World Sports: Sumit Nagal Storms Into Bengaluru Open Semis; India Beat Ireland 1-0 In Pro Hockey League

Welcome to the highlights of sports news and events on Friday, February 16, 2024. The day began with New Zealand chasing down South Africa's 267-run target in the second Test at Hamilton to clinch the series 2-0. On Day 2 of India's third Test against England, the hosts ended their first innings with 445 runs on the board, but Ben Stokes's men mounted an apt riposte, standing at 207/2 at stumps in Rajkot.

At the Badminton Asia Team Championships, the Indian women beat Hong Kong to guarantee themselves a historic medal, but the men lost to Japan later in the quarter-finals. Sumit Nagal ended the day with a commanding win over Australia's Adam Walton to waltz into the Bengaluru Open semi-finals. Meanwhile, the Indian men's hockey team just about edged Ireland 1-0 at the FIH Pro League 2023-24 in Rourkela. Catch the highlights of all the sporting action here. (Cricket News | Football News)

Kane Williamson's sensational form at home continues this morning, with the New Zealander scoring yet another ton in the hosts second Test against a much-changed South Africa.

New Zealand, chasing 267, are 54 runs away from victory with seven wickets and a day to spare, at the time of writing.

AC Milan's 3-0 win over Stade Rennais was the clear standout result from the UEFA Europa League round-of-16 playoff stage, with a Ruben Loftus-Cheek double seeing the Italian giants through to a good result. AS Roma, meanwhile, could only draw against Feyenoord, while Olympique Marseille relinquished a lead late on against Shakhtar Donetsk to close out the match on a 2-2 tie.

A Kane Williamson special helped New Zealand bounce back from a poor first innings and beat South Africa by seven wickets in the second of two Test matches. Williamson scored 133, not out, as the Blackcaps took the home series by a 2-0 margin against a much-changed Proteas.

Despite defeat against China in the ITTF Worlds 2024, India put up a memorable fight, bagging a couple of sensational results along the way.

The biggest news from the day before came in the footballing sphere, with Kylian Mbappe, considered among the best players in the world currently, confirmed to be leaving Paris Saint-Germain at the end of this season. Mbappe won't renew his contract with the Parisians, as per reports, meaning that the club won't be liable to receive any transfer payments from his new team.

Real Madrid lead the chase for the striker at the moment.

The former German international and USA men's team head coach has been let go by the KFA after a poor showing at the AFC Asian Cup 2023. South Korea reached the semi-final before losing to Jordan, but gave their fans plenty of scares along the way.

"After comprehensively reviewing the discussion, the Korea Football Association finally decided to replace the national team coach," read a statement.

"Coach Klinsmann failed to demonstrate the coaching ability and leadership that we expect from a coach of the Korean national team, such as game management, player management, and work attitude that lead to the national team's competitiveness. 

"The national soccer team is more than just a sports team, it is a team that represents the Republic of Korea in name and reality, garnering the attention and support of the people and returning that energy to the people. This must continue to be the case."

They are up against Japan with the following match-ups:

HS Prannoy vs Kenta Nishimoto

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty vs Kenya Mitsuhashi and Hiroki Okamura

Lakshya Sen vs Koki Watanabe

MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila vs Akira Koga and Kazuki Shibata

Kidambi Srikanth vs Kento Momota

Harmanpreet, who also captains the India national women's team, believes that adapting to new surroundings will be key to Mumbai Indians retaining the WPL title.

"The conditions in Bengaluru will be different than Mumbai. I don't have much experience of playing in Delhi, so I don't have any idea how the wickets will fare in Delhi," Harmanpreet told PTI TV.

"If we can just quickly adapt to these things, this will show how good we are as a team. These are the areas we have to keep in mind and accordingly change our game plan."

The Indian wicketkeeper-batter will skip Ranji despite BCCI warning to focus on his T20 technique ahead of the Indian Premier League 2024. The Indian cricketing federation had recently laid down the law on centrally contracted players missing out Ranji matches, but Kishan is instead set to represent Reserve Bank of India in Mumbai's DY Patil T20 tournament.

Australia's Annabel Sutherland has smashed the fastest double hundred in women's Test history, achieving the feat in 248 balls on the second day of the one-off match against South Africa in Perth. The earlier fastest double century was scored by Karen Rolton off 306 balls in 2001 against England in Leeds, PTI reports. The 22-year-old Sutherland eventually got dismissed for 210 off 256 balls but not before helping Australia post a massive 575 for 9 declared in their first innings at the WACA, the highest total in women's Test cricket.

Yuvraj Singh Sandhu fired six birdies on his second nine to shoot a terrific 7-under 64 that carried him inside the top-20 in the Malaysian Open. Sandhu, after being 1-under with 3-birdies and two bogeys on the back nine, holed six birdies in eight holes from the first to the eighth and ended the day with a par, PTI reports. Sandhu was Tied-17th alongside compatriot SSP Chawrasia (69-65), who impressed with a bogey free 6-under 65. The top Indian was still Veer Ahlawat, who recovered from a none-too-happy start from the 10th to finish with three birdies against no bogeys in the last eight holes on the front side of The Mines Resort and Golf Club.

The Indian men produced a gallant effort but a nervous Kidambi Srikanth imploded in the end, blowing away a 19-12 lead in the third game of the deciding fifth match as they fell short against a second-string Japan in a tightly-contested quarter-final of the Badminton Asia Team Championships 2024. The women's team had earlier confirmed a historic medal by beating Hong Kong to enter the semi-finals, where they will meet Japan tomorrow.

The Indian men's hockey team ends the Bhubaneswar leg of its FIH Pro League 2023-24 campaign on a high, beating Ireland 1-0 at the Kalinga Stadium. Gurjant Singh scored a last-gasp field goal to win it for the hosts, who will now head to Rourkela for the return fixtures.

The Sumit Nagal juggernaut continues to roll on. The in-form Indian tennis player has beaten Australia's Adam Walton in straight sets 7-5, 6-2 to storm into the semi-finals of the Bengaluru Open ATP Challenger tournament. He will face Italy's Stephano Napolitano tomorrow for a place in the final.

Ace Indian shooter Manu Bhaker has bagged a bronze medal in the women's 10m air pistol event in the ISSF World Cup 10m in Grenada, Spain, PTI reports. Bhaker shot a total of 215.1 to finish third in the women's 10m air pistol final. Bres Klaudia (236.2) of Poland and Ibarra Miranda Andrea Victoria (236.2) of Mexico won the gold and silver respectively. Another Indian, Rhythm Sangwan, finished last in the eight-woman final.

That's a wrap from us tonight. We will back tomorrow with all the adrenaline-pumping action across arenas, be it the Indian cricket team against a 'Bazballing' England or an in-form Sumit Nagal on the tennis court in the Bengaluru Open semi-finals. Until then, goodbye.