Saina, Praneeth progress to semifinals
Bangkok: Olympic medallist Saina Nehwal and B Sai Praneeth advanced to the semi-finals of the USD 120000 Thailand Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament with convincing victories here on Friday. The second seeded Saina, ranked 11 in the world, defeated Japan's Haruko Suzuki 21-15, 20-22, 21-11 to make the last-four stage following the women's singles clash that lasted one hour and nine minutes. Earlier, the third seeded Praneeth comfortably defeated Thailand's Kantaphon Wangcharoen 21-16, 21-17 in the men's singles section at the Nimibutr Stadium. The world number 24 took 50 minutes to complete the task against his opponent.
Pak bans its cricketers for Afghan T20
Islamabad: The Pakistan Cricket Board has stopped its players from competing in Afghanistan's domestic Twenty20 league. Kamran Akmal, Umar Akmal and Babar Azam were among those Pakistan players contracted by franchises to compete in Shpageeza Cricket league, starting in Kabul from July 18. But the PCB said in a statement Friday that none of the Pakistan players or the coaches will be issued the required No Objection Certificate for the league in Afghanistan. "No Pakistani player or official can feature in the league," the PCB said. Ties between the Afghanistan Cricket Board and the PCB have become tense in the aftermath of Wednesday's bomb attack in Kabul, which killed at least 90 people.
Neeraj wins gold with meet record
Paris: Neeraj Chopra beat Davinder Singh in a thrilling men's javelin throw contest to win the gold on the second day of the Federation Cup National Senior Athletics Championships here on Friday. World junior record holder Chopra ran away with the honours with a fine best throw of 85.63m at the NS-NIS here. The Neeraj-Davinder duel was the highlight of the day. Both the athletes have already qualified for this year's World Championships in london. Neeraj's effort, a new meet record eclipsing Devender Singh's mark of 79.65m recorded in Mangalore in 2015, put him in the top 10 list in the world this season. Davinder finished second with a best effort of 83.82m, while Abhishek Singh of Uttar Pradesh threw the spear to 77m to claim the bronze.
Dighe appointed as Mumbai coach
Mumbai: Former international stumper Sameer Dighe was today named as the new coach of the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team for next season. "Sameer Dighe has been appointed as the Mumbai Ranji Team Coach for the season 2017-18", Mumbai Cricket Association said in a media release. Dighe and another former Test cricketer Praveen Amre were in the running to take over the mantle from last season's coach, Chandrakant Pandit. MCA's Cricket Improvement Committee, headed by chief selector Ajit Agarkar, met on Friday to pencil in the 48-year-old Dighe as its choice.