Category: Sports

Rishab Panth broke Kapil Dev’s record and registers himself in the fastest Test fifty by an Indian. Pant lit up the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Day 2 by smashing a blistering half-century off just 28 deliveries.

The 24-year-old broke the record created in 1982 against Pakistan in Karachi by the legendary World Cup-winning captain.

During his 28 ball delivery, he smashed seven fours and two humungous sixes. The flamboyant wicketkeeper-batter took Sri Lankan bowlers to the cleaner by creating a breathtaking record but got out right after reaching his 50. From the word go, the left-hander cruised 5- in the 42nd over of India’s second inning and entertained one and all with his sensational batting.

BCCI posted on its Twitter handle, “Rishanb Panth surpasses Kapil Dev to score the fastest 50 by an Indian in Test cricket. Take a bow, Rishabh”.

The third in the list of fastest fifty by an Indian is Shardul Thakur scoring 50 in 31 balls in the Oval Test against England last year. In 2008, the former Indian opener Virendra Sehwag scored 50 in 32 balls against England in Chennai.

After a spectacular hat-trick against Premier League opponent Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo etched his name in the record books as professional football’s all-time greatest scorer with 807 goals.

At Old Trafford, Ronaldo’s 12th-minute opener was a superb strike from a distance that helped him equal the record. He wrote on Instagram, “Tremendously happy with my first hat-trick since I came back to Old Trafford! Nothing beats the feeling of being back on the pitcher and helping the team with goals and efforts.”

Winning with 3-2, this was the 59th treble of Ronaldo’s career and first for the Old Trafford side since 2008 post his return.

Ronaldo has scored goals for Sporting, United, Real Madrid, Juventus, and the Portugal national team. However, there is no official record of the top goal scorer in football, but the world governing body estimates that Austro-Czech Josef Bican scored 805 goals during his career from 1931 to 1955.

There have been more than 1,000 goals scored by Brazilian strikers Pele and Romario each during their careers, but those figures include- goals scored in amateur, unofficial, and friendly matches.

Ravindra Jadeja rose to the number one spot in the ICC Test rankings for all-rounders after his match-winning performance against Sri Lanka in the first Test in Mohali. Taking the top spot from West Indies’ Jason Holder, Jadeja displaced Holder.

Showing his extraordinary skill in the series opener against Sri Lanka, the Indian spinner has climbed to the top of the rankings for the second time in a row. India all-rounder was adjudged Player of the Match after scoring an unbeaten 175 in the first innings to help India to a formidable total of 574/8 declared.

In the first innings, he went on to claim a five-wicket haul for the Lankans, and the best figures of the second innings too with 4/46. With his 175 scores, Jadeja has also surpassed Kapil Dev’s long-standing record for an Indian batting at 7 or below in Test cricket.

Virat Kohli, the former skipper of India, jumped from No. 7 to No. 5 in the ICC Men’s Test batting rankings to become the country’s highest-ranked batter. In the bowlers’ rankings, R Ashwin remained at number two despite bowling and batting well against Sri Lanka

World No.1 Ko Jin-young shattered yet more golfing records by winning the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore. Since becoming a member of the LPGA Tour in 2018, she recorded 13 victories and won a remarkable sixth tournament from her last ten starts.

After hitting 66 in her final round, the South Korean broke Annika Sörenstam’s 16-year-old LPGA record for consecutive rounds in the 60s. This is Ko’s 15th consecutive round in the 60s and her 30th consecutive sub-par round in the LPGA.

Ko said, “First of all, I’m just proud of myself to record the 60s in 15 rounds straight. So I’m happy. I feel amazing right now”.

Ko recorded the staggering numbers (more on those shortly), but what’s most impressive is that she did it while battling through half of Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore.

Despite her world-record-breaking achievements, Ko’s victory was not without controversy.

Overnight, she was one stroke behind Chun In-gee, and as Chun’s challenge faded in the third round, Ko got off to a sluggish start on the final day, parring the first seven holes before storming back with five birdies in the final six.

On Sunday, Mithali Raj became the first and only woman to appear at sid ICC Women’s Cricket World Cups by leading India in the opening game.

39-year-old Indian Women’s Cricket team skipper could manage nine runs in 36 balls as she was caught by Pakistan Diana Baig off Nashra Sandhu’s bowling.

According to ICC, the right-hander has now equaled Australian great Belinda Clark by captaining the ICC Women’s World Cup for the fourth time- Clark’s tenure spanned from 1993 to 2005. Both of them are the only two-player who have captained their country for more than two World Cups.

Mithali, on the other hand, outstrips her fellow hitter in terms of time between first captaining her country and last doing so, with a gap of 17 years between the two.

Indian skipper clinched the record of former Pakistan cricketer Javed Miandad appearing in the first six Men’s Cricket World Cup between 1975 and 1996 along with Sachin Tendulkar’s starting his career in 1992.

