Doha, Jun 3: A 10-man India defended creditably well as they suffered a 0-1 defeat to Asian champions Qatar in their World Cup qualifying round match here on Thursday.

Abdel Aziz scored in the 33rd minute in a match completely dominated by the Qataris. The two sides had played out a goal-less draw in their first leg match here in September 2019.

Group toppers Qatar, who are yet to lose a match, had waves of attacks with their eight to nine players in the Indian half for most of the time. Goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu had to pull off a series of saves to keep the margin of loss small.

India, however, played with 10 men from the 17th minute onwards after defender Rahul Bheke was red carded after a second booking. He had earlier received a yellow card in the ninth minute.

India did have two good moves in the match from counter attacks with Manvir Singh in the thick of things on both occasions.

India captain Sunil Chhetri, who returned to the team after recovering from COVID-19 infection, was replaced by Udanta Singh at the resumption of second half.

A winless India remained in fourth spot in Group E with three points from six matches.

Igor Stimac's men are two points behind Afghanistan (third with five points) who played out a 1-1 draw against Bangladesh earlier in the day.

India play Bangladesh on June 7 in their next match.

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



Hyderabad (PTI): The promising Angkrish Raghuvanshi (59) made a well-paced fifty as Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets in their IPL match here on Sunday.

Skipper Ajinkya Rahane (43) and Raghuvanshi added 84 runs for the second wicket as KKR overhauled SRH’s under-par 165 all out with ease.

Finn Allen made an aggressive 29 off 13 balls upfront to give KKR a brisk start.

Earlier, Travis Head made a belligerent 61 off 28 balls but KKR's spinners bowled well to restrict SRH to 165.

Mystery spinners Varun Chakravarthy (3/36) and Sunil Narine (2/31) wrecked SRH middle-order with controlled spells.

Along the way of his two-wicket burst in his fourth-over, Narine also completed 200 IPL wickets.

The spinner was the third bowler to achieve the feat after Yuzvendra Chahal and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Ishan Kishan made 42 off 29 balls.

Brief Scores:

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 165 all out in 19 overs (Travis Head 61, Ishan Kishan 42; Varun Chakravarthy 3/36, Sunil Narine 2/31).

Kolkata Knight Riders: 169/3 in 18.2 overs (Angkrish Raghuvanshi 59, Ajinkya Rahane 43).