Day 2: Another Great Day for Kanpur!

Athletics

The second day brought more laurels for the Athletics team. In the 110m hurdles, both Sagar and Surya qualified, coming 2nd in their respective heats. In 400m women, Ruchita qualified by a whisker as she reached the next stage with a lead of just 0.1s. In men’s 400m heats held in the morning, Deepak Jorwal qualified for the semi-finals held later in the day, where he managed to pull through, clocking 400m in 52.1s. He will run in the finals to be held on the 19th.

In Discus Throw, Zunaid Alam and Raushan Joshi represented home hopes. Zunaid’s throw of 33.32m earned him the third spot on the table. Raushan earned valuable experience for his next outing as he fell short at 29.42m.

In High Jump, multi-gold medal winner M. Surya Prakash was the centre of Kanpur’s attraction. Bhupendra Ninania matched him toe to toe and both of them finished a tied 4th with a height of 1.65m.

Badminton

Kanpur clashed with Mandi today. The home team being favourites didn’t disappoint the crowd as they won both their singles and doubles match in straight sets. Srishti Chaturvedi won the first set 21-10 in her singles match. Her drops and net shots troubled Shivangi throughout the match. In the doubles match Priya and Shristi outclassed Mandi duo 21-11, 21-11. The first half of the set was quite intense with long rallies, couple of smashes and both sides scoring points in turn. The Mandi duo however failed to carry forward their form as they conceded easy points later in the set to lose 21-11. The top seed Priya stole the show with her footwork and sideline smashes as similar pattern of play followed in the second set to hand Kanpur an easy win.

Basketball

The women’s home team lost to IIT Delhi 28-16 in their inaugural match. Sonal from Kanpur scored a couple of remarkable baskets in the opening quarter with some valuable assists by teammates Avani and Chanchala. The second quarter turned out to be one-sided with Delhi clinching 9 points against Kanpur barely managing 2. Apart from a fierce lay-up by Chanchala, the home team were struggling to secure possession of the ball. Delhi girl Apoorva was a major threat for Kanpur with her agility and strong defense. She went on to score 3 pointers twice in this quarter. In the third quarter, homegirl Aakansha came to the rescue by converting 2 foul shots and scoring a basket. However, it was too late. With the scoreboard reading 22-12 after the third quarter, the damage was done.The final quarter saw Delhi committing as many as 5 fouls. However, the home team could only convert 4 out of the 10 free throws. The final scoreboard read 28-16 in favour of Delhi.

The men’s team took the revenge of the morning debacle of the women’s team by winning 85-69 against Delhi in a high scoring match. The first quarter was dominated by Kanpur as the ball found the net thrice each for captain Varun Jorapur and teammate Aditya Parmar. Two 3 pointers, one each by Naman and Sudhanshu helped Kanpur gain a marginal lead of 21-17 after the first quarter. The second quarter, however, did not spell well for the home team as they lost their lead due to some timely baskets by Delhi captain Rohan and his teammate Bhargav. In the third quarter, Kanpur demonstrated clinical co-ordination, opening up gaps in the Delhi defense and at the same time beefing up their own defense. Homeboy Shivam stole the show in this quarter, scoring three baskets and converting 3 foul shots. Kanpur extended their lead in the final quarter which saw some exceptional game play by Aditya, Shivam and Rohan who scored 12, 10 and 13 points respectively. The match saw a total of 154 points being made, 85 by Kanpur and 69 by Delhi.

Cricket

Today saw the quarter final match between Kanpur and Mandi. Winning the toss, Kanpur chose to bat first. Mandi bowlers showed some good, disciplined bowling in the first few overs. The two openers fell within the 5th over. However, after that, they were pummelled almost at will. Even though wickets fell regularly, runs came at a quick pace, with the Mandi bowlers mercilessly thrashed in the last 3-4 overs. Sanchit was the backbone of the batting, scoring a quickfire 63 in 37 balls. Kanpur set a huge target of 166 for Mandi.

In response, the Mandi batsmen could not stick around for long in front of the disciplined Kanpur bowling attack and were bundled out for a mere 75 runs. Kanpur won by a humongous margin of 90 runs to reach the semi-finals.

Football

Kanpur started today’s match with all guns blazing. They had a near miss on a good corner right at the beginning of the match and successfully converted their second chance. Manish who was playing under medication and a bandage, created a shooting opportunity for Saurav with a sleek through pass and Saurav did not disappoint the home crowd. The second goal was scored when Siddharth pumped in a cross which was met well by Saurav to score a superb headed goal.

During 30th minute, came a moment of magic from Manish as he scored Kanpur’s 3rd goal from outside the box and within few more minutes Saurav bagged his hat trick when Siddharth sent in a wonderful through ball, tearing apart the Jodhpur Defence. The second half was a rather dull affair as Kanpur reduced their intensity to save it for the next match. The match finished 4-0 thanks to a dominant 1st half display that blew away IIT Jodhpur football team.

Hockey

The Kanpur men’s hockey team gave a mesmerising field performance today against Madras winning by a score of 6-1. Kanpur was dominant in the first half and didn’t give the opposition any opportunity to drive the ball into their half. Team captain Prabu scored the first goal from penalty corner in just the third minute. After the first half the score stood at 5-0, which showed the dominance of Kanpur’s team. Prabu’s extremely skilled and highly energetic performance drew the attention of the crowd. His amazing passes and dribbling led to a magnificent hat-trick. Madras tried to fight back but succumbed to the well knit defence of the home team. Although Kulan tried to salvage some of the game by scoring the lone goal, it was a lost cause. With Vivek scoring 2 goals and Rahul scoring 1, along with the hat-trick from the captain Kanpur comfortably pulled off their first match. Many close misses brought the spectators on their toes, overall it was a treat for the eyes.

