Page 980 - Sports
India clinch blind cricket series against Sri Lanka
Anil Ghariya and Deepak Malik struck centuries as India downed Sri Lanka by eight wickets to win the Blind Cricketers' three-match ODI series here Saturday. Batting first, Sri Lanka left-hander Chandana Deshapriya smashed 190 as Sri Lanka posted a huge 369/4 in 40 overs. In reply, India came out all guns blazing as both Ghariya and Malik scored centuries to see India through with 32 balls to spare. This was India' second whitewash against the Islanders as they remained unbeaten throughout the home season which also featured England. Deshapriya, who is a school teacher, was adjudged man of the match for his 190. The winners were awarded a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh for both T20 series and ODI series. And the runners up were awarded Rs 50,000 for both the series. Brief Scores: Sri Lanka: 369/4 in 40 overs (Chandana Deshapriya 190 not out, Suranga Sampath 84; Ajay Reddy 2/58) lost to India 370/2 in 34.4 overs (Deepak Malik 164 not out, Anil Ghariya 120; Pathum Saman Kumara 2/70) by eight ...
Former England manager Glenn Hoddle 'seriously ill'
Former England manager Glenn Hoddle has been hospitalised after being taken ill on his 61st birthday on Saturday. Hoddle fell ill shortly after he began his punditry duties on BT Sport. BT presenter Jake Humphrey said Hoddle was "taken seriously ill at the BT Sport studio this morning". He added on social media: "Everyone of us is right with you Glenn, sending love and strength." Tottenham Hotspur, the club where Hoddle starred as a super-talented midfielder winning two FA Cups and a UEFA Cup and went on to manage, tweeted their support. "Everybody at the Club sends their best wishes to @GlennHoddle for a full and speedy recovery after he was taken ill this morning." Chelsea -- who Hoddle also managed and took to the 1994 FA Cup final -- tweeted a message of solidarity. "Our thoughts are with former Blues boss Glenn Hoddle who has been taken seriously ill on his 61st birthday. We're right with you Glenn." Former England great Gary Lineker -- who along with Hoddle was a pivotal player
I-League: Gokulam share spoils with Mohun Bagan
In front of 28,400 home supporters, Gokulam Kerala FC played out a 1-1 draw against Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan in their opening I-League fixture at EMS Corporation stadium here on Saturday.
Gokulam Kerala FC share spoils with Mohun Bagan
In front of a noisy 28,400 strong home crowd, Gokulam Kerala FC held heavyweights Mohun Bagan 1-1 in their opening 12th Hero I-League fixture at the EMS Corporation Stadium Saturday. Lalchhawnkima's own goal in the second half cancelled out Ugandan striker Henry Kisekka's header for Mohun Bagan in the 41st minute. Bino George's Gokulam Kerala FC began the match with the dependable Ghanaian Daniel Addo leading the back four and the talented Arjun Jayaraj, Brazilian Felipe Castro and Ugandan Mudde Musa part of a three-man midfield. The forward line was led by Grenadian international Antonio German. Shibinraj started in the Gokulam goal. Mohun Bagan coach Sankarlal Chakraborty went in with the Cameroonian-Ugandan pair of Dipanda Dicka and Henry Kisekka upfront with Egyptian Omar El Hussieny playing in the hole behind them. Youngster Pintu Mahata and Kerala's PM Britto were to make the runs from the wings with another youngster Sourav Das in centre of midfield. The back line was led by ...
Stephens triumphs, Pliskova falters in WTA semi
A gutsy Sloane Stephens recovered from early embarrassment to storm past Karolina Pliskova on Saturday, setting up a mouth-watering WTA Finals decider against in-form Elina Svitolina. The former US Open champion triumphed on Saturday against an inconsistent Pliskova 0-6, 6-4, 6-1 in one hour and 55 minutes in Singapore. A stunned Stephens lost the opening eight games before turning things around to win 12 of the next 15. The hard-hitting Pliskova started red hot in what loomed as a one-sided contest before Stephens fought back with relentless hustle as the Czech went off the boil. "I just tried to stay in it and started to feel the ball better," Stephens said after the match. "I'm really proud of my fight." It was an unexpected result after Pliskova's early domination through power and precision to blitz through the first set in 31 minutes. She pinpointed the lines to totally rattle a flustered Stephens, who uncharacteristically made a slew of errors. After surviving an early break ...
Svitolina fights past Bertens to secure first WTA final
Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina on Saturday battled past debutant Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands 7-5, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4 to reach the final round of the eight-player, season-ending Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Finals.
Barça coach downplays absence of Messi, Ronaldo from El Clasico vs Madrid
Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde said on Saturday that the absence of Barça superstar Lionel Messi and ex-Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo from the upcoming El Clasico duel at Camp Nou will not make the match less interesting.
Even top footballers are not picked for World Cup: Shreyas Iyer on pain of rejection
Cricketer Shreyas Iyer looks to football to deal with the pain of rejection, saying some of its better players' failure to make the FIFA World Cup despite shining for their clubs help him put things in perspective. "It's not just cricket but even football and other sports, if you see, there also we find breakdowns (heartbreaks). You can find a lot of top footballers not being selected for World Cup despite performing for their clubs. All these small, small things matter and helped me focus on what I am doing at the present," Iyer said on Saturday. The realisation that he is not the only one suffering has helped the Mumbai batsman to focus only on the process of scoring runs. The immensely talented Iyer has had a start-stop international career, having played six ODIs and six T20 Internationals till date. So how did this change come about? "I have realised that it's not only me but there are a lot of other players also who are not being selected. So I can see their frustration as well .
