Sindhu loses to Okuhara; Srikanth, Prannoy enter quarters

Agencies
September 21, 2017

Tokyo, Sept 21: P V Sindhu suffered a straight-game loss to world champion Nozomi Okuhara to crash out but Kidambi Srikanth and H S Prannoy advanced to the quarterfinals of the USD 325,000 Japan Open Super Series, here today.

Playing local favourite Okuhara for the third consecutive time, Sindhu could not bring to the fore her best game and committed too many errors to go down 18-21 8-21 in a lop-sided 47-minute contest.

The match lacked the long intense rallies, which were the hallmark of their last two contests, -- the 110-minute World Championship final and last week's 83-minute Korea Open summit clash, which Sindhu had won.

Sindhu squandered a lead of 11-9 and 18-16 in the opening game and looked completely out of sorts in the second game to bow out early.

However, World No.8 Srikanth, who clinched back-to-back titles in Indonesia and Australia this year, demolished Hong Kong's Hu Yun 21-12 21-11 within half an hour to make it to the final eight.

The Indian will now face the recently-crowned world champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.

Currently locked 2-2 in the head-to-head record, Srikanth had initial success against Viktor but the Dane had an upper hand in the last two meetings, winning in straight games.

US Open Champion H S Prannoy managed to upstage Chinese Taipei's Hsu Jen Hao 21-16 23-21. He will now play against second seed Chinese Shi Yuqi.

World No. 2 Shi, who had reached the finals of All England Championship early this year, staved off a challenge from Syed Modi International winner Sameer Verma 10-21 21-17 21-15 in another match.

Among others, the mixed doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy played their heart out before losing 27-29 21-16 12-21 to Indonesian fourth seeds Praveen Jordan and Debby Susanto in a match that lasted an hour and six minutes.

Sindhu led 6-2 early on but Okuhara closed the gap to 8-9 before Sindhu's straight return bamboozled the Japanese. The Indian failed to negotiate a cross-court return from Okuhara, who miscued a stroke to the net to give a 11-9 advantage to the Indian at the break.

Okuhara

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Agencies
February 20,2020

New Delhi, Feb 20: Grappler Divya Kakran on Thursday became the second Indian woman to win a gold medal at the ongoing Asian Wrestling Championship.

Divya, a bronze medallist at Asian Games 2018, earned her first gold by winning all her four bouts against Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan and Japan.

Her final bout against Naruha Matsuyuki of Japan was the closest one but she managed to outclass her opponent 6-4 to seal her name on the gold medal. The 68 kg category was played in round-robin format as only five wrestlers were in the fray.

India is likely to add some more medals to its tally when Nirmala Devi, Pinki, and Sarita go out to grapple for the yellow metal in their respective weight categories.

Three-time Commonwealth championship gold medallist, Nirmala Devi (50 kg) first defeated Munkhnar Byambasuren of Mongolia in the quarterfinals by 6-4 to reach the semis.

In the semi-finals, Nirmala got the better of Dauletbike Yakhshimuratova of Uzbekistan by 10-0 and will play against 2018 Under-23 World Champion Miho Igarashi of Japan for the gold medal.

Pinki (55 kg) started her day on a winning note against Shokhida Akhmedova of Uzbekistan by 12-4 in round 3 and lost to Kana Higashikawa of Japan to enter the semis where she defeated Marina Zuyeva of Kazakistan by a score of 6-0.

Pinki will play in the gold medal bout against Dulguun Bolormaa of Mongolia.

Sarita (59 kg) will now face Battsetseg Altantsetseg of Mongolia in the gold medal bout after winning against her opponents in the qualifiers, quarterfinals and semi-final by a score of 10-0, 11-0 and 10-3, respectively.

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News Network
February 18,2020

New Delhi, Feb 18: Skipper Virat Kohli has become the first Indian to reach the 50M followers mark on social media platform Instagram. Kohli, who is breaking cricketing records with each passing match, has a great social media following.

The 31-year old has so far made 930 posts on the platform and his social media posts continue to enthrall fans worldwide. Overall, Instagram's official account has the most number of followers and it is followed by Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, who has 200M followers.

In terms of Indians with most number of followers, Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra is on the second spot with 49.9 followers while Deepika Padukone is on the third place with 44.1 followers.

Last year, Kohli had become the most successful Indian Test captain, surpassing Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Currently, Kohli is in action against New Zealand and his side would take on the hosts in the two-match Test series, slated to commence from February 21.

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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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