Category Sports

SPORTS: What with a number of world cups being held across different sports, there was no dearth of action in 2022. While the T20 World Cup that concluded in November and the FIFA World Cup that saw a thrilling climax in December were easily the biggest highlights of the year, there was plenty more on show, both on and off the field. Indians too had plenty to celebrate in the sporting arena as our stars sizzled in different disciplines. Here's a quick wrap of all the big sporting news from the year that went by…

1. Djokovic's deportation

The first big sports news of 2022 didn't even take place in a sporting arena. Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic's vaccination status (he isn't vaccinated for COVID-19) remained a point of contention throughout the year and it started in January 2022 itself. Djokovic was deported from Australia before the start of the Australian Open and was banned from travelling to the country (a ban that has since been lifted).

Despite all the off-field drama, the Australian Open saw Ashleigh Barty end the country's 44-year wait for a home winner by clinching the women's section, while Rafael Nadal won a record 21st Grand Slam men's title.

2. IPL franchises splurge on players

When India's wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan was snapped for a whopping 15.25 crore during the IPL full auction in February 2022, he became the second most expensive Indian to have ever been bought at the auctions, behind only the 16 crore spent on Yuvraj Singh in 2015.

In the mini auction that was held in December, England's Sam Curran, Australia's Cameron Green, and England's Ben Stokes all matched or broke the record for the most expensive bids at IPL auctions (Chris Morris 16.25 crore). Curran's Rs. 18.50 crore, in fact, makes him the most expensive player in IPL history, even more than what is offered to retained players.

3. The King of Spin is no more

The fourth of March was a difficult day for Australian cricket in 2022. While veteran wicketkeeper Rod Marsh died aged 74 eight days after suffering a heart attack, spin legend Shane Warne died of a suspected heart attack aged 52. Warne, often hailed as the King of Spin, was not only a great cricketer, but also a brilliant showman. The leg spinner is the second-most highest wicket-taker of all time in Test cricket, with 708 wickets to his name. Australia kept their emotions in check to claim a 1-0 series win against Pakistan later in the same month, their first series in Pakistan in almost 25 years.

4. Pallikal makes the mother of all comebacks

Dipika Pallikal Karthik and Dinesh Karthik gave birth to twins in October 2021. Less than six months after becoming mother to the two newborns, the squash star did the unthinkable, claiming two golds at the World Doubles Championships in April 2022.

Playing her first competitive event since October 2018, she first clinched the mixed doubles by teaming up with Saurav Ghosal. Just an hour and a half after winning the mixed doubles final with Ghosal, she teamed up with long-time teammate Joshna Chinappa (left) to triumph in the women's doubles final as well.

5. Zareen boxes her way to gold

Indian boxer Nikhat Zareen joined elite company by winning gold at the Women's World Boxing Championships at Istanbul in May 2022. She became just the fifth Indian woman to achieve the feat, following in the footsteps of six-time champion Mary Kom, Sarita Devi, Jenny R.L and Lekha K.C

Zareen clinched India's first world title since 2018 by defeating Thailand's Jutamas Jitpong 5-0 in the final. While India finished the event with a gold and two bronze medals, it took their overall tally in the history of the competition to 10 gold, eight silver, and 21 bronze medals.

6. India wins Thomas Cup for first time

Until 2022, India had never won the Thomas Cup, the premier team competition in men's badminton. That changed in May when India stunned 14-time champion Indonesia 3-0 in the final. After Lakshya Sen gave India a 1-0 lead by defeating Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty made it 2-0 by beating Mohammad Ahsan and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo in the doubles encounter. Kidambi Srikanth then ensured that India scripted history when he got the better of Jonatan Christie in the second singles encounter. For the first time since the tournament's inception in 1949, India were on top of the world.

7. Real Madrid continue their winning ways

In April 2022, Real Madrid secured a record-extending 35th La Liga title with four matches to spare. With that, their coach Carlo Ancelotti became the first manager ever to steer his sides to victory in each of the top five European Leagues (England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain).

Less than a month later, Real were at it again in May, this time claiming a record-extending 14th Champions League title by defeating Liverpool 1-0 in the final.

Real's French forward Karim Benzema had been the star of their show for much of the season, earning him the prestigious Ballon d'Or award in October.

8. Nadal takes his tally to 22

There is no doubt that Rafael Nadal has forever etched his name in the clay courts of the French Open. He won it for a record-extending 14th time in June 2022, by defeating Norwegian Casper Ruud in the final. With that he won his 22nd grand slam men's singles title and extended his lead at the top-two more than what Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic had at the time.

Even though 2022 was marred by off-field drama for Djokovic, and despite the fact that he had to miss both the Australian Open and the US Open, he notched up his 21st title when he won his seventh Wimbledon title in July.

9. Warriors make it four out of eight

After the heady heights achieved in the last decade, many believed that the Golden State Warriors had fallen off the top and there were even murmurs that the franchise were a shadow of their past when they failed to make it to the NBA play-offs for two consecutive seasons. They bounced back in style in the 2021-22 season, clinching the title for a fourth time in eight seasons in June 2022.

Despite finishing last in the 2019-20 season, they continued with their strategy of holding onto star players while grooming young ones. After clinching the Western Conference, they defeated the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals 4-2 for the title.

10. Neeraj Chopra continues to make history

Indian athletics' poster boy Neeraj Chopra rewrote history again and again. It began at the World Athletics Championships in July 2022, when he clinched silver in men's javelin throw with a best of 88.13 m. With that, he became the first Indian to clinch a silver at the worlds, and the second Indian after Anju Bobby George to medal at the worlds.

He scripted history again in August by becoming the first Indian to clinch a Diamond League meet title by winning the Lausanne leg and qualifying for the final. Things got better in September when he won the final at Zurich, becoming the first Indian to win a Diamond League title.

11. Indians shine at the Commonwealth Games

At about the same time when Chennai was hosting the Chess Olympiad, the Commonwealth Games took place in Birmingham. India competed at the event that took place in July-August

2022, and finished fourth in the medals tally with 22 gold, 16 silver and 23 bronze medals. Indian wrestlers were on top of their game as the sport provided for maximum golds (6) and maximum medals (12) at the event. While weightlifters accounted for 10 medals, athletes won eight, paddlers and boxers won seven, and the badminton players won six medals. Star paddler Sharath Kamal was India's most successful player at the Games, clinching three golds and a silver in table tennis events.

12. Chennai hosts the Chess Olympiad

The Chess Olympiad came to India for the first time as Chennai hosted the 44th Chess Olympiad in July-August 2022. With a knight clad in traditional attire serving as the mascot, and roads and bridges turning into chess boards, everything was done to catch the public attention.

The event was a success with more than 1500 participants representing over 180 countries competing in the Open and Women's events. Uzbekistan clinched gold in the Open category, while war-torn Ukraine won top honours in the Women's event. India had more reason to celebrate as it won the prestigious Gaprindashvili Cup awarded to the team with the best combined performance in the Open and Women's tournaments.

13. Satwik-Chirag medal at the worlds

Having contributed to India's maiden Thomas Cup triumph and having won gold at the Commonwealth Games, Indian men's doubles badminton duo Satviksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were brimming with confidence. They make it count where it mattered as they became the first Indian pair to win a medal in the men's doubles event at the World Badminton Championships in Tokyo in August 2022. They lost to Malaysia's Aaron Chia and Soh Wool Yk in the semi-final and settled for bronze. Satvik Chirag also became the first Indian doubles pair to win a BWF Super 750 tournament when they won the men's double crown at the French Open Super 750 event in October.

14. Federer announces his retirement

Shortly after tennis legend Serena Williams announced that she would be evolving away from tennis in August 2022, tennis fans had to endure another bombshell when Roger Federer announced his retirement in September. Just days after Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz had won the US Opens to become the youngest-ever men's world number one at the age of 19, Federer announced his decision to retire from tennis after Laver Cup on social media.

The 41-year-old, who has won 20 men's single grand slam titles, is seen by many as the greatest to have ever played the game. Federer ended his retirement announcement saying, "Finally, to the game of tennis: I love you and will never leave you."

15. Verstappen breaks record for most wins in a season

Dutch driver Max Verstappen not only defended his F1 title in 2022, but did it in style. He clinched the title after winning the Japanese Grand Prix in October 2022. With four races still remaining at that point, there was more to come from Verstappen.

Verstappen won three of those four races in the US Grand Prix, Mexico City Grand Prix and the season finale at Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. When he won the race in Mexico, he broke the record for most wins in a single season held previously by Michael Schumacher (2004) and Sebastian Vettel (2013). He added another win at Abu Dhabi for good measure, finishing the season with a record 15 race victories.

16. England are the white ball champions

Every cricketing country in the world played a lot of T20 cricket in 2022 as they built form towards the T20 World Cup held in Australia in October-November 2022.

Barring a loss to Ireland by Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method in a rain-curtailed game, England were undefeated throughout the tournament. After thumping India by 10 wickets in the semi-final, England then defeated Pakistan in the final by five wickets to lift the T20 World Cup for a second time.

Already possessing the ODI World Cup following their victory in 2019, England became the first team in history to hold both the ODI World Cup and T20 World Cup at the same time.

17. Messi is finally a World Cup winner

Despite the controversy surrounding the 2022 FIFA World Cup during its build-up, Qatar delivered one of the finest tournaments in recent history in November-December 2022. The fact that Lionel Messi's Argentina came out on top seemed to many like the perfect icing on the cake.

Argentina got off to a nightmare start, losing to Saudi Arabia. They put that behind them and kept moving forward, with their talisman Messi leading from the front. The final against France was a spectacle as Messi and Kylian Mbappe put on a show in a 3-3 draw. Argentina came out on top in the penalties to lift the World Cup for a third time.

18. A shocking end to 2022

Just as an off-field event had kick-started the year, it was events off the field that left the sporting world in disbelief in December 2022.

On December 29, Brazilian football legend Pele passed away aged 82, plunging the football world into sadness. One of the greatest footballers of all time, Pele was a giant in the sporting world in the 20th Century.

Just a day later, cricketing fans were in for a rude shock as Indian wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant met with a car accident. Owing to injuries in his leg and head, Pant is expected to be out of action for months, and maybe even a year.

Events that almost made it to our list

Mohammad Arif Khan became the first Kashmiri Olympian and the first Indian to participate in two events at the Winter Olympics in February.

Australian women won a record-extending seventh Women's World Cup title when they won the ODI tournament held in New Zealand in March-April.

Indian women's cricket team lost a couple of stalwarts as batter Mithali Raj (left) called time on her international career in June while pacer Jhulan Goswami (right) bid her farewell with a fairytale finish in September.

With four golds at the FINA World Championships in Budapest in June-July, American swimmer Katie Ledecky took her overall tally to 19, second only to Michael Phelps' 26.

Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia won bronze at the World Wrestling Championships in September. While Phogat became the first Indian woman to win two medals at the worlds, Punia took his tally to four.

Spain defended their FIFA U17 Women's World Cup in October in a tournament held in India.

Maharashtra's Ruturaj Gaikwad struck a world record seven 6s in an over in a Vijay Hazare quarter-final game against Uttar Pradesh in November.

Picture Credit : Google

Here, we will sharpen our sports quotient by taking a look at one iconic moment from sporting history. Here’s a look at the 2009 edition of the T20 World Cup that was won by Pakistan…

After losing against India in the final hurdle of the 2007 T20 World Cup. Pakistan went on to win the next edition that was held in England in 2009.

The 12 teams in the competition were split into four groups of three, with two teams from each group progressing to the Super 8s.

Pakistan lost their first game against England, but won against the Netherlands to finish second in Group B and qualify for the Super 8s stage. Pakistan were grouped along with Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Ireland in Group F during the Super 8 stage. After losing their first game in this stage against Sri Lanka, Pakistan notched up victories against New Zealand and Ireland to finish second behind Sri Lanka in the group and qualify for the semis. Pakistan defeated South Africa by seven runs in the semi-final to set up a final against Sri Lanka, who defeated West Indies convincingly in their last four clash.

Chasing 139 for victory, Pakistan lost just two wickets, reaching the target with eight balls to spare to become just the second side to lift the T20 World Cup title.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Pakistan were the losing finalist in the inaugural T20 World Cup held in 2007 that was won by India.
• With 13 wickets in the tournament, Pakistan’s Umar Gul was the highest wicket taker of the 2009 T20 World Cup.
• Runners-up Sri Lanka had the top-scorer of the tournament. Tillakaratne Dilshan, who notched up 317 runs, was also named the player of the series.

Picture Credit : Google 

Here, we will sharpen our sports quotient by taking a look at one iconic moment from sporting history. With the league phase action of IPL 2022 coming to a close today, here’s a look at one of the last league matches from 2010 which saw Chennai Super Kings qualify for the last four stage…

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) won the first of their four Indian Premier League (IPL) titles so far in 2010. But at one point in the tournament, it looked like they wouldn’t even make it to the knock-out stages of the event.

