India in command despite de Villiers` defiance

THE ECHO OF INDIA KOLKATA
Sport 11
Sunday
August 7, 2016
India eyes encore vs Japan women's hockey opener
RIO DE JANEIRO, AUG 6/--/ After a fairytale run to the Rio Games
following a gap of 36 years, an upbeat India will now look to begin
from where they had left against
Japan when they clash in their
women's hockey opener in a pool B
match of the XXXI Olympiad here
on Sunday.
The women's team had beaten
the same opponents in a classification match in June last year to finish fifth in the World League semifinals and qualify for the Olympics, for the first time after Moscow 1980. 10th ranked Japan may
be three notches higher but the
women in blue, coached by Aussie
Neil Hawgood, are hopeful of a
good start to take the momentum
forward. "The coach has told us to
No obstacle
insurmountable
for Dipa’s coach
Flagbearer Abhinav Bindra of India leads his contingent during the opening ceremony ------- REUTERS
Indian athletes exude
confidence at opening
ceremony, also on twitter
RIO DE JANEIRO, AUG 6/--/ They looked dapper in blue
suits and yellow saris, with broad smiles adorning the
face. The Indian contingent, largest-ever in an Olympics, appeared confident at the opening ceremony of
the 2016 Rio Games ahead of big tests ahead. This time
118 athletes are competing at the Rio Games, which
is the highest number ever in one single edition. The
contingent was led by India's only individual gold medallist in Olympics - ace shooter Abhinav Bindra.The
contingent also included Leander Paes, who will be
playing his seventh Olympics - a record. He posted
images and videos of his seventh athletes parade in an
Olympics.India's badminton stars Jwala Gutta,
Ashwini Ponnappa and PV Sindhu were also not to be
left behind as they took to social media to announce
their happiness. However, Indian hockey team was
missing from the opening ceremony as they have a
match later in the day against Ireland.
RIO DE JANEIRO, AUG
6/--/ When Bisweshwar
Nandi caught his first
glimpse of the Olympic
rings after touching
down in Rio with his gymnastics protege Dipa
Kar makar, he felt an instant surge of adrenaline. Within seconds
though, that excitement
was replaced with shivers
down his spine as he realised that his star pupil is
shouldering the hopes of
a billion people.
"I am under so much
pressure. Everyone in India is expecting Dipa to
create history in Rio,"
Nandi told Reuters in an
interview
after
he
watched Karmakar soar
into the air as she
practiced her trademark
vault in the Rio Olympic
Arena. "I feel that we are
carrying the dreams of a
billion Indians who just
cannot understand how
difficult it is for Dipa to
get a medal here," he said.
"Because Dipa won
the vault gold in the Rio
test event in April, the entire country thinks she
will come back home with
a medal." That test event
proved to be the making
of Karmakar. After missing out on automatic Olympic qualification by
just 0.4 of a point at last
year's Glasgow world
championships, she made
India take notice when
she showed off her full
repertoire of acrobatic
skills in the test event to
become the first Indian female gymnast to qualify
for the Games. But in a
sport where a toe-length
hop forward on landing
or a slight bent knee can
scupper medal hopes,
Nandi knows the margins
between success and failure can be paper thin.
"What people in India
don’t understand is that
the four girls who finished ahead of her at last
year’s world championships were not at the test
event because they had
already qualified for the
Olympics," added the
coach whose own gymnastic dreams stalled
with appearances in the
Asian and Commonwealth Games in the
1970s. "This is really giving me sleepless nights
because medals can disappear by 0.001 of a point.
