Indian sports News- November 13th
November 13, 2019
Bytes: ODI Rankings-Kohli & Bumrah on top, Conflicts of Interest- Saurav Gaungly, ENGvsNZ, Hong Kong Open, World Para Athletics Championship, Pune Challenger, ATP Finals, Asian U-15 wrestling championship, Asian shooting championship, Asian Youth Championship, NBA
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:
Cricket:
ODI Rankings- India skipper Virat Kohli and pacer Jasprit Bumrah have maintained their top spots in the latest International Cricket Council One-day International player rankings for batsmen and bowlers respectively. Kohli is sitting pretty at the top of the rankings for batsmen with 895 rating points. He is followed by his deputy Rohit Sharma (834), who has been in sensational form in all three formats this year. In the bowlers’ rankings, Bumrah, who is undergoing treatment for lower back stress fracture, also maintained his top spot with 797 rating points. He is followed by New Zealand’s pacer Trent Boult (740). Hardik Pandya is the only Indian to feature in the top-10 in the all-rounders’ charts. He is at number 10 with 246 rating points. England’s World Cup hero Ben Stokes tops the chart with 319 rating points, followed by Mohammad Nabi of Afghanistan. India’s next ODI fixture is against the West Indies in a three-match series beginning December 15 in Chennai.
Conflict of Interest- The Committee of Administrators spent almost three years trying to clean up Indian cricket and less than a month after control was handed back to the Board of Control for Cricket in India officials, we are seeing a concerted effort by the Board to go back to its old ways. There are reports about how the BCCI, in its first Annual General Meeting in three years on December 1 in Mumbai, is going to propose a constitutional amendment that could lead to president Sourav Ganguly’s tenure being increased. The same reports also state that the BCCI members are set to revisit the age-cap of 70 years, the cooling off period of three years after a period of six years and curtailing the powers of the executives including the Chief Executive Officer. And now, Ganguly, by brazenly tweeting about My11circle (a fantasy cricket league which gives a chance to its users to win a cash reward for predicting the best playing eleven for a given match) has brought a huge conflict of interest issue to the fore. On November 8, Ganguly tweeted: “The #INDvsBAN series is on fire! The excitement continues in the 3rd match with series levelled. Will #TeamIndia keep up the winning streak or will Bangladesh bounce back? Beat my team on @My11Cirlce & Win Big. Make Your Team Now!”
EngvsNZ- Dom Sibley and Zac Crawley staked their claims for England Test debuts with unbeaten centuries in their first warm-up match in New Zealand, which ended in a draw in Whangarei on Wednesday. Stuart Broad was also in sharp form with a miserly 1/15 off nine overs against a New Zealand XI made up of fringe first class players. Given a chance to acclimate to New Zealand conditions, Sibley made a disciplined 100 and Crawley 103 before both retired, while Joe Root hit an unbeaten 41 at a run-a-ball pace. In reply to England’s two for 376 declared, the New Zealand XI were 285/4 at the close of the two-day match. In contrast to Broad’s tight performance with the ball, Jofra Archer took 2/46 off 11 overs while Ben Stokes finished with none for 33 off eight. A three-day match against New Zealand A starts in Whangarei on Friday with the first Test beginning in Tauranga on November 21.
Badminton:
Hong Kong Open- India’s PV Sindhu began her $4,00,000 Hong Kong Open Super 500 campaign on a positive note with a 21-15, 21-16 victory against world No 19 Kim Ga Eun. The reigning world champion needed just 36 minutes to dispatch her Korean opponent and make her way to the quarter-finals. The Olympic silver medallist will face Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan next. There was more cheer for Indian badminton as HS Prannoy safely negotiated his opening round match as well. The 27-year-old, who was ill with dengue recently, defeated China’s Huang Yu Xiang 21-17, 21-17. Prannoy will now face 6th seed Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in the round of 16. Meanwhile, Saina Nehwal suffered yet another first-round exit as she lost to China’s Cai Yan Yan on Wednesday. This was her second consecutive straight-games loss to Cai after losing to her at the China Open last month. With the 13-21, 20-22 loss to Cai, Nehwal has now suffered five opening-round exits in the last six tournaments. The only tournament where she progressed beyond the first hurdle was at the French Open where she reached the quarter-finals last month. India had another setback as Sameer Verma was also knocked out in the men’s singles after he lost 11-21, 21-13, 8-21 against Wang Tzu Wei. In women’s doubles, too, India’s Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy were knocked out in the round of 32 by Denmark’s Maiken Fruergaard and Sara Thygesen. Ponnappa and Reddy lost 21-13, 21-12 in 36 minutes.