Having finished runners-up in the inaugural edition in 2008 and semi-finalists in 2009, CSK were in a spot of bother in the third season. In match 54, CSK’S last league stage game, they found themselves in a must-win situation to qualify to the last four.

Playing Kings XI Punjab (KXIP, now Punjab Kings) at the picturesque Dharamsala, CSK won the toss and elected to field first. An unbeaten 88 from Australian Shaun Marsh allowed KXIP to post a strong total of 192 for three in their 20 overs.

After losing both their openers, CSK were 27 for 2 after 4 overs. Suresh Raina’s 27-ball 46 and S Badrinath’s 36-ball 53 paved the way for captain MS Dhoni, who finished the game in style.

Dhoni hit a 29-ball 54 with five fours and two sixes as CSK reached 195 for 4 in 19.4 overs. The end of the match saw one of the few times Dhoni was visibly ecstatic on the playing field.

DID YOU KNOW?

The 2010 IPL was the last season to have semi-finals and finals. The IPL has had a play-off format since 2011, to give the teams finishing top two in the table an added chance to get to the final.

CSK defeated Deccan Chargers in the semi-final and Mumbai Indians in the final to lift their first IPL title in 2010.

Mumbai Indians’ Sachin Tendulkar, who was the top run scorer in the tournament with 618 runs, was also named the player of the series. Deccan Chargers Pragyan Ojha finished with the most wickets, 21.

Picture Credit : Google 

Here, we will sharpen our sports quotient by taking a look at one iconic moment from sporting history. With the last week of league phase action of IPL 2022 ahead of us, here’s a look at the last league match from 2014 which saw Mumbai Indians sneak through into the play-offs…

The odds were stacked against Mumbai Indians (MI) when they took the field against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the last league game of the 2014 season. Playing at home, MI decided to chase, aware that they not only had to win, but reach the target in 14.3 overs to edge ahead of RR in net run rate as well and dinch the fourth and final play-off spot.

Sanju Samson scored a 47-ball 74. Karun Nair hit a 27-ball 50 and RR posted a mammoth first innings total of 189 for four. The target of 190 was huge and getting there in 14.3 overs seemed impossible.

MI, however, came out all guns blazing. Corey Anderson, brought into the playing 11 for his hitting prowess, was central to MI’s chase. He was unbeaten on 95 from 44 deliveries when he found himself in the non-strikers end with MI needing eight off two balls to reach the target in 14.3 overs.

Ambati  Rayudu hit a six to bring the equation down to two from a ball, but was run out running the second run, leaving MI on 189 in 14.3 overs. Just when it seemed they had fallen just short, it was conveyed that a boundary off the next ball would still see MI through.

Aditya Tare hit a six off the only ball he faced in the match and MI reached 195 for five in 14.4 overs in their chase of 190, winning in spectacular fashion and progressing to the IPL 2014 play-offs.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Corey Anderson’s 44-ball 95 included nine 4s and six 6s.
• Despite making it to the play-offs in stunning fashion, Mumbai Indians failed at the first hurdle thereafter, losing to Chennai Super Kings in the Eliminator.
• Kolkata Knight Riders won the title in 2014, lifting the trophy for a second time.

Picture Credit : Google 

If you attach a stone to a piece of string and whirl it around, you will feel the string tighten and the stone being pulled away. If the string is not strong, it will break and the stone will be hurled away in a straight line. This is the power of centrifugal force, the force exerted on a body in circular motion

When a cyclist takes a turn in a curved motion he is subjected to centrifugal force which pushes him to the edge of the curve. To maintain his balance he has to lean inwards while turning.

Picture Credit : Google 

Michael Phelps is without doubt the best swimmer of all time and one of the greatest Olympians ever. He finished his Olympics career, which he started as a 15-year-old at the 2000 Sydney Games.

Phelps has 28 medals in total: his 23 gold medals are more than double the count of his nearest rivals, and its not as if other swimmers have accrued silly numbers of medals, either. Apart from Spitz, Matt Biondi (USA, eight golds) and Jenny Thompson (USA, eight golds), no other swimmer worldwide has managed more than six gold medals in total. 23 is astonishing.

 Having not picked up a single medal on his debut, he ran riot in the next four editions that he participated to finish with an all-time record haul at the Olympics, in addition to the innumerable medals that he has picked up in swimming championships worldwide.

Phelps towers over the rest of the individuals in the Olympics medal tally and he is often peerless when looking to compare with other athletes. So instead, if we were to consider Phelps as a country, where would he be on the all-time medals tally? With 23 golds – 13 of which were individual golds – three silver and two bronze, Phelps the one-man country will have less than one-fourth of the over 200 countries that participate at the Olympics above him. And this is through the history of the games – meaning Phelps currently has a medal haul that is better than over 150 countries, including India. Yet this ranking sells him short in some ways, because four of the countries ahead of him are Germany, which over time has competed as Germany, West Germany, East Germany and the Unified German Team. Russia, the Soviet Union and and the 1992 Unified Team (made up of the 15 former Soviet republics) account for three more countries ahead of Phelps. If measured against the 205 countries now in Rio, the Republic of Phelps has more gold medals than all but 32 of them.

Credit : Archive.KPCC

Picture Credit : Google 

You might have never heard the name Neville Francis Fitzgerald Chamberlain. But it is through Chamberlain that the origins of snooker, a cue sport has an Indian connection.

Stationed in Jabalpur in 1875 as part of the British Indian Army, 19-year-old Chamberlain invented the game of snooker by experimenting with an existing game-a form of billiards – and adding more colour to it. In 1885, John Roberts, the then British Billiards Champion, visited India and met with Chamberlain during a dinner with the Maharajah of Cooch Behar. After enquiring about the rules of snooker, Roberts decided he would introduce the game back in England. Although it took many years before the game became widely played, by the end of the 19th century the manufacturers of billiards equipment had realised the commercial potential of snooker.

Snooker started growing in popularity from the 1880s and rose to prominence in the next half a century or so. While Chamberlain was busy working his way to become Sir Chamberlain, speculation regarding the game’s origins increased.

On March 19, 1938, The Field carried a letter from 82-year-old Chamberlain staking his claim to inventing snooker. It helped Chamberlain that he had the backing of author Compton Mackenzie, who supported Chamberlain’s claim in a letter to The Billiard Player in 1939. Chamberlain’s claim as the inventor of snooker hasn’t been disputed since then, forever cementing a link between the sport and our country.

Credit : Sky history

Picture Credit : Google 

On February 2, 2021, Manchester United played Southampton in an English Premier League game. United came out on top in stunning fashion, pumping nine goals past their opposition in a 9-0 victory.

This was only the third time in Premier League history that a side won by a nine-goal margin.

Manchester United achieved a 9-0 margin victory for a second time when they achieved the feat in February 2021 Southampton, unfortunately, had the ignominy of being on the receiving end of such a defeat for a second time.

United also equalled the all-time Premier League record for most goalscorers (7) for a team in a match, a record set by Chelsea when they beat Aston Villa 8-0 in December 2012. While Anthony Martial scored twice. Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Marcus Rashford, Edinson Cavani, Scott McTominay. Bruno Femandes (right in right and third from left above) and Daniel James all scored one goal Southampton’s Jan Bednarek scored an own goal.

Manchester United were the first team to win a Premier League match by nine goals. They did it in March 1995 and it was Ipswich Town at the receiving end.

United had four different goalscorers in this 9-0 victory. Andy Cole (left and centre in right) was clearly the hero of the match as he scored a phenomenal five goals himself. A brace from Mark Hughes and a goal each from Roy Keane and Paul Ince was also part of the rout.

The five goals scored by Cole was a record for the most goals scored by a footballer in a single Premier League game. The record still stands, but Cole now shares it with Alan Shearer, Jermain Defoe, Dimitar Berbatov and Sergio Aguero.

More than 24 years after Manchester United had set their record it was finally equalled by another team when Leicester City ran riot against Southampton.

The match played at Southampton in October 2019, and 0-9 as Leicester City had five different goalscorers. While there were hat-tricks for both Ayoze Perez (right in left) and Jamie Vardy, Ben Chilwell, Youri Tielemans and James Maddison also got on the score sheet.

This victory, which is the biggest away win in the history of English top-flight football, remains the only 90 margin win achieved by an away team.

Picture Credit : Google

In the first Test between Pakistan and South Africa that took place in Karachi, Pakistan, late in January 2021, South African speedster Kagiso Rabada took his Test wickets tally to 200. He did it in style, as he became the third fastest, in terms of balls bowled, to reach the landmark.

Kagiso Rabada took three wickets in the first Test between Pakistan and South Africa. Even though it came in a losing cause, Rabada had something to celebrate as he became the third fastest, in terms of balls bowled, to reach 200 Test wickets.

All three of Rabada’s wickets in the game came in the first innings. Rabada accounted for both of Pakistan’s openers in the first innings. He had Abid Ali bowled, while Imran Butt was out caught, as Rabada took his tally to 199. His 200th wicket came when he cleaned up tail-ender Hasan Ali.

Rabada’s numbers as he enters

The 200-wicket club

Having made his debut against India at Mohali in 2015, Rabada has raced to 200 Test wickets in just over five years.

Rabada might be the third fastest to 200 Test wickets in terms of balls bowled, but he comes only 13th in terms of matches played. Rabada reached the milestone in his 44th Test match. Pakistan’s Yasir Shah (33), Australia’s Clarrie Grimmett (36) and India’s Ravichandran Ashwin (37) are the three fastest to 200 Test wickets, in tents of matches played.

Rabada has the best strike rate in the history of Test cricket for bowlers with 200 or more wickets – a phenomenal 41.1. Rabada’s compatriot Dale Steyn, who finished his Test career with 439 wickets at a strike rate of 42.3, and Pakistan’s Waqar Younis, who finished with 373 wickets at a strike rate of 43.4, come second and third in this list.

With 18 teams competing in the German Bundesliga, and each club playing the other 17 twice, every team plays a total of 34 matches each season. This means that clubs would have played 17 games each at the halfway mark of each season.

In the 1968-69 season of the Bundesliga, Germany’s Gerd Muller, playing for Bayern Munich, scored a record 20 goals in the first half of the season. That record stood for over 50 years, only to be broken in the 2020-21 season by Robert Lewandowski.

Polish striker Lewandowski, also playing for Bayern Munich now, notched up 22 goals in the first 17 league games this season.

 A look at Lewandowski and Muller..

Having drawn level with Gerd Muller’s record in Bayern Munich’s 3-2 defeat away against Borussia

Monchengladbach on January 9, Lewandowski made the record his own on January 17, with a goal in the seventh minute in their 2-1 victory over Freiburg.

 Lewandowski took his tally to 22 at the halfway mark of the season when he scored from the penalty spot to give his side a 1-0 win away against Augsburg.

Records, awards and goals have been coming thick and fast for Lewandowski, who, at 32, seems to be improving with age. He became just the third footballer to notch up 250 Bundesliga goals in December 2020, before he went on to pick up FIFA’S “The Best” prize being the top footballer of the year.

He seems to be continuing in 2021 from where he left off in 2020 as he first claimed the record for Bundesliga’s halfway mark and then scored his 500th career goal (club and country) in Bayern’s 4-0 win over Schalke on January 24.

With no signs of letting up, Lewandowski might well go past Muller’s record for most goals scored in a season, set in 1971-72.

Seen here in what looks almost like a ballerina pose, Gerd Muller surely did make opponents dance to his tunes. He set innumerable records in his Bundesliga career with Bayern, which included the 20 goals he scored in the first half of the 1968-69 season. His Bundesliga goals tally (365) is beyond reach for most and he also holds the record for most goals scored in a single Bundesliga season – 40 in 1971-72.

Picture Credit : Google

India’s 2-1 series victory against Australia was historic in more ways than one and will be spoken about for a long time.

One of the reasons for why it is rated so highly is the fact that the win in the fourth Test was made possible by chasing down a big target away at Brisbane, one of Australia’s strongholds. The target of 328 achieved, in fact, is the third highest successful chase in India’s Test history.

