RAJA UPSTAGES VALERIY IN MAYOR’S CHESS
MUMBAI: FIDE master Raja Rithvik R pulled off a great upset when he defeated grandmaster Neverov Valeriy in the fifth round of the Rs 35 lakh prize money 11th Mumbai Mayor’s International Chess Tournament, at Mount Litera International School, Bandra Kurla Complex here on Wednesday. Results(5th round): Kravtsiv Martyn drew with Erigaisi Arjun 4-4, Tran Tuan Minh drew with Rozum Ivan 4-3½, Amonatov Farrukh beat Tran Minh Thang 3½-3½, Siva Mahadevan drew with Sandipan Chanda 3½-3½, Neelash Saha drew with Tukhaev Adam 3½-3½; Burmakin Vladimir drew with Sidhant Mohapatra 3½-3½, Raja Rithvik R beat Neverov Valeriy 3½-3½, Karthik Venkataraman drew with Saravana Krishnan P 3 1/2- 3.
KREISHH CLINCHES SNOOKER TITLE
Khar Gymkhana’s Kreishh Gurbaxani rallied to beat Shahyan Razmi of Radio Club to clinch the sub-junior title in the Khar Gymkhana BSAM Sub-junior and Junior Billiards & Snooker State Selection Tournament .
Results (Sub-junior snooker final): Kreishh Gurbaxani bt Shahyan Razmi 3-2 (37-72, 29-56, 57-3, 54-26, 50-24).
NSCI SQUASH RESULTS
Boys’ U-11: Saharsh Shahra bt Arjun Morey 11-5, 11-4, 8-11,11-9; Suren Gupta bt Varun Shah 6-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-6; Purav Rambhia bt Hriday Rajani 4-11, 11-8, 11-9,11-8.
Boys’ U-13: Vivaan Bhatia bt Arhaan Penwala 11-3, 11-4, 11-2; Arjun Somani Aryan Shah 11-5 15-13 10-12 11-7; Raghav Parthasarathy bt Teerth Jilka 11-2, 11-6, 11-7; Dhairya Shah bt Neil Malaney 11-1, 11-5, 11-5 .
Boys’ U-15: Ahaan Bhansali bt Aarav Gill 11-8, 11-8, 11-1; Om Semwal bt Sharav Jiwrajka 11-6, 11-2, 11-5; Arin Khot bt Mihit Mahale 11-9, 10-12, 11-4, 11-7 .
Boys’ U-17: Aryan Steve bt Arman Darukhanawalla 11-8, 5-11, 9-11, 11-3, 11-8; Tarun Mammen bt Krish Shah
7-11, 11-4, 11-4, 4-11, 11-6; Karata Dasmahapatra bt Avinash Sahani 11-9, 11-8, 11-6.
Boys’ U-19: Shloke Sahay bt Ajay Deshmukh 11-5, 11-7,11-3; Vedansh Kushwaha bt Shanay Sanghavi 11-5, 11-7, 9-11,11-8; Suraj Chand bt Shanay Dharod 11-2, 11-6, 11-3. DEHRADUN: It’s surreal to see fans cheering for a cricketer who is not from their own national team. The crowd at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here have been rooting and shouting slogans in praise of Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan against Bangladesh -- “Raashid, Raa-shid”. Such has been the 19-year-old leg-spinner’s impact over Afghanistan’s series win against Bangladesh.
The top-ranked T20 bowler, a role-model for youngsters of a war-torn nation like Afghanistan and a match-winner, Rashid Khan has seen it all. With 43 ODIS and 32 T20s under his belt, Rashid talks about his thoughts on the craze he garners back home, on the historical Test match against India and how prepared are the Afghanistan batsmen to face Indian spinners in Bengaluru.
Excerpts:
Like India is known to produce world-class batsmen and England, Australia and Pakistan for churning out top-class seamers, Afghanistan has become a nursery for producing spinners. We have got fantastic off-spinners, leg-spinners and left-arm chinaman in the domestic cricket. I think it has a lot to do with natural talent we have. Also, the conditions and the wickets in Afghanistan are conducive to spin. Youngsters fancy turning the ball with good use of their fingers. The response back home has been overwhelming. I have got so much love in India. My life has changed in the last two years. I never even dreamt that I would be playing for my country, top T20 leagues and bowling at top-batsmen of the world this early. But it looks like dreams do come true. Life is all about unexpected turn of events. I have tried to remain focused, believe in my skills are very proud of my achievements. He is living legend and I grew up It is going to be a great contest. It is going to be a big match for Afghanistan taking on a top team like India. I might have done well in T20 and ODI cricket but Test cricket will be new for me.
I am looking forward to test myself in the longer format and bowl according to situations, wicket and execute the plans session-wisesession. I don’t need to do anything special and bowl in the right areas. Playing Bangladesh has given us impetus ahead of the Bengaluru Test. Our batsmen have been playing well in the last six months. Asians are generally good while facing spinners that too in the sub-continent.
They have been training with spinners like Mohammed Nabi, Mujeeb-ur-rahman, Zahir Khan and me with total dedication. We can try to give our best without thinking about the result.