East Bengal go down to Kuwait SC
Kuwait City: East Bengal went down fighting 2-4 against Kuwait SC in the first leg semifinal of the AFC Cup football tournament here. For Kuwait SC, Issam Jemaa struck twice in the 18th and 33rd minutes while Waleed Ali Jumah and Chedi Hammami scored a goal apiece in the 31st and 48th minutes respectively. Uga Okpara and Lalrindika Ralte scored for East Bengal in the 66th and 87th minute respectively. The second leg between the two sides will be played in Kolkata on October 22. (PTI)
Clarke ruled out of India tour
Melbourne: Australia were dealt a massive blow on Tuesday ahead of their upcoming tour of India as captain Michael Clarke was ruled out of the limited-overs series due to a nagging back injury. Cricket Australia picked Callum Ferguson to take Clarke’s place. Clarke’s availability was in doubt for the series, which starts with a T20 on October 10 followed by a seven ODIs. George Bailey will captain the ODI team in Clarke’s absence with Brad Haddin as his vice-captain. “Michael was very keen to captain the ODI team to India but unfortunately he hasn’t progressed enough to be available for selection,” National Selector John Inverarity said. CA also said that Nic Maddinson has been included in the squad for the lone T20 match. (AFP)
Somdev, Bhupathi out of China Open
Beijing: Somdev Devvarman put up a valiant fight before going down to world number 31 Fernando Verdasco while Mahesh Bhupathi yet again stumbled in the doubles first round as the two Indians bowed out of the China Open, here on Tuesday. 97th-ranked Somdev saved as many as nine break chances, but lost the battle 6-7 (6), 3-6 in one hour and 34 minutes. In the doubles event, Bhupathi failed to cross the first round hurdle for the third successive time as he and his Swedish partner Robert Lindstedt suffered a straight sets defeat against Novak Djokovic and Stanislas Wawrinka. The second-seeded Bhupathi and Lindstedt lost 3-6, 3-6. Before this Bhupathi lost the first rounds of the US Open and in Bangkok. India’s challenge is still alive as top seeds Leander Paes and his Canadian partner Daniel Nestor will face Americans John Isner and Sam Querrey. (PTI)
Indian men 2nd in archery c’ship
New Delhi: The Indian men’s recurve team qualified an impressive second for the elimination round after Jayanta Talukdar and Tarundeep Rai finished 15th and 16th in the individual qualification round on the second day of the World Archery Championships in Belek, Turkey, on Tuesday. The Indian trio aggregated 3983 while Korea were way ahead with 4057 points in total at the top spot in the team event. In the recurve mixed team event, India were at fifth spot with 2676 points while Korea were on top with 2733. On Monday, Deepika Kumari qualified 10th for the main elimination round of the women’s individual recurve event with a total of 1345 points in the qualifying event which was topped by Bo Bae Ki of Korea (1376 points). Dola Banerjee finished at 49th on 1300 points while comeback woman Chekrovolu Swuro was 71st on 1283 points. The Indian women’s trio had qualified 12th. The elimination round of individual events in recurve and compound of both men and women begin tomorrow. The elimination round of team events begin on Thursday. (PTI )
BCCI appoints technical committee
Mumbai: Former India medium pacer Debashish Mohanty of Orissa and ex-stumper MSK Prasad of Andhra Pradesh have found a place in the BCCI’s nine-member technical committee, headed by former captain Anil Kumble. The BCCI, after its AGM held in Chennai on September 29, had announced that Kumble would head the technical panel for 2013-14 and put up details of the rest of the committee members on its website on Tuesday. Chief selector Sandeep Patil is also a member of the technical committee. The other members are Krishnamoorthy Hooda (North), Bimal Bharali (East), Vijay Naidu (Central), Ravi Deshmukh (West) and V K Ramaswamy (Former Test umpire). (PTI)