Davis Cup: Korea trample India on day one

February 2, 2013

Ranjeet_Virali_MurugesanNew Delhi, Feb 2: Hope quickly gave way to uncertainty, and uncertainty to reality. India’s Davis Cup campaign, in the absence of its top players, got off to a miserable start with the home side trailing 0-2 against South Korea at the end of the opening day of Asia-Oceania Group ‘I’ tie at the RK Khanna Stadium here on Friday.

Ranjeet Virali Murugesan, the No.1 player for India in the tie, produced a below par performance during his 1-6, 0-6, 1-6 surrender to Min-Hyeok Cho before a cramping Vijayant Malik conceded the match when trailing 4-6, 5-7, 0-3 against Suk-Young Jeong.

Rankings matter little in Davis Cup and one hoped the two debutants would get the adrenaline rushing and raise their game. It had happened in the past but not today.

The drums, the noisy chants and even the fluttering national flags waved by Leander Paes and company at the sidelines could not inspire a change of fortunes. Not even Sania Mirza’ pressence in the stands. Firepower was missing and nerves got prominence.

Ranjeet, after leading 40-15 in the first game, slipped to drop his serve and could never revive his game. He was tight in his movements, struggled to put the ball in play and made a rash of errors. Cho easily wore him down in a few odd rallies with fluent hitting and whenever Ranjeet clambered to the net, he was treated to some rasping passing shots.

Bad struggle

In fact, Cho only grew better with each point, partly due to his Indian counterpart, whose game simply fell apart. So badly did Ranjeet struggle that he could hold his serve only once during the match.

The solitary blemish in the unranked Korean’s game was when he dropped his serve in the fourth game of the first set. But he swiftly recovered to reel off 12 games before Ranjeet held in the fourth game of the final set. It served momentary reprieve. Cho didn’t give away anything afterwards and closed the set and match with a forehand crosscourt winner, dropping only two points on the way.

It put curtains on a painful viewing and shifted focus on 22-year-old Vijayant, who now had the responsibility to put the home team on even keel.

He indeed showed promise with his power-packed strokes. The boy from Panipat fought for each point and stretched Jeong several times in the match. He served with purpose, fearlessly engaged in rallies but his forehand proved to be his undoing. He dropped his serve in the fifth game of the match following two forehand errors and Jeong, quick on feet and solid on serve, sprinted to take the lead.

Egged on, Vijayant carried his attacking game to the second set. A scorching backhand down the line gave him three breakpoints but he couldn’t convert any. Not even the fourth opportunity that came after the two deuces in the game before throwing it all away with a poor backhand.

He dropped his serve in the 11th game to lag 5-7 and immediately asked for a medical timeout. On return, the Korean comfortably served out the set and the match.

Vijayant got broken straightaway in the third set and in the third game fell to the ground grimacing after hitting a backhand return. His exit wrapped up a forgettable day for India, who would look up to their doubles exponent Paes and another debutant Purav Raja to get them their first point in the tie and another day to fight.

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News Network
February 27,2020

Melbourne, Feb 27: Shafali Verma's 34-ball 46 followed by a superlative performance from the bowlers helped India notch up a narrow four-run win over New Zealand in a crucial group A match of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup on Thursday.

Invited to bat, India posted a below-par 133 for eight against New Zealand in the crucial group A match with Shafali top-scoring with a 34-ball 46 and Taniya Bhatia chipping in with a 25-ball 23.

India, however, produced a disciplined performance with the ball to restrict New Zealand to 129 for six and register their third successive win in the tournament.

With this win, India topped Group A, having beaten Australia and Bangladesh in their last two outing.

Defending the total, India introduced spin straight away but Deepti Sharma bled 12 runs with opener Rachel Priest (12) hitting her for two boundaries.

But experienced pacer Shikha Pandey removed Priest in the next over when she had her caught at mid wicket.

With Shikha and left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad bowling in tandem, New Zealand played with caution to reach 28 for one.

Back into the attack, Deepti then cleaned up Bates with a beauty of a delivery as New Zealand slipped to 30 for two.

Poonam Yadav and Radha Yadav then mounted the pressure on the Kiwis and soon the Black Caps were 34 for 3 when the former dismissed skipper Sophie Devine (14).

Maddy Green (24) and Katey Martin (25) then tried to resurrect the innings with a 36-ball 43-run stand.

