Sports - Current Affairs for October, 2017

India’s Kidambi Srikanth succeeded in claiming his fourth Superseries title of the year from five entries into the finals of the French Open 2017. The fourth-ranked ranked Srikanth’s comfortable 21-14, 21-13 triumph on Sunday over the 40^th-ranked Japanese player Kenta Nishimoto, who had fought his way to the final from the qualifying rounds, turned out to be a near-mirror image of the 21-12, 21-11 win that the Indian had notched in the Singapore Open in April this year. Meanwhile, in the other finals that were decided at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin on 29^th Oct, the World’s No 1 female player and top seed, Tai Tzu Ying, scored a facile 21-4, 21-16 win over Japanese Akane Yamaguchi, the No 5 seed. There was a maiden Superseries title for the recently formed Indonesian pairing of Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu (Polii played with Krishinda Maheswari until recently), as they notched a comfortable 21-17, 21-15 triumph over South Korea’s Lee So Hee and Shin Seung Chan, another new combination (Lee had won the 2017 All England title Premier with Chang Ye Na). The Indonesians simply combined better than the Koreans in the long-drawn 54-minute encounter, the longest on the day of the finals. The fourth-seeded Indonesians have been world champions in 2013 and 2017, and also won the Olympic gold in Rio in 2016. Natsir has had a much longer and illustrious career, winning the 2005 and 2007 world titles with the since-retired Nova Widianto, and has also been a silver medalist with Widiyanto at Beijing in 2008. The concluding match on the card, the men’s doubles, was one in which the seventh-seeded Chinese Taipei combination of Lee Jhe-huei and Lee Yang scored over the Danish pairing of Carsten Mogensen and Mathias Boe, silver medalists at the 2012 London Olympics, by a 21-19, 23-21 verdict.

Kidambi Srikanth clinched his third Super Series Premier title with a dominating straight-game victory over Korean veteran Lee Hyun II in a lopsided final of the USD 750,000 Denmark Open here on Sunday. Playing an opponent 12 years his senior, Srikanth asserted his dominance with a 21-10 21-5 win over 37-year-old Lee in a match that lasted just 25 minutes here. World No. 8 Srikanth didn't give any chances to the more experienced Lee. The duo were tied 4-4, before Srikanth changed gears and used his deception and powerful smashes to lead 9-5. Other Wins at the Denmark Open

• Earlier, 2013 World Champion Ratchanok Inthanon produced another gritty display to stave off the challenge from World No. 5 and defending champion Akane Yamaguchi of Japan 14-21 21-15 21-19 to win her first title of the season.
• Ratchanok wanted to give "my best for our beloved King, who passed away last year."
• Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest- reigning monarch, had passed away last year after 70 years as head of state.
• Among other matches, Hong Kong's eighth seeded mixed doubles pair of Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet, who had clinched the 2012 Japan Open Super Series, notched up their maiden major title.
• They defeated top-seeded Chinese combo of Zheng Siwei and Chen Qingchen 24-22 19-21 23-21 in a thrilling contest that lasted a little less than an hour.
• Korea's women's doubles pair of Lee So Hee and Shin Seung Chan, who had won the 2014 World championship bronze medal at Denmark, dished out another sensational performance to outwit Japanese sixth seeds Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto 21-13 21-16 to clinch the title.
• Chinese pair of Liu Cheng and Zhang Nan, seeded fifth, defeated second seeded Indonesian combo of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo 21-16 22-24 21-19 in the men's doubles final clash.

India on 22 Oct 2017 ended their 10-year wait for continental triumph when they beat a gutsy Malaysia 2-1 in a nail-biting final to clinch their third Asia Cup hockey title. India, which won the Asia Cup last time in 2007 in Chennai, scored from field efforts. Malaysia were in summit clash for the first time since tournament's inception. The Indians are ranked sixth in the world. Pakistan won the bronze medal after edging out Korea 6-3 in the third-fourth place play-off match earlier in the day. For India's new chief coach Marijne Sjoerd, it was perfect start to his stint as the Asia Cup was his maiden tournament in charge of the senior national side. Today's win was India's second victory over Malaysia in the tournament, having beaten them 6-2 in the Super 4s stage. For Malaysia, it was their best result in the tournament. They had earlier won the bronze in the 2007 edition of the event in Chennai. Highlights

• India's ten-year wait for the continental title ended on 22nd Oct 2017
• India beat Malaysia 2-1 to win the 10th edition of the Asia Cup–their third title overall
• India won the tournament twice before in 2003 and 2007 editions.

The International Cricket Council's (ICC) revamped playing rules, which came into effect from September 28, will bring about some interesting changes in the way the sport is played. However, the ongoing India-Australia limited-overs series will continue to be played as per the old rules. All of these rules will come into effect from the two upcoming Test series - when South Africa host Bangladesh and Pakistan take on Sri Lanka in the United Arab Emirates. Another rule which will surely challenge the skills of batsmen is the restriction on the dimensions of the bat, since the massive pieces of willow which have made even mishits go for maximums will be a thing of the past, making timing and skill that much more important. There will also be changes to the Decision Review System (DRS). The playing conditions will now incorporate the relevant clauses from the MCC Laws of Cricket (2017 Code), meaning that all the playing regulations will be captured in one document for each format. To maintain the balance between bat and ball, the size of the edges of the bats as well as their thickness will now be restricted. The restriction on the length and width of bats remain unchanged but the thickness of the edges can't be more than 40mm and the overall depth can be 67 mm at the most. Umpires will be issued with a new bat gauge, which they can use to check a bat's legality. In a new playing condition pertaining to players' conduct, a player can now be sent off the field for the rest of the match for any serious misconduct through a red card. "Threatening to assault an umpire, making inappropriate and deliberate physical contact with an umpire, physically assaulting a player or any other person and committing any other act of violence all constitute Level 4 offences. Also, in the new the DRS rules a review will now not be lost in case of a decision that remains unchanged, solely as the result of an 'umpire's call'. As for DRS in Test matches, there will be no more top-up reviews after 80 overs of an innings, meaning that there can only be two unsuccessful reviews in each innings, while the DRS will now also be allowed to be used in T20Is." An important change with respect to run-outs is that if a batsman is running or diving towards the crease with forward momentum, and has grounded his/her bat behind the popping crease but subsequently lost contact with the ground at the time of the wickets being put down, the batsman will not be run out. The same interpretation will also apply for a batsman trying to regain his/her ground to avoid being stumped. For boundary catches, airborne fielders making their first contact with the ball will need to have taken off from within the boundary, otherwise a boundary will be scored. Besides, a batsman can now be out caught, stumped or run out even if the ball bounces off the helmet worn by a fielder or wicket-keeper.