Month: September 2023

Jorge Martin recorded his third successive MotoGP sprint win at Motegi, fighting off KTM’s Brad Binder in the Saturday race.
It meant Martin has now closed to just eight points behind long-time championship leader Pecco Bagnaia, who completed the podium.
Having beaten Bagnaia to pole by 0.171s, Martin got a much better launch off the line than his title rival – which meant he wasn’t vulnerable to the fast-starting KTMs, but Bagnaia was.
The championship leader had to yield into Turn 1 to his former team-mate Jack Miller, then was overtaken into Turn 2 – the second part of the double-right – by Binder.
Binder acted quickly from there, executing a forceful overtake on his fellow KTM at the end of the back straight and latching on to the back of Martin, preventing a breakaway by the Pramac man.
But he could only do so in the first half of the 12-lap race, with Martin eventually starting to press home his advantage.
The main intrigue in the race had played out behind them, with a long battle between Miller and Bagnaia for the final podium spot as the leading duo left them behind.
Having followed Miller closely for the several laps, Bagnaia finally found his overtaking opportunity on the third-to-last tour – pressuring Miller to run wide at the end of the back straight, which then enabled Bagnaia to sweep around his outside at the next corner, Turn 12.
Honda rider Marc Marquez had run fifth in the opening stages of the race, even shadowing Bagnaia for an extended period, but then dropped back into the clutches of the chasing pack.
After fighting off Johann Zarco initially, Marquez had to contend with another satellite Ducati in Marco Bezzecchi – who had overtaken the Frenchman at the end of the back straight.
But when Bezzecchi tried to do the same with Marquez, they both ran very wide, Marquez rejoining in sixth behind Zarco and Bezzecchi ending up eighth behind Aleix Espargaro.
Zarco ultimately went on to escape into the distance, finishing just 0.121s behind Miller who the Pramac man had reeled in massively in the closing laps, while Bezzecchi eventually did work his way past Marquez with an overtake at the left-hander Turn 7.
It meant the VR46 Ducati rider at least salvaged sixth place from a day punctuated by his heavy qualifying crash. He’s now 47 points off the championship lead.
Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini Ducati) and Maverick Vinales (Aprilia) completed the points-scoring top nine behind Marquez, both moving up a spot when Vinales’ team-mate Espargaro pulled into the pits to retire with a yet-unspecified issue.
While four manufacturers scored points, Yamaha was nowhere near, Fabio Quartararo compromised by a bad start and only recovering to 15th – which still meant he was the lead Yamaha runner at the flag.
1 Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati)2 Brad Binder (KTM)3 Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati)4 Jack Miller (KTM)5 Johann Zarco (Pramac Ducati)6 Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati)7 Marc Marquez (Honda)8 Fabio di Giannantonio (Gresini Ducati)9 Maverick Vinales (Aprilia)10 Raul Fernandez (RNF Aprilia)

Rohit Sharma scored a fantastic 81 vs AUS at Rajkot (AP Photo)
India took on Australia in a three-match ODI series prior to the commencement of the much-awaited ODI World Cup. KL Rahul led the Men in Blue in the first two ODIs in the absence of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, which India won very convincingly in the end.
However, for the series final, Rohit Sharma made an appearance along with Mohammed Siraj and Virat Kohli. After being blown away in the first two ODI games, the Aussies put on a blitzkrieg show with the bat as Warner and Marsh led a brutal assault to help Australia reach an imposing total. Marnus Labuschagne played a good hand too scoring a formidable 72 (58) to steer Australia beyond the 350-run mark.
In pursuit 353, Rohit was straight away in business as he turned on his hitman mode. He had Washington Sundar at the other end who was batting at a very sedate rate. However, that didnt bother him one bit as he unleashed his fireworks against the likes of Starc, Hazlewood, and Cummins.
The 36-year-old played a flurry of powerful lofted shots which brought amount immense delight for the fans. He was subsequently joined by Kohli as the duo was desperately looking to up the ante to catch up with the required rate. 
Right when Rohit was appearing to be in menacing form, Maxwell sent him packing for 81 during the last ball of the 21st over by pulling off a stunning catch. Post his dismissal, India gradually started losing the plot and was eventually bundled out for 286.
Following the conclusion of the final ODI match, Marnus Labuschagne interacted with Fox Sports and was full of admiration for the Indian skipper. He opined that Rohit understands how to play risk-free cricket and reckons that he is a tough nut to crack once he gets into his groove.
“Rohit Sharma is someone who scored quite freely without taking any risks. He’s very hard to stop once get going,”Marnus Labuschagne said while talking to FOX cricket.
Meanwhile, both teams are gearing up to play their first warm-up game this Saturday. Australia are slated to take on Netherlands at Thiruvananthapuram while India will face off against England at Guwahati.

