over Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in pool B.
Uttar Pradesh defeated Punjab National Bank (PNB) 1-0 in pool C, while Canara Bank beat Namdhari XI 3-1 in pool D.
With just one more day of round robin matches left, defending champions Punjab continue to lead pool A with SSCB in second spot.
In pool B, Petroleum Sports Control Board remained unbeaten to lead the chart while Haryana stands a close second, while Railway Sports Promotion Board is atop poll C ahead of Uttar Pradesh Hockey.
In pool D, Air India Sports Promotion Board is at the top ahead of Karnataka.

SSCB, Haryana, UP register wins to stay afloat

Former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum has decided to retire from Big Bash League after playing his last game on Friday to start the transition into a coaching career.
The 37-year-old explosive batsman and wicketkeeper, who retired from international cricket in 2016, will play his last BBL match for out-of-title contention Brisbane Heat in their season-ending game against Melbourne Stars at the Gabba.
McCullum, who has been with Brisbane Heat since the BBL inaugural year of 2011, will not take up his contract option to return for next season.
The big-hitting New Zealander, who has belted 920 runs and five 50s in 34 matches for Brisbane Heat since making his debut, said he will continue to play T20 cricket in other countries this year.
"I will continue to play T20 cricket in 2019 in various competitions around the world and will then look to transition into a coaching career," McCullum said in a statement.
"The prospect of being able to transfer the skills, experience and ...

McCullum to retire from Big Bash T20 after playing for 8 years

In football, there are certain goals scored through set-pieces which are known to be straight out of the drawing board and Cheteshwar Pujara's dismissal on Monday could well be called a cricketing equivalent where Chandrakant Pandit was the master planner.
One of the shrewdest tacticians in domestic circuit, Pandit has tons of experience in orchestrating big wins for domestic heavyweights like Mumbai and he ensured that his men studied chinks in India star's armoury.
That Pujara remains tentative at the beginning of the innings is a well known fact and Vidarbha bowlers' only aim was to see that he is not allowed to dig his heels in order to score a 'Daddy Hundred'.
Left-arm spinner Aditya Sarwate, who claimed the biggest prize of his career, revealed that they had kept an eye on Pujara during the Australia series and had found one 'weakness' to exploit.
Sarwate, who has 131 first-class wickets to his credit, declared without hesitation that today he has got his career's biggest wicket 

Lessons from a 'Pandit': How Vidarbha plotted Pujara's fall in first innings

Royal Challengers Bengaluru have kickstarted their five-day conditioning camp primarily with eight of its domestic players including 16-year-old Bengal prodigy Prayas Ray Burman and Ranji Trophy's top run-getter Milind Kumar.
Eight players have already joined the camp which also includes Uttar Pradesh captain Akshdeep Nath, Mumbai all-rounder Shivam Dubey, talented Delhi batsman Himmat Singh and seamer Kulwant Khejroliya, Tamil Nadu's Washington Sundar and Devdutt Paddikal from Karnataka.
The two coaches Gary Kirsten and Ashish Nehra will be monitoring the progress of the players and a Yo-Yo test will also be conducted to get a hang of their fitness.

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