Champions! Delhi Acers clinch PBL title after thrilling 4-3 victory over Mumbai Rockets

January 18, 2016

New Delhi, Jan 18: Delhi Acers notched up a thrilling 4-3 victory over Mumbai Rockets in the summit clash to clinch the revamped Premier Badminton League (PBL) title at the Siri Fort Sports Complex in New Delhi on Tuesday.

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Tommy Sugiarto, men's doubles pair of Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong and Rajiv Ouseph won their respective matches as Delhi clinched the trophy and pocketed a winner's cheque of Rs 3 crores.

Mixed doubles pair of Kamilla Juhl and Vladimir Ivanov thrashed Gabrielle Adcock and Akshay Dewalkar 15-6 15-12 to draw first blood for Mumbai Rockets.

In the first men's singles, Tommy Sugiarto then continued his unbeaten run at the tournament as he saw off Mumbai's H S Prannoy 13-15 15-9 15-9 to bring Delhi back into the contest.

In the men's doubles match, Ivanov and Mathais Boe played their heart out before going down narrowly 14-15 15-10 15-14 to Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong as Delhi grabbed a 2-1 lead after three matches.

China's Han Li, who had beaten World No 2 Saina Nehwal on Friday to take Mumbai into the finals, then notched up a 12-15 15-8 15-8 win over P C Thulasi in their Trump match to make it 3-2 in Mumbai's favour.

In the deciding match, which was Delhi's Trump match, 2010 Commonwealth Games silver medallist Rajiv Ouseph took the court against RMV Gurusaidutt and he took Delhi across the line by grabbing two points with a 15-11 15-6 win over the Indian in the last match of the day.

In the first match, Kamilla and Ivanov stamped their authority early as they zoomed to a 8-5 lead at the break. The Denmark shuttler dished out some superb serves to continue their good run and reeled off six points to reach 14-8. Ivanov hit wide but they grabbed the next point to win the opening game.

Adcock and Dewalkar opened up a slender 3-1 lead early on in the second game and reached the interval with a 8-4 cushion. But Mumbai clawed back when Dewalkar hit wide and then wrested a 12-9 lead with Ivanov in full flow. Kamilla's return took Mumbai to a 14-11 match point. Delhi saved one but a service error sealed it in Mumbai's favour next.

In the second match of the day, Sugiarto, who has not lost a match in PBL, took the court against Prannoy and despite a fight from the Indian lead 8-5 at the break when the latter's smash got buried at the nets.

Prannoy clawed back at 9-9 with a cracking smash and moved into the lead at 12-11 when Sugiarto hit the nets. The Indian moved into the game point at 14-12 with a dribble at net and grabbed the opening game when Sugiarto hit long.

Sugiarto once again nosed ahead, grabbing a 8-3 lead in the second game with a cross court return. With Prannoy struggling with his strokes, Sugiarto ran away with the match to bounce back in the contest. In the decider, Sugiarto continued his dominance and lead 8-3 at the break. The duo engaged in gruelling rallies but Prannoy failed to close the points. The result was Sugiarto zoomed to the match point in a jiffy. The Indian saved three points before the Indonesian sealed his sixth win when Prannoy hit long.

"It was a tough match as it is the Final Tie of the League, so its quite expected. Prannoy played very well today and gave me good competition. Losing the first match was a setback but I came back with better strategies. Happy to win the match, it's big boost to my team," Sugiarto said.

In men's doubles, Ivanov and Boe rallied their way from 5-8 to clinch the opening game after a thrilling battle with Keat and Heong. However, the Delhi pair came back strongly to grab the second game. In the decider, Keat and Heong moved to a 10-3 lead early on and also reached the match point at 14-11.

Ivanov and Boe saved three match points to draw parity but Ivanov hit wide next to hand over the match to Delhi.

Koo Keat Kien and Tan Boon Heaong said: "It was an unbelievable match. We all held our nerves till the last moment. We had some game-plans. Though we lost the first game, the second game turned into a big motivation for us. We gave everything in the third game and eventually managed to out-fox the opponents."

Delhi's Thulasi then conjured up hopes of an upset as she dished out a delectable game of badminton to grab the opening game against Saina slayer Han Li but the Chinese bounced back in style as she brushed aside the Indian in the second game with a much-improved game.

In the decider, Li continued to dominate as she opened up a 8-4 lead at the break. The China shuttler didn't let her guard down after the interval and picked points with ease. Thulashi engaged in rallies and some of her strokes stunnned Li but in the end it was the Chinese who had the last laugh.

The second men's singles turned out to be a edge of the seat affair as Guru and Rajiv fought hard right from the start and the England shuttler entered the first break at 8-7.

The duo continued their tooth and nail battle after the breather moving together till 11-11. Rajiv then changed gears and dominated the rallies and pushed Guru to commit errors who netted one and then sent one long to allow Delhi grab the first game.

In the second game, Rajiv opened up a 8-4 lead and then continued his dominance as Guru's game crumbled.

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News Network
January 6,2020

Sydney, Jan 6: Nathan Lyon captured five for 50 and 10 match wickets as Australia crushed New Zealand by 279 runs on Monday, capping a golden domestic summer as they swept the three-Test series.

