Page 302 - Sports
Prannoy crashes out from NZ Open, India's campaign ends
H S Prannoy fought valiantly before losing to fifth seed Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan in the men's singles quarterfinal, drawing curtains on India's campaign at the New Zealand Open badminton tournament, here Friday. Unseeded Prannoy squandered a one-game advantage before losing 21-17 15-21 14-21 to world number 11 Japanese shuttler in a marathon last-eight round match which lasted an hour and 13 minutes. The two shuttlers now enjoy a 1-1 head-to-head record against each other. The first game witnessed a close fight between Prannoy and Tsuneyama as both matched each other stroke for stroke till the first 13 points before the Indian pocketed four straight points to surge ahead 17-13. The Japanese didn't give up and reduced the gap to 17-18 before Prannoy secured three points on the trot to take the first game. Prannoy raced to a 4-0 lead in the second game soon before extending it to 11-5. But then the Indian hit a roadblock and committed unforced errors to give his opponent a leeway and ..
Smith and Warner are going to face challenges, says Langer
Australia coach Justin Langer said there are going to be some challenges for both Steve Smith and David Warner, who are now back with the national side after serving their year-long ban."There is no tension. They're back in the team now. There's been a big build up to it. It's been a bit like facing fast bowling, you worry about it until you get out there and it's not as bad you thought it was," International Cricket Council (ICC) quoted Langer as saying."There are certainly going to be challenges for both of them, though. When you've come from a titled position of captain, there's going to be a certain degree of humility that comes with that. But one of our really strong values is humility, so it will be a great opportunity for them to develop that," he added.Langer also opined that although the team celebrated the successes they had in the past, it has nothing to do with how they are going to play in this premier tournament."We saw some sad vision 12 months ago to some really ...
De Gea will start at Huddersfield: Solskjaer
Under-fire Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea will start at Huddersfield on Sunday, manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has confirmed.
Disappointing day for Lahiri, McIlroy turns average round into a leading one
It was a very disappointing day for Anirban Lahiri as he ended with an eight-over 79 that left him with little hope of getting into the weekend at the Wells Fargo Championship. He was at the bottom of the leaderboard where the cut is likely at one or two-over. On a scoreboard pockmarked with bogeys, he had two birdies, one on each side of the Quail Hollow, where he missed the cut last year and finished T-41 in 2016. Lahiri hit just seven of 18 greens in regulation and time and again visited the bunkers and even went into water twice. His short game was also way below his normal one as he missed a lot of putts, too. Yet, one of his two birdies ironically was from 21 feet, but otherwise it was a day to forget in a hurry. Rory McIlroy and Joel Dahmen are tied for the lead at 5 under with Dylan Frittelli, Nick Taylor, Patrick Reed, Martin Laird, and Adam Schenk tied for 3rd at four-under. McIlroy is coming off T-21 at the Masters, which has been his only finish outside of the Top-10 this .
Hyderabad eye play-off berth against Bangalore (Preview)
Bottom-placed Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will look to salvage pride while Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will aim to seal the final play-off berth when the two sides square-off for one final time in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Saturday.
AITA sleeps over TOPS funding for singles players; Bopanna, Sharan too could face axe
The national tennis federation has not sought re-inclusion of country's top singles players in the TOP Scheme since the Asian Games and even doubles specialists, Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan, run the risk of missing out on funding following their split. At the moment, 71 athletes across disciplines are getting financial support through Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) and Bopanna and Sharan are the only tennis players in the list. They had joined forces at the beginning of the season, keeping in mind Tokyo Olympics, but patchy results forced them to look for different partners. Now the government has asked All India Tennis Association (AITA) to explain the split and the federation in return has asked Bopanna to justify the decision. Country's top singles players -- Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Ankita Raina -- are not part of TOPS as their names were struck off after the Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games, where they won a bronze medal each. Interestingly, the AITA has not taken any ...
