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South Asian Games: India win 19 medals on Day 1 including 14 golds

February 7, 2016

Guwahati, Feb 7: It was gold rush for India on the opening day of the South Asian Games with the country's wrestlers, swimmers and weightlifters showing their regional dominance by making a near clean sweep of top honours in Guwahati on Sunday.

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India clinched 14 gold, and five silver medals on a highly productive day to top the medals tally with an overall count of 19. Sri Lanka, despite having a higher overall medal count of 21, occupied the second spot in the table owing to a lesser tally of gold medals (4). Wrestlers were the stars for India, grabbing as many as five gold medals followed by the swimmers who clinched four gold and three silver medals

The weightlifters added three gold medals to the tally after the cyclists had opened India's account with two gold and an equal number of silver medals in the morning. Three women and two male grapplers finished on top of the podium as the proceedings went on expected lines on the opening day of the competitions. Rajneesh and Ravinder bagged the gold in Men's 65kg and 57kg divisions respectively.

In women's wrestling, Priyanka Singh claimed the top position in 48kg, while Manisha won the gold in 60kg and Archana Tomar clinched the yellow metal in 55kg categories. The Indians created quite a splash in the pool as well picking up three of their four gold medals by clocking record times. Asian Games bronze-medallist Sandeep Sejwal (men's 200m breaststroke), Shivani Kataria (women's 200m freestyle) and the women's 100m freestyle relay team set new Games record timings on their way to gold while Damini Gowda added another yellow metal in women's 100m butterfly.

Sejwal won his pet event in 2:20.66sec to better his own record of 2:21.03 which he had set in the last edition in Dhaka in 2010 and defended his title. Kiran Jasinghe of Sri Lanka and Mohd Shariful Islam came second and third in 2:26.17 and 2:26.99 respectively. In women's 200m freestyle, Kataria first set a new Games record in the morning heats with a timing of 2:12.13 and she bettered it in the evening with an effort of 2:08.68 on her way to gold. Machiko Raheem and Ishani Erandika Senanayake, both from Sri Lanka, were second and third respectively.

Damini Gowda then brought home the third gold for India in women's 100m butterfly as she clocked one minute and 4.92 seconds to finish much ahead of two Sri Lankans K A Hiruni Perera (1:06.89) and Machiko Raheem ( 1:07.24). The Indian women's 4x100m freestyle quartet completed the home side's dominance by winning the relay event, the last of the day, to the big cheer from the crowd. They clocked 4:01.95 to better India's own record of 4:08.72 set in the 2006 edition in Colombo. The Sri Lankan ( 4:05.07) and Pakistan (4:22.38) teams were second and third respectively.

As many as six Games records were set out of the eight competed today and expectedly Sri Lanka ran neck and neck with India by grabbing 3 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze. Pakistan won a silver while Bangladesh could win four bronze medals at the Dr Zakir Hussain Aquatic Complex here. In men's 200m freestyle, India's Saurabh Sangvekar won the silver in 1:53.03. The second silver came in men's 100m butterfly through Supriyo Mondal in 55.86 seconds.

India established early dominance in the weightlifting competition as well by notching up three gold medals on the first day of competitions. Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, Harshdeep Kaur and Gururaja bagged the yellow metal for India. Chanu, silver medallist at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, opened the medal account for India in weightlifting in women's 48kg weight category. She lifted a total of 169kg (79kg in snatch + 90kg in clean and jerk). All her efforts in snatch, clean and jerk and total are South Asian Games records as women's weightlifting has been included for the first time in the SAG. Gururaja bagged the second gold for India by winning the men's 56kg event with a total lift of 241kg (104kg + 137kg) on the opening day of the competitions today.

Chathuranga Lakmal of Sri Lanka won the silver. India's third gold was won by Harshdeep Kaur in women's 53kg category with a total lift of 171kg (73kg + 98kg). Earlier, the day's tone was set by cyclists with India clinching both the gold and silver medals on offer. The Indians finished first and second each in both the men's 40km individual time trial and women's 30km individual time-trial finals to begin the cycling competition on a high.

