[Nasheman news] NapierIndia rode chinaman Kuldeep Yadav and pacer Mohammed Shami’s exceptional bowling effort on Wednesday to restrict New Zealand to a paltry 157 runs in the first of the five-match ODI rubber at the McLean Park here.

While Kuldeep’s figures were 4/39, Shami was also phenomenal with the leather, scalping three Kiwi wickets conceding just 19 runs from his six overs. 

Yuzvendra Chahal and Kedar Jadhav picked two and one wicket, respectively.

Other than New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson (64), no other batsmen put up a fight against the disciplined Indian attack.

Opting to bat, the hosts had the worst possible start as Shami struck early sending back both the openers — Martin Guptill (5) and Colin Munro (8), cheaply.

Newcomers Williamson and Ross Taylor (24) then tried to rescue their side from the early damage, taking New Zealand past the 50-run mark in 13.3 overs. 

However, Taylor’s stay was cut short by Chahal in the 15th over with the hosts at 52/3.

With the addition of just 24 runs in the Kiwi scorecard, Chahal struck again to dismiss incoming batsman Tom Latham (11). Jadhav and Shami then joined the party as they sent back Henry Nicholls (12) and Mitchell Santner (14), leaving the hosts reeling at 133/6.

Williamson, however, continued to show resistance and kept one end safe, but lacked support from the other end. 

While trying to clear the fence in the 34th over off a Kuldeep delivery, the Kiwi skipper misread the ball and offered a simple catch to Vijay Shankar at long-on.

Kuldeep then put the final nail in the coffin, picking the tailenders — Doug Bracewell (7), Lockie Ferguson (0) and Trent Boult (1) in quick succession to wrap up the host in just 38 overs.

Brief score: New Zealand 157 all out (Kane Williamson 64, Ross Taylor 24; Kuldeep Yadav 4/39) vs India

[Nasheman news] BarcelonaFC Barcelona head coach Ernesto Valverde has praised the experience and character of the club’s newest player, former Ghana international Kevin-Prince Boateng, terming him a “strong player”.

The 31-year-old forward joined Barça on a six-month loan deal from Italy’s Sassuolo for one million euros ($1.13 million), with an option that Barcelona make the move permanent for 8 million euros in the summer of 2019, reports Efe news.

“Kevin-Prince Boateng is a player who has experience, knows the league and the role he will develop,” Valverde said at a press conference on Tuesday night.

“We hope he helps us, he is a strong player,” Valverde added.

Barça’s coach stressed that Boateng knows La Liga well, as he played as a forward for Las Palmas during the 2016-17 season.

Valverde said he would include the Berlin-born player of Ghanaian ancestry in Wednesday’s match against Sevilla in the Copa del Rey quarterfinal.

“He can play now,” Valverde said, “because he played (with Sassuolo) the whole game against Inter (in Serie A) on Saturday; one of the reasons why he is here is because he is active.”

[Nasheman news] Buenos AiresResidents of the small agricultural town in northeastern Argentina where footballer Emiliano Sala grew up gathered for prayers after learning that he was one of two people aboard an aircraft that went missing over the English Channel.

Daniel Ribero, president of local football club San Martin de Progreso, where Sala played as boy, told EFE that the day held “a lot of uncertainty” for residents of Progreso.

“We went from a moment of euphoria when he signed with Cardiff City to this totally unexpected situation. We are trying to process it,” he said on Tuesday, reports Efe news.

The single-turbine PA 46 Malibu aircraft carrying Sala from Nantes, France, to Cardiff, Wales, disappeared from radar screens at 8.23pm Monday some 24km (15mi) north of the island of Guernsey, police in the British crown dependency said.

Cardiff City, who play in the Premier League, signed the 28-year-old striker from Ligue 1 side FC Nantes for a club-record 15 million pounds ($19.4 million).

The plane, belonging to Cardiff City’s owner, was on its way back to the Welsh capital after Sala’s quick trip to Nantes to bid farewell to his former teammates.

Ribero described Sala as a humble and low-key person and recalled seeing the player when he returned to Progreso in 2017 for the 100th anniversary of San Martin and again last year for a barbecue during the 2018 World Cup.

Sala joined San Martin as a 6-year-old and remained with the club until he was 15, when he went to France and began the professional career that brought him to Nantes.

“In 100 years of the club’s history, he is the first player from San Martin de Progreso to go so far,” Ribero said.

Hundreds of Progreso residents spontaneously gathered to pray for Sala after hearing the news Tuesday morning, among them was Rita Rinaldi, one of Sala’s teachers at the local school.

Dravid said that while they need to educate cricketers, they could not take responsibility for every individual player’s actions.

After Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul’s episode on celebrity chat show Koffee With Karan stirred controversy earlier this month, several people pointed out the difference between Hardik’s crass comments on women and people like Rahul Dravid, who have long been known as one of the gentlemanly cricketers.

