1. Home
  2. Sindhu, Praneeth, Pranaav-Sikki win at World Championships

Sindhu, Praneeth, Pranaav-Sikki win at World Championships

Agencies
August 23, 2017

Glasgow, Aug 23: Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the women's singles competition after defeating Korea's Kim Hyo Min in the second round of the World Championship here today.

Sindhu, who twice won bronze medals at the 2013 and 2014 editions, notched up a 21-16 21-14 win over Kim in a 49-minute match, to extend her head-to-head record against the Korean to 4-1 in five meetings.

The 22-year-old, who received a bye in the opening round, will face either Russian's Evgeniya Kosetskaya or Hong Kong's Cheung Ngan Yi, the 13th seed, in the next round.

Singapore Open champion B Sai Praneeth also made a positive start to his campaign, registering a straight-game win over Hong Kong's Wei Nan to reach the second round of men's singles event.

Praneeth seeded 15th, fought back from 5-9 and 14-16 in the opening game and then erased a deficit of 10-13 and 15-17 in the second game to eventually see off Wei Nan 21-18 21-17 in a 48-minute match.

The 25-year-old from Hyderabad will next take on Indonesia's Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, who is the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic and World Junior Championships boys' singles bronze medallist.

"I was expecting a tough match. I changed my game but the match was getting close. He made some small mistakes and I won. I am happy that I could pull off the match today as I know this is a tough match. Tomorrow it would be another difficult match and I hope I can win," Praneeth told PTI.

India's top mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy seeded 15th, who had won the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold title, defeated Indo-Malaysian combo of Prajakta Sawant and Yogendran Khrishnan 21-12 21-19.

However, disappointment was in store for India in the other mixed doubles matches as B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa, and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Maneesha K suffered contrasting losses to bow out of the event.

Sumeeth and Ashwini, who had reached the finals of Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold in January, went down fighting 17-21 21- 18 5-21 to 13th seeded Chinese pair of Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping, while Satwiksairaj and Maneesha lost 20-22 18-21 to 14th seeded Denmark duo of Mathias Christiansen and Sara Thygesen.

The last time Sindhu had faced Kim, she had suffered a straight-game defeat at 2016 Australian Open and the Indian came out all cylinders blazing today as she dished out a dominating game to zoom to an 8-0 lead in the first game.

Kim Hyo Min tried to break the one-way traffic and won four straight points but the Indian grabbed a comfortable 11-5 lead.

The Korean reduced the gap to 8-12 after the break but a determined Sindhu continued to move ahead and reached 16-10 at one stage. She eventually took a 20-14 lead. Kim saved two game points before the Indian sealed the opening game.

In the second game, Sindhu once again opened up an 8-3 lead. The Korean managed to reduce the margin to 8-10 but the Indian didn't allow Kim to put up a challenge as she kept on surging ahead, reaching 19-12.

She sealed the issue eventually without much ado, grabbing the final two points.

National champion Rituparna Das also emerged victories in her opening round match yesterday as her opponent Finland's Airi Mikkela retired after lagging 0-2 in the first game.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
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.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
May 4,2020

May 4: Yuzvendra Chahal is among the best leg-spinners in international cricket right now but he can be more effective with better use of the crease, says former Pakistan spinner Mushtaq Ahmed.

Ahmed picked Chahal, Australia's Adam Zampa and Pakistan's Shadab Khan among the top leg-spinners in white-ball cricket.

"Chahal as been impressive. He is definitely among the top leg-spinners of the world. And I feel he would be more effective if he uses the crease a lot more," Ahmed said.

Ahmed, who has coached all around the world and is currently a consultant for his native team, said India's ability to take wickets in the middle-overs in the limited overs format through Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav has been a game-changer for them.

Both the wrist-spinners were brought into India's limited overs set-up following the 2017 Champions Trophy. Though, of late, both Chahal and Kuldeep havn't been playing together.

