Picture Credit: X
Indian badminton ace PV Sindhu clinched a hard-fought victory against China’s Han Yue to advance to the semifinal of the Malaysia Masters. The Indian women's hockey team suffered a 0-2 defeat against Belgium on Thursday, May 23 in the second match of the European leg of the FIH Hockey Pro League 2023-24.
Read below to learn more about the latest happenings of the sporting world in the last 24 hours.
Badminton
PV Sindhu earns hard-fought win over Han Yue to enter Malaysia Masters semifinals
Indian badminton ace PV Sindhu clinched a hard-fought victory against China’s Han Yue to advance to the semifinal of the Malaysia Masters. The world-ranked 15 overcame a mid-match slump to defeat the world-ranked 6 with the scoreline of 21-13, 14-21, and 21-12. With this, Sindhu avenged her recent loss to the Chinese player at the Asia Badminton Championships in Ningbo. In the semifinal, Sindhu will be up against either Indonesia’s Putri Kusuma Wardani or Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan.
Hockey
Indian men’s hockey team suffers 1-4 defeat against Belgium in FIH Pro League
The Indian men’s hockey team suffered a heartbreaking 1-4 loss against hosts and world number three Belgium in the European leg of the FIH Pro League on Thursday, May 23. The defeat came after India registered a narrow win over Argentina, where they won 5-4 in the penalty shootout after a 2-2 draw in regulation time. India’s sole goal came from young striker Abhishek in the 55th minute of the game.
Indian women’s team suffers 0-2 defeat against Belgium
The Indian women's hockey team suffered a 0-2 defeat against Belgium on Thursday, May 23 in the second match of the European leg of the FIH Hockey Pro League 2023-24. Belgium’s goals came from Alexia 'T Serstevens in the 34th minute and Louise Dewaet in the 36th minute. The match also saw Indian forward Deepika Soreng making her senior team debut. The Indian team maintained the ball possession in the game and made regular circle entries; however, couldn’t score a single goal and the game ended 2-0 in the favour of Belgium.
Football
Igor Stimac announces 27-member squad for FIFA World Cup Qualifier against Kuwait
Indian senior men’s team head coach Igor Stimac named the 27-member squad for the upcoming FIFA World Cup Qualifier against Kuwait. The game is set to be played on June 6 in Kolkata. The squad is as follows:
Goalkeepers: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Amrinder Singh, Vishal Kaith.
Defenders: Amey Ranawade, Anwar Ali, Jay Gupta, Lalchungnunga, Mehtab Singh, Narender, Nikhil Poojary, Rahul Bheke, Subhasish Bose.
Midfielders: Anirudh Thapa, Brandon Fernandes, Edmund Lalrindika, Jeakson Singh Thounaojam, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Liston Colaco, Mahesh Singh Naorem, Nandhakumar Sekar, Sahal Abdul Samad, Suresh Singh Wangjam.
Forwards: David Lalhlansanga, Manvir Singh, Rahim Ali, Sunil Chhetri, Vikram Partap Singh.
Italy announce provisional 30-member squad for EURO 2024
Defending champions Italy announced a provisional 30-member squad for Euro 2024 on May 23, Thursday. The squad saw Gianluca Scamacca making his way into the squad after a brilliant end to the season, with 11 goals and four more in all competitions since the beginning of March. Scamacca’s selection in the team would resolve Italy’s long-standing problem of finding reliable strikers. Other than him, Ciro Immobile, who played a crucial role in Italy’s Euro triumph in 2021 was dropped from the squad. Tottenham Hotspur star Destiny Udogie despite his impressive performance in the Premier League was overlooked due to his injury. Apart from this, the Newcastle United midfielder Sandro Tonali didn’t make it to the squad due to his ban.
Major football results
Italy-Serie A
Cagliari 2-3 Fiorentina
Bangladesh Premier League
Bangaldesh Police 1-2 Fortis
Brazil-Cup
Cuiaba 1-0 Goia
Ceara 0-1 CRB
Athletics
Jyothi Yarraji misses Paris Olympics qualification mark by 0.01 second
Asian Games silver medallist Jyothi Yarraji emerged victorious in the women’s 100m hurdles at the Motonet GP athletics meet. The event saw Yarraji equalling her national record. However, Yarraji narrowly missed the Paris 2024 Olympic Games qualification mark by 0.01 second. This was her third outdoor competition of the season, where she clocked the time of 12.78, and missed the Olympic qualification mark of 12.77s. She had also fallen short of the Olympic entry standard by the same margin at the World University Games in Chengdu, China, last year.
Tennis
Novak Djokovic moves past Tallon Griekspoor in Gonet Geneva Open
Novak Djokovic moved past Tallon Griekspoor 7-5, 6-1 to secure a place in the semi-finals at the Gonet Geneva Open. This marked the 1100th victory of his career, and interestingly, Djokovic turned 37 on the same day. With this, he became the oldest semi-finalist in Geneva tournament history. After the game, Djokovic said, "I was lucky to find some really good serves and from that moment onwards really played some good, solid tennis. He did help me a bit with the mistakes, I think I played the second set was really good.”
