Hockey World League: India Defeat World No.1 Germany 5-4; Secure 5th Spot

January 18, 2014

India_DefeatNew Delhi, Jan 18: India secured their spot in Saturday’s 5th place playoff match after defeating Germany 5-4 in the 5-8 classification game. Rupinder Singh scored from a penalty corner securing India’s win in the last minute of the match.

A clearly-pleased coach, Terry Walsh, said: "We tried to play our game, and for large sections of the game we did. We certainly matched the Germans; either team could have won. We came back from being 0-2 down to win, that shows the calibre of these guys."

Hero Man of the Match, triple goal scorer Mandeep Singh, said: "I had such great service from the team throughout the match." Singh's sharp-shooting won praise from his coach, who said: "When someone is as good in front of goal as this guy, we need to build our team around utilising that talent."

The Olympic champions, who had lost their quarter final 3-2 to the Netherlands, opened the scoring thanks to team-captain Oliver Korn (4’) picking up a rebound in the Indian circle and hammering it into the goal. Thilo Stralkowski (6’) doubled the German lead a couple of minutes later when scoring from a penalty corner. His fourth goal in this competition made the 26-year-old new top scorer for his team.

Mandeep Singh (18’) made the home crowd cheer when finishing a promising Indian counter-attack by a successful shot from the top of the circle. However, Benjamin Wess (27’) added another one for Germany, securing a 3-1 lead at halftime.

"Getting structure is the key to development in this side. We need to find a way to combine Indian style and flair with technical structure” said Roelant Oltmans, India's director of performance, at halftime.

India got the better start in the second half and shocked the European champions with a double-strike from Rupinder Singh (39’) and Mandeep Singh (41’) to level the score to 3-3. The host nation came close to taking the lead when a deflected ball hit the German goal post.

Mandeep Singh (53’) added his third goal of the day when putting India ahead 4-3. This goal seemed to be a wake-up call for Germany who equalised through a penalty corner goal from Martin Häner (55’).

“We lost control of the match and then India was there and their spectators as well”, German Tobias Hauke said. Coach Markus Weise agreed: “Today we beat ourselves. We didn’t use our chances.”

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News Network
July 14,2020

New Delhi, Jul 14: Indian bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who features in the list of A category players released by BCCI, has revealed his first-ever paycheck.

Bhuvneshwar was participating in a question and answer session on Twitter where he gave his take on fans' queries.

The 30-year-old bowler was asked about his first paycheck by a fan and Bhuvneshwar responded by saying, "It was for Rs 3000. I shopped and still managed to saved some."

During the question and answer session Bhuvneshwar picked Barcelona striker Lionel Messi over Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo.

The right-arm bowler also revealed that football and badminton are his favourite sports other than cricket.

Earlier this year, Bhuvneshwar was named in the list A category of players. BCCI had released the list of centrally contracted players for the period from October 2019 to September 2020. Annually, A category players get Rs 5 crore.

The right-arm bowler would have been in action for Sunrisers Hyderabad if the Indian Premier League (IPL) had commenced from March 29. However, the tournament was postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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News Network
May 30,2020

New Delhi, May 30: Former world chess champion Viswanathan Anand will be finally reaching India late on Saturday after being stuck in Germany for over three months due to the travel restrictions imposed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Yes.. Anand will be returning today," the chess maestro's wife Aruna told PTI on Saturday morning. Anand, who boarded an Air India flight (AI-120) from Frankfurt on Friday night will reach Bengaluru via Delhi.

He is expected to reach Bengaluru at 1.15 pm. The five-time world champion will undergo 14 days quarantine as per rules laid down by the Karnataka government.

"He will complete quarantine procedures and come to Chennai as per protocol," Aruna Anand said. The flights from Germany are only scheduled to land only in Delhi and Bengaluru.

The chess ace was in Germany to play in the Bundesliga chess league and was to return to India, but was forced to stay put after the COVID-19 outbreak disrupted sporting schedules across the globe, apart from restricting movement.

He was staying near Frankfurt and was doing online commentary for the Candidates tournament which was called off mid-way due to the pandemic and led the Indian team in the Online Nations Cup early this month.

Anand had been in touch with his family in Chennai on a regular basis via video calls and kept himself busy with chess-related work.

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News Network
April 21,2020

New Delhi, Apr 21: India skipper Virat Kohli on Tuesday said people seem to have become more compassionate while coping with the COVID-19 pandemic and hoped the sense of gratitude towards frontline workers like doctors and police personnel remains even after the crisis is over.

Speaking in an online class organised by "Unacademy", Kohli and his actor wife Anushka Sharma spoke at length about the challenges they faced before tasting success.

"The one positive out of this crisis that we as a society have become more compassionate. We are showing more gratitude to the frontline workers in this war, be it police personnel, doctors or nurses.

"I hope it stays this way even after we overcome this crisis," said Kohli with Sharma seated next to her.

Kohli said the pandemic has taught the world a very important lesson.

"Life is unpredictable. So, do what makes you happy and not get into comparisons all the time. People have a choice now how to come out of this phase. Life is going to be different after this," said the skipper.

For Sharma, the pandemic has forced people to care about the basics in life.

"There is a learning in all of this. Nothing happens without a reason. If the frontline workers were not there, we would not have access to basics," she said..

"This has taught us that no one is special than the other. Health is everything. We are more connected as a society now," she added.

During the session, Kohli was asked about the moment when he felt most helpless.

"I felt nothing was working for me when I was not picked for the state team initially. I cried the whole night and asked my coach 'why did I not get selected'?" he responded.

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