Indian sports News- November 11th
November 11, 2019
Bytes: Indian Super League, Chennaiyin FC coach, AFC U-19 Qualifiers, Pune ATP Challengers, Davis Cup, ATP Finals, IBSF Snooker, Thailand Open-Golf, IndvsBan 3rd T20I, WIvsInd 2nd T20I, Asian shooting Championship-record Olympic quota, LA Lakers lose, T20I Rankings, Indian Olympic Association
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:
Football:
ISL- Defending champions Bengaluru FC earned their first win in the 2019-’20 Indian Super League season after a terrific 3-0 result over arch-rivals Chennaiyin FC at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday. Australian midfielder Erik Paartalu got the ball rolling for Bengaluru with the opening goal (14’) before captain Sunil Chhetri made it 2-0 with a sensational strike (25’). Thongkhosiem Haokip rounded off a fine victory with a late goal (84’). The win lifts Bengaluru to the fifth position in the ISL while Chennaiyin, who are yet to score a goal after four games, are rock bottom. Bengaluru FC asserted their dominance right from the start, creating several chances in the opening 10 minutes. Chennaiyin custodian Vishal Kaith was called into action early in the fifth minute when former Chennaiyin man Raphael Augusto did brilliantly to get to the byline and find Juanan with a cutback. The Spaniard’s first-time shot was blocked by Kaith with his legs. Augusto continued to torment his former team and should have scored five minutes later when Udanta Singh’s cross found his way to him, but he could not sort his feet out in time.
AFC U-19 Qualifiers- India ended their AFC U-19 Championship qualifying campaign with a 0-3 loss to Afghanistan in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, on Sunday. The Afghans scored thrice in the first half, racing to an early lead at the Prince Saud bin Jalawi Stadium. The Indians did try to pull it back, creating scoring opportunities in the second half, and even hit the crossbar twice. The loss ended India’s campaign with three consecutive losses. The match began with Afghanistan taking a quick lead in the second minute through captain Ahmad Ramaki, who scored from a melee in the six-yard box after a corner kick. The Afghans got their second two minutes later through midfielder Ahmad Nawshad. He struck a left-footed shot from long distance, which took a deflection on its way in. Coach Floyd Pinto’s boys went forward with attacking intent, looking to find a way past the Afghan defence. Their best chance of the half came through Vikram Partap Sandhu in the 22nd minute, who struck a vicious shot from the right that was just tipped over the post by opposing keeper Hadi Zada. Afghanistan scored another in the 29th minute through Khatam Del as he latched on to a loose ball in the Indian defence and ran towards goal, before scoring past the keeper.
Chennaiyin FC- John Gregory may have coached Chennaiyin FC for the last time, ironically at the same venue where he provided the club with their greatest moment. It was at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru that Chennaiyin stunned rivals Bengaluru FC to win the Indian Super League title during the 2017-’2018 season. Since then it’s all gone downhill for Chennaiyin FC and the Englishman as they finished at the bottom last season and are now left without a win or a goal in four matches. Whether this will signal the end of Gregory’s time in India is in the hands of the owners, but the first English coach to win the ISL was the first to put his hand up and accept responsibility.
Shooting:
Asian shooting championship- Teen shooter Saurabh Chaudhary claimed the silver medal in the men’s 10m air pistol event to continue India’s surge at the 14th Asian Championship in Doha on Monday. The 17-year-old shot 244.5 to finish second on the podium behind North Korea’s Kim Song Guk, who won the gold with a world record 246.5. Incidentally, the record he broke belonged to the Chaudhary who had shot 246.3 at an ISSF World Cup. Iran’s Foroughi Javed bagged the bronze with a score of 221.8 at the Lusail Shooting Complex. With 583, both Chaudhary and Abhishek Verma had qualified for the final in seventh and sixth place, respectively. However, Verma finished in the eight-man final, having managed 181.5. Both Chaudhary and Verma had already secured their Olympic quotas in the earlier competitions, making it a maximum of two for India. Chaudhary, a World Cup and Asian Games gold medallist, had a great start to the final and had a series of 10 and above scores but the North Korean raced away in the latter stages. The Olympic quotas from this competition went to Iran, North Korea and Pakistan as India and China had already secured the maximum two quotas each.
