Panaji (Goa) [India], March 20 (ANI): Indian professional boxer Vijender Singh on Friday lost against Russian Artysh Lopsan via technical knockout (TKO) in the fifth round of an eight-round bout on the rooftop of the Majestic Pride Casino Ship.
With this loss, Vijender’s unbeaten-run in professional boxing came to an end. Before this match, the Olympic bronze medal winner pugilist enjoyed a 12-game winning streak in the professional boxing career since starting his career in 2015.
Both boxers were knocked off their feet in the first four rounds, with Vijender losing his balance twice in round 4. The knockout punch was landed by Lopsan in round 5 as the referee deemed Vijender unfit to continue and handed the bout to Lopsan.
A day before the fight Vijender had said: “I’m excited to return to the ring and the weigh-in gives me confidence that I’m on the right path. I never think about my opponent and don’t really care who I’m fighting. I’ll surely go for the knockout and if not that, I’ll make sure my every punch counts.” (ANI)

Raipur (Chhattisgarh) [India], March 19 (ANI): Sri Lanka Legends will meet India Legends in the summit clash of the Road Safety World Series T20 at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium on Sunday. And, it was only after Tillakaratne Dilshan’s outfit easily got the better of Jonty Rhodes’ South Africa Legends by eight wickets on Friday night.
Sri Lankans were always favourite on paper and they delivered up to their potential and form as they romped home to a comfortable win, chasing down a 126-run target with 16 balls to spare.
Riding on No.4 batsman Chinthaka Jayasinghe’s (47*) and south-paw Upul Tharanga’s (39*) partnership of 70 runs for the third wicket, Sri Lanka finished at 129 for the loss of two wickets in 17.2 overs. Captain and in-form Dilshan scored 18 and Sanath Jayasuriya, too, got as many runs.
Earlier, Sri Lanka captain Tillakaratne Dilshan won the toss and elected to field first. The move clicked as the Lankans folded out South Africans for a low score of 125 in 20 overs. Seamer Nuwan Kulasekara was the wrecker-in-chief for the Sri Lankans with five wickets for 25 runs. For South Africans, it was opener Morne van Wyk who starred with a half-century from 57 balls including eight boundaries.
South Africa began on a positive note with Van Wyk giving a solid start, but the Lankans immediately put the brake on African surge as Kulasekara got his in-form partner Andrew Puttick for a duck. In need of a big partnership, the South Africans got one in Van Wyk and Alviro Petersen. The duo was not aggressive but did not shy away from getting that odd boundary or rotate strike before Farveez Maharoof got the scalp of Petersen as the scoreboard read 65/2.
Later, Van Wyk got his maiden half-century of the tournament before Sri Lankan legend Sanath Jayasuriya got him trapped in front of the wickets for 53. Once the opener went home, it was all formality for Sri Lanka. Other than Van Wyk and Petersen, only Justin Kemp could get into the double-digit score as the rest of the South African batsman fell for single digits. South Africa lost its seven wickets for 29 runs, all thanks to Kulasekara’s super spell.
Brief scores: South Africa 125 all out in 20 overs (Morne van Wyk 23, Alviro Petersen 27; Nuwan Kulasekara 5/25) lost to Sri Lanka Legends 129/2 in 17.2 overs (Upul Tharanga 39, Chinthaka Jayasinghe 47, Tillakaratne Dilshan 18, Sanath Jayasuriya 18) by 8 wickets. (ANI)

Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], March 19 (ANI): Ahead of the series decider against India, England assistant coach Paul Collingwood has said that these kinds of experiences will help them in the T20 World Cup scheduled to be played later this year.
The five-match T20I series is currently levelled at 2-2 with the blockbuster finale to be played on Saturday evening here at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
“It is a huge game and both teams know that. It feels like another great opportunity to get that experience of knockout cricket. We got two fantastic sides going head to head, enjoying good form and playing some good cricket. So, it is an exciting one. When you lead them to the World Cup, you need these kinds of experiences to see how players deal with the pressure,” Collingwood said in a virtual press conference.
“It will be a great confidence booster for all the players to play such a high-quality side in their home backyard to win the series. There is a lot of excitement around for series decider,” he added.
India skipper Virat Kohli on Thursday said that he fails to understand why the on-field umpire has to give a soft signal as “out” when the player himself is unsure regarding whether he has taken the catch or not and asked why can’t there be an “I-don’t-know” call for the umpires.
When asked about the soft-signal controversy, Collingwood said, “I think he got a point on boundary catches. It is hard enough for him to see what’s going on from 20 yards away than having a look 60-70m away to boundary catch. It is frustrating from the players’ point of view, it is frustrating from our point of view. I know myself when I played the game and genuinely catch getting fingers underneath the ball and when you see a replay, it happened to me many times you actually doubt yourself.”
“I don’t know what the solution is, to be honest, but certainly it is difficult for the umpires to make the on-field calls out in the middle to give the soft signal,” he added.
He further said that Dawid Malan will play a “special” knock on Saturday despite failing to convert the starts into big scores in the four matches of the series played so far.
“He (Malan) is number one in the world at the moment. He is the kind of player who we have seen in the past to get in and give himself few balls at the top of the innings and then make up for it in the end. He has not quite found his rhythm on this tour but you got to remember where he is in the world rankings. He has been pretty much exceptional for England in the T20Is. I think one thing this team has done so well in the past in the new-era of white-ball cricket is to back their cricketers who play the game. He got an opportunity again tomorrow to do something special,” Collingwood said. (ANI)

