Shuttlers stick to their guns; national camp cancelled

Wednesday 16th September 2020 07:01 EDT
 

The national camp for the Thomas and Uber Cup has been cancelled. The camp that was to begin on September 7 proved to be a non-starter. With top players unwilling to comply with standard operating procedures (SOPs) prescribed by Sports Authority of India (SAI), the Badminton Association of India (BAI) was forced to take the decision last week. As per SOPs, players selected for the camp have to stay at the academy, but the shuttlers were reluctant to follow the rule. BAI general secretary Ajay Singhania said, “After a lot of deliberations with all stakeholders including Sports Authority of India, we have decided to cancel the camp. With the SOP implemented and quarantine procedures followed, there will not be enough time to conduct a camp. We have also selected a team that will be representing India at the Thomas & Uber Cup (October 3-11) as well as the other two tournaments to be played in Denmark,” he said. Teams - Thomas Cup: Kidambi Srikanth, Parupalli Kashyap, Lakshya Sen, Subhankar Dey, Siril Verma, Manu Attri, Sumeeth Reddy, MR Arjun, Dhruv Kapila and Krishna Prasad Garaga. Uber Cup: PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Aakarshi Kashyap, Malvika Bansod, Ashwini Ponnappa, Sikki Reddy, Pooja Dandu, Sanjana Santosh, Poorvisha Ram and Jakkampudi Meghana. Denmark Open (Oct 13-18) and Masters (Oct 20-25): PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, Lakshya Sen, Saina Nehwal, Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy.

England level ODI series with Oz

England won the second ODI by 24 runs to level their three-match series against Australia after the visitors, chasing a modest target of 232, suffered a dramatic collapse on Sunday. Australia appeared to be cruising as they reached 144 for two thanks to a 107-run third wicket partnership from captain Aaron Finch (73) and Marnus Labuschagne (48) before capitulating to 207 all out. Chris Woakes triggered the collapse when he had Labuschagne lbw, beginning a run which saw Australian lose three wickets for one run in eleven deliveries. "That's as well as we've bowled for a while," said England captain Eoin Morgan. "We took advantage of conditions, the ball reverse swung a little bit, went up and down. Our group of four seamers were outstanding." England also got themselves off the hook during their own innings. Having won the toss and chosen to bat, they ambled along at a pedestrian pace with Joe Root needing 73 balls for his 39. They looked to be in real trouble at 149-8 but then hit 53 runs in the last four overs with Tom Curran (37) and Adil Rashid (36) adding 76 for the ninth wicket.


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