Kabaddi World Cup 2016: India hammer Argentina; Iran, South Korea book semi-final berths

October 16, 2016

Ahmedabad, Oct 16: India cruised to a comfortable 74-20 win over Argentina as the home raiders flexed their muscles to notch a Kabaddi World Cup record 54-point margin win at the TransStadia in Ahmedabad on Saturday.

india

India hardly broke sweat as Rahul Chaudhari and Ajay Thakur combined to score 25 raid points between them. Manjeet Chhillar and Surender attained a high five each to score 11 points to lead India's charge.

India are second in group B with 16 points from three games whereas bottom-placed Argentina are yet to open their account after four games.

On Saturday, it was one way traffic as India created a record of most tackles in a World Cup match. India made a swift start and led 3-0 after three minutes. Nahuel Villamayor opened Argentina's account in the second minute to trail 1-3.

Pardeep and Sandeep Narwal scored a point apiece as India led 6-1 before Thakur made a successful raid in the fifth minute to help extend India's led to 9-3. The hosts immediately inflicted an all out in the sixth minute to lead 12-3.

Thakur led the scoring charts for India in the first half and scored 11 points. Surjeet was a rock at the back for India and achieved a high five in the first half as India inflicted another all out in the 19th minute to lead 35-11.

Argentina were no match for India and struggled to cope with India's superiority in all departments. Narwal scored five points for India in the first half as India led 36-13 at the break.

After the break, Thakur attained a super ten in the 22nd minute as India led 38-13. India didn't relent at any point in the second half as they led 41-13 after 24 minutes. An all out was again inflicted by the home boys in the 25th minute to take the lead to 45-13. Chaudhari came on as a substitute on the 26th minute to score his first point as India led 47-15.

He scored two more points in the 28th minute to give India 50-15 lead.

Just after Villamayor bagged seven points for Argentina in the 30th minute, India did not lose any time to inflict another all out to extend their lead to 58-15.

With less than four minutes to go for the final hooter, India inflicted yet another all out to lead 68-17.

Chaudhari scored 10 points in the second half alone as Argentina struggled to cope with him.

India led 73-19 as Kiran Parmar scored with a two-point raid in the 40th minute to finally thrash the South American nation with a record margin.

Iran stave off late Japanese fightback to reach semi-finals

Iran notched a tough 38-34 win over Japan to continue their unbeaten run at the Kabaddi World Cup at the TransStadia Arena in Ahmedabad on Saturday.

Iran survived a scare against Japan to emerge eventual winners and remain on top of Group B with 20 points from four outings. Japan, on the other hand, are second with 10 points from three games.

On Saturday, Iran began brightly and led 6-1 after six minutes as Japan struggled to get a foothold in the game.

Considered as one of the title favourites, Iran looked in brilliant form as they barely gave Japan an inch in the game. Kazuohiro Takano scored Japan's second point as they trailed 2-12 in the ninth minute.

Meraj Sheykh then added four points to help Iran dominate the first half and go 19-9 up at the break.

Iran began the second half in the same dominating style as Sheykh's raid culminated into an all out with Iran leading 26-9 after 23 minutes.

Japan put up a strong fight in the second half and matched Iran for the last 20 minutes before Iran forced another all out in the 33rd minute to lead 35-18.

Japan mounted a strong comeback in the last seven minutes as they scored 10 points in a row to trail 28-35 in the 37th minute. Masayuki Shimokawa scored eight points for Japan in a valiantly attempt to take his team over the line.

In the end, Iran used their experience and held their nerves to fight back against Japan's late show before wrapping up the tie in their favour.

South Korea storm into semi-finals by mauling Australia

South Korea assured themselves of a semi-final berth after comfortably beating Australia 63-25 in a Pool A contest of the Kabaddi World Cup here on Saturday.

It was South Korea's fourth successive win in the tournament which they achieved without their star player Jang Kun Lee. Despite his absence, the Koreans put up a commendable show with Cheol Gyu Shin bagging 11 points and Dong Gyu Kim scoring 10 points.

South Korea are now top of Group A with 20 points from four games while Australia are fifth in and out of the race to the semi-finals.

On Saturday, South Korea began with a bang and scored three points with a super raid by Shin. Australia suffered an all out in the fourth minute to trail 2-10. The Koreans kept mounting the pressure to lead 16-4 after nine minutes as Shin added another five points.

Trailing 6-18, Australia forced a super tackle in the 12th minute but Korea immediately bounced back to inflict the second all out of the match in the 14th minute to extend their lead to 23-9.

Kim scored with a two-point raid in the 15th minute as Korea led 26-10. For Australia, Thomas Sharp scored four raid points in the first half but that took them nowhere near their Asian rivals' scoreline which Kim increased to 30-14.

Korea began the second half in the same fashion to increase the lead to 33-16. Campbell scored with a super raid in the 25th minute as Australia trailed 19-33. In the next minute, Korea forced a super tackle to take the lead to 35-19.

Australia suffered another all out in the 34th minute as they trailed 23-47 before Korea scored eight points in a row to take it further to 53-25.

