Sport

The man behind India’s best ever medal haul at the recently-concluded AIBA Women’s Youth Boxing Championship, Italian coach Raffaele Bergamasco, has been elevated to the position of Performance Director for senior women pugilists.

A BFI official said this during a felicitation function for the medal winners of the World Championships in New Delhi.

India lost to Rio Olympic Champions Argentina by a solitary goal in the first semi-final of the ongoing Hockey World League Final at Bhubaneswar yesterday.

The second semi-final between Germany and world champions Australia will be played today.

India will now play against the losers of the second semi-final on Sunday for the Bronze medal.

India won five medals at the 10th Asian Airgun Shooting Championships in Japan.

On the opening day of the competition at Wako City yesterday, Ravi Kumar won an individual bronze in the men’s 10 metre air rifle, while Arjun Babuta won individual silver in the corresponding junior men’s event.

India also bagged three team silver medals in each of the three air rifle events. However, Olympic bronze-medallist Gagan Narang missed out on an individual podium finish.

India go down 0-2 to Germany in a pool B match at the Hockey World League Final, in Bhubaneswar. Germany scored two goals in the second quarter yesterday to hand India their second defeat of the eight-nation tournament.

India, who drew 1-1 with Australia and lost 2-3 against England in their previous outings, thus finished at the bottom of Pool B table with just one point from three matches.

Right-arm seamer Jasprit Bumrah got his first Test call-up while wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel and all-rounder Hardik Pandya returned to the 17-member Indian squad for the three-match Test series in South Africa.

The national selectors, who met in New Delhi yesterday, picked seven batsmen, seven bowlers, one all-rounder and two wicketkeepers in the team to be led by Virat Kohli, beginning January 5. Ajinkya Rahane has been named as vice-captain.

Sri Lanka will resume their first innings from the overnight score of 356 for nine on the fourth day of the third and final test at Ferozshah Kotla in New Delhi today.

Skipper Chandimal on 147 and Lakshan Sandakan without score were on the crease when the stumps were drawn yesterday. Mathews hit 111 to score his eighth Test hundred.

For India, Ravichandran Ashwin took three wickets while Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja bagged two each.

The visitors are still 180 runs behind with one wicket in hand.The hosts had declared their first inning 536 for seven.

In the ongoing Hockey World League (HWL) Final in Bhubaneswar, India lost to England 2-3 in their second Pool B yesterday. On Friday, the hosts had held World Champions Australia One-One.

In other matches , the pool B game between Germany and Australia ended in a 2-2 draw, Belgium and Spain won their first respective matches in Pool A.

With the goal of Sam Ward in the last minute, England defeated India 3-2 in the World Hockey League final on Saturday. In Pool B, Ward scored goals in the 43rd and 57th minutes of the match, while David Goodfield scored a goal in the 25th minute of the match.

Akashdeep Singh converted India's penalty corner in 47th minute and Rupinder Pal Singh in the 50th minute into the goal. Both teams were unable to score goals in the first quarter. The Indian team, who played a spectacular game against Australia, did not show any enthusiasm against England.

Especially, this was seen in the first quarter. While SV Sunil kept the ball more than once for more than one time, it was a huge task for the Indian team to wait long enough to score Mandeep Singh's goal.

England kept pressure on Indian defense. England got the first goal in the 25th minute when England got a penalty corner, but they could not score. Later in the 25th minute Goodfield gave the team a 1-0 lead.

After five minutes remaining in the second half, India's Chinglensena Singh reached near to equalize the score, but England goalkeeper Harry Gibson did not let the goal go. In the 43rd minute of the match, the ward was successful in hitting the front and England's lead 2-0. After this, the Indian team played aggressive hockey. In the 47th minute where Akashdeep converted the penalty corner into the goal, Rupinder turned the penalty corner into the goal in the 50th minute. India scored two goals to score a equal of 2-2.

In the last ten minutes the match could turn any side. In the 57th minute, Ward scored the score to 3-2, making India lose the last minute.

In another pool-B match, Australia and Germany played 2-2 draws. In the seventh minute for Germany, Makare Milktou and Martin Haner scored in the 58th minute. At the same time, Black Gowers scored 39th and Aaron Clansmith scored goals in 49th minute for Australia.

Thanks to the three-wicket haul of fast bowlers Shivam Mavi and NA Rathwa, India Blue defeated Sri Lanka Board XI by 95 runs to win the Under-19 Challenger Trophy.

In the final match of the Cricket Club of India, India Blue was all out on 244 runs. Himanshu Rana made the most runs from India Blue. He scored 78 runs in 90 balls, including 10 fours. Wicket keeper Urville Patel (57), MS Bhadange (53)

On behalf of Sri Lanka, Ian Siriwardena took four wickets, while Ravindra Sanjana took three wickets. In reply to the batting, the Sri Lankan team kept the pressure from the Indian bowlers from the very beginning. In the 45.4 overs Sri Lanka's entire team was stacked on 149 runs. Mavi sent pavilions to both openers. For Sri Lanka wicketkeeper Mark Madhushka scored 44 and Ravindra Sanjana scored 28 runs. In another match for third position, India Green defeated India Red by 21 runs.

India will resume their overnight score of 371 for 4 in the third and final Cricket Test against Sri Lanka in New Delhi today.

Skipper Virat Kohli was on 156 and Rohit Sharma on 6 at the crease when stumps were drawn yesterday.

Electing to bat after winning the toss, Kohli and opener Murali Vijay made a mockery of sub-par rival attack with effortless centuries.

Kohli who is on a record-breaking spree, smashed his 20th hundred in the company of Vijay. Kohli also became the first international captain to score a hat-trick of hundreds in a three-Test series.

Vijay was out for 155, stumped off a Lakshan Sandakan delivery giving the visitors something to cheer about towards the end of the day.

India's Virat Kohli has become the first batsman in the world to score six double centuries in the form of a captain. They overtook West Indian great Brian Lara.

Apart from this, he also equaled the record of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag to make the highest double century by an Indian.

Kohli achieved this feat on the Feroz Shah Kotla ground in New Delhi on the second day of the third and final cricket Test against Sri Lanka.

India declared the first innings on 536 runs on seven wickets. Kohli scored two hundred 43 and Murali Vijay scored one hundred and 55 runs. Sri Lanka made 18 runs in 2 innings in the first innings of tea.