Category: Sports

Rajasthan Royals leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal on April 2 became the first-ever Indian bowler to take 300 wickets in T20 cricket.

The star spinner made the record during Rajasthan Royals’ opening match of the 2023 Indian Premier League against the Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. He registered figures of 4-0-17-4 against SRH and took his tally of wickets in T20 cricket to 303. Chahal dismissed SRH batter Harry Brook to reach the feat. Of his 300 wickets, 91 have come in international cricket. Ravichandran Ashwin, with 288 wickets, is the second-highest wicket-taker among Indians in T20 cricket.

Rajasthan Royals overcame Sunrisers Hyderabad to win the IPL match. Leading his team towards victory, he took four important wickets of Mayank Agarwal, Harry Brook, Adil Rashid, and skipper Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Chahal is India’s leading wicket-taker in T20Is.

The 32-year-old bowler played his 265th match in the shortest format on Sunday and now has 303 wickets to his name after knocking off Brook on the last ball of the 7th over of the SRH innings.

The Indian bowlers with most wickets in T20 cricket as on Sunday were Yuzvendra Chahal (303), Ravichandran Ashwin (287), Piyush Chawla (276), Amit Mishra (272), and Jasprit Bumrah (256).

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the Australian Grand Prix on April 2 after two late red flags and many crashes threw the race into chaos. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton came in second, followed by Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.

Double defending champion Verstappen was leading Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton with a few laps left when Haas driver Kevin Magnussen crashed into a wall, leaving debris on the track and stopping the race. The cars returned to the grid with fresh tyres for a two-lap sprint, but in a frenzied restart, Williams driver Logan Sargeant drove into the back of AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries to knock both of them into gravel at turn one. Alpine drivers Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon then crashed into each other to leave a trail of debris on the track and trigger another red flag, the third and last of the race.

It was then decided the race would finish with one lap behind a safety car in the order of the previous start without the cars that had crashed out. This allowed Verstappen to claim his second win of the season ahead of Hamilton with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso third in a race. Eight of the 20 participating cars failed to finish.

Red Bull now has won all three Grands Prix in the new season, a record for the team, resuming its dominance after their runaway success in 2022.

South Africa now holds the world records for highest successful run chases in both one-day international and T20 international cricket. The country accomplished the 259-run target against West Indies on March 26 in Centurion to record the highest-ever successful T20I run chase. The team had recorded the highest-ever successful run chase in ODI cricket on March 12, 2006, when they chased down a 435-run target against Australia.

After yielding 258 with the ball, South Africa delivered a stirring run chase, led by a maiden T20I ton from Quinton de Kock. Scoring 102 in the first six overs, the highest score by any team in the Powerplay in T20Is, de Kock and Reeza Hendricks began South Africa’s innings in style. The opening stand of 152 came off just 10.5 overs as South Africa suddenly turned into favourites to win the game.

Earlier, West Indies, powered by a record 39-ball ton from Johnson Charles, had made their highest score in T20Is.

The previous record for the highest successful run chase in T20Is was held by Bulgaria against Serbia in 2022, when the former chased down 243 in 19.4 overs.

Indian boxers Nikhat Zareen, Lovlina Borgohain, Nitu Ghanghas and Saweety Boora won gold medals at the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi on March 25-26.

Nikhat beat Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi Tam in the final of the 48-50kg light flyweight category, 5-0. Lovlina, meanwhile, beat Australia’s Caitlin Anne Parker.

With the victory, Lovlina took home her first-ever Worlds gold medal. In 2018 and 2019, the 25-year-old had bagged bronze medals in the welterweight category. With the latest win, Nikhat became only the second Indian after legendary MC Mary Kom to win multiple gold medals at the Women’s World Boxing Championships.

Nitu Ghanghas was crowned world champion as she beat Mongolia’s Lutsaikhan Altantsetseg in the final of the 45-48kg minimum weight category. Saweety Boora also became a world champion after she beat Wang Lina of China in the 75-81 kg light heavyweight category. That was India’s first ever gold in the Worlds in the light heavyweight category.

Hosts India matched their best-ever performance in terms of gold medals, though the country did not win any silver or bronze this time. The country had won four gold medals in the 2006 edition at home which was also its best-ever performance with a haul of eight medals, including a silver medal.

The prize money for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup will increase by 300% to $150 million, informed FIFA President Gianni Infantino at the 73rd FIFA Congress in Kigali, Rwanda on March 16.

While the Women’s World Cup prize money is now three times the 2019 figure and 10 times more than in 2015, it is still considerably lower than the $440 million total prize money of the FIFA Men’s World Cup in Qatar last year.

Infantino made the prize money announcement in his closing remarks at the FIFA Congress, describing it to be a “historic journey for women’s football and for equality” that “will lead us to a path to equal pay.” He said that there will be equal conditions and services for all men and women playing at a World Cup, and would include a dedicated marketing strategy for the women’s game. “Our mission will be able to have equality in payments for (the) 2026 men’s and 2027 women’s World Cups,” he said.

Last year, the United States Women’s National Team earned more money, i.e., $6.5 million, from its male equivalent reaching the knockout stages of Qatar 2022 than it did from winning World Cup tournaments in 2015 and 2019. Under the equal pay agreement forged between the United States Soccer Federation, the United States Women’s National Team Players Association and the United States National Soccer Team Players Association, the men and women’s teams split all World Cup earnings.

Australia and New Zealand will co-host the 2023 Women’s World Cup, from July 20 to August 20.

India has qualified for the final of the World Test Championship (WTC), and will clash with Australia for the biggest global honour in the format. The country’s entry to the final was confirmed after New Zealand beat Sri Lanka in a dramatic win by two wickets in Christchurch. The WTC title contest will take place at The Oval in London from June 7.

