Divij Sharan and Purav Raja's campaign ended at the Guadalajara ATP Challenger event in Mexico with a straight set semifinal defeat at the hands of giant-killing pair of Marin Draganja and Mate Pavic.
     The Indians fought hard before losing 6-7(2) 4-6 to the Croatian team in the close contest of the USD 1,00,00 hard court event.
     The Indians split USD 2,160 as prize money and earned 35 ranking points each, which will be good enough to bring Divij back in the top-100 bracket.
     The left-handed Divij is currently ranked 102.
     The Croatia pair, which had shocked the top seeds earlier, fired as many as 10 aces while the Indian players could manage four.
    The only time Indians came closing to breaking the rivals was in the third game of the second set but the Croats escaped with an ace.
     In the next game, Indians were broken and that lead stayed with their rivals, who easily held to clinch the issue.
     Divij and Purav play their last tournament in Mexico at Mexico ..

Divij, Purav knocked out of ATP Challenger event in Mexico

PTI Automatic

Both the Sahara Force drivers missed out on Q3 in the qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix as Paul di Resta will begin the race from 11th place while Adrian Sutil from 13th, here.
     Di Resta marginally improved his timing in Q2 but his best lap of 1:36.287 could not get him into top-10 shootout.
     Sutil also improved on his Q1 timing but his fastest lap in 1:36.405 was good enough for 13th spot on grid.
     Lewis Hamilton won his first pole position with Mercedes and joining him in the front row was Kimi Raikkonen in his Lotus.
     Di Resta said his position on the grid was not bad and scoring point was a good possibility.
     "I think P11 is a reasonable result considering the difficulties we had during final practice where our performance level dropped away. The changes we made ahead of qualifying improved things and in the end I just missed out on making Q3.
     "I don't think that will make much difference tomorrow because it's going to be a race all about making the ...

No Force India driver in top-10 in qualifying for Chinese GP

Seeking to climb up the ladder, Pune FC have got a tricky job on hand as they face hosts ONGC who have not lost a home game in the past five months, in a 24th round I-League encounter here tomorrow.
     Pune are now placed fourth in the points table with 37 points from 21 matches, 10 points behind leaders Churchill Brothers who have played a game extra.
     ONGC are currently placed seventh with 30 points from 23 matches. But what has brought the I-League side into limelight is their remarkable form at home. ONGC have not lost a game since being beaten by Air India 2-4 last November.
     Prayag United are third playing three matches more and having 38 points from their 24, while East Bengal are sitting second with 42 in their kitty from 24 outings.
     Pune coach Derrick Pereira felt his side is still in the recokoning.
     "Mathematically we are still in the hunt. That stays the motivation for the boys. We are all professionals and are here to get the best result. So I am ...

Pune FC face ONGC in I-League

A day after the ghost of 2008 'Slapgate' tumbled out, controversial fast bowler S Sreesanth today sought divine blessings by visiting the Sai Baba shrine in Shirdi, Maharashtra.
     Sreesanth, yesterday, revealed that all the 'Slapgate' claims were far from truth as he was never slapped by his then India teammate Harbhajan Singh. Instead, Sreesanth said that he was elbowed by the senior off-spinner.
     Sreesanth said he wants to move forward and won't speak more on the issue.
      "I dont want to say anything more as I am playing in IPL. I just shared my feelings and came here to do the same. I want to do well in the matches ahead. I want to work hard to make a comeback to Indian side for the South Africa tour," he told reporters outside the shrine.
     Before speaking to media, Sreesanth wrote about his visit to Shirdi on his twitter page.
     "Om Sai ram..Had a gr8 darshan @shirdi ..It's all gods grace," he wrote.

Sreesanth seeks solace in Shirdi after another controversy

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has again invited representatives of the suspended IOA and Sports Ministry for a meeting in Lausanne on May 7 in yet another attempt to find a way for India's return to the Olympic movement even as the stand-off between the government and sport body persisted.
     After the joint meeting, which was earlier scheduled to be held in Lausanne on April 15 and 16, was postponed for the second time in two months last week due to the stand-off between the IOA and the government, the Indian Olympic Association acting chief V K Malhotra had sought directions from its world parent body on how to resolve the matter.
     Responding to Malhotra's request, IOC's National Olympic Committee relations director Pere Miro, in his letter to IOA said, "It is very surprising that you request our guidance as to what action you should take since we have made it clear since January this year that the only way to find a solution is for all parties to meet, discuss and 

IOC again invites IOA, Sports Ministry for meeting on May 7

As Delhi Daredevils slipped to their fourth successive defeat in the ongoing Pepsi Indian Premier League, left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem admitted that the team's losing streak is a "cause of concern".
     "We lost four games and it is a case of concern. But T20 is a funny game, three out of the four games we fought hard and easily could have won them. We need to return to winning ways if we have to qualify for the knockout stage," Nadeem, who took two for 17, told reporters at the post-match press conference here last night.
     The Daredevils lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by three wickets in a low-scoring affair.
     Nadeem feels that the Delhi outfit need to get their act together quickly and come out with improved show in their remaining 12 matches.
     "We have a good batting side but unfortunately we are not performing with the bat. But we have got the potential. We need to pull up our socks. I hope in the next couple of games you will see us doing well," he insisted.
     ...

