Sports Authority of India

Indian men’s hockey team went down 2—4 to the Dutch side in their fourth build-up game of the Europe Tour at Naarden in the Netherlands.

The Dutch were in attacking mode right from the start on Thursday night and took the lead in the ninth minute as Mirco Pruyser successfully sliced in a goal.

Glenn Schuurman and Tristan Algera added two more in the 15th and the 28th minutes respectively as the Netherlands led 3—0 till half time.

It was only in the second half that India opened their account and tried to challenge the Dutch. S.K. Uthappa and skipper Sardar Singh sneaked in a goal each in the 37th and 40th minutes respectively to reduce the margin to 3—2.

It was Netherlands’ Billy Baker who stroked in the final goal in the 60th minute and wrapped up the game with a 4—2 scoreline.

This time, the side featuring several young faces prepares for two big events in Europe and captain Sardar Singh, a key member of the team then and now, understands the contrast quite well.

On the eve of the National team’s departure to Europe for some preparatory matches ahead of the World Cup (in The Hague, from May 31 to June 15), Sardar spoke about the challenges.

“Last time, the public support was huge. Playing the World Cup and Commonwealth Games at home was a different feeling. Our players have to be mentally tough while playing abroad in different conditions (this time),” said Sardar after a training session at the National Stadium here on Monday.

Sardar was delighted to get back the services of experienced midfielder Gurbaj Singh at just the right time. “Gurbaj’s presence has boosted the team. Personally, I have a good rapport with him — the eye contact between us is superb.”

“The main aim of the European Tour is to get used to the conditions — the cold weather and faster pitch. A short trip like this (from April 9 to 19) always helps.”

Sardar said that under chief coach Terry Walsh, the players were polishing their skills in several areas. “The best teams in the world do not give you too many chances. We are focusing on tackling, defending, how to play the aerial balls and place the ball with a small swing of the stick. Besides, we are having extended training sessions for the goalkeepers.”

Walsh said the coaching staff was doing its best to get the best out of the ’keepers.

“We are trying to get specialisation in that area. In my view, we have to do a lot in the development area. We are trying to impart much better knowledge to goalkeepers around the country,” said the chief coach.

Reiterating that the European tour will be an opportunity for the players to familiarise with the conditions, Walsh said the players in the camp needed to be rotated.

“We are aware that there are a lot of tournaments this year. We cannot use the same squad in every tournament. We are trying to expose these guys,” he said.

The Indian team will play five matches — including two against The Netherlands, one versus Belgium and two against Dutch clubs — during the tour.

Grandmaster and former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta will start as the highest rated Indian in the strong Dubai International open chess tournament that gets underway on Tuesday.

A winner of this tournament in 2011, Gupta recently won the Al-Ain Classic in UAE and the country remains one of his favourite grounds. The Indian is ranked 12th in one of the strongest open tournaments in Asia.

Anton Korobov of Ukraine starts as the top seed. The semifinalist of the last world chess cup had also won the AICF-AAI cup in Delhi in December 2012 and remains a feared opponent.

Apart from Korobov, Vladimir Akopian of Armenia, French duo of Romain Edouarda and Andrei Istratescu, Romanian Constantin Lupulescu and Csaba Balogh of Hungary are other players above 2650 ELO rating in the tournament.

The tournament will be played under FIDE’s Swiss rules and there will be nine rounds in all. The total prize pool is $50,000 out of which the winner will take home $10,000.

As usual, the 16th edition of the Dubai open has attracted a variety of Indian players. There are 30 Indians in the fray in a list that boasts of 160 players currently but is likely to go up by the time the first round starts at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club.

There are as many as 40 Grandmasters in the fray apart from 22 International Masters, eight Woman Grandmasters and three Woman International Masters making the total number of titled players over 70.

Apart from Gupta, the Indian interest will revolve around Grandmasters M.R. Lalith Babu, Debashish Das, M. Shyam Sundar and Sahaj Grover. International Masters Deeptayan Ghosh, Swapnil Dhopade and Ashwin Jayaram will be looking forward to a performance which will take them closer to the Grandmaster title while the other Indians are all IM norm aspiarants.

The event will be followed by Asian Continental championship in Sharjah. For Gupta and other Indian GMs, it will be crucial to be in good shape for the real test that begins soon after the Dubai open.

“This tournament remains one of my favourite events across the world as the players are taken care off well and the playing conditions are excellent too,” said Gupta while gearing up to play the first round late on Tuesday.

“And it goes without saying that it is indeed one of the strongest open tournament in the continent, all this makes up for an exciting contest that I have always liked to be a part off,” he said.

The crowd cheered nearly every attacking move by Odisha, the underdog, but there was no stopping Punjab from clinching a hat-trick of titles.

After Punjab scored in the very first minute through a penalty corner conversion by Harjeet Singh, Haryana got a chance to equalise.

However, Dipsan Tirkey missed a penalty stroke with goalkeeper Jugraj Singh judging the striker’s shot correctly.

