Cristiano Ronaldo Claims European Goals Record

November 15, 2014

Cristiano RonaldoFaro, Nov 15: Cristiano Ronaldo became the European Championships' all-time top scorer as Portugal beat Armenia 1-0 to stay one point behind Group I leader Denmark in European Championship qualifying on Friday.

Ronaldo scored the winner striking from close range following a goalmouth scramble in the 72nd minute.

"We are in good shape at the moment in qualifying," Ronaldo said. "Denmark also won, but the team is doing very well at the moment, and if we win our game in hand we go top.

"The coach Fernando Santos has been able to impose a new system, bringing new players, and I think we are on the right track."

Elsewhere, Nicklas Bendtner scored twice as Denmark came from a goal down to beat Serbia 3-1. Serbia's Dutch coach Dick Advocaat said after the game that he would consider resigning.

Serbia winger Zoran Tosic opened the scoring with a low strike from 12 yards (meters) in the fourth minute.

But Bendtner equalized in the 60th and centerback Simon Kjaer headed in a free kick from Christian Eriksen two minutes later. Bendtner made it 3-1 in the 85th.

France, which has already qualified as the host of Euro 2016, drew 1-1 with Albania.

In Faro, Portugal coach Fernando Santos made three changes to the side that edged Denmark 1-0 a month ago with the return of veterans Jose Bosingwa and Helder Postiga while leftback Raphael Guerreiro earned his first cap.

Armenia had the best chances in the first half. Henrikh Mkhitaryan had a free kick saved by goalkeeper Rui Patricio and the Borussia Dortmund midfielder then released Kamo Hovhannisyan down the right flank - but Patricio parried the powerful strike from the Armenia wingback.

Roman Berezovski kept Armenia in the game after the break, tipping away a header from winger Nani in the 59th and stopping a long-range attempt from Ronaldo.

However, the Armenia goalkeeper was let down by his defenders when he denied substitute Ricardo Quaresma. Nani flicked the rebound toward Ronaldo, who beat defender Varazdat Haroyan to the ball for the winner.

Portugal nearly added a second in the 89th but the downward header from substitute Eder crashed against the post.

In Belgrade, the match was played in an empty Partizan stadium as punishment by UEFA following a qualifier between Serbia and Albania last month, when skirmishes involving players and fans broke out over an Albanian flag that was flown above the stadium by a drone.

Four minutes after Tosic scored, Serbia almost doubled the lead but goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel stopped the overhead kick from striker Danko Lazovic.

Tottenham playmaker Eriksen hit the post in the 49th before his low drive was only parried by Vladimir Stojkovic - allowing Bendtner to tap home the equalizer. Two minutes later, Denmark took the lead with Kjaer's header.

The match could have gone either way as Lazovic hit the woodwork in the 64th and Denmark rightback Peter Ankersen rattled the bar with a curling shot a minute later.

Bendtner put the result beyond doubt by chesting down a cross from Michael Krohn-Dehli to beat Stojkovic.

Serbia coach Advocaat was quoted as telling UEFA's website: "This is our first terrible match since I became the manager. If someone should be blamed then it's me. And, yes, I will think about resigning."

In Rennes, Albania defender Mergim Mavraj stunned the hosts with a header in the 40th. But France substitute Antoine Griezmann salvaged a draw by cutting inside to fire into the bottom corner in the 73rd.

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News Network
February 18,2020

Feb 18: Spinner Poonam Yadav claimed three wickets as India geared up for the ICC women's T20 World Cup with a thrilling two-run win over the West Indies in a low-scoring warm-up match in Brisbane on Tuesday. Electing to bat, India posted a lowly 107/8 in their stipulated 20 overs before returning to restrict the West Indies to 105/7. Chasing 108 to win, West Indies were comfortably placed at 57 for one in 13 overs when Deepti Sharma struck, cleaning up opener Lee-Ann Kirby (42) to trigger a collapse. Soon skipper Stafanie Taylor (16), Chedean Nation (0) and Deandra Dottin (1) were back in the hut as West Indies slipped to 67 for five in the 17th over.

Hayley Matthews (25) and Chinelle Henry (17) blasted three fours and a six in the 19th over to leave them with 11 to get off the last six balls.

Henry blasted Poonam for a four but the Indian dismissed Matthews in the fourth ball.

West Indies needed three runs off the last ball but Henry was caught by Veda Krishnamurthy.

Earlier, India's top-three failed to fire as they were reduced to 17 for three in 3.1 overs.

Opener Smriti Mandhana (4) lasted just six balls, while Jemimah Rodrigues (0) failed to open her account.

Young Shafali Verma blasted a couple of fours before being caught by Britney Cooper off Shamilia Connell (2/20).

Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (11), too, didn't stay long, while Krishnamurthy was cleaned up by Afy Fletcher (1/26), as India slumped to 52 for five in 11.2 overs.

Deepti Sharma made a 32-ball 21 before becoming a victim of Anisa Mohammed (2/16), while Pooja Vastrakar (13) was removed by Aaliyah Alleyne (1/9).

Stafanie taylor then got rid of Taniya Bhatia for 10. Shikha Pandey finally smashed a 16-ball 24 to give some respectability to the total.

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Agencies
August 1,2020

Bengaluru, Aug 1: Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK) are aiming to set up their preparatory camp for the 13th edition of the tournament from early August.

This year's IPL was slated to commence from March 29 but the tournament was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Recently, the IPL Governing Council chairman Brijesh Patel had confirmed that the 13th edition of the mega event will commence on September 19 in the UAE.

As per a report in ESPNcricinfo, CSK players have been asked to report to Chennai first, following which they will leave for Dubai via a charter flight only after approval from the Indian government.

The IPL Governing Council will meet on August 2 to finalise the schedule and other key arrangements for the tournament. Also, the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) around securing eight teams for 51 days across three venues will be formally established in that meeting.

CSK, who has the oldest squad in the IPL, are looking for a month's preparation before ahead of the tournament.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, the side was the first team to start their training camp in March. Senior players like Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayudu had begun training their training in December 2019.

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Agencies
February 25,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 25: India opening batsman KL Rahul will be available for Karnataka's Ranji Trophy semi-final clash against Bengal at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on February 29.

Rahul had asked to be rested from Karnataka's quarter-final match but is now available for the climactic stages of the Ranji Trophy. 

Karnataka had already been strengthened by the addition of Manish Pandey for the quarter-finals, with both Pandey and Rahul having returned from New Zealand after India completed the limited-overs leg of their tour, ESPNcricinfo reported.

Last year's finalists Saurashtra will take on Gujarat in the other semi-final at Rajkot. The other prominent players who will be part of the last four include Parthiv Patel (Gujarat), Jaydev Unadkat (Saurashtra) and Manoj Tiwary (Bengal).

Gujarat, Bengal, Karnataka, and Saurashtra had finished on top of the combined Groups A and B table, and all four progressed to the semi-finals after dominating their respective quarter-final matches.

Rahul has been phenomenal with the bat in the limited-overs series against Australia and New Zealand. He scored one century and four fifty-plus scores in his last ten innings in ODIs and T20Is combined

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