Indian sports News- November 15th
November 15, 2019
Bytes: Hong Kong Open, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, INDvsBAN, INDvsWI, AFGvsWI, ATP Finals, World Para Athletics Championship, NBA, China NT coach quit, FIFA WC Qualifiers- India draw against Afghanistan
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:
Badminton:
Hong Kong Open- Ace Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth entered the semi-finals of the men’s singles event at the Hong Kong Open after fifth seed Chen Long of China decided to quit the contest owing to an injury, in Hong Kong on Friday. Unseeded Srikanth, ranked 13th in the world, was leading by a game when Long decided to concede the match, thus handing the Indian a place in the last-four of the BWF World Tour Super 500 event. Srikanth pocketed the first game 21-13 in just 15 minutes when world No 4 Long hung up his racquet to put an end to the contest. It was Srikanth’s second career win over the Chinese shuttler. The Indian still trails 2-6 in head-to-head win-loss record. The only time the two shuttlers met this year was in the quarter-finals of the Malaysia Open in April where Long brushed aside Srikanth’s challenge in straight games. Srikanth’s lone victory over Long came in 2017 when he defeated the Chinese 22-20 21-16 to win the Australian Open. Srikanth, the lone Indian in contention in the tournament, will next meet the winner of the other quarter-final match between Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu and seventh seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.
Tennis:
ATP Finals- Roger Federer produced a serving masterclass as he avenged his Wimbledon defeat by Novak Djokovic and qualified for the last four of the ATP Finals on Thursday with a 6-4, 6-3 victory. The Swiss, playing near-flawless tennis, broken once in the first set and twice in the second to beat his rival for the first time since 2015. Roared on by a raucous packed house at London’s O2 Arena, the six-time champion dropped just seven points on his serve in the first set. Defeat spells the end of Djokovic’s bid to overtake Rafael Nadal and finish as year-end number one. Meanwhile, the third-seeded Federer, making his 17th appearance at the ATP Finals, reached his 16th semi-final. Djokovic needed to win the title to have a chance at knocking Nadal off the top spot, but now the Spaniard is guaranteed to finish the year as the top-ranked player for the fifth time, tying him with Federer, Djokovic and American Jimmy Connors.
Cricket:
INDvsBAN- Opener Mayank Agarwal hit an unbeaten 91 but skipper Virat Kohli was out for a rare duck as India took a first innings lead in the opening Test against Bangladesh on Friday. The hosts were 188 for three at lunch on day two in response to Bangladesh’s 150. India resumed in Indore on 86 for one and Agarwal with Ajinkya Rahane, on 35, put on an unbeaten 69-run stand to give India a 38 run lead. Abu Jayed, who sent opener Rohit Sharma packing for six on Thursday, claimed both wickets Friday with his disciplined pace bowling. Abu got Cheteshwar Pujara (54) caught at gully soon after the overnight batsman completed his 23rd Test fifty with a boundary. But it was Kohli’s wicket that brought joy to the Bangladesh camp after their lbw appeals were supported by the third umpire. Kohli was given not out by the on-field umpire but replays suggested the ball would have hit leg stump. It was the superstar batsman’s 10th zero score in his 83rd Test. Agarwal, who completed his fifty with a boundary off Ebadat Hossain, stood firm with Rahane to surpass Bangladesh’s total.
INDvsWI- West Indies batting lineup struggled yet again to figure out India’s spinners as Harmanpreet Kaur and Co clinched the five-match T20I series with two games to spare after a seven-wicket win in Guyana on Thursday. The hosts were restricted to their lowest T20I total (59/9 in 20 overs) before Jemimah Rodrigues played a mature innings to take India home with 20 balls to spare. Opting to bat first in the must-win match, West Indies struggled from the word go. Anuja Patil, playing this match in place of Shikha Pandey, and Radha Yadav shared the six overs of powerplay between them as India read the conditions perfectly at the Providence Stadium. There was grip and turn on offer for the spinners from the outset, and as has been the case through this tour, the hosts had no answers to the spin-heavy Indian attack. Having ended the powerplay at 12/2, West Indies innings never really got going.
India U-23- All-rounder Shubham Sharma on Friday replaced an injured Parth Rekhade in India’s Under-23 squad for the ongoing Emerging Teams Asia Cup being held in Bangladesh. Rekhade suffered an injury to his little finger while bowling his fourth over during India’s Group B game against Nepal held at the Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protisthan No 3 Ground, Savar on Thursday. India won the match by seven wickets and will next take on Bangladesh on Saturday. A right-arm off spinner, Sharma represents Madhya Pradesh in the domestic tournaments. He has played 29 First-Class and 12 List A matches.
Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy- Young batsman Prithvi Shaw, who was banned for failing a dope test, has been included in the 15-member Mumbai squad for Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 tournament, but will be eligible to play from November 17. Shaw was suspended from all forms of cricket by the Board of Control for Cricket in India for a (retrospective) period of eight months in July after failing a dope test during the Mushtaq Ali Trophy in March and his ban ends on Friday. The squad for the last two games and for the super league stage of the national T20 tournament was announced by the Mumbai Cricket Association on Thursday. The 20-year-old Shaw will be eligible to play only from the November 17 when Mumbai takes on Assam in their last league game at the Wankhede stadium here. Mumbai are so far unbeaten in the tournament, having won all their five games and are set to qualify for the super league stage. Shaw, who made a memorable Test debut for India against the West Indies, last played in the Indian Premier League. Meanwhile, in-form Suryakumar Yadav will continue to lead Mumbai.
Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (Captain), Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw (Eligible from 17th November 2019), Aditya Tare, Jay Bista, Siddhesh Lad, Shivam Dube, Shubham Ranjane, Sujit Nayak, Shams Mulani, Dhrumil Matkar, Shardul Thakur, Dhawal Kulkarni, Tushar Deshpande and Eknath Kerkar.
WIvsAFG- West Indies captain Kieron Pollard was a relieved man after his side hammered Afghanistan to end their longest losing streak in T20 Internationals. Opener Evin Lewis hit 68 off 41 balls and Pollard made an unbeaten 32 of 21 balls and took two key wickets to claim man of the match honours as West Indies won the game by 30 runs. West Indies, who had lost their seven previous T20Is this year, made 164-5 from their 20 overs and then restricted Afghanistan to 134-9. Afghanistan won the toss and skipper Rashid Khan opted to make West Indies bat but his gamble did not pay off. “We didn’t bowl well in the first 10 overs,” he admitted. Afghanistan have now lost three straight T20s after 12 straight victories. However, Khan said the side were testing youngsters to be ready for future tournaments.
Athletics:
World Para Athletics Championship- India’s celebrated para high-jumpers Sharad Kumar and Mariyappan Thangavelu qualified for next year’s Tokyo Paralympics after claiming the silver and the bronze medal respectively in the World Para-Athletics Championships in Dubai. Two-time Asian Para Games champion Sharad Kumar cleared the bar with season’s best effort of 1.83 metres, while Mariyappan, a Rio Paralympic gold-medallist, clinched the bronze, also with a season’s best performance of 1.80 metres in Dubai on Thursday evening. The gold went to Sam Grewe, who won the top honours with a championship record of 1.86 metres. Sharad, the former world no 1, stayed in the lead initially clearing the bar at 1.67m until 1.83m before Grewe surged ahead with 1.86m to be on top. Mariyappan, who failed to clear 1.83 metres in his last attempt, later admitted that he couldn’t perform his best. China lead the medals tally with 53 medals including 23 gold medals, followed by Brazil (37) and Great Britain (24). Meanwhile, seven world records were broken on the day, taking the total to 44 with one more day still to go. This surpassed the London 2017 Worlds mark of 34 world records.
Football:
FIFA WC Qualifiers- India left it late to salvage a point in their 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifier against Afghanistan in Dushanbe, Tajikistan on Thursday but the Blue Tigers played out their third straight draw in the campaign. The win-less streak after four matches sees their hopes of progressing to the next round hang by a thread. Seiminlen Doungel headed home a Brandon Fernandes corner in the second minute of stoppage time to save India the blushes after Afghanistan had taken the lead through Zelfagar Nazary in first-half added time. Igor Stimac’s men laboured through the first-half, moving the ball slowly as Afghanistan threatened largely on set-plays. But just when it seemed that India would go into the interval unscathed, the hosts pounced on some sloppy defending from the away side to get their noses in front. Afghanistan targeted India’s left flank make-shift full-back Mandar Rao Dessai operated and got little protection from Ashique Kuruniyan all through the first half before getting their reward at the end. Stimac replaced Desai with forward Farukh Choudhary, dropping Ashique to left-back. After a slow start to the second half, India picked up tempo around the hour mark. With the draw, India remained in the fourth spot with three points, while Afghanistan stayed third taking their tally to four points. India next face Oman in another away match in five days time on Tuesday.
China NT coach- China are searching for a third coach this year after the country’s football association accepted Marcello Lippi’s resignation following the damaging loss to Syria in World Cup qualifying. A clearly infuriated Lippi, the 71-year-old Italian World Cup winner, made a brief but angry appearance in front of the media after the 2-1 defeat on Thursday in Dubai. “My pay is very high and I take all the blame. I am quitting as China coach,” the Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying. “We could beat weaker opponents like Maldives and Guam, but when we encountered stronger teams like the Philippines and Syria, we could not play our own football.” Lippi then abruptly left the press conference. Hours later, the Chinese Football Association said in a statement that it had accepted Lippi’s decision.
Basketball:
NBA- Marcus Morris sank a clutch three pointer with 13 seconds left to lift the New York Knicks to a 106-103 win over Kristaps Porzingis and the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday. Porzingis, the former face of the New York Knicks, received a rude New York welcome in his first game back in the Big Apple on Thursday. Knicks fans screamed “Go back to Latvia” and “Traitor” at the 24-year-old in his first appearance at Madison Square Garden since being traded in February. The Latvian finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds and teammate Luca Doncic, of Slovenia, tallied his fifth triple double of the season with 33 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds. But it wasn’t enough to stop the Knicks, who won for just the third time in 12 games this season, with two of those victories at the expense of the Mavericks.
