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Nagoya, Sep 20 (IANS) India head coach Craig Fulton was pleased with his team’s emphatic 13-1 victory over Indonesia in their opening Pool A match at the Asian Games here on Sunday but said there were still areas to improve ahead of their next fixture against Sri Lanka.

India began their title defence in dominant fashion as eight different players found the target, with Dilpreet Singh scoring four goals. Shilanand Lakra and Sukhjeet Singh scored twice each, while Abhishek, Rajinder Singh, Mandeep Singh, Harmanpreet Singh and Jugraj Singh were also on the scoresheet.

“Yeah, happy with the first game. I think the boys did well for the four quarters. Not an easy game. We sat with a lot of possession, obviously. All credit to Indonesia; they kept playing all the way through to the end,” Fulton said after the match in a video shared by Hockey India.

India raced to a 2-0 lead in the opening quarter through Shilanand and Abhishek before taking complete control in the second quarter. Dilpreet scored twice in quick succession, followed by goals from Rajinder, Mandeep and Harmanpreet as India went into half-time with a 7-0 advantage.

Indonesia pulled one back through captain Aulia Al Ardh from a penalty corner in the 33rd minute, but India quickly restored their dominance, with Shilanand, Dilpreet and Sukhjeet finding the net to make it 10-1 at the end of the third quarter.

Jugraj, Sukhjeet and Dilpreet then added three more goals in the final quarter, with Dilpreet completing his four-goal haul in the 49th minute.

“At the same time, 13-1, we’ll take it for sure. And we had some good phases and some areas that we can definitely improve, and that’s what we’ll be looking for in the second game against Sri Lanka,” said Fulton.

The Indian coach also acknowledged that his side could have converted more of its opportunities while pointing to the need to tighten up defensively after conceding a goal.

“Good start, and some areas to improve in." Obviously conceding a goal, and we left a few goals out there, but at the same time, good win and happy with the win,” he added.

India will next face Sri Lanka in their second Pool A match on September 22.

--IANS

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New Delhi, Sep 20 (IANS) Aman Mokhade has already worn an India ‘A’ shirt, but he believes the upcoming red-ball games against Australia ‘A,’ starting in Puducherry on September 22, will be the biggest matches of his career so far. The Nagpur-based Mokhade doesn't think he will need anyone to fire him up for putting his best foot forward.

"These games will probably be the biggest matches of my life in terms of level. For that, I don't think there is a need for motivation. It comes from within. The tricolour and the logo of BCCI is on your chest.

“So I don't think you need any motivation to get up and do well. No matter how much you work on it, it comes from within because growing up is the feeling we need as a cricketer and do good for India, right?" Mokhade told IANS in an exclusive chat.

The opener will not be short of familiar company, as his state team-mates Yash Rathod, Praful Hinge and Nachiketa Bhute will be there. "We have played together since childhood and they will also be in the India 'A 'team.

“So the atmosphere of the team is similar to what it is in Vidarbha. It’s because when we went to Sri Lanka, I was with Yash (Thakur) and Harsh (Dubey) and I didn't feel anything new. It didn't take long to get along with the other players," he added.

The Australia ‘A’ series comes after Mokhade got his first taste of India ‘A’ cricket via a tour of Sri Lanka that they A won 1-0 and made scores of 38 and 11 not out in Galle. But the tour began for Mokhade, in Bengaluru, where the squad received their match shirts before flying out to Sri Lanka.

Overcome by emotions, Mokhade wore his India ‘A’ jersey to bed that night. "It was a very good feeling. While growing up, every cricketer dreams about earning it. So, it is always a good experience for that dream to become a reality. When I got the India shirt, I went to sleep wearing it.

“The material was also soft. So, it was a very special feeling. I mean, I actually got the same feeling which MS Dhoni's character got on getting his first India jersey with his surname and number behind in that movie in 2016."

