CWG: Wrestlers Sushil, Amit, Vinesh win gold, India bag 8 medals on Day 6

July 30, 2014

Glasgow, Jul 29: Sushil Kumar led the charge as Indian wrestlers put on a stunning show in the Commonwealth Games winning three of the five gold medals on offer on Tuesday.

India bag 8 medalsAmit Kumar and teenager Vinesh Phogat also bagged gold medals while Rajeev Tomar settled for the silver medal in what was a successful outing on the first day of the wrestling competition at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC). The three gold medals also lifted India to fifth position in the medal's standings.

The star of the day undoubtedly was two-time Olympic medallist Sushil, who just took 107 minutes to clinch the gold medal in the men's 74kg freestyle category beating Pakistan's Qamar Abbas in an one-sided affair.

It was Sushil's first major international medal after his pet 66kg category was removed and he had to add nine kilograms to adjust in a new weight bracket. Sushil had won both his Olympic medals, bronze in Beijing and silver in London, 2010 World Championship gold, 2010 Asian Games gold and the 2010 Commonwealth Games gold in the 66kg category.

Sushil was leading 6-2 in the first period when referee V. Keelan decided to give it in favour of the Indian, who managed to pin down Abbas.

Sushil was in dominating form in all his preliminary bouts. He opened his account with a facile 4-0 win over New Zealand's Jayden Lawrence in the Round of 16 and then beat Sri Lanka's Sandrage 4-0 in the quarter-final.

It was the third gold for India after Amit and Vinesh's triumph in their respective categories.

Amit won the gold medal in the men's freestyle 57kg category beating Nigerian Ebikweminomo Welson. Amit won the bout 3-1 on classification points. Amit won six points in the two periods while Welson got two.

Amit had beaten Mauritian Jean Guliyan Bandoo 5-0 in the Round of 16 and then got the better of South African Bokang Masunyane 4-0 in the quarter-final. Amit booked his place in the final with an exciting 4-0 win over Pakistan's Azhar Hussain in the semi-final.

Indian teenager Vinesh Phogat then made it a double delight as she registered a thrilling 11-8 win over England's Yana Rattigan to clinch the gold medal in the women's freestyle 48kg wrestling competition.

Vinesh, 19, is the cousin of Geeta Phogat, who had won the first gold medal for India in women's wrestling in the 2010 Delhi Games.

Vinesh had beaten Canadian Jasmine Mian in the semi-finals of the women's 48kg freestyle category and Nigerian Rosemary Nweke in the quarter-finals.

The only relative disappointment for India was that of Tomar losing the men's 125kg freestyle final match to Canada's Korey Jarvis. In a close contest, Tomar lost 0-3 to Jarvis and settled for the silver.

Tomar had defeated New Zealand's Marcus Carney in the semi-final and Nigerian Sinivie Boltic in the quarters.

Another Indian in fray, Jyoti finished fourth in the women's 75kg freestyle event. Since there were just five wrestlers, the competition was held according to the Nordic System or a round robin format.

In shooting, Sanjeev Rajput won the silver medal and Gagan Narang won the bronze medal in the men's in 50m Rifle three positions.

Earlier in the day, Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar failed to reach the finals, Harpreet Singh went on to win the silver medal in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol shooting.

Indian wrestler Sushil Kumar entered finals in the 74kg catagory on Tuesday after defeating Nigerian wrestler Bibo 8-4.Rajeev Tomar, another Indian wrestler also entered finals in the 125kg catagory after defeating New Zealand wrestler Marcus Carney 11-1.

Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar crashed out in the 25m rapid fire pistol shooting. The other Indian in the event, Harpreet Singh advanced to the finals

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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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News Network
July 18,2020

Johannesburg, Jul 18: Cricket South Africa (CSA) on Saturday mourned the demise of former spinner Ismail 'Baboo' Ebrahim who died in Durban at the age of 73.

"Baboo was one of the outstanding South African spin bowlers of the 1960s and 1970s who would undoubtedly have played as many Test matches for his country as the 48 first-class games to which he was limited," CSA said in a statement.

In those matches, he took 179 wickets at an average of 21.33 with an economy rate of 2.12 including 8 five-wicket hauls and 2 ten-wicket hauls.

The left-arm spinner only had one opportunity on the international stage when he played for a SA Invitation XI against the International Wanderers at Kingsmead in 1976.

"At the age of 29, he was in his prime and took a match-winning 6/66 in the second innings, his victims including international captains, Greg Chappell of Australia and Mike Denness of England. It was a clear indication of what he could have achieved on grounds around the world at the highest level had he been given the opportunity. He was a master of flight and spin and had a good arm ball to back it up," the statement read.

His ability to perform at this level had become apparent much earlier when he went to watch the Australians at practice before their Test match against South Africa in 1970.

He persuaded the Australians to let him bowl to them and made an immediate impression, bowling experienced Test batsman Ian Redpath and impressing the likes of Ian Chappell and Ashley Mallett, the latter being Australia's leading spinner of the 1970s.

He had one season for Radcliffe in the Lancashire Central League when he took 62 wickets at 14.62 apiece.

Baboo finally got his chance to represent his country in Masters events in one of which he dismissed both Sir Vivian Richards and Gordon Greenidge.

"Baboo Ebrahim was one of the countless number of outstanding cricketers who was denied the opportunity to display his talents to the world and live his cricketing dreams," said CSA Acting Chief Executive, Dr Jacques Faul.

"On behalf of the CSA Family I extend our deepest sympathy to his family, friends and cricketing colleagues," he added. 

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Agencies
January 5,2020

Mumbai, Jan 5: India captain Virat Kohli has refrained from making any comments on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), without gaining full knowledge on the sensitive subject.

The CAA will grant Indian nationality to people belonging to minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12, even if they don't possess any proper document.

In 2016, Kohli had termed demonetisation as the "greatest move in history of Indian politics", which met with sharp criticism from a lot of quarters, with people questioning his knowledge on the subject.

With Guwahati witnessing massive protests against the CAA till some days back, Kohli was asked about it and the Indian skipper weighed his words carefully.

"On the issue, I do not want to be irresponsible and speak on something that has, you know, radical opinions both sides. I need to have total information, total knowledge of what it means and what is going on and then be responsible to give my opinion on it," Kohli said ahead of India's first T20 International against Sri Lanka.

The skipper made it clear that he will not like to get embroiled in a controversy by commenting on a subject that he is not well aware of.

"Because you can say one thing and then someone can say another thing. So, I would not like to get involved in something that I don't have total knowledge of and it's not going to be responsible on my part to comment on it." However Kohli on his part was happy with the security arrangements and felt that the city is "absolutely safe".

"The city is absolutely safe. We didn't see any problems on the roads," Kohli said, giving his thumbs-up for the match at the Barsapara Stadium.

The Assam Cricket Association is using this match as a "curtain-raiser" ahead of their maiden IPL match this season as Rajasthan Royals have adopted this venue.

There has been deployment of Rapid Action Force for the teams and ACA secretary Devajit Saikia has said the spectators will not even be allowed to bring along handkerchiefs and towels on the match-day as the traditional Assamese scarf was used for protests against CAA.

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