Bengaluru sports buzz

Amodini, Kandhavel emerge champions
NT Correspondent
Bengaluru: The finals of the SAT Sports AITA CS7 U-18 championship went according to the script as second seeded Kandhavel Ma of Tamil Nadu and host state’s top seed Amodini V Naik emerged as the champions in the boys and girls categories respectively, both halting the run of their respective giant killer opponents Arya Ganapathy Kallambella and Meghana GD. While Kandhavel, who scored a grand double, dashed the hopes of his doubles partner Arya with a 6-2, 6-4 victory, Amodini stopped Meghana’s run with an easy 6-4, 6-0 win.

Finals results (Prefix denotes seedings, all Karnataka unless mentioned): Boys U-18: 2-Kandhavel Ma (TN) bt Arya Ganapathy Kallambella 6-2, 6-4; Girls U-18: 1-Amodini V Naik bt Meghana GD 6-4, 6-0.

Bengaluru all set for Khelo India University Games
Bengaluru: Some of India’s top athletes such as Asian Games medallist sprinter Dutee Chand, swimmer Srihari Nataraj and the shooting duo of Divyansh Singh Panwar and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar will headline the second edition of Khelo India University Games, starting here on Saturday.

The KIUG 2021, delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will see over 4,000 athletes from more than 200 universities compete for the top prize in 20 disciplines. A total of 257 gold medals will be up for grabs in archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, fencing, football, field hockey, judo, kabaddi, shooting, swimming, tennis, table tennis, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling, and karate.

The Games will take place across five venues in Bengaluru -- Jain Global University campus (11 disciplines), Jain Sports School (badminton, tennis, football, and table tennis), Kanteerava Stadium Complex (basketball and athletics), Field Marshal Cariappa Hockey Stadium, and Sports Authority of India (SAI) National Centre of Excellence (shooting).

“It is great that new events have been added this time around, especially indigenous sports which we do not see in major leagues. I am pretty excited to follow these events closely,” Nataraj said.

Reflecting her excitement, Dutee said, “I am really happy that KIUG is returning this year to Jain University. A lot of young athletes from Universities around the country will be competing this year. It will help developing athletes go on to make India proud on the bigger stages.”

Divya’s class, Veda’s blitz power K’taka to victory
NT Correspondent
Finally, after three consecutive losses, Namma team got back to winning ways. The turnaround came at the cost of Madhya Pradesh, which they defeated by five wickets in the Senior Women’s T20 League’s Elite Group C match at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot on Friday.

Asked to bat first, Madhya Pradesh posted 136 for the loss of 5 wickets in 20 overs, thanks to a solid knock of 49 off 41 deliveries by their skipper Pooja Vastrakar. For Karnataka, Chandu V picked up two top-order wickets at crucial points, while Prathyusha C and Aditi Rajesh took one apiece to restrict MP to the below-par total.

In reply, openers Divya Gnanananda (41) and Shubha Satheesh (12) put on 21 runs for the first wicket before the latter was bowled by Pooja Vastrakar. D Vrinda (39) along with Divya built a match-changing partnership of 74 runs for the second wicket.

However, Vrinda was out for 39 pushing Karnataka to 95 for 2, while Divya (41) got out six runs later. They suffered a midinnings collapse of sorts as Niki Prasad and Aditi Rajesh did not last long. But skipper Veda Krishnamurthy (29 not out) stemmed the collapse to see the team canter home by five wickets with two balls to spare. Karnataka will meet Delhi on April 24 in their final league clash.

Young Dreams cruise past Bangalore Champs
Young Dreams FC eased past Bangalore Champs with a 5-0 victory in the KSFA C Division football league clash here on Friday. Goals from Rajshith (11th), Nanda (17th), Ravibabu (30th), Prashanth (42nd) and Enose (59th) gave the Young Dreams FC a comfortable win.

Results: BDFA C Division: Group E: Town SC Hoskote FC 4 (Aifaz 10th,29th,47th, Shiva 13th) bt Bangalore Yellows FC 1 (Brain Menezes 11th); Bangalore Wanderers FC 4 (Ramesh 1th+26th, Sunilkumar 18th, RanjithKumar 26th) bt Vinayaka FC 1 (Kamal R-52nd); KSFA C Division: South Zone: Young Dreams FC 5 (Rajshith 11th, Nanda 17th, Ravibabu 30+1st, Prashanth 42nd, Enose 59th) bt Bangalore Champs FC-0; Play Smart FC 1 (Premkumar Venkadesan 13th) bt Tecnico Football 0; United Aces FC 3 (Mahendramani 28th, 54th, Ravi Babu 48th) bt Legendry FC 2 (Md Rashid K 6th, Dyed Akhil 22nd); BFA 7 (HarHaran 7th,30+2nd,