The Indian men’s hockey team scripted history by thrashing minnows Hong Kong 26-0 in a Pool A encounter at the 18th Asian Games here on Wednesday.

This is the highest ever victory margin by India, breaking an 86-year-old record. The previous highest victory margin was 24-1 against the US at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.

India were off to an explosive start with Akashdeep Singh (2nd minute) Manpreet Singh (3rd), Rupinder Pal Singh (4th, 5th) and S.V. Sunil, who scored twice in the seventh minute giving their team a 6-0 lead within the first seven minutes.

Vivek Sagar Prasad scored with a deflection from a close range in the 13th minute to put India 7-0 ahead by the end of the first quarter.

The Indians continued their rampage as Lalit Upadhay (17th, 18th, 35th, 55th) Mandeep (20th, 22nd), Amit Rohidoss (27th), Manpreet (28th), Varun Kumar (28th), Akashdeep (32nd, 39th), Sunil (45th), Dilpreet Singh (47th), Chenglensana Singh (51st), Harmanpreet Singh (52nd, 53rd, 55th), Simranjeet Singh (53rd) and Rupinder (59th) finding the target.

Palembang (Indonesia) India’s woman shooter Rahi Sarnobat won the gold medal in the 25m pistol competition at the 18th Asian Games here on Wednesday with a Games record score of 34 in the finals to improve upon her bronze medal winning feat at the 2014 edition.

Nottingham,India skipper Virat Kohli on Wednesday celebrated the 203-run thrashing of England in the third Test by dedicating the win to the flood victims in the southern state of Kerala.

Coming back from a 0-2 deficit, India put up a clinical all-round performance at Trent Bridge to deflate England, who could only blame their dismal batting effort for the loss.

“We, as a team, want to dedicate this win to the flood victims in Kerala. This is our bit we can do as the Indian cricket team. A tough time there,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation, where he was adjudged the Man-of-the-Match for his knocks of 97 and 103.

“The victory was much-needed in this series and in context, and to have been clinical in all departments is a victory for the entire dressing room. A complete Test for us. There was no panic, and we were outplayed in only one game out of the last five, and that was Lord’s,” he added.

The 29-year-old praised his batsmen for putting runs on the board that gave his bowlers, including the injured off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, the cushion to attack the in-form English batting.

“We dominated in this game because we put runs on the board and then the bowlers did well, they were waiting and ready, even Ashwin did well with his injury,” he said.

“The bowling group was ready to take 20 wickets again, and I’m glad the batsmen stepped up. So we, as batsmen, did well to give them a cushion for the bowlers to go hard.

“Even the slips did well, and this mix of all skills couldn’t have come at a better time,” he added.

With the win, the visitors reduced the lead to 1-2 in the five-match rubber, but Kohli is confident that his team has the ability to turn the tables and make it 3-2.

“We definitely believe we can come back from 0-2 to 3-2, we just need to keep moving forward, keep winning. We wouldn’t be 2-1 if we didn’t believe.”

“The respect and the belief in the change room is important, and one must keep wanting to win. We need to bring out the impact performances in the next two Tests as well,” he added.

Prithvi Shaw, the 2018 Under-19 World Cup winning skipper, on Wednesday broke into the India Test side even as the BCCI senior selection committee dropped off-colour opener Murali Vijay and Kuldeep Yadav from the squad for the remaining two Tests of the five-match rubber against England.

The 18-year-old Shaw, who captained the India colts to the World Cup title in February, has since been part of India’s A teams, besides being picked by the Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Besides Shaw, Andhra Pradesh skipper Hanuma Vihari was also picked in the squad that will face England in the fourth and fifth Tests at Southampton and London respectively.

Both Shaw and Vihari are in great batting form, having each belted centuries against South Africa A earlier this month. They also impressed with the bat during their recent trip to England.

Meanwhile, the axe on Vijay came on expected lines after he was dropped from the Trent Bridge Test that India won by a handsome 203 runs on Wednesday and managed to stay alive in the five-Test series.

The 34-year-old Vijay, who played the opening two Tests at Edgbaston and London, could manage just 26 runs.

On the other hand, Kuldeep’s selection under overcast conditions at Lord’s had already raised a few eyebrows and the chinaman has now been sent back home to play for the India A team.

Head coach Ravi Shastri said at the end of the third Test that he hoped premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin to recover from his hip injury by the time the fourth Test starts on August 30. Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja is already waiting for his turn.

India squad for fourth and fifth Tests: Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Lokesh Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Karun Nair, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hanuma Vihari.

India staged a thrilling comeback in the five-match Test rubber on Wednesday by thrashing England by 203 runs in the third Test at Trent Bridge here.

In their pursuit of 521 runs for victory, England resumed their innings at 311/9 and lasted a little over two overs before losing the final wicket of James Anderson (11) to off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. England’s innings closed at 317.

India now trail the five-match rubber 1-2 as they proceed to Hampshire for the fourth Test, starting August 30.