Barca midfielder Xavi Harnandez announces retirement
Barcelona midfielder Xavi Harnandez has announced that the 2018/19 season will be his final one as a professional footballer.
Will continue to do my best: Bajrang Punia
Bajrang Punia, who won the gold medal at the Ali Aliev invitational tournament, has assured his fans that he will continue to do his best to live up to the nation's expectations in the tournaments to come.
Nihal Sarin targets 2600 in Malmo
Fourteen-year-old Grandmaster Nihal Sarin is training his sight to become the youngest Indian to break the 2600 rating barrier from the TePe Sigeman & Co International tournament, beginning here on Friday. Nihal goes into the tournament with a live rating of 2598, hoping to break the Indian record set by Parimarjan Negi almost a decade back in 2009. Negi had then become the youngest Indian to have broken the barrier, at the age of 15 years 11 months. Crossing the mark will make Nihal currently the youngest player in the world to do so. The tournament will have eight players with an average rating of 2663, making it a Category 17 tournament, according to FIDE. The field is led by the India No. 2 GM Pentala Harikrishna. Having just finished second in the Shenzen Masters, Harikrishna will be a front runner for the title here having recovered from a patchy stretch that he suffered recently. Going into the Sigeman tournament, the Indian Super Grandmaster will look forward to break free
Kagiso Rabada ruled out of remaining IPL
Fast-bowler Kagiso Rabada has been ruled out of the remaining 12th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) due to a back injury.The 23-year-old had missed Delhi Capitals' (DC) clash against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on May 1 with a possibility of back niggle. As a precautionary measure, Delhi rested him. But now he will head back home to nurse the injury ahead of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2019, ICC reported.Rabada expressed disappointment over the injury, however, said, "It is indeed very hard for me to leave the Delhi Capitals at this stage of the tournament. But with the World Cup just a month away, a collective decision has been made for me in this regard. It has been a tremendous season for me with the Delhi Capitals, both on and off the field, and I truly believe that our team can win the trophy."The South African right-arm bowler is the leading wicket-taker of the 12th season, with 25 wickets in 12 games at an average of 14.72. Effective in the death overs, Rabada had ..
Breakdown of Trust led to Hales' axing: Morgan
Ashley Giles, England's director of men's cricket, said the revelation of media report regarding Alex Hales failing a second recreational drugs test led to his axing from the World Cup squad.
Bhuvneshwar will rise to challenge in WC: Madan Lal
Bhuvneshwar Kumar is expected to be an integral part of the Indian attack when Virat Kohli and his boys land in England for the 2019 World Cup. But the 29-year-old has not been able to deliver as consistently as he would have liked for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in this edition of the Indian Premier League.
India drop to 5th spot in T20I rankings
India on Friday dropped three places to be the fifth-ranked team in T20Is.
We responded well in pressure situations in this season, Rohit Sharma after qualifying for IPL playoffs
Mumbai Indians responded well in the pressure situations in this season of Indian Premier League (IPL) which helped them qualify into the IPL playoffs, said skipper Rohit Sharma."What we have done well in this season is that we have responded well to the pressure situations. We won lot of the games because we handled the pressure really well," Sharma said during the post-match press conference here on Thursday.Sharma also opined that performance from the entire squad is required if a team wants to win a tournament and they do not rely on just one or two individuals."Another important aspect of our team is that many guys have taken the responsibility. We never believed in one or two individuals, we believe that the entire squad have to do the job for us. It is not about one or two individuals, they can win you one or two games, but if you want to win the tournament everyone needs to come together," he added.Mumbai Indian registered a victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Super ...
