Golden double for Jaismine and Minakshi at World Boxing C'ships; India sign off with 4 medals
Liverpool, Sep 14 (PTI): Jaismine Lamboria and Minakshi Hooda cemented their place in Indian boxing history here, clinching World Championship titles with gritty wins as the country capped off its best-ever campaign in the women's section on foreign soil.
Jaismine outclassed Paris Olympics silver medallist Julia Szeremeta of Poland in the 57kg summit clash late on Saturday night, prevailing 4-1 on the judges' scorecards (30-27, 29-28, 30-27, 28-29, 29-28) to end her stupendous campaign with a golden flourish.
"I have no words to describe how I am feeling," Jaismine told PTI.
"I had got out in the quarterfinals in the previous two Worlds, but I got the boost from the World Cup win and I decided I want to win one-sided matches. I just concentrated on my strategy and game."
Debutant Minakshi followed suit a day later on Sunday, out-punching Paris Olympics bronze medallist Nazym Kyzaibay of Kazakhstan by the same margin in the 48kg final to exact revenge for her World Cup loss in July.
Adding to the glory were Nupur Sheoran (80+kg) and the seasoned Pooja Rani (80kg), who signed off with silver and bronze medals respectively, in non-Olympic weight categories.
India thus ended with a haul of four medals, the best-ever in an overseas edition.
With their victories, Jaismine and Minakshi joined an illustrious list of Indian world champions featuring six-time winner Mary Kom, two-time champion Nikhat Zareen, Sarita Devi, Jenny RL, Lekha KC, Nitu Ghanghas, Lovlina Borgohain and Saweety Boora.
Jaismine shines bright
Competing in her third World Championships, the 24-year-old Jaismine grew steadily into the bout. After a relatively sedate start where both pugilists sized each other up, it was Szeremeta who drew first blood, prodded into action by the referee.
The much shorter Pole, who had lost the Olympic final to gender-row boxer Lin Yu-ting, was fast and precise, using defensive manoeuvres to dart in and out. She negotiated Jaismine's long reach to win the opening round 3-2.
But the Indian came roaring back in the second. Adjusting her rhythm, she began controlling the distance, evading Szeremeta's advances, and unleashing crisp combinations that swayed all the judges in her favour.
Jaismine employed the jab with authority while defending stoutly.
When the final verdict was announced, the usually serene Jaismine let out a brief yell, raising her hand before graciously embracing her crestfallen opponent. At the medal ceremony, her eyes glistened as the Indian national anthem reverberated through the arena.
Her's is the only medal that came in Olympic weight category.
Minakshi packs a punch
In her final bout, Minakshi made the most of her physical advantage, using her long reach to pepper Nazym Kyzaibay with sharp shots and keep the multiple World Championships medallist at bay.
The 24-year-old from Rurki looked composed on the back foot, landing clean straight punches, even as the more experienced 31-year-old Kazakh pressed forward with aggression.
After dropping the opening round, Kyzaibay came out firing in the second, resorting to body blows and even pinning Minakshi to the ropes to edge the round 3-2.
But Minakshi was quick to respond. Sensing the shift, she raised her aggression in the third, lunging forward with authority and taking the fight to her seasoned opponent.
Nupur walks away with silver
Nupur walked away with silver after a narrow 2-3 defeat to Poland's technically astute Agata Kaczmarska.
Despite enjoying a substantial height advantage, Nupur could not impose herself on the contest. She started brightly but Kaczmarska countered with relentless aggression, weaving through her reach and landing body blows that wore the Indian down.
As the bout progressed, Nupur grew hesitant to throw punches. The defining moment of the bout came in the final round when the Pole unleashed a stunning uppercut, enough to tip the verdict 3-2 in her favour.
Pooja signs off with bronze
Pooja signed off with a bronze medal after going down to local favourite Emily Asquith by a 1-4 split verdict in the 80kg semifinals.
Pooja began on the front foot, leading after the first round with her measured combinations. But Asquith adapted swiftly, changing her game plan to negate the 34-year-old's rhythm.
The local star pressed forward with sharper counters and cleaner execution, reversing the tide of the contest.