Losing streak is cause of concern for us: DD spinner Nadeem

Pakistan cricketers Shoaib Malik and Imran Nazir today displayed their dancing skills as they grooved to the theme song of the Indian Premier League (IPL) choreographed by Farah Khan.
     Malik and Nazir thrilled audiences while appearing in a television show for a special IPL transmission.
     'Geo Super' is the only Pakistani channel broadcasting the IPL matches live.
     Malik performed the 'Jumping Japhang' dance steps while also celebrating his third wedding anniversary with Indian tennis star, Sania Mirza. Nazir had done the same in an earlier show.
     Malik spoke about how he and his wife manage when they are not together on such occasions.
     "It is not easy but we manage to keep in constant touch over telephone. She has called me up twice today," Malik said.
     The former Pakistan captain said that since both had demanding sporting schedules, they had learnt to manage.
     He said he was planning to travel to India to support the Pune Warriors side alongside his ...

Malik, Nazir dance to IPL's theme song

Delhi Daredevils put up a spineless batting show as they posted a meagre 114 for eight against Sunrisers Hyderabad in their Pepsi Indian Premier League (IPL) match here today.
     Hyderabad played to their strength, with the disciplined bowling attack piling on the misery on the Delhi batsmen, who have been struggling since the beginning of the tournament.
     Delhi must have expected an inspiring start from Virender Sehwag after electing to bat but the out-of-favour India opener could not help the side, looking for its first win after three defeats.
     His contribution was just 12 runs as Delhi top-order failed again. Kumar Sangakkara was smart in his captaincy as he shuffled his bowlers intelligently, never allowing Delhi batsmen to pay freely on a wicket that has uneven bounce.
     Hyderabad bowlers, led by the lethal South African paceman, Dale Steyn, kept jolting the hosts with regular wickets by keeping a tight line and not giving any leeway. The fielders too supported them 

No end to Delhi's misery, manage 114/8 against Hyderabad

Electing to bat, Delhi Daredevils scored 114 for eight against Sunrisers Hyderabad in their Indian Premier League match at the Feroz Shah Kotla, here today.
     Brief scores:
     Delhi Daredevils: 114 for 8 in 20 overs (Kedar Jadhav 30, Irfan Pathan 23; Dale Steyn 2/11).

Daredevils post 114/8 against Sunrisers

India's Smriti Mehra missed the cut even as Japanese professionals Yumika Adachi and Orie Fujino moved into first and second places after the second round of the USD 200,000 Yumeya Dream Cup at the Hirao Country Club here today.
     Smriti, who shot 80 on first day, scored 77 in the second and missed the cut by five shots.
     Adachi was taking the lead going into the final round for the first time after the 26-year-old from Kyoto signed out with a 3-under 69 to take a three-shot lead.
     Making birdies on the first, third, sixth and three consecutively beginning with the 14th, Adachi said her only blemish was on the greens.
     She dropped strokes on the fifth, 12th and 18th for her 69 today and a two-round total of 141.
     Sitting on tied third are two Chinese Taipei players, Tsai Pei-Ying and Liu Babe, on 145.

Smriti misses cut, Japanese take top two places in Nagoya

Former Zimbabwean batsman, Grant Flower has emerged as a strong candidate for the post of the Pakistan cricket team's batting consultant before the ICC Champions Trophy in England.
     Official sources in the Pakistan Cricket Board said today that Flower was among a few candidates who had been shortlisted for the batting coach/consultant position.
     "The PCB coaching committee has shortlisted a few candidates who had applied for the batting coach position," a source said.
     "It is true that the board has contacted Grant and discussed few things with him," the source added.
     Flower, who played 66 Tests and 221 One-day Internationals, is the brother of Andy Flower, who is presently the head coach of the England team.
     Flower, who once scored a double hundred against Pakistan in a Test match, is currently working with the Zimbabwe team as batting coach.
     "Grant is a serious candidate as the board has also fast tracked its process to appoint a batting coach/consultant ..