Bajrang Punia bags gold at Ali Aliev wrestling tournament
World number one Bajrang Punia has become the first Indian to win gold at the Ali Aliev wrestling tournament after defeating Viktor Rassadin of Russia in the 65 kg freestyle in Kapiisk.Bajrang, who won the Asian Championships in China last week, came through stiff resistance from a host of local favourites over two days to prove his credentials as the world's best wrestler in his category. With the win on Thursday, the Indian has cemented his place on the top in the world rankings and is currently the highest ranked freestyle Asian wrestler in the world."I think the fact that I am competing in three different continents in three weeks is itself an incredible feat and I am thankful for all the support I have received through this period. I did have the belief that I could do well in these competitions and am pleased with my performances so far," Bajrang said."I am now looking forward to participating at Madison Square Garden and will continue to do my best to live up to the nation's ...
We deserve a trophy, says Sarri
Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri expressed that he wants to reach into the finals of Europa League and win it."I want to reach the final against any team, Arsenal or Valencia," Sarri was quoted as saying by Goal. "It's exactly the same for me, who we play. I don't want to play the final. I want to win it. Three months ago, we were in trouble in a very difficult championship and it's not easy to react, but we were able to react. Now, in the last 15 days of the season, we are fighting for the top four and the final in the Europa League, so we deserve a trophy," he added.Sarri's comments came after Chelsea's 1-1 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt in the first leg of semi-finals of Europa League.Eintracht Frankfurt scored the opening goal when the game was in the 23th minute. Sarri feels that his team made a mistake in the first 20 minutes as they were trying to restrict the game to 0-0, however, they failed to do so."I think that we made a mistake in the first 20 minutes because my feeling was,
ICC expands men's T20I rankings table to 80 teams
International Cricket Council (ICC) has expanded men's T20I team rankings table with 80 teams who will now be able to gauge their progress in the format recognised by the global governing body.Teams like Austria, Botswana, Luxembourg, and Mozambique are among the sides that will feature in the first men's T20I rankings table with all members meeting the criteria of having played six matches against other ICC members since May 2016.The move to expand the table follows ICC's decision last year that all men's T20 matches between members from January 1 onwards will be classified as internationals. As with the ICC women's T20I team rankings is concerned, which were launched in October 2018, teams will need to play six matches against other teams in the previous three to four years to remain in the rankings table.The qualification process for the ICC men's T20 World Cup underway includes 58 T20I matches across five regional finals, which will have significant movement on the rankings in the
Study charts out details of water polo head injuries
A new study has revealed details of the frequency of head injuries in water polo sports and the positions in which players were most likely to get injured.The first-of-its-kind report, which tracked several dozen male collegiate water polo players over three seasons, was published in PLOS One."For years, water polo's head trauma risks have been downplayed or overshadowed by football-related brain injuries," said study co-author James Hicks."Our data quantifies the extent of the problem and sets the stage for additional research and possible rule changes or protective gear to improve water polo safety," added Hicks.During the study, players wore caps embedded with electronic sensors. Over time, every participant got bopped in the head by balls or rival players, but some fared worse - occasionally far worse than others.Offensive players were more likely to get battered than defensive and transition positions (60 per cent versus 23 per cent and 17 per cent, respectively). And swimmers ...
Neeraj Chopra undergoes elbow surgery
Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra on Friday 'undergone' a surgery in his right elbow, which he mentioned will require 'some months' of rehabilitation.The 21-year-old wrote on his Twitter handle: "Undergone elbow surgery in Mumbai by Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala. Will require some months of rehabilitation before I can start back with throwing. Hoping to return stronger.""Every setback is a setup for a comeback. God wants to bring you out better than you were before," he added.Chopra did not mention a specific date for his return. Hence, he raised doubts over his participation in the World Championship, which is set to commence in Doha from September 27 to October 6.Moreover, Chopra, who had won gold at the Asian Games 2018 and Commonwealth Games 2018, already missed the Asian Championship held in Doha last month.
Rabada ruled out of remaining IPL matches
In a big blow for Delhi Capitals, South Africa pacer Kagiso Rabada has been ruled out of the remaining matches of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) due to a back injury. Rabada will now return to his homeland.