Experienced forward Rani will lead the 18-member Indian Hockey Team at the upcoming Hockey Women’s World Cup, slated to begin on July 21 in London, Hockey India (HI) announced on Friday.

Goalkeeper Savita will shoulder the responsibility of Vice Captain of the side which has been placed in Pool B along with hosts and World No.2 England, World No.7 USA and World No. 16 Ireland.

Another goalkeeper Rajani Etimarpu makes a comeback to the team after having been rested for the Spain tour.

India’s defence will consist of Sunita Lakra, Deep Grace Ekka, Deepika, drag-flicker Gurjit Kaur and youngster Reena Khokhar, who makes a comeback into the team. In the midfield, Namita Toppo, Lilima Minz, Monika, Neha Goyal, Navjot Kaur and Nikki Pradhan will hold fort.

India’s Captain Rani returned to the team during their Spain Tour and will again be leading her team’s forward-line. The ace-striker will be linking up with the experienced Vandana Katariya while Navneet Kaur, Lalremsiami and Udita will also provide them support in attack.

Commenting on the team selection, Chief Coach Sjoerd Marijne said: “It was not an easy decision to select the 18-member team as all the core probables have worked really hard in the National Camp.”

“However, we feel that this 18-member team will be the best mixture to be successful at the Vitality Hockey Women’s World Cup London 2018,” Marijne added.

The Indian eves will kick-off ttheir campaign against England on July 21.

Indian Squad:

Goalkeepers- 1. Savita (Vice-Captain), 2. Rajani Etimarpu

Defenders- 3. Sunita Lakra, 4.Deep Grace Ekka, 5. Deepika, 6. Gurjit Kaur, 7. Reena Khokhar

Midfielders- 8. Namita Toppo, 9. Lilima Minz, 10. Monika, 11. Neha Goyal, 12. Navjot Kaur,
13. Nikki Pradhan

Forwards- 14. Rani (Captain), 15. Vandana Katariya, 16. Navneet Kaur, 17. Lalremsiami, 18. Udita

India rode on an all-around effort to kick off their English summer with a 76-run thrashing of minnows Ireland in the first of the two-match T20I series here on Wednesday.

Put into bat, the visitors posted a commanding 208/5, thanks to brilliant half-centuries from seasoned openers Rohit Sharma (97 off 61 balls; 4×8, 6×5) and Shikhar (74 off 45 balls; 4×5, 6×5) before the bowlers sprung into action to restrict the hosts for a meager 132/9.

Ireland’s chase surrounded around opener James Shannon’s (60 off 35; 4×5, 6×4) half-century as all the other batsmen faltered in reading India’s wrist spin twins — Yuzvendra Chahal (3/38) and Kuldeep Yadav (4/21).

Ireland batsmen’s weakness against quality spin bowling was clearly exposed as wickets started to crumble one after the other as soon as skipper Virat Kohli employed Chahal and Kuldeep.

With the powerplay yielding 43 runs for the loss of Paul Sterling’s (1) wicket, Chahal packed back Irish No.3 Andrew Balbirnie (11) stumped by Mahendra Singh Dhoni off just his third ball, before getting Kevin O’ Brien (10) and skipper Gary Wilson (5) off successive deliveries.

Kuldeep too had a similar story, getting his first wicket of Simi Singh (7) off his third ball before getting the big fish Shannon trapped in front.

The Chinaman completed his spell with two more wickets –Stuart Thompson (12) and Stuart Poynter (7) — as the hosts were left high and dry with the scoreboard reading 123/8.

Paceman Jasprit Bumrah (2/19), who drew first blood with the wicket of Sterling, came back to complete the proceedings with the wicket of George Dockrell (9) as the hosts expectedly ended on the losing side.

Earlier, Rohit and Dhawan forged the second highest opening stand of 160 runs to help India post a commanding 208/5 despite paceman Peter Chase’s heroics in the final over, where he picked three quick wickets.

The hapless Irish attack drastically failed to control the onslaught from the ruthless Indian openers as the score swelled to 150 runs by the 16th over with Dhawan bringing up his fifty off mere 27 balls and the right-hander racing to his half ton in 39 deliveries.

But the departure of Dhawan unfolded a drama that saw four more wickets — Suresh Raina (10), Rohit, Dhoni (11), Kohli (0) falling in quick succession, the later three courtesy Chase’s immaculate final over.

Brief Scores: India 208/5 (Rohit Sharma 97, Shikhar Dhawan 74; Peter Chase 4/35) beat Ireland 132/9 (James Shannon 60; Kuldeep Yadav 4/21, Yuzvendra Chahal 3/38, Jasprit Bumrah 2/19) by 76 runs.

In Malaysian Open Badminton, PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth will play their pre-quarterfinal matches in Kuala Lumpur today (Thursday, June 28).

While world number three Sindhu will shuttle it out against local girl Lee Ying Ying, Saina will face world number two Akane Yamaguchi of Japan.

