Premier League: Cech fluffs lines as Arsenal lose, Coutinho stunner lifts Liverpool

August 10, 2015

London, Aug 10: Petr Cech made a Premier League debut to forget for Arsenal as his errors helped West Ham United to record a 2-0 victory at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.

LeagueCech's arrival from Chelsea has been acclaimed as a signing that could turn Arsenal into title contenders, but he was found wanting as Arsene Wenger's side opened their Premier League campaign with a home defeat for the second time in three years.

Cech's rash charge allowed Cheikhou Kouyate to head West Ham in front from debutant Dimitri Payet's 43rd-minute free-kick and the Czech international's slowness to get down saw him beaten at his near post from 25 yards by Mauro Zarate shortly before the hour.

"We were not convincing offensively or defensively," said Wenger, whose side beat champions Chelsea 1-0 in the Community Shield last weekend.

"The players were maybe too nervous and put too much pressure on themselves. Today we have been hurt mentally and it is a good opportunity to respond."

West Ham's win echoed Aston Villa's 3-1 success at the Emirates on the first day of the 2013-14 campaign and enabled Slaven Bilic to crown his first league game as manager with a famous victory.

"We are all very pleased and it is a great start for us -- not only for the three points, but points against a team that are title contenders," said the Croatian, who is a former West Ham defender.

"If you add to that a London derby, it makes it an even bigger win. This is very special. I am very proud of the second-half performance."

Bilic named 16-year-old Reece Oxford in midfield and saw the teenager turn in a commanding display as West Ham bounced back from their Europa League elimination at the hands of Romanians Astra Giurgiu last Thursday.

Wenger sent on Theo Walcott and Alexis Sanchez as Arsenal sought to claw back their two-goal deficit, but the closest they came to scoring was a deflected first-half shot by Aaron Ramsey that hit the bar.

- Coutinho stunner -

Philippe Coutinho scored a stunning 30-yard winner in the 86th minute as Liverpool partially atoned for their 6-1 drubbing at Stoke City on the final day of last season with a 1-0 win at the Britannia Stadium.

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers gave starts to new signings Nathaniel Clyne, Joe Gomez, James Milner and £32.5 million ($50.4 million, 45.9 million euros) striker Christian Benteke, while Roberto Firmino came off the bench in the second half.

But the game was drifting to a goalless draw until Brazilian playmaker Coutinho picked the ball up in the inside-left channel, turned, and arrowed a glorious, bending strike into the top-right corner.

Meanwhile, Dutch midfielder Giorginio Wijnaldum scored on his competitive Newcastle United debut as former England head coach Steve McClaren began his St James' Park tenure with a 2-2 draw at home to Southampton.

After Graziano Pelle had put the visitors in front, goals from Papiss Cisse and £14.5 million new recruit Wijnaldum put Newcastle in front, but Southampton substitute Shane Long headed in a 79th-minute equaliser.

Chelsea opened their title defence with a 2-2 draw at home to Swansea City on Saturday, with Manchester United edging Tottenham Hotspur 1-0.

Manchester City, runners-up last season, travel to West Bromwich Albion on Monday.

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Agencies
February 4,2020

Potchefstroom, Feb 4: Yashasvi Jaiswal and Divyaansh Saxena guided India to a comfortable ten wickets win over Pakistan in the ICC U19 World Cup semifinal at Senwes Park on Tuesday and progressed to the final of the tournament.

Chasing 173, Indian openers Jaiswal and Saxena played cautiously and stitched an unbeaten partnership of 176 runs.

The duo built the highest opening partnership of the tournament's history. Jaiswal, the left-handed batsman, scored his maiden century of the tournament as he amassed unbeaten 105 runs studded with eight fours and four sixes.

Saxena scored 59* off 99 balls including six fours. India chased down the total in 35.2 overs. This is the first time in the history of the U19 World Cup that a team won a knockout match by ten wickets.

Earlier, Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat.

Opener Haider Ali and skipper Rohail Nazir's half-centuries guided the side to a respectable total of 172. Ali played a knock of 56 runs while Nazir accumulated 62 runs including six boundaries.

Pakistan did not have a good start as they lost Mohammad Hurair (4) in the second over. Fahad Munir, came to bat at number three, failed to score a single run and was departed by Ravi Bishnoi on a duck in ninth over.