In skeet event, India continued their dream run at the Asian Shooting Championships as they earned their 14th and 15th Olympic quota places on Sunday when Angad Bajwa (gold) and Mairaj Khan (silver) confirmed themselves of medals in men’s Skeet event in Doha. Bajwa and Khan were tied with a score of 56 at the end of the final rounds before Bajwa edged his more experienced compatriot in a shoot-off for gold. Kuwait’s Habib Saud won bronze and the third available quota place. This was after both overcame a marathon eight-way Shoot-off for three final qualification spots. Mairaj won that one hitting 38 birds straight to overcome Habib who missed his 38th, even has Angad bagged the sixth and final spot hitting 25 straight. Both Mairaj and Angad had posted scores of 120 out of 125 in qualification. It was a fitting finish to a massive day for Indian Shooting and also brought to the fore what symbolizes the sport in India today – a fantastic mix of experience of youth. India were assured to have a record number of quotas in shooting at an Olympic event ever when Aishwary Tomarclinched India’s 13th quota place with a bronze medal in Men’s 50m rifle 3 positions event earlier in the day. The contingent further added to the haul with what is the country’s best result at the Asian Championship skeet event, according to the National Rifle Association of India. These two quota places are the first ones earned in shotgun events with the earlier 13 coming from pistol and rifle events.
Cricket:
IndvsBan 3rd T20I- Pacer Deepak Chahar took a sensational six-wicket haul, including a hat-trick, after entertaining half-centuries from Shreyas Iyer and K L Rahul, as India defeated Bangladesh by 30 runs in the third and final T20 International to win the series 2-1, in Nagpur on Sunday. Chahar (6/7 in 3.2 overs), who registered the best ever figures in a men’s T20I match on Sunday, besides becoming the first Indian man to take a hat-trick in the shortest format was the hero of the match for India. But equally impressive with the ball was rookie Shivam Dube (3/30) as the duo shared nine wickets amongst themselves to secure India’s first T20 series win at home this season. Heavy late evening dew rendered the spinners ineffective but Chahar and Dube rose to the occasion. Iyer (62 off 33) and Rahul (52 off 35) had earlier smashed sublime half-centuries to propel India to 174/5 after Bangladesh opted to field. Chasing the target, the visitors were all out for 144 in 19.2 overs. With 50 needing off the last 30 balls and six wickets in hand, Bangladesh had a great opportunity to win the series but they crumbled under pressure. Rookier opener Mohammad Naim (81 of 48) played a blinder to take Bangladesh deep into the game before they lost five wickets for 20 runs to blow it away. Chasing a challenging 175, Bangladesh suffered early setbacks as Chahar had opener Liton Das and Soumya Sarkar caught off successive balls to leave the visitors at 12/2.
WIvsInd 2nd T20I- For the second time in two days, 15-year-old Shafali Verma (69* from 35) starred for India as they took a 2-0 lead in the five-match Twenty20 International series against West Indies at St Lucia. Once again, it was a cruise for the visitors, reaching home by 10 wickets and 57 balls to spare. With the absence of captain Stafanie Taylor, who was ruled out of the series, the West Indies wilted against the Indian bowling, particularly the spinners. They could only manage just two runs more than what they did just under 24 hours ago after stand-in captain Anisa Mohammed opted to bat first. Harmanpreet Kaur’s clever ploy to open with Deepti Sharma in the powerplay once again reaped rich dividends for India. After containing the Windies in the early overs, wickets tumbled. Shikha Pandey removed Stacy Ann-King who chipped the ball straight to Pooja Vastrakar at cover. Left-arm spinner Radha Yadav quietly went about with her task and picked up the second wicket, that of the dangerous Shemaine Campbelle for nought. Despite Chedean Nation (32) and Natasha McLean’s best efforts, the hosts were unable to get any kind of momentum going in the innings.
T20s Rankings- India fast bowler Deepak Chahar, who returned a world record haul of six for seven against Bangladesh on Sunday, has moved up 88 slots to 42nd in the latest International Cricket Council T20I rankings for bowlers. The list, however, continued to be led by slow bowlers. The top five and eight of the top nine are spinners, with Mitchell Santner reaching second place – his best position since he topped the table in January 2018, behind Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan. In the third and final match against Bangladesh, Chahar also became the first Indian to take a hat-trick in the shortest format, helping India secure their first T20I series win at home this season. Rohit Sharma continued to remain India’s top-ranked batsman at seventh position while KL Rahul moved up a place to eight after his half-century on Sunday.
