Rio Olympics: Sindhu, Srikanth keep India's hopes alive, Vikas exits

August 16, 2016

New Delhi, Aug 16: On the tenth day of Rio Olympics, Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu+ and Kidambi Srikanth booked their quarterfinals berths to keep medal hopes alive on Monday, but boxer Vikas Krishan failed to assure a medal after losing his last-eight bout late in the day.

sindhuSindhu displayed a dominant performance to beat Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu-ying in straight games 21-13, 21-15 and booked her spot in the quarter-finals of the women's singles badminton event at the Rio Olympics on Monday. The ninth seed Sindhu took 40 minutes to dismantle the eighth seeded Tai and gave her medal chances a boost in her maiden Olympic appearance.

Sindhu used her height to great advantage as she put pressure on Tai with jump smash and deft touch to force the opponent into unforced errors. Sindhu will need all the tricks she used successfully against Tai in the quarters as she faces world No. 2 and second seeded Wang Yihan of China next on Tuesday.

Earlier, India's lone male shuttler in singles event, Srikanth+ also continued his impressive run as he defeated world No. 5 Jan Jorgensen of Denmark to reach the quarter-finals. The 11th-ranked Indian overcame the higher ranked Danish 21-19, 21-19 in a tight 42-minute contest to keep the medal hopes alive.

With the victory, Kidambi also became the second Indian male shuttler to reach the last eight stage after Parupalli Kashyap, who made the quarters in London 2012. The 23-year-old Indian will now face China's Lin Dan, two-time Olympic champion, for a place in semi-finals on Wednesday.

India's campaign in boxing ended on Monday when Vikas was outpunched 0-3 by Uzbekistan pugilist Bektemir Melikuziev in the quarter-final bout of the men's middleweight (75kg) category. In the battle of southpaws, the younger 20-year-old Uzbek dominated the 24-year-old Indian in all the three rounds winning them 30-27, 30-25, 30-27. Needing a win to assure India its first medal in Rio, Vikas was unable to cope the barrage of punches the promising Uzbek boxer threw in the bout. Vikas was the last of the three Indians to bow out of the Games, after Manoj Kumar lost in the pre-quarterfinals and Shiva Thapa in the opening round.

At the Olympic Stadium, Lalita Babar+ finished tenth in the women's 3000m steeplechase with a timing of 9:22.74 in the final. It was a below par performance for Babar, who broke national record in the qualification (9:19.76) to become the first Indian female track finalist in 32 years. The result though remained the best performance by an Indian in a track event since PT Usha's fourth-place in 400m hurdles in 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

There was more disappointment for India in athletic events on Monday, with both sprinter Srabani Nanda and triple jumper Renjith Maheshwary failing to progress further from their initial rounds. The 25-year-old Srabani clocked 23.58s to finish sixth in her 200m heat, and crashed out of the Games as 55th ranked in the 72-athlete event.

It was a similar story for 30-year-old Maheshwary, a three-time Olympian, as he registered a best jump of 16.13m to finish 30th in the event. Unlike his London outing, where he failed to register a mark, Maheshwary successfully completed all his three qualifying jumps with his best coming in the second. But he failed to qualify for the final by a long margin with the final slot, the 12th, going to Cuba's Lazaro Martinez for a jump of 16.61m.

India's wrestling campaign also began on Monday with Ravinder Khatri participating in the 85kg category of the Greco-Roman event. But Khatri failed to cross his opening hurdle as he was thrashed 9-0 by Viktor Lorincz of Hungary on Great Superiority - which indicates a difference of eight technical points with the loser without logging any points.

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January 15,2020

Dubai, Jan 15: India skipper and batting mainstay Virat Kohli was on Wednesday named captain of the International Cricket Council's ODI and Test teams of the year, capping off a memorable season for the world No.1.

Apart from Kohli, there were four other Indians who were picked in the ICC's Test and ODI Teams of the Year.

While the Test team featured double-centurion Mayank Agarwal, opener Rohit Sharma, speedster Mohammed Shami and left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav found a place in the ODI side.

Kohli enjoyed a tremendous run in both the formats in 2019. The 31-year-old hit his seventh Test double hundred on the way to a career-best unbeaten 254 against South Africa in October last year.

It was a breakthrough year for opener Agarwal, who smashed two double tons, one century and went beyond the fifty-run mark twice. He hit a career-best score of 243 against Bangladesh in November.

Kuldeep, too, enjoyed a memorable year as he joined the golden list of bowlers with two hat-tricks. The chinaman claimed his second ODI hat-trick of his career against the West Indies last month.

