Author Archives: TARIQ ABDULLAH

AHMEDABAD, May 22: Chennai Super Kings bowl-ing coach Eric Simons said Mahendra Singh Dhoni alone will decide on his comeback, stressing that the veteran wicketkeeper-batter would only return if he feels fully fit and ready to contribute to the team.

Dhoni, 44, couldn’t play a single game in this edition due to a leg injury but Simons said he impressed in the nets with his clean striking.

“Are you seriously asking me that question? We always are,” Simons said when asked if CSK are hopeful of Dhoni’s availability next year.

“I mean, honestly, he has hit the ball so well. He obvi-ously had a leg injury, which made it very difficult for him to run, so that’s why he couldn’t play.“But in terms of hitting the ball in the nets, he’s hitting it as well as I’ve ever seen him hit it. But I keep saying this, only MS will know, and MS will make the decision about when he’s ready and when he’s right.”

The former South Africa all-rounder said Dhoni would always prioritise the team’s interest over personal mile-stones. (PTI)

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(PTI)

LUCKNOW, May 22: Punjab Kings will need something spectacular to arrest a disastrous slide and keep their fading playoff hopes alive when they take on already-eliminated Lucknow Super Giants, in their IPL clash, here on Saturday.

MATCH STARTS AT 7:30 PM

Punjab’s campaign has unravelled dramatically since their record 265-run chase against Delhi Capitals on April 25. From remaining unbeaten till the midway stage and looking like genuine title contenders with six wins in seven matches, the last season’s runners-up have crashed to six successive defeats, leaving their playoff hopes hanging by a thread.

Now placed fifth, Punjab not only need to beat LSG in their final league game here on Saturday but also depend on Sunday’s double headers (MI vs RR and KKR vs DC) to earn a place in the playoff. The Shreyas Iyer-led side would hope both Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders lose their respective matches. A Rajasthan Royals win over Mumbai would of ficially end Punjab’s hopes, while a KKR victory over Delhi Capitals could bring net run rate into play.

At present, PBKS hold a slight edge in NRR over KKR. But before permuta tions come into the pic ture, Punjab first need to rediscover their form after a prolonged slump that has

exposed flaws across de partments. Their aggressive top order of Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh and Coo per Connolly has failed to provide the explosive starts that defined the first half of their season.

Priyansh has managed just one fifty in his last seven innings and was dismissed for a duck in the previous game, while Prabhsimran too has struggled for consistency with only one fifty in his last five innings. Connolly has shown glimpses but has not converted starts into substantial scores. Having reamined among the leaders in run-getters’ tally, cap tain Iyer’s returns too have dipped sharply during the losing streak, crossing fifty only once in the six defeats.

The middle order, which scripted the memorable chase against Delhi, has

also lost momentum, while their bowling unit has leaked runs regularly at both ends of the innings.

Fielding has further hurt their campaign, with dropped catches proving costly in crucial moments.

LSG, meanwhile, have endured a forgettable sea son and are out of playoff contention after managing just two wins in their last 10 matches.

They suffered a seven- wicket defeat to Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur in their pre vious outing, a game domi nated by teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

Yet, the home side would take confidence from their recent performances at the Ekana Stadium, where both they secured both their last two wins — against Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Chennai Super Kings.

(PTI) KOLKATA, May 22: On a wintry January evening two-and-a-half years ago, East Bengal finally ended a 12-year wait for silverware as skipper Cleiton Silva struck in extra time to seal a dramatic Super Cup triumph over Odisha FC.

For a fleeting moment, it seemed the sleeping giant of Indian football had finally stirred back to life.But the euphoria proved short-lived. East Bengal soon crashed out of the Durand Cup and the AFC Champions League preliminary stage, while their struggles in the Indian Super League continued unabated. Their football lacked fluidity and imagination. Injuries repeatedly derailed momen-tum, while the team under then coach Carles Cuadrat often appeared overly reliant on set-pieces and predictable attacking patterns.