• 406 for 4 (chasing 403) against West Indies at Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad in April 1976. This is from July 1979 shows Gundappa Viswanath hot on the heels of Sunil Gavaskar as they walk on a rope at Birmingham during a Test series in England. Almost three years and three months before this photo was taken, the duo were literally walking on a tight rope as they helped India achieve a historic victory against the formidable West Indies. After Vivian Richards scored 177 to take his team to 359, India were bowled out for 228 in the first innings. Alvin Kallicharran made an unbeaten 103 next as West Indies declared their second innings at 271 for six, setting a huge target of 403 for India to win the Test. Gavaskar (102) and Visvanath (112) helped India achieve the unthinkable as both of them scored centuries in pursuit of the target.
• 387 for four (chasing 387) against England at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai in December 2008. Centuries by England opener Andrew Strauss (123 and 108) not only allowed the visitors to take a first innings lead of 75, but also helped them set a big target of 387 for India to win the Test. A swashbuckling counter-attacking 68-ball 83 by Player of the Match Virender Sehwag (above) set the stage for India’s chase. Sachin Tendulkar (103 not out, right in left) and Yuvraj Singh (85 not out, left in left) were at the crease when the winning runs were scored.
• 329 for seven (chasing 328) against Australia at Brisbane Cricket Ground, Woolloongabba, Brisbane, Australia in January 2021. The latest entrant in the list of highest successful run chases achieved by India in Test cricket had a number of heroes. After Marnus Labuschagne’s 108 and captain Tim Paine’s 50 allowed Australia to post 369, their highest total in the series, India were in a spot of bother at 186 for six. Debutant Washinton Sundar (62, left in A) and Shardul Thakur (67, right in A), playing only his second Test, forged a 123-run partnership that pushed India to 336, much closer to Australia’s first innings total. Mohammed Siraj (5 for 73 in the second innings, left in C) and Thakur (4 for 61 in second innings, right in C) then picked nine wickets between them to restrict the Aussies to 294. Chasing 328 for an unlikely win on a fifth day track at Australia’s fortress, Shubman Gill (91, right in B) led the charge in the first session. Cheteshwar Pujara (56, left in B) was India’s rock, as he preserved his wicket at one end while the others continued to go for runs. After his dismissal in the first over with the second new ball, Rishabh Pant (89 not out, right) took the reins, taking India over the line for a magical victory.

Picture Credit : Google

On Wednesday, December 16, 2020, Bayern Munich came from behind to beat Wolfsburg 2-1 in the Bundesliga. Both goals were scored by Bayern’s Polish striker Robert Lewandowski, who claimed FIFA’s The Best prize for being the year’s top footballer the next day.

The two goals that Lewandowski scored were his 250th and 251st in Bundesliga. That makes him just the third footballer to notch up over 250 Bundesliga goals, and the first non German to achieve the milestone.

Gerd Muller

Goals scored: 365 Matches played: 427 Minutes played: 38,157 Minutes per goal: 105 Club(s) played for: Bayern Munich

Country: Germany

Gerd ‘Der Bomber Muller broke innumerable records in his Bundesliga career with Bayern. His goals tally is almost a hundred more than his nearest rival. He finished as the top scorer at the end of a season a record five times in the 14 seasons he played. He also holds the record for most goals scored in a single Bundesliga season – 40 in 1971-72.

Klaus Fischer

Goals scored: 268

Matches played: 535

Minutes played: 46,252

Minutes per goal: 173

Club(s) played for: TSV 1860 Mu nich, FC Schalke 04, FC Koln, Vfl Bochum

Country: Germany

Klaus Fischer had a long

Bundesliga career, spending his 19 seasons with four different clubs and scoring goals for all of them. He is among a handful of players to have played more than 500 Bundesliga matches. Even though he scored more than 20 goals in a season six times, he finished as the top-scorer of the league only once in 1975-76.

Robert Lewandowski

Goals scored: 253

Matches played: 333

Minutes played: 26,661

Minutes per goal: 105

Club(s) played for: Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich

Country: Poland

Robert Lewandowski has moved from strength to strength in his Bundesliga career since he started out with Borussia Dortmund in 2010-11. Having moved to Bayern Munich in 2014-15, Lewandowski certainly has more records within his sight in the time to come. Lewandowski has been the highest scoring non-German in the competition for some time now and the Polish forward became the first non-German to go past the 250 Bundesliga goals mark.

After Maximilian Philipp volleyed home in the fifth minute to give Wolfsburg the lead, Lewandowski headed home (top most) the equaliser in first-half stoppage time. He scored the winner (above) five minutes into the second half, following a strong run. The two goals were

Lewandowski’s 250th and 251st in Bundesliga, making him just the third to reach the landmark.

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On December 20, 2020, AC Milan striker Rafael Leao scored a goal in the first minute of the game in their 2-1 victory away against Sassuolo. In case you are wondering why that is special, it was the fastest goal in Serie A history.

Leao took just 6.2 seconds to find the back of the net, scoring the fastest goal in Serie A history. He had shaved nearly two seconds off the previous record, held by Paolo Poggi of Piacenza when he scored against Fiorentina in 2001. Leao’s goal, in fact, is the first goal in Europe’s top five leagues (English Premier League, French Ligue 1, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A and Spanish La Liga) to be scored inside seven seconds. Naturally then, it is the fastest goal ever in Europe’s top five leagues.

The fastest goal in the Spanish La Liga was scored by Joseba Llorente >> Playing then for Real Valladolid, Llorente took only 7.22 seconds to score against Espanyol in 2008.

The record for the fastest goal scored in the English Premier League now belongs to Shane Long Southampton striker Long needed only 7.69 seconds to score a goal against Watford in 2019.

In the French Ligue 1, the record for the fastest goal is held by Michel Rio.

The record dates back to 1992 when Caen midfielder Rio scored against Cannes in 7.9 seconds.

The record for the fastest goal scored in the German Bundesliga is held jointly by Karim Bellarabi and Kevin Volland.

While Bellarabi scored in just nine seconds on the opening day of the 2014-15 season for Bayer Leverkusen against Borussia Dortmund, Volland took the same time to score for Hoffenheim against Bayern Munich in 2015.

On January 3, 2021, Leao scored the second goal in AC Milan’s 2-0 away win against Benevento. With that goal, Leao became the second youngest foreign player (21 years and 207 days) to score 10 or more goals with AC Milan in Serie A. Only Brazilian footballer Alexandre Pato achieved the landmark quicker. He was 19 years and 19 days old when he scored his 10th AC Milan goal in the Serie A.

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Accusations of racism meant that Paris Saint-Germain’s final Champions’ League group game against Istanbul Basaksehir was played over two days, December 8-9, 2020.

Knowing they had already qualified when the match continued on December 9, PSG went on to thrash Istanbul 5-1 as Neymar scored a hat-trick and Kylian Mbappe added a brace. Those two goals made Mbappe the youngest in the competition to reach 20 goals.

With a penalty in the 42nd minute of the game, Mbappe took his tally of Champions League goals to 20. He added another in the 62nd minute and now has 21 goals in the competition. Having announced his arrival on the big stage as a teenager, Mbappe continues to create records.

1. Kylian Mbappe

Mbappe was 21 years and 355 days old when he scored his 20th and 21st goals in the competition. After scoring six goals in the 2016-17 season with Monaco, Mbappe switched to PSG. He also starred for France when they won the World Cup in 2018.

2. Lionel Messi

Messi was 22 years ne notched up his 20th and 266 days old when goal in the 2009-10 edition of the Champions League. He totally has 126 goals so far.

3. Raul

Raul was 22 years and 297 days old when we reached the 20 Champions League goals mark.

4. Alessandro del Piero

del Piero was 23 years and 157 days old when he went past the 20 Champions League goals landmark.

5. Karim Benzema

Benzema reached the 20 Champions League goals milestone when he was 23 years and 282 days old.

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On December 8, 2020, Borussia Dortmund’s Youssouffa Moukaka came on as a substitute in their Champions League game against Zenit Saint Petersburg. With that he broke Celestine Babayaro’s 26-year-old record for being the youngest player in the history of UEFA Champions League.

Cameroon-born German footballer Youssoufa Moukoko was born almost 10 years (just three days short, to be exact) after Celestine Babayaro set the record in 1994 for being the youngest to play in the Champions League. Born on November 20 2004, Moukoko joined Borussia Dortmund in 2016 and played for their U17s (under-17s) team aged 13 and for their U19s a year later. He started training with Dortmund’s first team as a 15-year-old from January 2020 and made his first appearance in the Bundesliga a day after his 16th birthday, coming on as a substitute against Hertha. A little over half a month later, Moukoko has become the youngest player ever to play in the UEFA Champions League.

1. Youssoufa Moukoko 16 years 18 days

After sitting on the bench for Dortmund for two Champions League games, Moukoko made his European debut on December 8, 2020 in a 2-1 win against Zenit.

2. Celestine Babayaro 16 years 87 days

For more than 26 years, the record for being the youngest to appear in Champions League was held by Babayaro. The Nigerian defender achieved the feat on November 23, 1994 when he started for Anderlecht at Steaua in a 1-1 group stage draw. His debut had one more record in it as well, as he became the youngest in the competition to be sent off. 37 minutes into the game.

3. Rayan Cherki 16 years 102 days

Still with Lyon, Cherki made his Champions League debut as a substitute in a 2-0 loss against Zenit on November 27, 2019. Cherki could have broken Babayaro’s record three weeks before this game, but he was an unused substitute in that match.

4. Alen Halilovic T16 years 128 days

Now with Birmingham after moving through a number of dubs, Halilovic made his Champions League debut as a substitute in Dinamo Zagreb’s 0-2 loss to Paris Saint-Germain on October 24, 2012.

5. Youri Tielemans 5 16 years 148 days

Now playing for Premier League side Leicester City, Tielemans made his Champions League debut for Anderlecht during their 0-3 defeat to Olympiacos on October 2, 2013.

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On December 9, 2020, Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema scored twice in their 2-0 Champions League group stage game victory over Borussia Monchengladbach. With the first of those two goals, Benzema became only the third* person to score 50 or more goals in the group stages of Champions League.

With only Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo above him in terms of number of group stage goals scored in the competition, Benzema surely is in some elite company.

Lionel Messi leads the list with 71 Champions League group stage goals, all of which were for Barcelona. The 71 goals have come in just 75 games, giving him a phenomenal goals per game ratio of 0.95!

It is no surprise that Cristiano Ronaldo is next on this list, with 67 Champions League group stage goals in 93 games so far. His goals, which have come at the rate of 0.72 goals per game, were for three sides – Manchester United, Real Madrid and now Juventus.

Benzema became just the third footballer to notch up 50 or more Champions League group stage goals when he scored his 50th and 51st in the game against Monchengladbach His 51 goals have come in 73 games, played for Lyon and now Real Madrid. Benzema has a goals per game ratio of 0.70 at this stage of the competition.

Statistics do not include goals and appearances from the second group stage that the Champions League had from 1999-2000 to 2002-03. If we were to include goals in that as well, Raul (53) and Ruud van Nistelrooy (50) also have 50 or more group stage goals. Raul and van Nistelrooy’s tallies, however, drop down to 37 and 39 respectively, if their goals in the second group stage aren’t included.

Benzema scored with two near identical headers to bring up his 50th and 51st goals in the group stages of the Champions League.

Apart from the fact that the two goals put Benzema in elite company, it also gave Real Madrid a crucial victory that not only allowed them to progress to the knock-out stages of the competition this time, but also top their group. Record 13-time champions Madrid had started the night in third place in their group, with the risk of failing to qualify from the group stage for the first time in their history.

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On December 2, 2020, in the third and final ODI between India and Australia that was played at Canberra, Australia, India’s skipper Virat Kohli became just the sixth player to amass more than 12,000 runs in the ODI format.

He joined the elite group of players in style, as he is the fastest to the milestone, reaching it in his 251st match, while playing his 242nd innings.

Among cricketers who have scored 12,000 or more runs in the ODI format, Kohli is the only active player.

Virat kohli reached the 12,000 run mark in his 251st ODI, when he came out to bat for the 242nd time. He scored 63 off 78 balls, in an innings that included five fours, India won the match against Australia at Canberra on December 2, 2020 by 13 runs.

Sachin Tendulkar was the first to reach the 12,000 run mark in the ODI format. He did it in his 309th ODI, while batting for the 300th time.

Ricky Ponting achieved the 12,000 run milestone in his 314th innings, when playing his 323rd match. He scored an unbeaten 111against England at Centurion, South Africa on October 2, 2009 as Australia reached the ICC Champions Trophy final with a nine wicket win.

Kumar Sangakkara went past the 12,000 mark in his 395th ODI, playing his 336th innings Sangakkara scored a 67-ball 58 as Sri Lanka, defeated Pakistan by two wickets at Dubai, UAE on December 20, 2013.

Sanath Jayasuriya notched up the 12,000 mark when batting for the 379th time in his 390th match. It came in the 2007 ODI World Cup final against Australia at Bridgetown, Barbados on April 28, 2007. Jayasuriya scored 63 from 67 deliveries, but Sri Lanka lost the final by 53 runs, according to Duckworth-Lewis method.

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On November 17, 2020, Spain hosted Germany in a UEFA Nations League clash. Germany lost the game by a huge margin, but the only solace for their goalkeeper Manuel Neuer was the fact that he reached a personal landmark in the game.

Neuer was appearing as Germany’s goalkeeper for a 96th time, the highest for the country.

