Rio Olympics: PV Sindhu creates history, Aditi Ashok on course

August 19, 2016

New Delhi, Aug 19: 24 hours after wrestler Sakshi Malik ended India's excruciating wait at the Rio Olympics by winning a bronze, shuttler PV Sindhu+ extended her terrific form at the ongoing Games by outclassing world no 6 Japanese Nozomi Okuhara in the women's singles semi-finals to seal country's second medal on Thursday.

sindu

At the Olympic Golf Course, 18-year-old Aditi Ashok+ has continued her solid performance in the second round, finishing tied 8th after another 3 under par 68.

Sindhu has a chance at becoming the second ever individual gold medalist from India if she manages to topple world no 1 Carolina Marin in the summit clash, who has been in sublime touch herself.

Exploiting her height-advantage to the hilt, the 21-year-old Indian unleashed a deadly combination of back flips and cross-court smashes over the diminutive Okuhara to which she had no answer. In fact, Sindhu began tentatively in the first game which also happened to be the phase when the semi-final looked to be a close affair. However, as the match progressed, Sindhu steadily improved to eventually win 21-19.

Sindhu was down 3-5 initially in the second game but egged on by a vociferous support from the partisan crowd, that kept chanting her name; she gathered her wits to draw level at 5-5 and then quickly opened up a lead at 7-6. It was a seesaw affair but then Sindhu ran away with the game and the match, outclassing Okuhara in a dominating fashion as clearly suggested by the scoreline of 21-10.

Sindhu became the first shuttler from India to make it to the final of the event in Olympics and if her form is any indication, she is well set to give Spaniard Marin a tough fight in the gold medal match scheduled for Friday (18:55 IST).

Earlier in the day, wrestler Babita Kumari+ lost her opening bout in women's 53kg category 1-5 against Maria Prevolaraki of Greece.

Babita, a former world championship bronze medalist, lost after Prevolaraki managed to successfully wriggle out of her leg holds in both the periods to take lead. The only point that the 26-year-old Indian secured was due to the 30-second passivity rule.

Later on when Prevolaraki lost in her next round, it also ended Babita's hopes of winning a bronze via repechage. With her exit, curtains were drawn on Indian campaign in women wrestling.

Parallel to the hoopla surrounding Sindhu's historic achievement, another Indian athlete was slowly plotting her way to a potential Olympic medal.

Golfer Aditi has raised hopes as she stands just four strokes off the pace at tied 8th after the second round of the women's individual event.

Only four strokes separate Aditi, the youngest in the field, from the leader Inbee Park of Korea after she fired a second successive three-under 68 on Thursday.

Aditi (68-68) is tied 8th with five others.

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News Network
March 12,2020

New Delhi, Mar 12: No foreign player will be available for this year's IPL till April 15 due to visa restrictions imposed by the government to contain the novel coronavirus threat, a top BCCI source told PTI on Thursday, casting fresh doubts on the fate of the event.

"The foreign players who play in the IPL come under the Business Visa category. As per the government's directive, they can't come till April 15," a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

The government issued fresh advisory with a ban on all existing foreign visas, except a few categories like diplomatic and employment, till April 15 in the wake of new positive cases of novel coronavirus in the country.

India has reported 60 positive cases in the outbreak which has led to over 4,000 deaths globally.

The fate of the IPL itself will be decided on March 14 at the event's Governing Council meeting in Mumbai. "All decisions will be taken by the GC in Mumbai," the source said.

Having the IPL, starting March 29, played in empty stadiums is an option being explored.

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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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Agencies
August 6,2020

New Delhi, Aug 6: The BCCI on Thursday suspended the IPL title sponsorship deal with Chinese mobile phone company Vivo for the event's upcoming edition amid heightened tensions in Sino-India diplomatic ties.

The BCCI sent out a one-line statement, without giving details, saying that Vivo would not be associated with the IPL this year. "The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and vivo Mobile India Pvt Ltd have decided to suspend their partnership for Indian Premier League in 2020," the statement said.

Meanwhile, Vivo released its own statement saying that the two entities "have mutually decided to pause their partnership for the 2020 season".

Vivo won the IPL title sponsorship rights for five years from 2018 to 2022 for a reported sum of Rs 2,190 crore, approximately Rs 440 crore per annum.

The two parties are now working out a plan in which Vivo might come back for a fresh three-year period starting 2021 on revised terms.

However, a top BCCI official offered a different view. "Here we are talking about diplomatic tensions and you expect that after November, when IPL ends and before the next IPL starts in April 2021, there would be no anti-China sentiment? Are we serious?" a veteran BCCI official said on conditions of anonymity.

The anti-China sentiment in the country peaked after the violent face-off between the Indian and Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh. India lost 20 soldiers in the clash, while China also acknowledged unspecified casualties.

The stand-off at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) caused outrage across India with several calls for boycotts of Chinese companies and products.

The BCCI is now likely to float a tender for new IPL title sponsors as mandated by its constitution. The glitzy T20 league starts on Sept. 19 in the UAE, forced out of India due to the rising COVID-19 cases.

The new development is in stark contrast to what came out of Sunday's IPL's Governing Council meeting, where it was decided that Vivo, along with all the other sponsors, will remain on board.

This was after the BCCI had announced in June that all sponsorship deals pertaining to IPL will be reviewed in the aftermath of the clash in the Galwan Valley.

However, after Sunday's meeting, there was a huge backlash on social media about the BCCI holding on to Vivo.

Both parties then began thrashing out an amicable separation plan, at least for this season.

However, the end of this deal could spell losses for the franchises as they get a substantial share from the sponsorship pool. Half of the annual Vivo sponsorship money is distributed equally among eight franchises, which comes to Rs 27.5 crore.

"As of now, it will be very difficult for the BCCI to match the sponsorship amount at such short notice. Therefore, both BCCI and the franchises should be prepared to lose out on some money -- BCCI more but each franchise from Vivo's exit will potentially lose 15 crore," the official said.

"This year will be difficult for everyone but the show must go on," the official said.

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