New Delhi [India], March 19 (ANI): Hosts India had a good opening competition day as three shooters, world number one Divyansh Singh Panwar and Arjun Babuta in the Men’s 10M Air Rifle and Anjum Moudgil in the corresponding women’s event, made it through to the finals at the end of the 60-shot qualifying round here at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting range on Friday.
The men started the ball rolling as India number two Arjun Babuta shot a high-quality 631.8 to finish third in the 39-strong field. World number one Divyansh Singh Panwar also followed him to the eight-man final slated for Saturday, with a 629.1 which gave him sixth position overall.
Nam Taeyun of Korea topped the Men’s field with a 632.1 and given his current world rank of 18 and the fact that all other finalists are not eligible except his own teammate Choo Byounggil who is ranked way below him, should bag the only available Tokyo Olympics quota based on world rankings. Deepak Kumar, the third Indian in the field finished 12th with a score of 626.4.
In the Women’s 10M Air Rifle, world number four and Tokyo quota holder Anjum Moudgil was the lone Indian to qualify. She shot 629.6 to come in second in the 48-strong field, behind Hungary’s Denes Eszter who shot 629.8.
World number one Elavenil Valarivan of India missed out, however, finishing 12th with a score of 626.7. So did her teammate Apurvi Chandela who finished 26th with 622.8.
The world-ranking quota in the Women’s event is up for a fight though, with Dane Ibsen Rikke Maeng (world rank 11) and American Mary Tucker (world rank 20) making it to the finals among others.
Both the Men’s and Women’s 10M Air Rifle finals are scheduled for Saturday afternoon. As many as four blockbuster finals are lined up on Saturday with the Men’s and Women’s 10M Air Pistol finals also scheduled on the same day. (ANI)

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], March 19 (ANI): The star Indian pair of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra made their way into the mixed doubles final at the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament after they defeated Singapore’s Koen Pang Yew En and Lin Ye 4-2 in the last-4 clash in Doha on Friday.
The World No. 19 Indian pair has now set up the final clash against World No. 8 Korean pair of Sang-Su Lee and Jihee Jeon on Saturday and is now a win away from qualifying for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Having already secured the singles berths on Thursday and now aiming for double qualification, Sharath and Manika faced a tough challenge in the initial part of the match as the scores were levelled at 2-2 after the fourth game. However, the 2018 Asian Games bronze medalist pair managed to hold an edge over the opponent and bagged two successive games to complete a 12-10, 9-11, 11-5, 5-11, 11-8, 13-11 victory in 50 minutes.
Meanwhile the Korean duo Lee and Jeon entered the final with 4-11, 11-7, 11-4, 5-11, 11-8, 11-8 victory against Thailand’s Padasak Tanviriyavechakul and Suthasini Sawettabut.
Earlier on Thursday, all the four Indian paddlers Sharath, Manika, Gnanasekaran Sathiyan and Sutirtha Mukherjee earned themselves singles qualification at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. While Sathiyan and Sutirtha emerged winners in their respective categories of the South Asian Group, Sharath and Manika sealed Tokyo berths by virtue of being the highest-ranked second-placed players. (ANI)

Baramulla (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], March 19 (ANI): The Torna Battalion of the Indian Army, under the aegis of Pir Panjal Brigade, recently organised the Inter School Girls Volleyball Championship in Baramulla.
The event, which was conducted in alliance with local school authorities and civil administration, saw participation of five schools of Boniyar area of Baramulla district as more than 50 female students participated in the championship. The matches were conducted over two days.
At the culmination of the event, a felicitation ceremony was organised where both players and spectators expressed their gratitude towards the Indian Army for conducting the event and hoped that more such events are conducted in the coming days.
“Five teams participated in this tournament from different zones. In this event, they participated in their first competition after the schools reopened. Girls were happy to resume the sports activities after more than a year. I hope these events will continue in the future,” co-organiser of the championship, Aquib Ahmad, told ANI.
“We want more girls should get the opportunity to play sports. I want to thank my teachers, coaches and the Indian Army,” one of the participants said.
“I thank the organisers for creating such a platform for us to shine in the field of sports,” added another. (ANI)