Dutee Chand is back with gold, Railways lead tally

September 18, 2015

Kolkata, Sep 18: The broad grin was back on Dutee Chand's face as the Railways sprinter, making a comeback after winning a landmark gender case, reigned supreme on a day when three meet records were set in the 55th National Open Athletic Championship at SAI Complex here on Thursday.

DuteeSlow off the blocks, the sprinter from Odisha came into her elements midway into the 100m lane, edging past her state and teammate Srabani Nanda just before the finish line with a time of 11.68 seconds, not very far from her personal best of 11.62.

"I feel really relieved. I have been training really hard, three times a day," Dutee said dedicating the win to sports minister Sarbananda Sonowal.

"He has done a lot for me when I was in a crisis situation. I also thank KIIT University and Odisha Olympic Association who have stood beside me in this ordeal," the 19-year-old added.

The Railways sprinter, who had won 100m and 200m double in National Open Athletics Ranchi 2013, was banned since last summer after failing a hormone test.

But the Court of Arbitration for Sport, in its July verdict, suspended the "hyperandrogenism" rules, which will be scrapped if IAAF cannot provide new evidence.

Top Indian athletes Lalita Babar (3000m steeplechase), Inderjeet Singh (shot put) justified their reputation to shatter two meet records, while a third was set by promising Haryana javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra.

Having made history in last month's World Championship where she qualified for the Olympics and became the fourth athlete to make final in a World meet, Lalita was the first to set the record in the morning when she clocked 9:39.83 en route to gold.

The timing was enough to better last year's record of 10:08.50 by teammate Sudha Singh who stood second.

"I was extremely cautious as I did not want to injure myself but at the same time I was confident of a record and make my department proud," the Railways athlete told PTI after her win.

Inderjeet Singh, who has also qualified for Olympics, threw 19.82 metres to erase Bahadur Singh's 12 year old feat of 19.59.

Towards the fag end of the day, Neeraj Chopra set the third national meet record when he threw the javelin at a distance of 77.67, bettering the previous best of 77.39 by Harminder Singh of Police.

The second day's proceedings however belonged to ONGC athletes who bagged five gold, two silver and two bronze to climb to second place behind Railways who continued their march to consolidate the top spot on the medals tally with the day's quota of four gold, three silver and four bronze medals.

Overall, the Railways athletes lead the tally with seven gold, five silver and eight bronze medals, while ONGC have their share of six gold, six silver and two bronze medals.

Results (Day Two) Men's: 100m: 1 Manikandan Raj (Railways; 10.70), 2 Jyothi Shankar (Services; 10.73), Mohit (ONGC; 10.74).

110m Hurdles: 1 Siddhanth Thingalaya (ONGC; 13.96), 2 Surendhar (Tamil Nadu; 13.99), 3 Akhil Johnson (Services; 14.35).

Long jump: 1 K Prem Kumar (Railways; 7.74m), 2 Mehakpreet Singh (Punjab; 7.60m); 3 Yugant Shekhar Singh (Uttar Pradesh; 7.58m).

Javelin throw: 1 Neeraj Chopra (Haryana; 77.67 NMR), 2 Rohit Kumar (ONGC; 76.47), 3 Samarjeet Singh (ONGC; 75.14).

3000m staplechase: 1 Naveen (Services; 8:42.79), 2 Jaiveer Singh (Services; 8:49.53), 3 Sachin Patil (Railways; 8: 51.03).

Shot put: 1 Indrajeet Singh (Haryana; 19.82 NMR), Om Prakash Singh (ONGC; 17.96), 3 Tajinder Singh (Punjab; 17.87).

400m: 1 Arokya Rajeev (Services; 45.70), 2 Manas Y (Services; 46.71), 3 Dhartun (Tamil Nadu; 46.88).

1500m: 1 Ajay Kumar Saroj (ONGC; 3:47.33), 2 Sandeep Kumar (Services; 3:47.83), 3 Jinson Johnson (Services; 3:49.13).

Decathlon: 1 Daya Ram (Services; 6366 points) 2 Narender (Services; 6331), 3 Abhishek Shetty (Railways; 6089).

Women's: 100m: 1 Dutee Chand (Railways; 11.68), 2 Srabani Nanda (Railways; 11.70), 3 Jyoti H M (Karnatka; 11.96).

100m Hurdles: 1 Gayathry (Tamil Nadu; 14.16), 2 Sajitha K V (Kerala; 14.27), 3 Shivangi Rawat (ONGC; 14.82).

400m: 1 M R Poovamma (ONGC; 53.55), 2 Debashree Maju (West Bengal; 54.54), 3 Sini Jose (Railways; 55.57).

20km walk: 1 Khushbir Kaur (ONGC; 1::49:09.00), 2 Karamjit Kaur (Railways; 1::49:36.00), 3 Shanti Kumari (Railways; 1::50:44.00).

3000m steeplechase: 1 Lalita Babar (Railways; 9:39.83 NMR), 2 Sudha Singh (Railways; 9:47.31), 3 Preeti Lamba (ONGC; 10:43.03).

