Mary Kom opts out of Asian Championship

New Delhi
MC Mary Kom has decided to skip the Asian Women’s Championship to prepare for the bigger events ahead and in her absence, Sonia Chahal will lead the 20-member Indian contingent at the event to be held in Bangkok from April 16 to 27. Mary Kom wants to focus on the World Championships to be held later this year. Sonia, Sarita Devi and Nikhat Zareen will spearhead the Indian challenge.

Mary Kom opts out of Asian ChampionshipB Sai Praneeth toppled world No. 5 Chen Long 21-18 21-13 to breeze into the final of the Swiss Open. Praneeth will now fight it out with top seed Chinese Shi Yuki in the final. P Kashyap, Ajay Jayaram, Sameer Verma and Shubankar Dey could go beyond the second round. 

Melbourne
Hamilton on pole position in Australian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton snatched a record-extending eighth pole position at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. The Briton clocked a fastest lap of one minute 20.486 seconds to narrowly pip teammate Valtteri Bottas with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel third, but well off the pace on 1:21.190

Dehradun
Afghanistan take upper hand vs Ireland on Day 2

Rahmat Shah fell just two runs short of his maiden century as Afghanistan produced a commanding batting display to take the upper hand over Ireland on the second day of the one-off Test. At stumps on the second day, Ireland were 21/2 in 12 overs. The Irish still trail Afghanistan by 120 runs. 

Brief Scores: Ireland: 172 and 22/1 in 12 overs; Afghanistan: 314 all out in 106.3 overs (Rahmat Shah 98, Asghar Afghan 67, Hashmatullah Shahidi 61; Stuart Thompson 3/28). — Agencies