WTA?Finals: Mirza-Hingis in semis, two wins from 9th title of 2015

October 31, 2015

Singapore, Oct 31: The world number one women’s doubles team of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis continued their rampaging form and extended their monster winning streak to 20 matches in a row after reaching the semifinals of the WTA Finals in Singapore on Friday.

sania

Mirza and Hingis, top seeds in Singapore, took just 90 minutes to get past the challenge of fourth-seeded Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France 6-4, 7-5 in their final round-robin match and finish on top of their group, thus avenging their loss to the same pair the last time they played in Rome this year.

The Indo-Swiss duo lifted their game just at the right time and made full use of the only two breaks of the match they got. Mirza-Hingis got break point opportunities at 4-all in the first set and 5-all in the second, and grabbed the chance to serve both sets out.

“We had played them twice before and we were 1-all, so we knew we had to come out and play well, like we’ve been trying to do every match here at the WTA Finals,” Mirza said after the match.

“We just tried to come out and play our best, and that was enough to win today.”

Mirza and Hingis have won eight women’s doubles titles this year, including two Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon and the US Open.

The top seeds are just two wins away from their ninth WTA doubles title since joining forces eight months ago.

“It feels pretty good!” Hingis said after the victory.

“Sania came up to me and asked me why don’t we try to play together, and at first we both had our partners, but as soon as we started we won a hat-trick right away at Indian Wells, Miami and Charleston. It was amazing how fast we clicked.

“It was a dream to come here to Singapore, and hopefully we can keep winning here,” Hingis reflected on the success of their partnership.

Mirza and Hingis will face third seeds Chan Hao-Ching and Chan Yung-Jan of Chinese Taipei in the semifinals. The Chinese Taipei duo, incidentally, were the last team to have beaten the top seeds, during the Cincinnati Masters just before the US Open.

Mirza won the women’s doubles title at last year’s WTA Finals with Cara Black of Zimbabwe.

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News Network
February 10,2020

Potchefstroom, Feb 10: India's under-19 cricket team manager Anil Patel says the ICC has taken a serious view of the aggressive celebrations by Bangladesh players after their World Cup triumph and will be reviewing the footage of the final game's "last few minutes".

Some Bangladeshi players got carried away while celebrating their historic three-wicket win over India in the final on Sunday. While their captain Akbar Ali apologised for the "unfortunate incident", his Indian counterpart Priyam Garg said their reaction was "dirty".

"We don't know what actually happened," Patel told 'ESPNCricinfo' on Sunday.

"Everybody was in a shock, absolutely, but we don't know what happened exactly. The ICC officials are going to watch the footage of the last few minutes and they are going to let us know," he said.

Even when the match was on, the Bangladesh players were overly aggressive while fielding and their lead pacer Shoriful Islam sledged the Indian batsmen after every delivery.

As soon as the match ended, it became tense with Bangladeshi players rushing to the ground and displaying aggressive body language. The two teams nearly came to blows before the situation was defused by the coaching staff and on-field officials.

Patel claimed that match referee Graeme Labrooy met him and expressed regret at what transpired on the field.

"The referee came to me. He was sorry about the incident. He clarified the ICC is going to take very seriously what has happened during the match and the last session. They are going to witness the footage and they will tell us in the morning (Monday)."

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News Network
January 28,2020

Gibraltar, Jan 28: Young Indian Grand Master R Praggnanandhaa pulled off a huge upset, beating former world champion Veselin Topalov in the sixth round of the 18th Gibraltar chess festival to record his fifth straight win here.

The 14-year-old Chennai lad needed just 33 moves to put it across the Bulgarian. He had started with a loss against compatriot P V Nandhidhaa but since then he has been on a winning spree.

Praggnanandhaa, who recently won the world under-18 title, said: "It was very tough to prepare against him."

He is in second spot on five points with six other players and will take on Chinese GM Wang Hao in the seventh round.

Seventeen-year-old Russian GM Andrey Esipenko jumped to sole lead with 5.5 points with a win over Georgia's Ivan Cheparinov

The Russian player would be unpaired in the seventh round as he decided to take a bye.

A bunch of players including Indians — B Adhiban, K Sasikiran, Shardul Gagare, Karthikeyan Murali, SL Narayanan — are in joint third place with 4.5 points.

Adhiban beat Gabriel Flom, while D Gukesh, the world's second youngest Grand Master ever, defeated Martin Percivaldi to move to four points.

Also winning were Karthikeyan Murali against Qi B Chen and Gagare over France's Maxime Lagarde.

Top-seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov's moderate run continued as he was held to a draw by GM Aryan Chopra.

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News Network
March 7,2020

Melbourne, Mar 7: Ahead of the Women's T20 World Cup against Australia, India spinner Poonam Yadav said that skipper Harmanpreet Kaur has given her a lot of support.

"Harmanpreet has been of immense support. When I got hit for a six in the first over, she came to me and said, 'Poonam, you're one of the most experienced players in the team, and we expect better of you'," Poonam said.

The 28-year-old experienced bowler has played 68 shortest format games for India and taken 94 wickets at an average of 22.66.

She has been in devastating form throughout the tournament and has bagged nine wickets so far.

"So, that kind of stirred something within me. I told myself if my captain has that much faith in me, I should be able to make a comeback," she said.

"I took a wicket in the very next ball, and didn't look back since. Now when I look back at that moment, it means so much in the context of my individual performance and run to the final," she added.

In the opening game against Australia at Sydney Showground, Poonam came within a whisker of the third hat-trick in Women's T20 World Cup history, dismissing Rachael Haynes and Ellyse Perry before Jess Jonassen was dropped.

The final of the tournament will be played at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on March 8 -- International Women's Day.

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