After fans around the globe participated in voting, the names of the two official ICC mascots have been revealed, ahead of the 2023 Cricket World Cup in India.
The ICC has announced that ‘Blaze’ and ‘Tonk’ have been unanimously chosen as the names of the mascot duo ahead of the Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 in India.
The two mascots will be seen in World Cup matches around all the venues, engaging and interacting with fans in attendance and adding to the excitement of the showpiece event. The duo were unveiled back in August and fans from around the globe were asked to help name them, with Blaze and Tonk emerging as the winners. 
ICC announces names for cricket mascots
‘Blaze’ is a female mascot, bowling at rapid pace, leaving batters in sheer awe. She is a fast-bowling sensation due to her pinpoint accuracy, unmatched reflexes, boundless flexibility, and unwavering determination. She is adorned with a belt carrying six power cricket orbs, each meticulously prepared for various game-changing tactics. 
‘Tonk’ is a male mascot, with icy-cool composure, making him a batting champion. His range of shots sizzle and leave the crowds electrified, with finesse and power on display in equal measure. Tonk has an electromagnetic bat and versatile shot repertoire, lighting up the grandest stage. 
The two mascots will be seen in action during the Cricket World Cup in India, starting October 5 with a heavyweight clash between England and New Zealand in Ahmedabad. The mascots will be visible in stadiums, as well as fan parks, amping up the atmosphere. The matches will be played across 10 venues and will conclude on November 19, culminating in the final clash at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

ICC World Cup 2023 Warm-Up matches: Australia vs Netherlands warm up match: Australia will play against Netherlands in a warm-up match today i.e. on September 30 ahead of the highly-anticipated ICC One Day International (ODI) World Cup 2023.When to watch Australia vs Netherlands warm-up match?
The Australia vs Netherlands warm-up match will start at 2 pm and will be played at Greenfield International Stadium, Thiruvananthapuram. 
Where to watch Australia vs Netherlands warm-up match?
The match will air LIVE on Star Sports channels. For LIVE streaming online, viewers can watch the match on the Disney+Hotstar app and website. 
Australian Squad: Pat Cummins (Captain), David Warmer, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Ashton Agar, Cameron Green, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Marsh, Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc.
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Netherlands Squad: Max O’Dowd, Teja Nidamanuru, Wesley Barresi, Bas de Leede, Colin Ackerman, Roelof van der Merwe, Saqib Zulfiqar, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Vikramjit Singh, Noah Croes, Scott Edwards (Captain), Aryan Dutt, Kyle Klein, Logan van Beek, Paul van Meekeren, Ryan Klein, Shariz Ahmad.
Apart from Australia vs Netherlands, Team India will also have a faceoff against England in a warm-up match today which will be held at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati, Assam. Ahead of the warm-up match today, Head coach Rahul Dravid said he is optimistic that the team will field a ‘full-strength’ side against England. This clash precedes the main tournament where India opens its campaign on October 8 against Australia. The pitch at Barsapara is considered a batters paradise. Excessive heat” is how Weather.com describes the weather in Guwahati on September 30. Severe heat is expected in this area,” it added. At the same time, rain and thunderstorms are expected in the afternoon.
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Kohli after a hard net session (AP Photo)
Virat Kohli is considered as India’s biggest hope as the Men in Blue will look to keep the glory home when the ten biggest cricketing nations fight it out in the upcoming World Cup 2023. However, the whole of India got a minor heartache when Kohli almost got injured even before the start of the much-awaited showpiece tournament.
A viral video is surfacing on major social media platforms where the Indian star batter is seen battling out with equally talented bowler Mohammed Siraj. The seamer bowled a good length delivery that seamed into the right-hander to take an awkward bounce and hit Kohli on the glove of his top hand, resulting in the batter losing his concentration in pain.
It is understood that the video is a few weeks old and was captured in Sri Lanka before the Asia Cup 2023 Final, which India won by a handsome margin – courtesy Siraj’s 6/21 versus Sri Lanka at Colombo. Fortunately, no severe injuries were sustained, and even Kohli has played an ODI fixture against Australia after that.
It is worth mentioning Kohli has played a role in fast-tracking Siraj from the Indian Premier League to the international level. And the RCB bowler never misses a chance to thank his former captain for the faith Kohli has shown in him.
Nevertheless, Kohli and Siraj are currently with Team India in Guwahati, where they are scheduled to face the reigning champions, England, in their first warm-up fixture on Saturday. 
The Rohit Sharma-led company will next travel to Thiruvananthapuram to play another warm-up game against the Netherlands before kick-starting their World Cup campaign against Australia on October 8.

