Indian Sports Live, November 23: Sat-Chi, Prannoy reach China Masters QF

With Indian sport running non-stop through the day, ESPN India’s daily live blog is here as a one-stop-destination to help you keep up with the latest developments in the India’s sportingverse. The blog runs throughout the day and is frequently updated, so do check back often.

Here are all the key updates from November 23, Thursday:

Prannoy advances at China Masters

In more positive news from badminton, HS Prannoy is also through to the quarterfinals of the China Masters Super 750. The eighth seed beat Denmark’s Magnus Johannesen 21-12, 21-18, a straightforward win after being stretched all to the decider by Chou Tien Chen on Tuesday in the first round.

He’s the last Indian standing in singles after Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth, Priyanshu Rajawat and Akarshi Kahsyap lost in the first round. Next up, he will face the winner of Kodai Naraoka vs Anders Antonsen – that should be a cracker quarterfinal clash.

What Arsene Wenger wants for Indian football

On the final day of Wenger’s visit to India, he held a press conference along with the AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey in Mumbai about the newly launched AIFF-FIFA Academy. Our correspondent Zenia D’cunha was there and here’s what was said about their goals for Indians football:

Arsene Wenger, in his time as coach, has seen the development of many a young talent into a footballing star. Now, as FIFA’s chief of Global Football Development, he is working towards laying the foundation for a similar development in Indian football.

The first concrete step was the launch of the first-ever AIFF-FIFA Talent Academy in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday, which is aimed at maximizing the potential of Indian football by focussing on quality education – for the players and coaches – at an early stage at home. Wenger is leading the team from FIFA, eight of whom will stay back to guide the grassroots development in India.

Read more: No magic wand: With first AIFF-FIFA Academy, Wenger wants to maximize Indian football’s potential

Sat-Chi sail at China Masters

There’s good news from badminton early on, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty advance at the China Masters Super 750.

The top seeds beat Akira Koga and Taichi Saito of Japan 21-15, 21-16 in the second round, to sail through to the quarterfinals.

This is a good run for the Indians after early exits at the French Open and Japan Masters in the recent past. They are the top seeds here after reaching the world No 1 spot after the Asian Games but fell down the rankings to world No 5 after the two early exits and missing Denmark Open. (Note: the draws were made in advance, which means they retain the top seed position)

What’s in store today ?

• More action from badminton at the China Masters, where Satwik-Chirag and Prannoy are the only Indians to advance to the second round.

• India continue their quest for a first medal at this year’s ISSF World Cup final, the season-ending shooting event where the top 15 compete.

• Cricket is back and it’s India vs Australia again after the World Cup final on Sunday, this time in the T20I format.

What happened yesterday?

• A not so good day for India at the China Masters, as Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth, Priyanshu Rajawat and the Panda sisters lost in the first round.

• In the aftermath of India losing 3-0 to Qatar, our correspondent Sunaadh Sagar wrote on how Igor Stimac’s statement about not taking the AFC Asian Cup seriously is fraught with problems.

• Elavenil Valarivan finished seventh in the women’s 10m air rifle at the the season ending ISSF World Cup final

• Hriday Hazarika finished sixth in the men’s 10m air rifle at the the season ending ISSF World Cup final

You can check all the details of Wednesday’s news events here.