Flower in reckoning to become Pakistan's batting consultant

Rahil Gangjee dropped two crucial bogeys in the last three holes but still moved into contention after a three-under 69 at the end of the second round of the Solaire Open here today.
     Gangjee, trying to find his way back into the Asian Tour after missing his card in Web.Com Tour, moved into the top-10 at tied ninth.
     At 144 he was par for two rounds and only two shots behind the foursome leading the field at two-under in a low-scoring event at the Wack Wack course, which is proving to be tough for scoring.
     Gangjee was one of the four Indians to make the cut, with Abhinav Lohan riding a birdie spree of four in a row from 15th to 18th. He carded 71 and totalled three-over 147 in tied 29th place. Sujjan Singh rallied from a first round 79 to card 71 in second and at six-over, he was tied 53rd.
     Also making the cut was Himmat Rai, who shot 33 with five birdies and one double on front nine and then went to 43 on back nine.
     He is tied 64th at seven-over. Missing the ...

Gangjee in top-10, two shots behind leaders

Claiming that he has got the only copy of 'slapgate' video, former IPL Chairman Lalit Modi today claimed that the BCCI had not made the footage of the incident public on the suggestion of vice-president Arun Jaitley and said he would now consider releasing it.
     "The idea of not releasing the vid in public was Arun Jaitley's at that time. We accepted wht he said. But let me re-examine its release now," Modi wrote on his 'Twitter' page.
     "Yes I have the only copy of slap gate video. Will examine whether to release or not in the next few weeks."
     Five years after the infamous 'slapgate', S Sreesanth, today made an explosive claim, saying the entire incident was pre-planned and that his former India teammate Harbhajan Singh was a "backstabbing person".
     Sreesanth, who is currently playing for Rajasthan Royals, claimed that he was not all at fault in the incident and the real video, which has never been released till now, would show his version. He demanded that the ...

Modi says he will consider releasing 'slapgate' video

Actress Sushmita Sen today dismissed reports as "absolute rubbish", suggesting that she is planning to tie the knot with Pakistani cricketer Wasim Akram.
	Earlier some reports alleged that the duo are planning to get married after seeing each other for a couple of years.
	But the 37-year-old actress took to micro-blogging site Twitter to clarify the news, saying she is just good friends with 46-year-old Akram.
	"Hi guys! Been reading about my upcoming wedding with Wasim... Absolute Rubbish. Goes to show just how irresponsible media can be sometimes.
	"Wasim Akram is a friend and will always be one!! He has a wonderful lady in his life... Rumours like these are uncalled for and disrespectful," Sushmita said.
	The former Miss Universe, who is a single parent to two adopted daughters Renee and Alisah, also said she will disclose when she gets married.
	"My beautiful people... When I find 'The One'... You'll be the first to know. Benefits of being my twitter family!!".

Sushmita Sen not marrying Wasim Akram

Hosts Haryana and Delhi entered the semi-finals of the 3rd Hockey India Sub-Junior Women's National Championship (North Zone) here today.
     Haryana made the cut from Pool A after defeating Delhi 8-1.
     Devika scored two goals and Ritu, Reet, Navpreet, Manpreet Kaur, Navneet Kaur and Manisha scored one each for Haryana while Manisha scored Delhi's only goal.
     Delhi also entered the semi-finals from Pool A. In another match, Uttar Pardesh defeated Punjab 4-1 in Pool B.
     In the men's sub-junior meet (North Zone), Punjab defeated Jammu & Kashmir 12-0 in a Pool B game.
     Kawaljit Singh scored seven goals for Punjab followed by Shubkarman (3) and Inderjit Singh (2). In another Pool B game, hosts Haryana beat Himachal Pradesh 5-2.
     In a Pool A match, Uttar Pradesh defeated Himachal Pradesh 4-1.
     In the women's west zone meet, Chhattisgarh registered a huge 21-0 victory over Gujarat .
     Rusali Kashyap scored seven goals followed by Disha Nagvanshi (6), Heena ...

Haryana and Delhi enter semi-finals

Delhi Daredevils have won the toss and elected to bat first against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL match, at the Feroz Shah Kotla here.
     For Daredevils, Virender Sehwag will make his first appearance in this season.
     Squads:
	Delhi Daredevils: Mahela Jayawardene (Capt), Virender Sehwag, David Warner, Johan Botha, Manprit Juneja, Kedar Jadhav (wk), Irfan Pathan, Morne Morkel, Siddarth Kaul, Shahbaz Nadeem, Umesh Yadav.
     Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kumar Sangakkara (Capt), Akshath Reddy, Parthiv Patel (wk), Cameron White, Thisara Perera, Hanuma Vihari, Ashish Reddy, Amit Mishra, Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharma, Anand Rajan.

