Asia Cup final: India beat Malaysia 2-1 to win third Asia Cup title

Agencies
October 22, 2017

Dhaka, Oct 23: India on Sunday ended their 10-year wait for continental triumph when they beat a gutsy Malaysia 2-1 in a nail-biting final to clinch their third Asia Cup hockey title.

India, which won the Asia Cup last time in 2007 in Chennai, scored from field efforts through Ramandeep Singh (3rd minute) and Lalit Upadhyay (29th) to dash Malaysian hopes. Malaysia were in summit clash for the first time since tournament's inception.

The ever-improving Malaysians, however, fought valiantly and didn't give up for a single minute. Their efforts bore fruit in the 50th minute when Shahril Saabah pulled one goal back.

The Indians, ranked sixth in the world, were in for nervous last 10 minutes but the defence did enough to hold on to the lead.

Pakistan won the bronze medal after edging out Korea 6-3 in the third-fourth place play-off match earlier in the day.

For India' new chief coach Marijne Sjoerd, it was perfect start to his stint as the Asia Cup was his maiden tournament in charge of the senior national side.

The top-ranked Indians finished unbeaten in the tournament, having won all their matches except for the 1-1 draw against Korea in the Super 4s stage.

Today's win was India's second victory over Malaysia in the tournament, having beaten them 6-2 in the Super 4s stage.

For Malaysia, it was their best result in the tournament. They had earlier won the bronze in the 2007 edition of the event in Chennai.

The Indians came out all guns blazing and took the lead as early as the third minute through Ramandeep, who scored from a rebound after his initial deflection from SV Sunil's cross hit the post.

Chinglensana Singh's reverse hit from close range then went wide as India wasted a golden chance.

It was a battle fought on even keel between the two teams as Malaysia secured their first penalty corner in the 13th minute but wasted it.

Harmanpreet Singh was then denied by Razie Rahim as he made a goalline save to keep out the Indian defender's flick from India's first penalty corner.

Minutes later Malaysian goalkeeper Kumar Subramaniam made double save -- first kept out Akashdeep Sinh's shot and then denied Amit Rohidas from the resultant set piece.

A minute before the half time, Lalit doubled India's lead when he beautifully deflected home Sumit's reverse hit cross from the left flank.

After the change of ends, Lalit and Ramandeep came tantalisingly close to extending India's tally of goals but their shots from inside the D were off target.

Down by two goals, the Malaysians came out all guns blazing in the fourth and final quarter in search of the equaliser and gave the Indian defence a run for their money.

After wasting their second penalty corner, Malaysia came back into the match when Saabah scored from close range in the 50th minute as the Young Indian defence wilted under pressure for a second.

It was nervous last 10 minutes for the Indians as Malaysia mounted attack after attack in search of an equaliser.

In the form of their third penalty corner, Malaysia had a golden opportunity to take the match into shoot-out but the Indian defence stood tall to maintain their slender lead.

With three minutes from the hooter, Malaysia withdrew goalkeeper Subramaniam for an extra player but the move failed to yield desired result as the Indians managed to hold on to their lead for a famous victory.

Comments

ahmed
 - 
Monday, 23 Oct 2017

Alhamdhulillah ...By the grace of Allah Swt  Indian Hockey team won the cup...Great achivement by Indian hockey players ...with team work...

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News Network
June 25,2020

Jun 25: Tencent Holdings Ltd.'s $40 billion surge this week and the recent ascent of Pinduoduo Inc. have reshuffled the ranking of China's richest people.

The country's largest game developer has surpassed Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. as Asia's most-valuable company, with its shares rising above HK$500 in intraday trading Wednesday for the first time. Pinduoduo, a Groupon-like shopping app also known as PDD, has more than doubled this year.

The rallies have propelled the wealth of their founders, with an added twist: Tencent's Pony Ma, worth $50 billion, has surpassed Jack Ma's $48 billion fortune, becoming China's richest person. And Colin Huang of PDD, whose net worth stands at $43 billion, has squeezed real estate mogul Hui Ka Yan of China Evergrande Group out of the top three earlier this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the digitization of the workplace and changed consumers' habits, boosting shares of many internet companies. Now tech tycoons are dominating the ranks of China's richest people. They occupy four of the top five spots: Ding Lei of Tencent peer NetEase Inc. follows China Evergrande's Hui.

