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SPORTS

10

19th - 25th April 2025 www.garavigujarat.biz

INDIA wrapped up their campaign at the

Archery World Cup Stage 1 with a creditable

four medals, including a silver in the men’s

recurve team event and a bronze by rising

star Dhiraj Bommadevara in the individual

recurve category.

The 23-year-old Army archer Dhiraj

showed exceptional grit and composure to

clinch the bronze medal match, bouncing

back from a 2-4 deficit to beat Andres Temino

Mediel of Spain 6-4 in a tense five-setter in

Auburndale, Florida on Sunday (13).

Earlier in the day, he was also part of the

Indian trio alongside veterans Tarundeep Rai

and Atanu Das that settled for silver after a 1-5

loss to China in the team final.

India’s medal tally from the tournament

stood at four - gold in the compound mixed

team, bronze in compound men’s team, silver

in recurve men’s team and bronze in recurve

men’s individual (Dhiraj).

On Saturday, the Indian compound mixed

team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Rishabh

Yadav clinched the gold medal at the Archery

World Cup Stage 1, defeating their Chinese

Taipei opponents Huang I-Jou and Chen

Chieh-Lun 153-151 in a tough final.

India’s campaign also saw Abhishek Verma

narrowly miss out on a medal, finishing fourth

in the compound men’s individual section.

Rapper Hanumankind

makes Coachella debut

RAPPER-SINGER Hanumankind, known for

tracks like ‘Big Dawgs’ and ‘Run It Up’, per-

formed at Coachella 2025, marking his debut

at the American music festival.

Hanumankind is the latest Indian artist to

perform at Coachella after Punjabi stars Diljit

Dosanjh and AP Dhillon took the stage at the

global music festival last year.

The Bengaluru-based recording artiste,

whose real name is Sooraj Cherukat, shared

a series of videos of his performance at

Coachella 2025 on Saturday on his Instagram

Stories.

‘@coachella Thank you for having me,’

he wrote. In his next Instagram Story, Ha-

numankind posted a clip of him performing

with American rapper Maxo Kream.

The 33-year-old singer sang his hit songs

‘Big Dawgs’, ‘Run It Up’ and ‘Go To Sleep’ on

the stage.

Coachella 2025, which is being held in

Indio, California, will conclude on 20 April.

Archery World Cup: India bags four medals

LOSING four back-to-back matches was

weighing on opener Abhishek Sharma’s mind

and he wanted to ‘break that streak’ and help

Sunrisers Hyderabad emerge from the string

of defeats, which had pushed them to the

bottom of the points table.

Abhishek, who had been going through a

poor run of form, scored a breathtaking 141 of

55 balls as SRH scripted the second-highest

run chase in IPL history to return to winning

ways with a comprehensive eight-wicket win

over Punjab Kings on Saturday (12).

THE INDIAN Premier League season reaches

the halfway point this week as 10 teams battle

for supremacy in the high-octane Twenty20

cricket tournament. Here are four talking

points from the opening weeks of the 2025 IPL:

Chennai slump

Mahendra Singh Dhoni led Chennai Super

Kings to five IPL crowns in the past, but the

veteran wicketkeeper-batsman is struggling

to inspire the bottom-placed team.

The 43-year-old has been among the runs

batting down the order, but age seems to have

diminished his finishing powers and Chennai

have won only one of their six matches.

When captain Ruturaj Gaikwad was injured

before their last game, Dhoni found himself

leading Chennai again. But they collapsed to

103 all out against Kolkata, who romped to an

eight-wicket win with 59 balls to spare.

Lefties on top

Left-arm spinners have proved crucial in keep-

ing control of run rates in the middle overs,

with Chennai's Afghanistan wrist spinner

Noor Ahmad leading the bowling charts with

12 wickets. Orthodox leftie Sai Kishore has also

been able to choke the scoring rate for Gujarat

Titans, as has wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav of

Delhi Capitals.

Openers sparkle

Priyansh Arya and fellow left-hander Abhishek

Sharma have lit up the IPL with their swash-

buckling batting at the top of the order. Arya

hammered a 39-ball century for Punjab Kings,

the fourth fastest IPL century. Four days lat-

er, Punjab were on the receiving end when

Abhishek took 40 balls to reach his hundred.

Openers Sai Sudharsan (Gujarat), Mitchell

Marsh (Lucknow), Travis Head (Hyderabad),

Phil Salt (Bengaluru) and Virat Kohli (Benga-

luru) have also made rapid fifties to get their

side of to great starts.

Hot and cold stars

Kohli has carried his Champions Trophy form

into the IPL with 248 runs including three

half-centuries, but fellow big names Rohit

Sharma and Rishabh Pant have struggled.

PHULE, based on the lives of social reformers

Jyotirao Govindrao Phule and Savitribai Phule,

has been delayed due to objections raised by the

Brahmin community and not because of the

censor board-suggested amendments, film’s

director Ananth Mahadevan said on Friday (11).

The biopic, featuring the Scam 1992 star Pra-

tik Gandhi in the central role and Patralekhaa

as his onscreen wife, was set for release on 11

April but it will now arrive in theaters on 25

April.

The Central Board of Film Certification

had asked the makers to remove terms such

as ‘Mang’, ‘Mahar’ and ‘Peshwai’, replace the

visual of ‘a man carrying a broom’ with ‘boys

throwing cow dung balls at Savitribai’, and

the line ‘3,000 saal purani

gulami’ to be modified as

‘kai saal purani’, among a

few other tweaks.

‘They had suggest-

ed some amendments, I

wouldn’t call it cuts. I want

to clarify that there are no

cuts as such. We did so,’

Mahadevan said.

After the trailer was

unveiled online on 10 April

some members from the

Brahmin community raised

objections stating that

they’ve been portrayed in

poor light.

Mahadevan asserted

‘Brahmins got carried away

by a two-minute trailer’ but

there is nothing objection-

able in the movie.

‘I’m a Brahmin myself,

and I would not malign my

community. I want everyone

to calm down and under-

stand that we’ve made a film

that is supposed to inspire

and change,’ he said, adding

the release has been pushed

is to clear the controversy

surrounding the film.

PRODUCER Dinesh Vijan, whose last two

releases Chhaava and Stree 2 were major suc-

cesses at the box ofce, on Thursday (10) said

the audiences are connecting to stories that are

about the ‘new Bharat’.

The producer-director was asked about the

poor performance of Hindi movies in theaters

and what was it that he thought he was doing

diferent from others.

‘I can’t tell you what I’m doing and what

others are not doing because I’m doing the

same thing. We’re trying to understand that

right now, we are not aspirational; we’re Indian

in the way we think, and the common man

wants stories about us,’ Vijan said at the trailer

launch of his new movie Bhool Chuk Maaf.

‘So, the people we’re surrounded by are

important because they are going to influence

the decision that you’re going to make. I’m

fortunate that my writers and directors are

grounded, real people, and all are connected

with new Bharat.

‘There’s so much here; there’s a Khazana

of stories here,’ the producer said.

When asked if he deliberately weaves in

the theme of inclusivity in his movies, Vijan

said he feels blessed to have found the right

storytellers like Karan Sharma, Laxman Utekar,

and Amar Kaushik, who take pride in narrating

stories of India.

IPL halfway: Arya shines, Pant struggles

Phule delayed to avoid controversy: director

People want stories that reflect them: Vijan

Second-highest chase

in IPL history, courtesy

Abhishek

ENTERTAINMENT

Virat Kohli

Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Rishabh Yadav

Hanumankind at Coachella 2025

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