Mokhade said the tour to Sri Lanka was as much about the conversations as the cricket. "That was a very great experience. enjoyed it a lot and I got to interact with a lot of players. I got to learn a lot. It was fun. The overall experience was really good. I spoke to Ruturaj (Gaikwad) for a long time. We both are from Maharashtra and we had a connection.

“Ruturaj bhaiya is very helpful. If I have to ask him about batting, he would tell me a lot. I used to bat alongside Sai Sudarshan. He’s also an opener, just like me. While batting in nets, we talked a lot about cricket and batting. So, it was fun talking to both of them."

Adjusting took little effort, he said, with no time difference and weather much like what he had played while in Chennai and Goa, and enjoyed the local crowds that turned up for the ‘A’ games. Puducherry, though, will not be Mokhade's first encounter with an Australian side.

His earliest brush with international cricket came while being on ball boy duties in Nagpur, a role reserved for the best performers from the Under-14 camps, at a time when Nagpur hosted only one or two international games every few years. A couple of years later, he talked his way into the nets.

"Being a net bowler happened after 2-3 years. Net bowlers are people who are U19 or U23 players. As a batter, I knew I won't get the chance to be there and convinced one of the coaches that I will bowl leg-spin. At that time, the Australian team and Indian team wanted some leg-spinners to be as a net bowler.

“After convincing my coach that I would love to go and have a bowl, I just wanted to see how they – the likes of Virat Kohli and KL Rahul - prepare before a game. I just wanted to be as close to that and there was the time I went in there to have a bowl to them. It was in 2017, where Rohit Sharma scored a century and MSD was also there in that game."

Mokhade’s cricketing journey began on the playground outside his home, where the older boys of the neighbourhood saw some potential in him and suggested to his mother Manisha that he join a club. "In India, at every playground, there are hundreds of people playing cricket. So, that is how I started my cricketing journey. I used to play there and all the boys from the colony used to come and play cricket there.

“That is how I started and I used to play with senior people – the bade bhaiya log. When I used to play, they told my mom that you can try him in professional cricket because there was a cricket club near our house. My dad took me there one day in the cricket club and then that is how I started into professional cricket. It was a club called PHCA, from where I started."

At the club, under coach Nitin Kanade, Mokhade spent his first week only fielding. With the nets full of batters and few willing to bowl in the Nagpur heat, he volunteered to bowl fast, and batting time came gradually. He still enjoys bowling and has sent down overs in senior cricket.

Nobody in Mokhade's family had played sport seriously, though his father Ravindra harboured an ambition for being a professional cricketer. Most of his family members are engineers, doctors or teachers, and studies came first. Lean patches were usually met with suggestions that he return to his books.

The turning point came in his Under-16 season, when he finished as the second-highest run-getter behind Tilak Varma and later captained Vidarbha in Cooch Behar Trophy. That convinced his family that cricket could be a viable career for him, and the pressure around academics eased. Until then, homework went with him to matches and exams waited until his games were over. He still has one or two papers left to complete his postgraduate degree after completing his B.Com course.

Mokhade credits Mumbai-based coach Umesh Patwal, who was in VCA academy at that time, with first telling him, as an Under-16 player, that he could play for India. "Jwala (Singh) sir had a good impact. But before that, I worked a lot with Umesh Patwal sir in Mumbai as well. When I was under 16 that time, he saw some potential in me and that time only, he said that you can play for India and can do good there.

“Before that, I had never heard someone say that to me. If someone is saying you at that point of time, it feels like it is a very good feeling and you actually start believing in yourself ki, you can also do good at that level."

He has worked with Patwal on and off since 2016, and also leans on Jwala, who has nurtured India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal. “Jwala sir has an amazing set-up and if you go there, whatever a top level cricketer needs, he has all the facilities there. He knows what exactly is important to play at that level.

“It actually helps whenever I feel like talking cricket to anyone. I do give him a call and these two have had a very good impact. Even coaches and good people around you, who know you in and out and who are there for you whenever you need them, are actually a blessing.”