1500m: 1 Sugandha Kumari (West Bengal; 4:24.45), 2 Chitra P U (Kerala; 4:25.61), 3 Lily Das (West Bengal; 4:26.90).

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Agencies
February 12,2020

Mumbai, Feb 12: Former Indian greats Kapil Dev and Mohammad Azharuddin have been left disappointed by the behaviour of the Under-19 team after the World Cup final where they were involved in an altercation with their Bangladeshi counterparts.

After Bangladesh won the final beating India by three wickets (via DLS) at the Senwes Park on Sunday, the players of the two teams were seen engaging in an exchange of words and even some pushing and shoving on the field.

"I would like to see the board (BCCI) take some strict action against the players to set an example. Cricket is not about abusing the opponent. I am sure there is enough reason for these youngsters to be dealt with firmly by BCCI," Kapil was quoted as saying by The Hindu.

"I welcome aggression, nothing wrong in it. But it has to be controlled aggression. You can't cross the line of decency in the name of being competitive. I would say it was unacceptable that youngsters put up such an obnoxious display on the cricket field," he added.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has sanctioned five players, including three from Bangladesh -- Towhid Hridoy, Shamim Hossain and Rakibul Hasan --and two from India --Akash Singh and Ravi Bishnoi for the scuffle.

Azharuddin also reiterated what Kapil said, insisting that players need to be disciplined.

"I would take action against the errant Under 19 players, but I also want to know what role has the support staff played in educating these youngsters. Act now before it is too late. The players have to be disciplined," Azharuddin said.

Earlier, Bishan Singh Bedi has lashed out at the Priyam Garg-led team, saying their behaviour was disgusting and disgraceful.

"You bat, bowl and field badly�happens, but there's no excuse for behaving badly. The behaviour was disgusting and most disgraceful. The innocence of that age was not visible at all," Bedi told Mid Day.

Bedi, who represented India in 67 Tests and 10 ODIs, said the behaviour of the Bangladesh cricketers is not our problem.

"Look, what Bangladesh do is their problem, what our boys do is our problem. You could see that there was abusive language used," he said.

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News Network
February 29,2020

Melbourne, Feb 29: India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur on Saturday said the team management has given Shafali Verma the freedom to play her natural game, which has set the Women's T20 World Cup ablaze.

The 16-year-old announced her emergence on the global stage by becoming the second highest run getter in the ongoing tournament. She has so far scored 161 runs, hitting 18 fours and nine sixes in four matches at an astounding strike rate of 161.

On Saturday, Shafali hit a 34-ball 47 to steer India to a seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka after spinner Radha Yadav produced a career-best 4/23.

"Shafali is someone who loves to play big shots, and we don't want to stop her. She should continue doing the same and she should continue enjoying her game," Harmanpreet said after the match.

India entered the semifinals with an all-win record as they led Group A with eight points from four games and the captain insisted it is important to continue the winning momentum.

"It's really important to keep the momentum when you are winning games. You really work hard, so you can't afford to lose that momentum. You can't bowl same pace and lengths on these wickets, so you need to keep rotating the bowlers."

"Today I tried to be positive and got a few boundaries. In the upcoming games I'll try to give my best," Harmanpreet said.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka skipper Chamari Atapattu rued the reprieves given by her side to Shafali in the form of two dropped catches.

"I think that score was not enough, we lost couple of chances, specially Shafali, it was hard to stop her," she said.

"Yeah, I got a good start but unfortunately got out in the 10th, would have wanted to stay in there till the 16th or the 17th over. I hope we can beat Bangladesh in our last game," she added.

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News Network
July 2,2020

Jul 2: Cricket Australia has decided to not use the Dukes ball from this summer's Sheffield Shield, having used it alongside Kookaburra for four seasons.

CA has confirmed that the Kookaburra ball will be used for the entire 2020-21 first-class season.

Australia has been using Dukes ball since the 2016-17 season in Shield matches with an aim to help its cricketers prepare for the hostile English conditions.

CA's Head of Cricket Operations, Peter Roach, said the decision to axe the Dukes was the right call. "The introduction of the Dukes ball has been a worthwhile exercise, particularly in the lead up to overseas Ashes series where the Dukes is used so well by our English opponents," Roach said.

"We have been happy with how the ball has performed when used in Australian conditions over the past four seasons. We do, however, feel that reverting to one ball for 2020-21 will provide the consistent examination of our players over a full season that CA and the states are presently seeking. The Kookaburra is the ball used for international cricket in Australia and many parts of the world and we see benefits this season of maximising our use of it," he added.

Roach said the ineffectiveness of spinners in first-class cricket in recent times played a role in CA's decision to do away with the Dukes. "We have noted that spin bowlers in the Sheffield Shield have been playing less of a role in recent seasons, most notably in games when the Dukes ball is in use. We need spinners bowling in first-class cricket and we need our batters facing spin. We hope that the change to one ball will have a positive benefit here," he said.

The CA official, however, didn't rule out the possibility of re-introducing it later.

"We see a definite opportunity to reintroduce the Dukes ball at some stage in the future."

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