sports news

ICC Women's World Cup: Super-Six stage begins from today

Feb 8 The Super-Six stage of the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup begins from today. At two seperate venues in Mumbai, Australia will take on England, while New Zealand will meet Sri Lanka. In Cuttack, South Africa will play against the West Indies. All matches will begin at 9 AM. Meanwhile, hosts India yesterday finished their campaign on a winning note. They defeated Pakistan by 6 wickets in the seventh place play-off match at Cuttack. Opting to bat first at the Barabati Stadium, Pakistan scored 192 for 7 in the stipulated 50 overs. Medium Pacer Naragarajan Niranjana did most the damage with the ball, as she scalped 3 wickets for 35 runs in her 10 overs. Jhulan Goswami bagged 2 wickets. For Pakistan, Nida Dar and Nain Abidi were the leading scorers. Nida top scored with 68, while Nain made 58. Chasing 193 victory, India surpassed the target with 4 overs to spare and 6 wickets in hand. Top scoring with a superb 103 not out, Skipper Mithali Raj played a captain's knock and helped India beat Pakistan with minimum fuss. Somdev & Italian partner in Zagreb indoor ATP tournament semis Feb 8 India's Somdev Devvarman and his Italian partner Fabio Cipolla have stormed into the Men's Doubles semi-finals of the ATP Zagreb Indoors tennis tournament at Croatia. In the quarterfinals last night, the Indo-Italian pair defeated the German-Czech combination of Benjamin Becker and Lukas Rosol, in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2. In the semi-finals today, Somdev and Cipolla will clash with the second seeded pair Austrian-Slovakian duo of Julian Knowle and Filip Polasek. However, in the Men's Singles, Somdev crashed out of the tournament after losing to fourth seed Jurgen Melzer of Austria, 6-1, 6-7, 2-6 in the second round yesterday.

ICC T-20 rankings: India third after toppers Lanka and Windies in second spot

Feb 8

India have retained their third spot in the ICC rankings for Twenty-20 teams. In the latest rankings released in Dubai yesterday, India is placed third with 119 points, while the table is headed by reigning T-20 champions Sri Lanka who have 131 points. The West Indies are at second.
In the ICC rankings for Twenty-20 batsmen, all Indians have managed to cling on to their respective positions. Virat Kohli has held on to his sixth spot. Other Indians in the list include Yuvraj Singh at 13th place and opener Gautam Gambhir at the 17 position. New Zealand wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum leads the T20 batting chart with 794 points.

In the T20 bowlers category, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, ranked 16, is the only Indian in the top-20 list. Pakistan's Saeed Ajmal leads the bowlers' table with 756 points, followed by Ajantha Mendis of Sri Lanka and England's Graeme Swann.

Sachin equals Sunil Gavaskar's record of 81 first class hundreds

Feb 8
Sachin Tendulkar has equalled Sunil Gavaskar's record of 81 first class hundreds. He achieved this landmark by cracking a superb century against Rest of India on day three of the Irani Cup in Mumbai today. Tendulkar remained unbeaten on 140 in Mumbai's first innings total of 409 all out. It was in reply to Rest of India's first innings score of 526 runs.

Overall, Tendulkar's first class centuries include, 51 in Test matches, 18 in Ranji Trophy, 2 in Irani Cup, 3 in Duleep Trophy, 1 in county cricket for Yorkshire and 6 in other games.

Score so far: Rest of India 526 and 27 for One.

Badminton: Malaysia Open Super Series begins in Kuala Lumpur today

Jan 15 The Malaysia Open Super Series Badminton tournament kicks off in Kuala Lumpur today. All the qualification matches will be played today, while the main draw will begin tomorrow. India’s shuttle queen and London Olympics Bronze medalist Saina Nehwal has been given a top billing in the Women’s Singles section. Saina will play her opening match against Juan Gu of Singapore tomorrow. London Olympics quarterfinalist P. Kashyap, Ajay Jayaram and teenage sensation PV Sindhu are among the other Indian shuttlers, who are participating in the 6-day tournament. hess: Chennai Super Kings Int'l GM Tournament starts in Chennai today Jan 15 The Chennai Super Kings fifth International Grandmaster Chess Tournament will begin from today at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. The tournament which will conclude on 23rd of this month is sponsored by Chennai Super Kings, co-sponsored by Brookefields and supported by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and Sports Development of Authority of Tamilnadu. Young players will be playing with international players. This year the tournament has attracted 11 Grand masters, 4 Women Grand Master’s, 15 International Master’s, 1 WIM and several other FIDE masters. A total number of approximately 250 players from 13 countries like Belarus, Russia, Uzbekistan, China, Bangladesh, Germany, Hungary, Kazakhstan, USA, Nepal, Israel, Switzerland apart from India will participate.

39th Under-20 National Women Hockey Championship starts

Jan 10 The 39th Under-20 National Women Hockey Championship has been opened today at an impressive ceremony at the Gachibowli stadium in Hyderabad . Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy formally declared the championship opened. After a gap of three years the championship is being held in the country by the Hyderabad Hockey Association under the aegis of the Indian Hockey Federation. A total 21 teams from various states will play 18 league matches and 7 knockout matches before the final match on 16th of this month. The National Women Hockey team will be picked up from the tournament. India, England first 1 day international of 5-match series to be played tomorrow Jan 10 The first one day international of the 5-match series between India and England will be played at the SCA Stadium in Rajkot tomorrow. The match will begin at 12 noon. All India Radio will broadcast live commentary on the match. The commentary can be heard on the Rajdhani and FM Gold channels from 11:30 AM onwards. Fiery opener Virender Sehwag has been dropped from the Indian squad for the first three matches and in-form batsman Cheteshwar Pujara is his replacement. While Indian Skipper MS Dhoni will look to regain some lost pride, England captain Alistair Cook, just like the recent Test series triumph, will eye an ODI series victory at the Indian soil after 28 years. India recently lost to Pakistan 1-2 in the 3-match ODI series, which saw the resumption of cricketing ties between the two sub-continent gaints after 5 years. Before the Pakistan series, England defeated India 2-1 in the 4-match Test series, while the 2-match Twenty-20 series ended square.