India A falter to concede 1st innings lead Potchefstroom: India A batsmen faltered against South Africa A spinners to concede a 46-run first innings lead from a comfortable position on day three of the second and final unofficial Test here. In response to South Africa's 322, India could manage 276 despite starting the day at 181 for three. The hosts, in their second innings, were 138 for four at stumps, extending their overall lead to 184 runs. Earlier, the Indian middle lower failed to capitalise on the good work done by the top-three Ravikumar Samarth (77), Sudip Chatterjee (46) and Shreyas Iyer (65). Iyer could not add much to his overnight tally after starting the day at 56. His innings comprised five fours and four sixes.
FC Pune City snap Marcelinho
Pune: Indian Super league side FC Pune City on Monday announced the roping in of the last edition golden boot winner Marcelo Pereira for the upcoming season. The Brazilian winger, who has plied his trade in Spain, Greece and Italy, represented Delhi Dynamos FC last season. In his 15 appearances, Marcelinho scored 10 goals and made five assists. On donning the orange and purple jersey this time, Marcelinho said: "It's exciting times ahead as I join FC Pune City. Antonio Habas is a great coach to work with and his vision for the club is something that got me excited. I will give my 100 % and ensure my stint with FC Pune City gives the Orange Army many reasons to celebrate."
Harika bounces back after 3 draws
abu dhabi: After three consecutive draws, Indian Grandmaster Harika Dronavalli bounced back with a win over CM Suleymanli Aydin of Azerbaijan in the seventh round of the Master's tournament of the Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival, here. The World No 9 Indian, playing with white pieces, started the game on an attacking note and gained an advantage in the initial stages of the game. However, the 12-year-old lad from Azerbaijan put up a staunch fight to contain the attacking Indian, but couldn't do so as Harika took the game away from him after 40 moves. "I got off to a great start and gained an advantage in the initial phases of the game but a few miscalculated moves from my end got me in a complicated position," Harika said.
Indian wrestlers off to poor start at Worlds
paris: India's Greco-Roman wrestlers got off to a poor start at the World Wrestling Championships with all four in the fray on Monday losing their opening round bouts here. Yogesh (71kg), Gurpreet Singh (75kg), Ravinder Khatri (85kg) and Hardeep (98kg) crashed out of the tournament following meek defeats. None of them got a chance of a repechage as their respective opponents lost in the subsequent rounds. Yogesh went down to Takeshi Izumi of Japan 1-3 while Gurpreet lost 1-5 to Mindia Tsulukidze of Georgia. Khatri was trounced 0-8 by Viktor lorincz of Hungary and Vilius laurinaitis of lithuania beat Hardeep 5-2.
Tripura to have new cricket stadium
paris: Tripura Cricket Association will build a world-class cricket stadium, with a seating capacity of 25,000, in collaboration with BCCI at Narsinghgarh near here. "It is a Rs 200 crore project of which 50 per cent would be borne by BCCI and the rest by TCA," TCA secretary Tapas Dey told reporters on Monday. It will be a modern stadium having all facilities and will be capable of holding all types of international matches, he said.