Indian sports News- November 25th
November 25, 2019
Bytes: Lakshay Sen wins Scottish Open, Tata steel Chess tour, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, AUSvsPAK, IND/PAK vs Croatia- Davis Cup 2020 Qualifiers, Spain wins Davis Cup, National Inter-District meet, RSM Classic, U15 Asian Wrestling Championship, ATK plays draw with Odisha FC
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:
Scottish Open- Fast-rising Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen claimed his fourth title in three months, bagging the Scottish Open title with a thrilling win over Brazil’s Ygor Coelho in the men’s singles summit clash in Glasgow. The top-seeded Indian overcame his Brazilian opponent 18-21, 21-18, 21-19 in a 56-minute final on Sunday night. After this win, Sen will break into the top-40 in the BWF rankings and inch closer to a direct qualification in the top grade 2 events. He joined fellow Indians Anand Pawar (2010 and 2012), Arvind Bhatt (2004) and Pullela Gopichand (1999) in winning the Scottish Open title. The 18-year-old from Uttarakhand has now clinched three titles out of the four tournaments that he has played since September – SaarLorLux Open, Dutch Open, and Belgian International. After losing in the second round of Irish Open, Sen made amends this week and dished out some superb performances right from the start. The Indian began his campaign with a straight-game win over Austria’s Luka Wraber, before defeating compatriot Kiran George to reach the quarterfinals. The world No 41 Indian then recorded another straight-game win over sixth-seed Brian Yang before seeing off France’s Christo Popov in the semi-finals.
Cricket:
Syed Mushtaq Ali- KL Rahul slammed an unbeaten 84 to help defending champions Karnataka thrashed Punjab by seven wickets in their Group B Super League game in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament in Surat on Sunday. In another game, young opener Prithvi Shaw, who returned to competitive cricket after serving an eight month suspension, smashed 64 off 36 balls as Mumbai chased down a stiff 171-run target with five balls to spare against Jharkhand. Karnataka pacer Ronit More bagged four wickets to help his team restrict Punjab to 163/6 before Rahul’s blazing 48-ball 84 enabled the team to reach the target with two overs to spare. It was Karnataka’s third successive win in the tournament. For Punjab, Shubman Gill, who was released from the Indian Test squad, fell for 11. They also lost other opener Abhishek Sharma (5) cheaply, to be reeling at 18/2. Skipper Mandeep Singh (76 off 50 balls) held the innings from one end and took the team out of the rubble. Anmolpreet Singh (11) failed to convert his start as Punjab lost the third wicket with 55 on the board. Gurkeerat Singh (44 off 32 balls) then joined his skipper in the middle as the duo conjured a crucial 88-run stand for the fourth wicket and steadied the ship. Brief Scores:
Punjab 163/6 (Mandeep Singh 76, Gurkeerat Singh 44; Ronit More 4/27) lost to Karnataka 167/3 (KL Rahul 84*, Manish Pandey 33; Mayank Markande 1/33) by seven wickets.
Maharashtra 165/2 (Azim Kazi 48*, Ruturaj Gaikwad 47, Kedar Jadhav 47; Swapnil Singh 1/19) beat Baroda 98 (Kedar Devdhar 27; Satyajeet Bachhav 2/5, Samad Fallah 2/12) by 67 runs.
Jharkhand 170/4 (Kumar Deobrat 58, Sumit Kumar 28*; Shubham Ranjane 2/17) lost to Mumbai 171/5 (Prithvi Shaw 64, Shivam Dube 23; Sonu Singh 2/34) by five wickets.
Haryana 181/6 (Himashu Rana 59, Shivam Chauhan 47, Simarjeet Singh 2/43, Nitish Rana 1/13) beat Delhi 151/8 (Nitish Rana 37, Rishabh Pant 28; Yuzvendra Chahal 3/27) by 30 runs.
AUSvsPAK- Australia captain Tim Paine says his team has room to improve after crushing Pakistan in their opening Test, hailing the quality of his batsmen and bowlers. The home side comfortably won the first of their two Tests by an innings and five runs inside four days at the Gabba on Sunday, set up by dismissing Pakistan for 240 in the first inning then smacking 580 in reply. They now head to Adelaide for a day-night Test starting Friday, with Australia having ominously won all five pink-ball matches they have played. Australia’s top order struggled during the recent Ashes series, but they clicked in Brisbane, raising hopes a corner has been turned. David Warner hit 154, opening partner Joe Burns 97 and number three Marnus Labuschagne 185. The only real failure was Steve Smith (four), who was their saviour in England.
