India women’s T20I skipper Harmanpreet Kaur on Friday announced that she has recovered from coronavirus and urged everyone to take all precautions amid the pandemic.

Harmanpreet had tested positive for Covid-19 last month and was under home quarantine. Having tested negative, the cricketer has made an appeal to everyone to follow all necessary protocols to fight the pandemic. “Happy to inform you all that I have tested -ve & I’m feeling better. My only message to y’all is to take care & be extra careful. The virus is real & it’s dangerous. Follow all the protocols set up by the authorities. Wishing strength to the ones who are in the middle of the fight,” she tweeted.

Harmanpreet was last seen on the cricket pitch in the five-match ODI series against South Africa, in which India lost 4-1. In the five-match series, the right-handed batter went on to score 160 runs with her best score of 54 coming in the fourth ODI of the five-match series in Lucknow.

In the fifth and final ODI, Harmanpreet had suffered a hip-flexor injury and as a result, she did not play the three-match T20Is against South Africa. India lost the three-match T20I series against South Africa 2-1 and the hosts were able to win just the final game of the three-match T20I series. In the absence of Harmanpreet, Smriti Mandhana had led the Indian women’s team in the T20I series.

Six athletes which include two wrestlers and four sailors have been included in the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) core group.

This is as per the policy decision taken at the 56th meeting of the Mission Olympic Cell held on April 7, where it was decided that all Olympic-qualified athletes will be supported through TOPS. “Women’s 57 kg wrestler Anshu Malik and women’s 62 kg wrestler Sonam Malik have been included in the TOPS core group after attaining their Tokyo Olympic quotas at the Asian Wrestling Olympic qualifier,” an official statement read.

Both the athletes were previously a part of the TOPS development group. They are among six wrestlers to win quotas for the Tokyo Olympics.

Joining them in TOPS would be the four sailors who attained qualification at the Mussanah Open Championships. Nethra Kumanan became the first ever Indian female sailor to qualify for the Olympics. Vishnu Saravanan qualified in the laser standard class event and the team of K.C. Ganapathy and Varun Thakkar qualified in the men’s 49er class event.

There are 113 individual athletes who are supported through the TOPS scheme in the core group, where support is also given to the men’s and women’s hockey teams.

England and Rajasthan Royals all-rounder Ben Stokes, who was ruled out of the remainder of the Indian Premier League (IPL) due to a finger injury, has been sidelined for up to three months, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed on Friday.

ECB also informed that a repeat X-ray and CT scan on Thursday revealed that Stokes has a fracture of his left index finger and the all-rounder will fly home on Saturday for the surgery.

“England all-rounder Ben Stokes will be out for up to 12 weeks after a repeat X-ray and CT scan on Thursday revealed that he has a fracture of his left index finger,” the ECB said in an official statement.

“Stokes, who is currently in India with Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League, will fly home tomorrow. He will have surgery in Leeds on Monday,” the statement further

read.

The England all-rounder had sustained the injury during the game against Punjab Kings on Monday. The incident occurred during the Punjab innings as Stokes went forward to complete the catch off Punjab batsman Chris Gayle.

Stokes was visibly in pain even though he did come out to bat in the Rajasthan innings—a match which the Sanju Samson-led side lost by four runs.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan Royals clinched a thrilling win over Delhi Capitals, thanks to David Miller’s 62-run knock followed by Chris Morris’ cameo at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday. With 27 needed off the final two overs, Morris stepped up to the occasion to take his side over the line with two balls to spare. He hit two sixes off Kagiso Rabada’s penultimate over and accumulated 15 runs from it.

SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) has had a disastrous start in the IPL 2021 so far, losing both their games. On Saturday, however, they would fancy their chances against defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) in Chennai, hoping to turn things around for themselves.

David Warner-led SRH have lost against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), whereas Mumbai Indians, after losing to RCB in their season opener, came back strongly to defeat KKR in their next match.

Warner, Manish Pandey and Jonny Bairstow have all hit fifties in the season thus far but their contributions haven’t translated into wins as SRH have faltered towards the end of the match in both their games. MI, on the other hand, after losing a close game against RCB, choked KKR in the death overs to register their first win. 

For several years now, leg-spinner Rashid Khan has been SRH’s go-to man with the ball, having returned 2 for 24 and 2 for 18 from his quota of four over in the two games this far. West Indies all-rounder Jason Holder, drafted into the SRH XI for the match against RCB, returned three wickets but couldn’t contribute with the bat as the team failed to chase 150 after being 116 for 2 at one stage. As for Bhuvneshwar Kumar, SRH’s strike bowler, he has had a mixed result so far, with returns of 1 for 30 and 1 for 45 from his four overs in the two outings. 

The 2016 champions will expect more consistency from their players when they take on the defending champions at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. 

In the previous match, Rohit Sharma and his boys snatched a victory from the jaws of defeat when they outdid KKR in the death overs.  After they were restricted to 152, Mumbai looked all but out of the contest when KKR’s Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill added 72 runs in just under 9 overs for the first wicket. But a flurry of wickets in the last five overs saw KKR slip from 122 for 3 to 140 for 7, and they eventually lost the match by 10 runs. 

