Junior WC team announced
New Delhi: Hockey India on Friday announced an 18-member Indian junior men's team for the Junior World Cup scheduled to be held at lucknow from December 8 to 18. The team includes dragflicker and defender Harmanpreet Singh, who has been nominated for the 2016 Rising Star of the Year award from the FIH. He was also part of the Indian team that participated in the 2016 Rio Olympics. Known for his abilities as a striker, Mandeep Singh too finds himself in the squad. He will be joined in the forward line by Armaan Qureshi, Parvinder Singh, Gurjant Singh, Ajit Kumar Pandey and Simranjeet Singh. India's custodian in goal will be Vikas Dahiya who was also part of the Indian team at the Rio Olympics as a stand-by goalkeeper for PR Sreejesh. Krishan B Pathak will be the second goalkeeper for India.
Harbhajan to lead Punjab
Mohali: Harbhajan Singh was named the captain of the Punjab Ranji Trophy team that will take on Tamil Nadu, to be played at Nagpur from 21-24. Harbhajan will be playing the first match of the current Ranji season. Punjab have so far played five matches in Pool A and accumulated 16 points with two wins, two draws and a loss. After the match in Nagpur, Punjab will clash with Gujarat and then in the last league match they will play Mumbai, Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) spokesman Sushil Kapoor said.
Sindhu reaches semifinals
Fuzhou (China): Olympic silver-medallist P V Sindhu advanced to the semifinals of the China Open after defeating local favourite He Bingjiao in straight games at the $700,000 Super Series Premier event, here on Friday. Seventh seed Sindhu notched up a 22-20, 21-10 win over Bingjiao, who has won four titles — Bitburger Open, French Open, Japan Open and Swiss Open — this season in women's singles competition. The 21-year-old will take on the winner of the match between Japan's Akane Yamaguchi and sixth seed Sung Ji Hyun, seeded sixth. In men singles, Ajay Jayaram could not get across the reigning Olympic champion, two-time World champion and All England champion Chen long of China, suffering a 15-21, 14-21 defeat.
Delhi suffer 3-4 loss to Pune
pune: Delhi Dynamos suffered a shock 3-4 defeat at the hands of Pune City FC in a thrilling match but still maintained their top spot at the points table in the Indian Super league football here on Friday. Delhi took the lead through Kean lewis (44th minute) but Pune turned the match around in second session with goals from Anibal Rodriguez (55th and 63rd), Mohammed Sissoko (62nd) and lenny Rodrigues (90th). An own goal from Pune player Eduardo Ferreira (79th) and Malsawmzuala's strike in the injury time kept Delhi in the hunt till the very end before losing the match at Balewadi. This was Delhi's second defeat this season. Agencies