India squander lead to draw with Olympic champions Germany

June 11, 2016

London, Jun 11: India's defenders squandered the lead as Olympic champions Germany clawed their way back to earn a 3-3 draw on the opening day of the 36th Champions Trophy hockey tournament here today.

India

Enjoying the lead for most part of the encounter, the Indian defence wilted under late Germany pressure to concede the equaliser to Germany just three minutes before the hooter at the Lee Valley Hockey Centre.

Jonas Gomoll converted a 57th minute penalty stroke with a deft flick to save Germany the blushes after they had trailed behind the Indians.

From the moment V R Raghunath converted the first Indian penalty corner in the sixth minute, India had enjoyed the lead throughout, except for one minute when Germany equalised in the first quarter.

Goals from Mandeep Singh (26th minute) and Harmanpreet Singh (32nd) gave India a 3-1 lead, but Germany forced a series of penalty corners against a shaky Indian defence. Two penalty corner conversions by Tom Grambusch in the 25th and 36th minute kept Germany in the contest before Gomoll's penalty stroke restored parity.

The under-pressure Indian defenders conceded nine penalty corners and several of them were soft fouls, while their own strikers earned four at the other end.

The game began with the Indian defenders rushing out to block the early first penalty corner for Germany. The Indians then had a first look at the rival goal in the fifth minute, but Akashdeep Singh's shot was blocked by goalkeeper Tobias Walter.

Indian took the lead in the sixth minute as Raghunath converted the first penalty corner with a low drag flick into the left corner that beat the outstretched hands of custodian Walter.

Two minutes later, Indian captain and goalkeeper P R Sreejesh warded off danger by diving of his left to block a push in the crowded circle.

Striker S V Sunil picked up a diagonal ball inside the circle to shoot into the goal in the 18th minute, but it was disallowed after review, when the video umpire ruled that the ball had touched his foot.

Germany equalized through a penalty corner conversion by Grambusch in the 25th minute. Grambush's low drag flick went off the goalkeeper's pads into the net.

India regained the lead in the very next minute when Sunil's fine solo on the right run took him into the scoring circle. Sunil created the goal with a fine pass to Mandeep, who flicked past the custodian from close range.

Young penalty corner shooter Harmanpreet replicated the earlier shot by Raghunath as he placed the second penalty corner into the right corner to give India a 3-1 lead in the 32nd minute.

The Germans then took the game to India's half with a string of penalty corners and were rewarded with their second goal when Grambusch placed his drag flick beyond custodian Sreejesh's outstretched right hand in the 36th minute.

With errors creeping into India's game, Germany were able to force penalty corners almost at will, but sprayed the shots wide to give the Indians some respite.

India came close to increasing the lead in a rare attack in the 52nd minute when S K Uthappa darted into the circle and the defenders made an aerial clearance, which should have earned India a penalty corner. But Mandeep, at close range, raised his stick to pick up the rebound and shot wide in desperation. As he had taken a try, the penalty corner was not awarded.

Germany were awarded the last of their nine penalty corners in the 57th minute, and that hit defender Pradeep Mor on the body and a penalty stroke was awarded. Gomoll made no mistake with his penalty stroke and India had to be content with a draw in their opening fixture.

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News Network
January 17,2020

Jan 17: Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza cruised into the women's doubles final of the Hobart International with her Ukrainian partner Nadiia Kichenok here on Friday.

Sania and Kichenok sailed past the Slovenian-Czech pair of Tamara Zidansek and Marie Bouzkova 7-6 (3) 6-2 in the semifinal contest that lasted one hour and 24 minutes.

The fifth-seeded Indo-Ukrainian combination will lock horns with second seeds Shuai Peng and Shuai Zhang of China. The Chinese pair got a walkover after Belgium's Kirsten Flipkens and Alison Van Uytvanck conceded the other semifinal match because of injury.

While Sania and Kichenok had to fight hard in the opening set, the second set was a cakewalk for the combination.

The first set was a tough contest between the two pairs, bringing the tie-breaker into the equation after it was level at 6-6.

In the tie-breaker, Sania and Kichenok upped their game by a few notches to outsmart their opponents and take the lead.

The second set was a no-contest as Saina and Kichenok broke their opponents thrice -- in the second, sixth and eighth game -- to easily pocket the set and a place in the summit clash.

Saina and Kichenok got 11 break chances out of which they converted four, while their opponents utilised two out of the five break chances that came their way.

The 33-year-old Sania is returning to the WTA circuit after two years. During her time away from the game, she battled injury breakdowns before taking a formal break in April 2018 to give birth to her son Izhaan. She is married to Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik.

Before the ongoing event, Sania last played at China Open in October 2017.

A trailblazer in Indian tennis, Sania is a former world No.1 in doubles and has six Grand Slam titles to her credit.

She retired from the singles competition in 2013 after becoming the most successful Indian woman tennis player.

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News Network
April 2,2020

New Delhi, Apr 2: It was on April 2, 2011, when the Men in Blue went on to win their second 50-over World Cup title.

India won its first World Cup in 1983 and then had to wait for 28 years to again lift the title.
Going into the 2011 tournament, India went in as the clear favourites as the competition was to be played in the sub-continent.

Under MS Dhoni's leadership, India lost just one match in the competition against South Africa.
India had defeated arch-rivals Pakistan in the semi-final to set up a summit clash with Sri Lanka.

In the finals, Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat first. Mahela Jayawardene top-scored for Sri Lanka as he struck a century to take the team's score to 274/6.

India in their chase got off to a bad start as the side lost Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag with just 31 runs on the board.

But Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni stepped up and stitched a match-winning 109-run partnership.

Gambhir perished after playing a knock of 97 runs, but in the end, Dhoni and Yuvraj took the team over the line by six wickets.

The winning six struck by Dhoni is still viewed as one of the most exciting moments in India's sporting history. 

As the winning six was hit, Ravi Shastri was doing commentary then, and he famously remarked, "Dhoni, finishes it off in style, India lifts the World Cup after 28 years".
As soon as the match-winning shot was hit, Tendulkar erupted with joy and had tears to see his dream finally being fulfilled.

Earlier this year, former Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar's famous lap around the Wankhede Stadium after the 2011 World Cup win, titled 'Carried On the Shoulders Of A Nation', was voted the greatest Laureus Sporting Moment of the last twenty years.

The lap after the World Cup is still edged into everyone's hearts.

Playing in his last mega 50-over tournament, it was the last chance for Tendulkar to lift the coveted trophy.

Before the 2011 World Cup, Tendulkar had played five tournaments (1992,1996,1999,2003 and 2007), and he fell short every time.

The closest he came to winning the trophy was in 2003 as India made the finals under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly.

But the Men in Blue fell short in the finals against Australia.

Then in 2007, the biggest setback was in store for the legend has India bowed out of the tournament in the group stages.

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Agencies
January 16,2020

New Delhi, Jan 16: Mahendra Singh Dhoni was on Thursday dropped from the BCCI's list of centrally contracted players, raising fresh doubts on the future of the former India captain who has not played since the World Cup semifinal loss to New Zealand last year.

The BCCI announced the central contracts for the period of October 2019 to September 2020. Dhoni was in the A category, which fetches a player Rs 5 crore, until last year.

Skipper Virat Kohli, his deputy Rohit Sharma and top pacer Jasprit Bumrah were retained in the highest A+ bracket of Rs 7 crore.

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