Kabaddi golds prop India in Asiad, total haul at 57

October 3, 2014

Incheon, Oct 3: India brought the curtains down on their campaign in the 17th Asian Games, maintaining their domination of kabaddi with two gold medals as the country rose a rung to eighth in the overall standings on the penultimate day of competitions here today.kabaddi india

The two gold medals provided the final flourish for India at the Games, which can be considered a disappointment for the country given that the overall medal count went down in this edition.

Although the women's team won their match against Iran quite comfortably, it was not a cakewalk for the men's team which literally overcame a scare before notching up their seventh successive gold medal in the event.

With two gold medals coming today, India were placed eighth on the table with a total haul of 57 medals -- 11 gold, nine silver and 37 bronze. China continued to be at the top with an impressive haul of 329 (145-103-81) followed by hosts South Korea 222 (75-70-77) and Japan 190 (46-72-72).

The medal collection was well below India's expectation as they had managed a haul of 65 -- 14 gold, 17 silver and 34 bronze -- in the previous edition of the Games in Guangzhou.

With no Indian participation on the last day of competitions tomorrow, the country's overall standing can change depending on others' performance.

Today, staging a fantastic second-half recovery, Indian men surged to gold by defeating Iran 27-25 in a thrilling final at the Songdo University Gymnasium.

India thus completed a golden double on the kabaddi mat for the second successive edition after the women defeated the same nation 31-21 in their final held earlier in the day.

The country thus boosted its overall gold tally to 11 on the final day of competitions here.

But it was touch and go for the Indian men, who have won the gold medal with ease on the six previous occasions since kabaddi was introduced in the 1990 Games at Beijing. They played catch-up with Iran for most part of the game before drawing level with the last seven minutes of the 40-minute match left.

The winners were trailing by a big margin of 13-21 at half time and a huge upset was on the cards before the defending champions pulled it around in the second half with some aggressive raiding and smart catching.

Captain Rakesh Kumar played with a bandaged head after getting injured by a rival defender's knee during his raid in the second half.

Rakesh said at half time, the strategy chalked out was to pack off Iran quickly for a 'lona' -- with only four players of the rivals left as compared to their own five -- at that stage and come back into the game.

India started on the wrong foot against the super-fit Iranians who looked like men possessed as they raided with gusto and defended with zeal to jump to a 17-7 lead before the Indians, who even conceded a 'lona' (after being all out), knew what happened.

Experienced raider Jasvir Singh appeared to be a bit overconfident and paid the penalty for that as he was packed off when raiding thrice in the initial stages.

It was left to India's most experienced player Anup Kumar to pull in three points with a good raid and narrow the lead. With five minutes left for the end of the opening half, India trailed 11-18 which became 13-21 before the first half ended.

The crucial turnaround happened soon after the start of the second half when India secured a 'lona' and then caught up with their rivals at 21-all.

They, however, slipped down to 21-24 before staging another recovery to catch up at 24-all when seven minutes were left.

Anup raided to secure a valuable point to help India lead 25-24, the first time they had done in the entire match. They added one more when Iranian's fast raider Meraj Sheykh was caught and though Anup failed in his next raid, Meraj was again caught just as the clock ticked to full time with India ahead by two points.

Earlier, Indian women too staged a strong second half performance to get the better of a fighting Iran 31-21 to retain the gold.

The Indian women led 15-11 at the halfway stage of the 30-minute final but then put up a determined show in the second half to maintain their supremacy for the second edition running, having clinched gold when the event made its debut four years ago in Guangzhou.

They, in fact, had only a two-point lead at 12-10 soon after securing the first of their two lonas (all outs) in the gold medal contest against the fitter-looking Iranian women who played with head scarves and leggings.

Abhilasha Mhatre then effected a crucial raid to not only get back two points for her side but also revive two players who had been packed off by Iran's aggressive raider Khalaj Ghazal.

Thereafter, India took firm control from the first five minutes of the second half following a strong raid by Abhilasha Mhatre to take a 19-15 lead.

They got another timely lona in the seventh minute to lead 25-16 and there ended Iran's hopes though they tried to stage a fight back towards the end.

Iranian women were in tears after the loss, having come here with a mission to dethrone India for the gold medal. The team even had a computer software engineer and a doctorate in agriculture in its ranks.

There was, however, no cheer for India's taekwondo players at the Asian Games with Shaloo Raikwar and Margarette Maria losing their respective quarterfinal bouts.

Shaloo lost her 73kg quarterfinal bout to Alfahad Abrar of Kuwait. Both the players finished 3-3 after the regulation four rounds but Abrar was declared 'Winner on Superiority' as the Indian had conceded two penalty points against her rival's one.

Later, Maria lost 1-15 to China's Li Donghua in the 73kg quarterfinal.In volleyball, India prevailed over Qatar 3-2 in a hard-fought contest to finish fifth in the men's volleyball competition.

