Dunedin [New Zealand], February 25 (ANI): New Zealand batsman Martin Guptill feels skipper Kane Williamson assisting him during the 131-run partnership had set the perfect platform for a win in the second T20I against Australia on Thursday.
Guptill returned to form with a sensational knock before Marcus Stoinis and Daniel Sams almost got Australia over the line.
After being one wicket down in the fourth over, going through a lean patch, Guptill slammed a whirlwind 97 off just 50 balls to steer New Zealand to 219 runs in the allotted 20 overs against Australia in the second T20I. Williamson assisted the opening batsman with a customary 53 off 35 balls.
“The beauty about cricket is that it doesn’t matter about what’s happened in the past. You move forward. You go on. I was lucky enough to spend a bit of time at the wicket today and get a few runs, but having Kane [Williamson] out there in that partnership really set the game up for us,” stuff.co.nz quoted Guptill as saying.
Guptill’s next target is to win the T20I series against Australia as he shifts focus towards the third game slated to be played on March 3. The right-handed batsman, who also broke Indian opener Rohit Sharma’s record of most sixes in T20Is, praised his bowlers for keeping the visitors’ batsmen at bay.
“I’m looking forward to hopefully going 3-0 up in Wellington. Our guys held their nerve. Tim and Trent’s last overs were really clutch, and they bowled fantastically to keep Australia at bay,” said Guptill.
In reply to New Zealand 219, Australia got off to a good start as the visitors smashed 33 runs from the first three overs. But the visitors’ chase was derailed in the middle overs courtesy of some quality bowling by the Kiwis before Stoinis and Daniel almost got Australia over the line. (ANI)

New Delhi [India]. February 25 (ANI): Special Olympics Bharat conducted their first national coaching camp post the pandemic, in Manali, Himachal Pradesh, to prepare for Special Olympics World Winter Games to be held in Kazan, Russia in 2022.
The camp was held from February 8-20 in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports and saw attendance from over 60 campers hailing from Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir.
Alpine Skiing, Snow Boarding, and Snow Shoeing were the three snow sports that were the primary focus of this preparation camp.
Athletes from the hot and humid regions, successfully acclimatized to temperatures ranging between -8 and -14° C and carried out daily practices of improving sport-specific skills as well as maintaining essential fitness levels and enhancing breathing capacity, to help them keep warm within short spans.
The coaching staff, which included experienced trainers from the Mountaineering Institute, also trained the campers in various fitness and yoga routines which can even be practiced under regular weather conditions.
“The national coaching camp concluded at a joyful note as all campers went back safe and healthy. We were on a constant vigil to keep the camp safe, also keeping a contingency plan in place that would cater to any emergency, medical or otherwise. Sports has proved itself a catalyst and a powerful tool to affect the inclusion of the marginalised,” said Malika Nadda, Vice-Chair, SO Bharat in an official statement.
“Winter games that initiated with the participation of athletes from the cold regions of India has, over the years, expanded to other regions of the country as well. These are the sports which many, even the mainstream sportspersons, are unfamiliar with,” she added.
Although novice level competition commences from the lower altitude slopes, the practice had to be enhanced directly to a higher altitude due to the unfavourable climatic conditions and the melting ice. (ANI)

New Delhi [India], February 25 (ANI): Indian boxers Naveen Boora and Manjeet Singh registered comprehensive victories in their respective categories on the third day at the 72nd Strandja Memorial tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The 2019 national champion Boora outpunched Brazil’s Eravio Edson 5-0 to enter in the 69kg semi-finals. With a place in the last-4, Boora is now assured of at least a bronze medal.
Boora had progressed into the last-8 stage with a 3-2 win over Armen Mashakaryan of Armenia B in the men’s 69kg category. Manjeet, who is playing his first senior international tournament, notched up an easy 4-0 win against Irish boxer Gytis Lisinskas to progress into the 91kg plus quarter-finals. The Haryana boxer will play against Armenia B’s Gurgen Hovhannisyan in +91 kg last-8 match later on Thursday night.
Earlier, Jyoti Gulia had produced a scintillating performance to upset two-time world champion Nazym Kyzaibay of Kazakhstan and progressed into the quarter-finals of women’s 51kg category.
The 2017 World Youth Champion Haryana pugilist Jyoti was clever with her footwork and showed great attacking display of boxing before outpunching experienced Kyzaibay 3-2. On the other hand, Bhagyabati had outclassed Russian opponent Anna Galimova 5-0 in the 75kg category.
Jyoti, Bhagyabati Kachari, and Deepak Kumar are the other Indians who will play their quarter-finals bouts on Thursday night.
The 2017 Youth World Champion Gulia will be up against Romanian boxer Lacramioara Perijoc in 51kg while Baghyabati (75kg) will face a stiff challenge from world championship bronze medallist Naomi Graham of USA.
In the men’s 52kg, Asian Championship silver medallist Deepak will play against Bulgaria’s Darislav Vasilev.
Also, four Indian men made an exit with narrow defeats in the pre-quarters. Asian Championship silver medallist Kavinder Singh Bisht (57kg) went down fighting against Ukraine’s Mykola Butsenko 3-2 while Ankit Khatana (75kg) lost to Viktar Dziashkevich of Belarus. Sachin Kumar (81kg) and Naveen Kumar (91kg) also suffered 3-2 losses against Armenia A’s Gor Nersesyan and France’s Wilfried Florentin respectively. (ANI)

