Vikas Gowda clinches India's first gold at Asian Athletics Championships

July 5, 2013

Vikas_GowdaPune, Jul 5: Vikas Gowda's towering personality can be very intimidating at times but the Indian discus thrower has been a calm and composed figure. All that yielded rich dividends on Thursday as Gowda opened India's gold account with an authoritative performance at the Asian Athletics Championships.

India also won a silver medal through M.R. Poovamma in the women's 400m while Ratiram Saini clinched bronze in the men's 10,000m run.

Gowda was second behind Mohammad Samimi of Iran till the third attempt but the Indian's fourth throw almost touched his personal best and secured a gold medal for him.

The US-based Indian changed his shoes for the fourth attempt and cleared 64.90m as none could challenge his imposing feat. "It's a good result. All my hard work seems to be paying off well. It is not often that you come close to your personal best in a major event and somehow it happened for me. I almost touched 65m," said Gowda, whose personal best is 66.28m.

Samimi, whose best was 61.93m, bagged silver, while Mohammad Ahmed of Qatar (60.28m) won bronze.

It was only in 2011 after a series of dope incidents that M.R. Poovamma got a chance to make it to India's 400m squad and on Thursday, the Bangalore girl grabbed the opportunity with both her hands.

The 23-year-old quarter-miler looked at ease in the semi-finals on Wednesday but Chinese Yanmin Zhao dominated the proceedings on Thursday, recording her personal best with 52.49sec.

Poovamma, who was also watched by Ashwini Akkunji from the stands, clocked 53.37sec, which was less than her personal best of 52.75sec. The bronze went to Lebanese Gretta Taslakian (53.43sec), while India's Anu Mariam Jose finished a close fourth in 53.49sec.

"At the Asian Grand Prix, the competition is not as tough as it is here. I can proudly say that I have won an Asian Championship silver," said Poovamma.

"In the men's 10,000m, Ratiram bagged India's fifth medal of the event to add to Mayookha Johny and Om Prakash's bronze medals on Wednesday. The men's 10,000m was dominated by Bahrain with a 1-2 finish.

Alemu Bekele Gebre (28:47.26min) won the gold while Bilisuma Shugi Gelas followed him to the finish line in 28:58.67min.

"I am happy but I think I could have done even better because towards the end, I allowed them (gold and silver medallist) to go ahead," said Ratiram, who clocked 29:35.42min.

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News Network
July 14,2020

New Delhi, Jul 14: Indian bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who features in the list of A category players released by BCCI, has revealed his first-ever paycheck.

Bhuvneshwar was participating in a question and answer session on Twitter where he gave his take on fans' queries.

The 30-year-old bowler was asked about his first paycheck by a fan and Bhuvneshwar responded by saying, "It was for Rs 3000. I shopped and still managed to saved some."

During the question and answer session Bhuvneshwar picked Barcelona striker Lionel Messi over Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo.

The right-arm bowler also revealed that football and badminton are his favourite sports other than cricket.

Earlier this year, Bhuvneshwar was named in the list A category of players. BCCI had released the list of centrally contracted players for the period from October 2019 to September 2020. Annually, A category players get Rs 5 crore.

The right-arm bowler would have been in action for Sunrisers Hyderabad if the Indian Premier League (IPL) had commenced from March 29. However, the tournament was postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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News Network
May 21,2020

Mumbai, May 21: Former India opener Gautam Gambhir has chosen legendary Sachin Tendulkar over current skipper Virat Kohli as a better batsman in the ODI format, considering the changed rules of the game and the Mumbaikar's longevity of career.

Tendulkar, who retired in 2013, played 463 ODIs and amassed 18, 426 runs with 49 hundreds at an average of 44.83.

Kohli, on the other hand, has played 248 ODIs and scored 11, 867 runs with 43 tons at an average of 59.33.

"Sachin Tendulkar, because probably with one white ball and four fielders inside the circle, not five fielders outside, it will be Sachin Tendulkar for me," Gambhir said on Star Sports show 'Cricket Connected'.

Nowadays, a one-day innings is played with two white balls and with three powerplays.

In the first power play (overs 1-10), two fielders are allowed beyond the 30-yard circle, while in the second powerplay (overs 10-40) four fielders are allowed. In the last powerplay (overs 40-50), five fielders are allowed outside the 30-yard circle.

Gambhir, who was the star performer in 2011 ODI World Cup final which India won, feels that the change in rules has helped batsmen.

"It's difficult because Virat Kohli has done phenomenally well but I think the rules have changed as well, which has helped a lot of new batters," elaborated Gambhir, who played 58 Tests and 147 ODIs.

"The new generation, with 2 new balls, no reverse swing, nothing for the finger spin, five fielders inside for the 50 overs, probably that makes batting much easier.

He said he would also go with Tendulkar, considering his longevity and flow of the ODI cricket format at that time.

"Probably I’ll go with Sachin Tendulkar if we see the longevity and flow of the one-day cricket format.

"Look at how Sachin Tendulkar has played, different rules, that time 230 to 240, was a winning total," Gambhir signed off. 

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News Network
January 2,2020

New Delhi, Jan 2: Thrilled after getting to know about Hardik Pandya and Natasa Stankovic's engagement, skipper Virat Kohli on Wednesday called it a "pleasant surprise".

Extending his best wishes to the newly-engaged couple, Kohli posted a comment on Pandya's Instagram post which read, "Congratulations H. What a pleasant surprise. Wish you guys great times ahead. God bless".

On the first day of the New Year 2020, Pandya announced his engagement with Serbian actor Natasa Stankovic.

The cricketer took to Instagram to share the photo with the actor and captioned the post: "Mai tera, Tu meri jaane, saara Hindustan. 01.01.2020 #engaged".

The couple got engaged in Dubai and were seen taking a ferry ride along with close friends.

On the work front, Stankovic was last seen in a song from the Bollywood movie The Body starring Emraan Hashmi and Rishi Kapoor. She had also made it to the finals of the TV show Nach Baliye with her ex-boyfriend Aly Goni.

Stankovic first became a household name after appearing as a contestant on famous reality show Bigg Boss 8.

In 2019, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had confirmed that Pandya had had lower-back surgery in London.

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