Thursday, 1 March 2018
PHOTOS: Mithali, Shikha star as India beat SA by 54 runs to win T20I series 3-1
IMAGE: Champions! Indian women celebrate with the coveted trophy. Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images/File
Indian women accomplished a ‘historic double’ as they outclassed South Africa women by 54 runs in the fifth and final Twenty20 International to clinch the series 3-1, in Cape Town, on Saturday.
After Mithali Raj led the side to a 2-1 series win in the ODIs, it was Harmanpreet Kaur’s turn to lift the trophy as they become the first cricket team to win two formats in the Rainbow nation.
It was Mithali’s (62 off 50 balls) experience complemented by youthful exuberance of Jemimah Rodrigues (44 off 34 balls) that enabled India to register par score of 166 for four in 20 overs.
South Africa were never in the match as they were skittled out for 112 in 18 overs with veteran Rumeli Dhar (3/26 in 4 overs) making a mark in the very second match on her return to the side after six years.
IMAGE: Fast bowler Shikha Pandey, right, and wicket-keeper Sushma Verma celebrate. Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images/File
Shikha Pandey (3/16 in 4 overs) was certainly the best bowler on view while left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad (3/26 in 3 overs) had an easy job with the top half blown away by the seamers.
The win also showed that Indian women’s performance in the ICC ODI World Cup wasn’t a mere flash in pan and the women showed little rustiness even though they played their first series in seven months.
The big positive was winning a T20 series — a format where the Indian women have not done well traditionally.
“It was a two-paced track to bat on but it became easier to play shots at the later stages. But it’s always nice to be among runs,” Raj, who scored 192 runs in four innings with three half-centuries, said after the match. She won both ‘Player of the Match and Series’ award for her consistent scores.
IMAGE: Senior batsman Mithali Raj made 62 to prop India’s score. Photograph: BCCI/Twitter
Skipper Harmanpreet on her part spoke about how the series win will bolster their confidence as they get ready to take on Australia and England at home.
“I thought we were 20 runs short but our bowlers performed exceptionally. I thought Mithali di and Jemi (Jemimah) batted well. I though Shikha and PY (Poonam Yadav) really bowled well,” the skipper said.
Mithali started with a couple of boundaries off seamer Shabnim Ismail before launching onto medium pacer Masabata Klaas. She hit another couple of sixes — one off off-break bowler Raisibe Ntozakhe and other off rival captain Dane van Niekerk — both over long-on.
She first hit a boundary and then lofted her over long-off for the first six.
Along with 17 year old Jemimah, Mithali added 98 runs for the second wicket.
The most talked about teenager in women’s cricket circuit, Jemimah played her first innings of note at the international level and despite being pint-sized, she packed a punch in her shots.
Rodrigues also punished Ntozakhe hitting her through cover for a boundary and also a six over mid-wicket.
When Ismail came for her second spell, the teen sensation lofted her effortlessly over long-on for a six.
Interestingly, Mithali had made her one day international debut (June, 1999), 15 months before Jemimah was born in September 2000.
Brief Scores:
India women: 166/4 in 20 overs (Mithali Raj 62 off 50 balls, Jemimah Rodrigues 44 off 34 balls; Harmanpreet Kaur 27 off 17 balls) vs South Africa women: 112 all out in 18 overs. (M Kapp 27, C Tryon 25; S Pandey 3/16, R Dhar 3/26)
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Exxon Mobil withdraws from Russia deal due to sanctions
U.S. oil company Exxon Mobil says it will withdraw from its joint venture with Russia’s state-controlled Rosneft due to U.S. and European sanctions against the country.
Exxon Mobil had signed a deal with Rosneft, Russia’s biggest oil producer, in 2011 that aimed to drill in difficult terrain, like Russia’s Arctic waters. It combined Exxon’s high level of technology with Rosneft’s access to the area.
The deal came under strain, however, after the U.S. sanctioned Russia in 2014 over the invasion of Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula. The sanctions did not affect existing deals in the energy sector, but prohibited any business with Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, an influential oligarch in Russia.
That created a series of hurdles for the partnership. Exxon has applied for a waiver but without success. Last year, the U.S. Treasury fined Exxon $2 million for signing new deals with Sechin in 2014. Exxon sued the U.S. government to stop the fine.