The former Indian captain and current head coach of the Under-19 and A teams has recently called Hardik Pandya’s sexist and racist comments on the show a ‘mistake’ and said that while they need to educate cricketers, they could not take responsibility for every individual player’s actions.

Rahul told Sportstar that it was not as though players did not make mistakes in the past and won’t make mistakes in the future as well. “But let’s not overreact please,” he said.

He added that players come from different teams and should be made aware about their roles and responsibilities. “Issues will always be there and we have to educate and guide then. They should be told they can’t abuse the system,” Rahul said.

Rahul said that they had been having “lectures” for the Under-19 players before the previous two World Cups and even brought in psychologists. “We had workshops on building roles of responsibility. These lectures are also part of the National Cricket Academy already,” he said.

However, Rahul said that during his playing days, no one gave him a “lecture” and he learnt by watching and observing his seniors in Karnataka. He also said that the best learning process happens in the dressing room with seniors – though the culture of “locker room talk” among boys and men has come under the scanner of late for the casual sexism and misogyny that are part of those conversations.

Reiterating that we must not overreact, Rahul said that people forget that such incidents have happened in the past as well; though they get highlighted more now. That being said, Rahul agreed there was a need to continue mentoring players because the challenges they face on the field are different and they must fulfil their responsibilities as international cricketers.

“It can’t be everything was great earlier and everything is bad today,” he said.

Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul had appeared on the show Koffee With Karan, hosted by Bollywood director-producer Karan Johar. Hardik made several problematic comments about women and appropriating black culture. Post the backlash, he posted an apology on Twitter saying that he got carried away on the show and did not intend to hurt anyone.

The BCCI’s Committee of Administrators (CoA) is now contemplating a behavioural counselling programme for Indian cricketers. The body had also suspended the cricketers, who were called back from playing in the ODI series against Australia and are likely to be barred from the ODI series against New Zealand as well. Their fate will now be decided by a Supreme Court appointed ombudsman. 

Agencies

Nasheman News :  India skipper Virat Kohli was on Tuesday named captain of both the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Test and ODI Teams of the Year following his remarkable show in 2018 both as batsman and skipper.

According to an ICC statement, pacer Jasprit Bumrah is the other Indian to make it to both the sides while stumper Rishabh Pant is the third Indian to find a place in the Test Team of the Year.

Besides Kohli and Bumrah, opener Rohit Sharma and chinaman Kuldeep Yadav are the other Indians to be named in the ICC ODI Team of the Year.

The awards, which honour performances during a calendar year, saw Kohli walk into both sides which were selected by the ICC Voting Academy comprising former players, members of the media and broadcasters.

Kohli’s 1,322 runs at an average of 55.08 with five centuries in 13 Tests and 1,202 runs at an astounding average of 133.55 with six hundreds in 14 ODIs saw him selected to both sides by every voting member of the Academy with the majority of them also opting to name him at the helm of each.

Kohli also ended 2018 as the top-ranked Test and ODI batsman in the MRF Tyres ICC Player Rankings while his side finished the year as the top-ranked side in Tests and number two behind England in ODIs.

Reacting to the news, an elated Kohli said: “It has been an amazing year. I was able to play in a manner that I would not have imagined. If the intention is right and you keep working hard, the results are there in front of your own eyes.

“The intent has always been to help your team at any cost, that is when these performances come by and you are pushing yourself to the limit, which you otherwise will not be able to. That is something I experienced in 2018 a lot,” he added.

Meanwhile, besides the three Indians — Kohli, Bumrah and Pant — New Zealand also has three players in the Test squad — captain Kane Williamson, Henry Nicholls and opener Tom Latham.

Five other nations make up the remainder of the Test team — Dimuth Karunaratne (Sri Lanka), Jason Holder (Windies), top-ranked Kagiso Rabada (South Africa), Nathan Lyon (Australia) and Mohammad Abbas (Pakistan).

Similarly in the ODI team, besides the four Indians, England also have four players — Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes.

Bangladesh’s Mustafizur Rahman, top-ranked Rashid Khan (Afghanistan) and Ross Taylor (New Zealand) complete the ICC ODI XI.

Nasheman News : Defending champions Punjab Royals defeated Delhi Sultans 4-3 in a Pro Wrestling League match here on Sunday, thanks to the brilliant performance of Bajrang Punia.

Bajrang Punia didn’t let the home fans down winning the decider against Andrey Kviatkovski of Delhi Sultans 9-0 in a closely fought 65 kg encounter between the two world championships participants. 

After the reversal of fortunes in the last encounter against Mumbai Maharathi, this was a much-needed win for the defending champions. 