Tennis:
Davis Cup 2020 Qualifiers- Croatia will play either India or Pakistan to qualify for next year’s Davis Cup, after the draw for the qualification stage was made on Sunday. The 2018 champions crashed out in the group stage of this week’s tournament in Madrid, with the final on Sunday pitting Rafael Nadal’s Spain against Canada. Spain, Canada and the two losing semi-finalists, Great Britain and Russia, automatically qualify for the competition next year, as well as Serbia and France, who have been granted the two wild card slots. It leaves 12 places for the winners of the qualifiers, which will be contested on the weekend of March 6 and 7. Ties will consist of four singles matches and one doubles, with all rubbers played over the best-of-three tie-break sets. Other stand-out fixtures include Colombia facing 2016 champions Argentina, and 28-time winners Australia taking on Brazil. Germany, who lost to Britain in this year’s quarter-finals on Friday, will be up against Belarus. Croatia, Colombia, Australia and Germany will all be at home.
Davis Cup- Rafael Nadal put the finishing touches to his extraordinary year by clinching a sixth Davis Cup title for Spain on Sunday as he beat Denis Shapovalov in Madrid to seal victory over Canada. Nadal’s 6-3, 7-6 (9/7) win over Shapovalov in front of an adoring home crowd at the Caja Magica gave Spain an unassailable 2-0 lead after Roberto Bautista Agut earlier battled past Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-6 (7/3), 6-3. The 33-year-old had been an unstoppable force in Spain’s pulsating semi-final against Britain on Saturday and never looked like letting this chance slip, with King Felipe VI and Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos watching on, along with Barcelona defender Gerard Pique. Pique’s marketing company Kosmos have been at the heart of the raft of changes to this 119-year-old competition but Nadal’s brilliance has been familiar, even if this will surely go down as one of the finest seasons of the 19-time Grand Slam champion’s sparkling career. He added a fourth Davis Cup final success – three more than Roger Federer – to the ones he claimed in 2004, 2009 and 2011, while capping a remarkable 12 months that has included winning the French and US Opens, and ending the year as world number one.
Athletics:
National Inter District meet- Prince Chaudhary of Etah in Uttar Pradesh equalled the boys under-16 100m meet record and Nasik’s Aishwarya Prajakt More emerged the fastest girl in the 17th National Inter-District Junior Athletics Meet in Tirupati on Sunday.
Had he not started celebrating early, Prince Chaudhary may have secured the meet record for himself rather than share it with Kshitij Bhoite (Thane) who clocked 11.06 seconds in Ranchi six years ago. Jitin Chaudhary (Bhind), who finished second, was disqualified as the report of the medical tests that he had undergone a day earlier arrived and he was declared over-age. Karimnagar’s Amirishetti Tharun, who was second fastest in the first round but qualified for the final only as the eighth fastest after he was hampered by a muscle pull in the semifinals, was moved up to the second place with a time of 11.31 seconds, one hundredth of a second ahead of Reasi’s Vasu Sapolia. Nasik’s Aishwarya Prajakt More, who has been training for less than two years, strained every sinew to gain a slight edge over Bengaluru Urban’s Neole Anna Cornelio over the final 10 metres and win by two-hundredths of a second.
Wrestling:
U-15 Asian Championship- Sagar Jaglan erased a massive 1-6 deficit to grab a gold in the freestyle 68kg category as India concluded its campaign at the Under-15 Asian Wrestling Championships with 28 medals, including 13 gold, in Taichung on Sunday. Led by 2019 Cadet World Championships bronze medallist Deepak Chahal, the freestyle grapplers continued their heroics to capture four gold medals on the final day of the competition. While Chahal won the gold in 75kg, Haryana’s Vishal (62kg), Sagar Jaglan (68kg), and Madhya Pradesh’s Jatin (85kg) were the others who finished on the top podium. Most impressive of the lot was Sagar. He was down 1-6 against Bexultanov Yerkhan of Kazakhstan, he made a remarkable turnaround in the last 20 seconds to win the bout 7-6. India finished on top of the team rankings in freestyle for the first time with 225 points as all 10 wrestlers finished on the podium. Kazakhstan finished second while Japan was third. India’s Greco-Roman wrestlers added one gold and two silver on the final day. Harsh remained unbeatable in the 44kg to capture the yellow metal. With 204 points, India finished second behind Kazakhstan who accumulated 230 points. The exploits of Indian girls also continued on Sunday with Komal (42kg), Sheetal (46kg) and Dhanshri Fand (50kg) contributing three silver medals to the tally. Japan pushed India to the second spot in the girls team rankings. India finished with 212 points, 13 less than Japan.
