Here at the ESPN daily blog, we bring you all the news from the dynamic world of Indian sports, from the wide variety of Olympic sports to franchise leagues.
March has plenty of sporting action taking place - which you can find listed out in ESPN India's sporting calendar.
Here are the key events from Thursday, March 7:
ISL update: Punjab beat NEUFC 1-0
Punjab FC secured their fourth win in their last six matches of ISL as they defeated NorthEast United FC by 1-0 in Guwahati
Punjab FC drew level with NorthEast United in the race for the final playoff spots, climbing to ninth in the table on 20 points, level with Jamshedpur (in seventh) and NEUFC (in eighth).
The visitors won the game courtesy a 63rd minute penalty strike from Wilmar Jordan, earning them crucial points in the playoff race, now just a point behind Bengaluru FC in sixth place.
French Open update - Sindhu, Treesa-Gayatri in QF, Srikanth out
PV Sindhu came through in a three-game battle for the second straight day to continue her positive comeback from injury layoff while Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand beat the seventh seeds to reach the quarterfinal of the ongoing French Open Super 750.
Playing her first BWF tour event since returning from a knee injury, Sindhu, fought back from a game down to beat World No. 10 Beiwen Zhang 13-21, 21-10, 21-14. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also progressed after overcoming the injured Japanese duo of Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota 21-18, 21-13.
However, it was the end of Kidambi Srikanth's campaign as he lost to Lu Guang Zu 21-19, 12-21, 20-22.
The roads get tougher for the Indians though as Sindhu will next face Olympic champion and second seed Chen Yu Fei, in what will be the toughest tests since her comeback while the women's doubles pair play top seeds Qing Chen Chen and Yi Fan Jia of China in the next round.
Wrestling update: Trials for Asian Championships, Olympic qualifiers remain on Mar 10, 11
The ad-hoc committee running the Wrestling Federation of India will go ahead with its trials to pick the teams for the upcoming qualifiers of the Asian Championships and Olympic Games on March 10 and 11 in Sonipat and Patiala.
The trials will be held at SAI Sonipat for male grapplers (freestyle and greco roman), and at NIS Patiala for women wrestlers and will be held across all 30 weight categories.
The Olympic weight category's winner will represent India at the Asian Olympic Qualifiers (April 19-21) and World Olympic Qualifiers (May 9-12), the Bhupender Singh Bajwa-led ad-hoc committee said in a statement on Thursday. Additionally, winners in non-Olympic weight categories will represent India at the Asian Championships. Antim (53kg) will receive a direct entry to participate in the 2024 Asian Championships.
It should be noted that the quota won there will belong to the country and not the wrestler. Once wrestlers secure a quota either at the Asian Olympic Qualifier or World Olympic Qualifier, the quota winner will face a challenger on June 5, which is likely the final Olympic trial.
To determine the challenger, a trial will be held on May 31, where only the top four wrestlers in 53kg and the top three wrestlers in other categories (where India has won a quota) emerging from the trials on March 10-11 will compete.
These challengers will play in the Nordic format and the winner of this will get to wrestle against the quota winner to determine who will represent the country at the Paris Olympics.
WFI to withdraw circular on conducting trials
The Wrestling Federation of India, which has been suspended by the Sports Ministry, told the Delhi High Court that it will withdraw its circular on conducting selection trials.
Taking note of the statement made by WFI's counsel, Justice Sachin Datta said the trials shall proceed as per the circular issued by the ad-hoc committee, constituted by the Indian Olympic Association, supervising the affairs of the WFI.
The high court had on March 4 sought responses of the Centre, WFI and the ad-hoc committee on a petition filed by wrestlers Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and her husband Satyawart Kadian for declaring as illegal the December 2023 elections held by the sports body and setting it aside. The wrestlers were at the forefront of last year's protest against former WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for alleged sexual harassment of seven women grapplers.
The plea contended that the WFI elections, held on December 21, 2023, were in blatant violation of the Sports Code and sought a direction to the federation to "cease and desist" from undertaking any activity pertaining to the sport of wrestling.
The plea also sought a direction to the Centre and WFI's ad-hoc committee to make the wrestling federation compliant with the National Sports Development Code, 2011, and for conducting the national selection trials for all international events under the court's supervision and monitoring.
Sanjay Kumar Singh, a close associate of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, was elected as the new president of the WFI during the election.
Football: AFC Cup
Central Coast Mariners eased past Odisha FC 4-0 in the first leg of their AFC Inter-Zonal semifinal match at Gosford, Australia. Goals from Mikael Doka (two), Storm Roux and Ronaldo Barcellos saw the Mariners take a massive upper hand in the two-legged tie.
You can relive all the important bits from the match on our blog here.
India probables for FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Afghanistan
Meanwhile, in another football-related news, the Indian senior men's team head coach Igor Stimac announced a list of 35 probables for the two matches against Afghanistan in the Round 2 of the FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027 Preliminary Joint Qualification
The team will first play the away match against Afghanistan on March 21, 2024, in Abha Saudi Arabia. India's home match against Afghanistan will be played in Guwahati on March 26, 2024..
