While poker players were battling it out on the tables of Asia Poker Tour Finale, Manila and World Poker Tour, Prague to encash millions, the sporting action was on high in India and around the world. India was on the forefront of sporting world with International Premier Tennis League kicking off in New Delhi and 2014 Men’s Hockey Champions Trophy being held at Bhubaneswar. Meanwhile, the probable squad of 30 players for 2015 Cricket World Cup was announced by BCCI in which the renowned stars of 2011 victory were ditched. Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh were missed out from this list which triggered a heated discussion over experienced vs young player in bigger tournament like world cup. Take a look at other sporting action topping the charts.
Football
Chelsea’s unbeaten run in 2014 Premier League came to an end after 2-1 defeat against Newcastle United on Saturday. The substitute striker Papiss Cisse scored 2 goals in the second half while Chelsea’s maiden goal came from Didier Drogba. Capitalizing on Chelsea’s defeat, Manchester City added more points by defeating Everton 1-0. Yaya Toure’s penalty kick brought the single goal of the match after which the game saw no successful kicks. Now, Manchester City sits strong in 2nd position with 33 points which is just 3 points below what Chelsea holds as the table leader. In Indian Super League, Mumbai FC made a good comeback against Atletico de Kolkata defeating 2-1 and thus maintained their hopes of reaching semis.
Tennis
International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) is in India and the tennis legend Roger Federer arrived in New Delhi to play his first match on Indian soil. The 17-time Grand Slam winner, Federer will play for Indian Aces against Singapore Slammers and UAE Royals. In their opening match Indian Aces beat Manila Mavericks 26-25 in a thrilling finish to the match. Despite Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna losing out to Kirsten Flipkens and Daniel Nestor, Ana Ivanovic rescued Indian aces winning the singles against Flipkens 6-3 which evend out the score to 25-25. Monfils defeated Tsonga 10-7 in the final rounds to seize the win.
Hockey
India is off to a devastating start in 2014 Champion’s League loosing two back to back games. Believed to be one of the strongest contenders, India met the first defeat 1-0 in the opening game against the Olympic champions Germany when Florian Fuchs scored the winning goal in final five minutes. India managed to bounce back in the second game with Akashdeep Singh and Gurjinder Singh scoring the goals. However, the aggressive strikers of Argentina hit the net 4 times to clinch the victory. India will face Netherlands in on Tuesday in the last group match.