La Liga: Real Madrid back to winning ways under Santiago Solari after Valencia win at Bernabeu

Agencies
December 2, 2018

Madrid, Dec 2: Real Madrid's revival under Santiago Solari appears to be back on track after they moved up to fifth in La Liga with a 2-0 win over Valencia on Saturday. An own-goal from Valencia's Daniel Wass gave Madrid an early lead before Lucas Vazquez added a late second to wrap up their sixth win in seven games under their new coach. The 3-0 thrashing by Eibar last weekend, in Solari's first official game in charge, had placed the depth of the recovery in doubt but this was another assured display to back up an impressive Champions League win over Roma in midweek.

Madrid move two points behind Barcelona and only three adrift of leaders Sevilla, albeit with both still to play on Sunday. Valencia stay 13th. Marcelino's side, attempting a comeback of sorts themselves after a poor start to the season, offered disappointingly little, save for a 20-minute spell at the start of the second half. Otherwise, Madrid controlled the contest and while Gareth Bale's league drought stretched to 10 games, his longest ever, the Welshman played a lead role in an energetic and fluid team performance.

The Santiago Bernabeu was almost packed out, eight days before Boca Juniors and River Plate are due to play here in the postponed second leg of the Copa Libertadores final. With La Liga still pushing for Barcelona's game against Girona to be staged in Miami, there was perhaps something to be savoured in two Spanish teams, in a Spanish competition, playing in a Spanish stadium.

Isco is one of Spain's primary talents but is still to be picked in a starting line-up by Solari. This was the midfielder's seventh consecutive game out of the side and while he came on to cheers, 10 minutes with Madrid already ahead were only crumbs for comfort.

Bale seemed more pinned to the left wing than he has been for a long time and he rolled back the years with a straight run down the line before whipping in an early cross. Karim Benzema's ambitious volley sailed just wide. Madrid had made much the better start and in the eighth minute, took the lead.

Wass headed into his own net but Dani Carvajal led the celebrations. He kept the ball alive before rummaging past Gabriel Paulista and Jose Gaya. The flicked cross gave Wass too little time to react. Valencia made hardly any impact on the half, pressed and harried into submission. Neto skewed a clearance under pressure to Dani Ceballos, whose shot was blocked, but then made up for his error by denying Bale from close range.

Fortunate only to be one behind, Valencia improved after the break. Santi Mina blazed over with only Thibaut Courtois to beat. Gaya's cutback was slightly misplaced. Paulista volleyed over on the stretch from three yards. Bale was replaced by Marco Asensio and, once on the bench, seemed to signal some discomfort with his right thigh.

After some slick exchanges down the right, Asensio should have given Madrid breathing space but his finish was blocked by Ezequiel Garay. Isco came off the bench in the 80th minute and played a part in the second goal. Carvajal was again the instigator, however, setting off on a barnstorming break forward before exchanging with Isco and crossing. Benzema did well to pick out Vazquez, who poked home to complete a convincing win.

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News Network
January 24,2020

Auckland, Jan 24: K L Rahul and Shreyas Iyer smashed quick-fire half-centuries, while skipper Virat Kohli made 45 as India defeated New Zealand by six wickets in the first T20 International to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series here on Friday.

Chasing a challenging 204-run target, Rahul smashed 56 off 27 balls and together with Kohli shared 99 runs for the second wicket to lay the foundation for the chase.

Later, Iyer (58 not out off 29 balls) and Manish Pandey (14 not out) remained unbeaten as India chased down the target with an over to spare.

Earlier, Colin Munro, Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor smashed scintillating half-centuries to power New Zealand to a challenging 203 for five.

Opener Munro blasted six fours and two sixes in his 42-ball 59, while skipper Williamson treated the Indian bowlers with equal disdain, hitting them out of the park four times in his 26-ball 51.

Taylor then clobbered an unbeaten 54 off 27 balls. His innings was laced with three sixes and as many fours.

Opener Martin Guptill also chipped in with a 19-ball 30.

Earlier, India skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and decided to field.

For India, Jasprit Bumrah (1/), Shardul Thakur (1/44), Yuzvendra Chahal (1/32), Shivam Dube (1/24) and Ravindra Jadeja (1/18) snapped one wicket each.

Brief Score:

New Zealand: 203 for 5 in 20 overs (Colin Munro 59, Kane Williamson 51, Ross Taylor 54; Jasprit Bumrah 1/31).

India: 204 for 4 in 19 overs (Shreyas Iyer 58 not out, K L Rahul 56, Virat Kohli 45; Ish Sodhi 2/36).

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Agencies
January 6,2020

Washington D.C., Jan 6: 'The Irishman,' and 'Two Popes' were shut out from the winners list despite getting multiple nominations, the movies didn't win a single award at the Golden Globes Award held on Sunday (local time). Other movies in the list include 'Bombshell,' 'Dolemite Is My Name,' 'Harriet,' 'Jojo Rabbit,' 'Knives Out' and 'Little Women.'

According to The Hollywood Reporter, 'The Irishman' may have gone into the 2020 Golden Globes with the second-highest number of film nominations, tied with 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' with five nods, but Martin Scorsese's highly anticipated mob epic for Netflix was completely shut out at the award ceremony.

Netflix landed the most film nominations of any company with 17 mentions, but it won only one award which is the best-supporting actress for 'Marriage Story's' Laura Dern. Netflix's nominated films 'Dolemite Is My Name' and 'The Two Popes' was tied with 'Joker' with four mentions each and failed to grab any awards.

'Dolemite Is My Name' star Eddie Murphy was expected by a number of pundits to win for best actor in a motion picture, musical or comedy.

'Bombshell', 'Harriet',' Frozen 2', 'Jojo Rabbit', 'Knives Out', 'The Lion King', 'Little Women' and 'Pain and Glory' are among the other films that received multiple nominations but didn't win a single award.

On the TV side, Netflix's 'Unbelievable' tied in the race to most small-screen nominations with 'Chernobyl' and 'The Crown' with four nominations, and 'The Crown' won only one award, for star Olivia Colman.

The three-time nominees 'Barry', 'Big Little Lies', 'The Kominsky Method' and 'The Morning Show' also didn't grab any award. 'Catch-22', 'Killing Eve', 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' and 'The Politician' who were two-time nominees that were also iced out.

'Hustlers' star Jennifer Lopez failed to take home the best-supporting actress award as she was predicted to win the award by a number of pundits. Billy porter also failed to make history with the best drama actor win for his role on 'Pose,' if he would've won the award, he reportedly would have been the first openly gay African-American to win that award.

'Chernobyl' won two of its four nominations. Despite that, star Jared Harris didn't win the best actor in a limited series Globe which was predicted by many prognosticators. The award was bagged by Russell Crowe for his portrayal of Roger Ailes in 'The Loudest Voice.' But the star was absent from the ceremony.

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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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