New Delhi, April 26
PV Sindhu kept the title hopes alive in the women’s section when she conquered giant-killer Yui Hashimoto of Japan 21-16,21-16 in 47 minutes to enter the semifinal of the Indian Open Badminton Super Series at the Siri Fort stadium.

Though Sindhu said she was confident of winning the match, the ground reality was slightly different as the doll-like Hashimoto, who made a magnificent rally to stun top seed Saina Nehwal last night, reeled off eight points on trot, down 8-19 to be at 16-19, before committing a couple errors, including a net block, to give away the winning points and allow the Sindhu to take the first game. Sindhu, who had lost to the Japanese lass in the Swiss Open in their only meeting before, just survived by the skin of her teeth, as Hashimoto, a pocket-dynamo with a solid defence, made the Indian, seeded eight, sweat in the super cool indoor hall!.

It was very dangerous to involve Hashimoto in long rallies, as Saina had learnt to great cost yesterday, as invariably she smashed, did a net flip or drop to get points. But Sindhu’s height came in handy many a time, and the second set, which went neck and neck till 14-14, swung her way when the Japanese girl lifted into the net to put the Indian ahead (15-14). Thereafter, Sindhu did not let go the lead, and she wrapped up the game and the match when Hashimoto hit wide to offer the winning point on a platter. Sindhu will meet third seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the semifinal.

The Thai girl, in the first match of the day, fought back from a game down to overpower Arundhati Pantawane of India at 14-21, 21-7, 21-16 in 62 minutes. Arundhati started off well, but as the game progressed, the tall and wiry Indian could not match the wiles and guiles of the Thai to bow out, though the third game was fought spiritedly when she tied the score at 10-10. Thereafter, Intanon got her act together to pull ahead, and canter away with the match. The men’s contests witnessed some intense action as H.S.Prannoy, who had shocked former world and Olympic champions Taufik Hidayat in the quarter-final yesterday, tried to run top seed Lee Chong Wei close. But he could go only so far and no further as Wei possessed a far superior game and court craft to triumph. His net deception and retrievals were beyond the reach of Prannoy, to pose any real danger, as he won at 21-14, 21-19 in 34 minutes. Though the Thai had called the shots in the first game, after locking 3-3, Prannoy had his moment of ascendancy in the second game when he led 7-4, before Wei charged back to wrest the lead for a brief moment (7-8). But Prannoy regained the lead with a few immaculate smashes and net drops to pull ahead and lead 18-12.

But Wei fought his way back to get out of the maze and equal at 19-19 when Prannoy netted, and two more missed net drops helped the Thai to win the match in straight sets.

Scoreboard

Kings XI Punjab

Gilchrist c Morgan b Bhatia 27
Mandeep c Morgan b Kallis 25
Vohra c Das b Balaji 31
Hussey c Senanayake b Kallis 21
Miller b Ladda 10
Gurkeerat not out 28
Mahmood run out (Kallis/Bisla) 2
Chawla not out 0

Extras: 5
Total (6 wkts; 20 ovs) 149
Fall of wickets: 1-45, 2-67, 3-96, 4-109, 5-127, 6-131

Bowling: Balaji 4-0-44-1; Senanayake 4-1-29-0; Narine 4-0-22-0; Kallis 4-0-14-2; Ladda 2-0-18-1; Bhatia 2-0-17-1

Kolkata Knight Riders

Bisla not out 51
Gambhir b Mahmood 8
Pathan c Gilchrist b Mahmood 0
Kallis c Gilchrist b Harmeet 37
Morgan c Gurkeerat b Mahmood 42
Senanayake not out 0

Extras: 12
Total (4 wkts; 18.2 ovs) 150
Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-10, 3-76, 4-148

Bowling: Praveen 4-0-28-0; Mahmood 4-0-35-3; Bhatt 3-0-21-0; Chawla 4-0-33-0; Harmeet 3.2-0-24-1

Sreesanth during a training session on Friday. — PTI

Dogra represented Rajasthan Royals in 2010 before he was roped in by Kings XI Punjab last season. A veteran of 10 domestic seasons, 31-year-old Narwal of Delhi was prolific with both bat and ball in the 2010-11 season scoring 340 runs in eight matches and picking up 40 wickets at an average of 20.22. He represented Rajasthan Royals last season. Knight Riders hope that he would play the finisher role that is missing from their ranks this season. The likes of Yusuf Pathan, Manoj Tiwary, Debabrata Das and Rajat Bhatia have been a huge letdown as Knight Riders have a difficult task to make the last four after suffering five defeats from seven matches to slump to seventh place.

