Sports

Mexico City Sep 30 (IANS) Veteran defender Dani Alves has moved to ease fears that a knee injury could dash his hopes of going to the FIFA World Cup with Brazil.

Alves was ruled out of Pumas' last match of the Mexican Liga MX regular season against Juarez on Saturday after suffering suspected ligament damage while training.

"Dani Alves will not be (available) due to an injury to the medial collateral ligament of his right knee, which is still under evaluation by the club's medical team," Pumas said in a statement on Thursday.

Alves, who joined Pumas in July after parting ways with Spanish giants Barcelona, responded with a social media post in which he denied the problem was serious, reports Xinhua.

"My friend Diogo (De Oliveira) kicked me in training and as a precaution I didn't travel (with the squad)," the 39-year-old said on Twitter.

The right-back has previously made public his desire to be a part of Brazil's squad for the World Cup - to be played in Qatar from November 20 to December 18 - after missing the last edition in Russia because of a knee injury.

--IANS
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Chengdu (China), Sep 29 (IANS) The Indian men's team comprising Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Manush Shah, Harmeet Desai, Manav Thakkar and Sanil Shetty landed in a tough Group 2 along with second-seed Germany, European giants France, Kazakhstan and the Group Stage draw for the 2022 ITTF World Team Table Championship starting here on Friday.

The team coached by national coach S Raman and missing veteran player and 2022 Commonwealth Games double gold medallist Achanta Sharath Kamal, will be hoping to make it to the knockout stage from the five-team group. The 32 teams in the fray have been divided into seven groups with Groups 5, 6 and 7 having four teams each while Groups 1 to 4 have five each.

In the women's section, the Indian team comprising Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, Seeth Tennison, Diya Parag Chitale and Swastika Ghosh has been placed in Group 5 along with Germany, Egypt and the Czech Republic in the event which will be held from September 30-October 9.

The 28 women's teams in the fray have been divided into six groups with Groups 1-4 having five teams each while Groups 5 and 6 have four each, as per the draw held on Thursday.

Defending champions in both sections, China occupy the top-seeded positions in both events. With an abundance of experience, China starts as clear favourites. Seasoned players such as Ma Long and Fan Zhendong form the backbone of the men's team. For the women, Chen Meng, Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu are no strangers to the biggest stage of all.

Notably, in the groups, there is a sense of history, with a return to the era of Ping Pong Diplomacy. It is just over 50 years ago since a Chinese team landed in Detroit. In both the men's and women's events China is drawn in the same group as the United States, the ITTF said on its website.

Among other top teams, Japan are in Group 3 with Hong Kong China, Romania, Iran and Hungary.

In men's section, the Indian team coached by S Raman will start its campaign against Uzbekistan while in the women's section, the women's team will open proceedings against Germany. Both matches will be played on October 1.

For the Swaythling Cup in the men's section, teams will play in a round-robin format in the group stage with the top two from the seven groups and the two best third-placed teams qualifying for the 16-team knockout rounds.

In the women's competition for the Corbillon Cup, the top two teams from six groups after the round-robin competition and four best-placed third-placed teams will qualify for the knockout rounds.

The knockout stage starts on October 5. The women's and men's finals will take place on October 8 and October 9 respectively.

--IANS

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Cuttack, Sep 27 (IANS) Gujarat Giants had stalwarts Virender Sehwag and Chris Gayle in their batting arsenal, yet Bhilwara Kings outshone them with a royal batting display in the 9th game of the Legends League Cricket (LLC) at the Barabati Stadium on Tuesday.

A collective effort with the bat saw the Kings tear apart the Giants' bowling attack to post 222/4. Then their bowlers backed up the batters' effort by keeping a tight leash on the Giants' powerful batting line-up. The Giants were all out for 165 to give the Kings a 57-run victory.

With this win, the Kings, who lost narrowly to Manipal Tigers on Monday, now have five points, the same as the Giants and India Capitals.