The deal has come under extra scrutiny because Rex Tillerson, the current secretary of state, was the Exxon CEO who had struck the deal and has had reportedly good personal ties with Sechin.
As America’s top diplomat, Tillerson has insisted the sanctions will stay in place until Russia reverses course in Ukraine and gives back Crimea. Still, the Russian deal on his watch raises significant questions about his ability to credibly enforce the sanctions and to persuade European countries to keep doing so.
The situation was escalated further last year, when the U.S. expanded sanctions against Russia for allegedly interfering in the U.S. presidential election.
Exxon said in a note to its earnings report late Wednesday that it had made the decision to end the partnership in late 2017.
“The corporation expects it will formally initiate the withdrawal in 2018,” at a cost of about $200 million, it said.
Rosneft spokesperson Mikhail Leontyev said that Exxon had been forced to retreat by the sanctions regime.
“Unfortunately, it was an expected event related to sanctions,” he was quoted as saying by Russian newswire Tass.
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Sports Shorts: Pouille battles past Khachanov to reach Dubai quarters
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday
IMAGE: Lucas Pouille is seeded second at the Dubai tournament. Photograph: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports/Reuters
Lucas Pouille overcame Karen Khachanov 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and avenge his defeat by the Russian in last weekend’s final in Marseille.
Second seed Pouille served seven aces and converted three break points to prevail in an hour and 39 minutes. Up next for the Frenchman is a first career meeting with Yuichi Sugita, who beat Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff 7-6(4) 6-4.
“I knew it would be a tough one,” Pouille, who won the Montpellier title earlier this month, said.
“In the final in Marseille, he won just three points more than me. I knew it was very close. I had to play some good tennis… I’m just very happy that I got my revenge today.”
Pouille, the highest seed remaining in Dubai after Grigor Dimitrov’s shock loss to Tunisian wildcard Malek Jaziri on Tuesday, broke world number 41 Khachanov in the ninth game before cruising to a one-set lead.
Khachanov hit back in the next set to drag the contest into a decider, before Pouille saved two break points in the third set and upped his game to advance.
Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut, seeded third, also reached the quarter-final after a 6-4, 6-7(2), 6-1 victory over Pierre-Hugues Herbert in windy conditions. He next faces Borna Coric, who eased past Benoit Paire 6-1, 6-4.
Greek wildcard Stefanos Tsitsipas dumped out sixth seed Philipp Kohlschreiber 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
US Olympic chief resigns after sex abuse scandal, health cited
US Olympic Committee Chief Executive Scott Blackmun is resigning for medical reasons, the organization said on Wednesday, following months of sustained criticism stemming from the sex abuse scandal involving former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.
In a statement, the USOC cited Blackmun’s “ongoing health issues” related to prostate cancer, for which he has been receiving treatment. As part of the same press release, the group also outlined new reforms aimed at protecting its athletes from abuse.
The Colorado Springs, Colorado-based USOC, which announced the change less than a week after the Winter Olympic Games ended in Pyeongchang, South Korea, had resisted calls to fire Blackmun over the Nassar case. Blackmun, 60, did not attend the Games.
The scandal prompted the entire board of directors at USA Gymnastics, the sport’s governing body, to resign, along with the president and athletic director at MichiganStateUniversity, where Nassar also worked. It also spawned lawsuits and criminal and civil investigations.
A number of critics, including athletes who said they were abused and two U.S. senators – Iowa Republican Joni Ernst and New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen – had called for the ouster of Blackmun and USOC board members, accusing them of failing to promptly act on complaints raised against Nassar and fostering a culture of silence.
“Scott Blackmun’s resignation as CEO of the US Olympic Committee is long overdue,” John Manly, a lawyer representing 120 of Nassar’s victims, said in a statement. “Under his leadership, USOC has focused nearly all its efforts on money and medals while the safety of our athletes has taken a back seat.”
Shaheen also welcomed the resignation, citing Nassar’s years of abuse. “It’s clear that the culture at the US Olympic Committee desperately needs to change,” she said in a statement.
Olympic gold medalist swimmer Nancy Hogshead-Makar, an advocate for female athletes and member of the Committee to Restore Integrity to the USOC, said in a Twitter post that Blackmun “didn’t enact basic #ChildProtection policies or educate the membership about how to prevent it.”
“His legacy will be that he failed athletes,” she added.
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