Mokhade's breakthrough domestic season last year featured making 760 runs in 11 Ranji Trophy innings at an average of 76 and scoring 814 runs in a victorious 2025/26 Vijay Hazare Trophy run for Vidarbha, including hitting five centuries to be the tournament's leading run-scorer.

But Mokhade, who had to wait for his chance to break into Vidarbha playing eleven after debuting in 2022/23, rejected the idea that anything had suddenly clicked for him and pointed to his steady returns in age-group cricket. The shift, he said, was in going bigger when it mattered the most.

"If you want to be a top-run getter, you have to score in the knockouts. Consistently, you have to. But if you score in the knockout games, you will get one more chance to play. That's how you get to the top and my coaches told me the same.

“I was working on it for a while. I was lucky enough that when the phase came, I was able to learn everything from my age group. When the phase came, I was able to play in my senior cricket. So, I'm grateful for that."

He considers himself an all-format batter, and in red-ball cricket, he said, going after the bowlers from the outset rarely works, and a batter has to respect good spells before cashing in. "It is a mixture of both. That is the beauty of red ball cricket. If you see T20s and one day, if you get the momentum, you just bat into that momentum.

“But in red ball cricket, you have to grind and then you can dominate as well. But there is a thing that it has sessions. So, your momentum will break, your focus will go down and you have to start again. So, that’s it - you have to be a mixture of everything."

In the Vidarbha dressing room, two senior players shaped him – India pacer Umesh Yadav and batter Karun Nair. "Umesh bhai was with us for a long time when I was in the senior team. So, he was there and you know the kind of a guy he is. He will be always willing to play for his team.

“He doesn't see if it is a state match or any match. If he is there, he will come to the game and he will guide everyone. He is not someone like, I have played such and such level or I will not talk to these guys or not say anything. When I was young in the team, he guided me a lot and told me that I can play and belong here. So, that is always a good influence to have.

Mokhade recalled Nair was solid but not dominant in his first season after moving from Karnataka, as he adjusted from black-soil pitches to Vidarbha's bouncier red-soil surfaces. By the next pre-season camp, the work was showing.

“When Karun Nair came, I thought that he had so many options for scoring runs. We knew he was going to do wonders in that season because he had adapted to our conditions. I saw him practicing a lot of shots which are required on the red soil wickets. So, his way of approaching batting gave me a lot of options into my batting as well because he has so many options of scoring runs."

“I thought that I should also have that much options because he made batting look so easy when he was batting in that season, when he scored a lot of runs in Ranji and Vijay Hazare games. I was lucky enough to see him from the closest corner and got to learn a lot from him too. He is also very chill. We used to spend a lot of time together even after the matches and whenever we talk about cricket, he enjoyed it a lot.”

Mokhade’s competitive streak carries over to anything he plays, including PUBG and now Call of Duty on his phone, though he keeps screen time in check during matches. With a journey built on quiet grit and self-belief, whenever Mokhade gets a chance to play in Puducherry, trust him to be ready to write the most crucial chapter of his career yet - one ball and one session at a time.

--IANS

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Coimbatore, Sep 20 (IANS) The FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) 2026 arrived in Coimbatore for Round 2, and the gravel roads around the city gave it a finish worth the journey.

The Blueband Sports Rally of Coimbatore was contested on September 19 and 20 by 64 competitors.

Over two days the crews faced eight stage runs and 110.80 km of competitive distance, almost entirely on gravel. Saturday's loop ran Black Thunder (13.50 km) and S.M. Agro (14.20 km) twice each. On Sunday the same roads came back in reverse, as S.M. Agro (R) and Black Thunder (R), so crews had to read familiar ground from the other direction.

Saturday belonged to Karna Kadur and Musa Sherif of ARKA Motorsports. The former National champion was quickest of the leading pair on both of the opening stages and ended the day at the head of the field.

Close behind came Fabid Ahmer and Milen George, 5.6 seconds back. Dean Macarenhas and Gagan Karumbaiah were third, just over nine seconds adrift, with plenty of road left.

