Indian tennis player Sania Mirza was on Wednesday selected for Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) during the 56th Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) meeting. Sania is making her comeback in the TOPS as she was earlier selected for TOPS during the fourth meeting of the TOPS Elite Athletes Identification Committee that was held in 2017 at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) headquarters. But soon after the selection, she had withdrawn from TOPS.

She is currently ranked 157th in the world but has a protected ranking of nine (doubles ranking) based on which she is likely to go to the Tokyo Olympics, slated to begin in July this year.

According to WTA, special ranking is a ranking freeze assigned to a player who is out of competition for a minimum period of six months due to a medical condition. When a player is out of competition for more than 52 weeks, they get a ranking freeze for 3 years based on their last tournament played. Within this 3-year period, the player can enter 12 tournaments using their protected ranking (1 Grand Slam/Olympics & 1 WTA 1000 Mandatory Event).

Sania was out of competition for more than 52 weeks that is from October 2017 and returned to competition last year in January 2020 when she made a comeback by winning her first doubles tournament in nearly 2 years. Sania’s out of competition period began in October 2017 with an application for a special ranking of 9. In October 2018 she ended her pregnancy period and started parental care with a deadline of 104 weeks.

MADRID: After a defeat against Real Madrid in the Champions League, Liverpool’s Georginio Wijnaldum said that overcoming the first leg deficit in the second leg match will be difficult but “not impossible” for his side.

Real Madrid secured a 3-1 win over Liverpool in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final here on Wednesday. The second leg is scheduled to take place on April 15. During the match, Vinicius Junior scored twice while Marco Asensio netted a goal to hand Real Madrid a big win. Mohamed Salah scored the only goal for Liverpool.

“It’s always good to have an away goal. Unfortunately, they scored one after we scored,” Wijnaldum told Liverpoolfc.com.

“So I have to say it would have been easier if it was 2-1 or we scored [to make it] 2-2. Now we have to score two and make sure we don’t concede. It’s not impossible, [like] we’ve shown in previous years, but it’s difficult,” he added.

Real Madrid had taken a two-goal lead within the first 36 minutes. When asked if he felt the opening 45 minutes was where the game slipped away from the visitors, Wijnaldum said: “Yes, for sure. You saw how we gave the goals away and how we played when we had the ball — it was not good enough. When we recovered the ball we gave it away too quickly and that’s why we had to run a lot and that’s why the first half was really intense, really heavy and hard.”

Goals from Vinicius Junior and Marco Asensio helped Real Madrid thrash Liverpool in the first-leg quarterfinal of the Champions League on Wednesday.

Real Madrid defeated Liverpool 3-1 and as a result, the latter now faces an uphill task of making it to the semi-finals. Jurgen Klopp’s side would be required to score big in the second leg quarterfinal. Liverpool and Real Madrid will now take on each other in the second leg quarterfinal on Wednesday, April 14.

Fakhar Zaman smashed a ton and Babar Azam played a scintillating knock before Mohammad Nawaz scalped three key wickets to help Pakistan defeat South Africa by 28 runs in the third and final ODI on Wednesday. With the win, Pakistan won the series 2-1.

The two teams will now lock horns in a four-match T20I series, starting Saturday. Babar and Hasan Ali gave Pakistan a firing finish after Fakhar’s ton as the visitors posted 320/7 in the allotted 50 overs. In response, South Africa was folded for 292 in the last over.

Chasing 321, the Proteas got off to a decent start with the openers putting up a 54-run stand for the first wicket. Shaheen Afridi gave Pakistan the first breakthrough as he dismissed Markram in the ninth over.

The hosts kept losing wickets at regular intervals and never really looked comfortable in the chase. They were 140/5 in the 28th over but Kyle Verreynne and Andile Phehlukwayo both smashed fifties to revive their hopes of chasing the target. However, South Africa lost both their set batsmen in back-to-back overs and was eventually bundled out for 292. Earlier asked to bat first, Pakistan got off to a solid start as openers Imam-ul-Haq and Fakhar stitched a 112-run partnership.

Brief scores: Pakistan 320/7 (Fakhar Zaman 101, Babar Azam 94; Keshav Maharaj 3-45), South Africa 292/10

This time Virat Kohli’s RCB seems to be very balanced. While there are good batsmen in the team, on the bowling front, the spin department strengthens the arsenal. Owing to some Covid positive cases in the staff, the challenges of the team have augmented, but I think the team will get through this tough phase glibly.

Yazuvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar are the bowlers that consolidate the bowling attack of the team. There is no doubt about their talent. These bowlers are capable of bowling well in the power-play and the death overs. Sundar has been able to manage to bowl efficiently during the power-play overs when the batsmen have myriad chances to rain the stadium with boundaries. Nevertheless, there are a lot of challenges for the spinners in T20 cricket.

