India starts well, Sachin departs

Australia won the toss and elected to field first in the second ODI of Hero Honda Cup between Australia and India. Indian openers, Virendra Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar, gave India the needed start. But Tendulkar got out in the fourth over at the score of 21. Australian bowler Peter Siddle got Mr Tendulkar.

Tendulkar was not up to expectation once again. On the other hand, Sehwag showed his colours and hit five boundaries till 8 th over in progress. After the dismissal of Sachin, Gautam Gambhir joined Sehwag and played his natural cricket. Till the 8th over, Gambhir was at 11 with two boundaries. India kept the per over run rate of 6.12 at the end of 8 the over. Australia conceded 6 extra runs with one bye and 5 wides. Yuvraj Singh has been included in the playing eleven in place of Virat Kohli.

Better balance in the team is needed: Dhoni

Indian cricket team skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni stressed the need of better bowling all-rounders and fielders. Dhoni, now, want to see a balanced side that comprises of better bowlers and fielders. He was speaking to the press after knocked out from the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy. He said that the team made a few mistakes in the first match and allowed the opponent to score runs.

Worse fielding added to the worries of the team. He called for a improvement of 15 to 20 per cent. Dhoni asked the team mates to bat well especially the blowers. The captain also agreed that he wanted Pakistan to win as it would give the team a chance to enter in the next round. He informed that they were watching the match between Pak and Aussies.

Kashyap crashed out in Japan Open

P Kashyap, the only player player survived in Japan Open, crashed out from the tournament. He was defeated 10-21, 10-21 by third seeded Peter Hoeg Gade in straight game. His journey of title ended with this loss in men's singles pre-quarterfinal in Tokyo. Kashyap started off well and quickly opened up a 4-0 lead but Gade crawled back to draw parity at 7-7 and from there on didn’t give any chance to the Indian to stage a comeback.

In the second game, the Dane cruised along right from the start as Kashyap’s game crumbled and he was left to do the catch up act. The result draws curtain on Indian campaign as ace Saina Nehwal, Jwala Gutta and V Diju crashed out of the tournament after suffering contrasting defeats in the first round.

Paes lift 10th Grand Slam, Wins men’s doubles in US Open

Indian top tennis player Leander Paes won the men’s doubles title of US Open. It is his 10th Grand Slam. He and his partner Luaks Dlouhy defeated Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. However, he lost the finals of doubles mix a couple of days ago. In the mix doubles he partnered with Kara black. On the other hand, Mahesh Bhupathi could not lift the title this too in a period of seven years.

For Paes it is his fifth men's doubles Grand Slam crown, 41st overall, and second with Dlouhy. It was also second title of the year for the seasoned Paes, who won French Open in June along with Dlouhy. Interestingly, Mahesh’s last victory came at the US Open only when he triumphed with Max Mirnyi in 2002. He had won the Australian Open mixed doubles title with Sania Mirza at the start of the season.

Yuki replaced Sanam in Davis Cup tie

Yuki Bhambri has got place in Indian Davis Cup team for the World Group play off tie against South Africa. Yuki will join the team with Somdev Devvarman, Rohan Bopanna, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi. Announcing Yuki’s name for the Davis Cup All India Tennis Association (AITA), it said that Yuki will replace Sanam Singh who is a reserve player for the tie against Chinese Taipei.

The matches will start from 18 and last till 20th of September. The coach of team will be Nanadan Bal while S.P. Misra has again been given the responsibility of non-playing captain. This will be crucial tie for India as there are chances of entering into the World Group after a gap of 11 years.

This chance also comes as a fruit to India since Australia didn’t come up to India for security reasons and India advances. A selector said that Bopanna is fully fit after an injury.

Nanao advances in World Boxing

Another good news for India has come from World Boxing Championship in Milan, Italy. After clearing first round by Jai Bhagwan, Nanao Singh also joined him for the second round. It may be recalled that top Indian boxers are already pushed out of the championship. Asian champion Suranjoy Singh (51kg), Olympian Akhil Kumar, Jitender Kumar (54kg) and Manoj Kumar (64kg) are the pugilists who lost their opening round bouts. But in the 48kg event, Nanao Singh did his best when he finish 21-6 win over Mamishzade Elvin of Azerbaijan in the first round.

Nanao dominated the game all the time. He was leading 7-2 at the close of the first round. The boxer managed to keep scoring points and stormed in the second round easily. But the road ahead will not be a bad of roses for him as he has to fight with Thai Pongprayoon Kaeo. Nanao could not give answers to the punches of Pongprayoon at the finals of the Asian Boxing Championships and had to contended with silver medal.

Vijender will not miss Khel Ratna ceremony

Olympic bronze medallist boxer Vijender Singh don't want to miss a life time opportunity that is Khel Ratan ceremony on 29 August at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. It may be recalled that Vijender was selected for Khel Ratan. In order to be present at the ceremony, Vijender has postponed his departure for the World Championships by a couple of days.

In fact, he had to depart for WC on August 27 with his nine member team but now he will fly on the night of August 29. Indian Boxing Federation (IBF) has allowed him to attend the ceremony along with team's assistant coach Jaidev Bisht who is to be awarded Dronacharya award the same day. Now Bisht will departure on the night of August 29.

In fact IBF had requested to held a separate award ceremony for these two but they didn't get any positive response from the sports ministry. So the IBF allowed the sportsmen to attend the ceremony themselves. It may be recalled that Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virendra Sehwag didn't attend the same kind of award ceremony for some reasons and had to face criticism.