Tourangbam Bidyalaxmi won the women's 30km individual time trial event in a time of 49 minutes 24.573 seconds ahead of compatriot and fellow Manipuri Elangbam Chaoba Devi, who clocked 49 minutes 31.311 seconds in the road race at the national highway number 37. In the men's 40km individual time trial final, Arvind Panwar clocked 52 minutes and 28.800 seconds to win the gold while his Indian team-mate Manjeet Singh was second in 54 minute and 1.183 seconds.

In Shillong, Indian archers assured themselves of four gold and as many silver medals in the individual recurve and compound sections. Defending champion Tarundeep Rai and Gurucharan Besra along with former world number one Deepika Kumari and Bombayla Devi Laishram stormed into the final of recurve men's and women's sections respectively in the morning session at the Polo Ground.

In the afternoon session, Abhishek Verma and Rajat Chauhan posted contrasting wins, while Purvasha Shende and Jyoti Surekha secured easy victories in the men's and women's semis in the compound section to confirm their final berths India ruled the the roost on the wrestling mat as they ran away with all the five gold medals on offer on the opening day of competitions here.

Priyanka Singh (women's 48kg freestyle), Archana Tomar (women's 55kg freestyle), Manisha (women's 60kg freestyle), Ravindra (men's 57kg freestyle) and Rajneesh (men's 65kg freestyle) won gold with ease in a show of complete dominance at the DTRP Indoor Stadium. Priyanka opened the gold medal account for India by defeating Sumitra of Nepal 4-0, while Niroshan of Sri Lanka won the bronze.

Tomar bagged the second gold for India as she toyed with her opponent S Chaowdhary of Bangladesh in a 4-0 result. X P Kumari of Sri Lanka was third as she beat Sarmila Rai of Nepal in the bronze medal bout.

Manisha ensured India's clean sweep in the women's section as she got a 4-0 verdict against X Kabita of Nepal in the final bout. Rina Akhtar of Bangladesh won the bronze in that category.

Ravinder then gave India the gold in the men's 57kg freestyle with a 3-0 win over Mohammad Bilal of Pakistan before Rajneesh completed the memorable day for India with a 4-0 win over Pakistan's Nadar in the men's 65kg.

In men's football, India made a disappointing start to their campaign as they suffered a solitary goal loss to Sri Lanka. They will now have to beat Maldives in their group match on February 10 if they want to finish among top two and qualify for the semifinals.

India enjoyed the lion's share of possession at the SAI Center ground and dominated most of the proceedings but failed to convert the chances that came their way. Sri Lanka's all-important goal was scored in the 14th minute by captain MCM Rinas from a free-kick from around 30 yards.

In squash, top Indian players Sourav Ghosal, Harinderpal Singh and Joshana Chinappa easily made it to the semifinals while Sunayna Kuruvilla bowed out of the competition in the individual events.

Ghosal hardly broke a sweat as he beat Mohd Shumon of Bangladesh 11-5 11-1 11-3 in the quarterfinals while Harinderpal also sent packing Mohd. Shamil Wakeel of Sri Lanka 11-3 11-8 11-3 to enter the semifinals.

In women's individual event, Joshana toyed with Krishna Thapa of Nepal 11-6 11-4 11-4 to storm into the semifinals. However, Sunayna Kuruvilla failed to make it to the semifianls after losing to Mihilya Methsarani of Sri Lanka 11-6 9-11 11-4 5-11 10-12. In Volleyball, Indian men's team spanked Nepal 3-0 (25-15 25-16 25-16), while in Kho Kho, Indian men's team beat Nepal 23-21 and the women's side defeated Sri Lanka 16-14.

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Agencies
January 19,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 19: Opening batsman Rohit Sharma on Sunday became the third-fastest batsman to register 9,000 runs in the 50-over format.

He achieved the feat in the ongoing third ODI against Australia here at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Only Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers have achieved the feat faster than Rohit.

Sharma brought up the milestone in the first over of the Indian innings as he clipped Mitchell Starc away for a single.