The tough chase never took off for the Giants as they kept losing key wickets. The in-form Kevin O'Brien was out in the second over, which saw captain Sehwag join 'Universe Boss' Gayle at the crease.

Playing his first game of the League, Gayle could not really unleash his monstrous hits and was out for 15.

Sehwag started to find his form and hit three fours and a six but was out for 27 off 20 balls. Thereafter, none of the Giants' batters managed to get a foothold in the middle. Yashpal Singh, coming in at No.9, finished with a flourish, making 57 of 29 balls, but that was not enough for his team.

Former India speedster S. Sreesanth turned the clock back, picking up 3/36, while off-break bowler Jesal Karia (2/22) and Caribbean pacer Fidel Edwards (2/30) too were successful with the ball.

Earlier, Giants' skipper Sehwag won the toss and opted to field, but thereafter almost nothing went right for his team as fours and sixes rained from the Kings' bats.

Kings' openers William Porterfield and Morne van Wyk went on the offensive from the word go as they plundered a mind-blowing 76 without loss from the six Powerplay overs. Nothing seemed to work for the Giants bowlers as the Kings raced to 100 in the ninth over.

Irishman Porterfield was the first to get out, but only after he had played a whirlwind knock of 64 off 33 balls with 10 boundaries and two sixes. South African Van Wyk (50 off 28 balls) was out soon after. Then, Kings captain Irfan Pathan, who promoted himself up the order, clobbered three sixes and a four to make a 23-ball 34.

Following Irfan's dismissal, brother Yusuf Pathan took over, smashing the first two balls he faced for two huge maximums. Karia too played an important knock of 43 off 29 balls. The Kings took 24 runs from the last over of their innings.

Brief scores: Bhilwara Kings 222/4 in 20 overs (M van Wyk 50, William Porterfield 64, Irfan Pathan 34, Jesal Karia 43). Gujarat Giants (Virendra Sehwag 27, S. Sreesanth 3/36). Bhilwara Kings won by 57 runs.

--IANS

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Chennai, Sep 27 (IANS) Chennai Super Kings batter Ruturaj Gaikwad on Tuesday revealed that skipper M.S Dhoni advised him to be in the moment and enjoy the game when the Pune-born cricketer was making his debut in the Indian Premier League.

At the IPL 2019 Player Auction, CSK bought Gaikwad for Rs 20 lakh. After a sensational 2021 edition of the league, where he scored 635 runs in 16 matches, the batter was retained by the franchise ahead of the 2022 edition of the league for Rs 6 crore.

"When I made my debut, he (M.S Dhoni) was very clear. He said to enjoy the game. Representing this franchise is a huge achievement, a lot of great players have been part of this dressing room, and a lot of greats have been involved with this franchise. So, I think he just said that 'you just need to be in that moment and enjoy' it," said Gaikwad, during his interaction with students at the Super Kings Academy, here.

The 25-year-old, who won the Orange Cap in IPL 2021, has been CSK's most consistent opener in the last few seasons. However, he also saw failures during his early time with the franchise.

"I really need to be thankful and grateful that I was in a really good team which has a very good environment. Also, having M.S Dhoni around me helped a lot as well. In that process, I never felt that I was having a setback.

"If I look back now, yes, I had failures to start off with, but the management, the team and the coach made me feel (good). I would give a lot of credit to the whole CSK team, the captain and coach," he said.

As per the right-handed batter, every cricketer sees failures in their careers but it's important to stay positive.

"It is really important to stay positive and believe in yourself because you will have done a lot of hard work throughout and you will have failures in cricket. It will not happen that every day you will score runs. You will have failures. I think you really need to stay positive," said Gaikwad.

--IANS

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London, Sep 27 (IANS) With there being a huge demand for cricket contests between India and Pakistan and in whichever format-- as was evident during their recent matchup in the 2022 Asia Cup in the UAE, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has offered to host Test matches between them as a neutral venue.

