India sailed into the Cricket World Cup semi-finals and eliminated opponents Bangladesh after Rohit Sharma`s century and Jasprit Bumrah`s four-wicket haul secured a 28-run victory over their neighbours.
Rohit smashed his fourth century of this year`s tournament and featured in a massive 180-run opening partnership with KL Rahul to help India to a commanding 314-9.
India are now second with 13 points, one behind leaders Australia, and would play Sri Lanka in their final group match on 6 July 2019.
MLB Comes to India
After some of the most prestigious American sports organisations such as the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) made their way into the Indian market, the USA's Major League Baseball decided to join the party, not only with the hopes of high audience participation but also to churn out some of the best athletes from all over the country.
One of the finest fielders of the Indian cricket team and the field coach of the Indian Premier League franchise, Delhi Capitals, Mohammad Kaif welcomed MLB and its Senior Vice President, International, Jim Small as the two exchanged jerseys.
Bringing in their 'First Pitch' initiative to India after experiencing success in countries like Mexico and China, the MLB hopes the Indian audience "adopts baseball as their own game just like cricket.
Sania Mirza Turns Expert
Tennis star Sania Mirza would join broadcasters Star Sports as an expert to analyze the day-to-day action of the ongoing Wimbledon for fans across the country.
Sania is a six-time grand slam winner and former Wimbledon double's champion.
Dale Steyn Joins Euro T20 Slam
South Africa pacer Dale Steyn joined the Euro T20 Slam as a 'marquee player'.
The first edition of the tournament wouold commence in August 2019. The tournament would be played between six franchises and jointly hosted by Ireland, Netherland, and Scotland.
Shortly after the competition was announced, six cricketers, Shahid Afridi, Chris Lynn, Shane Watson, Babar Azam, Brendon McCullum and Luke Ronchi, were designated as icon/marquee players by the league.
Jul 02, 2019
Schoolgirl Takes Out Her Idol Venus Williams
Cori Guaff, the 15-year-old American caused one of the biggest shocks in Wimbledon history by dispatching Venus Williams 6-4 6-4 in the first round.
Aged 39, Williams is considered Wimbledon royalty as she has been part of the All England Club family for over two decades, having won the singles title five times — including two before Gauff was even born.
Playing a fearless brand of tennis that belied her young age, she bullied Williams into submission.
A break in the fifth game of the opening set, which included a delectable lob over the statuesque Williams, was enough to win her the first set.
The nerveless display continued in the second set and she sealed victory on her fourth match point when Williams netted a forehand.
Vijay Shankar Ruled Out of ICC World Cup
All-rounder Vijay Shankar would not be able to play in the remaining matches of the ICC World Cup 2019 due to a toe injury.
Confirming the developement the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said that Vijay Shankar was ruled out of the World Cup in England after sustaining a fracture in the toe while practicing at the nets. He was injured when a Jasprit Bumrah ball landed on his toe.
Shankar had joined the playing eleven as a replacement for opener Shikhar Dhawan, who was earlier ruled out of the tournament with a thumb injury.
Jul 01, 2019
Aparna Kumar Completes Seven Summit
Aparna Kumar became the first Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) officer to complete the 'Seven Summit' challenge after successfully climbing Mt Denali.
Now, only North Pole is left and she would achieve that also very soon. Her achievement is an empowerment to all women mountaineers.
Kumar is a 2002 batch IPS from Uttar Pradeshh cadre and is currently posted as Deputy Inspector General, Indo Tibetan Border Police Northern Frontier at Dehradun.
Jun 30, 2019
Commonwealth Chess Championship
In the absence of any quality opposition from overseas challengers, India appears set to make a clean sweep of medals in all 16 categories in the Commonwealth chess championship which started in New Delhi.
Top seed and a four-time winner Abhijeet Gupta would look to add to his tally. Ranked joint-ninth in the country, Abhijeet expects serious challenge from, among others S. L. Narayanan, National champion Aravindh Chithambaram, former champion M. R. Lalit Babu and several other Indian Grandmasters.
In a rare instance, the event features more GMs (12) and International Masters (11). In fact, two of the IMs, P. Iniyan and Swayams Mishra are awaiting confirmation of their GM titles. In all, there are 614 entries across all categories.
Among the leading ladies, Divya Deshmukh, 14, is the rating favourite, ahead of defending champion Tania Sachdev and fellow former Asian women champion Bhakti Kulkarni.
Women players play in the open section and the best three finishers make it to the podium. In all other categories, competitions are held separately in open and girls sections.
For the record, out of the 94 entries, India accounts for 83. The remaining 11 entries are from Bangladesh, Botswana, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, South Africa, Seychelles and Singapore. As usual, stronger Commonwealth nations, led by England, have stayed away.
Anand Draws with Aronian
Viswanathan Anand stayed on the recovery-course after a 41-move draw with Levon Aronian in the third round of the Croatia Grand Chess Tour.
Anand, who suffered a surprise defeat against leader Ian Nepomniachtchi in the opening round, held World champion Magnus Carlsen in the second round.
Meanwhile, Nepomniachtchi continued his all-win sequence by beating Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in 32 moves in the only decisive battle of the day.
In the second round, too, Nepomniachtchi figured in the only decisive game after stopping Fabiano Caruana.
Jun 29, 2019
BFI Ties Up with IIS for Five Years
The Boxing Federation of India (BFI) tied up with the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS), the sports training institute in Karnataka which has Abhinav Bindra and Sourav Ganguly on its advisory board, to ensure state-of-the-art facilities for the pugilists.
As part of this five-year collaboration, the BFI would look to conduct camps as part of its high-performance training programme and IIS would play a key role in shaping the boxers as the official High-Performance Partner for the BFI.
The IIS would also provide national boxers access to sports science testing, strength and conditioning experts and professional diet and nutrition support.
The institute, which successfully hosted the senior National women's championships earlier in 2019, would also host one national level tournament during each year of the association.
Indian Women Create Rugby History
The Indian women's rugby team scripted history by clinching their first-ever international 15s victory against a higher-ranked Singapore 21-19 for a bronze medal in the Asia Women's Div-1 Rugby 15s championship in the Philippines.
Five members of the victorious squad, Sumitra Nayak, Hupi Majhi, Rajani Sabar, Meerarani Hembram and Parbati Kisku were present in a media interaction held at the Press Council of India.
Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) promoted the girls to play competitive Rugby. Achyuta Samanta is the founder of the institute.