In Men’s Singles, fourth-seeded Srikanth will take on Taiwan’s Wang Tzu-wei for a place in the quarterfinals.

Hindusthan Samachar/Shri Ram Shaw

In Men’s Hockey, India will take on Belgium in their fourth round-robin match of the Champions Trophy at Breda in the Netherlands today (Thursday, June 28).

The match will begin at 8:30 PM. With 2 wins and a defeat from 3 games, India are currently third in the 6-team points table behind.

They had won their first two fixtures against Pakistan and Argentina, before losing to world champions Australia, 2-3 last evening. With the win, Australia have climbed to the top of the table, with hosts Netherlands at the second spot.

India will face the Netherlands in their final round-robin match on Saturday. India will have to win today as well as on Saturday to make it to the Final, as the top two sides at the end of the round-robin stage will meet in the title clash on Sunday.

Hindusthan Samachar/Shri Ram Shaw

Brazil eliminated Serbia with a 2-0 victory as the five-time world champions entered the FIFA World Cup pre-quarterfinals by topping the Group E here on Wednesday.

Paulinho (36th minute), Thiago Silva (68th minute) gave the South American powerhouse an easy victory which took their points tally to seven after all the three of their games in the group stage.

Switzerland finished the Group E in the second spot with five points to book a spot in the second round. Serbia finished third with three points and are eliminated alongside Costa Rica.

For Brazil, who had played a 1-1 draw with the Swiss before defeating Costa Rica, the victory over Serbia was soured by a leg injury to Real Madrid left-back Marcelo, who hobbled off the pitch in the opening minutes, reports Xinhua news agency.

Although the scoreline might not have shown it, Brazil dominated the match, save for a 10-minute period in the second half when Serbia laid siege to the South American side’s goal.

The five-time world champions began the game full of energy and nearly went ahead in the fourth minute. Philippe Coutinho laid the ball off to Neymar who split Serbia’s defence with a one-touch through pass to Gabriel Jesus. The Manchester City forward’s shot was saved but the rebound fell to Coutinho and the midfielder crossed to the onrushing Neymar, who sent his first-time effort wide.

Coutinho, Jesus and Neymar caused problems for Serbia’s defence, particularly on the left side. The latter two combined superbly just before the half hour mark, but Neymar’s curled shot from a tight angle on the left from six yards out was tipped away by Stojkovic.

The pair again showed great understanding when the No. 9 ran onto a perfectly weighted through-ball and cut onto his favoured right foot before having his shot blocked.

Serbia rarely troubled Brazil’s defence. Their best chance came just after the half-hour mark when striker Aleksandar Mitrovic sent a bicycle kick over the bar after Dusan Tadic’s cross from the left.

Brazil, however, deservingly got ahead when Coutinho spotted a tremendous run from deep by Paulinho and clipped a 25-metre perfect pass through to him. goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic came off his line but Paulinho got a touch on the ball before poking the bouncing ball over him and into the net in the 36th minute.

The European side emerged from the interval with renewed vigour.A Adem Llajic forced a finger-tip save from Alisson and he parried awkwardly to Mitrovic whose diving header was blocked by Silva.

Tadic’s delicate chip then sailed narrowly wide of the far post. Serbia had Brazil on the back foot and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic probably should have done better when he fired over with passing options available. Mitrovic then sent a powerful header directly at the goalkeeper.

But Brazil stood firm and scored their second goal against the run of play when Silva rose highest after a Neymar corner from the left to head in at the near post.

Brazil had chances to make it 3-0 with Luis seeing his long-range shot punched clear by Stojkovic and Neymar sending a bouncing shot over the bar.

Croatia defeated Iceland 2-1 here on Tuesday to go into the knockout rounds of the 2018 FIFA World Cup as the top team in Group D.

Milan Badelj (53rd) and Ivan Perisic (90th) scored for Croatia.

Gylfi Sigurdsson had rekindled some momentary hopes for Iceland when he converted a penalty in the 76th minute.

Croatia finished the group stage with nine points, having won all their three matches.

Iceland finished at the bottom of the group with one point.

It was a disappointing end to their campaign, which had started with a lot of promise when they held formidable Argentina 1-1 in their opening match.

World football’s governing body FIFA on Tuesday announced that a new ball will be used for the knockout phase of the ongoing World Cup in Russia.

The Adidas Telstar Mechta will replace the Telstar 18 used during the group stage of football’s biggest tournament, FIFA said on Tuesday, reports Xinhua news agency.

The new red design reflects the host nation’s colours and the “rising heat” of the second half of the competition, it said, adding that the ball will be used for the first time on Saturday.

“The Telstar 18 was a huge step forward technically when it came to official match balls,” Adidas Vice President of Products Dean Lokes said. “With the Telstar Mechta we have taken that same innovative design and re-imagined it.”

Each ball will be fitted with a near-field communication chip, allowing for interaction by smartphone users, according to FIFA.

 Argentina defeated Nigeria 2-1 in their final Group D match here on Tuesday to enter the FIFA World Cup pre-quarterfinals.