India and Pakistan last played bilateral one-day international series in 2012-13 and have not played a Test series since 2007.

Considering this situation, the ECB have offered to host India and Pakistan in a bilateral series, the UK Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday.

However, both the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have not shown much interest in the proposal and rejected it.

The Telegraph newspaper reported, "Martin Darlow, the deputy chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, has held talks with the Pakistan Cricket Board during the current Twenty20 series and offered England's grounds as venues for ideally a three-match Test series in future."

The newspaper stated the reason for their offer was that "the matches would attract big crowds in the UK, which has a large ex-pat south Asian population."

However, the BCCI reportedly said possibility of such a series happening in near future is next to nil. It reported its stand that it is not in favour of playing bilateral series in neutral venues.

The PCB is also not keen on playing India at a neutral venue but thanked ECB for their offer.

"PCB is not keen on playing India at a neutral venue but is grateful for the ECB's offer, which shows the growing relationship between the two boards. It stated that with the big nations again starting to tour Pakistan, it will be a "retrograde step in their eyes" if they happen to play on a neutral venue," the Telegraph reported.

--IANS

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By B Shrikant
Hyderabad, Sep 25 (IANS) Being the senior-most player in the Indian squad and one with vast experience of leading the side, Virat Kohli knows he has to use his experience and guide the youngsters to help him take India to victory.



On Sunday, the former captain did just that, steading the innings after India lost in-form openers Rohit Sharma and K.L Rahul with only 30 runs on the board. Kohli took the backseat as Suryakumar Yadav went after the bowling, raising a century-partnership for the third wicket and then took over the mantle of scoring quick runs.

He figured in a 48-run partnership with Hardik Pandya to guide India to a six-wicket victory over Australia with a ball to spare in the 3rd T20I at the Rajiv Gandhi Cricket Stadium here, clinching the series 2-1.

Kohli said the situation demanded that he let Suryakumar take the driver's seat at that juncture.

"I looked at the dugout and both Rahul and Rohit asked me to continue batting. He (Suryakumar Yadav) has the game to bat in any conditions, he got a hundred in England, then batted well in Asia Cup. Here he is striking the ball as well as I have seen him in the last six months. It's just the array of shots and to play the shots at the right time is such a good skill to have, and he does that," Kohli told the official broadcaster after the match.

Kohli also decided to go after the dangerous Australian spinner Adam Zampa, who had claimed 3-16 in the 2nd match at Nagpur, and was bowling well and troubling the batters, which gave a lot of confidence to Suryakumar Yadav to play his shots at the other end.

"I have to utilise my experience and had to take down Zampa. I made up my mind to go after him. He is a quality bowler and tries to control my scoring. I knew he was attacking my stumps, so was outside the leg stump. I am making a conscious effort to strike those big ones through the middle overs," he said.

Kohli however, was not happy that India needed 11 runs from the final over in which Kohli was out to Daniel Sams after blasting a huge six off the first delivery. Hardik Pandya edged Sams to the boundary off the penultimate delivery to seal victory for India.

"The game shouldn't have gone for that long, and we should have had four or five runs to chase in the last over. It was important to maintain my composure and get one boundary which I was able to do (in the last over)," added Kohli.

The former India captain, 34, said he is enjoying batting since his comeback at the Asia Cup from a short break after playing non-stop for years. He said he is working hard at his batting and is happy with the way things are going.

"I have enjoyed batting ever since I came back at the Asia Cup. Today also I was an hour and half before the team. I am working hard on my process and happy with my contributions," said Kohli.

That would be music to the ears of India fans as a rejuvenated and happy Kohli will give India a big boost for the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia next month.


--IANS
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By B Shrikant
Hyderabad, Sep 25 (IANS) Virat Kohli (63) and Suryakumar Yadav (69) struck brilliant half-centuries and figured in a century partnership as India defeated Australia by six wickets with one ball to spare in the 3rd T20I at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium here on Sunday to clinch the three-match series 2-1.