Sunday brought the turn. On S.M. Agro (R) Macarenhas took nearly nine seconds from Kadur and moved past Ahmer. The gap to the leader shrank to 0.148 seconds, smaller than a blink.

On Black Thunder (R) he found a rhythm Kadur could not answer, taking more than 14 seconds in a single run. Macarenhas was the faster of the two on every stage from SS3 onward, and he crossed the line in 1:36:19.777, 23.482 seconds clear. Kadur, the former National champion, never stopped pushing, and finished second in 1:36:43.259.

Dean Macarenhas said, “Karna and Musa set a really strong pace on Saturday, so we knew we had to stay patient and keep chipping away. Being nine seconds down overnight wasn’t a bad place to be, because there was a lot of road left. On Sunday we found our rhythm, and once we got going on Black Thunder (R) we just kept pushing. It was a proper fight with a great competitor, and I’m delighted to take the win in Round 2.”

Gagan Karumbaiah, co-driver, added, “Pace notes were everything this weekend, especially on Sunday when the gaps were so small. Dean trusted every call, and that made all the difference. Beating a crew as experienced as Karna and Musa is never easy, and we’re looking forward to the rest of the championship.”

Jason Saldanha and Srinivas Murthy P V of ARKA Motorsports completed the podium, 1:30.623 off the winning time. Naveen Puligilla and Santhosh Thomas of Duran Racing were fourth, followed by Aditya Thakur of Chettinad Sporting and Philiposs Matthai of Duran Racing, the top two in INRC 2. Harkrishan Wadia was seventh and Anushriya Gulati of ARKA Motorsports, winner of INRC 3T, eighth.

--IANS

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Coimbatore, Sep 20 (IANS) The FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) 2026 arrived in Coimbatore for Round 2, and the gravel roads around the city gave it a finish worth the journey.

The Blueband Sports Rally of Coimbatore was contested on September 19 and 20 by 64 competitors.

Over two days the crews faced eight stage runs and 110.80 km of competitive distance, almost entirely on gravel. Saturday's loop ran Black Thunder (13.50 km) and S.M. Agro (14.20 km) twice each. On Sunday the same roads came back in reverse, as S.M. Agro (R) and Black Thunder (R), so crews had to read familiar ground from the other direction.

Saturday belonged to Karna Kadur and Musa Sherif of ARKA Motorsports. The former National champion was quickest of the leading pair on both of the opening stages and ended the day at the head of the field.

Close behind came Fabid Ahmer and Milen George, 5.6 seconds back. Dean Mascarenhas and Gagan Karumbaiah were third, just over nine seconds adrift, with plenty of road left.

Sunday brought the turn. On S.M. Agro (R) Mascarenhas took nearly nine seconds from Kadur and moved past Ahmer. The gap to the leader shrank to 0.148 seconds, smaller than a blink.

On Black Thunder (R) he found a rhythm Kadur could not answer, taking more than 14 seconds in a single run. Macarenhas was the faster of the two on every stage from SS3 onward, and he crossed the line in 1:36:19.777, 23.482 seconds clear. Kadur, the former National champion, never stopped pushing, and finished second in 1:36:43.259.

Dean Mascarenhas said, “Karna and Musa set a really strong pace on Saturday, so we knew we had to stay patient and keep chipping away. Being nine seconds down overnight wasn’t a bad place to be, because there was a lot of road left. On Sunday we found our rhythm, and once we got going on Black Thunder (R) we just kept pushing. It was a proper fight with a great competitor, and I’m delighted to take the win in Round 2.”

Gagan Karumbaiah, co-driver, added, “Pace notes were everything this weekend, especially on Sunday when the gaps were so small. Dean trusted every call, and that made all the difference. Beating a crew as experienced as Karna and Musa is never easy, and we’re looking forward to the rest of the championship.”

Jason Saldanha and Srinivas Murthy P V of ARKA Motorsports completed the podium, 1:30.623 off the winning time. Naveen Puligilla and Santhosh Thomas of Duran Racing were fourth, followed by Aditya Thakur of Chettinad Sporting and Philiposs Matthai of Duran Racing, the top two in INRC 2. Harkrishan Wadia was seventh and Anushriya Gulati of ARKA Motorsports, winner of INRC 3T, eighth.