By the time Tendulkar’s fairy-tale finish came in 2011. After making her tournament debut in 2000, Mithali had already captained India at a World Cup

On Thursday, India’s trio Shri Nivetha, Esha Singh, and Ruchita Vinerkar won gold in the women’s 10m air pistol team event of the ISSF World Cup.

On Wednesday night, to finish on the podium for the country’s third medal, and the second medal, the trio shot 16 in the gold medal contest in the year’s first World Cup. This leads the country with three medals standing- two gold and silver.

In the final round, Esha Singh scored 10.8 to help the nation draw first blood and took the lead with 6-0. After which all three women shot 10 or above in the third series of single shots.

​​With a total score of 574, the three Indian women had topped the second qualifying round and qualified for the gold medal match. They also topped the Stage 1 qualification round with a total score of 856.

In the fight for the top prize, Germany’s Andrea Katharina Heckner, Sandra Reitz, and Carina Wimmer settled for a silver medal after managing 6 shots. The German trio was behind Indians with a total score of 571.

On Tuesday, Indian shooting ace Saurabh Chaudhary claimed a Gold medal in the men’s 10-meter air pistol event. He opened the country’s account in the year’s first ISSF World Cup in Cairo.

The 19-year-old Chaudhary shot 16 in The Asian Games for the gold to finish ahead of Germany’s Michael Schwald. He made the medal round with Chernousov for the company as both notched up 38 points to eliminate Walter of Germany and then Emis Vasermanis of Latvia.

Choudhary has a Youth Olympic gold medal in his name and was third in the men’s 10m air pistol qualification stage with 584 points in total. With a score of 38, he won the last stage relay 1, qualifying for the medal match, which was contested by the final four shooters.

More than 500 shooters from 60 countries are taking part in the Cairo World Cup that is providing 20 sets of medals on offer.

For the women’s 10m air pistol event, Esha Singh, Shri Nivetha, and Ruchita Vinerkar are representing India in which Esha bagged the second medal for the country by winning silver.

With these two medals, the nation now tops the medal tally with one gold and one silver.

On Monday, Russia’s Daniil Medvedev overtook Serbia’s 20-time Grand Slam champion, Novak Djokovic’s record of the top spot for 361 weeks in total. He became the 27th player to reach the number one spot in the men’s ATP tennis rankings.

Djokovic was competing in his first tournament of the season following his deportation from Australia in January.

Nadal beat the 26-year-old Medvedev in the Acapulco semi-finals last week which guaranteed to move him above Djokovic post the Serb’s quarter-final loss in Dubai.

Medvedev became the third Russian to achieve the feat by joining Yevgeny Kafelnikov for the top six weeks and Marat Safin for the top nine weeks.

He also become the first player outside the ‘Big Four’ in the 2021 US Open champion of Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Andy Murray by moving the number one in the world ranking for 18 years, three weeks, and six days since 1st February 2004 when Andy Roddick reached the top stop.

The last time a new world number one in men’s tennis was established more than five years ago was when Murray won on November 7, 2016.

On Sunday, at the 73rd Strandja Memorial Boxing Tournament, Indian boxers Nikhat Zareen and Nitu clinched medals.

During Europe’s oldest international boxing tournament, Nikat won her second gold medal with a 4-1 win in the women’s 52kg final. It was her second gold medal since she won the Strandja Memorial title in 2019.

Nitu inflicted a 5-0 beating on Italy’s Erika Prisciandro, the reigning bronze medalist of the Youth World Championships.

As a result of Nandini’s bronze medal in the 81kg category, the Indian contingent finished its trip with three medals at the tournament, which marked India’s first exposure trip of the year.

In the final, 25-year-old, Telangana boxer Nikhat, who has been in fine form and had beaten Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Buse Naz Cakiroglu in the semis, made a strong start and looked in complete control in the second half as she landed some sharp scoring punches before wrapping up an easy victory.

Nitu, who hails from Haryana, initially took her time to settle down. In her fight with Italy’s young boxer Prisciandro, she maintained distance. In the second round, the boxers exchanged punches more intensely and there was little power hitting.

After participating in the 125th game during the third and final match against Sri Lanka at the picturesque HPCA Stadium, India captain Rohit Sharma has become the most-capped T20I player in history.

Rohit Sharma appears to be in a good mood these days. It has been a winning run for the Indian captain. Rohit Sharma’s men beat Sri Lanka in the Twenty20 series with a 3-0 win over West Indies in both ODIs and T20s. In the process, he surpassed veteran Pakistan batsman Shoaib Malik (124 T20Is).

In Dharamsala, Rohit stepped out to lead India in the third T20 against Sri Lanka. He is currently the only Indian cricketer to play more than 100 T20Is. MS Dhoni (98) and Virat Kholi (97) follow Sharma at second and third position respectively among the Indian players.

In November, Sharma was named the skipper of the Indian T20Is and has not lost any game since taking over the captaincy. He is looking for a third consecutive win after making 2-0 in the ongoing Twenty20 series against the Sri Lanka series in a clean sweep and has white-washed New Zealand and West Indies in three-match home series previously.