Goalkeepers: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Amrinder Singh, Phurba Tempa Lachenpa, Vishal Kaith.
Defenders: Akash Mishra, Lalchungnunga, Mehtab Singh, Pritam Kotal, Rahul Bheke, Nikhil Chandrashekhar Poojary, Subhasish Bose, Narender, Anwar Ali, Roshan Singh Naorem, Amey Ganesh Ranawade, Jay Gupta.
Midfielders: Anirudh Thapa, Brandon Fernandes, Liston Colaco, Mahesh Singh Naorem, Sahal Abdul Samad, Suresh Singh Wangjam, Jeakson Singh Thounaojam, Deepak Tangri, Lalthathanga Khawlhring, Lalengmawia Ralte, Imran Khan.
Forwards: Sunil Chhetri, Ishan Pandita, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Manvir Singh, Vikram Partap Singh, Rahul Kannoly Praveen, Nandhakumar Sekar, Isak Vanlalruatfela.
Indian Wells Open: Nadal out, Nagal in
Rafael Nadal has pulled out of the Indian Wells Open...and that's given Sumit Nagal a slot in the main draw! And guess who Nagal faces in the first round? Former World #3 and Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic.
Nagal has enjoyed a fantastic 2024 on the circuit - the highlights of which include him making the Australian Open main draw and beating Alexander Bublik, making it to the top-100 of the rankings, winning the Chennai Open Challenger, a runner-up finish at the Bengaluru Open Challenger and now a main draw appearance at an ATP Masters 1000 event. Sumit is also the first Indian since Prajnesh Gunneswaran [in 2019] to make the main draw of a Masters.
He is replaced in the draw by lucky loser Sumit Nagal.
- BNP Paribas Open (@BNPPARIBASOPEN) March 7, 2024
Boxing Olympic Qualifiers: Another day, another Indian exits
India's dismal run at the Boxing Olympic Qualifiers continues as Sanjeet become the latest Indian boxer to make a first round exit. He lost via unanimous verdict to Aibek Oralbay of Kazakhstan in the opening round of the men's 92kg. Six Indian boxers have failed to get past the first round at these qualifiers.
Nishant Dev [71kg] is the only Indian who has progressed to the next round as he beat Great Britan's Lewis Richardson in their round of 64 bout on Wednesday.
While none of the men's boxers have made the cut for the Paris Olympics, four of India's women's boxers have sealed their Paris Olympics quotas: Nikhat Zareen [won quota by winning bronze at Asian Games], Lovlina Borgohain [silver at Asian Games], Preeti Pawar [bronze at Asian Games] and Parveen Hooda [bronze at Asian Games].
An early exit for Sanjeet at the 1️⃣st Olympic qualifiers
Comeback stronger champ #Olympics #RoadtoParis2024#Paris2024#PunchMeinHaiDum#Boxing pic.twitter.com/cJgi7WiGUN
- Boxing Federation (@BFI_official) March 7, 2024
What's on today?
AFC Cup: Odisha vs Central Coast Mariners in the Inter-zonal semifinal (1.30 pm IST)
Badminton: The 2024 French Open continues (matches start at 2.30 pm IST): Kidambi Srikanth takes on Lu Guang Zu (court 3, match one), PV Sindhu vs Beiwen Zhang (Court 2, second match), Treesa-Gayatri vs Fukushima-Hirota (court 2, fifth match), Sat-Chi vs Man-Kai (court 2, eighth match), Lakshya Sen vs Li Shi Feng (court 1, second-last match)
ISL: NorthEast United vs Punjab FC (7.30 pm IST)
PVL: Kolkata Thunderbolts vs Mumbai Meteors (6.30 pm IST)
Boxing: Indian boxers are in action at the Olympic qualifiers.
What happened yesterday?
Badminton: PV Sindhu dug in deep to show that while she may have more than a few errors in her game still, the old fight that marked out her champion will is back, beating Michelle Li in three games to advance. And also advancing was Kidambi Srikanth who beat Chou Tien Chen. Not advancing, though, is HS Prannoy, who lost to Lu Guang Zu.
Hockey: The schedule for the men's hockey was revealed: and we had Anish Anand giving his thoughts on it all (scroll down to the last bullet for the link to yesterday's blog)
Football: FC Goa remain in the league shield hunt thanks to a Noah winner against East Bengal, as the top five battle draws closer and closer
PVL: Bengaluru Torpedoes came from 1-2 down to beat fellow heavy hitters Calicut Heroes 3-2
Boxing: India finally got a win in the Olympic qualifiers: Nishant Dev beat Great Britan's Lewis Richardson to become the first (of six, so far) Indian boxer(s) of these qualifiers to get past the first hurdle.
You can find more details of yesterday's events, here.