PV Sindhu shocks Olympic champion Li Xuerui

September 15, 2012

P_V_Shindu

 

Her exploits against Chinese shuttlers have earned Saina Nehwal the nickname of 'Dragon Slayer'. On Friday, another shuttler from Saina's own city joined in the act.

 

For some time now, Pusarla Venkata Sindhu has been talked about as Saina's successor. On Friday, as thousands of Chinese fans watched in stunned silence, the 17-year-old took a giant leap towards confirming that status with an incredible victory over newly-crowned Olympic champion Li Xuerui, 21-19, 9-21, 21-16, in the quarterfinals of the China Masters Super Series in Changzhou on Friday.

 

With the three-game triumph against China's most consistent player of the year, Sindhu proved she is the next best thing for Indian badminton. "I am extremely delighted. Though I wanted to beat her I never thought I could do it. She is in great form this year and beating her is just amazing. I began well in the third game and succeeded in maintaining that momentum," Sindhu said.

 

However, Notwithstanding the biggest win of her career, Sindhu has no plans to celebrate. "I have a match on Saturday. I know the occasion demands celebration but my concentration is only on my next match," said Sindhu, who reached her first Super Series semifinal.

 

Sindhu will now meet fourth seed Jiang Yanjiao of China in the semifinal while world No. 1 Wang Yihan (China) will take on Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand in the other semifinal.

 

There was more cheer for India when Ajay Jayaram also made it to the semifinals in the men's section after defeating compatriot and national champion Sourabh Varma 12-21, 21-14, 21-16 in the quarters. However, R M V Gurusaidutt lost to Chen Long of China 8-21, 12-21. Jayaram faces Yun Hu of Hong Kong in the semifinals.

 

Xuerui, who has won five titles this year including the Olympics and the prestigious All England Championship, had lost only once before this year this year. Incidentally, the other defeat was at the hands of Saina, in the final of the Indonesia Open on June 17.

 

Though Sindu is ranked No. 24 in the world, the Chinese did not take her lightly. The fact that their chief national coach, Li Yongbo accompanied Xuerui to the court explained how serious the Chinese were about this match. Yongbo hardly takes the courtside seat unless the opponent is of the calibre of men's world No. 2 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia or Saina.

 

But despite the support of the most famous coach of the world, Xuerui could not get past the Indian youngster. The 45-minute enthralling battle witnessed fortunes swing either way before lady luck smiled on the lanky lass from Hyderabad.

 

The daughter of former captain of Indian volleyball team, P V Ramana, Sindhu has been showing great promise for the last few years. She won the senior national title and a few minor events at the international level. But on Friday, she reached a different level. Beating a top Chinese player and that too in China is considered next to impossible in the world of badminton. But Sindhu did that with aplomb.

 

Pouncing on the net to kill the high serve, employing the deceptive but powerful smash on the rival's backhand side and displaying immaculate ability to reach anywhere and retrieve everything, Sindhu was a treat to watch.



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News Network
June 24,2020

New Delhi, Jun 24: Star Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan deeply regrets his "silly mistake" of not reporting a corrupt approach by an Indian bookie to the ICC, leading to his one year suspension from the game.

Shakib was banned for two years, one year of it suspended, for failing to report corrupt approaches during an IPL edition by an alleged Indian bookie named Deepak Aggarwal.

"I took the approaches too casually When I met the anti-corruption guy and told them and they knew everything. Gave them all the evidence and they knew everything that happened," Shakib told Harsha Bhogle on 'Cricbuzz in Conversation'.

"To be honest, that's the only reason I was banned for a year, otherwise I'd have been banned for five or 10 years," he added on the ICC's investigation.

The 33-year-old, who was in brilliant form before the ban, amassing 606 runs in the 2019 World Cup in the UK, said he regrets how he went about the situation.

"But I think that was a silly mistake I made. Because with my experience and the amount of international matches I've played and the amount of ICC's anti-corruption code of conduct classes I took, I shouldn't have made that decision, to be honest."

Lesson learnt, Shakib's advice to all young criceters is to never take any such message lightly.

