India start Champions Trophy campaign with 3-1 win over England

December 1, 2012

india_hockey


Melbourne, December 1: India made a bright start to their campaign at the Champions Trophy hockey tournament with a come-from-behind 3-1 win over England in Pool A at the State Hockey Centre on Saturday.

The new-look Indian team clinched a morale-boosting win through goals from opportunistic field goals from Danish Mujtaba (22nd minute) and Yuvraj Walmiki (38th) before Gurwinder Singh Chandi scored in a set-piece penalty corner (66th minute).

Earlier, the India defence was breached by a drag flick from Richard Smith on England's maiden penalty corner in the 14th minute.

Playing the first major international event after their disastrous last-place finish in the London Olympics, India have come to the elite eight-nation Champions Trophy with a new look team after dropping several ageing stars.

England have brought a young, experimental team here after several regular players took a break following the Olympics, where Great Britain finished fourth.

Many seasoned players in the England line-up went back to their full-time jobs or universities and left the places open for young players to be inducted for this tournament.

India will take on New Zealand on Sunday in their second outing in Pool A, which also features Olympic gold medallists Germany. Germany edged past New Zealand 3-2 in the other Pool A match.

Giving a good display of competitive hockey, the young Indian outfit had to fight back after conceding the early lead when Smith's rising drag-flick went high into the goal.

India forced their first penalty corner four minutes later, but V R Raghunath's low drag flick was blocked on the goal-line by a defender.

England could have gone two up in the 21st minute when an opportunistic deflection by David Condon on a long through ball went across the goalmouth.

Mujtaba put India back on par by deflecting a long diagonal ball into the goal after lunging forward to beat his marker and also managed to put the ball past the onrushing goalkeeper.

India conceded a soft penalty corner in the 26th minute when an unmarked Raghunath carried the ball in trying to stop a long-range shot.

Walmiki made the most of a diagonal ball from Sunil as he managed to get an opportunistic touch past goalkeeper George Pinner three minutes into the second session.

India came close to scoring another field goal in the 44th minute when three strikers moved into the circle, where goalkeeper George Pinner did not have any company, but he came out to narrow the angle and Chandi's flick was too feeble to cause any trouble.

India's second penalty corner also failed to make an impression on the rival defence and the English strikers had a period of domination midway in the successive minutes.

Goalkeeper T.R. Potunuri, who got to play in the absence of first-choice custodian P.R. Sreejesh, managed to block the feeble pushes into his pads.

Sreejesh got injured during the nine-a-side International Super Series in Perth last week and has been replaced in the squad by another goalkeeper, Sushant Tirkey who has been flown in as a replacement.

Midway through the second half, Sunil was carried off on the stretcher due to cramps, but India continued to press the English defence were rewarded with their third and final penalty corner which produced Chandi's goal.

Chandi dived forward to deflect Raghunath's low drag-flick into the English goal to round off the scoring four minutes from the hooter.

India had another opportunity to increase the margin in the penultimate minute when captain Sardar Singh gave unmarked Walmiki a fine pass, but Walmiki's slow speed allowed the defenders to catch up.


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News Network
March 2,2020

Mar 2: Indian captain Virat Kohli was left frustrated and deflated as New Zealand won the second Test inside three days in Christchurch on Monday to sweep the series.

India started the day at 90 for six and were all out for 124, before New Zealand chased down the required 132 to win for the loss of three wickets in 36 overs.

It ended a disappointing tour for India and Kohli as New Zealand, who won the first Test by 10 wickets early on day four, wrapped up the series with ease.

New Zealand are now unbeaten in their last 13 home Tests, winning nine of them, and in the past decade their record as hosts is played 39, won 20, drawn 13 and lost five.

In the latest series, on traditional New Zealand green wickets, India managed scores of 165, 191, 242 and 124, reflecting the low contributions from Kohli of 2, 19, 3 and 14.

Kohli came to New Zealand as the world's top Test batsman and oozing charm as he described New Zealand as the “nice guys” of cricket.

But during the series he lost his top ranking to Australian Steve Smith and when Kane Williamson went for three in the first innings of the second Test the pressure showed when he gave the New Zealand skipper a very animated send-off.

There was further evidence of frustration when he was caught on camera yelling an obscenity at a group of New Zealand supporters on Sunday.

The end came quickly for India on day three as Tim Southee and Trent Boult tormented the batsmen with their variety of inswing and outswing deliveries targeting both sides of the stumps.

Hanuma Vihari was the first to fall, in Southee's second over, when he turned a legside delivery too fine and was caught by BJ Watling diving to his left.

Five balls later and with no addition to the score, India's other overnight batsman Rishabh Pant was caught behind off a Boult delivery that swung away.

Mohammed Shami was caught for five by Tom Blundell at deep mid-wicket and Jasprit Bumrah was run out when trying to give the strike to Ravindra Jadeja, who was unbeaten on 16.

Boult and Southee signed for most of the dismissals with Boult taking four for 28 and Southee three for 36. The swing pair accounted for 25 of the 40 Indian wickets in the series.

There was enough seam and swing available for India to keep the New Zealand batsmen guessing but Bumrah and Umesh Yadav were unable to apply consistent pressure and Mohammed Shami was troubled by a sore shoulder.

New Zealand coasted through a century opening stand by Tom Latham and Blundell before losing three quick wickets.

Latham notched his 18th half-century and second of the Test before he was caught behind off Yadav for 52, Kane Williamson had a short stay for five, and Blundell went for 55.

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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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News Network
February 5,2020

New Delhi, Feb 5: IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) has denied any financial dealings with the controversial Rose Valley Group except for it being a sponsor of the side's official jerseys in 2012 and 2013.

KKR issued the clarification after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached Rose Valley's assets worth over Rs 70 crore on Monday. The attached assets include Rs 11.87 crore bank deposits of Knight Riders Sports Pvt Ltd, that owns KKR, in connection with a money laundering probe.

The franchise said it hopes for the matter to be resolved expeditiously.

"Rose Valley Hotels was one of KKR's IPL jersey sponsors for IPL seasons 2012 and 2013. Rose Valley had paid KKR an approx. amount of Rs 11.87 crore as sponsorship fees," KKR CEO Venky Mysore said in a statement.

"KKR had no other dealings with the Rose Valley Group including Rose Valley’s micro finance business," he added.

The statement added that in July last year, KRSPL (Knight Riders Sports Pvt Ltd), received a "witness summon" from the ED in connection with an investigation relating to the Rose Valley Group, particularly its micro finance business.

"The ED continues the investigation of Rose Valley. KKR continues to cooperate with the authorities in all respects," Mysore said.

"As part of the investigative process, sometime in October 2019, the ED placed a lien on the said amount earlier paid by Rose Valley to KKR," he asserted.

The directors of KRSPL include Shah Rukh Khan's wife Gauri Khan, actor Juhi Chawla's husband Jay Mehta, Mysore and two others.

Mysore was questioned in this case by ED's Kolkata office in October last year.

Apart from KRSPL, the ED attached properties of two other entities -- Multiple Resorts Pvt. Ltd. and Kolkata's St Xavier's College on Monday.

The ED registered an FIR against the Rose Valley group, its chairman Gautam Kundu and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in 2014.

Kundu was arrested by the agency in Kolkata in 2015 and is in judicial custody at present.

The ED has filed multiple charge sheets in Kolkata and Bhubaneswar courts in this connection and total attachments are now worth Rs 4,750 crore.

The group has been charged by the ED and the CBI with "illegally and fraudulently collecting deposits from public with the intention to cheat them by falsely promising high returns on their investment", thereby perpetrating a ponzi-like fraud.

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