Firstpost Spodcast Episode 190: Bajrang Punia emerges Asian champion, Chennai Super Kings ensure playoff berth and more

In this edition of Firstpost Spodcast, we talk about Bajrang Punia winning gold at the Asian Wrestling Championships, Chennai Super Kings’ win over Sunrisers Hyderabad and more. The biggest story of the day come from the IPL where Shane Watson brought back memories of last year’s final with a blazing knock that all but ensured a play-off berth for Chennai Super Kings as they defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets in a home game on Tuesday. In other cricket news we discuss on the episode, we talk about Indian women’s cricket stars Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana captaining the three competing teams in the women’s T20 exhibition matches that will be held before the IPL final. This time around, there will be three teams - Supernovas, Trailblazers and Velocity. The four matches might be telecast live this year as well, as the cricket board is set to finalise the timings of the matches after consultation with the broadcasters. We also talk about the Asian Wrestling Championships 2019, where World No 1 Bajrang Punia logged 10 points in a row in the gold medal bout to reclaim his Asian Championship crown while Praveen Rana settled for silver as India ended the first day with three medals. Punia defeated Kazakhstan’s Sayatbek Okassov 12-7 in a nail-biting 65kg men’s freestyle match. The CWG and Asian Games champion was trailing 2-7 with just 60 seconds to go for the final bell but the unperturbed Indian produced three gut wrench moves and an exposure move to take eight points after he began the attack with a two-point take down. The Kazkah was visibly tired while Bajrang displayed immense stamina and intelligence under pressure to emerge the winner. Yesterday’s gold was Bajrang’s second at the championship, following the win in 2017. Overall, it was the fifth medal for the Indian in this tournament. Meanwhile, Praveen Rana won his first big medal in seven years though he missed out on the top prize. Praveen, who claimed a bronze in this championship in 2012, lost the 79kg gold medal bout 0-3 to 2017 world championship bronze medallist Bahman Mohammad Teymouri of Iran. Earlier, he had won a close 3-2 semi-final against Kazakhstan’s Galymzhan Usserbayev. Asian Games gold medallist and defending champion Swapna Barman settled for a silver in women’s heptathlon while medal contender Jinson Johnson pulled out of the men’s 1500m race on the third day of the Asian Athletics Championships on Tuesday.