--IANS

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New Delhi, Sep 20 (IANS) Former Olympic medallist and Elavenil Valarivan’s mentor Gagan Narang video-called the Indian shooter after her double-silver feat at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games and urged her to quickly reset and focus on the mixed team event.

Elavenil enjoyed a memorable day at the Games on Sunday, helping India win silver in the women’s 10m air rifle team event before adding another silver in the individual competition at the Aichi Pref. General Shooting Gallery.

Narang, who has guided Elavenil’s development through his academy, shared a video of his conversation with the shooter on social media and offered her advice on recovering, staying focused and keeping things simple ahead of the next event.

“Two medals at the Asian Games! Congratulations, Elavenil, on a fantastic performance. Two medals are a reflection not just of what happens on competition day, but of the years of discipline, patience, hard work and countless hours behind the firing line,” Narang wrote on Instagram.

Narang, who himself won two silver medals at the 2010 Asian Games, said the focus of his conversation with Elavenil was on what comes next, rather than dwelling on the medals already won.

“It was good to catch up after the event, celebrate what has been achieved and then quickly turn our attention to what comes next, the Mixed Team event,” he wrote.

Elavenil revealed that Narang called her while she was on her way for her dope test and that their conversation included specific insights from the individual final.

“Gagan sir video called me. I was just going for my dope, and I took a few minutes off, and I was talking to Sir. He did have some really good insights about my finals, and I am glad that he had that noted down and he could give that to me and I could work on it,” Elavenil said during a media interaction.

“So, yes, I did speak with him. It was a very, very happy call. And of course, he did tell me about me following his footsteps, which, again, I am very grateful to learn from him,” she added.

The former shooter advised Elavenil to recover well, stay hydrated, eat right, sleep well and trust the technique and routine that had brought her to the Asian Games.

“Stay in your own bubble and take the next match one shot at a time,” Narang wrote.

He also asked her not to overanalyse the previous matches, chase scores or medals, or make sudden changes to her technique or equipment.

“Don’t get caught up in expectations, social media or what others are shooting,” he added.

Having already secured two silver medals, Elavenil is now set to compete in the mixed team 10m air rifle event, with pre-event training scheduled before the competition.

--IANS

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Gurugram, Sep 20 (IANS) Legendary Sri Lanka cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya has lauded young Indian batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, saying that he has a long way to go, while terming Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson as talented and proven players.

15-year-old Sooryavanshi, who made his international debut in the T20I tour of England in July. was recently an unused member in India’s 3-0 series win over Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, as Abhishek and Sanju made 346 runs between themselves across the series, including sharing a 142-run opening stand in the third T20I.

The trio are in Japan for the historic one-off T20I in Sano on Tuesday, before playing in the Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan. “They're talented and they've been proven players and all three, Sooryavanshi and all these players are really good. Sooryavanshi has a long way to go and when he will get the opportunity, he will do good,” Jayasuriya said to IANS on the sidelines of the launch of the Corporate Cricket World Cup on Sunday.

Commenting on Sri Lanka's prospects at the Asian Games, where the women’s team is set to battle against India in the gold medal game and the men’s campaign is scheduled to kick off later this week, Jayasuriya backed both squads to deliver strong performances. "I think we have a talented, good team for Asian Games, men's and women's and they're doing well and I hope they will continue to do well,” he noted.

He also reserved special praise for rising Sri Lankan batting all-rounder Sonal Dinusha, and hailed his ability to deliver under pressure. Dinusha had scores of 100 and 84 in the first Test against India in Galle which Sri Lanka lost. But his knocks of 103 and 133 not out in the second one at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground in Colombo helped Sri Lanka seal an epic draw.

“Very good player, and future of Sri Lanka. It's always been good to see a player like him performing really well under pressure. It’s not easy and in every innings he played really well,” he added.