There is just so much
hope and expectation in
India, I just don’t know
how to deal with all this
heavy b urden." Nandi is
no stranger to overcoming impossible obstacles
in a country where cricketers are gods and gymnasts are, well, nobodies.
give your best in the first match,
that will set the tone for the remainder league matches," defender
Deep Grace Ekka, who was part of
the Asian Games Incheon 2014
bronze medal winning team, told
PTI on the eve of the match. With
106 caps to her name, Deep will
form the backbone of India's defence along with captain Sushila
Chanu who took over the reigns after veteran Ritu Rani was dropped
less than a month before the Olympics for attitude problems. "It will
not be a prob lem. We have been
practising together and know each
other well. We are just focused to
do well tomorrow," she added. Having captained the Indian team in
Ritu's absence during their tour of
Australia earlier this year, it will be
a big test for the Manipur defender
who had led the Indian junior to a
bronze medal finish at the Junior
World Cup in Germany three years
ago. The forward will be reliant on
Rani Rampal who was the topscorer when they clinched the Olympics berth while goalkeeper
Savita Punia will also look to stand
tall under the bar. Having coached
the Indian women's from July 2012
to November 2014, a phase when
they had won the Asiad bronze and
a silver in the Asian Championship 2013, Hawgood will look to
replicate the success in his second
stint.\ "The second stint is the
same, progress the group to another level is important. Our goal is
simple, first to make the last eight
and that means winning two
games," said Hawgood, who joined
back the team in November last
year. By transfor ming the the
peace symbol into a tree, the show
tried to put forward their message.
The official flag was hoisted by
Rio's environmental police command reinforcing the message that
the protection of forests was now
the main challenge that Brazil
faces. India are the lowest ranked
side in the pool B that have second
and third-ranked Argentina, Australia, while England and Team
USA will also be formidable forces
as they will have their task cutout.
"When we achieve that it is just
one game you have to win to have a
chance to proceed, that is what we
want to do, put ourselves into that
position." .
Reports of me refusing to share
room with Bopanna false: Paes
RIO DE JANEIRO, AUG 6/--/ Tennis ace Leander Paes has termed the
reports that he had refused to share a
room at the Olympic Games Villa ge
here with his doubles partner Rohan
Bopanna as "false" and said that his
timing of arrival at Rio was according
to plans and known to the Indian tennis team. Speculation of a rift between the two men's doubles players
was doing the rounds here and reports have suggested that Paes refused
to share a room with Bopanna at the
Games Village. It was also speculated
that Paes' late arrival had given the
duo little time for match parctice and
Bopanna had to make other arrangements. But Paes, who will be playing
in his seventh straight Olympics, a
first in tennis, termed these reports
as "baseless" and "false". He said that
the timing of his arrival and stay at
the Games Village was according to
plans and known to the team. "I am
disappointed and feel sad by the
baseless suggestions in a section of
the media ... which accuse me of not
informing the tennis team about my
scheduled arrival in Rio," tweeted the
43-year-old Paes. "There is also talk of
me refusing to share a room with my
doubles partner Rohan Bopanna,
which is false and intended to unsettle
our preparations for the competition.
I am staying in the Games Villag e
which was the plan all along," he
wrote. "Hope this clarifies and puts an
end to all fabricated stories and allows me and the rest of the Indian tennis contingent to concentrate on doing
our best for the nation. I would also
like to take this opportunity to wish all
my colleagues in the Indian contingent the very best for this Rio Olympics," said Paes who checked in at the
Games Village on Thursday evening.
India's Chef-de-Mission Rakesh Gupta
clarified that Paes was always going
to stay alone. "He (Paes) was given a
room and there's no controversy at all.
For a legend like him, Paes deserved
a separate room for himself," Gupta
said, explaining that the Indian ace
was playing a tournament in New
York and hence the delay in ar rival
here. In the run-up to the Games, a potential pre-London Olympics-like
drama was nipped in the bud as
Bopanna expressed his preference to
partner lower ranked Saketh Myneni
instead of Paes in men's doubles before All India Tennis Association intervened to resolve the matter.
