Indian sports news wrap, February 14

Catch the updates and scores of all Indians in action on February 14.

Published : Feb 14, 2023 20:00 IST

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE
REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE | Photo Credit: DEAN TREML
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REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE | Photo Credit: DEAN TREML

CRICKET

Supreme Court appoints retired SC judge to oversee HCA elections

A three-member Supreme Court Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Manoj Misra and Aravind Kumar appointed on Tuesday retired Supreme Court Judge Justice (retd) L. Nageswara Rao to oversee the process of conducting elections in the Hyderabad Cricket Association.

The Bench was responding to a dispute between HCA and the Charminar Cricket Club.

“We are of the view that the impasse must come to an end and a fair election will be held. This Court is of the view that Justice Nageswara Rao would be suitable to be appointed to head a single -- member committee to sort out the mess,” the Bench ordered.

“He (Justice Rao) can take all assistance as needed. The expenses will be borne by the Association. If the learned Judge needs some directions from this Court, the matter can be placed before us for the limited purpose,” the order said.

The Court also directed the HCA to extend all assistance to Justice Rao.

- V V SUBRAHMANYAM

HCL Foundation pledges more support for Uttar Pradesh

The HCL Foundation has pledged more support for sports in Uttar Pradesh by signing an MoU with the State government during the recent Global Investors Summit.

Giving an insight into what HCL has done in the past decade across the country, a big chunk of which has been in Uttar Pradesh, the vice president of HCL’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) wing, Dr. Nidhi Pundhir stated that 5000 more children, including girls and persons with disability would be supported as part of the initiative.

“We will identify and nurture talent in multiple sports”, said Dr. Nidhi as she talked to The Hindu on Tuesday, explaining in detail, the depth of coverage across the State, both in the rural and urban environment.

Making it clear that the focus was not just about winning medals at the national and international level, Dr. Nidhi pointed out that the efforts were mainly towards empowering the children to a better life through sports.

“All those meritorious athletes, hailing from below poverty line, are given long-term support in a variety of ways, in terms of nutrition, tuition fee, mobility expenses, fee for academies, on a case by case basis”, she said.

Through its CSR initiative, HCL has already supported 27,000 athletes across the country in different sports, and 14,000 have been from Uttar Pradesh. Many of the athletes have gone on to excel at the State, national and international level.

The 18-year-old Jerlin Anika who won three gold medals in the Deaflympics and presented the Arjuna award last year is a classic example of HCL’s drive towards excellence in sports.

“For the disabled athletes we also cover the supporting people in their team”, she said.

Stating that for supporting 5,000 children, effort has to be made to reach five or ten times the number to filter the right candidates, Dr. Nidhi said that it was a massive exercise executed with enthusiasm and energy, as the goal was to make a difference to the life of people in the lower strata.

Emphasising that sports played a significant role in improving the quality of life of the children, mostly leading to job opportunities etc., Dr. Nidhi stressed that it helped girls in particular to sail above the social and economic barriers.

“We conduct the Sports for Change meet, with about 600 athletes from across the country, to help them compete in State of art facilities, and learn about winning, losing and bouncing back”, she said.

The 47-year-old company, HCL has spent about 1000 crore rupees for the initiative in the last 10 years in the country, and about 50% of it has been invested in Uttar Pradesh. That support is set to increase significantly in the next five years.

-Team Sportstar

TENNIS

ITF $15k women’s tennis tournament

Soha Sadiq beat Ilaria Sposetti of Italy 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of the $15,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the Joygaon Academy on Tuesday.

In the only other singles match of the main draw, Akanksha Nitture outplayed Sahira Singh for the loss of one game.

Akanksha, however, lost the doubles pre-quarterfinals with Humera Baharmus, 9-11 in the super tie-break to Sandeepti Rao and Bela Tamhankar.

