The daily attraction is –
Kabaddi World Cup 2016 – the game appeals for its sheer simplicity. It is a
game of raiders and blockers. To score a
point, a raider must enter opposition territory, tag an opponent with any part
of his body, and make it back into his side’s safety zone without getting
entangled. When caught, his team loses a point and the raider is temporarily eliminated – there are of
course finer rules, which are a bit difficult to understand
Yesterday at Ahmedabad, to our
delight, India outclassed Bangladesh 57-20 in a league clash. In a must-win crucial encounter in Group A,
India lived up to their reputation to beat Bangladesh. Ajay Thakur scored 10
points for India after coming on as a substitute; Pardeep Narwal led India's charge in the first
half and ended with eight points. India inflicted the second all out in the
18th minute to take a commanding 24-9 lead. They led 27-10 at the end of the
first half as the attack and defence worked well in tandem to put on a solid
performance.
Balwan Singh ranks among
the most decorated kabaddi players and coaches in the game’s history,
especially from the Indian perspective. He has won several accolades as both player
and coach, the coach of Pro Kabaddi League outfit Jaipur Pink Panthers, is the
present Indian Coach.
Elsewhere, the 2016 Indian Super League season – football league
of eight teams again, each playing 14
matches during the regular season before culminating with the finals is
on. There are hypes surrounding every
tournament and here the match ball gets delivered by courier just before the
start of the match, for DHL is the Associate sponsor. From a social media
contest, a winner is selected, who gets to deliver the match ball before the
kickoff, providing chance to be there in the middle !!
Mumbai City FC and Atletico
de Kolkata remained unbeaten in the third edition of the Indian Super League
(ISL) but the home side’s winning run was stopped with a 1-1 draw thanks to an
82nd minute equaliser by Javi Lara. Matias Defederico had given Mumbai the lead
in the first half after he unleashed a shot from distance and the left footed
shot crept into the corner. Mumbai had more chances to extend the gap but were
denied by the crossbar or poor finishing. In the second half, Mumbai sat back
and absorbed pressure but after being reduced to ten men, ATK grew larger in
the attack and made good in the 82nd minute with a Lara effort. The ATK player
took a shot from distance and that took a wicked deflection to fly into the top
corner.
Then to the mother of all
games (for us) – at Holkar stadium, India completed a 3-0 whitewash in
devastating fashion as a seven-wicket haul from R Ashwin shot New Zealand out
for 153 in their last innings of the series. India declared just under an hour
from tea, after Cheteshwar Pujara had completed his eighth Test hundred, to set
New Zealand a target of 475 and give themselves a day and a half to take 10
wickets. They only needed 44.5 overs, as New Zealand lost nine wickets for 115
runs in the post-tea session.
pic credit : bcci/tv
Ashwin's figures of 7 for
59 were his best in Test cricket, as were his match figures of 13 for 140. He
picked up his 21st five-wicket haul, his sixth ten-wicket match
haul, his seventh Player of the Match award and seventh Player of the Series
award - fourth in a row - as well. There probably isn't a more influential
cricketer anywhere in the world today. Certainly no one has played a bigger
part in India securing the No. 1 Test ranking, a feat they got to celebrate
when Virat Kohli was handed the ICC Test championship mace at the end of the
match, in front of a capacity crowd in Indore.
321 India's margin of
victory in Indore, their second-biggest in terms of runs. The biggest - by 337
runs* - came was against South Africa in Delhi last year. Also, this was New
Zealand'ssecond-biggest defeat in terms of runs. 27 Wickets by Ashwin in this
series - the second-most by any Indian bowler in a three-match series, behind
Harbhajan Singh's 32 wickets in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2000-01.
The coach is Anil Kumble ~
and we are used to seeing many foreign coaches – the likes of John Wright, Greg
Chappel and Gary Kirsten. In Kabaddi, it
is different : Navneet Gautam, who led the Jaipur Pink Panthers to victory in
the inaugural Pro Kabaddi League, spent the better part of September in
Melbourne, as he and Srinivas Reddy are the coaches for Australian kabaddi
team. KC Suthar is the coach of Iran.
Ashok Das, of Indian origin is the coach for England. For USA it is another
Indian origin person Mohinder Singh Sidhu. For Poland, it is: Harwinder Singh and K
Ganesh- and the team that caused the greatest upset in the inaugural match,
South Korea that beat India is coached by Jaiveer Sharma who has been coaching
them since 2012.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
12th Oct 2016.
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