Germany, Chile enter Confederations Cup semis
World champions Germany and reigning Copa America title holders Chile have won their respective final group matches to enter the semifinals of the Confederations Cup football tournament. Germany defeated 10-man Cameroon 3-1 at the Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi on Sunday evening to secure the top spot in Group B. They will face Group A runners-up Mexico in the semifinal on June 29. Timo Werner (67th, 81st minutes) struck twice for the Germans after Kerem Demirbay (47th minute) put them in the lead. Cameroon striker Vincent Aboubakar scored the only goal for the Africa Cup of Nations champions in the 79th minute. In Moscow, Chile played out a 1-1 draw with Australia in another Group B encounter to qualify for the last-four stage. Chile are set to meet European champions Portugal in the semifinals on June 28.
BCCI to set up panel
In a Special General Meeting (SGM) in Mumbai, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to form a committee to implement the Lodha reforms at the earliest. The committee will also be looking into issues like 'one-state, one-vote', age cap of 70 years, increasing the number of members in the selection panel to five from the current three and more. It will begin its work in the next two days and it is expected to submit its first report within a fortnight. "A five-six member committee will be formed tomorrow (Tuesday) to see how best and quickly the principal order of the Supreme Court can be implemented," BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary said.
Australia beat West Indies in WWC
Riding on opener Nicole Bolton's unbeaten century, Australia defeated West Indies by eight wickets in the ICC Women's cricket World Cup, in Somerset. Chasing 205, Australian openers Beth Mooney (70) and Nicole Bolton (107 not out) put up a 171-run partnership before the former was dismissed in the 31st over by spinner Stafanie Taylor. Earlier, choosing to bat after winning the toss, the West Indies were bowled out for 204 in 47.5 overs with opener Hayley Matthews (46) and middle-order batswoman Taylor (45) scoring the maximum number of runs. For Australia, Perry scalped three wickets while Kristen Beams and Jess Jonassen took two wickets each.
Tyson Gay misses out on world championships
Former world champion Tyson Gay will not be able to compete at this year's world athletics championships, after failing to reach the final of either of his preferred sprint events at the US athletics championships in Sacramento. Gay missed the final of the 200 metres on Sunday after finishing in a time of 21.37 seconds in his semifinal. The 34-year-old finished third in his 100-metre heat on Friday. Despite the failure, Gay, who has struggled with form since the shooting death of his teenaged daughter in Kentucky in October, told reporters that he had no intention of ending his career just yet. Gay owned the second-fastest time over 100 metres ever set—behind Usain Bolt's world record of 9.58 seconds.
Federer lifts ninth Halle Open title
Swiss legend Roger Federer has clinched his ninth Halle Open title after beating hapless Alexander Zverev 6-1, 6-3 in the final. The top seed Roger Federer showed no mercy with fourth seed Alexander Zverev after wrapping up his ninth title in his 11th Halle final within 53 minutes on Sunday. From the start Federer piled on the pressure to establish a 4-0 lead meanwhile local hero Zverev was unable to gain a foothold into the first set. Thus, the 18-time Grand Slam champion sealed the first set 6-1 with only 22 minutes played. Zverev grabbed a better start into the second set yet the German was unable to stop Federer's momentum as the Swiss won the second set to win his 92nd career title.
India thump West Indies in 2nd ODI
India produced a strong all-round performance to thrash West Indies by 105 runs in the second One-Day International (ODI) at the Queen's Park Oval Stadium. The match had to be reduced to 43 overs a side after a long spell of rain forced the start to be delayed. Asked to bat first, a century by opener Ajinkya Rahane and half-centuries by skipper Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan helped India post a challenging total of 310/5. In reply, the hosts could only manage 205/6 in their allotted 43 overs. Shai Hope was the top scorer for West Indies batsman with 81 runs off 88 deliveries. Left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav was the pick of the Indian bowlers with figures of 3/50. India now lead the five-match series 1-0. The first ODI, which was also held at the same venue, had to be abandoned due to heavy rain.
UTT to kickstart in Chennai on July 13
The inaugural Ultimate Table Tennis, the country's first-ever professional table tennis league, will kick off with the first leg in Chennai from July 13 to 20. The six-team league's opening game would see RP-SG Mavericks featuring India's top paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal, taking on Falcons TTC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai. A total of eight ties would be played in the city, a press note said. After the first leg, the League would move to New Delhi, where the second leg would be held from July 21 to 25 at the Thyagaraj Stadium. The final leg of the league would be held in Mumbai starting July 26 with the semifinals and final to be played at the NSCI. While the semifinals would be held on July 28 and July 29, the final will be played on July 30. Each franchise would be a combination of overseas and Indian players—four men and four women, along with one Indian and one international coach each. The franchises are club-based instead of city-based unlike other popular leagues in the country and features Maharashtra United, Oilmax-Stag Yoddhas, Dabbang Smashers TTC, iProspect Challengers, Falcons TTC (Bayside Spinners) and RP-SG Mavericks.
Indian men, women finish fourth in world teams
The Indian men and women missed out on the podium by a whisker as they finished fourth in both the categories at the World Team Chess Championships in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia. The last round went well for both Indian men and women as they scored fine victories over Norway and Azerbaijan respectively. However, the men lost the penultimate round encounter against Russia by 1.5-2.5 that cost them a medal. The women were quite lucky to win the penultimate round encounter against Vietnam as both D. Harika and Tania Sachdev fought back from nearly lost positions to save the day for their side. Harika took a rest against Azerbaijan but that did not deter the Indian eves from winning comprehensively for a fourth place finish. It may be recalled that the Indian eves had also finished fourth in the previous edition of the championship held in China in 2015. China won the championship in the open section with 16 points while Russia finished second on 15 points. Poland snatched the bronze on 12 points, a point clear of the Indian men. The Indian men had also finished fourth in the last Chess Olympiad held in Azerbaijan last year.