Lawn Tennis

In men’s tennis, Kanpur was up against Bhubaneswar today. Ankush represented Kanpur in singles. Ankush won the first set quite easily, 6-0, losing only three points. Ankush’s strong and accurate first serve did the maximum damage in the first set. The scenario did not change in the next set also, as Ankush cruised through it winning 5 straight games. The match got a bit interesting when P. Hemant of Bhubaneswar made a strong comeback as he won the sixth game. He continued to play well in the seventh game but it was just too late, as Ankush won the deuce in the first time itself to finish things up. Kanpur won the match 6-0, 6-1.

Next up was the men’s doubles. There was a change in Kanpur’s playing duo today. Ankush was rested and Rajat was paired with Sagar. In the first set, Kanpur did not serve as well and made a number of double faults. But they still managed to win it 6-0. In the second set, Kanpur sailed through as their opponents from Bhubaneswar committed a lot of unforced errors. Kanpur emerged victorious 6-0, 6-1.

After these two wins against Gandhinagar and Bhubaneswar, Kanpur men have topped their pool and qualified for the quarterfinals.  They will face the loser of the match between Delhi and Kharagpur, scheduled tomorrow. The quarter final is scheduled on Friday.

The women’s team continued with their winning run as they faced Guwahati in their second match. In the singles game, Chandana from Kanpur went against Himaja from Guwahati.

Chandana clearly overpowered her opponent, not allowing her to win even a single game in the first set. Although Himaja was able to open her account in the second set, it wasn’t enough to make Guwahati win, and Chandana, continuing her consistent performance, won the match 6-0, 6-1.

In the doubles match, Kanpur’s winning combination of Chandana and Deepika went on court against Himaja and Akriti from Guwahati. The doubles team from Guwahati wasn’t able to pose a tough challenge, as the hosts comfortably won the match 6-1, 6-0.

Squash

Kanpur played its second match against Madras. Madras got off to a flying start leading the first game by 8-4. Although Tizil Saini from Kanpur showed strong resistance taking the game to deuce, Madras won the game 12-10. But Tizil made a very strong comeback by winning 3 consecutive games by 11-8, 11-5 and 11-2 steering Kanpur to a lead of 1-0.

In the second game, Vivek Dubey of Kanpur stole the limelight guiding Kanpur to a one-sided victory over Madras by winning straight games 11-4, 11-2 and 11-5. His flexible moves and swift returns were really praiseworthy.

Kanpur made a change in the playing trio giving a chance to Maneesh instead of Manraj for the third game. Though Mehul from Madras gave a tough competition, Maneesh managed to secure the win by a close margin in all the three games with the final scores standing at 11-8,11-7 and 11-9. Thus Kanpur continues its impressive campaign beating Madras by 3-0.

Table Tennis

The women’s  team of Kanpur walked away with an easy victory over a lacklustre Jodhpur side. Mugdha ,representing Kanpur, won the first singles match against Ankita in straight sets. However, Kanpur couldn’t claim a clean win over the novice team in the doubles’ match, when they were drawn out to four sets primarily due to the their proclivity for unforced errors.

On the other hand, the men’s team had to face stiff competition offered by the experienced and talented team from Roorkee in a contest which could well decide which team would emerge as the pool topper. Kanpur shot off the mark with a win as Mehul Singh triumphed over his opponent in the first match, but the score of 3-0 belies competitiveness of the round. The second match turned out to be the most exciting one, pitting Mandeep Singh, captain of the Roorkee team, against Abhimanyu Yadav of Kanpur. Abhimanyu won the first, third and the final game but lost the second and the fourth ones as Mandeep exploited Abhimanyu’s lack of concentration as evident from the many unforced errors committed by Abhimanyu. The third round was a sublime show of skill by Nikhil Sharma as he outclassed his opponent with an awe-inspiring medley of shots exhibiting control over placement and pace.

A member of the Kanpur’s coaching staff banged a chair on the floor to show his excitement post the team’s win.This proved to be a little too much for Mandeep, who must have been perturbed and disappointed with Roorkee’s defeat. Consequently, he had a heated exchange of words with the said person.

Volleyball

The boys’ home team easily managed to enter into the quarterfinals by defeating Mandi in an interesting match by 3-1. While the Kanpur boys won the first two sets by a huge margin of 25-8, third set did not come along as expected as it appeared that they took the opponents a bit lightly and ended up losing the set. Kanpur regained the momentum in the fourth set and won it 25-12. Sandy continued his form and stole the show today too. He served the ball 16 times in a row along with some amazing smashes during the match. Also, it was a treat to watch Vice-captain Piyush who played consistently well during the match. Tomorrow, Kanpur will be looking forward to win its last league match against Bhubaneshwar to top the pool.

Weightlifting

Kanpur had a great day in the weightlifting events today. Kanpur won in all the three categories, viz, under 56 kg, 56-62 kg and 62-69 kg. In the under 56 kg category, Arjun won with a total score of 163 kg. Though in the snatch event Arjun and Sukhbir had a tie, Arjun won the game with a good margin by lifting 92kgs in the clean and jerk event. In the 56-62 kg category Shreejit VS and Udit Narayan had a tie in the snatch event at 84 kg, though in the clean and jerk category Shreejit took the lead by lifting 105 kg against Udit’s 99 kg and thereby winning the event. Prakash Tiwari was the next performer from Kanpur, lifting a total of 203 kgs with a dominant lead in both snatch event as well as clean and jerk event.  All three wins were infact meet records!