Rohit Sharma (43) and Suryakumar Yadav (56) scored for the defending champions but MI will expect more out of their middle order. 

Rahul Chahar got 4 for 27 and Trent Boult returned 2 for 27 against KKR and Jasprit Bumrah was reliable as ever at the death as MI bowled exceedingly well to derail KKR’s chase.MUMBAI INDIANS

STRENGTHS

• Rahul Chahar took 4 wickets against KKR

• Krunal Pandya is economical in both matches

• Rohit & Surya Kumar Yadav are in good touch

• Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah have done well  

WEAKNESSES

• Batting does not click despite the top-class battingSUNRISERS HYDERABAD

STRENGTHS

• Warner & Jonny Bairstow are top-class batsmen

• A good pace attack of Bhuvi and Natrajan

• Rashid Khan shows good economy & wicket-taking ability

WEAKNESSES

• The lower middle-order is a weak link  

• Manish Pande is yet to find his sublime touch

Right-arm pacer Deepak Chahar picked four wickets before Faf du Plessis and Moeen Ali helped Chennai Super Kings (CSK) register an easy win over Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match here at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday evening.

Chahar’s four wickets had helped CSK restrict Punjab Kings to a paltry 106/8. In response, CSK easily chased down the target with 26 balls to spare thanks to a quickfire 46 off 31 from Moeen. CSK defeated Punjab Kings by six wickets to open their account in the ongoing IPL. Chasing 107, CSK had a slow start as the side scored just eight runs in the first 18 balls with both openers trying to get into the groove in the initial overs.

Ruturaj Gaikwad was seen struggling a bit, but Faf du Plessis eased the pressure with two fours and a six in the fourth over. Ruturaj’s stint came to end in the fifth over as he tried to pull Arshdeep Singh but top-edged the ball with Deepak Hooda making no mistake.

Moeen Ali, who then came into bat, started smashing right from the word go as CSK got a move on. In no time, CSK raced to 64/1 in 10 overs having scored just eight in the first 18 balls.

Du Plessis kept scoring at run a ball but Moeen continued his onslaught as CSK got almost home before he departed in the 13th over with just 17 runs more to win.

However, CSK did suffer further hiccups as they lost Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayudu in consecutive balls but Du Plessis and Sam Curran ensured the MS Dhoni-led side got over the line in the 16th over.

Earlier put in to bat first, Punjab Kings had a horrific start as the side lost four wickets within the powerplay. Chahar wreaked havoc as he sent back Punjab Kings’ top order except for skipper Rahul, who became the victim of Jadeja’s brilliant throw.

Chahar first cleaned up Mayank for a duck in the first over and then dismissed Gayle and Pooran within a span of six balls to reduce Punjab to 19/4 after Rahul’s run out.

Deepak Hooda and Shahrukh were in the middle for Punjab Kings at the end of the powerplay but the former chipped it straight to mid-off in the seventh over as Chahar bagged his fourth wicket for the day.

Shahrukh and Jhye Richardson then tried to revive the Punjab innings with a brief 31-run stand before Moeen Ali cleaned the Australian all-rounder in the 13th over.

But Shahrukh kept the scoreboard ticking and hit timely boundaries to release some pressure. Dwayne Bravo dismissed Murugan Ashwin in the 17th over but Shahrukh took Punjab Kings over the 100-run mark. Sam sent Shahrukh back in the hut in the final over as Punjab Kings were restricted to 106/8 in their allotted 20 overs.

LIVERPOOL

Manchester City advanced into the Champions League semi-finals after bouncing back from one goal down to snatch a 2-1 win over Dortmund (4-2 on aggregate), courtesy of Riyad Mahrez and Phil Foden second-half goals.

Both teams staged a slow start into the clash but Jude Bellingham’s well-placed opener from 15 metres on 15 minutes sparked the game to life on Wednesday, Xinhua reported.

Three minutes later, Dortmund had another promising effort on target as Manuel Akanji’s header following a corner forced Manchester City’s goalkeeper Ederson into action.

City dominated the proceedings on the pitch, but the hosts were still able to take the narrow lead into the half time.

In another game, Liverpool were left to rue a host of missed chances as Real Madrid held out for a 0-0 draw at Anfield to progress to the semi-finals of the Champions League 3-1 on aggregate.

Mohamed Salah and Georginio Wijnaldum were guilty of wasting glorious opportunities to get Jurgen Klopp’s men back into the tie as they failed to replicate a remarkable recovery from 3-0 down to beat Barcelona 4-3 on aggregate at the semi-final stage two years ago.

Madrid were far from their best, but did not need to be to set up a semi-final clash with Chelsea as Los Blancos extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 14 games.

Madrid’s Zinedine Zidane warned after Saturday’s 2-1 El Clasico win over Barcelona that his players were at their “physical limit” and the visitors looked jaded as they were happy to sit on their first leg lead.

UEFA is set to announce major changes to the Champions League next week but the make-up of this season’s semi-finalists confirms the extent to which elite club football in Europe has already been