Adhiban, Sasikiran in second round of World Chess Cup

August 14, 2013

Adhiban_SasikiranTromso (Norway), Aug 14: Former National champions B Adhiban and Krishnan Sasikiran raised their performance when it mattered and clinched their respective tie-break games to enter the second round of the chess World Cup here.

Pitted against a much higher-rated rival, Adhiban displayed top form to beat Evgeny Alekseev of Russia 5-3, winning in the blitz tiebreaker while Sasikiran prevailed over Constantin Lupulescu of Romania 2.5-1.5 cruising past in the second rapid game to reach the round of 64.

It turned out to be a bad day in office for other Indian contender Parimarjan Negi as he let go of his lead once again before going down to Yuri Kryvoruchko of Ukraine in the mini-match.

Parimarjan lost 2-4 but before that he won the first rapid tiebreaker as black. he blew it away with white pieces in the return game.

Adhiban's victory turned out to be the second biggest upset in the World cup so far after Wei Yi of China had beaten Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia.

Ranked way below, Adhiban showed a lot of determination and played with his heart out to beat Alekseev, a member of the top 50 club it he world rankings.

It started with the rapid tiebreaker wherein Adhiban drew the first blood but lost the return game. The stage was thus set for two 10-minutes each games that ended in draws.

Alekseev missed out on a clear advantage in the subsequent five-minutes each blitz game and ran out of time and in the second blitz game Adhiban gave no chances and

picked up as many as three pawns before the Russian called it a day.

Sasikiran gave a perfect display of technical chess to outplay Lupulescu.

Playing the white side of a Queen pawn game in the second rapid tiebreaker after drawing the first, Sasikiran weakened the king side with some precise moves in the middle game and launched an attack on the king side to knock down a pawn for no compensation. The rest was child's play for the seasoned Indian.

Negi was unlucky yet again. In the normal games too he had won the first game with black pieces but could not make a draw as white and in the second too it was a similar story.

Winning with black with a fine combination, Negi got a balanced position again as white but missed out in the endgame to let Kryvoruchko level the scores again.

In the next set of tiebreakers, Kryvoruchko won both games. Sasikiran has a tough challenge to tackle in Sergey Karjakin of Russia in the next round of this USD 1.6 million event.

Adhiban will take on Alexander Fier of Brazil in what is expected to be an even contest.

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News Network
April 8,2020

London, Apr 8: England wicketkeeper Jos Buttler has raised more than 65,000 pound (USD 80,000) to help fight the coronavirus by auctioning off his World Cup final shirt.

Buttler's shirt, which he wore when completing the last-ball run-out that saw England beat New Zealand at Lord's last year, was sold to raise money for specialist heart and lung centres provided by the Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals in London.

Buttler, who earlier in the showpiece match had hit a fifty and batted in the Super Over, put his long-sleeve keeping jersey up for sale on eBay a week ago.

By the time the auction closed on Tuesday, the shirt had attracted 82 bids with the winner paying 65,100 pound.

Buttler, speaking on Monday, said: "It's a very special shirt but I think it takes on extra meaning with it being able to hopefully go to the emergency cause.

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News Network
January 2,2020

New Delhi, Jan 2: Thrilled after getting to know about Hardik Pandya and Natasa Stankovic's engagement, skipper Virat Kohli on Wednesday called it a "pleasant surprise".

Extending his best wishes to the newly-engaged couple, Kohli posted a comment on Pandya's Instagram post which read, "Congratulations H. What a pleasant surprise. Wish you guys great times ahead. God bless".

On the first day of the New Year 2020, Pandya announced his engagement with Serbian actor Natasa Stankovic.

The cricketer took to Instagram to share the photo with the actor and captioned the post: "Mai tera, Tu meri jaane, saara Hindustan. 01.01.2020 #engaged".

The couple got engaged in Dubai and were seen taking a ferry ride along with close friends.

On the work front, Stankovic was last seen in a song from the Bollywood movie The Body starring Emraan Hashmi and Rishi Kapoor. She had also made it to the finals of the TV show Nach Baliye with her ex-boyfriend Aly Goni.

Stankovic first became a household name after appearing as a contestant on famous reality show Bigg Boss 8.

In 2019, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had confirmed that Pandya had had lower-back surgery in London.

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Agencies
June 7,2020

New Delhi, Jun 7: Former Pakistan spinner Danish Kaneria on Sunday said that Sourav Ganguly would be fit to lead the International Cricket Council (ICC), and added there is no reason for respective cricket boards to not support Ganguly if he wants to hold the post.

In an interaction with media, the former spinner said Ganguly has all the qualities of leading the ICC as he has been a reputed cricketer and knows what a player goes through in his life.

"I also think that it would be really helpful if Sourav Ganguly goes on to lead ICC, it will help cricket and the players as a reputed cricketer will hold such a big post, he has played professional cricket, he has led the Indian side and he has also held an administrative post in the Cricket Association of Bengal," Kaneria told media.

"It depends on all of the boards whether they want to support Ganguly or not, if other boards support Ganguly and PCB doesn't, then also Ganguly would have the maximum number of votes, as a cricketer Ganguly is fit to lead the ICC, he had led the Indian side so well and he has earned a name for himself, so I don't see any reason for boards not supporting Ganguly," he added.

Ganguly had become the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) last year, but speculation continued to rise over the former skipper heading the ICC.

"He is currently the president of the BCCI, he knows in and out of everything, he knows what players have to deal with and he is aware of what cricket needs, he knows what support needs to be given to associate nations, players would be able to put forward their point in front of Ganguly," Kaneria said.

In May this year, Cricket South Africa's (CSA) director of cricket Graeme Smith had backed Ganguly to lead the ICC looking at the current scenario.

"Now it is even more important to have someone in a role who can provide leadership who understands and can navigate the challenges in the game today. I think post-COVID with the things that are going to come our way, to have strong leadership is important. I feel that someone like Sourav Ganguly is best positioned for that at the moment," sport24.co.za had quoted Smith as saying.

"I know him well, I played against him a number of times and worked with him as an administrator and in television. I feel that he has got the credibility, the leadership skills, and is someone that can really take the game forward and I think that, more than anything, that is needed right now at an ICC level," he added.

ICC's elections are slated to be held in July this year and current chairperson Shashank Manohar has already clarified that he is not seeking a tenure extension.

Ganguly was exceptional in making India play its first day-night Test last year.

India had played its inaugural day-night Test against Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens last year.

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