Manuel Neuer, who has been playing for Bayern Munich at the club level since 2011, has been Germany’s first choice goalkeeper since 2009. This means that he has been the custodian of their goal in international fixtures since then, which includes three FIFA World Cups – 2010, 2014 and 2018.

Neuer was an important part of Germany’s World Cup winning team in 2014. In fact, he was awarded the Golden Glove in that edition of the FIFA World Cup for being the best goalkeeper in the tournament.

Not the way he’d have wanted to reach the milestone

Neuer became Germany’s most-capped goalkeeper by making his 96th appearance in the UEFA Nations League game against Spain.

On the night Neuer broke Maiers appearances record, he let in a goal after just 17 minutes

The floodgates opened after that as Germany conceded five more times in their humiliating 6-0 defeat to Spain.

In fact, this is the first time Neuer has conceded six or more goals in a competitive game in his professional career!

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By winning the Turkish Grand Prix held at Istanbul, Turkey on November 15, 2020, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton took his tally to 307 points this season. With that, he has an unassailable lead at the top of the drivers’ standings.

This means that Hamilton has won the World Championship title for a seventh time, matching the haul of F1 great Michael Schumacher.

Greatest of all time?

For years, fans and experts alike believed that some of the records that Michael Schumacher held would remain untouched for a long time.

And yet in 2020, Lewis Hamilton has not only matched one of his best records (seven world titles), but has also gone past Schumacher in a number of other records.

This has inevitably led to the greatest of all time debate. While it is always a difficult exercise, Hamilton does have a lot of things going for him already. And with a few more years in the sport, he might well make that debate one sided as well.

Seven world titles

Lewis Hamilton matched Michael Schumacher’s record of winning seven F1 World Championship titles this season. Schumacher won his seven world titles in 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. While Schumacher won his first two world titles with Benetton, the remaining five came with Ferrari.

Hamilton notched up his seven world titles in 2008, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Hamilton’s first world title in 2008 was with McLaren. Hamilton won his remaining six world titles with Mercedes.

This makes Hamilton the first driver to win six World Championship titles with the same team.

Schumacher vs Hamilton

By racing from 1991-2006 and then again from 2010 2012, Schumacher’s career totally spanned 19 seasons, during which he took part in 306 races. Hamilton, meanwhile, has participated in 14 seasons starting from 2007 so far, taking part in 264 races.

In 306 races, Schumacher started a race in the front row (two cars will be there in the front row of the grid at the start of a race) 116 times, including 68 from pole position. Hamilton has started 157 of his 264 races so far in the front row, and has taken the pole position 97 times.

Schumacher finished on the podium (top three places) 155 times during his career, which includes 91 races wins. Hamilton already has 163 podiums and 94 race victories. Hamilton went past Schumacher’s record number of podium finishes and race wins in the 2020 season.

Schumacher, however, still holds the record for having the highest total of fastest laps. He set the fastest lap 77 times in his 306 races. Hamilton is second in the list for now having set the fastest lap in a race 53 times.

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The green jacket is among the most coveted prizes in golf. While it is most visible when awarded to the winner of the Masters tournament each year, it has a much longer story and history.

The Augusta National Golf Club, one of the most prestigious golf clubs in the world, opened in 1934. In 1937, the green jacket came to be. Presented to the members of the club, the jackets are kept on club grounds and taking them off the premises is forbidden (though a few have got out and are now owned by wealthy buyers). It was only from 1949 that the custom of awarding these green jackets to the winner of the Masters tournament that takes place at Augusta started. Since then, it has also been awarded retroactively to previous winners as well. One of the traditions at the Masters include having the tournament’s defending champion help the current champion slip into the green jacket (unless of course, the same person won the previous year as well). This is why we see Tiger Woods, who won the event in 2019. helping Dustin Johnson put on the jacket after winning this year. Multiple Masters winner, however, receive only one jacket. Winners, unlike members, can take home the jacket, but are expected to return it to the club during the next Masters.

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On November 10, 2020, Mumbai Indians defeated Delhi Capitals for the fourth time in the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) to win the tournament a record-extending fifth time.

Losing finalist Delhi Capitals had the Purple Cap winner as Kagiso Rabada finished with 30 wickets in the tournament. Mumbai Indians Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult, however, came in second and third in the highest wicket-takers list with 27 and 25 wickets respectively. They surely did bowl well in tandem!

Mumbai Indians have now won five IPL titles – 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020, Having already become the most successful franchise in IPL history in 2019 (Chennai Super Kings are second with three titles). MI further extended their record by winning the tournament this season.

Rohit Sharma, their captain, has been part of all five of these victories. He scored a 51 ball 68 in the final against Delhi Capitals to ensure that their chase of 157 went without incident.

Rohit, in fact has won the IPL six times. This is because he was also part of the title-winning Deccan Chargers when they lifted the trophy in 2009!

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By winning the French Open for a record 13th time in 2020, Spaniard Rafael Nadal equalled Swiss Roger Federer’s record of winning 20 Grand Slam singles titles – the most among men.

The two men have been at the forefront of men’s tennis for years now and it will be interesting to see who breaks the tie and when.

A look at some numbers after Nadal’s latest French Open triumph…

NADAL’S NUMBERS

20 – Both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer now have 20 Grand Slam singles titles, the most in men’s tennis While Nadal has 13 French Open titles, four US Open titles two Wimbledon titles and one Australian Open title. Federer has won eight Wimbledon titles, six Australian Open titles, five US Open titles and one French Open title.

13- Nadals 2020 French Open victory was his 13th at the day courts of Roland Garros. With that he became the first player in the Open Era (1968 onwards), male or female to win any tour level event 13 times – And he did it at a Grand Slam tournament! Nadal was previously tied with Martina Navratilova, who had won the WTA event at Chicago 12 times

100-2 – Nadal’s win-loss record at the French Open Currently reads 100 wins and two losses. The victory over Novak Djokovic in the final this time around was his 100th victory at Roland Garros. That makes him the first player, male or female to win 100 matches at French Open. With the feat already achieved at Australian Open (Federer). Wimbledon (Navratilova and Federer) and the US Open (Chris Evert and Serena Williams), all four Grand Slam events now have at least one player who has registered 100 victories.

4- Nadal didn’t drop a single set in the 2020 French Open, winning each of his seven matches in straight sets. Having also won the French Open in 2008, 2010 and 2017 this way, Nadal became the first man in the Open Era to win four Grand Slam titles without dropping a set. He was previously tied with Bjom Borg, who has won three Grand Slam titles without dropping a set.

1- Polish teenager Iga Swiatek won the 2020 French Open women’s singles without dropping a set tool, That makes the 2020 French Open the first Grand Slam tournament in the Open Era where both the men’s and women’s champions claimed the title without dropping a single set.

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When the inaugural T20 World Championship was to be played, no one gave India even a slender chance of winning the Championship. Some of the better-known names were, missing from the Indian squad and Mahendra Singh Pansingh Dhoni was made the scapegoat captain to lead a team that would not lose face even if it returned without a single victory. What happened finally is history but above all it brought into limelight a new potential captain for the Indian cricket team.

Dhoni was no Samson with all his strength in his long hair but a captain who remained cool as a cucumber even under the most stressful situation. It was only a matter of time before M.S. Dhoni would be handed the reins of India cricket to be in the safest of hands. Dhoni appeared at the international arena in December 2004 when he made his One Day International debut against Bangladesh.

Perhaps the month of December had a special significance in Dhoni’s career; he made his test debut against Sri Lanka in December 2005 and the following December, his T20 debut against South Africa.

Dhoni draws his ancestry from the District of Almora in Uttarakhand but was born in Ranchi, then in the State of Bihar and now in Jharkhand, the district to which his father moved for employment. Since the Bihar youth teams of various age groups were not all that strong, Dhoni had to put outstanding individual performances to remain in the limelight. However, once in the Indian team, he remained an invaluable asset for the team in all the three forms of the game and once the leader, his achievements remained unparalleled.

In 90 Tests, Dhoni known lovingly as Mahi scored nearly 5,000 runs at an average of a fraction over 38 but it was his efficiency behind the stumps that accounted for the 256 catches 38 stumpings. However, Mahi’s achievements in the shorter version of the game remain enviable. In 350 ODIs,  he scored 10,773 runs at an average of 50.53 with a highest score of 183 not out and a record number of victims behind the stumps; 321 catches and the number of stumpings  with the integers reversed standing at 123; a total of 444 victims. In 98 T20 Internationals, Dhoni scored 1,617 runs at an average of 37.60 and accounted for 91 victims behind the stumps in the form of 54 catches and 37 stumpings.

However, what puts Dhoni in a class of his own are his achievements as a captain. He remains the only captain who led his team in winning all the three limited overs ICC trophies; the ICC World T20 in 2007, the ICC World Cup in 2011 and the ICC Champions Trophy, in 2013. In addition, he led the Indian team to victory in the Asia Cup in 2010 and again in 2016. Under his captaincy, India also achieved the distinction of achieving the top test ranking. There can be no greater recognition of Dhoni’s leadership than fact that the record eight times he was included in the ICC’s ODI XI, he was named as the captain on five occasions.

Dhoni has been considered as one of the greatest finishers in limited overs cricket and his 82 unbeaten innings are a testimony to his rare talent, however, when the time has demanded he was always ready to lead from the front and the most outstanding instance was when he decided to open the innings in the final of the 2011 ICC World Cup. One rare unique behaviour that Dhoni introduced was to hand over the won trophy to the junior-most member of the team once he was back with the team after receiving the trophy. Nothing can be more motivating for any youngster in a team where Dhoni was the skipper.

As a leader of the Chennai Super Kings team in the IPL, Dhoni’s achievement is another example of his great leadership. Of the ten times that CSK has participated in the 12 IPL tournaments so far, Dhoni has led his team into seven finals, winning the title on three occasions.

M.S. has been a recipient of several awards, some of the more prestigious being the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan. The Territorial Army conferred the honourary rank of Lieutenant Colonel and he justified the honour by undertaking a two-week training stint with his unit.

Dhoni’s retirement and abdications have come in stages but the respect that he wielded among his teammates was always evident when the man behind the stumps took the liberty of resetting the field and it was never contested even when someone else was at the helm of affairs. I hope that the Government of India will hold a similar view when it comes to awards and honours for achievements that hitherto have never been reached by any other captain in bringing glory to the Indian cricket team.

Dhoni’s retirement from international cricket may be a disappointment for many of his fans but we all have definitely not seen the last of M.S. Dhoni. The number 7 in yellow jersey will still be seen playing the helicopter shot for the CSK in the IPL and the team’s opponent batsmen will still not dare to venture out of their batting crease as long as the man behind the stumps is the one who has the world’s maximum number of stumpings in limited overs cricket.

Credit : Gp Capt Achchyut Kumar (Teenager Today)

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On September 27, 2020, the ninth match of this edition of the IPL was played between Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals. KXIP posted 223 for 2 in 20 overs, only to see RR chase it down, as they reached 226 for 6 with three balls to spare. In the process, RR broke the record for the highest successful chase in IPL history, a record that was already theirs.

Smith, Samson and Tewatia combined for 188 runs in the chase, scoring the bulk of their 226 for six in the end. While the big hitting was expected from Smith and Samson, Tewatia’s knock came from nowhere.

What made it more incredible was the fact that he scored just 17 runs off the first 23 balls he faced and the remaining 36 in his last eight balls. He also scored five sixes off a single over from Sheldon Cottrell (18th over of the match).

In 2020, it was KXIP’s Mayank Agarwal who scored a hundred. His 50-ball 106 included 10 four and seven sixes, but he finished on the losing side.

Agarwal was involved in an opening partnership of 183 with his skipper KL Rahul, who scored a 54-ball 69. This is the third highest opening stand in the IPL and the highest partnership for any wicket in the IPL to end up on the losing side.

In 2008, it was Australian Andrew Symonds who ended up with defeat despite scoring a century. Symonds scored 117 from 53 balls, with 11 fours and seven sixes. Symonds had the added agony of bowling the last over off which the winning runs were scored by RR.

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Companies and businesses worldwide have had to grapple with the current situation, with working from home being a popular option. Most sports, including cricket, however cannot take place with the participants sitting at home. The solution? Organizers came up with the idea of bio-secure environments with strict regulations.

Following the success of various other sports inside what was called a bubble, cricket too followed suit. England were at the forefront, holding a number of series across formats and against various oppositions. The Indian Premier League (IPL), shifted to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) owing to the increasing cases in India, is now being played in a similar bubble-like environment.

Despite these new changes, the first week of the IPL had everything that we expect out of this blockbuster tournament. Star cricketers, both Indians and overseas, have put on a show. Big hitting, mind-blowing fielding, spectacular bowling…the IPL has already ticked all these boxes. What’s more, this edition of the event has already seen a match go to the Super Over and another game tie the maximum number of sixes hit in a single game. The competition is only likely to get better here-on…

Did you know?