However, on the fast bowling front, I agree that this department is quite capable. I have high expectations from Navdeep Saini and Mohammed Siraj. Daniel Sams is the lone left-arm bowler in the RCB’s arsenal. I expect him to be fit early, and especially, in the later matches, he shall be available for the team and bowl brilliantly.

Moreover, Kyle Jamieson recently proved to be quite expensive against Australia. He conceded more than 150 runs in four T20 matches. Bowling in the Indian conditions will be quite challenging for him. At the same time, I have high expectations from Ken Richardson, who has good speed and movement. He can prove useful when given the chance.

If Devadutt Padikkal recovers quickly, he can carry forward his domestic cricket form in the IPL. I have been convinced by the explosive manner in which Phil Allen batted in the last T20 match against Bangladesh recently. I wish to see him batting in the same manner on Indian soil. On the batting front, a lot can be expected from the trio of Virat, AB de Villiers, and Glenn Maxwell. If any one of the three lasts till the 20th over, then it will not take long for the team’s score to cross 200.

In the end, I would say that if the fast bowlers have done well, then this team can clinch their maiden title.

Writer is a Dronacharya Awardee and coach of Virat Kohli. Views expressed are writer’s personal.

NEW DELHI: Former England skipper Michael Vaughan feels Mumbai Indians will win the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which gets underway from Friday.

While Vaughan admitted that his prediction of the winner of the cash-rich league is quite early, he backed the Rohit Sharma-led side to lift the coveted trophy. The former England skipper also named Sunrisers Hyderabad as the probable winners of the IPL 2021 if Mumbai Indians are not able to replicate their last year’s heroics.

“Early #IPL2021 prediction @mipaltan will win it … if by some bizarre loss of form then @SunRisers will win it … #OnOn #India,” Vaughan tweeted.

Last month, the former England skipper had said Mumbai Indians are a better T20 side than Team India. Meanwhile, star cricketer Kieron Pollard has finished his seven-day quarantine period and will resume training.

Rajasthan Royals witnessed a forgettable season last year as they finished at the bottom of the Indian Premier League (IPL) table. But the team made its intent clear at the auction table itself in February when they made the most expensive buy – picking Chris Morris for Rs 16.25 crore. Add to that a change in leadership with Sanju Samson being named skipper, the Royals definitely mean business going into season 14. In fact, the franchise decided to let go of Steve Smith as well as they look to end their trophy drought – their only win coming in the inaugural season. But whether the chopping and changing gets RR the right results can only be gauged once the tournament gets underway.

Newly-appointed skipper Samson was the team’s highest run-scorer in the last edition, accumulating 375 runs from 14 matches. While he was the team’s highest run-getter, Samson was placed on the 16th spot overall on the list which was topped by Punjab Kings’ KL Rahul with 670 runs. Therefore, it is very clear that Rajasthan Royals’ batsmen will have to put in the hard yards if they are to get the desired results against the top teams.

Rajasthan Royals’ title hunt will depend a lot on the form of England star Ben Stokes. The player has the ability to turn around games single-handedly and the all-rounder’s form will be of great importance. Notably, Stokes smashed 285 runs in the last edition from just eight innings, with his highest being 107*.

Another positive in the batting line-up is the current form of David Miller. The South African is high on confidence, having scored two back-to-back half-centuries against Pakistan in the ongoing three-match ODI series. Moreover, Jos Buttler also delivered some impressive performances against India.

The list of batsmen who can help the team set up competitive totals continues, with Rahul Tewatia and Yashasvi Jaiswal also at their disposal.

Some of the key players of the team are: Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat, David Miller, Manan Vohra, Chris Morris, Mustafizur Rahman, Chetan Sakariya, KC Cariappa, Liam Livingstone, and Kuldip Yadav.

Coming to the bowling department, apart from Morris, the Royals also added Bangladesh bowler Mustafizur Rehman to their fast-bowling arsenal for the season at his base price of 1 cr. However, in a major blow, the franchise will not have the service of Jofra Archer in the first half as the player is currently undergoing a period of rehabilitation. England pacer had undergone surgery on his right hand on March 29 and began his two weeks of rehabilitation, with ECB saying that “the consultant will review him before returning to training.”

Coming back to Morris, he picked 11 wickets from nine games in IPL 13 in UAE. Overall, the player has 80 wickets to his name from 70 matches and has scored 551 runs. Therefore, it will be interesting to watch as to whether the new leader and the most expensive buy can combine to help the franchise end the trophy drought.