Another rebuild became inevitable. This time, how-ever, the changes ran deeper, and they transformed every-thing.When Spanish coach Oscar Bruzon arrived at the club in October 2024, East Bengal were still search-ing for stability in a league where they had repeatedly struggled to establish them-selves. The club had rebuilt squads multiple times since entering the ISL, but Bruzon gave them things they had lacked for years – identity, belief and fearlessness.

Known for his strong football philosophy and for ending Abahani Dhaka’s dominance in Bangladesh with Bashundhara Kings, Bruzon arrived with prior experience of Indian football through his stints at Sporting Clube de Goa, Mumbai FC and Mumbai City FC.

He immediately began reshaping the squad in his own image. Out went fa-miliar names like Cleiton, Dimitrios Diamantakos and Madih Talal and in came players suited to Bruzon’s fluid and aggressive style.

Miguel Figueira, Bru-zon’s trusted talisman from Bashundhara Kings, became the creative engine of the team.Mohammed Rashid added control and aggression in midfield, Kevin Sibille brought calmness at the back, while Youssef Ezzej-jari emerged as the side’s clinical finisher after replac-ing Hamid Ahadad amid uncertainty surrounding the ISL season.Bruzon’s first signs of impact were felt in the AFC Challenge League where East Bengal topped their group and reached the quarterfinals despite modest expectations.Last season too, despite injuries, suspensions and working largely with a squad assembled before his arrival, East Bengal finished ninth with 28 points — one of their better campaigns in recent years.This season, however, everything finally came together.The defining moment perhaps came dur-ing a difficult phase when pressure had begun mount-ing after a 1-2 defeat to Jamshedpur FC, a goalless draw against FC Goa and a frustrating 1-1 stalemate at home against Kerala Blast-ers.East Bengal hammered Mohammedan Sporting 7-0 and never really looked back after that. They went on to win four of their next five matches, while a tense 1-1 draw against Mohun Bagan in the Kolkata derby felt like a victory.And when the biggest night arrived at Kishore Bharati Krirangan, they showed exactly what they had become champions. Against Inter Kashi in Thurs-day’s finale, East Bengal fell behind early after Alfred Pla-nas struck in the 14th minute. But this East Bengal side no longer panicked.

Ezzejjari equalised soon after half-time, before Mo-hammed Rashid produced the moment that will forever live in East Bengal folklore with the decisive goal in the 72nd minute.

Source: PTI

HYDERABAD, May 22: Sunrisers Hyderabad main-tained their now familiar hell-for-leather template, but even a thumping 55-run vic-tory couldn’t prevent Royal Challengers Bengaluru from topping the points table at the end of their IPL league stage engagement here on Friday.

Abhishek Sharma’s bat-swing, Ishan Kishan’s daredevilry and Heinrich Klaasen’s brute muscularity took SRH to a meaty total of 255 for 4.

For RCB, the primary target was to score 166 to finish in top two and ensure two shots at qualifying for the IPL final and they did that with ease despite losing the contest by a big margin. They finished on 200 for 4.

RCB (NRR +0.783), thus, topped the group league phase with Gujarat Titans (NRR +0.695) and SRH (NRR +0.524) finishing sec-ond and third respectively despite all three teams get-ting 16 points.

The chase was always out of question even as Ven-katesh Iyer (44 off 19 balls) provided a solid start. Virat Kohli (15 off 11 balls) and Devdutt Padikkal (21 off 14 balls) didn’t get too many. Once RCB understood that they can’t win the match, veterans Rajat Patidar (56 off 39 balls) and Krunal Pandya (41 not out off 31 balls) concentrated on the ‘Magic Figure’ of 166 with a 84-run stand. Once Patidar flayed Pat Cummins over deep point for a six, RCB ensured a top-two finish. He was out at the team score of 178, which was required to finish on top of the table. Among SRH bowl-ers, Eshan Malinga (2/33 in 4 overs) was once again brilliant with his lengths, while Bihar youngster Sakib Hussain (1/31) also didn’t let the batters get away during middle overs. Earlier, when SRH batted, Abhishek (56 off 22 balls) scored another 20-ball half-century and pul-verised the RCB attack with his first spell.