This is not the first time that the Indian Premier League has had to shift out of India. The 2009 edition was completely held in South Africa and the 2014 edition saw the first part of the tournament being held in the UAE. While the 2009 and 2014 editions of the IPL were pushed to the dates of the general elections in India clashing with the tournament, the 2020 edition had to move out of the country owing to the ongoing pandemic situation.

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When Michael Schumacher finished his F1 career, many believed that some of the records that he had set were possibly beyond the reach of anyone- present or future – in the sport. One of those records was his podium finishes, as he notched up a record 155 when he had finished in the top three places in a race. And then came along Lewis Hamilton…

At the Spanish Grand Prix in August 2020, Hamilton had a dominant victory. While wins are nothing new for him, this particular one put him on the podium for the 156th time – one more than Schumacher. Having grown up watching Schumacher dominate the sport, Hamilton mentioned that he couldn’t “even begin to describe how this feels” and added that he felt “humbled and honoured to be mentioned in the same light as a driver like him.”

Did you know?

Hamilton has since then had two more podium finishes, increasing the record number of podiums to 158 (ahead of the Russian Grand Prix in September). A number of other Schumacher records are also within his grasp, including the most pole positions at the same grand Prix and of course the big one, most F1 world championship titles.

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After Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Sofia Kenin won the men’s and women’s singles titles at the Australian Open 2020, tennis, like every other sport, entered a period of no action owing to the coronavirus. The Wimbledon was cancelled and the French Open was pushed to a September start. When tennis finally resumed in August, not all the big names on tour. And when Djokovic was defaulted for inadvertently hitting a line judge with a ball, the path was open for a new winner. Austria’s Dominic Thiem. Who had come close on a number of occasions before, grabbed the opportunity and became the first new winner of a men’s singles Grand Slam event since Marin Cilic won the 2014 US Open.

The women’s section of the US Open saw Japan’s Naomi Osaka win the title, adding to her victories in 2018 US Open and 2019 Australian Open.

Did you know?

Thiem not only became the first new winner of a Grand Slam men’s singles title, but was also the first to be born in the 1990s to achieve the feat in men’s singles. He is also the first currently active male player in hi 20s to win a men’s singles Grand Slam title.

Thiem didn’t have it easy though as he had to come back from two sets down to win the final against Alexander Zverev. That made him the first player to come back from two sets down in the US Open final in the Open Era (1968 onwards).

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Liverpool claimed the English top-flight after 30 years with their first Premier League title. Lyon and Bayern Munich, meanwhile, chalked up victories in the women’s and men’s Champions League respectively.

The football season that ended in 2020, especially the big leagues in Europe and the continent’s elite club competitions, were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They were all, however, taken to a logical conclusion, even though the end of the seasons was pushed much later than usual.

Among Europe’s top five leagues, all eyes were mainly on the English Premier League in the 2019-20 season. For Liverpool – giants in terms of reputation – ended their long wait for an English top-flight title by lifting it for the first time since 1990. And since the Premier League era only began in 1992, it was also the club’s first Premier League title.

Both the women and men’s Champions League were completed in a single country, with the usual home and away fixtures done away with in favour of a single match for what remained of the knock-out fixtures following the resumption. The Women’s Champions League was won by Lyon as they made it a record five times in a row. The men’s competition, meanwhile, was won by Bayern Munich, who did it for the sixth time in the competition’s history.

Did you know?

Liverpool mathematically assured themselves of the Premier League title with seven matches left for them in the season, making them the earliest to win the title.

Lyon won the Women’s Champions League for a record seventh time.

Bayern Munich not only won the Champions League, but did it by winning every single game they played in the season’s competition. They are the first team to win with a perfect record.

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The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been felt across spheres around the world and sports have been no exception. The biggest casualty, without a doubt, is the Summer Olympics that was to take place in Tokyo, Japan from July 24 to August 9, 2020.

With the coronavirus rearing its ugly head, the organizers had no other option but to postpone the event in March 2020 – due to marketing and branding reasons – but the 32nd edition of the Olympics, the first one to be postponed (there have been cancellations), is now scheduled from July 23 to August 8, 2021.

While questions linger as to how exactly the Games can be carried out in 2021, what with the growing number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, there is hope from the fact that most other sports have restarted in one way or another. The scale of the Tokyo Olympics and the global participation, however, throws it more challenges than any other. Only time will tell if our wish for Tokyo 2020 to be the “Games that conquered COVID” would come true…

Did you know?

While Tokyo 2020 is the biggest event affected by the pandemic, it was certainly not the only one. Numerous other sporting events were either postponed or cancelled due to the virus. Among them are the T20 World Cup that has now been pushed to 2021 and the 2020 Wimbledon, which has been cancelled.

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By defeating Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 at Estadio da Luz, Lisbon on Sunday, August 23, 2020, Bayern Munich won the Champions League for a sixth time.

First for a Canadian

Alphonso Davies is a 19-year-old defender who cemented his place in Bayern Munich’s starting 11 in October 2019.

Emerging as one of the best young talents around, Davies created history by becoming the first Canadian to win the Champions League in the history of the competition.

Coman comes back to haunt PSG

Kingsley Coman scored the only goal of the final, his leader proving to be the difference between the two sides. Coman spent his youth career at PSG and even made senior appearances during his stint with the club between 2004-13. He left for Juventus on a free transfer and then moved to Bayern, only to come back and haunt PSG by scoring the winning goal in the final.

So near, yet to far

This was PSG’s first appearance in the Champions League abundantly clear in recent years that their priority is Europe’s top competitions, but the French giants have to wait some more to get their hands on the covered trophy.

The perfect record

Bayern Munich not only won the Champions League for the sixth time, they did it in style. They became the first team ever to win the title while winning every game they played in the competition this season. Agreed, this year saw them play 11 matches (instead of the usual 13) as the COVID-19 pandemic forced the quarter-finals and semi-finals to be played as single-leg fixtures rather than the usual home-away format. But still, winning each and every one of the 11 matches they played is no easy feat and it is also the longest winning streak in the competition.

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They say that you must learn to crawl before you can walk. But for England’s Zak Crawley, however, there was no such crawling.

Playing only his eighth Test match in the third Test between England and Pakistan at Southampton, England from August 21-25, 2020, Crawley notched up his maiden Test hundred.

Not content with merely a century, he made it is a big one he went past 150, 200 and 250, before eventually being dismissed for 267. He was provided good support by wicket-keeper Jos Buttler, who himself scored 152.

By scoring 267, Zak Crawley joined an elite group by taking the seventh place in the list of highest maiden Test hundreds.

After going past the 300-run partnership mark, the partnership between Zak Crawley and Jos Buttler finally came up to an end with the former’s dismissal. Coming together at 127 for four, the two put on 359 for the fifth wicket before Crawley got out, the score reading 486 for five.

Theirs is now the joint fourth-highest fifth-wicket partnership in Test cricket. For England, this is the sixth highest partnership for any wicket in Test history.

Crawley contributed 200 off 285 balls in the partnership, while Buttler pitched in with 138 from 278 deliveries.

At the start of the third Test between England and Pakistan, Crawley was 22 years and 200 days old. This means that there have been only four players who have made a score of over 250 in Tests at a younger age than Crawley. That is indeed an illustrious list as the four batsmen are Garry Sobers, Don Bradman, Len Hutton and Graeme Smith. Bradman and Smith, in fact, made two such scores of over 250 before turning 23!

Crawley’s innings also makes him the third-youngest England batsman to score a Test double century. Hutton and David Gower are the only ones to have achieved it at younger age.

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On Friday, August 21, 2020, the Europa League season delayed by the coronavirus pandemic finally came to an end. The final between the Sevilla and Inter Milan that was played at Cologne turned out to be a five-goal thriller, with Sevilla coming out on top 3-2.

Make that Six!

With this victory, Seviila have now won the Uefa Cup/UEFA Europa League title a record six time – 2005/06, 2006/7, 2013/14, 2014/15, 2015/16 and 2019/20. No other club has won the competition more than three times. Losing finalists Inter, Liverpool, Juventus and Atletico Madrid have all won it on three occasions.

Sevilla have won all six UEFA Cup/Europa League finals they have played – the best 100% winning record for any club in UEFA competition finals history.

Jesus Navas was 20 years old when Sevilla (and himself) won their first UEFA Cup title. He captained his hometown club to the title 14 years later – his third and he team’s sixth.

De Jong does it

Luuk de Jong scored twice for Sevilla in the 3-2 win over Inter in the final. He is the first player ever to score with two headers in a Europa League or Champions League final.

Lopetegui has a reason to laugh

It hasn’t been easy for Sevilla’s manager Julen Lopetegui in the last two years or so. When it was announced that he would be Real Madrid’s manager after the conclusion of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, he was dismissed from managing Spain’s national side the very next day, with the team already in Russia for the tournament.

And then, he was fired after just 14 matches in charge of Real Madrid. He now finally has a reason to smile as the Europa League success marks his first title win as a manager.

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When India’s Ravichandran Ashwin dismissed South Africa’s  Theunis de Bruyn in the second innings of the first Test between the two sides, he became the joint-fastest, along with Muttiah Muralitharan, to 350 Test wickets. Ashwin went on to fish as the highest wicket-taker in the three-match series.

Ashwin’s 350th

On October 6, 2019 – the fifth day of the first Test at Visakhapatnam – Ashwin grabbed his 350th Test wicket. Ashwin tossed this delivery wide of off stump with plenty of revolutions on the bail. Theunis de Bruyn committed to his stroke, got the inside edge and was out bowled as he played it onto his stumps. It was Ashwin’s only wicket in the innings, but it was enough to make him joint-fastest to 350 Test wickets.

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It consists of three punishing events, a 3.9-km swim, a 180-km bicycle ride and a full marathon (42.1 km). Organized by the World Triathlon Corporation, the Ironman must be completed in 17 hours. The event begins at 7 a.m. The swim must be completed in 2 hours and 20 minutes; the bike ride by 5:30 p.m.; and the marathon by midnight. This includes the transition time, during which swimmers have to change into biking gear and then again for the marathon. The top men usually take eight hours while women complete it in nine.

The triathlon began in 1978 when a group of California athletes had an argument over whether running or swimming was more physically demanding. A member of the group called John Collins was inspired to start the first endurance triathlon in Hawaii around the island of Oahu. It combined what had been three separate events – a 2.4-km Waikiki Roughwater Swim, a 180-km Round Oahu Bike Course and the 42.1-km Honolulu Marathon.

There are Ironman races held in every continent except Antarctica, including the Ironman 70.3 which is exactly half the distance of the full Ironman. The most challenging is the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, for which athletes have to qualify by competing in 28 Ironman races held in other parts of the world. The Kona biking track is grueling as it traverses lava fields that are lashed by fierce winds.

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On August 15, 2020, Mahendra Singh Dhoni announced his retirement with a short video and a message that read “Thanks a lot for your love and support throughout from 1929 hrs consider me as Retired”.

It was some time in the making, considering that the last international game that Dhoni played for India came over 13 months before he eventually announced his retirement. But like we’ve come to expect from him, the way he went about making the information public was typical Dhoni. No farewell match, no in-stadium speeches…

Having already retired from Test cricket in 2014, Dhoni’s announcement implies that this marks the end of his limited-overs international career as well.

As a wicketkeeper batsman and a captain, Dhoni has done wonders for India. Here, we will take a look at some of the numbers that define his hugely successful international career…

Runs scored between the two run outs

Dhoni’s international career started and ended in the ODI format. His first international game was an ODI against Bangladesh on December 23, 2004. His last international came against New Zealand in what was the 2019 ODI World Cup semi-final that was played across two days – July 9 and 10, 2019. Dhoni was dismissed by a run out on both occasions, scoring zero on debut and 50 in his last game for India. In the 15 years in between, he scored mountains of runs.

In Tests, Dhoni made his debut against Sri Lanka in December 2005 and played his last match against Australia in December 2014. He scored 4876 runs in the 90 matches he played, averaging 38.09 with six hundreds and 33 fifties.

He played 350 matches overall in the ODI format and finished with 10773 runs at an average of 50.57. He also had 10 hundreds and 73 fifties against his name. His T20I debut was against South Africa in December 2006 and his last game in the format was against Australia in February 2019. He managed 1617 runs in the 98 matches he played, averaging 37.6 with a strike rate of 126.13.

Dhoni, the Gloveman

While Dhoni’s captaincy and batting skills are well documented and discussed, his wicket keeping abilities aren’t often mentioned in the same vein. Dhoni finished his career as one of the best wicketkeeper-batsman ever, especially in the limited overs format, and he always prided his skills behind the wickets, innovating always and effecting lightning fast dismissals throughout his career.

