Indian sports News- November 1st
November 1, 2019
Bytes: Wrestling World Championship, Paris Masters, Deodhar Trophy, Olympics race walking to be shifted away from Tokyo, SaarLorLux Open, Odisha FC demolished Mumbai City FC, Hockey Olympic Qualifiers
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:
Deodhar Trophy- Shubman Gill led his side from the front, while Mayank Agarwal continued his astounding run-scoring form as the India C Openers smashed spectacular hundreds for India C in a Deodhar Trophy match in Ranchi on Friday. The openers’ superb batting effort was followed by Jalaj Saxena’s career-best seven-wicket haul, as the trio steered India C into the final of the three-team tournament with a massive 232-run win over India A. The result knocked out Hanuma Vihari-led India A. It was India A’s second successive defeat in as many days. India C skipper Gill (143 off 142) and Test opener Agarwal (120 off 111) shared a 226-run stand before a special knock from Suryakumar Yadav (72 not out off 29) propelled the team to 366/3 in 50 overs. India A were never in the chase and off-spinner Saxena (7/41) ran through their batting line-up with a memorable spell. India C and India B, who beat India A on Thursday, will play the final here on Monday. Before the title clash, they meet each other in the final league game on Saturday. India C effectively batted India A out of the game with Agarwal and Gill piling up the runs. Gill, who was part of the India Test squad for the home series against South Africa but did not get a game, hammered as many as half a dozen sixes besides 10 fours on way to his highest score in List A cricket (domestic 50-over matches). The Punjab batsman took his time to get going in the early part of his innings but turned on the style in the end overs, before falling seven short of a 150.
Tennis:
Paris Masters- India’s top doubles player Rohan Bopanna advanced to the quarter-finals of the Paris Master with partner Denis Shapovalov but his compatriot Divij Sharan made a second round exit. Bopanna and his Canadian partner outplayed American-Argentine pair of Manuel Gonzalez and Austin Krajicek 6-1 6-3 in their second round match which lasted just 59 minutes. The Indo-Canadian team broke the rivals four times and did not face a single breakpoint during its commanding win. However, Sharan and his Kiwi partner Artem Sitak, who entered the event as alternates and knocked out the fourth seeds earlier, lost 2-6 3-6 to French team of Fabrice Martin and Jeremy Chardy in just 53 minutes. Sharan has won two titles this season, triumphing at Pune with Bopanna and at St. Petersburg with Igor Zelenay. The title with Sharan in Pune remains Bopanna’s only trophy in 2019. They had united as a team at the beginning of the season, eyeing Tokyo Olympics, but separated after finding it difficult to enter big tournaments with their combined rankings.
Badminton:
SaarLorLux Open- Indian shuttlers Lakshya Sen, Kiran George advanced to the men’s singles quarter-finals of the SaarLorLux Open Super Tour 100 in Germany on Thursday. However, Mithun Manjunath and BM Rahul Bhardwaj went down in the third round. Sen, who had won his first BWF World Tour title at the Dutch Open in October, didn’t have to break any sweat as his opponent Germany’s Lars Schaenzler gave him a walk over, while Kiran beat Netherlands’ Joran Kweekel 21-14 21-16 to also make it to the last eight. Sen, who had won his first BWF World Tour title at the Dutch Open in October, didn’t have to break any sweat as his opponent Germany’s Lars Schaenzler gave him a walk over, while Kiran beat Netherlands’ Joran Kweekel 21-14 21-16 to also make it to the last eight. On Wednesday night, Sen had staved off a stiff challenge from Finland’s Eetu Heino in the second round. The eighth seeded Indian, who had defeated Heino on way to his title win at Belgian international in September, overcame the Finnish shuttler 21-18 18-21 22-20 in a 56-minute second round match. Fifth seeded women’s doubles pair of Pooja Dandu and Sanjana Santosh, who got a bye in the first round, went down to Denmark’s Julie Finne-Ipsen and Mai Surrow in the pre-quarters. The Indian seeds were pushed to three games before losing 21-17, 17-21, 21-14. Men’s doubles pairing of Vaibhaav and Prakash Raj lost to fourth seeds Scotland pair of Alexander Dunn and Adam Hall 21-9, 21-8.