In men's 5th-6th place classification match at the Songnim Gymnasium here, the Indians rallied to beat the Qataris 25-21 20-25 25-22 20-25 15-10 in a keenly contested match, which lasted an hour and 47 minutes.

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Agencies
January 25,2020

Headingley, Jan 25: England have become the first team in the world to score 500,000 runs in Test cricket. They achieved the feat during the ongoing fourth and final Test against South Africa being played at The Wanderers.

On Friday - the opening day of the Test match -- England captain Joe Root's single through the covers took the Three Lions to a landmark 500,000 run-mark in the longest format of the game. They achieved the feat in their 1022nd Test match.

Australia comes second in the list, with 432,706 runs in 830 Tests. India, meanwhile, are third, with 273,518 runs in 540 Tests, followed by West Indies (270,441 runs in 545 Tests).

In the third Test played at St George's Park in Port Elizabeth, England had become the first team to play 500 Test matches on foreign soil. Australia are the second team to play the most away Test with 404 matches they have played so far.

India have played 268 Tests on foreign soil in which they have won 51, lost 113 and 104 have ended in a draw.

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News Network
February 17,2020

Hamilton, Feb 17: Mayank Agarwal found form on his birthday and Rishabh Pant mixed caution with his customary aggression as India’s warm-up fixture against New Zealand XI ended in a draw here on Sunday.

The match was called off an hour after lunch with India reaching 252 for four just 48 overs into their second innings.

Agarwal, who had gone through a wretched period since the second Test against Bangladesh, retired on 81 off 99 balls with 10 fours and three sixes to his name.

To the relief of the Indian team management, Pant played in his customary manner to reach 70 off 65 balls, but also showed discretion when the opposition bowlers were in the midst of a good spell. There were four sixes -- two each off leg-spinner Ish Sodhi and off-spinner Henry Cooper.

While Sodhi was hit down the ground, Cooper was dispatched over extra cover on a couple of occasions. He didn’t curb his aggression, though, there were times when he was ready defend the spinners and also leave some of the deliveries.

Even though Pant is considered a better batsman than Wriddhiman Saha, the innings might have come too late in the day considering that the latter is a better keeper and possibly a more responsible batsman in pressure situations.

The biggest positive to have emerged from the New Zealand second innings is Agarwal’s poor run coming to an end. The Seddon Park track easing out was definitely a factor but Agarwal’s footwork was more assured as he played some glorious on-drives and pull-shots off fast bowlers.

Before this game, Agarwal had played 10 competitive games including first-class, ODIs and List A matches and couldn’t cross the 40-run mark in 11 completed innings. He even bagged a pair against New Zealand A in an unofficial Test match.

Once he had got his form back, he didn’t come out to bat after lunch giving Saha an opportunity to score an unbeaten 30, his runs coming mostly against non-regular bowlers.

The Agarwal-Pant pair added 100 runs in 14.3 overs and it also helped that part-timers like Cooper was introduced into the action.

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News Network
July 21,2020

Melbourne, Jul 21: Cricket Australia's chief executive Nick Hockley has said that the Indian players and staff will most likely be asked to face two weeks of quarantine before the four-match Test series.

This scenario will bring the Adelaide Oval and its newly constructed hotel firmly into view as the sort of biosecure bubble, ESPNCricinfo reported.

India and Australia are slated to face each other in a four-match Test series, which is to begin from December 4 at Brisbane.

"The two-week quarantine is pretty well-defined. What we are working on is making sure that even within that quarantine environment, the players have got the absolute best training facilities, so that their preparation for the matches is as optimal as it can possibly be," ESPNCricinfo quoted Hockey as saying.

"Certainly the fact that the Adelaide Oval has a hotel. It does provide a facility not dissimilar to Old Trafford or Ageas Bowl where the hotels are integrated into the venue," he added.

Hockley also said that an exacting standard of biosecurity and testing would be applied before the series against India as the coronavirus cases are spiking in the subcontinent.

"It's widely known and it's unlikely that international travel restrictions would have lifted by the time that India will be due to come into the country. Clearly there will be testing regimes. We will be able to test people before that they get on to the plane and it is the nature of the situation of making sure we have the quarantine arrangements in line with government and health authority protocols," Hockley said.

"The key thing for the players is that there's regular testing and that we appropriately quarantine them when they come in and all of those plans are currently in development," he added.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday announced the postponement of the T20 World Cup 2020 slated to be held in Australia from October 18-November 15 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Following the announcement, the BCCI is likely to go ahead with the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the October-November window. However, it is known where the T20 tournament will be played as cases continue to rise in India.
"I think the BCCI has made no secrets that they are considering what that means for the IPL. For us, it's about getting a bit of an understanding and certainty around what that means. Clearly, in a normal course, some of our best players are obviously top picks for those IPL teams," Hockley said.

"It's a bit premature to speculate on that. We need to understand what the plans are if any and once we understand that we will make decisions accordingly," he added.

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