Bangalore beat Chennai Smashers, enter PBL semis

Bengaluru

B Sai Praneeth sealed the semifinal berth for Bangalore Raptors as his win enabled the home team defeat Chennai Samshers 3-2 in the Premier Badminton League. After losing the first match, Bangalore came back strongly as Praneeth beat Parupalli Kashyap 15-11 15-12. The Chennai's doubles pair of Chris Adcock and Chin Chung Or beat Bangalore's Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan 14-15 15-9 15-11. Kidambi Srikanth won the team's trump match against Chong Wei Feng 15-10 15-10 to give his team a 2-1 lead. Vu Thi lost to Chennai's JH Sung 10-15 15-14 10-15. Chris and Gabrielle Adcock defeated Bangalore's Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith 8-15 15-10 15-4.

Bengaluru

World Tour Finals title will silence critics: Sindhu

PV Sindhu hopes winning the yearend World Tour Finals should silence her critics, who labelled her as a mere silver-winning player.”Last year too I had entered the finals and I was not satisfied with the Finals outcome. I played positively in 2018 and won the title. I was happy and also hoped there would not be further criticism of me being a mere silver-winning player,” Sindhu said. “I did not feel bad when I lost in the finals last year. In fact, I was happy and said to myself that I was not ignominiously knocked out in the first round itself,” she added.

Vasco

Churchill beat Gokulam Kerala, rise to second spot

Churchill Brothers moved to the second place with a dominating 3-1 win over Gokulam Kerala FC in the I-League. Willis Plaza (57th min, 90+1 min) and Dawda Ceesay (37th min) scored for the winning team. Marcus Joseph (14th min) was the lone goal-scorer for Gokulam.

New Delhi

Oz’s limited-overs tour of India to begin on Feb 24 

Bengaluru will host the first match of Australia’s limited-overs tour of India, a T20I on February 24. The second T20I will be played in Visakhapatnam on February 27 followed by five ODIs. The first ODI will be held in Hyderabad on March 2, followed by matches in Nagpur (March 5), Ranchi (March 8), Mohali (March 10) and New Delhi (March 13). Both the T20Is will be night matches starting at 7pm, and all the five ODIs will be Day-night affairs, starting at 1:30pm. For Australia, this tour is set to be their last international assignment before the World Cup, which starts on May 30 in England. — AGENCIES