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A 99-run loss is unacceptable: Hayden blames batting horror
Ahmedabad (PTI): Gujarat Titans' batting coach Matthew Hayden was scathing about their 99-run defeat to Mumbai Indians, blaming a "horror" batting display and poor death bowling for the heavy loss in the IPL.
From being 44/3 in 5.5 overs, MI hammered 73 runs in the last four overs to post a challenging 199/5 here on Monday. In reply, GT were bundled out for 100.
"I expect our margins to be a lot smaller than 100 (99). That is an unacceptable scorecard for our batting unit," the legendary Australian opener told media in the post-match interaction.
"It was just a horrible day for us today. Truth be told, there was nothing good about this day, really, apart from Rabada's performance with the ball. so we've got some work to do, definitely."
GT boast a strong batting line-up in Sai Sudharsan (759 runs), Shubman Gill (717), and Jos Buttler (538). They have also added New Zealand’s explosive Glenn Phillips in the middle order alongside Shahrukh Khan and Rahul Tewatia.
"When you look down at our batting line-up, we've got wonderful players that have to be in a better mindset and better position to take their opportunities. That is our expectations and has been since the conception of this Gujarat Titans franchise...
"So you can't be sitting here and being happy about, a 100-run (99) margin game in a 20-over game. I mean, back in my day, 100 runs was almost a winning total in 50-over cricket!"
The 54-year-old said GT lost the game in the powerplay.
"Well, middle order was undoubtedly exposed today. When they're coming in with six overs, you know that you're in deep trouble. The thing about the power plays is that you can't win it from there, especially in a run chase, but you can definitely lose it, and we lost it in the power play," he said.
Shahrukh (35 off 25 balls) and Tewatia (49 off 42) have not fared well this season and Hayden feels the duo along with Phillips (67 off 54 balls) have been struggling because the top order has been below its best.
"The relevance behind balls faced when you look at, for example, someone like Glenn Phillips -- his record in T20 cricket is an impressive strike rate and you'll take that all day long in the majority of games," Hayden said.
"However, you need an upfront batting effort where you consistently taking the lion's share of the batting. We shouldn't be allowing, Tiwu (Tewatia) or Shahrukh or these guys lots of balls. That's not their role. That's not what they train for."
Hayden said GT has an aggressive and adaptable unit but their execution fell apart on the day.
"We are a very good thinking batting unit. We're not a conservative batting unit. You don't go out and get 200s as often as we do being conservative. But they're an adaptive batting unit. ...they've got their roles and they play them and today they simply didn't.
"So the worry isn't just today about the middle order. It'd be unfair to say that, they were going to go on and score 13 runs an over because by that stage, I felt like as a batting coach, I was on the mast and the boat was sinking."
It was poorly executed bowling effort
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Hayden also pointed to poor execution in the death overs.
"I feel like one-dimensional is very unfair on a world-class bowling attack, but I will take on board it was a poorly executed bowling effort this evening.
"When you look back at those last four overs, that was just a 'horror story' -- 73 off the last four is unacceptable as world-class players. That bowling line-up has to reflect on that performance... It was purely an executional thing."
He added that GT were below par with the ball on a surface that didn’t fully justify the high total.
"We're very average with the ball, firstly, on a wicket that I really felt was probably a 175-type wicket.
"When you look historically at this black soil pitch on No. 5, it's a 200-wicket for the loss of five batters. That's been its winning first-inning score, and today it wasn't that wicket (199/5)... It was visible that it had cracks in it. It was visible that it was up and down.
"So credit also has to go to Tilak Varma, who put in a wonderful performance. It wasn't a cookie-cutter type performance. It was a dominant performance down the ground. He read the play nicely. He was able to pick up and play with power and precision."
Hayden said the chase was still within reach but poor shot selection proved costly.
"And when you reflect on our own batting, we had one side of the ground that was a little more inaccessible than the other, and we lost, what, three wickets into the bigger side of that boundary.
"And it wasn't an impossible total. 200 still is a total that I would back our three world-class players at the top of the order to etch into that a bit more and then allow our more sort of game players. An opportunity to set out their stalls and bat deep into the innings."