Vice-captain Kishan found the gaps while displaying both precision and cheekiness to pummel his way to 79 off just 44 balls.

Klaasen (51 off 24 balls), probably the most consistent batter across teams below No. 3, literally toyed with a world-class operator like Josh Hazlewood, taking as many as 27 runs off his third over and the team’s 13th, as the ‘Orange Army’ ensured that they would cross the 250-run mark on a batting featherbed.

The mayhem was started by Abhishek when he el-egantly lofted a Bhuvnesh-war delivery over wide of long-off to get his first six. Bhuvneshwar, who found a second wind in this IPL, wasn’t allowed to settle down as he flicked him twice — once over square-leg and then over deep mid-wicket off back-to-back deliveries.

Romario Shepherd’s friend-wasn’t suppose to trouble the world’s No. 1 ranked T20 batter, and it didn’t. He was lofted for a couple of straight sixes while Suyas Sharma’s delivery was also sent soaring into the orbit with minimal footwork.

While Kishan dropped anchor at one end while showing consistency that one expects from a talent like him, no words of praise would be enough for Klaa-sen, who doesn’t play in-ternational cricket anymore but remains the most sought after gun for hire in the fran-chise universe. (PTI)

BRIEF SCORES

SRH: 255/4 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 56, Is-han Kishan 79, Heinrich Klaasen 51; Rasikh Salam Dar 2/52)

RCB: 200/4 in 20 overs (Venkatesh Iyer 44, Rajat Patidar 56, Krunal Pandya 41 not out; Eshan Malinga 2/33) by 55 runs.

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Source: PTI

KUALA LUMPUR, May 22: India’s Ashmita Chaliha produced a spirited performance before going down narrowly to world No. 23 Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt of Denmark in the women’s singles quarterfinals of the Malaysia Masters Super 500 badminton tournament here on Friday.

Returning after an eight-month rehabilitation following a medial meniscus tear in her right knee, the 71st-ranked Indian squandered a hard-fought opening game advantage to lose 23-21, 18-21, 11-21 to the eighth seed in a contest lasting a little over an hour at the Axiata Arena.

Chaliha started brightly, opening up an 11-6 lead at the interval in the opening game before Line clawed her way back after the break. But the Indian held her nerve in a gruelling battle to pocket the game.

The second game followed a similar pattern as Chaliha again surged ahead 10-5 before the Dane broke away from 15-15 to force the match into a decider.

The final game, however, was largely one-way traffic as Line stamped her authority early and never allowed Chaliha a route back. (PTI)

(PTI)

AHMEDABAD, May 22: Aware of the scrutiny around Gujarat Titans’ middle order, star spinner Rashid Khan said the side has succeeded this season by not dwelling on imperfections but trusting players to deliver in different situations, and adapting quickly to conditions.

GT registered a massive 89-run win over Chennai Super Kings in their last league match on Thursday to take the top two positions in the points table.

“I think every team has those little bit areas to improve and have some areas very strong. You can’t be a complete 100% perfect team. Doesn’t matter how good a player you will have … throughout the tournament there has been lots of discussion about our middle order and things like that but I feel everyone is stepping up,” he said.

PTI

NEW DELHI, May 22: The administrative mess in Indian football contributed to a new low in the continental stage as the country was handed just one play-off slot for the 2027-28 season of the AFC Challenge League, the third and last tier in Asia’s club structure.

For a few years in the past, Indian clubs had even played in the group stage of the top-tier AFC Champions League (ACL), but have had to be content with ACL2 — the second tier — appear-ances in recent times.

India has been already allotted two play-offs slots for the 2026-27 ACL 2. East Bengal, which won the Indian Super League title on Thursday, and Super Cup champions FC Goa will fea-ture in the ACL 2 play-offs round in July-August.

But for the 2027-28 sea-son, the Asian Football Con-federation (AFC) on Friday allocated just one play-off round slot for India in the third tier AFC Challenge League, which is meant for clubs from countries like Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bangladesh.

