World's Best Test and One Day International (ODI) Player
The International Cricket Council (ICC) named Virat Kohli the world's best Test and One Day International (ODI) player, and captain of the ICC Test and ODI teams of the year.
It also named him Cricketer of the Year, a trophy appropriately named after Garfield Sobers. No one has ever made this clean a sweep of the ICC awards.
Under Kohli, India ended 2018 as the world's No 1 Test side and the second-best team in ODIs and T20s.
With New Zealand, India has three players in the best Test 11 (Kohli, Pant and Jasprit Bumrah). And along with England, it has four in the ICC one-day team ( Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav and Bumrah).
Before his back needed reconstruction, Tiger Woods was the best golfer of his generation.
Jan 22, 2019
ICC Test Rankings
A maiden Test series triumph in Australia saw both the Indian cricket team and its skipper Virat Kohli consolidate their respective pole positions in the latest ICC Test rankings.
India, with 116 points, stayed as the No.1 ranked Test team while skipper Kohli (922 points) was 25 points clear of second ranked New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson (897).
Cheteshwar Pujara after his dream series Down Under is ranked third among the batsmen while young Turk Rishabh Pant has entered the top-20 with a career-best 17th rank.
In the bowlers' list, Kagiso Rabada still topped the chart while Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are the best-ranked Indians at fifth and ninth places respectively. Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah has climbed to 15th spot with 711 points.
England will have to win their upcoming three-match series against the West Indies, in order to retain third position in the rankings while Australia and Sri Lanka will vie for important points in their two-match series starting a day later.
A 3-0 sweep will lift England to 109 points but they will remain behind India and South Africa while the West Indies will remain in eighth position irrespective of how the matches pans out.
Anand Scores Crushing Victory
Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand scored a crushing victory over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan in the eighth round to share the lead with Norway's Magnus Carlsen in the Tata Steel chess tournament.
Having outclassed Vladimir Kramnik of Russia with black in the previous round, Anand, a five times winner here, continued his demolition act and grounded Mamedyarov, currently the world No. 3.
The Indian ace took his tally to 5.5 points out of a possible eight, and is matched only by reigning world champion Carlsen, who played a fine game to beat Hungary's Richard Rapport.
Jan 21, 2019
Ankita Wins First Single Title of Season
India's No. 1 woman tennis player Ankita Raina won her first singles title of the season and eighth overall after trampling top seed Arantxa Rus in straight sets in the final of the $25,000 event in Singapore.
World No. 203 Ankita demolished world No. 122 and the Dutch top seed 6-3 6-2 in one hour and 23 minutes.
Ankita toppled four seeded players in the tournament starting with Dutch eighth seed Lesley Kerkhove in the second round.
The 26-year-old followed that up with wins over second seed Uzbek Sabina Sharipova and third seed Conny Perrin from Switzerland.
The 50 points earned from the title triumph are likely to catapult Ankita to a career-high singles ranking of 168.
Maharashtra Wins the Overall Trophy at Khelo India
Hosts Maharashtra walked away with the overall trophy at the Khelo India Youth Games as they amassed a mammoth 85 gold, 62 silver and 81 bronze for a total of 228 medals.
Maharashtra finished ahead of Khelo India School Games 2018 winners Haryana, who were second with 62 gold, 56 silver and 60 bronze for a total of 178 medals.
Delhi stood third with 48 gold, 37 silver and 51 bronze, a tally of 136 medals.
Jan 18, 2019
First Indian in Laureus List
Ace Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat has become the first Indian to receive a nomination in the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards to be held on February 18.
The 24-year-old Indian, who made a sensational comeback after battling a long injury lay-off to win a gold medal at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and Jakarta Asian Games, has been nominated for the Laureus World Comeback of the Year.
The Haryana wrestler has been nominated alongside US Tour Championship winner Tiger Woods, who won his first event in five years.
The last time an Indian sporting feat made its way to the Laureus World Sports Awards was in 2004 when the Indian cricket team and Pakistan cricket team shared the Laureus Sport for Good Award for playing an international match despite political tensions.
However, Vinesh makes history as the first Indian athlete to be nominated in one of the seven main categories.
Ronaldo Seals Italian Super Cup For Juve
Cristiano Ronaldo scored the only goal to hand Juventus their first trophy of the season with a 1-0 win over tenman AC Milan in the Italian Super Cup in Saudi Arabia.
Ronaldo headed in a 61st-minute winner, while Milan played the last quarter of an hour a man down after midfielder Franck Kessie saw red for a bad tackle on Emre Can.
Ranji Trophy: Kerala in Semis
Kerala made a slice of Ranji history by reaching the semi-finals for the first time on Thursday, stunning former winners Gujarat after skittling them out for 81 in the second innings.
Once a cricketing lightweight, their Vision 2020 put in place seems to be paying dividends. Kerala hired Dav Whatmore as coach before the last season, reaching the quarterfinals.
Kerala have risen rapidly in the last few seasons. Their impressive run this season includes an away win over Bengal.
The bowling heroics in the Gujarat second innings came from seamers Basil Thampi (5) and Sandeep Warrier (4). Thampi was Man-of-the-Match for his 8/88.
Set 195 to win, Gujarat were 11/3 after skipper Parthiv Patel was run out to a direct hit by rival skipper Sachin Baby. The last six wickets fell for 24.
Jan 17, 2019
17th Delhi International Chess Tournament
Third seed Grandmaster Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia won the 17th Delhi International Chess tournament after settling for a quick draw with Grandmaster SL Narayanan in the 10th and final round.
It was a seven-way tie at the top involving Levan Pantsulaia (Georgia), Mosadeghpour Masoud (Iran), Stupak Kirill (Belarus), Amonatov Farrukh (Tajikistan), Diptayan Ghosh, Abhijeet Gupta, and Narayanan SL on eight points apiece, but Levan was declared the winner based on his better tiebreak.
While Levan got richer by ~6 lakh, Mosadeghpour Masoud got ~5 lakh and Stupak Kirill took ~4 lakh from the total kitty of over ~1 crore prize money split over three categories.
There were norms galore. International Masters Gukesh D and Visakh NR secured GM norms while Aditya Mittal, Saurabh Ananad, Bharat Kumar Reddy and Neelash Saha secured IM norms.