Four reigning world champions, the first ever from India in their sport, start their Asian Games campaign on Sunday. One of those champions holds a world record too. But only the most serious sports fans would have heard of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Swami, Parneet Kaur and Ojas Deotale or know of compound archery, despite all those achievements coming last month. And the main reason for this is simple: Compound archery, unlike its sister sport recurve, is not an event at the Olympic Games, so it doesn’t get the eyeballs or, as importantly, the funding.
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The other reason for low awareness has of course been India’s lack of success but the recent achievements should test this theory during the Asian Games. And the one archer poised to make this happen is the uber-consistent and prolific Jyothi Surekha Vennam. She’s raised the sport’s profile almost single-handedly with her record-making, gold-winning performances at both the World Championships and World Cup.
“I think 2023 is my time to achieve everything I haven’t before,” Jyothi (27) from Vijaywada, told ESPN recently. “I am lucky enough and I hope this continues till the end of the year.”
In August, the Indian women’s compound team of Jyothi, Aditi and Parneet won India’s first ever gold medal at the World Archery Championships. Then Aditi (17) went on to become India’s first senior world champion, winning gold – and beating Jyothi in an all-Indian semi-final. (The previous month, she’d become the U-18 world champion with a record score.) The third gold came via Ojas Deotale (21), India’s first male world champion in archery.
Aditi Swami, 17, became India’s first individual senior world champion in compound archery in 2023. Dean Alberga/Handout/World Archery Federation via Getty Images
Their youth is another big plus, as Jyothi affirms. “They are young, this is the first year they have been part of the senior category and they did extremely well.”
All this puts compound archery at a tipping point and where it goes from here depends to a large extent on funding – all the more important because it is a far more expensive sport, thanks to the mechanical bow (as compared to the more traditional recurve bow). A top-level set-up bow can cost between 3.5-4.5 lakh. A set of one dozen arrows costs around 40,000 and getting them ready for shooting would take around 65,000-70,000. All equipment has to be imported from the US so it also depends on the dollar rate and exchange rate. “We need to use new arrows maybe every two tournaments because we practice a lot, maybe hit one arrow with another and they get damaged easily,” she explains. “We need to invest a lot to buy new equipment, to keep ourselves updated. Even the equipment matters for us because if you don’t use the best or the newest version it may lead to a difference of one or two point. That is where we lack in support.”
How’s compound different from recurve?
Compound archery uses a more mechanical bow compared to recurve. The compound bow, invented in the 1960s, uses a system of pulleys and cables, making it faster and more accurate. It also has a scope for sighting, a release aid that reduces the strength and effort required to pull the strings.A recurve bow is closer in shape to traditional bows.
But there are other factors, like administrative decisions, that show up the discrimination between compound and recurve. In 2021, for example, India’s compound archery team were not allowed to fly to the World Cup Stage 1 after what would later turn out to be a false positive COVID-19 test by the team coach, partly because the priority was the recurve team in an Olympic year.
Jyothi puts it plainly: “We don’t receive any support only because compound archery is not included in the Olympics. Olympic athletes receive a lot of support, including from private organisations, but we don’t.” She is currently supported by the Dream Foundation and says is grateful for it but not many of her peers have this back-up.
Jyothi hopes their recent performance can bring about some change.
“I can’t question them but I can only request them to extend support for non-Olympic athletes too,” she says, her generally composed tone becoming impassioned. “What’s our fault if our event is not in the Olympics? I know it’s a big event, but we are also competing in other events, we are also winning medals at World Championship and Asian Games and Asian Championship.”
Jyothi Surekha Vennam. Photo by Dean Alberga/Handout/World Archery Federation via Getty Images
The successes have raised the level of competition in the sport, says Jyothi. “The competition has become very tough now, we have to go through a rigorous selection process. There are many young archers coming up in compound who are shooting extremely well, who are giving a tough fight and you have to be so good if you want to be part of the Indian team.”
Indeed, Jyothi missed parts of the season and would probably have not made the Asian Games had it not been postponed last year after a bad day at the selection trials before.
But despite this rise in players and profile, the Asian Games will be an almost new platform for Jyothi and her team-mates, competing as Team India with athletes from different sports. Archery has featured only twice at the Commonwealth Games and the last Asiad had only team events in compound archery. India have won 10 compound medals at the Asiad, but only one gold: the men’s compound team in 2014.
Yet this group of archers have the momentum, they have the cred and they have a bigger target than the one on the range: They have to strike a blow for their sport, and for themselves.

