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Indian Sports highlights, Jan 14: Stimac and Chhetri react to loss against Australia; Satwik-Chirag lose Malaysia Open final

AIFF Media

ESPN's daily live blog is your best source of news for Indian sports, with a convenient, all-encompassing page for everything to do with the wide variety of Olympic sports and franchise leagues.

Sunday has the all important final of the Malaysia Open, featuring Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, while India's women's hockey team will be looking to bounce back in the FIH Olympic Qualifiers against New Zealand. Virat Kohli returns to T20 as India face Afghanistan.

The live blog is updated throughout the day, so keep checking back for updates and analysis.

Here are the key updates from January 14, Sunday:


PKL: Haryana Steelers beat Tamil Thalaivas; Dabang Delhi, Patna Pirates play out tie

In a riveting game that flipped either way throughout, Dabang Delhi and Patna Pirates finished it 39-39 after 40 minutes of tense action in Jaipur on Sunday.

Haryana Steelers, meanwhile, picked up a win against the Tamil Thalaivas, who came close but couldn't quite get past the higher-ranked side, as the Steelers won 36-31.


Women's Hockey: India beat New Zealand 3-1 to keep Paris Olympics hopes alive

A day after India's dismal 1-0 loss to the USA, they bounced back spectacularly to beat New Zealand 3-1, in a game in which all the goals were scored in the first half.

Salima Tete was the star of the show for India, with a stunning all-round display.

You can relive the game as it happened, right here.


Reactions to India's 0-2 defeat to Australian in the AFC Asian Cup

Igor Stimac:

"I am proud of my boys. They showed that they are a bunch of honest, hard-working people, who are committed to whatever we ask of them," said Stimac after the game. "They are ready to keep working without sleep, and I must praise them for it. They love coming to the national team camp, and they love working with the national team staff."

"It's frustrating when you have to play teams like these. It would probably not have been so, had it not been a team of Australia's calibre. The second half was not good for us. We could not get out of the zone. The expectations were on the Australian players. They're game-ready, so I am overall happy with the result."

Sunil Chhetri:

"There are pros and cons to this game. It's not easy to play the best team in Asia. We are not used to playing sides like these, as we don't play against them very often, so you never know what to expect. It's a mixed bag of feelings right now. Once we watch the videos, perhaps we will gain more confidence and work on the things that we could have done better."

"Uzbekistan are not Australia, but they're a good side nonetheless. So it will be a big challenge in that game too."

Gurpreet Singh Sandhu:

"The first half was something we should be proud of, but it's a game of small margins and if you give an inch to such superior opponents, they will punish you. I should have been better, but it's a game that I can learn from. We now need to wrap it off and move on to the upcoming two matches."

Sandesh Jhingan:

"I don't care about my performance. If the team wins, it's good for us. If the team loses, then we all lose. This is not to put it in a bad way. We were playing one of the best teams in Asia, and you need to give them respect. I feel we gave a good account of ourselves, and we'll take the lessons that we've had to learn in certain moments."

"We were disappointed at the end, but at the back of our minds, we could sense that they were having their nervy moments. But they had one chance and they took it. That's football. This batch knows how to deal with this. We are not going to cry about it. We will stick to the targets we've kept for ourselves and continue to work hard."

We also have Anirudh Menon's takeaways from the game, reflecting on a harsh lesson for India at this level : One error is all it takes.


Where did it go wrong for Schopman's India?

Here's Anish Anand on the Indian women's hockey team completely forgetting to play to their strengths in their 0-1 defeat to the USA in the FIH Olympic hockey qualifiers in Ranchi.

They don't have too much time to dwell on it though, with their next game against New Zealand set to take place tonight.


What's in store today?

  • Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will be in action in the final of the Malaysia Open Super 1000, taking on world no. 1 pair Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang of China. Satwik-Chirag are the first Indians to reach the final of the Malaysia Open in it's Super 1000 guise. - after 2 PM

  • The Indian women's hockey team will play their second match of the Olympic Qualifiers against New Zealand in Ranchi, which has become must-win territory after their loss to the USA in the opening game - 7.30 PM

  • Super Cup action resumes, with Mohan Bagan taking on Hyderabad FC at 2:00 PM followed by East Bengal facing Sreenidi Deccan at 7:30 PM.

  • India take on Afghanistan in the second T20I at Indore, with Virat Kohli making his return to the T20 format - 7:00 PM

  • Olympic qualifiers in shooting (rifle/pistol/shotgun)


What happened yesterday?

  • Satwik-Chirag stormed into the final of the Malaysia Open Super 1000, beating reigning world champions Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae 21-18, 22-20.

  • India lose 0-2 to Australia in their opening match of the AFC Asian Cup.

  • Hockey: India ((W) were stunned by the USA in their opening match of the FIH Olympic qualifiers in Ranchi, losing 0-1.

  • Vijayveer Sidhu sealed an Olympic shooting quota while Sift Kaur Samra and Ashi Chouksey won the silver and bronze medal in women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions.

  • Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden lost a very close final at the Adelaide International. The second seeded lost to third-seeded pairing of Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury 5-7, 7-5, 9-11.

  • PKL: Jaipur Pink Panthers stunned Puneri Paltan, Bengal Warriors edge past U.P. Yoddhas

You can check all the details of yesterday's news events here.