Athletics:
World Para Athletics Championship- Promising discus thrower Yogesh Kathuniya won a bronze medal and a 2020 Tokyo Paralympics quota in men’s discus throw F56 event. Despite his three four throws in the final, Kathuniya did not give up hope and finished third at the Dubai 2019 World Para Athletics Championships. Moments later, Praveen Kumar joined him with a fourth-place finish in the men’s high jump T64 final last evening. He attained a personal best clearing the bar at 1.92 metres. Under International Paralympic Committee rules, the top four ranked athletes at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships in each of the individual medal events on the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Programme (excluding Marathon) will each obtain one qualification slot for their respective country. The 23-year old hurled the discus to a distance of 42.51 metres in his sixth attempt to take the bronze. For most part of the game, he stayed in the second place behind eventual winner Brazilian Claudiney Batista dos Santos (45.92m) but Iran’s Ali Mohammadyari managed just one right attempt – a 43.51 metres – to take the silver.
Tennis:
Pune Challenger- With as many as 11 players from the host country in action, it was a good day for young Indian players at the KPIT MSLTA Challenger in Pune on Tuesday The highlight was 20-year-old Manish Sureshkumar knocking out 16th seed Rio Noguchi of Japan to move into pre-quarter-finals of the ATP Challenger event. The Indian, currently ranked 748, notched the first seed upset of the tournament beating 408th ranked Rio Noguchi 6-3, 7-6(4). Manish used his forehand to good effect and held his nerve in a close second set to set up a third-round clash with Australian second seed James Duckworth, who played his second round match. Manish took the first set rather easily but Noguchi raced to a 4-2 lead in the second set before the young Indian held his nerve to break back. In the tie-breaker, he played a solid game and hit two great forehand winners to seal the win, ensuring himself seven ATP points. In the first round on Monday, Manish beat wildcard Anvit Bendre 6-2, 6-0 in a lopsided win. The all-Indian clash between local boy Arjun Kadhe and Sidharth Rawat that went the distance was another good match on the second day of the tournament. Hampered by a shoulder injury, Kadhe lost the first set quickly before fighting back creditably, combating the aggressive Rawat.
ATP Finals- Dominic Thiem produced a scintillating display of attacking tennis to beat Novak Djokovic and qualify for the last four at the ATP Finals on Tuesday, leaving the Serbian facing a shootout against Roger Federer. In the standout match so far at London’s O2 Arena, the Austrian fifth seed took the fight to the world number two, recovering from losing the first set to triumph 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 7-6 (7/5). Earlier, Federer put himself back in the mix at the end-of-season event with a 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 win against Italian debutant Matteo Berrettini in their round-robin clash. Federer and Djokovic will face off on Thursday in a repeat of this year’s Wimbledon final to determine who else will progress from Group Bjorn Borg. Thiem was forced to play high-stakes tennis against the 16-time Grand Slam winner, taking the breath away with some of his inside-out forehands and single-handed backhands. Forced to play at his limit, he hit 50 winners compared with Djokovic’s tally of 27 but also racked up 44 unforced errors.