In the sixth bout, Rio Olympics bronze medallist Delhi’s Sakshi Malik didn’t break much sweat while defeating 2018 national championships silver medallist Punjab’s Anita 11-0 and push the tie to the decider. This was a much improved performance by Sakshi than the one she had against Navjot Kaur of UP Dangal in the last match.

Earlier, the 2017-18 World Military Championships gold medallist Russian Khetik Tsabalov of Delhi Sultans won the first bout of the evening against the Asian Championships bronze medallist Punjab Royals’ Vinod Kumar 14-0 after the referee awarded the bout to the former mid-way through the second round due to technical superiority. Khetik was leading 10-0 at the break.

Punjab Royals’ 2018 European Championships bronze medallist Cynthia Vescan withstood a tough challenge from the 2018 European U23 Championships gold medallist Delhi Sultans’ Anastasia Shustova to win the bout 2-1 and restore parity for the defending champions.

In the men’s 86 kg category, the 2016 European Championship bronze medallist Dato Magarisvili of Punjab Royals dismissed last year’s national champion Praveen of Delhi Sultans scoring an impressive 12-0 win on technical superiority under two minutes.

National champion Delhi Sultans’ Pinki defeated national runners-up Punjab Royals Anju in the 53 kg bout between two familiar foes. 

Pinki was coming to this bout riding on the wave of an upset win over world champion Vanesa Kaladzinskaya in the previous round. But Anju gave Pinki a good run for her money before succumbing 4-9. Both teams were two wins apiece at this stage.

The 2018 Commonwealth Games silver medallist Korey Jarvis of Punjab Royals won the 125 kg bout against Delhi Sultans Satender Malik 7-2 despite the Indian holding the Canadian at bay for most part of the bout.

 Nasheman News : Sandro Rodriguez scored on either side of the half and Pedro Manzi helped himself score arguably the goal of the season and another to boot, as Chennai outclassed Aizawl FC 4-3 to take a step closer to the I-League crown at the Nehru stadium here.

Albert got a 37th minute equaliser for Aizawl after Sandro gave the hosts a lead in the 28th, and for a while till the quarter hour-mark of the second-half, the visitors looked in the ascendency before Manzi Magic struck a definitive blow to take the game away from Aizawl, despite a late rally by them.

The win takes them to 30 points with seven more games to go and an eight-point gap from their nearest rivals at this stage. Stanley Rozario, the new Aizawl coach, looked positive, to begin with Albert Zohmingmawia Vanlalduatsanga in place of Lalrosanga and Fanai, who had started the previous game.

For the hosts as well, Akbar Nawas was forced to leave out a suspended Roberto Eslava and played the versatile Jozef Kaplan in defence. Sri Ram was also replaced by Srinivasan Pandiyan, who came back from suspension.

Chennai took the lead in the 28th minute after a move created by Pravitto Raju on the right saw him try to set up a Nestor with a cut back in. The Spaniard displayed vision to leave it for Sandro backing up, who let go from distance and the ball caught Gurpreet’s palms before going into the Aizawl net.

About 10 minutes later, Alfred Jaryan muscled the ball away from Pandiyan in the centre of midfield and played a quick 1-2 with Kasagga and upon getting the ball back, released Albert who had made a darting run into the box from the right.

The talented youngster brought back by Stanley Rozario after not getting much game-time during Raikhan’s tenure earlier, coolly slotted the ball between Santana’s legs and into the Chennai net.

From then till the 60th minute of the game, Aizawl clearly looked the better team and threatened many a time to take the lead.

Ivorian Zikahi Dodoz was guilty of missing at least two gilt-edged opportunities to score. Chennai also had their fair share of misses and Romario was the main culprit missing a sitter in the 58th minute after misdirecting a volley earlier.

Then there was simply some Manzi Magic at the hour mark.

A ball cleared by Romario from the Chennai back line bounced in front of Pedro Manzi just inside the Aizawl half near the right touchline. The Spanish sniper took a touch forward, looked up, saw keeper Gurpreet off his line and fired from 40 yards out to lob the keeper and nestle the ball into the Aizawl net.

It was a goal worthy of taking him to the top of the 12th Hero I-League goal scorers’ list with his 12th of the campaign.

It was a goal feast from then on with Sandro getting his second of the game in the 69th, not for the first time in this year’s campaign, swinging in a brilliantly taken free-kick, to beat Gurpreet all ends up.

Nestor, who had a relatively quieter day, then got into the mix, playing in the perfectly weighted ball into the box for Manzi, who had initiated the move from the right. The striker chipped in calmly over the keeper for this 13th.

Then in injury time, Aizawl attempted an outrageous comeback with two more outstanding goals, ushering in a thrilling finish.

First, Isaac controlled a second ball off a corner, took a touch forward with his left foot to create space and curled it intelligently over Santana in the Chennai goal.