Marcos Rojo scored the winner for Argentina in the 87th minute after Victor Moses’ penalty conversion in the 51st minute had canceled out Lionel Messi’s strike in the 14th minute.

Following the win, Argentina has four points in total and they are second in the table, behind Croatia, who have nine points. The other two teams in the group, Nigeria (three points) and Iceland (one point) have crashed out of the tournament.

India sealed the semi-final spot, thrashing arch-rivals Pakistan 41-17 in Group A match of the Kabaddi Masters at the Al Wasl Sports Club here on Monday.

This was India’s third consecutive win in this six-nation tournament and second win against Pakistan. Men-in-Blue will now face Kenya in a dead rubber on Tuesday.

It seemed like Pakistan had not learnt from their last defeat against India as they were making same mistakes on the mat. India, on the other hand, had a clear strategy of defending rather than to attack on their opponents half.

Rishank, Girish, Mohit and skipper Ajay Thakur continued to impress as they outplayed Pakistan easily.

Commenting on the crucial tie, Indian coach Srinivas Reddy said: “I knew the margin will be bigger this time. This time is was completed effort. Rohit’s raid completely changed the match. I just asked by players to enjoy the match and that provided us the result.

“Our strength is raid. We have best raiders in the world. I asked my boys that every raid is a do-or-die and that paid off,” he added.

Coming back to the match, Both teams started off on a good note but India slowly took two points lead through Ajay.

Some good defence from Mohit and Girish in the corners took few points and forced Pakistan to play with one man.

Rohit took the task to inflict the first all out of the match and got rid of lone-man Nadeem to make it 12-3 in just 10 minutes of play.

With just three minutes left in the first half, Pakistan got another jolt when their skipper Nasir got injured and was replaced.

India kept on swelling their lead through some brilliant defending while Pakistan struggled to hold India.

At the end of the first half, it was 18-9 in favour of India. The change of ends saw some more brilliant and composed game by the Indian players.

Ajay, once again proved why is one of the best raiders in the country, when he inflicted an all-out in just five minutes of the second half play to make scoreboard read 25-11.

There was no match of India in rest of the second half. Even the comeback of Nasir, who got injured, could not do anything impressive as India kept on taking points along with one more all-out towards the end to seal the issue comfortably.

In the other match, Iran also sealed their place in the semi finals, defeating South Korea 31-27 in a
closely contested match.

Korea squandered an early lead only to fight back in the second half but it was in vain. Mohammed Maghsoudlou scored 12 points and Mohammed Nabibaksh also contributed in attack and defence to lead Iran to victory.

Jang Kun Lee scored seven points and Dong Ju Hong scored five points for Korea.

The Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) has summoned Umar Akmal on Wednesday after the batsman claimed in a TV interview that he was approached to fix matches, especially the contest against arch-rivals India in the 2015 ICC World Cup.

Akmal even went on to claim that he got spot-fixing offers every single time Pakistan played India, which has majorly been in ICC tournaments or the Asia Cup.

Besides the matches against India, Akmal revealed that he was also approached to fix matches in the Hong Kong Super Sixes, Pakistan’s series against South Africa in the United Arab Emirates.

Akmal reportedly said he was made the offer in the 2015 ICC World Cup in Australia and New Zealand — a tournament in which Pakistan went till the quarterfinal stage.

Pakistan and India were in Group B and played their only contest at the Adelaide Oval where India maintained their unbeaten run against Pakistan in World Cup history, winning by 76 runs.

Akmal faced a mere four balls and fell for a duck to left-arm orthodox Ravindra Jadeja.

“I had got an offer during the World Cup to leave two balls alone and they were willing to pay me $200,000 for that,” Akmal said in the interview with Samaa TV.

“It was our first match against India in the 2015 World Cup… in fact, every match I play against India, they offer me money to make some excuse and opt out of the game. But I have told those people that I am very sincere about playing for Pakistan and to not talk to me on this topic ever again,” he added.

Akmal’s claims invited quick action with the PCB asking the 28-year-old to explain his comments.

“Notice served to Umar Akmal. He has been asked to appear before PCB Anti Corruption Unit (ACU) on June 27,” a tweet from the PCB’s handle read.

Meanwhile, the International Cricket Council (ICC) also sprung into action, saying that it wished to speak with the cricketer urgently.

“The ICC is aware of a recent interview given by Umar Akmal. Whilst we note that there is no suggestion that any ‘fix’ actually took place, the ICC is reliant on players to report any corrupt approaches in a timely manner,” the ICC said in a statement.

“This is critical to our efforts to gather information on potential ‘fixers’ and to disrupt and prevent their efforts to corrupt the game. As such we are taking Akmal’s comments very seriously.

“We have launched an investigation and wish to speak to Akmal as a matter of urgency. Our Anti-Corruption Unit is committed to working to uphold integrity in cricket and would urge anyone with any information to contact us via contactacu@icc-cricket.com,” the ICC statement added.