The former explosive opener, who is serving as the global ambassador for the Corporate Cricket World Cup, stated the importance of workplace tournaments in unearthing hidden talent and offering second chances to players who missed out on mainstream pathways.

The pan-India competition will see 192 corporate teams square off across 24 cities, with each city fielding eight teams. Following the city-level qualifiers, the top two teams from each destination will secure a berth in the July 2027 showpiece event.

In a bid to test players across different dynamics of the sport, the tournament will feature a mix of formats, including 11-overs-a-side, T20s, and 40-over matches, thus allowing working cricketers to showcase their adaptability and skills under varied conditions.

“As global ambassador, I have a theory about this corporate world cup. It's starting from the cities and when you play in your city and when you have the opportunity, the players who are in the corporate sector, who are talented cricketers, who have missed their opportunities, they have a chance to show their talent.

“So from that talent, like the players we have been talking about just now, how he became a player for India, it's like that you'll be able to find few players, so that's the key,” concluded Jayasuriya.

--IANS

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Nagoya, Sep 20 (IANS) Elavenil Valarivan is already looking to put her double-silver success behind her and shift focus to the next challenge, with the Indian shooter set to compete in the mixed team 10m air rifle event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

Elavenil enjoyed a memorable day at the Games on Sunday, helping India win silver in the women’s 10m air rifle team event before claiming another silver in the individual competition at the Aichi Pref. General Shooting Gallery.

However, with the mixed team event still to come, the shooter said she would take the learnings from Sunday’s competition but treat the next day as a fresh start.

“I think, of course, today’s success is something that I would… Today’s learning is something that I would be taking from here today. But tomorrow again, it’s a new day; it’s a new challenge for me,” Elavenil replied to an IANS query during a media interaction.

“We have the pre-event training tomorrow, and we have the mixed doubles match day after. So my goal is just to leave this off, take the learning from today’s event and head on to the next one,” she added.

Elavenil said she does not want the celebrations surrounding her two medals to distract her from the competition ahead, knowing she will have enough time to enjoy the achievement once she returns home.

“Of course, there is plenty of time for me once I am back at my home to celebrate,” she said.

With another event still to come, Elavenil also had a message for young shooters and athletes watching her performance.

“I think my message would be to believe in themselves. I mean, I keep telling this because I kind of have lately been doing this, that is, believing in myself, because when one starts to believe in themselves, I think there is no stopping. Let it be sports, let it be culture, let it be education, let it be whatever field they are choosing to be,” she said.

“If they have the trust in themselves that they can achieve what they want. I think that is the biggest takeaway that I can give,” she added.

Elavenil had earlier come close to gold in the individual final, leading for much of the competition before Japan’s Hinata Taichi produced a decisive finish to win the title with an Asian Games record score of 253.0. Elavenil finished on 252.4.

She had also helped India secure silver in the team event alongside Sonam Uttam Maskar and Vidarsa K. Vinod.

--IANS

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Nisshin, Sep 20 (IANS) Bangladesh captain Nigar Sultana has stated that her decision to leave the T20I captaincy is to focus on her batting, brushing aside the reports that she was hurt after not getting support from the Bangladesh Cricket Board during tough times.

Sultana had informed the BCB of her decision to leave the T20I captaincy following the Asian Games and opened up on the rationale behind that after Bangladesh's loss to India in the Asian Games semifinal on Sunday.

"No, it's totally (false that I left the captaincy because I was hurt). As a batter, as a player, I have a lot more to give to my country and my team. So I want to focus on that, and that's why I made this decision," Nigar told the media after the 114-run defeat to India at the Korogi Sports Park.

Bangladesh were steamrolled by India in the semifinal as their batters failed to put up a fight in the 196-run chase against the defending gold medallists.

The Bangladeshi skipper admitted the shortcomings of the batters, while also pointing out that the bowlers could have fared better. "When you're chasing a big total, this kind of collapse is natural. With slightly better bowling, we could have restricted them to fewer runs," said Nigar.

