India brush aside Chinese Taipei 5-0 in Intercontinental Cup
Mumbai, June 2: Sunil Chhetri scored a hat-trick as India hammered an inexperienced Chinese Taipei 5-0 in the opening game of the four-nation Intercontinental Cup football tournament here on Friday.
The striker, now one short of playing his 100th game, took his tally of international goals to 59 at the Mumbai Football Arena.
The hosts, using the tournament as preparation for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup to be held in the UAE, controlled the game from the first touch. Udanta Singh and Pronoy Halder deservingly got India’s third and fifth goals with brilliant individual efforts.
India coach Stephen Constantine deployed four men in attack with Holicharan Nazary and Udanta running riot on the wings while Chhetri and Jeje Lalpekhlua occupied the central spots.
The frontline was complemented by 20-year-old Anirudh Thapa and Halder with Chhetri getting three off his five first-half chances within the first 15 minutes.
India’s record goal-scorer could have struck in the third minute itself. Jeje played it through to Udanta on the right and he pulled it back for Chhetri, who however shot wide.
Chhetri came agonisingly close from a free-kick moments before getting his first goal, set up by Jeje’s threaded pass. Chhetri collected the ball, took a touch to beat his man before guiding it into the corner.
Jeje and youngster Thapa continued to orchestrate from the middle and sent Chhetri through again, but his shot was saved by the outstretched leg of goalkeeper Wen-Chieh Pan.
India continued to press and Chhetri rounded off a wonderful team goal in the 34th minute. Jeje played a one-two with Thapa in the box before laying it on to Chhetri, who buried the shot from a difficult angle. A few minutes later, the 33-year-old striker failed to beat trying to chip the rushing goalkeeper.
India were off to a flying start in the second half as well. Udanta broke free on the right in the 48th minute and got past a Taipei defender before curling a shot into the far corner.
India created many other attempts that were kept out by the Taipei backline before Chhetri got his hat-trick in the 61st minute. Right-back Subhasish Bose played Chhetri on goal and the Bengaluru FC forward dispatched it to the top corner.
India sealed the win with a screamer from midfielder Halder, who guided the ball over the defensive line and beyond the keeper from the edge of the box.
A deserved victory for India, but it came against a young side that was probably playing together for the first time in national colours.
Taipei attackers Chao-an-Chen and William Donkin still managed to skip past Indian defenders and get shots away on a couple of occasions. India will have to address the issue before they face Kenya and New Zealand, who may field young teams as well but will certainly offer better resistance.
Courtesy: Hindustan Times
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Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