Chess:
Tata Steel Chess- Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand failed to utilise most of his opportunities in the final game as he finished joint sixth while Magnus Carlsen stamped his authority in the rapid chess to win by a huge margin in the Tata Steel Rapid and Blitz chess tournament in Kolkata on Sunday. Anand, who struggled in the last game of the second day against Anish Giri of Holland, did not quite rework his energy and lost to Carlsen in the first game of the third day and then drew with compatriot Vidit Gujrathi. In the final rapid game, the die was cast and Anand was clearly much better against another compatriot P Harikrishna. But the game again panned out to a draw, leaving Anand with a joint sixth-place finish in the rapid section of the strongest tournament on Indian soil. Reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen had nothing to complain about even though he was busy ringing the bell for the pink-ball match between India and Bangladesh. The Norwegian showed yet again why he will be hailed as one of the finest players ever as he beat Anand first and then Ding Liren in the final round. In between, a draw with Harikrishna happened, wherein too Carlsen was pressing for a victory for a long time. With the rapid section over, Carlsen was leading with a whopping 15 points out of a possible 18, while American Hikaru Nakamura was a distant second on 11 points followed by Wesley So of United States, Anish Giri of Holland and a resurgent Levon Aronian of Armenia at joint third spot on nine points each.
Golf:
RSM Classic- Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri sunk four birdies on his second nine to card a four-under 66 that pushed him to Tied 39th after the third round at the RSM Classic, St. Simons Island on Sunday. Lahiri, who made the cut on the line, though, was a long way behind the leaders. Lahiri, who birdied once and bogeyed once in his first nine had four birdies on the second, fourth, sixth and eighth holes. Meanwhile, Brendon Todd, winner in his last two starts, gave himself a chance to join Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson in an elite group to have won three times in a row on the PGA Tour. With six birdies on the front side of the Seaside Course, he shot an 8-under 62 to tie the 54-hole tournament record and build a two-shot lead. Not since Dustin Johnson in 2017 has anyone won three straight starts on the PGA TOUR. Not since Tiger Woods in 2006 has anyone won three straight tournaments on the PGA TOUR schedule. Todd was at 18-under 194, who shots ahead of Webb Simpson (63) and Sebastian Munoz (66), who already has won this season at the Sanderson Farms Championship. Tyler Duncan, who started with a two-shot lead, made 18 pars for a 70 and was four shots behind.
Football:
ISL- ATK and Odisha FC played out a goalless draw during their 2019-’20 Indian Super League clash at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Pune on Sunday. Both sides carved out numerous chances to break the deadlock but a goal would not materialise. The result sees ATK maintain their spot atop the table with 10 points from five games while Odisha are now fifth with five points from as many matches. The game got off to an energetic start with ATK looking to go forward quickly. However, Odisha pressed their opponents hard and forced a couple of mispasses. Odisha slowly started to put ATK’s defence under pressure and had two chances to take the lead after 15 minutes. Nandhakumar Sekar headed over from close range after Martin Guedes’ corner evaded ATK custodian Arindam Bhattacharja. Then, Daniel Lalhlimpuia displayed silky skills to embark on a mazy run, evading three ATK defenders with ease, but he lost his footing and could only direct a tame effort at Arindam. Odisha’s dominance continued as Nandhakumar picked out Guedes in the box, but he could not get a shot away. Both sides continued to test each other in a bid to find a winner but a combination of sloppy passing and poor finishing kept the deadlock intact. There was some drama at the end as ATK forced a series of corners but a goal would not come to fruition.