Kohli anchored the innings after India lost openers KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma with only 30 runs on the card and figured in two vital partnerships -- a 104 runs stand with Yadav and 48 runs for the fourth with Hardik Pandya (25 not out) as India capitalised on some good work by their bowlers to restrict Australia to 186/7 and then successfully chased the runs to win the match.

Austalia had got off to a blazing start thanks to youngster Cameron Green (52) but were pegged back by the Indian bowlers, who came back strongly in the middle overs, before ending the innings in whirlwind fashion thanks to Tim David (54) to raise 186/7. But thanks to the brilliant efforts by Kohli and Yadav helped India reach 187/4 in 19.5 overs to win the match.

This was Kohli's second century partnership at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium after figuring in a 102-run stand with K.L Rahul against West Indies in 2019.

While hitting a brilliant 69, Suryakumar Yadav became the highest scorer in T20 this year as he reached 682 runs in 20 innings to overtake D.S Airee of Nepal who has 626 runs from 17 innings.

Brief scores: Australia 186/7 in 20 overs (Cameron Green 52, Tim David 54, Daniel Sams 28 not out Josh Inglis 24; Axar Patel 3/33) lost to India 187/4 in 19.5 overs (Virat Kohli 63, Suryakumar Yadav 69, Hardik Pandya 25 not out; Daniel Sams 2/33) by six wickets.


--IANS
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Los Angeles, Sep 25 (IANS) Julia Roberts was able to break the glass ceiling for A-list female movie stars only in 2000 when she commanded $20 million for the biographical legal drama 'Erin Brockovich', reports 'Variety'.

Until then, no woman actor had been getting as much pay as their male counterparts such as Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks, who ruled the 1990s box office alongside Roberts.

At Saturday's A+E Networks and History Channel's History Talks in Washington D.C., moderator Gayle King (co-moderator 'CBS Mornings' and editor-at-large 'O, The Oprah Magazine') asked Roberts about the negotiation tactics she employed to gain equal pay.

"I didn't feel so boxish about it, but I felt like, 'Come on'," Roberts said. "Which is my nature -- not to be all up-in-arms about something, but to say, 'Let's get real. Let's be fair'."

Roberts acknowledged, according to 'Variety', that she'd earned her paycheck, having carried such culture-defining hits as 'Pretty Woman', 'Notting Hill' and 'My Best Friend's Wedding'.

"When I'm working, I work very hard," Roberts said. "I'm ready. I'm on time. I'm prepared. I'm happy. I'm all-in. So, show me the money," Roberts said.

During their conversation, Roberts and King also discussed the challenges of speaking out. Often for women, King said, "taking the high road" -- in agreements about salary among other things -- means "shutting up". But Roberts maintained she was never worried about getting penalised for standing up for herself.

--IANS
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London, Sep 25 (IANS) The cricketing world has been left divided after off-spin all-rounder Deepti Sharma ran out England's Charlie Dean in the 44th over at the non-striker's end to get a 16-run victory for India over England at Lord's to complete a 3-0 sweep.

Only last week, in the changes made by the International Cricket Council (ICC), the method of effecting a run out from the non-striker's end was moved from Law 41 of 'Unfair Play' to Law 38 of 'Run out' section, making it no longer an unfair mode of dismissal.

With a majority of England cricketers, both men's and women's, disagreeing over the mode of dismissal, Deepti has found people speaking in her favour of running out Charlie from non-striker's end on Saturday.

Ace India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who had famously ran out England white-ball skipper Jos Buttler in the same manner during the 2019 IPL, backed Deepti. "Why the hell are you trending, Ashwin? Tonight is about another bowling hero @Deepti_Sharma06," wrote Ashwin on Twitter.

