Football
Sudeva Delhi holds Mohammedan Sporting 1-1, grab first point of I-League
Sudeva Delhi FC grabbed its first point of the ongoing I-League season after a 1-1 draw against Mohammedan Sporting on Thursday.
A change of coach meant a change in fortunes for Sudeva as under Sankarlal Chakraborty it managed to snap its seven-match losing streak to open its account.
In a game in which everything unfolded in the final minutes, Sudeva took the lead in the 86th minute through Theko Hriivei Carlos Pao, which was later cancelled out in injury time by a thumping volley from Abiola Dauda.
Mohammedan looked strong from the start and struck the woodwork in the first minute.
Winger SK Faiaz managed to get onto the other end of a cross from the left but was kept out by the cross-bar.
However, Mohammedan lacked quality in the final third as the Sudeva goalkeeper Sachin Jha remained untested.
Three minutes into the second half, Mohammedan came close to scoring once again.
Abhishek Halder fired a free-kick to find Ousmane N’Diaye in the box.
The Senegalese sent a header towards the goal, but the Sudeva custodian Jha was well-positioned to make a reflexive save at the near post.
With around eight minutes of regulation time left on the clock, Pao was through on goal, before being tripped just outside the area by Abhishek Halder, who was immediately given marching orders by referee K Ramdasan.
It was Pao who ultimately gave Sudeva the lead with just four minutes of regulation time left.
Francis Nwankwo went past his marker, entered the box and sent a grounded cross to Pao at the far post, who scored with a clean strike.
After scoring, Sudeva Delhi looked to run down the clock but was stunned by an equaliser in injury time. Faslurahaman sent a cross into the box, which was beautifully collected by Abiola Dauda, who struck an acrobatic volley into the back of the net from close range.
In the other match of the day, played at the Cooperage Stadium in Mumbai, Kenkre FC beat Real Kashmir FC 2-1.
Jestin George gave Real Kashmir the lead in the 18th minute, but Aman Gaikwad equalised six minutes later.
Ahmed Faiz Khan scored from the spot for the Mumbaikars in the 90th minute as they recorded their first home win of the season.
-PTI
Tennis
Women’s ITF: National champion Vaidehi beats Yashina to set up quarters clash with Raina
National champion Vaidehi Chaudhari beat eighth seed Ekaterina Yashina 6-1, 7-6(6) in setting up a quarterfinal against third seed Ankita Raina in the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the Ganesh Naik Tennis Complex on Thursday.
The rest of the six places in the quarterfinals were taken by foreign players. Daria Kudashova knocked out top seed Dalila Jakupovic in three sets. Sixth seed Valeria Savinykh beat Rutuja Bhosale 6-4, 6-3.
Shrivalli Bhamidipaty retired at 2-4, owing to a painful forearm, against Priska Nugroho of Indonesia, the champion of the last week’s event in Solapur.
The results:
The results
-Kamesh Srinivasan
Ashmitha in doubles final in New Zealand
Ashmitha Easwaramurthi, seeded fourth with Yuka Hosoki of Japan, outplayed Kyna Decruy and Ruby Young 6-0, 6-1 in the doubles semifinals of the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Tauranga, New Zealand, on Thursday.
In the final, the Indo-Japanese team will meet second seeds Paige Hourigan and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand.
The results:
-Kamesh Srinivasan
SHOOTING
Prithviraj Tondaiman and Shreyasi Singh won the men’s and women’s trap gold medals in the Digvijay Singh shotgun championship in Jaipur.
Prithviraj beat Zoravar Singh Sandhu 29-25 in the men’s medal round, while the young Bakhtyar Uddin Malek took the bronze ahead of Olympic quota winner Bhowneesh Mendiratta.
Shreyasi Singh won 30-25 against Mahima Vishwakarma, leaving junior gold medallist Bhavya Tripathi with the bronze ahead of Olympian Shagun Chowdhary.
The results:
-Kamesh Srinivasan
Golf
Mohd Azhar shoots 67, surges into halfway lead at TATA Steel Tour Championship
Telangana golfer Mohd Azhar shot a second round of five-under 67 to surge into the halfway lead at the Rs 3 crore TATA Steel Tour Championship here on Thursday.
The 23-year-old Azhar, who is playing only his second season as a professional, totalled 12-under 132 for two days to move up two spots from his overnight third position and enjoy a one-shot advantage over the rest of the field.
Shiv Kapur, a four-time Asian Tour winner, carded a 69 to be placed tied second along with Delhi’s Kapil Kumar (70) at 11-under 133.
The first two rounds of the richest event on the PGTI saw one half of the field play their first nine holes at Golmuri Golf Course and second nine at Beldih Golf Course. The other half of the field played Beldih first followed by Golmuri.
This format will also be followed for the next two rounds of the tournament in Jamshedpur with the par for the round being 72. The leading groups will start at Golmuri and finish at Beldih.
Azhar (65-67), currently 53rd in the TATA Steel PGTI Rankings with one top-10 this season, kept firing it close to the pins during his whirlwind front-nine that featured an eagle, five birdies and two bogeys.
Azhar, who turned professional in 2020, landed it within five feet on five occasions on the front-nine. He had a relatively quieter back-nine where he picked up two birdies in exchange for a double-bogey on the 17th.
Shiv Kapur (64-69), overnight second, stayed in touch with the lead after a round that featured six birdies and three bogeys.
Kapil Kumar (63-70), the first-round leader, dropped one spot to join Kapur in tied second. Kapil came up with four birdies and a double-bogey on Thursday.
TATA Steel PGTI Rankings leader Manu Gandas returned a 68 to be tied fourth at 10-under 134 along with Karandeep Kochhar (67) and Kartik Sharma (67).
Gandas continued to be the favourite for the TATA Steel PGTI Rankings crown as he’s at the moment comfortably ahead of his nearest rivals for the title -- Ajeetesh Sandhu (tied 15th at six-under 138) and Yuvraj Singh Sandhu (tied 32nd at two-under 142).
Viraj Madappa fired a hole-in-one on the first hole during his round of 69 to be tied 36th at one-under 143.
Among the prominent names, Jyoti Randhawa and defending champion Udayan Mane were tied ninth at eight-under 136, SSP Chawrasia was tied 15th at six-under 138, Gaganjeet Bhullar shot the day’s best score of 65 to be tied 30th at three-under 141 and Jeev Milkha Singh was 70th at seven-over 151.
-PTI
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