Dhoni’s 444 ODI dismissals is the third-most in the format and his 123 stumpings are the most by any keeper. In T20Is, his 91 dismissals and 34 stumpings are the highest so far.

Captain cool

Dhoni relinquished his captaincy much before his retirement from the limited-overs format, but he leaves behind a rich legacy as one of the most winningest captains, not just for India, but in the cricket world in general. Dhoni is the only captain to win all three limited-overs ICC titles and he also led India to the number one Test ranking. Under his leadership, India won the T20 World Cup in 2007, reached rank one in Tests in 2009, won the ODI World Cup in 2011 and the Champions Trophy in 2013. Dhoni led India in 200 ODIs, 72 T20Is and 60 Tests, giving him a total of 332 – the most as captain for any player in international cricket.

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Victory in the 2019/20 season was not only their ninth successive Serie A title, but their 36th title overall in the Italian top-flight. The next best is AC Milan and Inter Milan, both with 18 titles. This was coach Maurizio Sarri’s first Scudetto (name of the Serie A title), who has previously managed other clubs (Empoli and Napoli) in the top-flight of Italian football. Sarri’s smiles, however, were shortlived as he was sacked a week after the season ended when Juve were knocked out of the Champions League.

Numbers that speak for themselves…

3000 – On Thursday, July 23, 2020, Juventus played a Serie A match against Udinese. Even though they lost that match 2-1, it marked the 3000-day milestone with the Serie A winners shield on their chest. The country continues…

300 – On Wednesday, July 15, 2020, Juventus played out a 3-3 Serie A draw against Sassuolo. That marked their celebration of 300 consecutive matches as the champions of Italy.

61 – When Juventus mathematically sealed the title on Sunday, July 26, 2020, with a 2-0 win over Sampdoria, their coach Sarri was 61 years and 198 days old. That makes him the oldest manager ever to win the Serie A.

61 – Ronaldo went past the 50 Serie A goals mark this season, taking 61 games to reach the milestone. That makes him the quickest ever to reach the feat (in terms of appearances), among those who played in the tree points (for a win) era, which is from 1994/95. In the process, he also became the first player ever to score 50 or more goals in the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga and the Italian Serie A.

31 – Ronaldo finished the Serie A season with 31 goals, becoming just the third player in the club’s history to reach 30 goals in the league. Felice Borel (32 in 1933/34) and John Hansen (30 in 1951/52) are the only other players to do it for Juventus.

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Golden duck (cricket), players who are dismissed by the first ball they face. The term is a shortening of the term “duck’s egg”, the latter being used long before Test cricket began. When referring to the Prince of Wales’ (the future Edward VII) score of nought on 17 July 1866, a contemporary newspaper wrote that the Prince “retired to the royal pavilion on a ‘duck’s egg’ “. The name is believed to come from the shape of the number “0” being similar to that of a duck’s egg, as in the case of the American slang term “goose-egg” popular in baseball and the tennis term “love”, derived – according to one theory – from French l’œuf (“the egg”). The Concise Oxford Dictionary still cites “duck’s egg” as an alternative version of the term.

In the first Test of Australia’s tour of India in 1986, with the cumulative scores tied, Indian tailender Maninder Singh was trapped LBW by Greg Matthews for a four ball duck, ensuring just the second tied Test in Test Cricket history.

Indian all-rounder Ajit Agarkar earned the unfortunate nickname “Bombay Duck” after being dismissed for ducks five consecutive times in test matches against Australia.

In a 1913 match against Glastonbury, Huish and Langport’s batsmen all scored ducks for a total of zero runs. A similar occurrence in indoor cricket happened in 2016, when Bapchild Cricket Club were dismissed for zero against Christ Church University.

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Devine’s streak of 50-plus scores in T20 internationals:

1. 72 against India at Hamilton on 10 Feb 2019
2. 54 not out against South Africa at Mount Maunganui on 2 Feb 2020
3. 61 against South Africa at Hamiliton on 6 Feb 2020
4. 77 against South Africa at Wellington on 9 Feb 2020
5. 105 against South Africa at Wellington on 10 Feb 2020
6. 75 not out against Sri Lanka at Perth on 22 Feb 2020

Devine’s record of scoring six consecutive fifties thus started and ended against India. In the World Cup group game between the two sides last month, Devine was caught by Radha Yadav off the bowling of Poonam Yadav while her score was 14. India went on to win the match and Devine’s run too ended at six. That’s however, still two better than anyone else in T20 internationals, both men and women.

Mithali Raj’s for-match streak of 50-plus scores in T20 internationals:

1. 62 against Sri Lanka at Bangkok on 1 Dec 2016
2. 73 not out against Pakistan at Bangkok on 4 Dec 2016
3. 54 not out against South Africa at Ptchefstroom on 13 Feb 2018
4. 76 not out against South Africa at East London on 16 Feb 2018

Brendon McCullum’s four-match streak of 50-plus scores in T20 internationals:

1. 59 against West Indies at Hamilton on 28 Dec 2008
2. 61 against Australia at Sydney on 15 Feb 2009
3. 56 not out against India at Christchurch on 25 Feb 2009
4. 69 not out against India at Wellington on 27 Feb 2009

Chris Gayle’s four-match streak of 50-plus scores in T20 internationals:

1. 85 not out against New Zealand at Lauderhill on 30 June 2012
2. 53 against New Zealand at Lauderhill on 1 July 2012
3. 54 against Australia at Colombo on 22 Sep 2012
4. 58 against England at Pallekele on 27 Sep 2012

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On February 9, 2020, on day three of the first Test between Pakistan and Bangladesh at Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Naseem Shah took a hat-trick, dismissing Najmul Hossain Shanto, Taijul Islam and Mahmudullah off three consecutive balls.

In the process, Naseem became the youngest player ever to take a Test hat-trick.

When a 19-years-old Alok Kapali became the youngest player to take a Test hat-trick in August 2003, Naseem Shah was a six-month old baby. Kapali, the first Bangladesh player to take a Test hat-trick, achieved the feat against Pakistan at Peshawar, Pakistan, Bangladesh, though, lost that match.

Najmul Hossain Shanto was the first of Naseem’s three wickets in the hat-trick. The ball came back in a long way to hit the left-hander on his pads, but the umpire didn’t budge. Pakistan captain Azhar Ali consulted his bowler signaling for a review. It came in Pakistan’s favour as the ball hit leg stump and Shanto was out.

With few overs remaining in day three of the Test match, Bangladesh sent in Taijul Islam as a night-watchman the ploy, however, didn’t work as Taijul too was lbw, off his very first ball. The ball once again angled in from wide of the crease and hit the left-hander low on his pads. The umpire Nigel Llong had no hesitation in giving this one out.

Taijul Islam had come in to protect Mahmudullah, but his dismissal off the first ball meant Mahmudullah had to come in as the no 6 batsman. The right-hander couldn’t hold back and went for a drive, but the ball moved away just a bit: There was a thick edge, and Haris Sohail did the rest, taking a fine catch at first slip.

Pakistan won the match by an innings and 44 runs. The 16-year-old Naseem Shah, who had one wicket in the first innings and four in the second, was declared player of the match.

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Ukrainian pole vaulter Sergey Bubka dominated the scene for 10 years from 1984-1994. He broke the world record in men’s pole vault 35 times during his career, which included 17 times outdoors and 18 times in indoor competitions. He finished with a best of 6.14 m at outdoor competitions in July 1994 and had a best mark of 6.15 m indoors, set in 1993.

Twenty one years after Bubka set his mark for the indoor world record, Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie broke the mark at the same meet in the same arena. Lavillenie, who had won gold at the 2012 London Olympics, set the mark of 6.16 m at Donestsk, Ukraine on February 15, 2014.

Bubka was at the scene when Lavillenie performed his feat, making it even more special. As indoor and outdoor marks are not seen differently based on a ruling in 2000, Lavillenie’s mark became the official world record.

Armand Duplantis, who goes by his nickname Mondo, was born in the U.S., but represents Sweden in comptetitions. Coached by his father Greg, who was a pole vaulter, and mother Helena, a former heptathlete and volleyball player, he won the silver medal at the 2019 World Championships. On February 8, 2020, during a meet at Torun, Poland, Duplantis broke Lavillenie’s world record with a jump of 6.17 m.

In the very next week, on February 15, 2020, Duplantis added another cm to his world record. The 20-year-old jumped 6.18 m at Glasgow, Scotland.

A week later, at the “All Star Perche” competition in Clermont, France, Duplantis got to pick the brains of Lavillenie. Even though he won the competition, he could not raise the world record further, as he failed at his attempts at 6.19 m.

Duplantis’ marks of 6.17 m and 6.18 m are pending official ratification.

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Rafael Nadal was the first tennis player to win eight Grand Slam titles at the same tournament. He did it way back in 2013 and his in fact added a ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth title at the same tournament since then. No prizes for guessing where the King of Clay has achieved this feat. He has, no doubt, won these at the French Open. In fact, since 2005, he has won the tournament on 12 of the 15 occasions. Nadal has won 19 Grand Slam singles titles so far. Apart from his 12 French Open wins, he has won the Australian Open once, Wimbledon twice and the US Open four times.

Roger Federer became the second person to win eight or more titles at the same Grand Slam tournament. He did this at Wimbledon, winning the title in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 and 2017. As you can see, he had to wait for five years to get his eighth. With 20 Grand Slam titles to his name, Federer has also won six Australian Open titles, one French Open title and five US Open titles to go along with his eight titles in the grass courts of Wimbledon.

Novak Djokovic became the latest entrant to the list of people who have won eight or more titles at the same Grand Slam event. He added his 2020 Australian Open victory to titles won at the year’s opening Grand Slam in 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2019. Almost half of his 17 Grand Slam singles titles won so far has thus come here. The remaining includes one French Open title, five Wimbledon titles and three US Open titles.

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In the fifth and final T20I between New Zealand and India that was played at Mount Maunganui, New Zealand on February 2, 2020, India won by 7 runs to complete a 5-0 series sweep.

The match saw Jasprit Bumrah bowl a wicket maiden, thereby becoming the bowler with the most number of maiden overs in T20 internationals history. The match also witnessed Shivam Dube concedes 34 runs in a single over, the second-most ever in T20I history.

Bowling the second over of the New Zealand innings, Jasprit Bumrah started off with a wicket maiden.

His first two balls to Martin Guptill were dot balls and Guptill was out LBW off the third ball. Tim Seifert, who came in as the one-down batsman, didn’t score a run off the remaining three deliveries in the over.

It was Bumrah’s seventh, maiden over in 50 T20 internationals, helping him break gis tie with Sri Lanka’s Nuwan Kulasekara, who has six maidens.

Bumrah gave away just 12 runs in his four overs in the match, picking up three wickets. He was declared as the player of the match for his efforts.

While Shivam Dube now has the ignominy of having conceded the second-most number of runs in a single over in T20Is, it is an Indian who hit a bowler for the maximum number of runs as well. The credit goes to Yuvraj Singh, who hit Stuart Broad for six sixes off a single over, for a total of 36! Yuvraj’s feat is even more special because he did it in a T20 World Cup game between India and England played at Durban in 2007.

Coming in to bowl the 10th over of the New Zealand innings, Shivam Dube was torn apart as the Kiwi batsmen scored four sixes and two fours in the over. A no ball in the fifth delivery of the over meant that Dube had to bowl an extra ball, rounding out a rather expensive over.

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Dinesh Karthik, Wasim Jaffer, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar were India’s top four when they achieved this rare feat for the first time. Karthik scored his first Test century and finished with 129, Jaffer retired ill at 138, captain Dravid scored 129 as well and Tendulkar was unbeaten on 122.

After a combination of rain and wet grounds had forced the first Test between India and Bangladesh in the two-match series in 2007 to a draw, these hundreds put India on their way to victory in the match and the series.

After declaring their innings at 610 for three, India bundled out Bangladesh for 118 and 253 in their two innings to win the match by an innings and 239 runs.

Pakistan’s feat is unique due to the fact that this is the first time the top four batsmen of a side have scored centuries in the second innings of the same match.

The two-Test series between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in December 2019 marked the return of Test cricket to Pakistan for the first time since 2009. Like in the Bangladesh-India series of 2007, the first Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka too ended in a draw owing to rains and wet conditions. Pakistan won the second Test and the series on the back of centuries from their top four in the second innings.

After bundling out Pakistan for 191, Sri Lanka took an 80-run first innings lead with a score of 271. But Pakistan’s top four ensured that they scored 555 for three declared in the second innings, paving the way for their 263-run victory as the Lankans were bowled out for 212.

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On December 18, 2019, in the second of three ODIs between India and West Indies that was played at Viskhapatnam, India dominated proceedings to win the game by 107 runs.

Kuldeep Yadav’s hat-trick and Rohit Sharma’s 159 were some of the highlights of the match, which saw a number of records take place.