RESULTS
Singles (first round): Soha Sadiq bt Ilaria Sposetti (Ita) 4-6, 6-2, 6-2; Akanksha Nitture bt Sahira Singh 6-0, 6-1.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Diana Marcinkevica (Lat) & Fanny Ostlund (Swe) bt Julia Keranovic & Julia Lovqvist (Swe) 6-0, 7-6(5); Sandeepti Singh Rao & Bela Tamhankar bt Humera Baharmus & Akanksha NItture 7-5, 3-6, [11-9]; Sai Samhitha & Soha Sadiq bt Pooja Ingale & Ishwari Matere 6-4, 6-4; Celine Simunyu (Irl) & Viktoria Veleva (Bul) bt Elena Giessler (Ger) & Milana Maslenkova (Uzb) 6-3, 7-6(2); Yubrani Banerjee & Jagmeet Kaur bt Kashish Bhatia & Anjali Rathi 5-7, 6-1, [10-6]; Sharmada Balu & Marie Mettraux (Sui) bt Shachf Lieberman (Isr) & Ilaria Sposetti (Ita) 6-4, 6-3; Alexandra Iordache (Rou) & Sevil Yuldasheva (Uzb) bt Abhaya Vemuri & Apurva Vemuri 6-2, 6-4; Vaidehi Chaudhari & Zeel Desai bt Divya Jyoti & Laalitya Kalluri 6-0, 6-0.
Qualifying singles (third and final round): Sandeepti Singh Rao bt Paavanii Paathak 6-0, 6-3; Julia Lovqvist (Swe) bt Elena Giessler (Ger) 6-1, 6-0; Vanshika Choudhary bt Abhaya Vemuri 1-6, 7-6(7), [11-9]; Kashish Bhatia bt Nidhitra Rajmohan 6-1, 6-0; Jagmeet Kaur bt Janani Ramesh 6-2, 6-2; Anjali Rathi bt Kavya Khirwar 6-2, 6-2; Arthi Muniyan bt Julia Keranovic (Swe) 6-2, 6-0; Priyanshi Bhandari bt Mihika Yadav 0-6, 6-2, [10-8].

- Kamesh Srinivasan

Purav and Divij lose in Bahrain

Purav Raja and Divij Sharan were beaten 6-3, 6-2 by Maximilian Neuchrist and Kaichi Uchida in the doubles pre-quarterfinals of the $160,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Manama, Bahrain, on Tuesday.

RESULTS
$160,000 Challenger, Manama, Bahrain
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Maximilian Neuchrist (Aut) & Kaichi Uchida (Jpn) bt Purav Raja & Divij Sharan 6-3, 6-2.
$25,000 ITF men, Monastir, Tunisia
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Hady Habib (Lbn) & Aziz Ouakaa (Tun) bt Parth Aggarwal & Shivank Bhatnagar 6-3, 6-4; Isaac Nortey (Gha) & Karan Singh bt Ugo Blanchet & Mayeul Darras 9Fra) 6-3, 4-6, [10-7].
$15,000 ITF men, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): SD Prajwal Dev & Sai Karteek REddy bt Dzhortzho Binda & Zelimir Rudan (Can) 6-2, 6-1; Rishab Agarwal & Joshua Sheehy (USA) bt Michael Sobhy & Karim El Feky (Egy) 6-1, 6-3.
$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia
Singles (first round): Tanisha Kashyap bt Selina Atay (Tur) 7-6(0), 6-4.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Sravya Shivani & Jennifer Luikham bt Samira De Stefano & Gaia Parravicini (Ita) 6-3, 6-1.
$15,000 ITF women, Ipoh, Malaysia
Singles (first round): Mei Yamaguchi (Jpn) bt Smriti Bhasin 6-0, 6-0.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Aoi Ito (Jpn) & Ashmitha Easwaramurthi bt Jang Gio (Kor) & Smriti Bhasin 6-4, 6-0.

- Kamesh Srinivasan

FOOTBALL

Santosh Trophy: Champion Kerala makes a stunning comeback

Down 1-4 in the 65th minute, defending champion Kerala made a stunning comeback and forced Maharashtra to a 4-4 draw in a Group ‘A’ match of the 76th Santosh Trophy National football championship in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.

Kerala struck three goals in a 11-minute spell shortly after that and one of them scored by V. Arjun, who smartly danced past two defenders and scored with a leftfooter from just outside the box, was a beauty.

