India vs West Indies: India eye another ODI series triumph in World Cup tune-up

Agencies
October 31, 2018

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 31: India go into the final ODI Thursday eyeing another home series triumph against the West Indies, a far cry from the dominant force it was when the city last hosted a 50-over international three decades ago.

A victory in the fifth and penultimate One-day International will ensure India maintain their unbeaten run since the reverse against South Africa in 2015.

Leading 2-1 in the five-match series that also witnessed a tie, the hosts faced unexpected resistance in the past few days, including suffering a shock defeat, since the time the West Indians set foot in the country a little more than a month ago.

The weather is expected to play a part with showers predicted.

Virat Kohli's men bounced back from the loss in the third match at Pune to record a massive 224-run win at Mumbai.

The home team will hope to carry the momentum into the series decider in the Southern city.

The last ODI played here was also between the two teams and was won by the visiting side, then an eminent force in world cricket. Jason Holder's men will look to seek inspiration from their illustrious predecessors and level the series.

With the series being the first in the run-up to the 50-overs World Cup in England in June next year, the two sides are more or less aiming to zero in on the combination for the showpiece.

While Kohli and Rohit Sharma have been in superlative form, scoring three and two centuries respectively, Ambati Rayudu, backed by the skipper, has also been among the runs.

The rest of the batsmen haven't quite had the impact they would have liked to. The flamboyant Shikhar Dhawan has not capitalised on the starts while veteran Mahendra Singh Dhoni has found runs hard to come by.

Left out of the T20 squad for the upcoming series in Australia, the Jharkhand stumper will hope to make a contribution in front of the stumps, too, even though his work with the big gloves has been stupendous.

Dhoni stands on the cusp of a milestone, needing one run to reach the 10,000 mark in India colours (he has scored 124 runs for Asia XI).

The return of Jasprit Bumrah has added value to the Indian team and he proved his worth in the two games he has played while the young Khaleel Ahmed showed he's learning with an impressive spell at the Brabourne Stadium.

Kohli will expect the experienced Bhuvneshwar Kumar to raise his level of play in the series finale after moderate returns. The seamer has been recalled following a rest.

The spinners have done the damage with most of the Caribbean batsmen struggling to cope with Kuldeep Yadav, while Yuzvendra Chahal was benched for the fourth ODI in favour of Ravindra Jadeja.

The visitors, on the other hand, have blown hot and cold in the one-dayers after being routed in the Tests.

Shimron Hetmyer and Shai Hope have impressed the most, having logged a century each while underlining their abilities. Captain Holder has shown he can handle the Indian spinners pretty well but the other batsmen have not covered themselves with glory.

Holder will be hoping that the team improves collectively to snatch a win and deny India a series triumph. It is easier said than done but the young West Indies squad has shown they have the talent but not the requisite temperament.

The participation of off-spinner Ashley Nurse, who has been a consistent performer, is in doubt after he suffered an injury during the Mumbai game. His absence could affect the hopes of the Windies in the all-important game.

The final ODI, the second international game to be played at the new greenfield stadium in the city, is expected to draw a full house but the weather holds the key.

Squads:

India: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Rishabh Pant, MS Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Khaleel Ahmed, Umesh Yadav, Lokesh Rahul, Manish Pandey.

West Indies: Jason Holder (captain), Fabian Allen, Sunil Ambris, Devendra Bishoo, Chanderpaul Hemraj, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope (wicketkeeper), Alzarri Joseph, Evin Lewis, Ashley Nurse, Keemo Paul, Rovman Powell, Kemar Roach, Marlon Samuels, Oshane Thomas.

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News Network
January 28,2020

Gibraltar, Jan 28: Young Indian Grand Master R Praggnanandhaa pulled off a huge upset, beating former world champion Veselin Topalov in the sixth round of the 18th Gibraltar chess festival to record his fifth straight win here.

The 14-year-old Chennai lad needed just 33 moves to put it across the Bulgarian. He had started with a loss against compatriot P V Nandhidhaa but since then he has been on a winning spree.

Praggnanandhaa, who recently won the world under-18 title, said: "It was very tough to prepare against him."

He is in second spot on five points with six other players and will take on Chinese GM Wang Hao in the seventh round.

Seventeen-year-old Russian GM Andrey Esipenko jumped to sole lead with 5.5 points with a win over Georgia's Ivan Cheparinov

The Russian player would be unpaired in the seventh round as he decided to take a bye.

A bunch of players including Indians — B Adhiban, K Sasikiran, Shardul Gagare, Karthikeyan Murali, SL Narayanan — are in joint third place with 4.5 points.

Adhiban beat Gabriel Flom, while D Gukesh, the world's second youngest Grand Master ever, defeated Martin Percivaldi to move to four points.

Also winning were Karthikeyan Murali against Qi B Chen and Gagare over France's Maxime Lagarde.

Top-seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov's moderate run continued as he was held to a draw by GM Aryan Chopra.

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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
March 6,2020

Melbourne, Mar 6: Experienced middle-order batter Veda Krishnamurthy believes that "destiny" is in favour of first-time finalist India to win their maiden ICC Women's T20 World Cup title provided they get a grip on their nerves in the summit clash against Australia on Sunday.

India will have a psychological advantage going into the final as they had stunned the defending champions by 17 runs in the tournament opener.

The Harmanpreet Kaur-led India reached the final on the basis of their unbeaten record in the tournament after their semifinal against England was washed out on Thursday.

Krishnamurthy, who was a part of the Indian team that finished runner-up to England in the 2017 Women's ODI World Cup, knows the pain of missing out on a world title.

"It's all about destiny, and I'm a big believer in destiny. I feel like this is the way it was meant to be. There is a joke going around that this World Cup is made in such a way that it's helping us, starting from the wickets to everything else," she was quoted as saying by the tournament's official website.

"Being in the final is just reward for the way we played in the group stages. There was an advantage to having won all our games with the weather not in our hands."

The team's first target of reaching the final having achieved, the 27-year-old player said the Indians now need to hold their nerves and remain focussed leading up to the big day on Sunday.

"We said the first aim was to get to the final and take it from there. We've crossed the first stage. We need to make sure we hold our nerves and we do what we need to do on the final day," she said.

India's recent rivalry with Australia has taken fascinating twists and turns, with Kaur's outfit chasing down 173 in their recent tri-series, then getting home by 17 runs in the T20 World Cup opener.

But all is not hunky-dory for Krishnamurthy on the personal front. Considered a great finisher, she has recovered from a series of single-digit scores in the tri-series to score 20 from 11 balls in a finishing role against Bangladesh.

Having amassed just 35 runs from four matches in the tournament so far, the Karnataka batter knows her role in the team.

"As an individual, the role given to me is very consistent in the last year. They've put the effort in the last year to keep me there and I've been supported by every individual, not just one or two. The entire team, with all the support staff, have shown faith in me," she said.

"I know coming into the World Cup, I would play a crucial role to finish the innings well, which I felt I was unable to do in the last World Cup in the West Indies," she added.

Krishnamurthy said specific roles have been set for every player of the squad and they all are trying to contribute as much as they can to help the team achieve its goal.

"I was very motivated to do my role and I've been working on that. It's not just me, all 15 players involved know what their role is," she said.

"I'm happy we're all putting in efforts and executing our role properly. Even if it's a smallish contribution of saving a couple of runs, it's all panned out really well."

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