"When a team collapses for so few runs, we as batters definitely took no responsibility. If even one top-order batter had stayed till the end, we could have added more runs," she said.

Nigar further pointed out that the team's preparation was also a concern and that they hardly had any training facilities. 'We have virtually no training facilities here. Had we played that first match against China, it would have been much better for the whole team. But we missed that opportunity too. Overall, I'll say the entire team played very poor cricket," said Nigar.

While India and Sri Lanka will battle for the gold medal, Bangladesh will face Pakistan for a bronze medal. "We have a good record against Pakistan. There is a sense of positivity there," the skipper said on the upcoming game.

--IANS

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Toyota, Sep 20 (IANS) India women's table tennis registered a come-from-behind win against Singapore in a thrilling second tie in Group F at the Sky Hall Toyota here on Sunday.

India were trailing 1-2 against Singapore before Sreeja Akula and Yashaswini Ghorpade staged a comeback to win their matches and hand India a 3-2 win in their second Group F tie. They had earlier beaten Indonesia in their opener 3-0.

After their first two ties, the Indian side is on top of Group F with four points from three matches, and they will be meeting Pakistan next in their last group-stage outing on Monday.

Against Singapore, Yashaswini started strongly with a 3-1 win over Jian Zeng before Sreeja came second best in a thrilling five-game encounter against Ming Loy. She lost 2-3 as Singapore levelled the tie before Zhao Tan defeated Diya Chitale in four games to help Singapore lead the tie 2-1.

With their backs against the wall, the Indian team staged a comeback as Sreeja came roaring in her second match after losing the first game 6-11. She won the next three games 11-3, 11-7, 11-4 to win the match 3-1 as India levelled the tie 2-2.

Yashaswini, who started with a win in the first match against Singapore, then returned for the decider and showed nerves of steel to win 3-2 despite losing the first game 5-11. She won the next two games 11-8, 12-10 but lost the fourth one 4-11. The fifth game also went to the distance before the Indian held her composure to take the final game 11-9 and win the match and the tie for India.

Meanwhile, the men's team also won their Group F opener against Indonesia by 3-0. Sathiyan Gnanasekran defeated Muhammad Negara 3-0, Manav Thakkar beat Muhammad Junindra 3-2, while Manush Shah beat Affan Pratama 3-0 to hand India a 3-0 victory.

The men's side also went down in the second tie to Iran 0-3 later. Manush Shah, Manav Thakkar and Harmeet Desai all lost their matches as India men's team lost their second group outing.

--IANS

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New Delhi, Sep 20 (IANS) Former England footballer Andros Townsend was ran over by a pitch roller in Thailand during warm-up for his Thai League 1 side PT Prachuap.

Townsend shared the video of the incident on his Instagram and joked that Stoke away "wasn't so bad after all" after the bizarre incident at the Pattani Province Stadium. He was doing warm-ups when the vehicle arrived and ran over his left leg, but he avoided a serious injury.

He found a light-hearted moment in the incident as he took to Instagram to share a few memes and reactions. "Turns out Stoke away wasn't so bad after all. Swipe to see why," he wrote to one of his Instagram stories.

The former English footballer shared the video of the incident from a user. "Just another day in Thai football (He was fine!)," the caption to the video on the story said.

His team PT Prachuap went on to win the game 3-0, with Townsend coming from the bench later. He joined Prachuap this summer from another Thai club, Kanchanaburi Power. He moved to the Thai football with the Thai Pro League last year in August after spending a season with Antalyaspor in Turkey.

The winger has played for Tottenham, Crystal Palace, Everton and Luton Town in the Premier League, having made 291 appearances combined. He played for 17 different clubs during his tenure.

Townsend played for England from 2013 to 2016, winning 13 caps during his international career.

Meanwhile, Townsend's career has also been hampered by injuries in the past too. He suffered a serious injury to his anterior cruciate ligament in March 2022 when he was playing for Everton. The injury ended his season, and he underwent surgery for the injury.

--IANS

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