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Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships: Indian Men Claim Historic Gold; Women Win Silver

December 19, 2015

Surat, Dec 19: Indian men claimed the team championship beating England 3-1 while the women squad had to satisfy themselves with the silver medal after losing to Singapore 1-3 in the final of the 20th Avadh Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships in Surat.

Commonwealth

The Indian men have done it only second time in 20 editions of the championships, having won gold in 2004 in Malaysia under Sharath Kamal, who went on to win his individual gold, too.

England came into the competition without their star player, world no.64 Liam Pitchford and 66-th ranked veteran Paul Drinkhall. The Indians on the other hand did not have their top player Sharath, who was forced out of the event after suffering a freak accident in Germany.

For the women, this was the fourth occasion to claim silver. They had won the white metal in 1975, 1983 and 1991.

In the gold fight, England's David McBeath gave a scare to both Harmeet Desai and India when the Indian, after leading 2-0, went down 2-3 in what was a wonderful comeback by the Englishman. David had the presence of mind to slow down the game and catch Harmeet on the wrong foot several times in the last three games to put his team one-up.

But Soumyajit Ghosh beat Helshen Weerasinghe rather easily to level the score as the Sri Lankan origin player did not have any answer to Ghosh's rapid play. Though Weerasinghe tried to borrow his team mate's line, it did not work against the top Indian player.

G. Sathiyan, taking on England's weakest link rolled over Tom Jarvis in straight games to put India 2-1 up. But the advantage cushion worked in favour of Ghosh in his reverse singles against McBeath despite the Englishman displaying all his tricks against the Indian. Ghosh, lost the second extended game, but caught up slowly but steadily to the chagrin of Indian spectators.

McBeath had Ghosh in all sorts of trouble despite the latter having a sizeable lead in both the games. In the third, Ghosh was up 4-0 but the England paddler came very close to the discomfiture of the host player. Similarly in the fourth, Ghosh was on top hurrying with his game and led 5-1 before allowing McBeath to level and go 6-5 up and 8-all. But then, Ghosh seized on a net error by his opponent and from there the game, match and the title went the Indian way.

Singapore eves' superiority was never in doubt, nor was there any false hope about the Indians upsetting their rivals in the final. However, one did expect our women paddlers to put up a semblance of fight to make the contest interesting. Instead, it turned out to be boring and one-sided.

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Agencies
January 25,2020

Headingley, Jan 25: England have become the first team in the world to score 500,000 runs in Test cricket. They achieved the feat during the ongoing fourth and final Test against South Africa being played at The Wanderers.

On Friday - the opening day of the Test match -- England captain Joe Root's single through the covers took the Three Lions to a landmark 500,000 run-mark in the longest format of the game. They achieved the feat in their 1022nd Test match.

Australia comes second in the list, with 432,706 runs in 830 Tests. India, meanwhile, are third, with 273,518 runs in 540 Tests, followed by West Indies (270,441 runs in 545 Tests).

In the third Test played at St George's Park in Port Elizabeth, England had become the first team to play 500 Test matches on foreign soil. Australia are the second team to play the most away Test with 404 matches they have played so far.

India have played 268 Tests on foreign soil in which they have won 51, lost 113 and 104 have ended in a draw.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

New Delhi, Jul 28: 'Your character stood out for me than the number of runs you scored," said India skipper Virat Kohli while explaining his decision to give opening Mayank Agarwal a Test debut in the 2018-19 Australia series.

Mayank Agarwal had made his Test debut against Australia in the third Test of the four-match series.

Playing the third Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Agarwal managed to register a half-century in his very first innings in the longest format.

"I had seen you play for RCB, even then you played international bowlers with conviction and you would take them on. You were performing in first-class matches in a dominating way. That is something always stood out with you, I would say your character stood out for me than the number of runs. I knew you would be fearless without having any baggage," Kohli told Mayank Agarwal in a video posted on the official website of BCCI.

In the longest format of the game, Agarwal has managed to score 974 runs from 11 matches at an average of 57.29 with three centuries as an opening batsman.

The Indian skipper also explained as to what makes him notice in a player and added that it is important that guys in the team look to face new challenges and emerge triumphantly.

"For me, the biggest marker is how a person approaches the game, so for example when you opened and we made Vihari open with you. The first opportunity we presented Vihari to open the batting, he said yes to it and that matters me to the most," Kohli said.

"I opened in my first series for India, I said yes to this opportunity and things worked out fine for me. So, a guy who wants to get into tough situations will come out either holding his head high or learning from his mistakes," he added.

Kohli and Mayank would soon be seen in action for Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab respectively in the Indian Premier League (IPL) starting from September 19 in the UAE.

The comparisons between Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar keep on growing and many have picked the current Indian skipper to break the records set by Tendulkar.

Tendulkar called time on his career after registering 100 international centuries, while Kohli currently has 70 centuries across all formats.

At present, Kohli is ranked at the top spot in the ICC ODI rankings while he is in the second place in Tests rankings. Kohli has so far played 86 Tests, scoring 7,240 runs with 27 centuries at an average of 53.62.

His knock of 254 against South Africa at Pune in 2019 remains his highest Test score to date. When it comes to ODIs, the current Indian skipper has played 248 matches and has 43 centuries.

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News Network
May 1,2020

Melbourne, May 1: Reclaiming the top spot in Test cricket has brought smiles back on their faces but Australia coach Justin Langer says beating India in their own den remains the ultimate test and their numero uno status will be put to test when they clash with the Virat Kohli-led team.

After a tumultuous transition phase post the ball-tampering scandal, Australia on Friday displaced India as number one side in Test format but Langer is aware that it does not take long for the situation to change.

"We recognise how fluid these rankings are, but at this time it was certainly nice to put a smile on our faces," Langer told Cricket Australia website. "We've got lots of work to do to get to be the team that we want to be, but hopefully over the last couple of years not only have we performed well on the field, but also off the field," Langer added.

The former left-handed opener underlined what he felt will be the ultimate test of character.

"Certainly a goal for us has been the World Test Championship ... but ultimately, we have to beat India in India and we've got to beat them when they come back (to Australia).

"You can only judge yourself as being the best if you beat the best and we've got some really tough opposition to come," Langer put his priorities in place. The team he insists needs to get better as now others will come gunning for them.

"Getting to No.1 is a great thing, but when you're No.1, you're always the hunted," Langer said. "We've been the hunters for a while, now we're the hunted and we need to get better and better."

Langer also hoped that white ball team under Aaron Finch will win the World Cup. "I know how hard it is to win World Cups ... everything has to go right. One day, I'd love to see Aaron Finch with all his mates lift that T20 World Cup above his head."

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