‘Perform Strongly'

Tencent has come a long way since hitting a low in 2018, when China froze the approval process for new games. Since then, the stock has almost doubled, and last month the tech giant reported a 26 per cent jump in first-quarter revenue.

“Tencent's online games segment will probably perform strongly through the Covid-19 pandemic, and most of its other businesses are relatively unscathed,” said Vey-Sern Ling, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst.

That has been a boon for Pony Ma, 48, who owns a 7 per cent stake in the company and pocketed about $757 million from selling some 14.6 million of his Tencent shares this year, data complied by Bloomberg show.

The native of China's southern Guangdong province studied computer science at Shenzhen University and was a software developer at a supplier of telecom services and products before co-founding Tencent with four others in the late 1990s. At the time, the company focused on instant-messaging services.

It has been a long comeback for Pony Ma. He overtook real estate tycoon Wang Jianlin as China's second-richest person in 2013 and topped Baidu Inc.'s Robin Li as the wealthiest in early 2014. Later that year, Alibaba went public in the U.S., catapulting Jack Ma's fortune.

Bloomberg Intelligence's Ling notes, however, that Tencent's jump this year has lagged behind some internet peers, especially those in e-commerce, games and online entertainment. Just consider: Tencent shares have climbed 31 per cent in 2020, while PDD's American depositary receipts have more than doubled. Alibaba, meanwhile, has advanced just 6.9 per cent.

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News Network
June 10,2020

New Delhi, Jun 10: India on Wednesday reported a spike of 9,985 more COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the country's COVID-19 count to 2,76,583, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

279 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours taking the total death toll to 7,745.

The total number of active cases has reached 1,33,632 while 1,35,205 patients have recovered. While one person has migrated.

With 90,787 cases, Maharashtra reported the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country followed by Tamil Nadu with 34,914 cases.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 1,45,216 samples were tested in the last 24 hours while overall 50,61,332 samples have been tested so far.

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News Network
April 25,2020

New Delhi, Apr 25: The love and loyalty of the fans will never let him leave Royal Challengers Bangalore till the time he is playing IPL, skipper Virat Kohli said on Friday.

RCB have reached the IPL final thrice but have not gone on to win the trophy.

During a live session on Instagram with former South African captain and RCB teammate AB de Villiers, Kohli said winning the tournament remains the goal but he would not leave the team irrespective of the results.

"It has been such an amazing journey. It is always going to be our dream, winning the IPL together. There is no scenario where I could think of leaving the team ever.

"You can feel emotional about the season not going well but till the time I am playing IPL, I am never leaving this team. The fans, their loyalty has been amazing," said the India skipper.

Responding to Kohli's feelings towards RCB, De Villiers too acknowledged the support of fans over the past nine years. Kohli, on the other hand, has been with RCB since 2008.

"Same for me. I never want to leave RCB but to do that I got to keep scoring runs. I am not the captain you see," said the South African in jest.

Both recalled their early days in international cricket and their growth as cricketers and friends.

Kohli said at times, the youngsters coming in have too much regard for the "system" and he wants to see them break the norm.

"I want to see youngsters coming in scoring 500-600 runs. I want people to break the norm. Sometimes I feel people have too much regard for the system in sport. When you break the shackles, you do something special."

Kohli also acknowledged contribution of Mark Boucher, Gary Kirsten and Duncan Fletcher early on in his international career.

"Gary always gave me positive feedback. Boucher told me in 2008 to improve my game against the short ball. He had the vision. Then Fletcher, he had a keen eye for the game. So many people who have contributed (to my growth)," said Kohli.

De Villiers picked the 119 at Wankhede in the 2015 series decider as his best knock against India. Kohli picked the 119 he scored in Johannesburg Test in 2013.

"I was always really motivated to win the series after 2-2 . I was incredibly motivated to do something special," de Villiers said.

They also picked their combined South Africa and India ODI team. It included Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ab de Villiers, Jacques Kallis, M S Dhoni (captain), Yuvraj Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Dale Steyn, Jasprit Bumrah and Kagiso Rabada.

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