Indian sports News- August 21st
August 21, 2019
Bytes: Srihari breaks NR, India wins Olympic Test, Durand Cup, New sponsor of BCCI, Ankita Raina advances, Shotgun WC
YoGems makes sure that you won’t miss a thing in the field of sports, so here is a quick recap to all the happenings from the last 24 hours:
Hockey:
Olympic Test- The Indian hockey team avenged their round robin league-stage loss by defeating New Zealand 5-0 to win the Olympic Test Event held in Tokyo at the Oi Hockey Stadium on Wednesday. Captain Harmanpreet Singh (7’) set the ball rolling before Shamsher Singh (18’), Nilakanta Sharma (22’), Gursahibjit Singh (26’) and Mandeep Singh (27’) scored for India.
Football:
Durand Cup- Mohun Bagan and East Bengal will enter as favourites but the limelight will be on Real Kashmir in the semi-finals of the 129th Durand Cup in Kolkata on Wednesday. East Bengal will take on Gokulam Kerala followed by Real Kashmir’s clash with Mohun Bagan in the double-header at the Salt Lake Stadium. The summit clash is slated for Saturday. Seven months after they had beaten them 2-1 in an impressive debut season in the I-League, Real Kashmir will be meeting the Mariners at the same venue.
Volleyball:
VFI- The Competition Commission has ordered a probe against Volleyball Federation of India (VFI) for alleged abuse of dominant position. The VFI is a national sports federation for volleyball in India and exercises full control over the players of volleyball registered or associated with it, with respect to their participation in all sporting events. The probe follows a complaint by Sharavan Yadav, Amitsinh Tanwar and Lavmeet Katariya – international volleyball players who have represented India in numerous tournaments, according to an order by the Competition Commission of India.
Swimming:
World Junior Championships- Srihari made into the finals of Junior World Championships. Teen star, Srihari Nataraj bettered his own national record in 100m backstroke with a timing of 54.69 to qualify for the finals of FINA World Junior Championships 2019.
He also achieved the Olympic qualification B mark, in the process.
Tennis:
US Open qualifying- India’s Sumit Nagal advanced to the second round of the US Open qualifying with a solid straight sets win over a seeded player on Tuesday night. The Indian world No 190 scored a 7-6(6), 6-2 win over Japanese 26th seed Tatsuma Ito in the first round of the Grand Slam qualifier. Nagal lost his serve just once while converting three of his six breakpoints. The duo exchanged a break each in the first set before the Indian won it in the tiebreak and didn’t give up serve at all in the second. Nagal will play Peter Polansky of Canada in the second round.
Badminton:
BWF World Championships- On the third day of WOrld Championships which is the pre-quarterfinals, Prannoy will face an uphill task against top seed Kento Momota of Japan but that is not until Thursday. The third day will finally see the star Indian duo of Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu begin their campaigns in the women’s singles round of 32 after receiving opening round byes. K Srikanth, the seventh seed, is in action on day three too.
Cricket:
KSL- India’s Jemimah Rodrigues guided Yorkshire Diamonds to a five-wicket win over reigning champions Surrey Stars the Women’s Cricket Super League season on Tuesday. It was only their second win of the season. Rodrigues scored an unbeaten 42 off 33 balls as the Diamonds chased down the target of 122 with 1 ball left in a low-scoring match.
BCCI- The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Wednesday retained Paytm as the title sponsor for India’s international [at home] and domestic matches for the next four years. The board will now receive nearly 60 percent more per match till the end of the 2022-23 season. The winning bid was at a price of Rs 326.80 crore to be paid for the 2019-23 home seasons. The winning bid was Rs 3.80 crore which is a 58 percent incremental value in comparison to the previous per match value of Rs 2.4 crores.
PCB Coach- The Pakistan Cricket Board is keen on appointing former captain Misbah-ul-Haq as head coach-cum-chief selector of the national team. Misbah, who is supervising a pre-season conditioning camp in Lahore, however, is yet to make up his mind.
Shooting:
Shotgun World Cup- Areeba Khan on Tuesday shot rounds of 18, 24 and 22 for a total of 64, finishing the first day of the women’s skeet competitions as the best-placed Indian at 29th, in the Shotgun World Cup in Lahiti, Finland. Areeba’s compatriots, Kartikki Singh Shaktawat and Saniya Sheikh, shot scores of 58 and 57 to end in 58th and 65th spots respectively. The second day of qualifiers will be followed by the final on Wednesday. USA’s Caitlin Connor was on top of the 72-strong field with a score of 73.
Golf:
Canadian Open- Amateur golfer Michelle Liu hasn’t yet hit her teens, and says it’s “crazy” to think she’ll be teeing it up on Thursday in the Canadian Women’s Open. Liu, 12, was the low Canadian at the 2019 Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship to earn an exemption into the field at this week’s tournament at Magna Golf Club near Toronto. She’ll become the youngest to compete in the 47-year history of the event, breaking the mark set by fellow Canadian Brooke Henderson who was 14 when she made her debut in her national championship in 2012.