Jayawardene wins toss, elects to bat

Divij Sharan and Purav Raja made a spectacular comeback to shock third seeds Rajeev Ram and Benjamin Becker and storm into the semifinals of the ATP Challenger event in Guadalajara, Mexico here today.
     The unseeded Indian pair upset the American-German combo 6-4 3-6 10-8 in the quarter-finals contest, which lasted one hour and 10 minutes.
     Divij and Purav were broken in the very first game of the match and were down 0-3 but went on to win six out of the next seven games to pocket the first set.
     They broke Rajeev's serve at 1-3 and Benjamin's serve at 4-all.
     In the second set they were broken at 3-4 and the rivals forced a match tie-breaker, which they won to reach the last-four pairs stage.
     Becker had got the better of Andre Agassi in his last match of his career at the US Open. His current ranking is 95 in singles with a career best of 38.
     The Garman was ranked as high as 58 in doubles in 2010.
     Rajeev, who formed a team with India's Rohan Bopanna ...

Divij-Purav upset Rajeev-Becker to make semis

The Indian cricket team will play three Tests, seven One-day Internationals and two Twenty20 matches during their tour of South Africa, slated to start at the end of this year.
     Cricket South Africa and the Indian Cricket Board were contemplating accommodating one more Test but things could not materialise as both boards decided to stick to ICC's Futures Tour Programme (FTP)
     The Indian team will be short on Test cricket when they take on the world number one side, playing the first longer-version game since the 4-0 whitewash of the Australians at home in March.
     South Africa last played the format in February and will only meet Pakistan for two matches in the UAE before hosting India.
     Durban, Cape Town, Johannesburg or Centurion could be the three possible venues for the Test series.
     There is a possibility of the Boxing Day Test returning to Durban after it was cancelled previous season because CSA opted to play three festive T20s instead.
     India drew their .

India to play 3 Tests, 7 ODIs and 2 T20s against South Africa

Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming expects his side to match Royal Challengers Bangalore in batting prowess in their IPL match here tomorrow and said he has a weapon in off-spinner R Ashwin to unleash against dangerous Chris Gayle.
     "May be it will be a high scoring game with the quality of hitters on show, and certainly with Gayle and Kohli in form you will expect them to fancy their chances of getting a big score. We are going to be equal to them," Fleming said.
     "We started poorly, so we have to come to grips with the conditions. We certainly did not bat well last time here (against Mumbai Indians). We batted very well and responded to self criticism from me, and Vijay and Hussey did very well (in the second game against Kings XI Punjab). And that is going to continue," he said at the pre-match press conference.
     On being reminded that Gayle and his captain Virat Kohli have not delivered against CSK at the Chepauk, Fleming said, "I would hope it (poor form in ...

CSK have firepower to match RCB in batting prowess: Fleming

Pune Warriors leg-spinner Rahul Sharma today said his team is particularly trying to bowl well from the period between the 16th to 20th overs in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL).
     "We are hoping to bowl well as a team between the 16th and 20th overs, since that is important. However, we bowled well in all three matches, but our batting had not clicked until today. So, if we do well in that area, it will be good," Sharma said.
     Sharma returned impressive figures of two for 16 in Warriors' win over Rajasthan Royals last night.
     "It feels really great when you win a match. We have a good side and it takes a while to gel, since we have a new captain, and a lot has changed for us this year -- Angelo is the captain, Yuvi Paaji is back and Ross Taylor's in the side," said Sharma.
     The leg-spinner said efforts are on to raise the energy levels on the field.
     "We had spoken (before the game) that we are going to keep the energy high. And that was a plus point today, .

We are hoping to bowl well between 16th to 20th overs: Rahul

The third edition of the Jammu Marathon 'Run for Fun' will be held here on April 21.
 	The marathon programme, which will feature a 4km run, half marathon and marathon events, besides a 12km run for boys and girls below the age of 17 years, will be held here on April 21, Additional Director General, Armed Police, S M Sahai told reporters.
	He added that the prize purse for this year's marathon events has been increased to Rs 3 lakh from previous year's Rs 90,000.
	While the top athlete in the Marathon will get a sum of Rs 25,000, the winner in the half-marathon will fetch an amount of Rs 10,000.
	The winner in the 12km race will get a sum of Rs 8,000.
	The ADGP added that the athletes from the paramilitary forces and J&K Police who secure first five positions in marathon and half-marathon will be awarded Commendation Certificate with suitable cash award.

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