Pankaj Advani pockets 15th world title

November 22, 2015

Hurghada, Nov 22: India's most successful cueist Pankaj Advani today added another feather in his cap by winning the IBSF World Snooker Championship after battling past his Chinese opponent Zhua Xintong in the final to take his world title count to 15.

pankaj

Advani, 30, once again mesmerised the green baize to prevail over the teenage sensation 8-6 in the best-of-15 final at Sunrise Crystal Bay resort here.

The victory for Bengaluru's 'Golden Boy' comes just after he clinched the IBSF Billiards crown in September. He is also the first person in history to take the short (6-Red) and the long snooker format in the same calender year.

India's poster of cuesport, who led 5-2 in the first session, looked unstoppable against his talented opponent even after the break, but was tested by the 18-year-old cueist in a match which saw top snooker at display.

Leading 6-2 after the break, Advani's march was halted by Xintong when he pulled back two frames to give the champion cueist a taste of his own medicine.

Advani held his nerve to make it 7-4, but the youngster wasn't done yet. Xintong went ballistic in the next two frames to make the multiple world champion eat humble pie and a match was on at 7-6.

Xintong drew first blood in the 14th frame, but Advani dug deep into his reservoir of experience to finish the tournament in style with a century break of 109.

This was Advani's first 15-Red Snooker title since 2003 when he won the crown in China. Though Egypt proved lucky for the champion, who had won his first 6-Red world title here last year.

Earlier, Advani had started the match by capturing the first two frames with breaks of 106 and 56 in the first and the second respectively against the 18-year-old Chinese cueist.

Xintong took the third with a break of 53 and looked in total control of the fourth when he got trapped by a deadly snooker behind the brown ball. Unable to convert the snooker, Xintong gave Advani a half chance at the top end which was immediately punished with a spectacular opening red stun pot along the top cushion. Advani thereafter took a 3-1 lead.

A deadly safety play by Advani once again put Xintong glued to his seat as India's posterboy of cue sport kept trapping the teenager inside the baulk line to get openings and went ahead by 4-1.

Xintong, who was seen to be at the receiving end for the first time in the championship, was not as smooth and controlled as he had been all through to the tournament and unexpectedly landed a couple of times in awkward positions while on a break.

However, the talent was visible as every time he came out of the situations unfolding his vast repertoire of strokes to win the sixth frame with a finely crafted break of 72 points and brought down the deficit to 2-4.

In the seventh frame, Advani, well aware of the wide range of potting and break building capability of his opponent, never got tempted and applied his extraordinary cushion skills to every time come inside the baulk line and keep Xingtong at bay.

At this juncture one could see Xingtong's restlessness as he ultimately succumbed to the game plan of Advani. Calm, composed and sharp as always, Advani made full use of the opportunity and crafted a well-controlled break of 74 points to race ahead to a 5-2 lead at the interval.

But real drama unfolded after the break as Advani's pocketed a frame to stretch the lead to 6-2 but Xingtong suddenly unleashed his killer talent to pull back two frames.

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Agencies
March 1,2020

New Delhi, Mar 1: Former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif on Sunday heaped praise on Ravindra Jadeja after the all-rounder took a spectacular catch on the second day of the Christchurch Test against New Zealand.

Jadeja grabbed a one-handed stunner at deep square leg in the 72nd over to dismiss Neil Wagner, who had to depart after scoring 21 runs.

"Sir Jadeja for a reason! Jadeja Airlines, flying high! Terrific stuff," Kaif tweeted.

In the match, Jadeja also impressed with the ball. The left-handed bowler took two wickets while giving away 22 runs.

On day two, India bundled out New Zealand on 235 runs in the second Test. However, in their second innings, Indian batsmen again struggled to tackle the New Zealand pacers and lost six wickets with a lead of just 97 runs.

India went to stumps at 90/6, with Trent Boult doing the majority of the damage with three wickets.

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News Network
April 14,2020

Karachi, Apr 14: Disappointed with Kapil Dev's response, Pakistan's Shahid Afridi has backed his former teammate Shoaib Akhtar's proposal for an ODI series against India to help raise funds for the less privileged in their fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Afridi told reporters in Kohat that he was surprised by the comments of Indian great Kapil and former IPL chairman, Rajeev Shukla, who outrightly dismissed Akhtar's suggestion.

"The entire world is fighting against coronavirus and we need unity in our region to defeat this common enemy. Such negative comments don't help at all," Afridi said.

"I don't see anything wrong with Shoaib Akhtar's suggestion for Pakistan and India to play cricket.

"Kapil's reaction has surprised me. I expected better from him and feel one should not talk like this in these crisis times."

Afridi said that he was also surprised at some of the "negative comments" Indian stars Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh's support for his charity foundation attracted.

"Sport is supposed to bring people together and build bridges. It is pretty disappointing."

Afridi also urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to order the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to restore departmental cricket in the country to save the livelihood of hundreds of domestic players.

"I myself played for the departments and witnessed how departments really salvaged domestic cricket in Pakistan and helped it thrive decade after decade.

"Departments take good care of the players and spend lots of money on the development of domestic cricket, so how can departmental cricket hurt Pakistan cricket," questioned Afridi.

He also questioned the PCB and the Pakistan team management for making a fitness of players a big issue.

"They are always talking about hard training and fitness tests. I have never seen fitness tests taken with such frequency and the result is that many players are getting injured and many of them are also unhappy with the situation."

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Agencies
January 26,2020

Mumbai, Jan 26: Boxing great Mary Kom has been selected for the Padma Vibhushan, the country's second highest civilian award. Olympic silver medallist and reigning badminton World Champion PV Sindhu has been named for Padma Bhushan as the names of Padma awardees were disclosed on Saturday on the eve of the 71st Republic Day.

Rated as one of the most successful amateur boxers of all time, Mary Kom won bronze at the 2012 London Olympics and has won gold at the boxing World Championships for a record six times. She has won a total of eight medals at the World Championships, the most recent of which came in October 2019 in Ulan Ude, Russia. The 36-year-old is now looking to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Sindhu became the only Indian woman to win an Olympic silver when she reached the final of the women's singles event at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazi. In August last year, the 24-year-old became the first Indian to win gold at the badminton World Championships.

She has also won two silver and two bronze medals at the World's in the past, thus making her only the second woman after Chinese two-time Olympic gold medallist Zhang Ning to win five medals in the competition.

Indian women's hockey captain Rani Rampal, who has been the face of women's hockey in the country and played a pivotal role in the team qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, is among those who have been nominated for the Padma Shri award.

Women's football stalwart Oinam Bembem Devi, former cricketer Zaheer Khan, shooter Jitu Rai, former hockey captain and coach M.P. Ganesh and archer Tarundeep Rai are the other sportspersons to be selected for the Padma Shri award.

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