Skippers Virat Kohli and Kieron Pollard got themselves an unwanted record. Kohli was out for a duck off his first ball, caught by Roston Chase off the bowling of Pollard. Pollard too went for a first-ball duck, caught by Rishabh Pant off the bowling of Mohammad Shami. This is the first time ever in ODI cricket when both captains have been dismissed for a golden duck (first-ball zero) in the same match.

In the 33rd over of West Indies’ innings, Kuldeep Yadav took a hat-trick, his second ODIs.

After having opener Shai Hope caught by Virat Kohli for 78 in the fourth ball of the over, he then had Jason Holder stumped off the next ball. He completed his hat-trick by dismissing Alzarri Joseph off the last ball of the over, caught by Kedar Jadhav. Kuldeep became the first Indian to take two ODI hat-tricks and in fact the first Indian to take multiple hat-tricks in international matches. He is the sixth player to have multiple ODI hat-tricks.

While Lasith Malinga has there, Wasim Akram, Saqlain Mushtaq, Chaminda Vaas and Trent Boult have two as well.

Rohit Sharma has made the highest individual score for India in ODIs in each of the last seven calendar years.

Rohit’s 159 was his seventh ODI hundred in 2019. Only four players have ever scored seven or more hundreds in the same calendar year. While Sachin Tendulkar heads the list with nine centuries in 1998, Sourav Ganguly (2000) and David Warner (2016) have also notched up seven centuries in a year.

Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant were part of the most productive over ever in India’s ODI history as they plundered 31 runs in the 47th over the innings, bowled by Roston Chase.

Iyer did the bulk of the damage as he hit 28 runs, while Pant scored a single. There were extras too in the over, to add insult to injury.

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Chess got itself an element of youth and cool in the last decade, as Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen became a grandmaster at the age of 13. In 2010, at the age of 19, he became the youngest person to be ranked number one in the FIDE world rankings. Carlsen was also the youngest to have an Elo rating of over 2,800 and holds the record for achieving the highest ever rating in history – 2,882 in 2014.

By then, Carlsen had already become the World Chess Champion, having defeated India’s Viswanathan Anand in the 2013 World Chess Championship at Chennai. He defended his title, again against Anand, in 2014 and also added the 2014 World Rapid Championship and World Blitz Championship, becoming the first to hold all three titles at the same time.

Since then, Carlsen has defended his classical world title in 2016 (against Sergy Karjakin) and 2018 (Fabiano Caruana) and has also repeated his 2014 feat of holding all three chess titles simultaneously by winning the Rapid and Blitz titles in 2019 again.

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Saurabh Chaudhary, Manu Bhaker, Jitu Rai and Apurvi Chandela are some of the name of shooters who have led India to prominence in the last decade. The youngsters have joined with the senior pros to produce consistent results across tournaments. After winning two medals in shooting at the 2012 London Olympics and having come empty handed from Rio in 2016, the current crop of shooters offer us hope ahead of Tokyo 2020.

In terms of hockey, both the men’s and women’s teams are now ranked inside the top 10, but there hasn’t been a lot to boast through the decade. The Indian’s women’s team have managed to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the first time they have managed the feat after 36 years!

There were ups and down for kabaddi in the last 10 years. The birth of the Pro Kabaddi League in 2014 brought with it unprecedented viewership to the game, as it became a staple of the Indian TV viewers. The game’s growing popularity also meant that other countries picked up the sport well, as was evident in the 2018 Asian Games. Iran defeated India in the semi-final and went on to win the title, ending seven-time Asian Games champions India’s stranglehold of the event.

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It isn’t often that India has had a gymnast of repute to boast about. That changed in the last decade with Dipa Karmakar making her mark.

Karmakar rose to prominence when she won bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, becoming the first Indian female gymnast to do so in the history of the games.

She also became India’s first female gymnast to participate at the Olympics when she did so at Rio 2016. She finished a commendable fourth in the Women’s Vault Gymnastics event at Rio. Karmakar is one among five women who have successfully landed the Produnova, considered one of the most difficult vaults in women’s artistic gymnastics.

Speaking of women gymnasts, American Simone Biles went where no one else has as she took her tally to 25 World medals, including 19 World gold medals, at the 2019 World Championships. She won four gold medals and a bronze at Rio 2016 as well and would be eager to add to her tally at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

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For a country of over a billion, getting on the medals tally at the Olympics has been a constant dream every four years.

While there was some success in that regard in the two Olympics that were held on the last decade, there is still a long way to go.

India’s contingent had 83 members for the 2012 London Olympics, the most for India at the games. That number was bettered for the 2016 Rio Olympics, when India’s contingent was 118-members strong.

We had six medals – two silvers and four bronze – to show for our efforts in 2012 and two medals – one silver and one bronze – in 2016. While Vijay Kumar (shooting) and Sushil Kumar (wrestling) won silver medals in 2012, Saina Nehwal (badminton), Mary Kom (boxing), Gagan Narang (shooting) and Yogeshwar Dutt (wrestling) won bronze medals. PV Sindhu’s silver in badminton and Sakshi Malik’s bronze in wrestling completed our haul in 2016.

Having won a bronze in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Sushil Kumar became India’s first multiple individual Olympics medalist when he won his silver in 2012.

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Eliud Kipchoge is a long-distance runner from Kenya. In the first decade of this century, he used to compete in the 5000 m event. He had decent success in it, winning bronze at 2004 Athens Olympics, silver in 2008 Beijing Olympics, apart from his gold and silver at the 2003 and 2007 World Championships.

In 2012, he switched to road running and took to the marathons. Since then, he has won 12 of the 13 marathons that he has competed in, coming second to Kenya’s Wilson Kipsang when he set the world record at the 2013 Berlin marathon.

Kipchoge won the 2016 Rio Olympics gold in the marathon and made the world record his own when he won the 2018 Berlin marathon in a time of 2 hours, 1 minute and 39 seconds.

He has also been involved in experimental runs over marathon distances without standard competition rules. While he clocked 2:00:25 at Monza in 2017 during one such attempt, he broke the mythical two-hour barrier in 2019, when he ran the distance in 1:59:40 at Vienna.

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It isn’t often that we are graced with an athlete like Usain Bolt. One of the greatest sprinters of all time, Bolt was the poster boy of athletics until his retirement in 2017. A showman and an endearing hero, the void left by his departure from the sport is difficult to fill.

Even though his world records in both the 100 m and 200 m sprints came in 2009, Bolt still had plenty to offer in the previous decade as well. He added the 100m, 200 m and 4×100 m gold medals from the 2012 London Olympics and 2016 Rio Olympics to the 100 m and 200 m golds he won at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He is therefore the only sprinter to have won the Olympics 100 m and 200 m titles at three Olympics, and it isn’t going to be an easy feat to replicate.

Apart from the Olympics, Bolt also dominated the scene at the World Championships that are held every two years, winning a record 11 gold medals, including eight in the last decade.

He chose the 2017 World Championships at London as his final event, but alas, it didn’t turn out to be a fairytale ending. He had to be content with a bronze in his last individual 100 m race. He opted out of the 200 m event and pulled up with a hamstring injury while running the anchor leg for Jamaica in the 4×100 m relay final, bringing the curtains down on a glorious career.

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Even though the previous decade wasn’t as good as the one before it for Mary Kom, she was still able to earn a lot of plaudits for women’s boxing in India. Mary was crowned World Amateur Boxing Championship in her weight category on four occasions in the first decade of this century – in 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2008. She added two more World Championships gold medals in the last decade, the first in 2010 and the most recent at New Delhi in 2018. In the process, she became the only woman to be crowned champion for a record six times.

Women’s boxing was included for the first time in Olympics in 2012 and Mary ensured she competed in London. She ended up with a bronze medal, losing out to eventual gold medalist Nicola Adams in the semi-final.

India’s only other boxer who has won a medal at the Olympics, Vijender Singh (won bronze in the 2008 Beijing Games) turned professional in 2015. He’s got an unbeaten 12-0 record with eight knockouts so far and it would be interesting to see how his career pans out.

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Winning a medal for the country at the Olympics is the covered prize many sportsmen dream of. Doing it once is great. Doing it again is even better. Doing it again and again over four different Olympics is almost unthinkable.

American Michael Phelps did the unthinkable by collecting medal after medal over four Olympics – 2004 Athens, 2008 Beijing, 2012 London and 2016 Rio. He finished with 28 medals in his Olympics swimming career – 23 gold, three silver and two bronze. That is more than what most countries have won through their Olympics history!

While the bulk of his victories did come in the first two editions that he participated in, he did win nine gold medals and three silver medals in the last decade. Considered by many as the greatest swimmer of all time, Phelps retired – for a second time – in 2016.

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If the men’s game has been dominated by the Big Three, Serena Williams has for decades now been the flag bearer for women’s single tennis. She’s 38-years-old and a mother now, but that hasn’t stopped her from winning titles.

Having won her first singles Grand Slam title at the 1999 US Open, she won her most recent major at the 2017 Australian Open, while she was pregnant! If you combine singles, doubles and mixed doubles Grand Slam titles that she has won, then her current tally is 39.

Twenty three of these are singles titles, as she continues her pursuit of Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 Grand Slams.

When she won the Wimbledon title in 2015, she held all four majors at the same time for the second time in her career, becoming only the third player – after Rod Laver and Steffi Graf – to achieve the feat.

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If you have to name one team that truly owned the NBA in the last decade, then the question can be answered without any hesitation. For the Golden State Warriors truly had a golden era, dominating the sport and notching up titles.

They have reached the NBA Finals in each of the last five years, winning the title in 2015, 2017 and 2018. Along the way, they notched up the best regular season in NBA history, most wins (regular and postseason combined) in a season and the best postseason run as well.

Four of the five NBA Finals that Warriors competed in the last decade was against the Cleveland Cavaliers. In fact, the two franchises faced off in the final for four consecutive years a record in the NBA.

While Warriors hold the upper hand with respect to the results, having won three of those four finals, the Cavaliers too had something to cheer. The manner in which they won the 2016 title made it all the more remarkable. After trailing 3-1 in the seven-match NBA Finals series, the Cavs won the last three in a row, lifting the title in the process. It capped a remarkable comeback as the Cavaliers became the first team in NBA history to win the NBA Finals after trailing 3-1 after four games.

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For some time now in men’s tennis, there has been speculation about when the next generation of players will usurp the current crop. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic – referred to as the Big Three – ensured that it didn’t happen last decade as they won 33 of the 40 Grand Slam events that took place.

Federer took his majors tally to 20 by the end of the last decade, the most by any man in singles history. At 38, he is certainly not getting any younger, but continues to be at the top of the game.

Nadal, who is second in the all-time list of singles Grand Slam titles for men with 19, is not called the King of Clay without reason. Twelve of his 19 majors have come in the French Open, including eight in the last decade. Apart from 2015 and 2016, Nadal has won the French Open every year in last 10 years.

Djokovic has 16 Grand Slam singles title in his kitty. With a record seven Australian Open titles, including six in the previous decade, Djokovic became only the third man – and the first since Rod Laver in 1969 – to hold all four majors at the same time, when he won the French Open for the first time in 2016. Djokovic is also the only male player to have won all nine Masters 1000 tournaments – a feat he achieved in 2018.

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The decade was marked by some good news for India on the badminton court. While the men had middling and intermittent success, the women have been consistent in their excellence.

Saina Nehwal was India’s poster girl at the start of the decade and she won herself and the country a bronze at the 2012 London Olympics. She also became the first Indian female – and only the second after Prakash Padukone – to hold the world number one ranking, when she achieved the feat in 2015. Silver and bronze medals at the 2015 and 2017 World Championship have further swelled her reputation and she still remains a force to reckon.

PV Sindhu, however, has become the top female badminton player in the country by the end of the decade. Apart from her unforgettable silver from the 2016 Rio Olympics, Sindhu also became only the second woman to claim five or more World Championship medal. Following bronze medals in 2013 and 2014, silver medals in 2017 and 2018, she finally won gold at the 2019 event in Basel, becoming the first Indian World Championship winner.

Among the men, Kidambi Srikanth became only the fourth player to win four Super Series titles on a year in 2017. He also briefly held the world number one ranking in 2018.

B Sai Praneeth, meanwhile, did himself proud with a bronze at the 2019 World Championships.

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In 2010, Spanish racer Marc Marquez won the 125cc World Championship. In 2012, he captured the Moto2 World Championship. Participating in the premier MotoGP class for the first time in 2013, he won the title in his debut season itself! With that, Marquez became one of four riders to have won world championship titles in three different categories.

Racing for Honda’s factory team since his MotoGP debut, Marquez has moved from strength to strength through the decade. He won the MotoGP title in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 as well, losing out only in 2015, when Jorge Lorenze won the title.

At the age of 26, Marquez is already a six-time world champion, the youngest to win the title (when he won in 2013) and holds the record for most points and podiums ever for a rider in a single season (420 points and 18 podium finishes from 19 races in 2019).