Kerala is currently in the fourth spot (4 points from 3 games) in the group while Punjab, which defeated host Odisha 2-1 with two late goals, is on top along with Karnataka (both with 7 points from 3 matches).

Karnataka blanked Goa 2-0 for its second win in the six-team group.

The results (Group A):

Kerala (Vishak Mohanan 38, Nijo Gilbert 66-p, V. Arjun 70, John Paul Jose 77) drew with Maharashtra 4 (Sufiyan Shaikh 17, Himanshu Patil 20, Sumit Bhandari 34, Tejas Raut 42).

Punjab 2 (Jang Bahadur Singh 75, Kamaldeep 82) bt Odisha 1 (Anand Oram 90+3).

Karnataka 2 (Jacob John Kattookaren 33, Abhishekh Shankar Powar 50) bt Goa 0.

GOLF

Amandeep Drall grabs one-shot lead in 3rd leg of Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour

Amandeep Drall got off to a flying start as she opened her campaign in the third leg of Women’s Pro Golf Tour with a 2-under 70 that put her one shot ahead of Shweta Mansingh at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club here on Tuesday.

Amandeep, who was runner-up at the 2022 Women’s Indian Open, found three birdies in the last six holes during her solid round.

Jasmine Shekar, the 18-year-old rookie from Bengaluru, gave a good account of herself with a steady even par 72 and was sole third behind Amandeep and Shweta.

Amandeep opened with a birdie on fourth, which was negated by a bogey on the seventh. She stayed even till the end of the 12th hole. Birdies on 13th and 14th and yet another one on 17th gave her the lead despite a bogey on 15th.

Shweta had a roller coaster of a round. A double bogey on the second and a bogey on fifth meant she was 3-over after five. Yet she fought well with birdies on seventh and eighth. A bogey on ninth saw her turn in 2-over 38.

On the back nine, she had back-to-birdies on 10th and 11th and again on 15th and 16th and that helped her stage a fine recovery. She did drop a shot on 12th but finished under par at 71.

Only Amandeep and Shweta had under par rounds.

Jasmine had three birdies and three bogeys, while Seher Atwal, who has one win this season, was even par after 13 holes, but dropped three shots on 14th, 15th and 17th and slipped down to tied fifth.

Amateur Saanvi Somu (73) was fourth, while another rookie pro, Kriti Chowhan shot 75 as did Seher Atwal and Khushi Khanijau in tied fifth place.

Amateur Janneya Dasanniee (76) was eight, while three players -- Agrima Manral, Sneha Singh and Jyotsana Singh -- were tied ninth with rounds of 77 each.

-PTI

Several DP World Tour winners at this year’s Hero Indian Open

Several DP World Tour winners from last season, including Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal and Scotsman Robert MacIntyre, will be seen in action during the Indian Open, scheduled to be played at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurgaon from February 23-26.

On a day when the final competitors’ list was locked, the huge array of winners from 2022 DP World Tour included Yannik Paul, Guido Migliozzi, MacIntyre, Kalle Samooja, Thorbjørn Olesen -- once ranked 33rd in the world --, Pablo Larrazabal, Nicolai Højgaard and Shaun Norris.

The left-handed MacIntyre will look to take back the Indian Open Trophy, which was last won by his countryman Stephen Gallacher in 2019. The Scottish duo along with David Law, who was third at the Hero Open held last year in Scotland, will be gunning for the event that is being staged for the 56th time.

Many of these foreign stars will also be looking at gaining valuable Ryder Cup points to try and make the European Team for the Ryder Cup in Italy in September-October.

The list of proven winners makes for one of the strongest international fields in more than a decade at the Indian Open, which has also crossed the USD 2 million purse for the first time.

The home challenge will be led by two-time winner and four-time runners-up here SSP Chawrasia. Between 2013-14 and 2017, in four successive editions of the Indian Open, Chawrasia never finished lower than tied second and won in both 2016 and 2017.

Besides Chawrasia, the in-form Shubhankar Sharma, Manu Gandas, who gained a DP World Tour card, Gaganjeet Bhullar and seasoned Shiv Kapur will make up the field.

-PTI

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