The off-spinner led the powerful Australian bowling attack to dismiss the Kiwis for 136 and seal another heavy win over the Black Caps after similar victories in Perth and Melbourne.

Australia have been unbeatable this season, winning all five Tests at home -- two against Pakistan and three against New Zealand -- after retaining the Ashes by drawing the series 2-2 in England.

"It's been a great summer for the Australian Test side," Lyon said.

"It's pretty special to be part of it, we have been impressive, pretty clinical, the batters have done well and given us bowlers plenty of time."

Australia declared their second innings at 217 for two with David Warner scoring an unbeaten century, leaving the Black Caps with a revised 416-run target in the fourth innings on a wearing Sydney Cricket Ground pitch.

But the Kiwis buckled under the pressure of Australia's superior bowling attack with Mitchell Starc taking three for 25 to support the wiles of spinner Lyon.

"They were clinical in all areas and after the first match they put us under pressure session after session," said skipper Kane Williamson, who missed the Test with a virus.

New Zealand were reeling early at 27-4 and never recovered after Starc and Lyon took two wickets each in the middle session to put the skids under the tourists.

Starc removed both openers, Tom Latham and Tom Blundell, in the first five overs. Blundell fell to a stunning catch by a diving Lyon at point for two and stand-in skipper Latham lost a review for leg before wicket.

Jeet Raval was out in a review to the faintest of edges on 'Snicko' in Lyon's first over for 12.

First-innings top-scorer Glenn Phillips went for a duck after technology detected a faint outside edge to wicketkeeper Paine off Lyon.

Taylor's Kiwi record

Ross Taylor became the leading all-time Kiwi batsman, going past Stephen Fleming (7,172) before he was bowled by Pat Cummins for 22 to take his Test aggregate to 7,174.

Big-hitting Colin de Grandhomme smacked Lyon for six to bring up his fifty but went next ball hoicking to Joe Burns at deep mid-wicket for 52.

Todd Astle was out to a superb diving catch by James Pattinson in the outfield for 17.

Starc yorked William Somerville's middle stump for seven and BJ Watling was the last to fall, caught at backward square leg by Pat Cummins for 19.

Earlier, Warner completed his 24th Test century and remained unbeaten when skipper Paine declared upon the dismissal of Marnus Labuschagne.

"You know you're capable of doing so," Warner said, when asked about how he had bounced back from his disastrous Ashes campaign in England last year.

"I was in the nets hitting the ball well and had the skipper backing me. To be able to play with freedom helped me. It's all paying off."

Labuschagne, who was dropped on four in a regulation caught-and-bowled chance by leg-spinner Astle, was caught at long on off Matt Henry for 59 -- his seventh score over 50 in eight innings this domestic summer.

Labuschagne finished the home five-Test season with a stunning aggregate of 896 runs, made up of his 215 in the first innings, three other centuries and three half-centuries in eight innings.

There was drama late in the Australian innings when Warner was given an official warning by umpire Aleem Dar for running down the middle of the pitch in scampering a single.

It resulted in five penalty runs being added to New Zealand's first innings total meaning their target was revised down from 421 to 416.

The Test was played against the backdrop of one of Australia's most devastating bushfire seasons with at least 24 people losing their lives in blazes raging across the country, including on the outskirts of Sydney.

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News Network
January 8,2020

Indore, Jan 8: Skipper Virat Kohli struck an unbeaten 30 as India beat Sri Lanka by seven wickets in the second Twenty20 international in Indore on Tuesday.

The hosts rode a 71-run opening stand between KL Rahul, who hit 45, and Shikhar Dhawan, who made 32, to chase down their target of 143 in 17.3 overs and take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series after the first match was rained off.

Leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga took the wickets of the Indian openers but Shreyas Iyer, who scored 34 before falling to paceman Lahiru Kumara, and Kohli, who hit the winning six, got the team home.

The third match is on Friday in Pune.

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Agencies
January 26,2020

Mumbai, Jan 26: Boxing great Mary Kom has been selected for the Padma Vibhushan, the country's second highest civilian award. Olympic silver medallist and reigning badminton World Champion PV Sindhu has been named for Padma Bhushan as the names of Padma awardees were disclosed on Saturday on the eve of the 71st Republic Day.

Rated as one of the most successful amateur boxers of all time, Mary Kom won bronze at the 2012 London Olympics and has won gold at the boxing World Championships for a record six times. She has won a total of eight medals at the World Championships, the most recent of which came in October 2019 in Ulan Ude, Russia. The 36-year-old is now looking to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Sindhu became the only Indian woman to win an Olympic silver when she reached the final of the women's singles event at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazi. In August last year, the 24-year-old became the first Indian to win gold at the badminton World Championships.

She has also won two silver and two bronze medals at the World's in the past, thus making her only the second woman after Chinese two-time Olympic gold medallist Zhang Ning to win five medals in the competition.

Indian women's hockey captain Rani Rampal, who has been the face of women's hockey in the country and played a pivotal role in the team qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, is among those who have been nominated for the Padma Shri award.

Women's football stalwart Oinam Bembem Devi, former cricketer Zaheer Khan, shooter Jitu Rai, former hockey captain and coach M.P. Ganesh and archer Tarundeep Rai are the other sportspersons to be selected for the Padma Shri award.

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