Football:
ISL- Odisha FC rode on a dominant first-half display to see off Mumbai City FC 4-2 at the Mumbai Football Arena in Mumbai to pick up their first victory in the 2019-’20 Indian Super League. Goals from Xisco Hernandez, Aridane Santana and Jerry Mawhminghthanga put the visitors in control at the break before a Mohamed Larbi penalty early in the second half restored some hope for the hosts. Santana added another for the visitors to cap off a fine performance in Mumbai. Odisha set the tone as early as the second minute when Marcos Tebar played Jerry behind the Mumbai defence, who survived the early scare thanks to makeshift right back Mohammed Rafique who cleared the danger. However, the visitors were able to break through four minutes later when forward Adriane Santana won the aerial duel with the Mumbai centre-backs to release Xisco in space who cut inside on his favoured left foot to send a curler past Amrinder Singh and put Odisha in front. The win sees Odisha jump to sixth place in the standings as Mumbai remain in fifth spot after falling to their first defeat.
Wrestling:
World Championship- India’s Pooja Gehlot (53kg) ensured the country’s second medal at the 2019 UWW Under-23 Senior World Championships on Thursday in Budapest, Hungary after storming into the final while Jyoti (50 kg) missed out on the bronze medal. Jyoti’s hopes of clinching the bronze medal came to an abrupt end as Russia’s Nadezhda Sokolova took just 150 seconds to pick up 10 unanswered points to win by technical superiority. Earlier, Gehlot put together a string of good results to reach the summit clash. It was a fantastic display overall from the youngster who started from the qualifying stages, where she demolished Ekaterina Verbina of Russia 8-3. In the quarter-finals, Gehlot blazed through her bout, notching up a commanding 8-0 win to set up a semi-final showdown against Zeynep Yetgil, gold medallist at the Junior European Wrestling Championships in 2018. The semi-final was rollercoaster affair. Gehlot opened up an early 2-0 lead and finished the first period of three minutes holding on to that advantage. But the Turkish wrestler started the second half in style, going up 4-2. None of the other Indians in action on Thursday could win a round. While Ukraine’s Ilona Prokopevniuk was declared a 2-0 winner by fall over Reshma Mane in 62kg, Nisha exited with a 3-11 loss to Maya Gabriella Nelson of the USA in 65kg. In 72kg, Naina suffered the same fate when she was shown the door by Cuba’s Milaimys de la Caridad Marin Potrille after a 13-3 victory.
Hockey:
Olympics Qualifiers- As world No 5 India gears up to take on Russia men’s team, ranked 22nd, in a two-legged FIH Olympic qualifier tie in Bhubaneshwar on Friday and Saturday, coach Graham Reid’s message to his wards is straightforward: treat every team with respect. Complacency has no place in professional sport and Australian Reid has stressed this message to his wards regularly since taking over as the Indian men’s hockey team’s head coach. Against Russia, India will start as clear favourites to win both the matches at the Kalinga Stadium and seal their place in next year’s Tokyo Olympics but Reid is very well aware that one bad day in office can ruin his team’s Olympic dream. “If you look at last week’s games in Olympic qualifiers, it’s the first thing you would see (how complacency can cost a team),” Reid said on the eve of the first game. “My message has been pretty much the same ever since I joined the team. Always treat everyone with respect, like you are playing the best in the world. We have prepared as well as we could have and are ready.” India captain Manpreet Singh agreed with his coach and said senior pros like him are doing their best to make the juniors aware about the ill effects of complacency.
Olympics:
IOC- The 2020 Olympic marathon and race-walking will be moved to northern Japan over heat concerns, officials said Friday, after Tokyo’s governor offered her reluctant support. The International Olympic Committee’s plan had caught Tokyo and 2020 organisers by surprise, with Governor Yuriko Koike repeatedly expressing her opposition. But on Friday, she said the city would not stand in the way. “We cannot agree with the IOC but we will not obstruct the decision made by the IOC, which has the final decision-making authority,” she said at a meeting with Olympic officials and organisers. “In other words, this is a decision without an agreement.”
The IOC announced last month that it wanted to move the events north to Sapporo, citing concerns about the hot and humid conditions of the Tokyo summer. John Coates, head of the IOC’s coordination commission, welcomed Koike’s statement as well as assent from Japan’s Olympic minister and the 2020 organisers.