he Olympic cauldron is lit by Jorge Alderto de Oliveira Gomes in front
of the Candelaria church in central Rio de Janeiro -----------REUTERS
Rio 2016: India's record table tennis
contingent hopes to defy odds
RIO DE JANEIRO, AUG 6/--/ A record fourwould want to get a few morale boosting wins unmember Indian table tennis contingent aims to
der their belt. Considering the latest rankings,
make the most of their time in Rio Olympics as
the first round seems to be a tougher task for
they gear up for the men's and women's competiwomen than the men. Das will open India's camtions with first round beginning at the Riocentro
paign by taking on 58th-ranked Daniela Dodean
Pavillion 3 on Saturday. World No.73 Shar ath
Monteiro of Romania. Later in the day, Batra
Kamal, in his third Olympics, leads India's camwill have to produce something special to get the
paign even though he is ranked lower than his
better of 60th-ranked Katarzyna Francyounger teammate and World No. 68 Soumyajit
Grzybowska of Poland. In the men's event,
Manika Batra
Ghosh. Ghosh was the first one to qualify for the
Ghosh should be able to get past his Thai oppoGames before Sharath too made the cut. It is the
nent Padasak Tanviriyavechakul, who is 181 in
first time that four Indian paddlers have qualified for the the latest rankings. The Sweden-based Indian player is a
Summer Games. Veteran women's player Mouma Das is here lot wiser than he was four years ago in London, where he
for her second Olympics with her maiden experience com- made his Olympics debut. His build up to the Games, howing 12 years ago in Athens. Making her Olympic debut ever, has not been ideal as he missed out on crucial match
would be the rising star Manika Batra, ranked 127 ahead of time by refusing to play in a recent domestic event because
Das (150). With the medal chances far-fetched, the paddlers the balls to be used in Rio were not used there.
Dilruwan Perera stars as Sri Lanka beat Australia by 229 runs to clinch series
PALLEKELE, AUG 6/--/ Remember
the way this series began? Angelo
Mathews won the toss and chose to bat
in Pallekele, and his men were bundled out for 117. They failed even to
survive 35 overs. Eight days of
cricket later, the series has been decided, and one of these two teams has
been completely humiliated. And it's
not Sri Lanka. What a turnaround it
has been. Mathews will lift the
Warne-Muralitharan Trophy, and Sri
Lanka could hardly have won it more
comprehensively. In Pallekele, rain
and bad light conspired to drag the
first Test into its fifth day, but in Galle
Australia could not even reach the
scheduled halfway point of the
match. In less than two and a half
days, they had lost an eighth consecutive Test in Asia. The No.1 team in the
world had been beaten - crushed, in
fact - by No.7. Sri Lanka's spinners
have embarrassed Australia's batsmen this series, and in Galle it was
Dilruwan Perera who starred. Sri
Lanka on Saturday crushed Australia
by 229 runs to take an unassailable 20 lead in the three-match series at
Galle. Having lost three wickets on
Day 2, Steve Smith's men were bundled out for 183. The teams move to
Colombo now for the third and final
test from next Saturday.Dilruwan
Perera ripped the heart out of the Australian, claiming 6-70 as the world`s
top ranked test team folded cheaply in
their pursuit of an improbable 413run victory target. Perera, who had
claimed 4-29 in the first innings and
scored 64 in his team`s second innings, became the first Sri Lankan
player to score a fifty and claim 10
wickets in the same match as his side
clinched their first test series victory
over Australia since 1999.Resuming on
25 for three, Australia captain Steve
Smith (30) and deputy David Warner
(41) showed positive intent, frequently using their feet against the
spinners and dealing mostly in
boundaries even though it was merely
delaying what looked inevitable.
Perera separated them, trapping
Warner leg-before with a straight delivery. The batsman reviewed the decision but could not get it overturned.
The spinner then returned to induce
Smith into giving a bat-pad catch to
Kusal Mendis at forward shor t leg.
Perera, whose all-round performance
ear ned the man-of-the-match award,
completed his five-wicket haul when
Adam Voges (28) attempted a reverse
swee p only to have his leg stump
pe gged back. Kusal Mendis then displayed tremendous reflexes as he
stopped a Peter Nevill shot at forward
short leg and flicked it back on the
stumps to run out the batsman and
trigger wild celebrations at the Galle
International Stadium.