Apart from Ali and Nazir, Mohammad Haris was the only batsman to score runs in double digits. He played an innings of 21 runs off 15 balls. Indian bowlers showed a spirited performance as they bowled out arch-rival in 43.1 overs.

Pacers Karthik Tyagi and Sushant Mishra bagged two and three wickets respectively. Spinner Ravi Bishnoi clinched two scalps and conceded 46 runs in his ten overs.

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Agencies
February 5,2020

Hamilton, Feb 5: Talented Shreyas Iyer hit his maiden century while KL Rahul and skipper Virat Kohli carried on their fine form as India dished out a clinical batting effort to post 347 for four against New Zealand in the first ODI here on Wednesday.

Iyer showed why he is considered as the next big thing in Indian cricket, scoring 103 off 107 balls, his first ODI ton. Besides, Rahul continued his purple patch, smashing unbeaten 88 off 64 balls while Kohli made 51 off 63 deliveries.

Iyer's knock was laced with 11 fours and a six and together with Rahul shared 136 runs for the fourth wicket as India scored 96 runs in the last 10 overs after being sent into bat.

This was after Tom Blundell featured his maiden ODI for the Black Caps, while India gave debuts to two openers -- Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal.

It was the fourth such instance in Indian history with Rahul-Karun Nair being the last such pair in 2016 against Zimbabwe.

Shaw and Agarwal got the innings off to quick start, adding 50 off 48 balls for the opening stand.

But both Shaw and Agarwal fell in the space of five balls as India were reduced to 54 for 2.

Shaw was the first to go, nicking behind a Colin de Grandhomme (1/41) delivery, while Agarwal was caught at point by Blundell off Southee (2/85).

It brought Kohli and Iyer together, and they dominated the middle overs with a 102-run stand for the third wicket. They manoeuvred the field well and kept the scorecard ticking as India crossed 150 in the 28th over.

Kohli fell against the run of play as a wrong one from Ish Sodhi (1/27) got through his defence to clip the leg stump.

Rahul though didn't let the innings lose any momentum as he smacked six sixes along with three fours.

But the day belonged to Iyer, who, despite a scratchy start, had crossed 50 off 66 balls. Once he passed the 50-run mark, the stylish right-hander batted fluently to notch up his first century in 16 ODIs.

The centurion fell shortly afterwards, caught off Southee even as Rahul took control.

He reached his half-century off 41 balls as India eased past 300 in the 47th over.

Rahul's carnage meant that New Zealand conceded 191 runs in the last 20 overs. Kedar Jadhav remained unbeaten on 26 off 15 balls, stitching 55 off 27 balls with Rahul.

Brief Scores:

India: 347 for 4 in 50 overs (Shreyas Iyer 103, KL Rahul 88 not out, Virat Kohli 51; Tim Southee 2/85).

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News Network
March 23,2020

Colombo, Mar 23: Sri Lankan batting great Kumar Sangakkara has said he is currently in self-quarantine, following his government's guidelines for those recently returning from Europe, which has now become the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authorities are concerned over people returning from the most-affected COVID-19 countries in Europe not registering with the police and practising isolation.

"I have no symptoms or anything like that, but I'm following government guidelines," Sangakkara told News First.

"I arrived from London over a week ago and the first thing was there was a news bulletin saying that anyone who had travelled from within March 1 to 15 should register themselves with the police and undergo self-quarantine. I registered myself with the police."

The former captain said this even as the government confirmed there have been at least three cases of recent returnees attempting to hide the novel coronavirus symptoms from authorities.

Both Sangakkara and his former teammate Mahela Jayawardene have been active on social media, urging Sri Lankans to avoid panic and to exercise proper social distancing, as the country went into curfew on Friday evening.

Sri Lanka has so far reported more than 80 active COVID-19 positive cases in the country.

Across the world, the number of infected has crossed three lakh besides a death toll of more than 14,000 people.

Meanwhile, former Australia pacer Jason Gillespie has also gone into a two-week isolation after returning from the United Kingdom.

Gillespie, who is the head coach at Sussex, had been in Cape Town with the team for a pre-season tour, which was cut short as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

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