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Ghosal, Pallikal look to end year on a high

December 2, 2013

Dipika_PallikalHong Kong, Dec 2: India's numero uno squash players, Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal, will be looking to end the year on a high when they compete against the world's best in the Cathay Pacific Sun Hung Kai Financial Hong Kong Open, starting here tomorrow.

The WSA World Series Gold event -- the last of the year -- gets underway with the main rounds at the Hong Kong Squash Centre tomorrow after two days of qualifying. It will then move to an all-glass court at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre for the semi-finals on December 7 and finals on December 8.

World No. 12 Pallikal has been seeded 14th in the women's event and will open her campaign against unseeded Egyptian Nour El Tayeb.

Pallikal, 22, recently got engaged to Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik, 28, in Chennai and both have decided to tie the nuptial knot sometime in 2015.

Pallikal is in red-hot form -- winning the biggest title of her career in Macau Open, the Women's Squash Association (WSA) Silver band event in October.

She defeated former world No.1 Rachael Grinham of Australia in the final and also beaten World No. 11 Australian Kasey Brown in the Carol Weymuller Open Gold 50 event in New York.

Pallikal has seven World Squash tour titles and five tour finals to her credit.

Her Chennai teammate and India's No.2 woman player, Joshna Chinappa will also be seen in action at the USD 77,000 event. She will face tough opponent in World No.7 Natalie Grinham of The Netherlands in her tournament opener.

The reigning national champion Joshna, who achieved her highest-ever world ranking of 24 last month, recently won the third edition of the NSCI Squash Open in Mumbai.

The 27-year-old has taken giant strides after her comeback from a career threatening knee injury last year that saw her rankings plummet to 72. She was also conferred with the Arjuna Award this year.

Malaysia's world number one Nicol David is seeded to win her ninth successive trophy and will open her title defence against a qualifier.

In the men's section, Ghosal, who yesterday rose to a career-high 15th in the men's world rankings, will face a qualifier in his first round on Wednesday.

Ghosal is coming into the tournament on the back of some impressive performances in the last two months which included his quarterfinal finish in the World Championship in Manchester - the first-ever by an Indian - and NSCI Squash Open title triumph.

The 27-year-old from Kolkata has made steady progress on the Tour, winning five titles from eight final appearances.

Other Indians in the fray -- Harinder Pal Sandhu and Mahesh Mangaonkar -- are competing in the qualifiers to make the main draw.

While Sandhu will take on England's Adrian Waller in his qualifying final, Mangaonkar will lock horns against another Englishman, Joe Lee.

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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 2,2020

Melbourne, May 2: After becoming the number one side in Test cricket, Australia's head coach Justin Langer has said that his team has won back the respect of the country.

Australia dethroned India from the top spot in Tests and now the Men in Blue are in the third place.

Langer came in as the coach of Australia after the 2018 ball-tampering scandal and it took him some time to get the side back to winning ways.

Ever since the return of David Warner and Steve Smith, Australia went on to become a commendable side and the results reflect that.

"We have got lots of work to do to become the team we want to be. But over the last couple of years, not only have we performed well on the field, we have performed well off it. We have earned some respect back from other teams around the world but also from Australia," Langer said in an official statement.

"When we started on this journey, there had been a lot of talk about Australia wanting to be No. 1 in the world in all three forms of the game.

We took a different approach. Not once did we talk about being No. 1 ranked in the world. We wanted to be No.1 in our values and process. That is what I am most proud of," he added.

In the latest ICC rankings update, that rates all matches played since May 2019 at 100 per cent and those of the previous two years at 50 per cent, Australia (116) have taken over from India as the top-ranked side in the ICC men's Test team rankings with New Zealand (115) remaining in second place.

India is now third with 114 points. With only two points separating them, this is the second closest the top three teams have been since the Test rankings were launched in 2003.

The closest for the top three teams were in January 2016, when India had led Australia and South Africa by a single point.

Australia has also moved to the top spot in the T20I rankings for the first time in the format.

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News Network
July 24,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 24: Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, who was earlier banned by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for breaching the Anti-Corruption Code, on Friday, said that people are bound to make mistakes and the important thing is that how well they make a comeback.

Shakib was banned from all forms of cricket on October 29 last year after he accepted the charges of breaching the ICC's Anti-Corruption Code. He will be able to resume international cricket from October 29, 2020.

"You have to be honest. You just can't lie to the people and pretend different things. Whatever happened has happened. People are bound to make mistakes. You are not 100%. The important thing is how well you can comeback from those mistakes. You can tell other people not to make those mistakes. Tell them the path so that they never take those paths," Shakib told Deep Dasgupta in a videocast hosted by ESPNcricinfo.

The 33-year-old all-rounder said he has seen many controversies ever since he was first made captain in 2009. He had trouble with the board chief, selectors and the media, mainly about selectorial decisions and not being made permanent captain between 2009 and 2010.
He believes those experiences have changed him as a person over time.

"I think [it's] combination of both [controversy following him, and vice versa]. I got the responsibility so early in my career, I was bound to make mistakes. I was captain when I was 21. I made a lot of mistakes, and there are so many things that people think about me. Now I realise that it was my fault in some areas, and in some I was misunderstood. But I get it completely. It is part and parcel in the subcontinent," Hasan said.

"Of course I will try to minimise [my mistakes] as much as I can, but by the time I got married, and now I have two kids, I understand the game and life better. It has made me a calmer person than I was in my twenties. I have changed quite a lot. People won't see me doing a lot of mistakes now. My two daughters changed my life completely," he added.

Shakib is likely return to international cricket during Bangladesh's proposed Test series against Sri Lanka in October. 

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