I do prepare very differently for T20: Dhawan

Chennai: Shikhar Dhawan announced his arrival in the Test arena with a swashbuckling 85-ball century against Australia last month, following which he was ruled out of action due to a hand injury. “I do change my game a lot. Yes, I did score the fastest century on Test debut but I didn't plan to do so. It was a lucky day for me and it just happened. But generally when I am playing days of cricket I do go slow. I do prepare very differently for T20 format, mostly suiting to the demands of the game," Dhawan said.

Royals take on 'jolted' Sunrisers

Beaten in their past two away outings, Rajasthan Royals would be looking to get back to winning ways when they take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in their own den in a league match at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium on Saturday.

The fact that Rajasthan Royals have won all of their three matches here will give them the confidence to put behind the defeats in away matches against the strong CSK and the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

The hosts can take heart from the fact that they went down fighting against the two strongest teams in tournament. — PTI

Mumbai, April 26
Sachin Tendulkar, one of the greatest batsmen the game has ever seen, today said it was important to have heroes in life and he himself wanted to be a combination of his childhood idols Vivian Richards and Sunil Gavaskar.

“Every person likes his own identity and that is important. It is good to have heroes. When I was growing up, I had a couple of heroes. I wanted to be a combination, a mixture of Vivian Richards and Sunil Gavaskar,” said Tendulkar during an interaction with his fans at gaming and experience centre ‘Smaaash’ here today.

“So it is important for this generation to have heroes and try and get closer to anywhere you can to your heroes. Heroes will always be heroes, so that is how it should be.” The senior cricketer, who celebrated his 40th birthday a couple of days ago, also cut a cake to mark the occasion and said, “This was the 40th cake that I have cut, so we should stop now.” As a batsman he has had problems with the sightscreen and the scorer of 100 international hundreds admitted this.

“You know I keep complaining about sightscreens. That is what I go through. When I am batting there are more than 50,000 people around and you can’t spot the ball because of the release point sometimes as the sightscreens are not high enough. “But there is not much choice. It makes you focus harder. You get a fraction of a second less to react and those are the things that you can’t change much. You just have to adjust and try and find ways to prepare yourself early when the bowler is delivering,” the master blaster said.

“Because you get a fraction second less the adjustment to make up for that loss time is in your hands, to get ready a fraction earlier to that spot. That is what I try to do on various occasions when I find it difficult to spot the ball.” Asked whether he and Mumbai Indians teammate and skipper Ricky Ponting, a former captain of Australia, are sharing tips during the ongoing Indian Premier League, Tendulkar replied in the affirmative.

“Yes we do. We play for the same team. We want to achieve the same goal. When you become part of the same team, you do share whatever your thoughts are and that is how any team should be,” he said.

Tendulkar said he has been sharing his knowledge about domestic cricketers with Ponting.

“Here I have been sharing little more in detail, because I know little bit about our cricketers, which Ricky hasn’t had the opportunity to watch them much. Also a lot of things are planned in team meetings.

“But there are things that spontaneously come to your mind and you share your thoughts. So it is basically about sharing our knowledge and giving some background about the bowler.” Tendulkar said having a strong passion for the game and willingness to put in hard work to improve skills should be the top priorities for budding cricketers.

“First and foremost, to be madly in love with cricket is important. You can’t count the number of hours, the number of balls you have practiced, the number of balls that you have bowled. You can’t be counting. You cant look at your watch.

You have to just practice and practice.

“When I was your age, I practised quite long hours. I would start by 7.30 in the morning and finish by 7.30 in the evening. Eventually my coach had to sort of pack my kit bag and send me off saying `it is too dark to play cricket and we all want to go home’.” “My passion was such and still alive. Boys like you or even girls now, whoever wants to become a cricketer, should be passionate about the game. Cricket should be in your heart first and then as you mature and grow slowly you will find how to score runs and how to bowl over, how to bowl spells. First cricket has to be in your heart and the rest follows.” — PTI

Patiala, April 26
Krishna Poonia sailed smoothly to the top spot to clinch gold in the women’s discus throw event on the final day of the National Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championship. With senior discus throwers and her main rivals — Seema Antil and Harwant Kaur — skipping the tournament, Poonia’s win was a mere formality.