"I regret that. No one should take such messages or calls (from bookies) lightly or leave it away. We must inform the ICC ACSU guy to be on the safe side and that's the lesson I learnt, and I think I learnt a big lesson," he added.

The all-rounder, whose ban ends on October 29, said he became a bit arrogant and never felt he was doing anything wrong by not reporting the bookie's approach immediately.

"Because you do most things right in your life, you tend to get arrogant with some decisions. You may not realise but you're doing wrong by the books. It never came to my mind that I am doing something wrong

"It was just a feeling of 'okay, what's going to happen, leave it' and I continued with my life. But that's the mistake I made. And that happens," Shakib said.

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News Network
June 10,2020

New Delhi, Jun 10: Former India skipper Rahul Dravid has praised the batting of MS Dhoni during the backend of a match, saying that the wicket-keeper often played during the period as if the result did not really matter to him.

Dravid also said that in pressure-cooker situations, not worrying about consequences can help players bring out the best in themselves.

"You watch MS Dhoni play during the backend of a match when he was at his best, you always felt like that he is doing something really important to him but he is playing it like the result does not really matter to him," Dravid told Sanjay Manjrekar during a videocast hosted by ESPNCricinfo.

"I think you need to have that or you need to train for it. It is a skill that I never had. The consequences of any decision mattered to me. It would be interesting to ask MS Dhoni that is this something that has come naturally to him or did he work on this during his career," he added.

Dhoni made his ODI debut against Bangladesh in 2004, but he truly arrived in the series against Pakistan in 2005 when he scored 148 runs in the second ODI of the six-match series at Vishakapatnam.

He is the only captain to win all major ICC trophies (50-over World Cup, T20 World Cup, and Champions Trophy). Under his leadership, India also managed to attain the number one ranking in Test cricket.

He first led an inexperienced Indian side to the T20 World Cup triumph in 2007. He then took over ODI captaincy, but he had to wait for leading the Test side as Anil Kumble was doing the duties in the longest format.

Over his career, Dhoni has been reowned for his finishing skills and he is often viewed as the best finisher that the game has ever seen.

In December 2014, Dhoni announced his retirement from the longest format of the game.

Then in 2017, Dhoni handed over the captaincy reins to Virat Kohli in the 50-over format.

Dhoni was slated to return to the cricket field on March 29 in the IPL's opening match between CSK and Mumbai Indians. However, the tournament has been suspended indefinitely as a precautionary measure against coronavirus.

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

Dhoni recently had to face criticism for his slow batting approach during India's matches.

Earlier this year, Dhoni did not find a place in the list of BCCI's centrally contracted players from October 2019 to September 2020.

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News Network
February 10,2020

Potchefstroom, Feb 9: Bangladesh clinched their maiden ICC U-19 World Cup title after beating favourites India by three wickets in the summit clash here on Sunday.

Set a revised target of 170 after a brief rain interruption, Bangladesh won the match with 23 balls to spare.

Sent in to bat, India's batting wilted under pressure as a superb Bangladesh bowling attack shot the defending champions out for a paltry 177 in 47.2 overs.

Yasashvi Jaiswal (88 off 121 balls) was once again a standout performer but not for once did he look like dominating the Bangladesh bowling unit whose new ball bowlers Shoriful Islam (2/31 in 10 overs) and Tanzim Hasan Shakib (2/28 in 8.2 overs) literally stifled the Indians for runs.

The third seamer Avishek Das (3/40 in 9 overs) was the most successful bowler in terms of figures but it was Shoriful's first spell with channelised aggression that put the Indians on the back-foot from the onset.

After a short rain break towards the end, the target was revised to 170 from 46 runs but Bangladesh reached 170 for 7 in 42.1 overs to win the match.

Opener Parvez Hossain Emon top-scored for Bangladesh with a 79-ball 47 while captain and wicketkeeper Akbar Ali was not out on 43 from 77 deliveries.

For the India U-19 side, Ravi Bishnoi was the most successful bowler with figures of 4/30 while Sushant Mishra had 2/25.

India thus missed out on a record fifth title in their seventh final appearance.

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