Maharashtra score perfect 10
Mumbai: Maharashtra on Sunday played brilliantly and went on to record a thumping 10-0 win against a lowly Dadra Nagar Haveli in their second Group-B league match of the West Zone leg of the National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy 2018-19 at Solapur. Hosts Maharashtra enjoyed a commanding 7-0 advantage at interval. This is the second successive win for Maharashtra, who now occupy top position in the group with six points and are virtually assured of a place in the semi-final. They meet Rajasthan in the last league game on Tuesday. Earlier, Gujarat produced a strong second half performance and banged in five goals during this period to hand Rajasthan a thumping 6-0 defeat. Gujarat strikers Musamiyan Syed and Aditya Jha both netted a brace of goals each while Pavan Ramanuj and Arun Chaudhary added one each. Maharashtra started in domineering fashion but had to wait till the 18th minute to open the scoring with Sanket Soloke scoring the first of his four goals. Arif Shaikh added two, while skipper Linekar Machado, Mrunal Tandel, Rohan Shukla and Vinodkumar Pandey all chipped in with one each to round-off Maharashtras emphatic victory, the release stated. (PTI)
Advani takes natl snooker title
Indore: Ace Indian cueist Pankaj Advani on Sunday claimed yet another Senior National Snooker title with a thumping win over young Laxman Rawat in a one-sided final here. Advani annexed the national title, this time in snooker, taking his total tally of Indian championships to a whopping 32 golds. After winning 11 Indian titles as a junior, Advani, as a senior, has won nine billiards, three six-red snooker and now nine snooker gold medals. From a statistical point of view, Advani now has 21 world titles and 21 national titles in both snooker and billiards. Advani took his younger opponent Rawat to the cleaners with a 6-0 win in the final. The match was mostly defined by the champion’s experience as he brought on a lethal combination of scoring and safety of the highest quality. The only really close frame was the fourth which could have ended with the scoreline reading 3-1, giving young Rawat an outside chance of a comeback. But once Advani clinched that too with a fine clearance, it was early curtains for Rawat. In the women’s final, Varshaa Sanjeev gave Bengaluru another reason to rejoice as she joined Advani in winning the snooker national title by defeating Arantxa Sanchis of Maharashtra 4-2. Sanjeev accounted for the top women cueists in this tournament as she knocked out Amee Kamani in the quarterfinals and Vidya Pillai in the semis. (PTI)
Student dies during soccer match
Kolkata: In a tragic incident, a 23-year-old law student, who was here to compete in the inter-university football tournament, died on Sunday after suffering cardiac arrest, family sources said. Rittik Das, who was pursuing law at the National Law University Odisha in Cuttack, collapsed on the field at the Sports Authority of India Eastern Centre and was rushed to the nearby hospital in the afternoon. “He was declared dead on arrival. Following post-morterm his body was taken to his hometown in Bhubaneswar on Sunday. He was asthmatic and that may have complicated it,” the family source said. Rittik is survived by his father RR Mohanty an Indian Revenue Service officer posted in New Delhi, mother Sumana Mohanty, a Railway employee and a younger sister. This is the second death at the SAI Eastern Centre in less than two years. 18-year-old shuttler from Madhyamgram Niharendu Mallick had died while training in September 2017. “This was nothing to do with SAI. It was a three-day inter-law university sports meet and they had taken the grounds on rent,” a SAI official said. SAI director MS Goindi was not available for a comment. (PTI)
Six of world’s top 10 in Qatar
Doha: Despite the loss of world number one Naomi Osaka through injury, six of the women’s top 10 players descend on Doha this week for the Qatar Open. Australian Open champion — and the sport’s new superstar — Osaka withdrew last week due to a back injury, leaving a big hole to fill for tournament organisers, which they have done with a strong field including three former world number ones. Simona Halep is now the top seed and the Romanian will be joined by the Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova and Germany’s Angelique Kerber as the top seeds. All three were formerly at the top of the women’s rankings, Halep only being ousted by Osaka last month after Melbourne. Halep, now ranked three in the world, and Kerber, sixth, are both Grand Slam winners. Pliskova, the world number five, is a former US Open finalist. World number seven Elina Svitolina of Ukraine — a wildcard replacement for Osaka — is the fourth seed. Also in Doha from the top 10 will be world number eight Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands and Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, ranked tenth. The Dane was the runner-up to Pliskova in 2017. (PTI)