With this, the right-handed batsman has become just the sixth Indian to achieve the milestone.

Apart from Sharma, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, and Sachin Tendulkar have more than 9,000 runs in the 50-over format.

Overall, 20 batsmen have more than 9,000 ODI runs to their name.

In the match between India and Australia, the former won the toss and elected to bat first.

Steve Smith played a knock of 131 runs to propel Australia to 286/9 in the allotted fifty overs.

 

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News Network
May 25,2020

Karachi, May 25: Pakistan head coach and chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq believes Babar Azam is destined to be a world-class player and is very close to being in the same league as India skipper Virat Kohli and Australia's Steve Smith.

"I don't like comparisons but Babar is currently very close to being in the same class as Virat Kohli, Steve Smith or Joe Root," Misbah said in an interview to Youtube channel, Cricket Baaz.

"He believes in the work ethic that if you want to better Kohli you have to work harder than him at your skills, fitness and game awareness."

The 25-year-old, who was named captain of the Pakistan T20 team ahead of the Australia series in October last year, was recently handed the reins of ODI team as well.

"Making him the T20 captain was a tester. We wanted to see how he will respond to this challenge. All of us agree that he has done a very good job and his biggest plus is that being among the worlds top players he leads by example," Misbah said.

"If you are a performer like Babar then it becomes easier for you to motivate the rest of the team and get things done.

"Even when I was made captain in 2010 my performances were here and there and I was in and out. But captaincy changed my game and mindset and I became a more hard-working and motivated cricketer."

Misbah said Babar always challenges himself and would get better as a captain with experience.

"He is in a zone of his own. He just doesn't want to be in the team. He just doesn't want to play for money. He wants to be the top performer for Pakistan. He is always pitting himself against other top batsmen like Kohli or Smith," he said.

"He loves challenges in the nets and on the field. He has really matured as a player and in time he will get better as a captain with experience."

Babar was the leading run-scorer of the T20I series against Australia last year. He also scored 210 runs, which included a hundred, at 52.50 in the Test series against the same opponents.

In the two-Test home series against Sri Lanka, Babar ended the series with 262 runs with an average of exactly 262.

Misbah feels Babar had changed as a batsman when he got runs in the Tests in Australia.

"Before that he was getting runs in tests but not consistently. In Australia and in the following tests against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh he changed," he said.

Talking about his experience as a head coach, Misbah said: "Having captained, it has helped me a lot. As captain I had to manage everything and also having played under top coaches ... I have seen closely their work ethics and how they managed things.

"It is a learning process. Having remained captain it is a big advantage for coaching because you know the players and their mood swings. You know which player will respond in a given situation,which player is feeling pressure in a scenario.

Misbah said it is not easy juggling between different roles.

"Most important thing as a coach is mentally and psychologically how you handle a group of players," the former skipper said.

"Sometimes captain and coach is different as you have to take tough decisions. Being chief selector makes it it a bit difficult but I had experience of creating and managing teams, I have been building teams since 2003. Till now it is going well."

Misbah feels in Pakistan cricket there were different parameters for judging foreign and local coaches.

"I don't know why it is like this why do we have different eye for locals and foreigners. Maybe we feel they have something special. It looks like every decision by a foreign coach is right. In contrast we tend to be very critical of local coaches no matter what decision they take," he said.

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News Network
June 20,2020

Dhaka, Jun 20: Former Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza on Saturday tested positive for coronavirus.

The skipper had gone for a coronavirus Test last week, and now his reports have come back as positive, ESPNCricinfo reported.

As per a report in ESPNCricinfo, it is not known how Mortaza contracted the virus.

Mashrafe, also a member of the parliament from Narail 2 constituency, had stepped down as the ODI captain of the country in March this year.

Covid-19 cases have crossed 1,00,000 mark in Bangladesh and the government is now planning area-wise lockdown.

Bangladesh was slated to face Sri Lanka in July in a three-Test series and the side would have later hosted New Zealand in August, but both series look unlikely now.

The Asia Cup, scheduled for September, is also uncertain due to the coronavirus.

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