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Saina enters Indonesia Masters final; Satwik-Chirag bow out (Lead)

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Jakarta, Jan 27 (IANS) Star Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal stormed into the final, while the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty bowed out of the $350,000 Indonesia Masters World Tour Super 500 in the semi-final here on Saturday.

Saina, the 2012 Olympic bronze medallist, took 49 minutes to defeat the Thai fourth seed and former world champion Ratchanok Intanon 21-19, 21-19.

Saina, who now leads the head-to-head tie 8-5 against Ratchanok, will play the winner from the second semi-final between top seeded Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei and Chinese eighth seed He Bingjiao — in the final on Sunday.

Both the games remained close with Intanon taking a slender 3-1 lead in the beginning which was pulled back by Saina to level things at 5-5.

However, the Thailand shuttler took an upper hand to further take a 13-11 lead. In the closing minutes, Saina kept her calm to clinch the game.

In the second game, Saina dominated the proceedings from the onset to take an 17-11 advantage.

Failing to maintain the lead, the fourth seed came from behind to level things at 18-18 but gave away the game to Saina who looked contended to clinch the match.

Meanwhile, Satwik and Chirag ended their run in straight games against world No.1 pair Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo in the semi-finals.

The world No.32 failed to get their combination right and lost 14-21, 11-21 in half an hour.

The Indian pair had upset two top-10 players in the run to the semi-finals.

–IANS
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Sunil Gavaskar gives his opinion of GT allrounder Rahul Tewatia

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The left-handed batsman from Haryana is garnering praise from all quarters for the way he’s finishing games regularly in the most exciting IPL season.

Gavaskar reckons Tewatia’s whirlwind knock in Sharjah (in IPL 2020) where he smashed West Indies pacer Sheldon Cottrell for five sixes in an over, gave him the confidence that he belongs to the big stage.

Speaking on Cricket Live on Star Sports, Gavaskar said, “That assault on Sheldon Cottrell in Sharjah gave him the belief to do the impossible and the confidence that he belongs here. We saw the impossible (he did with the bat) the other day as well. There’s no twitching or touching the pads (which shows a batter’s nervousness) when he bats in the death overs. He just waits for the ball to be delivered and plays his shots. He’s got all the shots in the book, but most importantly his temperament to stay cool in a crisis is brilliant.”

Gavaskar has also nicknamed the 28-year-old cricketer the ‘ice-man’ and lauded Tewatia’s ability to remain unruffled during the tense moments.

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