However, Gayakwad returned to remove Green, who danced down the pitch only to end up with an outside edge as Bhatia did the rest.

Radha then dismissed Martin to leave New Zealand at 90 for 5 in 16.3 overs.

Needing 44 off 21 balls, Kerr (34) blasted four boundaries to accumulate 18 runs in the penultimate over bowled by Poonam to bring the equation down to 16 off six balls.

In the final over, Heyley Jensen (11) and Kerr cracked a four each but Shikha held her nerves in the end to complete the win.

Earlier, 16-year-old Shafali provided the fireworks as India scored 49 for one in the powerplay overs. But they lost six wickets for 43 runs to squander the good start.

Smriti Mandhana (11), who returned to the playing XI after missing the last match due to illness, departed early but Shafali and Taniya (23) kept the scoreboard ticking, adding 51 runs for the second wicket.

In the 10th over, Taniya was caught by Amelia Kerr at backward point, while Jemimah Rodrigues (10) was caught by Kerr in the 12th over as India slipped to 80 for 3.

Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur's (1) poor form also continued as she was soon back to the hut after being caught and bowled by Leigh Kasperek.

Shafali, who was dropped at long-on in the 8th over and at mid-wicket in the 10th over, then holed out to Jensen at deep extra cover. She had four hits to the fence and three maximum shots in her innings.

Left-handed batter Deepti Sharma (8) and Veda Krishnamurthy (6) brought up the 100 in the 15th over but both departed soon as India slumped to 104 for 6.

Radha Yadav then blasted 14 off nine balls, which included a six in the final over, to give some respectability to the total.

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Agencies
February 25,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 25: India opening batsman KL Rahul will be available for Karnataka's Ranji Trophy semi-final clash against Bengal at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on February 29.

Rahul had asked to be rested from Karnataka's quarter-final match but is now available for the climactic stages of the Ranji Trophy. 

Karnataka had already been strengthened by the addition of Manish Pandey for the quarter-finals, with both Pandey and Rahul having returned from New Zealand after India completed the limited-overs leg of their tour, ESPNcricinfo reported.

Last year's finalists Saurashtra will take on Gujarat in the other semi-final at Rajkot. The other prominent players who will be part of the last four include Parthiv Patel (Gujarat), Jaydev Unadkat (Saurashtra) and Manoj Tiwary (Bengal).

Gujarat, Bengal, Karnataka, and Saurashtra had finished on top of the combined Groups A and B table, and all four progressed to the semi-finals after dominating their respective quarter-final matches.

Rahul has been phenomenal with the bat in the limited-overs series against Australia and New Zealand. He scored one century and four fifty-plus scores in his last ten innings in ODIs and T20Is combined

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News Network
January 29,2020

New Delhi, Jan 29: Badminton champion Saina Nehwal joined the ruling BJP today and is likely to campaign for the party ahead of the February 8 Delhi election.

"I have won medals for the country. I am a very hardworking and I love hardworking persons. I can see Prime Minister Narendra Modi does so much for the country, I want to do something for the country with him," the shuttler said, wearing the BJP scarf.

"I draw a lot of inspiration from Narendra sir".

Haryana-born Saina Nehwal, 29, is a major acquisition for the party in the middle of the Delhi poll campaign; she is one of the most popular sportspersons in India with a huge fan following and brand value. She is preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

A former world number 1, she has been honoured with the country's top sporting awards like the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award. She was also awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2016.

The Badminton player has won over 24 international titles. In the London Olympics, she won a bronze. She was world number two in 2009 and number one in 2015.

With her tweets praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Saina Nehwal was widely seen to lean towards the BJP.

One of her tweets became controversial when it was found to be identical to several others in praise of a PM Modi speech last year. Saina was trolled on Twitter with screenshots of the identical tweets. She was also among the sportswomen who put up identical tweets on Diwali thanking PM Modi for his initiative to empower women, with the hashtag #bharatkilaxmi.

The BJP roped in many famous personalities last year, including cricketer Gautam Gambhir, who was elected MP from Delhi in the national election, and wrestler Babita Phogat. Just before the Haryana assembly polls, the party roped in wrestler Sushil Kumar, Babita Phogat and former Hockey team captain Sandeep Singh. Sandeep Singh won the election and was appointed minister.

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