Jae Cheol Lee scored with a super raid in the 39th minute as Korea kept on increasing its lead to 58-25. The Koreans thereafter wrapped up the match with an easy victory margin of 38 points as the final scoreline read 63-25.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
July 7,2020

New Delhi, Jul 7: Wicket-keeper batsman MS Dhoni is known for his finishing heroics and ending the match with a big shot to send a billion people in a frenzy.

For over a decade, Dhoni's swashbuckling batting style, especially the famed helicopter shot, gave international bowlers a headache. As the former Indian skipper celebrates his 39th birthday today, let's relive his first century in international cricket.

It was on April 5, 2005, when Dhoni had registered his first international century. The former skipper registered the feat against Pakistan in the second ODI of the six-match series. The match was played at the Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam.

Dhoni had made his ODI debut against Bangladesh in 2004. However, he did not have a good outing as he scored just 19 runs in the three-match series. But the wicket-keeper truly arrived in the series against Pakistan in 2005, as he scored 148 runs in the second ODI of the six-match series at Visakhapatnam.

In the match, India won the toss and opted to bat first. The side lost Sachin Tendulkar's wicket in the fourth over of the innings and it brought Dhoni to the middle.

Dhoni, along with Sehwag, took on the Pakistan bowlers and the duo formed a 96-run stand, which saw Sehwag going past the 50-run mark. Sehwag (74) was sent back to the pavilion in the 14th over, but Dhoni then found support in Rahul Dravid and the duo stitched a 149-run stand.

Dhoni smashed 15 fours and four sixes in his innings and scored 148 runs from 123 balls, taking India's total to 356/9 in the allotted fifty overs.

India then managed to defend the total as the side bundled out Pakistan for 298 as Ashish Nehra scalped four wickets.

Dhoni has so far played 350 ODIs with his highest score being 183 against Sri Lanka. He also remains the only captain to win all major ICC trophies (50-over World Cup, T20 World Cup, and Champions Trophy).

Also referred to as 'Captain Cool', Dhoni is known for his calmness and exquisite captaincy on the field.

Over the years, he has cemented his place as one of the finest wicket-keepers across the world. His agility behind the stumps has given India many breakthroughs as the Ranchi-based wicket-keeper has done successful stumpings in no time.

He is also known for his knack of opting for reviews and many have jokingly remarked to change the 'Decision-Review System's' name to 'Dhoni-Review System'.

In December 2014, he announced his retirement from Tests and gave a chance to the likes of Wriddhiman Saha. Dhoni called time on his Test career after playing 90 Tests, managing to score 4,876 runs at an average of 38.09.

Then in 2017, he handed over the captaincy to Virat Kohli in the 50-over format. However, the wicket-keeper enjoys a great camaraderie with the latter and the duo have been seen often taking decisions together on the field.

Under Dhoni's leadership, India also managed to attain the number one ranking in Test cricket. His Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK) has also won the tournament thrice under his leadership.

Dhoni was slated to return to the cricket field on March 29 during the IPL's opening match between CSK and Mumbai Indians. However, the tournament has been postponed indefinitely due to COVID-19 pandemic.

The 39-year-old has been currently enjoying some time away from the game. He last played competitive cricket during the 2019 World Cup. 

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
March 8,2020

Mumbai, Mar 8: Shikhar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned to India's ODI squad as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the team for the upcoming South Africa series.

South Africa are scheduled to tour India for a three-match ODI series, starting from March 12.

India's ODI squad: Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Virat Kohli (C ), KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) have already announced their squad for the series and spinner George Linde was given maiden ODI call-up.

South Africa squad: Quinton de Kock (c, wk), Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen, Faf du Plessis, Kyle Verreynne, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Jon-Jon Smuts, Andile Phehlukwayo, Lungi Ngidi, Lutho Sipamla, Beuran Hendricks, Anrich Nortje, George Linde, Keshav Maharaj, Janneman Malan.

The first ODI will be played in Dharamsala while the other two matches will be played in Lucknow and Kolkata on March 15 and 18, respectively.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
February 3,2020

New Delhi, Feb 3: Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar feels there are a lot of similarities between the Virat Kohli-led Team India and the Pakistan team when Imran Khan had led it as both captains instill strong self-belief in their respective teams.

Manjrekar also said that Pakistan under Imran had found different ways of winning matches even when it seemed all was lost.

"India under Virat in NZ reminds me of Pakistan under Imran. Strong self belief as a team. Pakistan under Imran found different ways of winning matches, often from losing positions. That only happens when the self belief is strong," Manjrekar tweeted.

The cricketer turned commentator expressed his opinion after India completed a rare 5-0 whitewash with a seven-run victory over New Zealand in the final T20 International in Mount Maunganui on Sunday.

Manjrekar also lauded KL Rahul, now also shouldering wicket-keeping duty, for his impressive showing in recent times.

"Samson & Pant... the next batting brigade of India obviously have the skill & the power game they just need to infuse a small dose of Virat's batting 'smarts' (mind) into their game," Manjrekar wrote.

The victory at the Bay Oval saw India stretch their record for most successive T20I wins.

This was their eighth win in a row, bettering the previous three instances when they won seven successive matches.

Kohli is the most successful Test captain in Indian cricket history, winning 11 consecutive series at home and are on top of the ICC rankings.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.