While she hurled the discus to 57.25m, Navneet Kaur Dhillon of ONGC was way behind with a silver-winning a throw of 48.53m — 8.72m short of Krishna. Manisha from Haryana won bronze with 43.62m. This event, the biggest attraction of the tournament since Krishna, Seema and Harwant have time and again beat each other during various events, lacked any excitement since two of them opted out. The field was thus left open to Krishna. Seema and Harwant skipping the event is also a comment on the form of the two, despite being in India camp.

Senior coaches and players feel that since SAI spends a high amount on training these players, they should ensure that all players compete in the senior athletics tournaments.

Poonia didn’t disappoint her fans and displayed some spectacular skills to improve her recent performance by more than 2 metres.

Her coach and husband Virender Poonia seemed happy with her performance, saying that since Krishna is focussing on increasing her strength and fitness these days, a throw of 57.25m was good enough at this point of time. “Slowly, we will start shifting our focus on the length once again,” he said.

Paris, April 26
World champion Viswanathan Anand crashed through the defenses of Chinese champion Ding Liren and jumped to sixth spot after the end of the fifth round of the Alekhine Memorial chess here at the Louvre.

Ending the first leg of the tournament on a high, Anand proved too good for Liren, who had earlier beaten world number three Levon Aronian of Armenia in the tournament. It was simply an easy victory that came in quick time.

Local star Maxime Vachier-Lagraev made most of his opportunities against Peter Svidler of Russia to go in to sole lead on 3.5 points out of a possible five. Laurent Fressinet of France caused a big upset defeating Vladimir Kramnik of Russia to move to joint second spot.

In other games of the day, Boris Gelfand of Israel drew with Aronian while English Michael Adams could not convert a slightly better endgame against Nikita Vituigov of Russia and achieved the same result.

The battle will now move to St. Petersburg in Russia where the last four games will be played at the Russian museum. With four rounds to go Fressinet, Aronian, Gelfand and Adams trail the leader with three points apiece while Anand is next with 2.5 points in his kitty. — PTI

Basel, April 26
David Luiz, lucky to be on the pitch after a shocking challenge, scored with the last kick of the game to give Chelsea a 2-1 win at FC Basel in the first leg of their Europa League semifinal after the Swiss side had levelled with an 87th minute penalty on Thursday.

Swiss tennis great Roger Federer came to support his team Basel, wearing a Chelsea scarf. — Reuters

Victor Moses gave Chelsea a 12th minute lead with a soft goal but Basel, after an uncertain opening, fought back well after the break and looked to have grabbed a deserved draw until the Brazilian curled in a free kick from 25 metres in the fourth minute of injury time.

The goal silenced a raucous St Jakob Park which was still celebrating Fabian Schaer’s penalty for the hosts, who are aiming to become the first Swiss side to reach a European final.

However, David Luiz was lucky to escape with a yellow card after a studs-up challenge on Philipp Degen late in the game. Schaer was also fortunate not to be dismissed for a late tackle on Eden Hazard.

“We played against a good team, you could see the intensity and the pace of the game but we had enough chances to score and the penalty, which was a surprise for everyone, could have made a difference,” Chelsea manager Rafa Benitez said. “All around me nobody felt that it was a penalty because the ball was in the air, it was a very strange decision.”

David Luiz added: “Scoring two goals here against a very good team and with the last kick of the match is amazing for us, but we have to keep our minds strong for the second leg because that is another difficult game for us.”

Basel, playing their 19th match of a marathon European campaign which started away to Estonia’s Flora Tallinn in the Champions League second qualifying round in mid-July, have beaten Manchester United and Bayern Munich at home in the last 18 months.

But the English Premier League start got the start they needed following a Frank Lampard corner.

Branislav Ivanovic leapt and missed the ball, distracting the defence, and Moses immediately behind him, scored with a downward header which bounced and rose into the top of the net and should have been cleared by Mohamed Elneny on the line. It was his fourth European goal of the season. Valentin Stocker nearly levelled for Basel early in the second half as he exchanged passes with Marco Streller and evaded Lampard only to see his effort hit the foot of the post.

Chelsea replied when Fernando Torres, wearing his ‘Mask of Zorro’ to protect a broken nose, smashed a left foot shot against the post after Hazard survived a reckless challenge by Schaer and pulled the ball back.