Punjab consolidated its lead, thanks to some fine work on the left by Harmanpreet Singh, who dribbled the ball from the half-line and relayed it to Baljeet Singh. The latter promptly passed it to Simranjeet Singh, who scooped it home.

With five minutes remaining for the first session, Sunil Ekka reduced the margin when he drilled home past Punjab custodian Jugraj.

With right-half Jarmanpreet Singh working well on the flanks, the forwards had enough scoring opportunities and the Odisha defence was kept busy in the second half too.

Baljinder Singh was quick to latch on to a rebound off the goalkeeper’s pads to make it 3-1. Possessing a clutch of young and enterprising players, Odisha put up a brave fight till the early part of the second session when Joseph Toppo’s excellent deflection off a long pass found the target.

Encouraged by the goal, Odisha attacked with vigour and came close to scoring on quite a few occasions. However, once Parvinder Singh deflected home off a cross from Simranjeet, Odisha started to lose steam. Punjab continued to score, with Ajit Pandit and Simranjeet (his second) completing the tally.

“We knew they were good in midfield and attack. Once we stopped the supply, they panicked,” said Avtar Singh, Punjab’s coach.

The results:

Final: Punjab 6 (Harjeet Singh, Simranjeet Singh 2, Baljinder Singh, Parvinder Singh, Ajit Pandit) bt Odisha 2 (Sunil Ekka, Joseph Toppo).

Third place play-off match: Haryana 7 (Mandeep Mor 3, Sahil Dabas, Santa Singh, Inderpal Singh, Manpreet) bt SAI 3 (Aji Ku Pandey, Navdeep Singh, Pawan Rajbhar).

India entered the third day of the match with a 2-1 lead and Devvarman sealed the tie for the visitors with a hard fought 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 win over Yong-Kyu Lim.

Somdev, who also had a hard fought win over Hyeon Chung in the opening round, displayed great fighting spirit in the reverse singles as well.

Lim, Korea’s top singles player, cracked under pressure despite doing well in the first two sets. Though Somdev won the first set, Lim came back strongly by winning the second set. However, Somdev was in his elements and easily won the last two sets.

The second reverse singles match between Chung and India’s Sanam Singh was cancelled since the tie was already decided.

“Unreal effort by @SomdevD to give us the win against Korea! fightttttt @rohanbopanna, #teamindiaaaaaa..” tweeted Singh.

“Beast Somdev :),” said double specialist Rohan Bopanna, who doubled up with Saketh Myneni to win the doubles match Saturday that gave India the advantage.

For India the win was sweet revenge for the 1-4 thrashing they had suffered against Korea in New Delhi last year when top players, led by Somdev, boycotted the tie. India now have 4-6 head-to-head record against Korea.

Besides India, Uzbekistan also advanced to the World Group Play-offs from Asia/Oceania Group 1.

Virat Kohli continued his stupendous form with a classy 77 but India managed a below-par 130 for four against Sri Lanka who bowled brilliantly in the death overs in the final of the ICC World T20 here on Sunday.

Kohli struck his fourth half century of the tournament with yet another superb effort but the Lankan bowlers applied the brakes on a struggling Yuvraj Singh, which certainly hampered the scoring rate to a large extent.

Kohli struck five fours and four sixes in his 58-ball knock as Yuvraj turned out to be a complete disaster as he looked completely out of sorts, which frustrated even the in-form batsman at the other end. The last four overs produced only 19 runs due to Yuvraj’s failure to get big hits.

While Kohli peppered all parts of the field with his blazing blade, Yuvraj found it difficult to even pick up Sachithra Senanayeke’s ‘doosra’ and Lasith Malinga’s blockhole deliveries. His struggle became so apparent that even Kohli’s anger was palpable at the other end as the hero of India’s 2007 triumph consumed delivery after delivery.

Rangana Herath (1/23) and Angelo Mathews (1/25) gave away only 48 runs in eight overs as it became a Kohli versus Sri Lanka duel. Even Nuwan Kulasekara (1/29) had a decent day in office despite 16 coming off his one over.

When Yuvraj was finally out for 11 off 21 balls as he holed out in the deep, the loudest cheer came from the Indian fans, who were relieved to see him back in the dugout.

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni came in with only 11 deliveries left and found it difficult to accelerate the pace of scoring as Malinga and Kulasekara bowled pinpoint yorkers.

Ajinkya Rahane (3) looked completely shaky during his eight-ball stay at the crease. Angelo Mathews pitched it on length and the opener played on to his stumps trying an ambitious pull.

Kohli entered the crease twirling his bat as Vivian Richards used to do during his playing days.

He clipped Kulasekara’s in-swinging half volley through the deep mid-wicket region for a boundary. Rohit got his first boundary when Senanayeke couldn’t pitch the carrom ball properly as he pulled it towards square leg for a one bounce boundary.

Malinga’s first was the last of the Powerplay overs as Rohit got his second boundary, smashing an over-pitched delivery from Malinga back past him.

India were 31 for one at the end of the Powerplay and it was not one of the smoothest start by the favourites.

