CWG: Savita stars as Indian women win hockey medal after 16 years
Birmingham(PTI): Skipper Savita Punia led from the front with a spectacular display as the Indian women's hockey team overcame the stopwatch controversy to beat New Zealand 2-1 in shootout and win the bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games here Sunday.
This is the team's first medal at CWG in 16 years.
Leading 1-0, India conceded a penalty corner with less than 30 seconds to go for the final hooter, as the match went into shootout after Olivia Merry's equaliser.
In the regulation time, India got the lead through Salima Tete in the 29th minute.
Coming off their heartbreaking loss to Australia in a controversial semifinal, India showed the intent to wrap up their campaign with a win and earn a podium finish.
The Indians were done in by a horrendous timing faux pas in the shoot-out against Australia.
In the shootout on Sunday, India captain and goalkeeper Savita showed her class, pulling off three spectacular saves to give her side its third CWG medal.
After Megan Hull put New Zealand ahead, an agile Savita denied Rose Tynan, Katie Doar and Olivia Shanon, while Sonika and Navneet scored for India to register a famous win.
The Indians came out attacking and made plenty of circle penetrations but failed to break the solid New Zealand defence.
India gained the tempo as the match progressed and built their attacks using both the flanks.
But it was New Zealand who came close to taking the lead in the first quarter, in the form of a penalty corner which was well defended by the Indians.
Minutes later Sangita Kumari's shot on target was blocked by the Kiwi defence. Seconds later Salima's shot zoomed across the right side of New Zealand goal.
The Indians continued in the same vein in the second quarter and had the better share of ball possession, but they failed to break the resolute New Zealand defence.
In the 26th minute, New Zealand came tantalisingly close to taking the lead from a counter attack.
India finally broke the New Zealand defence a minute from half time through Salima, who scored off a rebound with a reverse hit after Navneet Kaur's initial shot was saved by the opposition goalie.
India kept up the pressure after the change of ends, and in the 35th minute, secured their first variation, but the chance was wasted. Minutes later, excellent work by Navneet and Neha Goyal set it up for Sonika, who just had to get her stick on the ball, but failed.
Merry seemed to have equalised for New Zealand in the 43rd minute against the run of play, but the goal was disallowed after India went for the referral, claiming that the free hit wasn't taken from the 5m line.
The Indians lived dangerously in the final quarter.
India got three penalty corners in succession in the 52nd minute but Gurjit Kaur failed to get past New Zealand custodian Grace O'Hanlon.
The Indians lived dangerously in the fag end of the match and with two-and-half minutes remaining, Lalremisiami got an unnecessary yellow card, reducing her side to 10 players.
The Kiwis took advantage of that and secured a penalty corner with seconds from the hooter, which resulted in a penalty stroke, as Navneet deliberately kicked the goal-bound ball.
Merry stepped up and foxed Savita to draw level and take the match into shoot-out.
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.
The Kerala Story 2: Slow ticket sales on first day of film's release
Thiruvananthapuram/Kochi/Kozhikode (PTI): A day after the Kerala High Court paved the way for the release of the 'The Kerala Story 2-Goes Beyond' film, ticket sales of the movie are slow, but are expected to pick up in the coming days, theatre owners said.
In some theatres in the state capital, according to figures on the online movie ticket booking app, BookMyShow, ticket sales are very low.
In the PVR theatre at the Lulu Mall in Thiruvananthapuram, there were only 68 bookings till 10 am for the four shows scheduled for the day, according to BookMyShow figures.
In Kochi, Suresh, the owner of the popular Shenoy theatre, said there were around 50 per cent bookings for the four shows scheduled during the day.
"The bookings are more for the evening and night shows," he told PTI.
He said that the number of shows to be screened in the coming days will be decided based on the first day's ticket sales.
At the same time, Suresh also said that it was a slow start when the first movie -- 'The Kerala Story' -- was released in 2023.
"The bookings had slowly picked up, and there was a good collection," he said.
At Kozhikode city's Crown Theatre, a similar trend was seen last time in 2023, its owner Vinod Iyer said.
This time, the bookings are "very poor" for the four shows scheduled in his theatre for the day, Iyer told PTI.
He said that the reasons for it might be that the bookings were opened late on Friday, and people might be waiting for the reviews before making a decision.
Even in various other theatres in the city, bookings are very low, and some have cancelled shows as a result, he said.
"Hopefully, things will improve in the coming days as they did the first time," Iyer said.
A division bench of the Kerala High Court on Friday had paved the way for the release of 'The Kerala Story 2-Goes Beyond' film by staying the single judge order, which had put on hold the movie's screening for 15 days.
The bench had said that the single judge's finding that guidelines for certification have not been borne in mind by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) were "merely on the basis of a few clippings and without viewing the movie" and therefore, it "cannot be countenanced".
It had further said that once a certificate has been issued, there is, prima facie, a presumption that the authority concerned has taken into account all the guidelines, including public order.
"In the light of the afore discussions, we are of the view that the impugned order dated February 26, 2026 interdicting the release of the movie is only to be stayed and we do so. Ordered accordingly," the bench had said on an appeal moved by the film's producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah against the single judge's order.
The single judge, on Thursday, held that prima facie there was a manifest non-application of mind to the requirement of law by the censor board, CBFC.
The judge also said that "the possibility of communal disharmony or denigration of a community also being prima facie involved in the movie", and its release without scrutiny by the higher authorities would be legally improper.
The court had further said that the content of the film's teaser has "a prima facie potential to distort public perception and disturb communal harmony".