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], February 25 (ANI): Tabebuia Open 2021, the first official ranked tennis tournament for people with physical disability since COVID time, will kick off on Saturday. The tournament will see 38 players from across the country competing for the top position in singles and doubles events for men and women. The showpiece event will run for four days.
Indian Wheelchair Tennis Tour (IWTT) under the aegis of the All India Tennis Association (AITA) in association with the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (TSTA) is conducting the tournament.
Tabebuia Open is a wheelchair tennis tournament that brings together some of the best wheelchair tennis players in India. The tournament will be hosted while complying with the AITA and International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) rules and regulations.
“IWTT is excited to extend a warm invitation to all citizens of Bengaluru and beyond to come witness the grit and determination of men and women with disabilities as they compete for top slots in singles and doubles events for men and women,” an official statement from IWTT read.
“We request the visitors to strictly follow all the COVID guidelines in everyone’s interest. Entry for spectators is free for all. The tournament will take place from the 27th Feb to 2nd March from 12noon to 4:00pm,” it added.
The tournament is hosted at the completely accessible sports complex “D-Cube Sports Complex” at Yelahanka. As a tribute to the Trumpet Flower that blossoms at Cubbon Park in Winter the tournament is named after Tabebuia, one of the beautiful trumpet flowers.
The tournament’s opening ceremony is on Saturday and will be graced by Mahantesh G K, founder of Samarthanam and president of Cricket Associations for Blind in India. The final matches will be live on YouTube on the channel “Indian Wheelchair Tennis Tour”. (ANI)

New Delhi [India], February 25 (ANI): Six-time world champion boxer Mary Kom (51kg) on Wednesday became the country’s first sportsperson to join the Made in India microblogging platform “KOO”.
Mary Kom, who is also a member of parliament, asked her followers to join on KOO while responding to the application. Mary Kom shared the post along with the link through her Twitter handle urging her followers by saying “Hello Everyone, you can now follow me in mcmarykom” on KOO App.
In a nation “first” message, Mary posted a video of undergoing training with the caption “If you want to push your limits. Challenge yourself every day #Roadtotokyoolympics.”
In recent days, Koo has been talked about as an Indian alternative to Twitter. Koo is also the winner of the ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat award’. It lets users send out tweet-like posts in English, Hindi. Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu.
Apart from Mary Kom, cricketer Harleen Deol, Neha Tanwar, hockey player Rani Rampal and Arjuna Awardee Hima Das have also joined the app.
Several political leaders and celebrities, including Union Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad, Piyush Goyal, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan, Devegowda, HD Kumaraswamy, Priyank Kharge have also joined Koo.
The app was founded by Bengaluru-based entrepreneurs Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka in March 2020. The app recently crossed over 3 million downloads with about a million active users.
Meanwhile, Mary Kom will return to the ring for the first time after the Asian Olympic Qualifiers held in Jordan in March last year. Mary Kom has recovered from dengue and is geared to pack a flurry of punches once again. (ANI)

Jaipur (Rajasthan) [India], February 25 (ANI): Mumbai skipper Prithvi Shaw put on a sensational batting performance and led from the front as he slammed an unbeaten 227 runs off 152 balls against Puducherry in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy on Thursday.
Prithvi whacked five sixes and whooping 31 fours to steer Mumbai to 457 runs in their allotted 50 overs. The right-handed batsman also broke former South Africa cricketer Graeme Pollock’s record of the highest score as a captain in List A cricket.
If Prithvi was in scintillating form while hitting the double ton, Suryakumar Yadav, who recently earned a maiden call up in the national side, showed why his selection was based on merit. Suryakumar, who came in to bat at number four, notched up 133 runs in just 58 balls on the back of 22 fours and four glorious sixes.
Leading from the front, Prithvi helped Mumbai register the fourth-highest total in List A cricket. The highest team total (496/4) was scored in the match between Surrey vs Gloucestershire, at The Oval in 2007.
Vijay Hazare Trophy, the domestic one-day competition in India, kicked off last week with white-ball specialists looking to impress the national selectors and get closer to their dreams of representing the country.
The tournament will also act as the perfect platform for the players who are looking to showcase their skills in the white-ball format ahead of the limited-overs series against England, keeping in mind the T20 World Cup is scheduled later this year.
And players are in no mood in throwing off this perfect opportunity. Earlier this week, Prithvi had slammed a match-winning hundred against Delhi.
Last week, Ishan Kishan smashed 173 runs in just 94 balls against Madhya Pradesh. Ishan whacked five sixes and 12 fours to bring up 102 runs in just 74 balls before unleashing the beast within himself. In the last 20 balls he faced, the Jharkhand skipper slammed 71 runs.
On the same day, Ishan earned a maiden national call-up when he was named in India’s T20 squad for the England series. (ANI)