Singles

Klusener joins Delhi Ranji team

New delhi: Former South Africa all-rounder Lance Klusener has been named as the consultant coach of Delhi's Ranji Trophy team for the upcoming 2018-19 season. While former Delhi skipper Mithun Manhas will be the chief coach, Klusener's appointment is certainly the most high profile among the support staff across domestic teams. "Lance Klusner will be Cricket Consultant of Ranji Team of DCCA for One day tournaments starting from 19th September (Vijay Hazare trophy and Deodhar Trophy) and domestic T20 tournament scheduled in February 2019," DDCA president Rajat Sharma said on Monday. "His role will require his services alongside the main coach and all the other coaches in the team," Sharma added.

Smith out of CPL with abdominal strain

Sydney: Suspended Australia cricket captain Steve Smith is returning home from the Caribbean Premier League after suffering an abdominal strain. Smith was due to play for the Barbados Tridents on Monday against the St Lucia Stars and his banned Australia teammate David Warner, but was a late withdrawal. Tridents captain Jason Holder told the host broadcaster Smith had pulled an abdominal muscle and will not play again in the tournament, which has two rounds left. Coach Robin Singh said Smith was already on his to Australia.Smith and Warner received 12-month bans for their roles in the South African ball tampering scandal in March. But the ban applies only to international matches and those under the direct control of Cricket Australia. The pair have been free to play in overseas and independent leagues. Smith scored 185 runs at an average of 26.4 in seven innings in the CPL.

Young indian shuttlers win titles 

New delhi: Young Indian shuttlers Anoushka Parikh and Saurabh Sharma and Krishna Prasad Garaga and Dhruv Kapila clinched the mixed doubles and men's doubles titles respectively at the RSL Kharkiv International challenge in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Second seeds Saurabh and Anoushka defeated Poland's Pawel Smilowski and Magdalena Swierczynska, seeded fourth, 18-21, 21-19, 22-20 in the mixed doubles summit clash that lasted an hour and three minutes. Krishna and Dhruv then outwitted Germany's Daniel Hess and Johannes Pistorius 21-19 21-16 in a 36-minute doubles final. Among other Indians, women's doubles pair of Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker lost in the semifinals, while top seeded mixed doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and Kuhoo Garg failed to cross the quarterfinals.

Ind red to face ind blue in final 

Dindigul: Abhinav Mukund-led India Red takes on India Blue, led by Faiz Fazal, in the final of the Duleep Trophy, the first tournament of the 2018-19 domestic season, at the NPR College ground here, beginning Tuesday. A number of players have performed for India Red, the defending champion, with J&K off-spinner Parvez Rasool, Shahbaz Nadeem and Rajneesh Gurbani have been in top form in the tournament played under floodlights with the pink ball. Among the batsmen, Sanjay Ramaswamy , Siddhesh Lad and Baba Aparajith have stolen the show and would be aiming to impress the selectors with good performances in the summit clash.Among the India Blue players, Delhi's Dhruv Shorey has been in good touch and will be aiming to continue scoring runs.Agencies