I-league: High-flying Churchill Brothers a threat to Aizawl
PANAJI: Fresh from their upset win over Minerva Punjab FC, Churchill Brothers have another big task cut out for them against defending champions Aizawl FC in an I-league clash at the Tilak Maidan here on Tuesday.
The Paulo Menezescoached Aizawl, who are coming from a stalemate against Chennai City FC, would be wary of the Red Machines who are looking to be the team to beat at the moment.
Aizawl have reasons to be worried as they are winless in their last five matches — counting the AFC Champions League game against Zob Ahan. Their not-so-decent run of results has seen them slump to a lowly sixth on 16 points and Churchill Brothers are only three points behind the defending champions.
Churchill Brothers are growing in confidence with each passing game and they have targeted a top-half finish for the season. After the addition of players like Koffi Mechac, Kalu Ogba, Eldor Hussein and others, the Red Machines look like a different animal.
“It is my belief that if we had this whole set of foreigners from the beginning, we could have been in the top two and even heading the league table with some distance,” Churchill Brothers coach Alfred Fernandes suggested.
“In the initial stages of the season, we lost five matches which is 15 points. So you see the recovery we had to make from the five defeats.”
Menezes agreed that this Churchill Brothers team is not the same as the side they had beaten in the reverse fixture.
“You cannot compare this Churchill Brothers to the one that played in Aizawl against us. They have improved a lot. It will be a very tough game. But we are ready,” Menezes said.
But Churchill coach Alfred Fernandes is prepared to face a backlash from Aizawl after their poor run of form. CHANDIGARH: In-form young golfer Shubhankar Sharma was on Monday elevated from 193 to 72, a gain of 121 spots, in the world rankings making him the highest-ranked Indian in the world.
Sharma has enjoyed a golden run over the past few months on the international stage.
Nothing reflects the 21-year-old’s meteoric rise more than the giant strides he’s made in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) since his first European Tour win at the Joburg Open in December last year.
When Shubhankar entered the event in South Africa he was ranked 462 in the world. His victory at the Joburg Open soon catapulted him to 226.
Thereafter, his steep ascent has continued thanks to his second European Tour triumph at the Maybank Championship in Malaysia on Sunday.
Shubhankar, a Chandigarh resident, who has his roots in Jammu, has now not only broken into the top-100 for the first time in his career but has also emerged as the highest ranked Indian in the world surpassing Olympian and PGA Tour regular Anirban Lahiri, who is currently placed 76th in the OWGR.
Sharma now also has the rare distinction of leading both the European Tour Race to Dubai and the Asian Tour Order of Merit. Shubhankar’s latest success also helped him join the exclusive club of Indians who have achieved two wins in the same European Tour season, the others being Jeev Milkha Singh (2006) and Anirban Lahiri (2015).
The race to represent India at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics just got a lot more intense as there are now five Indians in the top-200 of the world.
With two and a half years still to go to the next Olympics, an interesting contest might ensue for the two berths on the Indian team as the likes of Shubhankar Sharma (72), Anirban Lahiri (76), Gaganjeet Bhullar (155), Shiv Kapur (192), Ajeetesh Sandhu (199) and SSP Chawrasia (226), are all in the fray at the moment.