"He (Chahal) can go wide of the crease at times. You got to be smart enough to understand pitches. If it is a flat pitch, you can bowl stump to stump," said Ahmed, one of the best leg-spinners Pakistan has produced.

"If the ball is gripping, you can go wide of the crease because you can trouble even the best of batsmen with that angle. That way your googly also doesn't turn as much as the batsman expects and you end up taking a wicket."

Chahal has taken 91 wickets in 52 ODIs at 25.83 and 55 wickets in 42 T20s at 24.34. He is not a huge turner of the ball but uses his variations very effectively.

Ahmed also feels the likes of Chahal and Kuldeep have benefitted immensely from former captain M S Dhoni's advice from behind the stumps.

"You have got to be one step ahead of the batsman. You should know your field position as per the batsman's strength. I always say attack with fielders not with the ball. If you understand that theory, you will always be successful," the 49-year-old, who played 52 Tests and 144 ODIs, said.

"India has become a force to reckon with in all three formats as it uses its bowlers really well. Dhoni was a master at getting the best out of his bowlers in limited overs cricket and now you have Virat Kohli."

He also said the art of leg-spin remains relevant more than ever.

"You need leg-spinners and mystery spinners in your team as they have the ability to take wickets at any stage of the game. I see a lot of them coming through in the next 10-15 years.

"Most batsmen now like playing express pace but with a good leg-spinner in the team, you are always in the game," added member of the 1992 World Cup-winning squad.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
August 7,2020

Islamabad, Aug 7: Former Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, known for his blistering deliveries on the cricket field, recently baffled many with a deadly off-field bouncer by claiming he is willing to eat grass if it enabled an increase in budget for his country's Army!

"If Allah ever gives me the authority, I will eat grass myself but I will increase the budget of the army," said Akhtar in an interview with ARY News.

The 'Rawalpindi Express', considered the fastest bowler in history said he does not understand why the civilian sector cannot work in collaboration with the Armed forces.

"I will ask my army chief to sit with me and make decisions. If the budget is 20 per cent, I will make it 60 per cent. If we insult each other, the loss is ours only," the once feared fast-bowler said.

Akthar had also claimed to ARY News interview that he was willing to take a bullet for his country and had turned down a county stint just because he wanted to fight the 1999 Kargil War.

Ties between India and Pakistan have been strained in the recent months over several issues, the latest being Pakistan's attempt to broach in the UNSC the issue of Kashmir on the first anniversary of the India's move to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and to split the erstwhile state into two union territories .

Pakistan also has not been in a good financial position and under prime minister Imran Khan, himself an all rounder cricketer, has added nearly USD 22 billion, that is 35 per cent to the nation's international debt pile in the last two years, according to an Asia Times report in July.

While Pakistan recently received USD 1.39 billion from the IMF to cushion the economic shocks caused due to COVID-19 outbreak, Akthar had a few months ago proposed that a joint cricket match be played between India and Pakistan to raise funds to fight the coronavirus. The suggestion that was put down by cricketers in India.

Meanwhile the 'Pindi boy' whose deadly pace and bounce was once dreaded by batsmen had recently taken to Twitter to deny former India cricketer Virender Sehwag's claim of sledging him.

Sehwag along with other Indian crickerters such as Harbhajan Singh and even Rahul Dravid had been at the receiving end of Akthar's sledging and antics during their playing days.

"Yes, totally self made story by him. Mujhe yeh bol k bach k jana kidhar tha us nay," Akthar tweeted to a report in which Sehwag claimed that he had sledged the 'Rawalpindi Express' by telling him that Sachin Tendulkar was his father.

During an awards ceremony Sehwag had recounted that fed up with Akthar's sledging and retaliated by telling him to say the same things to Tendulkar, who smashed the 'Pindi boy' for a six. Sehwag quipped that he told Akthar then that "Baap baap hota hai".

In the recent ARY interview, asked about the allegation made against him by former India cricketer Virendra Sehwag that he makes pro-India comments for greater following on social media channels, Akhtar said, "I cannot talk on the basis of hate." 

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.