Wrestling:
Asian U-15 championships- The Wrestling Federation of India has announced a 30-member squad to represent India at the Asian Under-15 Wrestling Championships to be held in Taichung, Chinese Taipei from November 22-24. The squad was selected after WFI conducted trials for boys in Sonepat and girls in Lucknow. Following an inspiring show last year from both boys and girls, India will be keen to continue its medal-winning spree. Last year, India finished third in freestyle after collecting a rich haul of eight medals with Aman (52kg) bagging solitary gold from Iran. The girls did an equally impressive job in Japan, winning seven medals, highlighted by three gold medals from Pooja Rani (33kg), Komal (36kg) and Sweety (43kg). Among the girls, Komal (39kg) will be the one to watch out for. She had won gold at the Cadet World Championships in 40kg earlier in the year.
Shooting:
Asian Championship- Teenager Dhanush Srikanth made his junior India debut count in glorious fashion, gunning down a double gold by winning both the individual and team 10m air rifle men junior competitions at the ongoing 14th Asian Shooting Championships in Qatar. Taking aim on the penultimate day of the competition at the Lusail Shooting Complex, Srikanth first qualified for the finals with a relatively sedate 625.3, and then romped home with a 248.2 in the eight-man 24-shot final, leaving silver winner Jiang Xuanle of China a whole 2.5 points behind. India’s Shahu Tushar Mane won bronze with a final score of 226.4, after topping the qualification round with 629.3. Hriday Hazarika, who also reached the finals finishing eighth in qualification with 622.5, managed an overall seventh-place finish. The trio had earlier secured the team gold with their qualification round exploits totaling 1877.1, ahead of silver-winning China and bronze-winning Korea. There was a bit of a heartbreak for India in the junior women’s air rifle, however, where Shreya Agrawal, after shooting a sparkling 632 to top qualification by the proverbial mile, settled for individual silver in the end, coming second to China’s Yan Jinjing. Yan shot 251.8 to Shreya’s 250.6 in the final. Khushi Saini also won individual bronze for India in the event with a finals score of 228.8. The trio of Shreya, Khushi and Aakriti Dahiya had earlier combined for a team bronze in the event with a total of 1877.1. Team China won gold with a new World and Asian record score of 1882.4.
25m Pistol Women Junior: Trio of Abhidnya Ashok Patil (placed 8th in final; qualifying score 569), Niveditha Nair (6th in final; qualifying score 567) and Sneha Bharadwaj (10th with 567) won team bronze with a combined score of 1703 with China winning gold. 50m Pistol Men: Gaurav Rana silver (score 562); Arjun Cheema bronze (score of 560). Trio of Gaurav, Arjun and Monu Tomar won team bronze with a total score of 1653.
Boxing:
Asian Youth Championship- Two Indian boxers – Ankit Narwal (60kg) and Aman (+91kg) – advanced to the quarter-finals of the Asian Youth Championships in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on Tuesday. While Aman defeated Uzbekistan’s Makhmudov Mimukhsin 5-0, Ankit prevailed 3-2 over Mongolia’s Tulga Oyunbaatar. However, Mohit (75kg) lost 2-3 to Kazakhstan’s Bektas to bow out in the opening round itself. India were assured of two medals in the event after Komalpreet Kaur (+81kg) and Sushma (81kg) got direct entry into the semi-finals owing to the small size of their respective draws in the women’s competition. The event features 180 boxers – 113 men and 67 women – representing 16 countries in the continent.
Basketball:
NBA- Kyle Kuzma “clicked” to drain two clutch three-pointers as the Los Angeles Lakers bounced back to score a 123-115 road victory over the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday. Kuzma hit back-to-back threes in the final three minutes of a see-saw battle to finally sink the Suns, shortly after Phoenix had taken a 113-111 lead with 3min 29sec left at the Talking Stick Resort Arena. A LeBron James three-pointer put the Lakers 114-113 ahead before Kuzma weighed in to stretch the lead to 120-113. James added 19 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds as the Lakers made an instant return to winning ways following Sunday’s loss to Toronto. James meanwhile praised the contribution of Kuzma, saying he had never doubted the 24-year-old’s ability to deliver.
