BFC prevail over FC Goa 2-1
Margao: Bengaluru FC accounted for FC Goa 2-1 in a fiery Hero Indian Super League encounter at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Thursday. Rahul Bheke opened the scoring with an improvised backheel flick in the 34th minute. Both teams were reduced to 10 men after the restart as Mohammad Ali and Dimas Delgado were sent off. Brandon Fernandes equalised for the hosts in the 72nd minute but Sunil Chhetri notched the winner for Bengaluru five minutes later. The win takes Bengaluru — only unbeaten side in the ISL — level on points with FC Goa at the top of the table with two games in hand over the Gaurs.
PKL: Fortunegiants beat Steelers
Ahmedabad: Gujarat Fortunegiants ended their home leg of Pro Kabaddi League season 6 with a comfortable 40-31 win over Haryana Steelers here on Thursday. Sachin led the scoring charts with 10 points while defender Parvesh Bhainswal achieved another high five and scored six tackle points. Monu Goyat had an indifferent first half but ended up being the top scorer for Haryana Steelers with 10 points. Gujarat's top raider Sachin also hit the 100-point landmark in this edition of Vivo Pro Kabaddi League. Gujarat are now top of the table in Zone A with 58 points from 14 matches while Haryana are fifth in the table with 26 points from 14 matches.
Prajnesh extends super run
Pune: In-form Prajnesh Gunneswaran dished out yet another impressive performance to make the semifinals of the KPIT-MSLTA Challenger, taming Alexander Nedovysov in straight sets, here on Thursday. Prajnesh tacked the seasoned Kazakh, who once figured in top-100 but is now 186, with ease, winning 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 23 minutes at the $ 50,000 hard court tournament. Prajnesh stood out with his fluent stroke-making, specially with his free-flowing forehand which is his biggest weapon. Earlier, Brayden Schnur prevailed in a tense marathon match against Frederico Ferreira Silva 7-6(4), 2-6, 7-5 after battling hard for two hours and 26 minutes. It was a nerve-wracking contest with both the players playing solid from the baseline. In another intense quarterfinal, third seed Elias Ymer had to dig deep to tame German qualifier Sebastian Fanselow 5-7 6-3 6-4.
Milind misses world record
Bhubaneswar: Milind Kumar continued his sublime form with the bat to smash 133, his third successive triple-figure score, but Sikkim still failed to save follow-on against Uttarakhand in their Ranji Trophy Plate group match on Thursday. Having struck 261 and 224 in the last two matches, the former Delhi batsman once again waged a lone battle for Sikkim. Milind had a great chance to become the only batsman in the history of first-class cricket to score three consecutive double tons but Dhanraj Sharma dismissed him 67 runs short of the world record. Overnight 49/3 in reply to Uttarakhand's 582/9 delcared, Sikkim were shot out for 264 in 96 overs with only two other batsmen — skipper Nilesh Lamichaney (57) and Bipul Sharma (36) — managing double digits. Following-on, Sikkim were 27/2 in 2nd essay staring at a loss as they still needed 291 runs to avoid an innings defeat.
Delhi fight at 245/6 against Hyd
Hyderabad: Delhi's hopes of taking the first-innings lead looked slim with Hyderabad reducing the visitors to 245 for six in an Elite Group B Ranji Trophy match. At stumps on the third and penultimate day, Delhi trailed the hosts by 215 runs with four lower-order batsmen to follow. Hyderabad notched up 460 in their first innings. Hiten Dalal was the day's top-scorer with 93 off 180 balls while Nitish Rana, in his maiden season as Delhi skipper, contributed 82 off 179 deliveries. While Dalal found the fence 14 times and cleared it once, Rana struck nine boundaries and a six. Slow left-arm spinner Tanay Thyagarajan, who finished the day with 3/41 in 21 overs, was quite impressive for a debutant and gave Hyderabad the much-needed breakthrough when he bowled Dalal.