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Kashyap enters Indonesia Open semis, Saina bows out

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Indian shuttler Parupalli Kashyap

Jakarta: Indian shuttler Parupalli Kashyap entered the semi-finals but world No.3 Saina Nehwal crashed out, losing to China’s former world No.1 Shixian Wang in the quarter-finals of the $800,000 Indonesia Open Superseries Premier here on Friday.

While Commonwealth Games 2014 gold medallist Kashyap stunned China’s world No.1 and top seed Chen Long 14-21, 21-17, 21-14 in the quarter-finals, Olympic bronze medallist Saina went down 21-16, 12-21, 18-21 to world No.7 Shixian.

Second seed Saina, winner here in 2009, 2010 and 2012, got off to a great start, smashing with aggression at the Istora Gelora Bung Karno Stadium. The 25-year-old launched a fierce attack on the Chinese, winning five consecutive points to take a strong lead. The Hyderabadi won 21 points out of 37 played, thus going one up by 21-16.

Fifth seed Shixian, 2010 Asian Games champion, as always with a never-say-die attitude, came back strongly in the second game. She snatched six consecutive points and gave 2010 Commonwealth Games champion Saina very little to level things up 1-1 with a 21-12 victory.

The deciding game saw a nail-biting finish as both the shuttlers went all out at each other. Although Saina took the lead — at one point of time held a healthy 13-8 advantage – the formidable Chinese came back strongly, winning five consecutive points to equalise at the 15-point mark before sealing the game 21-18.

Shixian, bronze medallist in the 2010 World Championships, will next face Thailand’s former world champion and current world No.6 Ratchanok Intanon, who earlier crushed Indonesia’s Lindaweni Fanetri 21-7, 21-6 to enter the semis.

With this win, shixian, 25, took a 7-6 lead in career meetings over her Hyderabadi opponent.

In the other women’s singles semi-final, China’s former world champion Yihan Wang will face Japan’s Yui Hashimoto. While world No.8 Yihan defeated Japan’s world No.11 Akane Yamaguchi 14-21, 21-8, 21-9, Hashimoto battled past local qualifier Maria Febe Kusumastuti 16-21, 21-16, 22-20.

Earlier in the day, reigning world champion Chen began on a positive note against world No.12 Kashyap, winning seven consecutive points to clinch the first game 21-14 with ease.

But the Indian came back strongly to win three consecutive points to level things by taking the set 21-17, in what can be called a close encounter.

The deciding set saw Kashyap in full flow right from the word go, winning five consecutive points to take a healthy lead which made it difficult for the top seed to come back into the match.

By winning 21 points out of the 35 played, Kashyap sealed the game 21-14 and the match, thus booking his place in the semi-finals.

With this win, Kashyap also improved his head-to-head record against the Chinese to 2-7.

 

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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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