1. Dhawan, Bowlers Help Sunrisers Beat Lions by 5 Wkts
Shikhar Dhawan struck an unbeaten 47 after a clinical display by his team’s bowlers as the Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Gujarat Lions by five wickets on Friday.
Chasing 127 to win, opener Dhawan dropped anchor as he carried his bat through the innings and the Sunrisers chased down the target with six balls to spare at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
Dhawan played second fiddle to his batting partners initially before opening up later on to take his side home. He hit six fours in his solid 40-ball unbeaten innings, including the winning shot which was also a boundary. The Sunrisers reached 129 for 5 in 19 overs. This was after they restricted the Lions to a meagre 126 for 6 after being put into bat.
2. Mickey Arthur Named Pakistan’s New Coach
Former South Africa and Australia coach Mickey Arthur has been named head coach of the Pakistan cricket team, succeeding Waqar Younis who had resigned after the World Twenty20.
Following detailed consultations on this matter at the last Board Of Governors’ meeting and further telephone consultations by the PCB Chairman with Board Of Governers, discussions with Mickey Arthur were initiated and he has confirmed his acceptance of the post of Head Coach of the Pakistan National Cricket team.Pakistan Cricket Board
3. Sania, Martina Inch Closer to Fifth Title of 2016
Top seeds Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis reached the Madrid Open doubles final with a crushing 6-2 6-0 win over Vania King and Alla Kudryavtseva in the one-sided semifinal. It will be second consecutive final for the Indo-Swiss team after ending runners-up in Stuttgart.
After their incredible run, that included nine title victories on the trot, Sania and Martina have lost to only four teams and Vania-Alla duo is one of them. Sania and Martina had lost to the American-Russian combine in the second round of the Indian Wells but did not give them any chance this time, trampling them over in just 50 minutes.
4. Dutee Shines Again, Wins Women’s 100m Dash
Odisha sprinter Dutee Chand grabbed the spotlight once again as she won the gold in women’s 100m dash with a fast timing in the second leg of Indian Grand Prix athletics series at the NIS tracks on Friday.
Dutee crossed the finish line in 11.37 secs to win the 100m sprint race, well ahead of H M Jyothi (Canara Bank, 11.57 secs) and her state-mate Srabani Nanda (11.60 sces). Dutee had set a national record of 11.33 secs in the Federation Cup National Athletics Championships in New Delhi last month. She had, however, missed the Rio Olympics qualification mark of 11.32 secs by one-hundredth of a second.
5. Indian Greco-Roman Wrestlers Fail to Bag Olympic Berths
It was a disappointing day for India’s Greco-Roman wrestlers at the second World Olympic Qualifying tournament as Gurpreet Singh was disqualified for beingtoo heavy for his category while his other team-mates failed to grab a berth for the Rio Games in their respective weight categories.
The ongoing tournament is the last qualifying event for the Olympics and only the top two finishers in each weight category here are assured of quota places at Rio Games.
While Gurpreet weighed 500 gms more than what was stipulated to be eligible for the Greco-Roman 75kg category competition and was subsequently disqualified, the others in the fray lost their respective bouts at the early stages of the competition. Ravinder Khatri lost 6-10 to Laimutis Adomaitis of Lithuania in 85kg and Naveen went down to Metodiev Miloslav Yuriev of Bulgaria 0-9 in 1/8 round bout of 130kg.
Ravinder Singh (59kg) and Suresh Yadav’s (66kg) campaign was over in the qualification round itself.
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