Chelsea survived several scares as Basel dominated the final half hour and the hosts levelled when Cezar Azpilicueta was controversially judged to have fouled Stocker. Schaer stepped up and confidently dispatched the penalty and the Basel hardcore fans behind goal celebrated with pyrotechnics. Both teams went for the winner and before David Luiz struck to give Chelsea a potenitally decisive lead for next week’s second leg. — Reuters

Stuttgart, April 26
Top seed Maria Sharapova needed three sets and more than three hours on Thursday in her claycourt season debut to overcome Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic for a place in the Porsche Grand Prix quarterfinals. Sharapova, the defending champion, won 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-3.

The Russian saved two set points in the second set before surrendering the tiebreaker, in which she had one of her eight double-faults. She also had eight aces. Sharapova broke serve for a 4-2 lead but needed five match points to close out the encounter.

“I’ve had a few three hour games in my career, so I knew I just had to keep fighting until the end,” Sharapova said. “That’s when it’s the time to get the game-plan going and calm down a little bit. Clay is one of her favourite surfaces and I knew this was going to be a tough game. The first match of the claycourt season is always tough.”

BRIEFLY

Ryan Harris out with Achilles tendon injury
Kolkata: Australian pacer Ryan Harris, who was playing for Kings XI Punjab has returned home midway through the event after being laid low by a left Achilles tendon injury. "Cricket Australia advises that Ryan Harris has an Achilles injury which has meant his return from the IPL," CA said. Harris, however, is expected to be fit for the Ashes series against England scheduled for June-July."Ryan Harris has returned from IPL duties with KXIP with a left Achilles tendon injury," said CA's Chief Medical Officer Justin Paoloni.

IPL has its own gains for players: Watson
Jaipur: Shane Watson feels that it was not always a perfect world and one needs to change according to time."Cricket has evolved and the environment has changed now. With Test, one dayers and 20-20 around, you have to make adjustments in mindset too. We need month long preparation for adapting to Indian conditions and Chennai like wickets but just after one practice match we have to play a Test match. IPL gave me a great opportunity, worked as a catalyst and I could blossom as a cricketer," he said. — PTI

Ormsby, Arnold in lead
Seoul: Wade Ormsby of Australia birdied two of his closing three holes to share the clubhouse lead with Arnond Vongvanij of Thailand in the second round of the rain-affected Ballantine’s Championship on Friday. Arnond also birdied the 18th, as the pair strive for their first European Tour title at Blackstone Resort. Ormsby carded a 5-under-par 67 to be tied on 7-under with Arnond, who signed for a 69. Among the Indians, Jyoti Randhawa carded 71 in the second round for and was tied 24th. SSP Chowrasia, Shiv Kapur (71 each), C Muniyappa (74), Jeev Milkha Singh (73), Gaganjeet Bhullar (72) had completed only one round each.

Zimbabwe 158/4 on Day 2
Harare: Zimbabwe were 158/4 in their first innings in reply to Bangladesh’s 391 at the close of play on the second day of the second and final Test. Brief scores: Bangladesh 391 (Shakib 81, Nasir Hossain 77; Chigumbura 3/75); Zimbabwe 158/4 (Chigumbura 45*; Robiul 2/34)

Punjab, Haryana in last 8
New Delhi: Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy reached the quarterfinals with emphatic victories in their concluding league matches of the 3rd Hockey India Senior Women National Championship today. Punjab easily defeated Delhi 7-0 with three goals from Sadhna Singh (3) and one each by Monika, Gurwant, Sukhjeet and Lalremruati. Four goals by Narinder helped beat Mumbai 10-0. Udit and Bharti scored two goals each for the winners. MPHA, meanwhile, defeated 8-0.

Ankita in ITF final
Lucknow: Top seed Ankita Raina defeated fourth seed Shweta Rana 6-4 6-1 to reach the final of $10,000 ITF tournament. Ankita will face Japan’s Emi Mataguchi in the final. Mataguchi beat Prarthana Thombare 6-3 6-1 in the second semifinal.

Roshan stars for SSC
New Delhi: Roshan Saini starred with the ball, taking 3/36, to help Swami Shardanand College stun Air India by 10 runs to enter the semifinal of the All-India Om Nath Sood Memorial Cricket Tournament. Brief scores: SS College 214/7 (Sisodia 42, Dahiya 42; Hudda 4/44) beat Air India 204/8 (Dalal 57, Saini 3/36). — Agencies