After Emotional Appeal, Sunil Chhetri Scores Brace in India's 3-0 Win Against Kenya

Agencies
June 5, 2018

Mumbai, Jun 5: Captain Sunil Chhetri couldn't have written a better script for his 100th international game as he struck twice to power India into the final of the the Intercontinental Cup with a convincing 3-0 win over Kenya here on Monday evening.

Chhetri controversially earned a penalty and broke the deadlock in the 68th minute while Jeje Lalpekhlua doubled the home team's lead with his pile driver in the 71st minute.

Chhetri ended it in the best possible manner, scoring in the stoppage time (90+1) off a Balwant Singh assist, as fans went berserk.

The outpouring of emotion over the last two days was followed by a heavy downpour, which threatened to play spoilsport. Puddles of water had formed in the field of play and what followed was a scrappy first half.

As the rain stopped, the groundsmen worked hard to get the water off the field throughout the half-time interval. The talismanic Chhetri will remember the groundsmen's efforts, which probably saved the landmark game from turing into an anti-climax.

After the game, the Blue Tigers walked up to the fans and acknowledged their presence, with Chhetri taking his players for a lap of honour as his proud family savoured the moment from the stands.

"If this is the kind of turnout that is going to come to watch us, we can give our lives on the pitch," an emotional Chhetri said after the match.

While the Kenyans looked better in the first half and had territorial advantage despite unfamiliar conditions, India hit back strongly after the break and looked to score.

The home team's intent bore fruit as it slammed in two goals in three minutes.

While the first half saw passes dragging along the field, and the ball not bouncing, the period of play after the break was a far cry.

Long ball was the way to go, but India managed to string together a few short passes and moves, too.

The moment the Mumbai Football Arena was waiting for arrived when Chhetri earned a contentious penalty when he fell inside the box while trying to chest down a delivery from wide right.

After a delay over protests by the Kenyan players, Chhetri shot on the left side of the goalkeeper, who got a hand to it but could not stop the ball.

The crowd went jubilant and there was more to follow as Jeje unleashed a pile driver off a rebound into the top corner from the edge of the box.

Befitting the occasion, Chhetri gave India another goal as he scored following a link-up with substitute Balwant Singh. The goal meant a lot to the skipper as he went over to the fans to celebrate.

Chhetri had issued to a rallying call to the fans, and they turned up in numbers to mark a special night for the captain and his team. The official total attendance was 8890 in the stadium that can accommodate around 10500 people.

Coach Stephen Constantine started with an unchanged XI, two days after the 5-0 demolition of Chinese Taipei.

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News Network
September 14,2024

Bengaluru: Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Saturday said the situation in violence-hit Nagamangala town in Mandya district is peaceful now, and steps have been taken to ensure that no untoward incidents take place.

Clashes had broken out between two groups during the Ganesh idol procession in the town, following which mobs went on a rampage with stone pelting and targeting several shops and vehicles leading to tension on Wednesday night.

"Situation in Nagamangala is now peaceful and there is no problem there. I have also instructed officials to hold a peace meeting there. We have instructed officers to ensure that no untoward incidents take place, enough police force is also stationed there," Parameshwara told reporters here.

About 55 people have been arrested in connection with the incident and they have been sent to judicial custody, according to police sources.

Responding to a question on opposition parties including JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy raising doubts about the FIR, he said, "The police will do what has to be done in accordance with law..."

Asked about BJP sending a fact finding team to Nagamangala, the Home Minister said, "Let them find the facts and inform us, and if there is any fact from their fact finding, we will look into it. It will make our work a bit easier." The BJP panel consisting of MLA C N Ashwath Narayan, former Minister Byrathi Basavaraj, former Minister K C Narayana Gowda, state secretary Lakshmi Ashwin Gowda, and former IPS officer Bhaskar Rao, will visit the spot and submit a comprehensive report to the party in a week.

According to police, an argument had broken out between two groups, when the Ganesh idol procession by devotees from Badri Koppalu village reached a place of worship on Wednesday, and some miscreants hurled stones, which escalated the situation.