The WTC final race had gone into March 13, with the results of both Test matches – in Ahmedabad and in Christchurch – equally relevant. If Sri Lanka had beaten New Zealand, it would have stayed in the race – if India didn’t win in Ahmedabad. However, with Kane Williamson scoring an unbeaten 121 and Daryl Mitchell scoring a quick 86-ball 81, New Zealand pulled off a win. The result put Sri Lanka out of the running for the WTC final.

Australia and India are the only teams that have won at least twice as many Tests as they have lost in the current WTC cycle (in Tests which counted towards the WTC). Australia has been outstanding, with a 11-3 win-loss record so far, with series wins against England, West Indies and South Africa (home), and Pakistan (away). The team also drew in Sri Lanka (1-1), with the only series defeat coming in India (assuming a draw or a defeat in Ahmedabad).

India have a 10-5 record in this cycle, with series wins against New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Australia (assuming they win or draw in Ahmedabad) at home, and Bangladesh away. The country drew 2-2 in England, and lost 2-1 in South Africa.

AC Milan has progressed to the UEFA Champions League quarter finals for the first time since 2011-2012 with a 0-0 draw in the second leg of their round of 16 match against Tottenham Hotspur in London. AC Milan has won the Champions League seven times so far.

In the Champions League, the Italian giants had won the first leg at the San Siro stadium, due an early strike from Brahim Diaz, and both sides were coming off a domestic defeat last week. The two teams strung together a run of plays after kick-off as Junior Messias saw his attempt go wide of the post and Harry Kane’s deflected strike was saved by Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan. Eventually, Tottenham went down in the 77th minute. The game culminated in stoppage time as Kane’s header forced a save out of Maignan, while on the resulting counter, Divock Origi struck the upright.

Tottenham’s season plunged after they were dumped out of the Champions League after its defeat to AC Milan. In a week that saw them knocked out of the FA Cup to Championship side Sheffield United and lose ground in the Premier League top-four race, the team was unable to overturn its first-leg deficit after a limp 0-0 second-leg draw at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. 

India’s 16-year-old golfer Avani Prashanth created history by winning the Queen Sirikit Cup 2023 at the Manila Southwoods Golf and Country Club in the Philippines on February 24.

This is a first for an Indian golfer to win the prestigious regional amateur championship that has been held since 1979. Prashanth’s result also helped the Indian team finish second behind South Korea, in the best-ever showing by Indian female golfers at the competition.

Avani Prashanth is currently ranked 97th in the world amateur golf rankings. She returned a four-day aggregate of 16-under 272 (68-66-70-68), a record-breaking 10 shots ahead of second-placed New Zealander Fiona Xu, who managed a six-under 282. She hit four birdies in the back nine on the fourth day for a strong finish. Filipino Rianne Mikhaela Malixi 283 (68-73-68-74) and Korea’s Hyunjo Yoo 283 (70-71-71-71) were tied third at five-under.

In the team event, Prashanth’s team-mates Vidhatri Urs 297 (74-77-72-74) finished Tied 19th while Nishna Patel 303 (80-78-74-75) ended T30.

The South Korean team of Kim Min-sol, Yoo Hyun-jo and Seo Kyo-rim had a 72-hole team total of 12-under 564 – five strokes clear of India. Japan came third, a further four shots behind.

Saudi Arabia entered a female team for the first time at an International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament. The team made it to the Asia/Oceania pre-qualifying event for the Billie Jean King Cup Juniors in Sri Lanka on February 22.

Saudi Arabia and Brunei made their Billie Jean King Cup Juniors debuts in the tournament, for players 16 years and under, that determined the qualifying teams for the main junior event to be decided later this year.

Areej Farah, captain of the four-player Saudi team, described her team’s entry to the event as an amazing experience that is so empowering. Saudi Arabian player Dania Alzuhair said her team’s appearance is “groundbreaking.” “Saudi Arabia has a goal of expanding the number of women in sports, and being a part of that just makes us feel so lucky,” Alzuhair said.

The year 2023 is when the Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge celebrates 60 years. The competition’s growth continues to accelerate at a rapid pace with a host of records shattered last season. The United States won the Billie Jean Cup Juniors 2022 title for the seventh time in November in the final of the 16-team tournament at Antalya, Turkey, beating defending champion Czech Republic.

India has clinched its first-ever bronze medal at the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championship 2023. The country bagged the medal after losing to China 2-3 at the Dubai Exhibition Centre in UAE on February 18.

In the previous editions of the championship, India failed to get past the group stages (2019) and was eliminated by Thailand in the quarter-finals of the inaugural edition (2017).

In the semi-final on Saturday, India lost their men’s singles, women’s singles and mixed doubles matches. India won all their matches in the group stage. They then beat last edition’s bronze medallist Hong Kong in the quarter-finals to earn a direct entry in the Sudirman Cup 2023, to be held in China later this year.

World number 9 HS Prannoy was stunned by World number 116 Lei Lan Xi as he defeated the Indian shuttler in straight games. With Prannoy losing the game, hopes were pinned on PV Sindhu against Gao Fang Jie. Gao won the match giving China a lead of 2-0. The pair of Chirag Shetty and Dhruv Kapila won the match against the Chinese pair in straight sets 21-19, 21-19. With India still trailing 1-2, the 19-year-old duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand registered an incredible win against another young pair of Liu Sheng Su and Tan Ning 21-16, 13-21, 21-19, equalising the China-India score at 2-2. Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto faced Jiang Zhen and Wei Ya in the deciding fixture. The Indian pair lost the match 21-17, 21-13.