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The decade started with a FIFA World Cup in 2010. Spain’s winning streak post Euro 2008 continued and they went on to win their first ever World Cup in 2010. Their dominance continued for a few more years as they defended their Euro title in 2012.

Spain, however, were knocked out of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil in the group stages itself. Germany became the first European nation to win a World Cup in South American soil and they did it in style. Their 7-1 victory over hosts Brazil and 1-0 extra-time win over another South American powerhouse Argentina in the final gave them the title for a fourth time.

However, Germany was knocked out in the group stages in the 2018 World Cup IN Russia. France, who had entered the tournament as one of the favourites, went on to win the title, defeating a determined Croatia side 4-2 in the final.

The previous decade also witnessed unprecedented growth in the women’s game. While U.S. finished runners up to Japan in the 2011 World Cup, they won back to back titles in 2015 and 2019. All this when more people than ever before were thronging the stadiums to support their stars.

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Juventus have an ongoing winning streak of eight in a row in the Italian Series A. Bayern Munich has won the German Bundesliga on eight out of 10 occasions in last decade, including an active streak of seven in a row. Barcelona has been dominant in the La Liga (despite the presence of Real Madrid and the growth of Atletico Madrid), winning the title seven times in the last decade. Paris Saint Germain, meanwhile, has won the French Ligue 1 six times in the last 10 completed seasons.

However, the big five European leagues were not predominantly one-horse races. The English Premier League witnessed a grand fairytale that saw rank outsiders Leicester City being crowned champions of the 2015-16 season. Add to it Sergio Aguero’s stoppage-time goal that completed a remarkable comeback win on the final day of the 2012-13 season and gave Manchester City the title. It was one of the most dramatic season finishes ever, and Premier League has surely seen good competition through the decade.

India, meanwhile, saw the birth of another premier football league in the country along with I-League. The Indian Super League’s first season took place in 2014 with eight teams and the tournament has grown to include 10 teams in its current season. The ISL has also been successful in bringing a large amount of people to the stadiums.

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Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have arguably been the best footballers of their generation. The Ballon d’Or, which is awarded to the best male football player each year, has more or less been shared by the two over the last ten years. With Messi winning it on five occasions and Ronaldo four times, Luka Modric, in 2018, is the only other player to win it in the previous decade.

With 522 goals for Barcelona and 23 trophies – including seven La Liga titles and two Champions League titles – over the last decade, Messi has certainly had the better club record. Ronaldo is not far off though, with 478 club goals and 17 club trophies in the last 10 years, which includes four Champions League titles, two La Liga titles and a Serie A title.

When it comes to Internationals, however, Ronaldo has been ahead. He’s scored 77 international goals for Portugal in the last 10 years as opposed to Messi’s 57 for Argentina. And while Messi has slipped at the final hurdle with Argentina in a number of international tournaments, Ronaldo’s Portugal won the Euro 2016 and the UEFA Nations League in 2019.

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For a few hours on November 14 and November 15 in 2013, the crowed at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai were up on their feet throughout and chanting a single world: “Sachin, Sachin!”. As Sachin Tendulkar batted for India for one last time, those who had gathered to celebrate the occasion went berserk. India won the Test match against West Indies by an innings and 126 runs, but all that people remember are Tendulkar’s 74 in his final innings and his retirement speech on November 16.

Having started his international career on November 15, 1989, Tendulkar played cricket at the highest level for 24 years. In a career that spanned decades, Tendulkar was often at the pinnacle of his sport and considered one of the greatest batsmen to have ever graced the game.

With 15,921 Test runs and 18,426 runs in ODIs to go with his 100 international hundreds, Tendulkar holds innumerable records, some of them seemingly insurmountable. An era in cricket, and Indian cricket in particular, came to an end with Tendulkar’s retirement, but those he passed the baton onto have been carrying the burden admirably.

While Mahendra Singh Dhoni took the mantle initially – as a batsman, captain and the crowd’s hero – Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma too dominated as batsmen as the years went on. We have often had a batting department to boast about while our bowling fails us, but that has changed in the last few years. With a dream pace attack led by Jasprit Bumrah and skilled spinners in every format, India are now as good in their bowling, as they are in batting as well.

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One of the most iconic moments of the last decade in cricket would definitely be Mahendra Singh Dhoni hitting a six to win the 2011 ODI Cricket World Cup and them twirling his bat in style. India emerged champions of the format for the first time since 1983 and it was only the second time, after Sri Lanka in 1996, that a host country won the event.

The significance of home advantage changed completely after that. For after India’s success, the next two World Cups in 2015 and 2019 were also won by host nations.

The 2015 World Cup final was in fact played by the two host nations, Australia and New Zealand, and was won by Australia, which hosted the final.

The 2019 World Cup was won by England, even though no team lost in the final. With both England and New Zealand tied after the scheduled 50 overs and the Super Over, the hosts were declared winners owing to a queer boundary countback rule.

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Briton Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton won his first F1 world championship title in 2008, when he was with McLaren. He moved to Mercedes in 2013 and there has been no turning back since then. He is now a six-time world champion, having won the title in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019, losing to team-mate Nico Rosberg by just five points in 2016.

By the end of the decade, Hamilton notched up the most career points, the most pole positions (88) and most points in a single season (413 in 2019). He is now second behind Michael Schumacher in the all-time list of world championship victories, 91 race victories and 155 podium finishes are surely within his grasp.

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With the first men’s T20 international being played only in 2005 and the first World Cup in the format being held in 2007, the last decade was the first full 10 years in which the format has existed.

While international T20s are plugged into almost every series and World Cups are a huge draw, the format has been especially popular in league forms, with a number of tournaments now being held around the world.

Indian Premier League (IPL), the first edition of which was held in 2008, continues to be the most popular involved and the entertainment value it provides.

The IPL has had its share of laws, what with match fixing and the ensuing ban of two franchises for two years. Despite the negatives, the IPL continues to be hugely popular with the masses, and continues to grab a lot of eyeballs.

In terms of results, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings have proved to be most successful, winning four and three titles respectively so far.

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Dick Fosbury was a teenager who liked to high jump. In those days jumpers just ran up to the bar and jumped clearing their legs, their body and then their head. This was known as the scissors technique.

Sixteen-year-old Fosbury was frustrated with the traditional technique. He thought he could lower the resistance of gravity by jumping backwards and he developed a technique to do so.

Almost at once his records improved. Earlier he could clear only 1.65 m, now he could clear 1.78 m.

In 1964 he passed the 2 m mark. He represented the USA in the 1964 Olympics in Mexico. There he was, an unknown athlete competing against world class jumpers, all of whom used the scissors style. One by one, they were left behind, as Fosbury cleared 2.24 m to take the gold with a new Olympic record.

Nobody had heard of Dick Fosbury before the Olympics but by the end of the Games his name was on everyone’s lips. Fosbury’s coach warned that imitators could end up with broken necks. However all the world’s leading high jumpers abandoned their old techniques and started using the ‘Fosbury Flop’. Four years later at the 1972 Munich Olympics nobody using the traditional technique had qualified. By 1976 nobody remembered the traditional technique. Everyone was using the ‘Fosbury Flop’.

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Michael Phelps (born June 30, 1985) is an American retired competitive swimmer and the most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time, with a total of 28 medals. Phelps is the long course world record holder in the men’s 100 meter butterfly, 200 meter butterfly, and 400 meter individual medley as well as the former long course world record holder in the 200 meter freestyle and 200 meter individual medley. He has won 82 medals in major international long course competitions, of which 65 were gold, 14 silver, and 3 bronze, spanning the Olympics, the World Championships, and the Pan Pacific Championships. After the 2008 Summer Olympics, Phelps started the Michael Phelps Foundation, which focuses on growing the sport of swimming and promoting healthier lifestyles. Phelps retired following the 2012 Olympics, but he made a comeback in April 2014. At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, his fifth Olympics, he was selected by his team to be the flag bearer of the United States at the 2016 Summer Olympics Parade of Nations. He announced his second retirement on August 12, 2016, having won more medals than 161 countries. He is often considered the greatest swimmer of all time.

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Raymond “Ray” Clarence Ewry (October 14, 1873 – September 29, 1937) was an American track and field athlete who won eight gold medals at the Olympic Games and two gold medals at the Intercalated Games (1906 in Athens). This puts him among the most successful Olympians of all time.

Ewry was born in Lafayette, Indiana, and contracted polio as a young boy. In his childhood, he used a wheelchair, and it was feared that he might become paralyzed for life.

However, Ewry did his own exercises and overcame his illness. Ewry attended Purdue University in 1890–1897, where he captained the track and field team, played American football, and became a member of Sigma Nu Fraternity. After receiving a graduate degree in mechanical engineering at Purdue, he moved to New York. There he worked as hydraulics engineer and became a member of the New York Athletic Club. He specialized in now defunct events, the standing jumps: the standing high jump, the standing long jump and the standing triple jump. These events are identical to their modern, normal versions but are contested without a run-up.

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               The flag used at the Olympic Games has a white background with five interlaced circles representing the five inhabited continents: Africa, America, Asia, Australasia and Europe. Each symbol has a different colour: red, yellow, green, black and blue. But the colours are merely decorative and in no way represent particular continents.

Dhyan Chand is most prominent hockey player that India has ever produced. He was called the Hockey Wizard. Whenever he entered the field he always stole the limelight. His game had an electric swiftness in it. Seeing his swift moves and the constant movement of the ball with his stick, the Germans even once suspected that Dhyan Chand’s hockey stick had some magnet in it. The stick was broken and nothing of that sort was found in it. He resumed the play with another stick and went on scoring goals, one after another.

Dhyan Chand was born on 29th August 1905 at Allahabad. He pursued his studies there in a higher secondary school. To support his family, Dhyan Chand joined the Brahmin Regiment of the Indian army as a sepoy. Nobody knows when he developed a liking for hockey. But somehow he was so much infatuated with the game that he started devoting his entire spare time to it. There were no official facilities for training the hockey players during those days. Dhyan Chand had to learn it all on his own.

Dhyan Chand, a player of the Infantry Regiment, was included as a member in the Indian team that visited New Zealand in 1926. India earned the first gold medal in hockey in the Olympic Games played at Amsterdam (Holland) in 1928. Dhyan Chand was a member of this winning team. When the final match was about to be played between India and Holland on 26th May, Dhyan Chand was running very high fever. But as a valiant soldier, he did not shirk his duty. He entered the field like a lion and helped India to register a 3-0 victory by personally scoring two magnificent goals.

In the Olympic hockey in 1932, India earned the gold medal after playing only two matches. In one of these matches India defeated America by 24 goals to 1 which is still an Olympic record. Dhyan Chand alone scored 8 of the 24 goals. In 1935, India played 48 matches against Australia and New Zealand. In these matches Dhyan Chand alone contributed 200 goals out of a total of 584 scored by India. When told of this feat, the great cricket player Donald Bradman remarked: “It appears that the Indian hockey players score goals like cricket runs”.

India once again won the gold medal in the 1936 Olympic hockey and out of the total of 38 goals scored by India, 11 goals were scored by Dhyan Chand alone.

In recognition, the then British government of India promoted him from the rank of a sepoy to that of a naik. When the German dictator Hitler heard of this, he shook hands with Dhyan Chand and told him, “Had you been a resident of my country, I would have made you a Colonel”.

In 1947, when India won freedom, Dhyan Chand was promoted as a Major and was awarded the coveted ‘Padma Bhushan’ in recognition of his services to hockey. On 3 December 1979 this great player of hockey breathed his last.

               As you know, Olympic Games are played after every four years and almost all the countries of the world participate in them. The history of Olympic Games is very old. Although much information about them is not available, it is certain that the first Olympics were played in the year 776 B.C. at a place named Olympia in south-east Greece from where they take their name. The first Olympic Games were played for five days and were witnessed by many people of Greece.

             In the beginning, only the Greek players took part in these games. At that time, these games were treated as a religious festival. They were played as a mark of honour for Zeus, the chief god of the Greeks. Every player would worship at the temple of Zeus before taking part in the competition. The winner of game used to be given a branch of an olive tree which was planted in the courtyard of the temple. During those days, women did not participate in the games. So much so that they could not even see the games as spectators.

             The Olympic Games continued for almost 1100 years, but in the year 393 A.D. King Theodosius of Rome, put a ban on the Olympic Games after capturing Greece. This ban continued for 1465 years. After this, in 1859, Japas of Greece organized four Olympic Games in the years 1859, 1870, 1875 and 1989. But after his death, these games were again interrupted.

             A French teacher named Baron Pierre de Coubertin started the old Olympic Games once again in 1896. These games were played in Athens, the capital of Greece. 311 players hailing from 13 countries took part in them, 230 of them were from Greece alone.

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