Olympic:
IOA- The Indian Olympic Association has submitted its feedback on the draft of the proposed sports code to the Sports Ministry. The IOA has opposed the age-limit provision which stipulates that the office-bearers of National Sports Federations can remain in power only till the 70 years of age. The IOA has also opposed to the exclusion of state Olympic Associations from the association as per the draft National Code for Good Governance in Sports 2017, according to a report by the Indian Express. The draft had said that a member will be ‘disqualified’ after ‘attainment of the age of 70 years’. The IOA, however, has argued that even though the norm is in sync with the Olympic Charter, the International Olympic Committee has not enforced it on all international federations. As of now the Sports Ministry has delayed the code and will also form a new committee to have another look at the proposed draft. However, there is no time frame set for it, continued the report.
Tennis:
Davis cup- Pakistan has filed an appeal with the International Tennis Federation, challenging its decision to shift the Davis Cup tie against India to a neutral venue with the assertion that Islamabad is well-equipped to host the clash. The Pakistan Tennis Federation President Salim Saifullah told PTI on Sunday that a formal appeal has been filed with the international body and they were expecting a positive response by November 15. Saifullah said the event-free opening of the Kartarpur corridor on Saturday is a clear indicator that despite the ongoing diplomatic tensions it is possible to host the Indian tennis team in Islamabad. Pakistan was earlier scheduled to host India in the Davis Cup Asia Oceania Group-I Tie on September 14-15 at the grass courts of Pakistan Sports Complex, Islamabad, where matches against Uzbekistan, Korea and Thailand have taken place in 2017 and 2018. But the ITF announced early this month that the tie would be held at a neutral venue to be chosen by Pakistan after the All India Tennis Association requested the tie to be shifted from Islamabad. The ITF said it had acted on the recommendations of its independent security advisors. Saifullah also said that if their appeal was not accepted, the PTF had some other options and was working on those.
Pune ATP Challenger- An unprecedented 21 singles players from India will compete at the KPIT-MSLTA Challenger starting from Monday at the Balewadi stadium in Pune. The tournament, organised by the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association Secretary, is the longest-running ATP Challenger event in India. Prajnesh Gunneswaran, the top-ranked Indian at 95 this week, will lead the strong Indian challenge as top seed, along with India No 2 Sumit Nagal, the world No 127, while Ramkumar Ramnathan, Sasikumar Mukund and Saketh Myneni will be seeded in the main draw as well. As many as 19 Indians are featuring in the singles main draw and two more will join them from the qualifying. Having more than 20 players in the singles main draw is a record for any host nation. With four players, Japan will be the second in the entry list, followed by three players from Russia. Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri, who was earlier scheduled to play the event, will not be part of the Challenger. The other notable singles seeds are James Duckworth, Steven Diez, Jay Clarke, Roberto Ortega-Olmedo and Duckhee Lee. All seeded players have a bye in the first round. The tournament will have the new 48-player draw with the ranking cut-off at 550 this year. The draw has thrown up some interesting match-ups such as Arjun Kadhe and Siddarth Rawat, who have been chosen in the probable squad for the Davis Cup tie between India and Pakistan. Another interesting matchup is the round of 16 clash between Sasikumar Mukund and Saketh Myneni. Nagal is drawn to meet Ramkumar Ramanathan in the quarter-finals.
ATP Finals- Roger Federer faces an uphill task to qualify for the last four of the ATP Finals after a 7-5, 7-5 defeat to Dominic Thiem in his tournament opener on Sunday. The six-time champion was in action in the evening match after Novak Djokovic had swatted aside debutant Matteo Berrettini in the earlier Group Bjorn Borg contest in London. Federer and Djokovic, who has won the end-of-season event five times, will meet later in the week in a repeat of this year’s Wimbledon final, with two players advancing from the four-man group. The Swiss 20-time Grand Slam winner recovered quickly from being broken in the first game of the match but the Austrian fifth seed repeated the dose in the 11th game and took the opening set 7-5. Federer squandered an early chance to break in the second set and the games went with serve until the 11th game again, when Thiem broke to love after the third seed dumped a forehand into the net.