Herath would consider himself unlucky as he could have got Kohli, then on 11, with the first delivery of his spell. He dropped it a bit short and Kohli got on the backfoot to play the pull shot. Malinga standing at short mid-wicket got his hands to it but it bounced off.

Rohit, on the other hand, got the first six off the match, with an effortless lofted drive over wide long-off.

Herath bowled a much better second over by constantly altering the length of his deliveries as Kohli tried to give him the charge on multiple occasions.

India reached one of their slowest 50’s in the tournament in the 10th over of the innings bowled by Mathews when the Indian duo showed their intent of trying to up the ante.

Rohit brought up the 50-run stand with a slash through point while Kohli hit the bowler over deep mid-wicket for a six. Having given only 11 in his first three overs, Mathews finished it with decent figures of 4—0—25—1.

Rohit (29) again frittered away a good start as Herath got him in his third over. The batsman tried to make room moving towards leg stump and the bowler followed him with an angular delivery which he hit straight to the cover fielder Senanayeke. Rohit hit three fours in his 26-ball knock.

Kohli continued to get the boundaries as he delightfully lofted Senanayeke over extra covers for a one-bounce boundary.

Kohli’s third six was a straight lofted shot off a Herath delivery but the left-arm spinner’s figures of one for 23 from four overs were respectable. The batsmen were never comfortable against him as he varied the length and pace of his deliveries.

The 50 came off 43 balls with a slice for a single to deep point off Malinga with the help of two fours and three sixes.

While Yuvraj struggled at the other end against Senanayeke’s away-spinning deliveries, there was no stopping Kohli as he spanked Kulasekara over deep mid-wicket for a six and followed it up with an extra cover drive. The next was a pull shot which went over deep mid wicket fielder’s head for a boundary. Kohli got 15 off the first four deliveries and 16 came off the over.

Earlier, Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bowl first. India played an unchanged side while Sri Lanka made one change, bringing in Thisara Perera for Seekkuge Prasanna for the title clash.

This was a target and an opponent harder than any previously encountered at the tournament, but India has turned into such a lord of the run chase in these conditions that no mountain is too high. In the end, India strolled home, victory by six wickets over South Africa at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium here on Friday propelling it into the final of the ICC World T20.Virat Kohli led the way with an innings of supreme force and confidence, an unbeaten 44-ball-72 that took in a breezy assault on Dale Steyn.

Chasing 173, India needed 40 off the last four overs when Yuvraj Singh was dismissed. The contest turned in the very next over, Wayne Parnell leaking 17 runs as the target shrank.

Kohli then pounded Steyn for two fours, showing not a moment’s hesitation in stepping down the wicket. The winning runs, rather symbolically of India’s conquering of him, came off Steyn, Kohli dismissing him to the leg-side fence. It had been clinical and blisteringly confident.

India’s pursuit had begun in a rush, Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane treating South Africa’s part-time opening bowlers without any deference. Twenty-three runs came off the first two overs in a flurry of boundaries before Steyn came on.

He was taken for 10, Rohit upper-cutting him over point for six. Steyn’s remaining three overs were stashed away at once, to be used through to the close. Rohit fell for 24, but Rahane stayed firm with Kohli. After Rahane’s dismissal, Yuvraj and Kohli kept the runs flowing, adding 56 in 6.3 overs.

India needed 60 off the last six, with Steyn holding three in the bank, but that would be no trouble. The fast bowler went for 36 from 3.1 overs.

India will have been largely pleased with how the opening half of the first innings unfolded. The next 10 overs will be less of a delight to review. South Africa batted on winning the toss and lost Quinton de Kock at once. However, Hashim Amla sprang into activity at the other end. He played a couple of supremely enjoyable drives through extra-cover; the quality of his strokes, it seems, is format-proof.

South Africa had rolled away to 43 in five overs. And M.S. Dhoni decided he would not hold R. Ashwin back any longer. The off-spinner repaid his captain’s faith immediately. Bowling around the wicket to Amla, he sent down a carrom ball that pitched on or just outside leg and spat past the outside edge to hit the off-stump.

Runs slow down

The runs slowed to a trickle thereafter. South Africa managed only 15 runs from overs six through nine, with the gap between boundaries — at one point — stretching to 27 balls.

But Faf du Plessis then stepped on the gas. Raina was taken for 16 in the 12th over and Amit Mishra for 17 in the next as J.P. Duminy joined in. Sixes were struck off both the bowlers as du Plessis raised his fifty.

Ashwin got rid of the rival captain for 58, the ball ricocheting onto the stumps off the batsman’s body. But, it had been a profitable alliance for South Africa, Duminy and du Plessis adding 71 runs in 8.4 overs.

A.B. de Villiers caused some consternation when he boldly reverse-swept Mishra for four but Dhoni had Ashwin to thank again, as he induced a top-edge that was held at fine-leg.

The Tamil Nadu bowler was the best of the lot again, while Mohit Sharma leaked a few runs at the close. South Africa reached a tall 172 as Duminy and the new man David Miller made haste, adding 43 in the last 4.3 overs.