Brief Scores: India 329, 352/7 decl. beat England 161, 317 (Jos Buttler 106, Ben Stokes 62; Jasprit Bumrah 5/85, Ishant Sharma 2/70) by 203 runs.

Indian shooter Sanjeev Rajput clinched a silver medal in the men’s 50 metre Rifle 3 Positions event at the 18th Asian Games here on Tuesday.

Sanjeev scored 452.7 in the final. The 37-year-old had earlier bagged bronze in the same category at the 2006 Doha Asian Games.

China’s Hui Zicheng secured the gold medal after scoring 453.3, while Japan’s Takayuki Matsumoto settled for bronze with a score of 441.4.

The 37-year old Rajput gave a good account of himself in the keeling and prone positions, although he struggled in the standing round which eventually stood in the way of him winning the gold.

Rajput rallied to recover from 7.8 in the third series of the kneeling position to finish in the top position with a score of 151.2.

In prone, Rajput consistently shot 10s and was ahead of the pack from start to finish. He had a total score of 307.1 after 30 shots.

In the standing position, Rajput led after the first series with a score of 355.6. But as Zicheng fought to catch up with him, Rajput lost his spark and ended second best.

Registering her second successive victory, indias Ankita Raina advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s single tennis event of the 2018 Asian Games here on Tuesday.

In her pre-quarter match, Ankita outclassed Japan’s Eri Hozumi in straight sets — 6-1, 6-2.

The 25-year-old Indian will now meet Hong Kong’s Eudice Chong on Wednesday.

[IANS]

A disciplined batting helped India score 124/2 in their second innings, taking 292 runs lead Aat stumps on the second day of the third Test match against England here on Sunday.

Cheteshwar Pujara (33) and Skipper Virat Kohli (8) were at the crease when umpires dislodged the bails for the day.

For England, Adil Rashid and Ben Stokes chipped in one wicket each in the last session.

The day started with England bowlers wrapping up India’s first innings for 329 just before the lunch.

Ajinkya Rahane (81) and skipper Virat Kohli (97) shone with the bat and helped India post a challenging score.

Resuming the second day at 307 for six, India’s lower-order batsmen — Ravichandran Ashwin (14) Ishant Sharma (1 not out), Mohammed Shami(3) and Jasprit Bumrah (0) — failed to make any substantial contribution to the score.

Overnight batsmen Rishabh Pant only managed to add just two runs to his score before going back to the pavilion.

Coming into bat, England started their innings steadly. The hosts were 46/0, trailing by 283 runs at lunch. England openers Alastair Cook Aand Keaton Jennings applied themselves handsomely and made sure they went for lunch without losing any wicket.

Cook faced 30 balls and slammed three boundaries while Jennings played 25 deliveries and hit the same number of boundaries.

But after lunch, England struggled as Indian bolwers bounced back in style. Hardik Pandya’s 5/28 broke the back of English batting line-up as the hosts were bundled out for 161 in their first innings.

India rode on a brilliant bowling display as the entire England batsmen were wrapped after they added just 115 runs in the second session of the second day.

After a decent start, as England were 46 for no loss at lunch, the Indian bowlers came all guns blazing to hand their side a 168-run lead after India’s first Inning score of 329.

Apart from Pandya, pacers Ishant Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah scalped couple of wickets each conceding 32 and 37 runs respectively while Mohammed Shami bagged one.

Jos Buttler was the top scorer for the hosts with his 39 runs while openers Alastair Cook and Keaton Jennings chipped in with 29 and 20 runs respectively.

The final session saw Indian batsmen swelling their overall lead. Openers Shikhar Dhawan (44) and Lokesh Rahul (36) gave the steady start. But just when things seemed good in the middle Rahul was sent back to the pavilion. He was clean-bowled by Ben Stokes.

Soon, after adding 61 runs with Pujara, Dhawan was also dismissed by spinner Adil Rashid when scoreboard was reading 111.

But Kohli and Pujara then played sensibly and without losing their wickets and ended the day by swelling their lead.

After finishing the WAFF U-16 Championship at the second spot above defending AFC U-16 Champions Iraq, Jordan and Yemen, India U-16 boys went down 1-2 against Oman in a friendly football fixture played in Turkey.

After Oman scored on either side of half-time on Monday, Vikram scored from the penalty spot in the added time of the match to halve the scoreline.

After playing 10 matches against 8 Asian countries who have already qualified for the AFC U-16 Championship, India took on Oman in their latest friendly fixture.

The first half of the match was mostly played in the middle of the pitch before Shabas put in a brilliant cross but Rohit couldn’t convert it.

Oman took the lead three minutes to the half-time whistle.

Oman doubled the lead in the 55th minute to put them in a comfortable position.

Coach Bibiano Fernandes rang in a few changes to find the back of the net but Oman stood tall to thwart their efforts until the final minute of the regulation time.

Vikram was brought down in the box in the 89th minute and the skipper slotted in the spot-kick to halve the gap.

Although India pushed hard to find the equaliser towards the end, Oman held their nerve to win the match.