Athletics:
World Para Athletics Championship- Javelin thrower Sundar Singh Gurjar overcame a shoulder injury to claim the second gold for India with a season best performance at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai on Sunday. In doing so, Gurjar not only defended his London Worlds 2017 title but also became only the second Indian to have clinched two World Championships medals after Devendra Jhajharia’s gold and silver in the 2013 Lyon and 2015 Doha Championships. Gurjar wasn’t the only Indian to win a medal as Ajeet Singh managed a throw of 59.46 metres to claim bronze. Rinku Rinku took fourth place with a throw of 57.59 metres. Thus, India secured three more slots for Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. In second place until his fifth attempt, Gurjar hurled the javelin to a distance of 61.22 metres in his sixth attempt, enough to jump to the top of the results table, tumbling Sri Lanka’s Dinesh P Herath Mudiyanselage who led throughout with his 60.59m throw in the first attempt. India now have two gold medals, one silver and a bronze from these Championships. On Monday, six Indian players will be in action, including Ekta Bhyan and Kashish Lakra in the women’s club throw F51 final and Yogesh Kathuniya in the men’s discus throw F56 Final.
Snooker:
IBSF Championship- Maharashtra cueist Arantxa Sanchis added another feather in her cap when she clinched a bronze medal in the women’s competition of the IBSF Snooker Championships which concluded in Antalya, Turkey on Saturday. Arantxa went down fighting to Nutcharat Wongharuthai of Thailand by a narrow 4-2 (89-1, 39-66, 78-32, 26-54, 73-31 and 65-15) in the best-of-7-frame semi-final and had to settle for the bronze medal. This was the Pune-based Arantxa’s sixth medal in international competition. In the second semi-final, Ng On Yee of Hong Kong China prevailed over Thailands Waratthanun Sukritthanes 4-3. Earlier in the quarter-finals, Arantxa potted steadily and quite consistently to put it across China’s Bai Yulu 4-3 (72-38, 1-66, 66-57, 2-84, 65-31, 16-100, 78-12) to progress to the penultimate round. Ng On Yee emerged champion after defeating Thailand’s Nutcharat Wongharuthai (Thailand) by a convincing 5-2 frame scores, it added.
Golf:
Thailand Open- Indian golfer Shiv Kapur produced a sizzling back nine to get into play-off, only to lose out on the first extra hole at the Thailand Open in Chachoengsao, Thailand on Sunday. Kapur finished tied-second with Thai Pavit Tangkamolprasert, while John Catlin, who won three times in 2018, holed a five-foot birdie in the first play-off hole to win the title. Lying tied-11th and five behind the leader at the start, Kapur was still way behind after an even front nine. On the back nine Kapur had five birdies, an eagle and a bogey to storm into a share of the lead and the play-off with Catlin (67) and Pavit (65) as all three were tied at 11-under. In the play-off, Catlin hit into the fairway while Kapur went to the left rough and Pavit to the right rough. Kapur hit through the trees onto the green to 80 feet from the pin, while Pavit went into the bunker. Catlin hit his second shot to five feet. The Indian’s valiant birdie attempt stopped five feet short and Pavit was 12 feet short. Catlin holed his birdie to win. Ajeetesh Sandhu, who started the day at tied-11th shot 69 and finished on the same spot, while old warhorse, Jyoti Randhawa finished with 68 and was tied-14th. Viraj Madappa (69) was tied-21st, Aadil Bedi (67) was tied-48th, Khalin Joshi (71) and S Chikkarangappa (72) was tied-69th.
Basketball:
NBA- Pascal Siakam tallied 24 points and 11 rebounds as the reigning NBA champion Toronto Raptors overcame a LeBron James triple double on Sunday night to beat the Los Angeles Lakers 113-104. Siakam fuelled a late rally by the injury-depleted Raptors who trailed 60-52 at the half but dominated down the stretch against the host Lakers, who had a seven game win streak snapped. Siakam is helping Raptor fans forget about the loss of NBA finals MVP Kawhi Leonard to the Los Angeles Clippers. The Raptors have been one of the best teams in the league despite losing Leonard to free agency and Danny Green to the Lakers. The Raptors visit the Clippers on Monday for the first time since Leonard skipped town to play in Los Angeles.