Sri Lanka 281 (Mendis 86,
Mathews 54, Starc 5-44) and 237 (D
Perera 64, Starc 6-50) beat Australia 106 (Warner 42, D Perera 429, Herath 4-35) and 183 (Warner
41, D Perera 6-70) by 229 runs
Angelo Mathews and Rangana Herath toast Sri Lanka's success
GAME NOTES
Katju completes
first interim
report on Lodha
panel reforms
NEW DELHI, AUG 6/--/
Former Supreme Court Justice Markandey Katju has
already prepared a first interim report on behalf of
the BCCI based on the Justice Lodha panel recommendations, which is now
binding after the Supreme
Court verdict on July 18.
He will be handing over the
said report to the BCCI
president Anurag Thakur
at a formal event on Saturday. "Hon'ble Retd. Justice
Markandey Katju has informed the BCCI that he
will be releasing his first
(interim report) to the
BCCI. Accordingly, he will
hand over the said report to
the BCCI," it was stated in a
press release. It is expected
that the interim report will
be the reference point for
BCCI's president Thakur
and secretary Shirke as
they gear up to meet the
Lodha panel members on
Tuesday. Some of the concerns for BCCI are age cap
of 70 years, cumulative tenure of nine years, three
year cooling off period between two posts and one
state-one vote policy.
I won't be captain
anymore: Sammy
ST. JOHN'S , AUG 6/--/
Dar ren Sammy, who led
West Indies to the World
Twenty 20 title in 2012 and
2016, claimed on Friday
that he had been sacked as
captain in a 30-second
phone call from the head of
selectors. The 32-year-old
posted an emotional video
on his Facebook page where
he said his six-year spell in
charge had ended. Sammy,
lying shirtless in his bed
and with reggae music playing in the background, also
said he had been dropped
from the squad. "I got a call
yesterday, it was probably
30 seconds, from the chairman of selectors telling me
that they've reviewed the
captaincy of the Twenty20
team and I won't be captain
anymore and that my performances have not merited
selection in the squad,"
Sammy said in the video.
Sammy led the West Indies
to T20 victory in Sri Lanka
four years ago and again earlier this year in India when
Carlos Brathwaite smashed
four sixes off the final over
to beat England. But there
were obvious signs of the
strains between him and
the West Indies Cricket
Board when he used his
presentation speech to attack his employers over a
lack of support. "Six years
ago I was asked to captain
West Indies, a task which I
thought would be the biggest challenge in my career,
in my life," Sammy said.
100 off 42 balls! Andre
Russell blasts fastest
century in CPL history
LONDON, AUG 6/--/
Andre Russell on Friday
showed yet again why he is
one of the best all-rounders
in T20 cricket. The explosive right-hander smoked a
ton off just 42 balls to power
the Jamaica Tallawahs to
195. The 28-year-old hit an 3
boundaries and an astonishing 11 sixes during. In response, the Trinbago
Knight Riders could manage only 110 runs. After a
stunning display with the
bat, Russell picked up two
wickets as well. Highlights
of Andre Russell's 42-ball
century
Jose Mourinho hints at
Paul Pogba's arrival;
Manchester United to
close the deal soon
LONDON, AUG 6/--/ Jose
Mourinho expressed confidence on Friday that Manchester United will sign
Paul Pogba in time for the
Premier League season and
criticised rival managers`
reactions to the mooted
world-record
transfer.
United and Juventus are
believed to be putting the
finishing touches to a deal
for the France midfielder
expected to exceed £100
million ($130.4 million,
117.7
million
euros).
Mourinho described other
managers,
such
as
Liverpool`s Jurgen Klopp
and Arsenal`s Arsene
Wenger, as "unethical" for
talking openly about the
Pogba fee and questioning
his colossal price tag.