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News Network
September 19,2024

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Narendra Modi-led government of India has abstained in the UN General Assembly on a resolution that demanded that Israel bring an end, “without delay”, to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory within 12 months.

The 193-member General Assembly adopted the resolution, with 124 nations voting in favour, 14 against and 43 abstentions, including that by India.

Those abstaining included Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Nepal, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

Israel and the US were among the nations who voted against the resolution titled ‘Advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences arising from Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and from the illegality of Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory’.

The resolution adopted Wednesday demanded that “Israel brings to an end without delay its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which constitutes a wrongful act of a continuing character entailing its international responsibility, and do so no later than 12 months from the adoption of the present resolution.” 

The Palestinian-drafted resolution also strongly deplored the continued and total disregard and breaches by the Government of Israel of its obligations under the Charter of the United Nations, international law and the relevant United Nations resolutions, and stressed that such breaches seriously threaten regional and international peace and security.

It recognised that Israel must be held to account for any violations of international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including any violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and that it “must bear the legal consequences of all its internationally wrongful acts, including by making reparation for the injury, including any damage, caused by such acts.”

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News Network
September 24,2024

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The Israeli regime’s warplanes have conducted extensive airstrikes against towns and villages across Lebanon, killing at least 492 people.

Lebanon’s health ministry announced the death toll on Monday, saying the victims included 35 children and 58 women.

The ministry said at least 1,645 others had also been wounded in the attacks that targeted the areas earlier in the day.

Lebanon’s health minister Firass Abiad said that the health ministry is working to ensure those injured in Israeli strikes are getting the health care they need.

The health minister said he had asked hospitals to stop taking regular, light cases to make space for the wounded from the south.

“We working on directives for the first-aid centres to be turned into places that can receive the wounded. The displaced people who have cancer, kidney failure and other chronic diseases, we have the plan to continue their treatment in different medical centers,” he said.

The country’s media outlets said the aircraft had bombed all the towns and villages lying on the southern border as well as their surroundings.

Israeli warplanes also reportedly targeted eastern Lebanese areas, including the Bekaa Valley and Baalbek.

Lebanese sources said the airstrikes had targeted a total of more than 40 areas in Lebanon during the attacks.

The Sheikh of the Druze community reached out to the Deputy Head of the Supreme Islamic Shia Council and expressed solidarity and reaffirmed support for the people of southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs, and the Bekaa during this critical period for the country.

The Commissioner of Marjayoun-Hassbaya in the Muslim Scouts, Sheikh Hussein Al-Nader, was killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted his home in the town of Dibbine, Marjayoun district, South Lebanon.

Three people were injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting the Deir El-Zahrani highway, in South Lebanon.

A family of four was killed in Hermel, Bekaa, due to the recent Israeli airstrikes.

Israeli media outlets, meanwhile, alleged that the attacks had hit locations lying as far as 125 kilometers (77 miles) inside the Lebanese territory.

Israeli military spokesman Danieh Hagari said the regime "will engage in [more] extensive and precise strikes” against Lebanon, adding that the attacks would "go on for the near future.”

The regime has markedly intensified its attacks against the country since October 7, when it launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement has responded with numerous strikes against the occupied Palestinian territories as a means of both retaliating against the regime and displaying support for the war-hit Gazans.

On Sunday, the group staged its farthest-reaching strikes against the territories since October, firing scores of rockets against the Ramat David Airbase, 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of the city of Haifa, and the Rafael weapons manufacturing facility in the Zevulun area north of the city.

It described the strike against the facility as its “initial response” to the regime’s detonation of thousands of booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkie radios that killed at least 39 people and wounded 3,000 others across Lebanon over Tuesday and Wednesday.

Also on Sunday, Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said the movement was in a "new phase" in its battle against the regime.

"Threats will not stop us... We are ready to face all military possibilities,” he noted.

Qassem made the remarks while attending the funeral of Ibrahim Aqil, one of the group’s senior commanders.

Aqil had been martyred alongside 37 others, including three children and seven women, during an Israeli attack on a residential building in a southern suburb of Lebanon’s capital Beirut on Friday.

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