The AFC made the slot allocations for 2027-28 AFC Men’s Club Competitions after the conclusion of the 2025-26 season in the mem-ber association countries.

“It is shocking, we were playing in ACL top division and then ACL 2. Now we are going to play in the third tier with clubs from countries like Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan — basically SAFF countries,” a former football official told PTI.”It’s not even a direct group stage slot for the third tier AFC Challenge League, it’s a play-offs slot. That is really hard to believe, but then our football system has been deteriorating and on the downhill for some time.” He said the lure of foreign players to play for ISL clubs may reduce in the upcom-ing season as India will compete with lesser-known clubs of mostly South Asian countries.

Basically, the slot alloca-tion for Asian club competi-tions is based on member as-sociation ranking — which is different from FIFA rankings which are based on national team performance.

This ranking is, in turn, based on criteria such as technical standard of do-mestic league, club licens-ing system, number of AFC compliant stadia, sporting integrity, governance and regulations, competition format, among others.

Regarding the competi-tion format, the 2026 regu-lations of the AFC clearly states that each club in the domestic top division shall play a minimum of 24 matches per season, includ-ing the domestic top division league and domestic cup, if the member association aspires to play in the ACL Elite and ACL 2.

The AFC’s 2026 regu-lations also say that for a country to have clubs in the ACL Elite and ACL 2, the domestic top division should have a minimum duration of eight months, as well as a home and away format.In the just completed truncated ISL, each club had played 13 matches, and the format was also not home and away.

In fact, the 2025-26 ISL season fulfils AFC’s criteria for third tier AFC Challenge League, which reads: Each club in the domestic top di-vision shall play a minimum of 12 matches per season, a home and away league for-mat or a single round-robin league format for the domes-tic top-division league.

With the performance of the Indian clubs in the continental stage also not up to the mark in the last few years, the member associa-tion ranking for the country has gone down from 10th earlier to 15th this year in the West Asia region.

That also contributed to the demotion during slot al-location. (PTI)

(PTI) GANDHINAGAR, May 22: The Rashtriya Raksha University will host the 4th National Armwrestling and Para Armwrestling Championship from May 29 to June 2 at its Lavad campus here, officials said on Friday. The championship is jointly organised by the Armwrestling Federation of Gujarat and People’s Armwrestling Federation India, they said.The event is expected to witness participation from more than 2,000 athletes representing 27 states across India, making it one of the largest armwrestling championships ever organised in the country.

(PTI)

KOLKATA, May 22: Kolkata Knight Riders’ wicketkeeper-batter Angkrish Raghuvanshi was on Friday ruled out of the Indian Premier League due to a concussion and a fracture to his left hand finger.

Raghuvanshi sustained the fracture while attempting a catch during KKR’s contest against Mumbai Indians at the Eden Gardens here on Wednesday.

“Angkrish Raghuvanshi has been ruled out of 2026 Indian Premier League after sustaining a concussion and a fracture to a finger on his left hand while attempting a catch during Kolkata Knight Riders’s match against Mumbai Indians on Wednesday, 20 May,” KKR said in a statement.

KKR, currently placed sixth with 13 points following six wins, as many defeats and one washed out game, have already been ruled out of contention for the playoffs this year.The three-time IPL winners KKR will play their final league match against Delhi Capitals, also out of the playoffs race, in Kolkata on Sunday.The 21-year-old Raghuvanshi has had a successful run in this IPL, finishing with 422 runs in 13 matches at a strike rate of 146.52 with five half-centuries and an average of 42.20.Raghuvanshi’s absence will come as another setback for KKR in what has been a disappointing campaign overall, but the young batter’s performances throughout the season have provided one of the biggest positives for the franchise. In a season where Kolkata struggled for consistency and eventually fell out of the playoff race, the 21-year-old stood out with his maturity, fearless strokeplay and ability to anchor the innings under pressure.

His tally of 422 runs and a strike rate well above 140 underlined his emergence as one of the brightest young Indian talents in the tournament. With KKR set to conclude their campaign against Delhi Capitals on Sunday.