R Ashwin finds a place in World Cup Team, injured Axar Patel replaced

Sergio Ramos to the rescue for Barca
Barcelona went on the attack before the match with a statement severing ties with Sevilla, and Xavi did the same with his XI starting Robert Lewandowski, Joao Felix, Raphinha and Lamine Yamal.
Barcelona went on to create plenty of opportunities to win the game but just could not get the ball into the back of the net. Joao Felix smashed a great chance against the bar, Gavi twice went close, while Robert Lewandowski had one off the line.
It looked like being one of those nights until the goal eventually came – but not from a Barcelona man from Sergio Ramos of all players.
Ferran Torres, who seems far more effective as a sub than a starter, crossed for Lamine Yamal who headed it back across goal to Fermin Lopez. Yet instead of reaching the Barca youngster it hit Ramos and rolled across the line for the only goal of the game.
Barcelona fans obviously loved it, signing the former Real Madrid skippers name and delighting in the fact he had handed a very sweet win to Xavis side that sends them, temporarily at least, top of the table again.
Fermin Lopez stakes his claim
Its been a good week for Fermin Lopez. He scored the equaliser against Mallorca, went back to university in midweek to continue his studies and then starred for Barca again on Friday.
Xavi sent on Lopez in the first half after losing Raphinha to a hamstring injury and the Barcelona midfielder grabbed the chance to impress with both hands in a super showing.
The 20-year-old showed off some silky touches, created chances, displayed huge heart and desire (almost Gavi-esque at times) and looked every inch a Barcelona player in an effervescent display.
Xavi was full of praise for Lopez after the match, tipping the youngster to become a top player and telling him he has a big future at the club as long as he continues to believe in himself.
Lopez certainly seemed full of belief, no doubt fuelled from his Mallorca goal, and were likely to see far more of him in the coming weeks too with Raphinha now joining Frenkie de Jong and Pedri on the injured list.
The loss of the trio is a blow to Barcelona but the emergence of Fermin is already a real plus, and it will be interesting to see how much of an impact he can make on the team this season.
Kounde and Gavi are Barcas backbone
Barcelona also had Jules Kounde and Gavi to thank for the victory. The duo have been arguably Barcas best two players of the early weeks of the season and a big reason why they are still unbeaten.
Xavis side were undone by defensive mistakes against Real Mallorca, leaving Xavi pretty angry afterwards, but there was no repeat against Sevilla as the hosts kept a clean sheet.
Kounde started at center-back alongside Andreas Christensen and was crucial to the win, making vital interceptions and blocks. In nine games this season he is still yet to be dribbled past by any player.
The Frenchmans response to returning to central defense this season has been incredibly impressive. Its also worth noting hes yet to pick up a single booking so far, impressive stuff for a central half.
Its a different story entirely for Gavi, who has four already, but the tenacious teenager impressed yet again. He continues to be Barcas heart and soul but is rapidly becoming far much more than than too.
Gavi added to his ever-expanding repertoire against Sevilla with some vital blocks and killer passes. He also ran the most out of any player (11.6km) in another simply relentless display.