When England wicketkeeper-batter Sam Billing pointed out that veteran pacer James Anderson could have got more wickets with this mode of dismissal, Ashwin joined the debate by tweeting that a bravery award be constituted for the bowlers for effecting the run-out from non-striker's end.

"In fact that's a great idea. How about awarding that wicket to the bowler for "presence of mind" under immense pressure and of course knowing the social stigma that he/she would have to deal with post doing it. How about a bravery award to go with it too @ICC."

England opener Alex Hales, currently featuring in the T20I series against Pakistan, replied to Billings tweet by typing, "It shouldn't be difficult for the non striker to stay in their crease til (till) the ball has left the hand."

In his other tweet, Hales further said, "The ball didn't leave the hand though...I'm not talking necessarily about this incident, but just the 'mankad' issue in general. It wouldn't be an issue if batters simply remained in the crease until the ball has left the hand."

Former India batter Virender Sehwag lashed out at England cricketers showing their anger towards Deepti. "Funny to see so many English guys being poor losers. #Runout," wrote Sehwag on Twitter.

Former India opener Wasim Jaffer commented in Deepti's favour on Twitter. "It's actually quite simple. Ball comes into play when bowler starts run up. From that moment on as a batter or non striker you've to keep your eyes on the ball, if you're a bit careless, opposition will get you out. And you can get out at either ends."

The wording of MCC Law 41.16.1 says, "If the non-striker is out of his/her ground at any time from the moment the ball comes into play until the instant when the bowler would normally have been expected to release the ball, the non-striker is liable to be Run out."

"In these circumstances, the non-striker will be out Run out if he/she is out of his/her ground when his/her wicket is put down by the bowler throwing the ball at the stumps or by the bowler's hand holding the ball, whether or not the ball is subsequently delivered."


--IANS

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London, Sep 24 (IANS) Taylor Fritz delivered for Team World on Saturday at the Laver Cup, moving past Team Europe's Cameron Norrie 6-1, 4-6, 10-8 to level the competition at 4-4, here.

In the latest chapter of their rivalry, Fritz flew out of the blocks to storm ahead. The World No. 12 stepped inside the baseline to dictate the baseline exchanges, striking 11 winners in an impressive first-set performance. Norrie refused to go away, though, flattening out his forehand as he changed up the chess board to level.

However, Fritz would not be denied, edging a tight Match Tie-break to triumph after 89 minutes. Four of the six matches at the Laver Cup have gone to a deciding set at this year's event.

The American now leads Norrie 6-5 in their ATP head-to-head series, avenging his defeat against the Briton at last week's Davis Cup Finals. Fritz is making his second appearance at the three-day event, having gone 1-1 in 2019.

Serbian Novak Djokovic, who has not played since he won Wimbledon in July, will do double duty this evening for Team Europe. The 35-year-old will face American Frances Tiafoe in singles and then will team up with Matteo Berrettini in doubles.

Earlier, Berrettini fired Team Europe in front against Team World, edging Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-6(11), 4-6, 10-7.

In a hard-fought battle, the Italian caused damage with his aggressive forehand, while he hit his backhand slice with great depth to keep the Canadian at bay. The World No. 15 saved one break point in the first set, before raising his level on serve in the Match Tie-break to seal his victory after two hours and 15 minutes.

"It is always a great fight against Felix. We played for two hours and 15 minutes and he is a hell of a player. I had to play my best tennis in the [Match] Tie-break to win. I am really happy because I didn't win just for me but for the team," Berrettini said in his on-court interview.

Berrettini now leads Auger-Aliassime 4-1 in their ATP Head to Head series, having defeated the 22-year-old at the Laver Cup last year.

Captain Bjorn Borg is aiming to guide Team Europe to its fifth consecutive Laver Cup title against John McEnroe's Team World this week in the UK capital.

The sides ended the first day level after Jack Sock and Tiafoe clawed past Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in the Swiss star's final tour-level match on Friday night. Each victory on Saturday is worth two points.

--IANS

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