Sethuraman holds Anand in Isle of Man
Grandmaster S P Sethuraman played out an easy draw as white against five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand in the seventh round of Isle of Man International Chess tournament here Saturday. Both Anand and Sethuraman inched themselves up to five points out of a possible seven and shared the joint eighth spot after a rather dull day that witnessed several draws on the top tables. Michael Adams of England took advantage of this draw-melee to join the six overnight leaders on 5.5 points defeating erstwhile joint leader Abhijeet Gupta. For Gupta it was the second loss in a row after what looked like a splendid display till the half way stage. Left on 4.5 points with two rounds to come, the Indian needs many things to click in his favour. For the records, the overnight leaders played out a draw amongst themselves. Franchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave split the point with Arkadij Naiditsch of Azerbaijan, Wang Hao of China got the same result against Radoslav Wojtaszek of Poland while the ...
Marquez masters tricky weather conditions to earn fifth consecutive Phillip Island Pole
MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez produced a sizzling performance in tricky weather conditions to claim his fifth successive Pole at the track here on Saturday. Marquez thus equalled Casey Stoner's five poles in a row. Occasional rain, low temperatures and cold wind, made the search for bike setup challenging and the track conditions demanding but Marc was able to choose exactly the best moment to push, and his 1:29:199 lap time proved to be untouchable in the final minutes of the session. Dani Pedrosa, however, failed to earn a spot in Q2 and will start from the sixth row of the grid in the Australian Grand Prix, which will begin Sunday. With a 47-point lead in the Constructors Championship and three races remaining in the season, Honda have the chance to clinch their 24th Constructors Title on Saturday. "Pole position today was quite difficult, and it was especially tricky to understand when it was the right time to push. The light rain that was falling wasn't strong enough to wet .
ISL: Pune City set for daunting Goa challenge (Preview)
FC Pune City have a tough job on their hands as they make their journey here to take on red-hot FC Goa in an Indian Super League (ISL) match at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Sunday.
Fluent Khalin joins Siddikur in lead at Panasonic Open golf tourney
Khalin Joshi raised hopes of a seventh Indian win in eight editions of the Panasonic Open India with the weeks best card of 64 that carried him into the share of the lead with Siddikur Rahman at the latters favourite Delhi Golf Club here on Saturday.
I-League: Sans foreigners, Shillong start campaign against Aizawl (Preview)
With no foreigners on their roster, Shillong Lajong FC will be up against it when they take on Aizawl FC in an I-League game at the JN Stadium here on Sunday.
I-League: Esqueda double helps East Bengal beat Neroca
East Bengal rode on Mexican recruit Enrique Esqueda's brace to beat hosts Neroca FC 2-0 in an I-League game at the Khuman Lampak stadium here on Saturday.
Thandi upsets Julia, to take on Xinyun in summit clash
India's rising tennis player Karman Kaur Thandi, on Saturday edged past second seed Julia Glusko of Israel in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 in the semifinals of the $25,000 International Tennis Federation (ITF) women's tennis tournament. In final Thandi will lock horns with China's Han Xinyun in the title clash.Thandi, who won her maiden women's ITF title in June earlier this year, logged her third victory over top-200 players this week. On Saturday, she started her one hour and 22 minute-battle with a minor setback as her opponent Julia broke her in the first game of the first set.However, Thandi fired five aces despite committing five double faults to break back Julia in the second game to level 1-1. Karman again broke Julia in the sixth game to take 4-2 lead and went on to win the set at 6-3.Earlier, the 20-year-old Thandi, ranked 215 in the world had decimated seventh seed Carol Zhao of Canada 6-3, 6-4 in the first-round match. Subsequently, she defeated third seed Katie Swan of United ..
Prajnesh out of Liuzhou Challenger with semifinal defeat
Prajnesh Gunneswaran's good run at the Liuzhou Challenger ended with a straight-set defeat against top seed Radu Albot in the semi-finals of the USD 50,000 tournament in China on Saturday. Prajnesh, who had ended a runner-up at Ningbo event last week, lost 3-6 3-6 to world number 89 from Moldova. Prajnesh earned 29 ranking points and will jump a few places up to touch a new career-best rank on Monday when the new lost will be issued by the ATP.
India blind cricket team captain rues lack of support from BCCI
At a time when Sri Lanka captain Dinesh Chandimal helped three of the country's blind cricketers with boots ahead of a tour of India to contest a bilateral and triangular series for the Blind 2018, India captain Ajay Reddy has rued the lack of support from BCCI and the government.
Greco Roman wrestlers bow out of Worlds with tame defeats
India's campaign at the World Championship ended with Greco Roman wrestlers yet again coming a cropper on the final day of the competitions, here on Saturday. Of three grapplers in action, only Hardeep managed to win a bout when he downed Morocco's Choucri Atafi 8-4 in the 1/16 in the 97kg category. Later he lost his 1/8 bout 1-4 to Laokratis Kesidis from Greece. In the 77kg, Gurpeet lost by technical superiority (0-9) to Kairatbek Tugolbaev in the Qualification round while Naveen lost 1-4 to Norway's Oskar Marvik at the same stage. India returned with two medals, with Bajarang Punia winning a silver and Pooja Dhanda a bronze. India's best show at the World Championship was in 2013 when Amit Dahiya won a silver in 55kg, Bajrang returned with a bronze in 60kg and Sandeep Tulsi Yadav grabbing a historic bronze in Greco Roman style.
Ex-Sevilla goalkeeper Palop says his old team could reach top 4 in La Liga
Retired Sevilla goalkeeper Andres Palop said on Saturday that his former club may have a good chance of finishing among the top four teams in La Liga for the 2018-19 season.
Barca, sans injured Messi, holds last training session for El Clasico vs Madrid
Barcelona trained without injured superstar Lionel Messi on Saturday in the final practice session before the first El Clasico duel of the 2018-19 La Liga season with arch-rival Real Madrid.