A minute later, Aizawl intercepted the ball in the midfield and Mapuia, played on inside the box, shrugged off his marker to unleash a right-footer past Santana. It was Mapuia’s third of the season and all his goals have been quality so far.

Nasheman News : Traditionally a tough, rural sport practised by ‘pehlwans’ in villages across the length and breadth of India, kabaddi has been flying high in recent years due to the money and glamour brought in by the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL).

This new-found professionalism has certainly helped the top-level players and turned this typically ‘desi’ sport into a lucrative career option.

But going by a longstanding trend in Punjab, the benefits are yet to trickle down to the average athlete at the village level in the state.

Generally considered to be one of the traditional powerhouses of kabaddi in the country, players from Punjab are making news in faraway Canada for the wrong reasons. 

Nearly 47 per cent of the youth going to the country in the name of participating in Kabaddi tournaments have failed to return, a confidential report of the Canadian government has pointed out.

“In 2015, 2016 and 2017, visas were issued to 261 kabaddi players. Forty seven percent of them failed to report back to the migration office in Chandigarh, 26 per cent obtained work permits after entry to Canada and 1 per cent made refugee claims,” the internal report of Canada’s Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship (Ministry), which is with media, has stated.

“While the rate of return increased from 42 per cent in 2015 to 62 per cent in 2017, the rate of persons obtaining work permits unrelated to Kabaddi has also increased from 21 per cent to 30 per cent,” it pointed out.

The youth are invited to Canada by kabaddi federations based there to play matches organised by the strong Indian community residing in the country.

“The rate of players who obtained work permits after entry to Canada (26 per cent) in 2015, 2016 and 2017 suggests that they intended to enter Canada primarily for long-term work unrelated to playing Kabaddi,” the report said.

Selection by a Canada-based kabaddi federation for visa facilitation effectively allowed the players to circumvent the conventional examination of work permit applications at a migration office outside of Canada. 

With an increasing number of youth applying for Canadian visa in the name of kabaddi, the Canadian ministry, in 2017, had invited kabaddi federations in Canada to participate in a pilot programme related to the sport. 

Players and federations were informed of the requirement to report back to the migration office at the conclusion of the season in Canada in December 2017. That year, 78 kabaddi players’ applications were approved for the four inviting federations. Of these, only 62 per cent reported back while 30 percent stayed back and obtained a work permit by presenting themselves with a labour market impact assessment at a land port of entry as “visa exempt” clients.

Among the four federations, according to the report, players of two federations had a rate of return of 29 per cent only. Players of the other two federations had an 88 per cent rate of return.

When contacted by media, officials at the national kabaddi federation refused to comment on the issue.

“The federation has nothing to do with this issue. These players go abroad on their personal initiative and at the behest of tournament organisers over there,” an official said on condition of anonymity.

Earlier, rate of refusal of visa applications for Kabaddi players was as high as 65 per cent (in 2014). 

Canada’s Chandigarh visa office receives the vast majority of temporary resident applications from kabaddi players wishing to play in Canada. 

“Kabaddi players applying through Chandigarh are typically young, single unsalaried males with limited economic prospects in their home county. Most belong to rural agricultural families with modest land holdings which may be held in common with several persons. Most applicants play for their village club which is usually supported by local patrons. It is difficult to gauge a player’s skill or standing in the sport as there is no formal structure at this level,” the report pointed out.

“Misrepresentation and fraudulent documentation are of concern. Fraudulent documentation, including photo-substituted evidence of applicants playing kabaddi, have been encountered among the supporting documentation submitted with applications,” it added.

Nasheman News :  Serena Williams used the 18-year-old Dayana Yastremska’s inexperience to her advantage as she overpowered the Ukrainian to make it to the fourth round of the Australian Open on Saturday.

She routed her opponent 6-2, 6-1 in a match that lasted an hour and seven minutes, reports Efe.

“I’m taking every match as it comes, but I’m playing as hard as I can, the best I can do and I love it out here,” Williams said.

The 23-time Grand Slam champion and seven-time Australian Open champion, is now set to play against either World number one Simona Halep from Romania or her elder sister Venus Williams.

Serena, who was defeated by Venus 7-6(4), 6-1 in their first Australian Open face-off in the second round in the year 1998, defeated Yastremska with her strong serves and stalled the Ukrainian’s attempt to make a comeback in the match.

“You did amazing. You did so well. You did amazing. Don’t cry. You did really well,” Serena told Yastremska after the match.

“I thought she played amazing, came out swinging. I felt like she came out ready to go,” she added.

Nasheman News : India rode a third consecutive half-century by former skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni to defeat Australia by seven wickets in the third One-Day International (ODI) here on Friday.

The visitors thus clinched the three-match series 2-1.

Dhoni anchored the innings with a steady unbeaten 87 off 114 balls as the Indians chased down the 231-run target with four balls to spare.