SPORTS

New Delhi: Led by redoubtable veteran Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Chennai Super Kings on Saturday registered a comprehensive victory in the opening tie of the Indian Premier League. The former captain of the Indian national side Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led CSK beat Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), led by Dhoni's successor and current skipper Virat Kohli, by seven wickets in the opening encounter.

Batting first, RCB were bowled out for 70 in 17.1 overs in which Parthiv Patel top scored with 29 off 35 balls. Harbhajan Singh (3/20 in 4 overs), Imran Tahir (3/9 in 3 overs) and Ravindra Jadeja (2/15 in 4 overs) shared the wickets. Dwayne Bravo also chipped in with a wicket. In reply, CSK scored the runs in 17.4 overs with Ambati Rayudu scoring 28.

New Delhi: Star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra was named to lead a 39-member Indian athletics team for next month’s Asian Championships in Doha, with sprint sensation Hima Das also making the cut in 400m despite her recent below-par show.

National record holders Mohd. Anas (400m), Jinson Johnson (800m and 1500m), Dharun Ayyasamy (400m hurdles), Avinash Sable (3000m steeplechase), Tajinder Pal Singh Toor (shot put), Dutte Chand (100m) and Annu Rani (javelin throw) were also among those named in the team.

Tejaswin Shankar (high jump) and M Shreeshankar (long jump) -- both national record holders -- were left out of the team for different reasons while seasoned campaigners Seema Antil (discus throw) and Arpinder Singh (triple jump) opted out of the continental showpiece to focus on the World

New Delhi: Australia outplayed India in almost all the departments to clinch the five-match ODI series 3-2 thanks to a comfortable win in the fifth encounter in New Delhi.

It was a brilliant performance by the visitors are they fought back after going 0-2 down in the series and this win will be a great boost for them ahead of World Cup.

On the other hand, it was not good news for Virat Kohli & Co. After this defeat, India became the only side to lose an ODI series (of five or more matches) on two occasions after leading 2-0.

The previous instance was back in 2005 when they took a 2-0 lead against Pakistan but went on to lose the six-match series 2-4.

New Delhi: Indian boxing star Vijender Singh is currently training under Hall of Famer Freddie Roach, who shaped the likes of Manny Pacquiao and Mike Tyson, will make his debut in the American professional circuit on April 12 against a yet-to-be-decided opponent.

Vijender, unbeaten in his 10-bout pro career, will make his US debut at Staples Center on THE Vasiliy Lomachenko-Anthony Crolla undercard. It will be an eight-round contest and his opponent will be announced later.

The 33-year-old Vijender recently relocated his training base to Los Angles where he is training at the ‘The Wild Card Boxing Club’ under Roach, a 2012 International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) inductee, his India promoters IOS Boxing Promotions said in a press release.

New Delhi: It was the highest ever total that Indian team failed to defend in its ODI history, losing the game by four wickets. Unheralded Ashton Turner took an experienced Indian attack to the cleaners with some unbelievable hitting, helping Australia chase down a record breaking target of 359 runs and level the five-match series on Sunday.

Playing only his second ODI, Turner hit an unbeaten 84 off 43 balls with five boundaries and as many six sixes to help Australia win in only 47.5 overs. Earlier in the day, Shikhar Dhawan fired India to 358 for nine with a sublime 143 off 115 balls.

New Delhi: Wrestler Ritu Phogat, youngest of the celebrated “Phogat Sisters”, was dropped from the government’s Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) after she decided to shift her loyalty to Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).

The Sports Authority of India (SAI) decided to axe Ritu from the TOPS programme after the young wrestler made herself unavailable for 2020 Tokyo Olympics and decided to try her luck in MMA in Singapore.

“Wrestler Ritu Phogat who had earlier been inducted into the TOPS scheme, has been excluded from the scheme since she will not be participating in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, on account of her shifting to Singapore to train for Mixed Martial Arts,” the SAI said in a statement.

New Delhi: Mahendra Singh Dhoni will look to get his team off to a flying start in the tournament when Chennai Super Kings take on Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first match of the 12th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Saturday.

Over the years, Chepauk has been Dhoni’s happy hunting ground and he has scored bucketloads of runs at this famous venue. Dhoni stands second on the list of most runs scored at this stadium in the IPL. Dhoni’s teammate and the highest run getter in IPL Suresh Raina takes the top spot.

To make matters worse for the visitors, Dhoni also enjoys a great record against RCB and he is the leading run-scorer against RCB in the cash-rich league. Dhoni’s 710 runs against RCB is better than the likes of Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma.