Ankita’s win in vain as China triumph
NEWDELHI: A fired up Ankita Raina produced a stunning performance under pressure to shock world number 120, Lin Zhu, but that was not enough as India lost the Fed Cup tie against China 1-2 on the opening day of the Asia/ Oceania Group I competition here.
Playing with a lot of passion and energy, the 253rd-ranked Ankita came out with relentless hitting to catch Lin by surprise and beat her higher-ranked rival 6-3, 6-2 on the centre court at the RK Khanna Tennis stadium.
This was after 19-year-old Kar- man Kaur Thandi lost the first match 2-6, 2-6 to world number 125 Yafan Wang. Later, Ankita came back to play the decisive doubles with Prarthana Thombare, but the Indian pair was no match to the combo of Wang and Zhaoxuan Yang, world number 31 in doubles, as it went down 2-6, 6-7(1) to lose the tie. India next play formidable Kazakhstan, who blanked Hong Kong 3-0, in a must-win tie on Thursday.
NADAL TO PLAY AT QUEEN’S CLUB
LONDON: World No 1 Rafa Nadal will return to this year’s Queen’s Club Championships in what will be the 10th anniversary of his memorable triumph that served as a prelude to his maiden Wimbledon title. Nadal came into the 2008 event on the back of his fourth French Open title and beat Serbia’s Novak Djokovic in the final at West London. He then out- lasted his great rival and defending champion Roger Federer in five sets at Wimbledon.
“It is going to be the 10th anniversary of my victory there in 2008, it’s a great memory, winning there and three weeks later winning Wimbledon,” Spaniard Nadal said in a video posted to the tournament’s Twitter account.
“It was an unforgettable year. I am excited to be coming back and playing Queen’s again... I can’t wait to be there.”
Nadal last played the Wimbledon warm-up event in 2015 and lost to Alexandr Dolgopolov in the opening round. He pulled out of the event in the last two years due to injuries.
Delhi produced a solid top-order batting performance to beat Tripura by seven wickets and register their second win in Group B of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, here on Wednesday.
Sent in to bat, Tripura rode on half-centuries from opener Bishal Ghosh (84), Yashpal Singh (61) and Gurinder Singh (54 not out) to post a challenging 298 for seven in 50 overs. But the total wasn’t enough as Tripura bowlers fizzled in front of Delhi’s toporder with Nitish Rana top-scoring with a 60-ball unbeaten 94 while chasing down the target in 39.1 overs. Besides Rana, Unmukt Chand carried on his good form with a 65-ball 55 and together with Hiten Dalal (76) shared 93 runs for the opening stand to set the platform for the chase.
Wicket-keeper Risabh Pant too played a fiery knock of 56 that came off just 18 balls. Despite an all-win record, Delhi are now second in Group B behind Maharashtra, who too have a 100 per cent record but are ahead on net run rate.
Maharashtra defeated Uttar Pradesh comfortably by 105 runs in another Group B match in Bilaspur. Sent in to bat, Maharashtra posted a massive 343 for five riding on Ankit Bawane’s unbeaten 117 and then bowled out Uttar Pradesh for 238 in 44.3 overs.
MAYANK SHINES
Mayank Agarwal continued his good form, hammering a 90-ball 109 to star in Karnataka’s 85-run win (via VJD method) against Baroda in Group A.
Sent in to bat by Baroda captain Deepak Hooda, the host suffered an early setback when Test opener KL Rahul fell for three.
Agarwal was in superb touch and played shots all round the wicket to keep the scoreboard ticking. Though Test discard Karun Nair failed to get going, Agarwal found an able partner in R Samarth (77) and the duo added 95 runs to set the platform for Karnataka.
After the exit of Agarwal for 109, Samarth added 74 runs with Pavan Deshpande. The stylish right-hander hit 14 fours and two
sixers in his knock.
A middle order wobble saw Karnataka lose a few quick wickets, but skipper R Vinay Kumar blasted a quickfire 34 towards the end to help the team finish at 312 for 9. In reply, Baroda lost wickets at regular intervals to fall behind the run rate.
BENGAL SETTLE FOR TIE
Manoj Tiwary’s unbeaten half century went in vain as Bengal had to settle for a tie against Kerala in Group B. Last year’s runner-up Bengal made a mockery of a modest 236 run chase as Kerala’s tidy bowling was backed up well by sharp fielding.