Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu to clash in the quarterfinals at Indonesia Masters

Agencies
January 26, 2018

Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu will meet in an all-Indian quarterfinal clash after both won their respective preliminary matches at the USD 350,000 Indonesia Masters, adding another chapter to their new rivalry.

London Olympics bronze-medallist Saina, who is coming back from an ankle injury, took 37 minutes to overcome World No.20 Chinese Chen Xiaoxin 21-12 21-18, while Sindhu stream- rolled Goh Jin Wei of Malaysia 21-12 21-9 in a one-sided contest.

Young men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty too entered the quarterfinals after getting past Chinese Taipei's Liao Min Chun and Su Ching Heng 21-17 21-16 in the second round.

Saina and Sindhu clashed twice in the international circuit so far with both winning once. At the 2014 Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold, Saina defeated Sindhu, who returned the favour at the India Open Super Series last year.

London Games bronze-medallist, Saina had, however, upstaged Sindhu to clinch the women's singles title in the Senior National Badminton Championship last year.

The celebrated duo was scheduled to meet in the Premier Badminton League opener between Awadhe Warriors and Chennai Smashers but Saina pulled out due to an ankle injury.

In the domestic league, Saina and Sindhu faced each other twice. While Saina, playing for Hyderabad HotShots then, had defeated Sindhu (Awadhe Warriors) in the 2013 Indian Badminton League, Sindhu beat Saina in the PBL 2 semifinal in January, 2017.

Today, Saina hardly broke a sweat in the opening game as she didn't allow the Chinese to come near her after grabbing an 8-3 lead early on.

In the second game, Saina once again moved to an 11-3 lead but this time Chen narrowed it down to 17-19 before the Indian closed out the match.

Olympic silver-medallist Sindhu, on the other hand, gave a lesson in badminton to Goh in a lopsided contest. She led right from the start and never allowed her opponent to recover.

Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap suffered an 18-21 18-21 loss to Chong Wei Feng of Malaysia in the first round yesterday.

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Agencies
June 23,2020

Islamabad, Jun 23: Seven more Pakistan cricketers, including Muhammad Hafeez and Wahab Riaz, selected for the tour of England have tested positive for COVID-19, taking the total to 10, the PCB revealed on Tuesday.

The seven who tested positive on Tuesday are Kashif Bhatti, Muhammad Hasnain, Fakhar Zaman, Muhammad Rizwan, Imran Khan, Hafeez and Riaz. Shadab Khan, Haider Ali and Haris Rauf had returned positive tests on Monday.

“It is not a great situation to be in and what it shows is these are 10 fit and young athletes...if it can happen to players it can happen to anyone,” Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) CEO, Wasim Khan told a media conference.

He said a support staff member, masseur Malang Ali, had also tested positive for COVID-19.

Khan said that the players and officials would now assemble in Lahore and another round of tests would be carried out on June 25 and a revised squad would be announced the next day.

The squad has to leave on June 28 for the series scheduled to be held next month, he said.

“It is a matter of concern but we shouldn’t panic at this time as we have time on our hands,” Khan said.

He said the players and officials would be retested on reaching England.

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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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News Network
February 14,2020

Hamilton, Feb 14: Batting first, India finished at 263 for nine on the opening day of the three-day warm-up game against New Zealand XI here on Friday.

Hanuma Vihari made 101 off 182 balls before retiring, while Cheteshwar Pujara scored 93.

Besides, Ajinkya Rahane (18) was the only other Indian batsmen to register double digit score.

The likes of Prithvi Shaw (0), Mayank Agarwal (1) and Shubman Gill (0) failed to cash in on the opportunity.

Scott Kuggeleijn (3/40) and Ish Sodhi (3/72) shared six wickets between them for New Zealand.

Brief Scores:

India: 263 for 9 in 78.5 overs (Hanuma Vihari 101, Cheteshwar Pujara 93; Scott Kuggeleijn 3/40, Ish Sodhi 3/72).

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