In the absence of Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, Shami rose to the occasion making the best in the business hop, skip and jump with his pace, swing and bounce through the season. He scalped 42 wickets in 21 ODIs over the last 12 months.

The ICC's Teams of the Year 2019:

ODI Team of the Year (in batting order): Rohit Sharma, Shai Hope, Virat Kohli (captain), Babar Azam, Kane Williamson, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (wicketkeeper), Mitchell Starc, Trent Boult, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav

Test Team of the Year (in batting order): Mayank Agarwal, Tom Latham, Marnus Labuschagne, Virat Kohli (captain), Steve Smith, Ben Stokes, BJ Watling (wicketkeeper), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Neil Wagner, Nathan Lyon.

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May 6,2020

May 6: They have similar impact on their teams but Virat Kohli is driven by sheer passion to subdue the rivals while Steve Smith just enjoys batting, says Australia opener David Warner.

India skipper Kohli and top Australian batsman Smith are arguably the top two cricketers of the current era. They achieve new milestones consistently, invoking debates, who is better between them.

"Virat's passion and drive to score runs is different to what Steve's would be," Warner said while speaking to Harsha Bhogle on 'Cricbuzz in Conversation'.

"Steve is going out there for a hit in the middle, that's how he sees things. He's hitting them out in the middle, he's having fun, he's enjoying himself, just does not want to get out."

Warner feels, while Kohli is batting he is aware that if he sticks around the middle his team will be on top of the proceedings.

"Virat obviously doesn't want to get out but he knows if he spends a certain amount of time out there, he's going to score plenty of runs at a rapid rate. He's going to get on top of you. That allows the guys coming in, especially in the Indian team you've got a lot of players who can be flamboyant as well."

The Australian opener added that both men are mentally strong and a good knock by them boosts the morale of the entire team.

"When it comes to cricket, they both have got the mental strength, the mental capacity to score runs. They both love spending time in the middle.

"They stabilise, they boost morale - if they score runs, everyone else's moral is up. If they are out cheaply you almost sense that on the field that everyone is (down on morale and thinking) 'now we all have to step up'. It's a very bizarre situation," he added.

Asked about the similarities between himself and Kohli, who are both live wires on the field, Warner said the passion to do better than the opponent keeps him going.

"I can't speak for Virat, obviously, but it's almost like we got this thing in us when we go (out to the middle) we need to prove people wrong, prove someone wrong."

"If you're in that contest, and if I'm going at him for example, you're thinking, 'Alright, I'm going to score more runs than him, I'm going to take a quick single on him'. You are trying to better that person in that game. That's where the passion comes from."

Warner also explained how he breaks down a match into smaller competitions.

"Obviously you want to win the game but you almost break it down to: If I can score more runs than Virat, or if Pujara scores more runs than Steve Smith, you have these little contests and that's how you try to narrow the game in the sense that if we do these little things, we can be ahead of the game or we can be behind the game.

"The passion is driven by...I know my sense - one, the will to win and two, wanting to do better than that person in the opposition," said Warner.

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February 11,2020

Mt. Maunganui (New Zealand), Feb 11: KL Rahul struck a combative 112 but New Zealand completed a 3-0 whitewash of India by winning the third ODI by five wickets, here on Tuesday.

Rahul helped India recover from a shaky start to post a challenging 296 for 7 but the Kiwis overhauled the target with 17 balls to spare.

This is the first whitewash that India has suffered in an ODI series in more than a decade.

Sent in to bat, India were down 62 for 3 in the 13th over after the dismissals of Mayank Agarwal (1), captain Virat Kohli (9) and Prithvi Shaw (40) but Rahul got a useful ally in in-form Shreyas Iyer (62) to take India to a competitive total.

Rahul, who hit nine fours and two sixes during his 113-ball innings, and Iyer stitched exactly 100 runs from 18.2 overs for the fourth wicket to revive the Indian innings.

After the end of the promising innings of Iyer, Rahul shared another 107 runs for the fifth wicket with Manish Pandey (42).

The Kiwis were off to a confident start in their chase with Martin Guptill (66) and Henry Nicholls (80) and putting on a 106-run stand. However, wrist spinner Yuzvendra Chahal took three wickets to bring India back in the game.

Colin de Grandhomme (58) and Tom Latham (32), though, took their side past the finish line with an unbeaten 80-run partnership.

Brief Scores:

India: 296 for 7 in 50 overs (KL Rahul 112, Shreyas Iyer 62; Hamish Bennett 4/64).

New Zealand: 300 for 5 in 47.1 overs. (H Nicholls 80, M Guptill 66; Y Chahal 3/47).

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