1.India West Indies Test
In case you did not have the time to patiently sit in front of a TV and watch the entire test series, here is what happened during the latest Test Match between India and West Indies: India batted rather uninspiring innings yesterday. It seemed K L Rahul had gotten into the grove but left at 44. Agarwal, Pujara and Kohli departed just as swiftly as they came and that too with single-digit contributions. The middle-order stabilized the innings a bit with Rahane putting up 81 and leaving Jadeja at the crease. Day 1 ended with 203/6 on the board and rain washing out the rest of the innings.
Day 2 started off with Jadeja working his magic and pushing India to a respectable 297 by the end of the Indian Innings. At the time of writing, the West Indies side seems to be suffering from a harsh bowling attack and have lost 3 wickets in a gap of 14 runs. Now you know at least vaguely what to talk about at the water cooler tomorrow.
2.Badminton World Federation
If you haven’t already come across Instagram posts or WhatsApp forwards about a proud day for Indian Sports, stay tuned because there is very good news on that front. Both P V Sindhu and Sai Pranaeth have beaten their opponents in the quarterfinals and semifinals of the Badminton World Championship respectively. Sai Pranaeth will become the only second men’s singles shuttler after Prakash Padukone in 1983 to win a medal. Sai Pranaeth beat World No.4 shuttler Jonatan Christie to secure a surprise win and medal confirmation.
Meanwhile, P V Sindhu beat her biggest hurdle in the form of former World No.1 Tai Tzu Ying in the Quarterfinals. P V Sindhu secured her fifth World Championships medal following a stunning comeback while B Sai Praneeth became the first Indian male shuttler in 36 years to grab a podium place in badminton’s prestigious event, in Basel, on Friday.
3.Ashes
While we casually keep scrolling and looking at the scores from the India Windies Test, the ancient Ashes battle has also been taking place. Australia won the first test and England managed to draw the second test with Steve Smith getting floored with Jofra Archers’ bouncer being the most prominent news. The Third Test is currently underway and it seems that Australia seems to be overpowering England.
The pitch seems to be favouring the bowlers a lot, as seen by Australia’s 179 runs stand in the first innings. But then England walked out and almost immediately walked out with a meagre 67 runs on the board. The Australian side lasted for a decent 53 overs but England wrapped up in a pitiful 28 overs. The English batsmen all put up single-digit scores except for Joe Denly who barely scraped together 12 from 49 deliveries. The Australians walked out and put up another 171 for 6 by the end of day 2 and it already seems England has given up on this test as well.
4.US open
The US Open hasn’t actually started yet but the tension has suddenly spiked with the drawing of the names. All across the board, there are all sorts of names facing each other but none are generating the kind of excitement that a First round matchup has generated. Serena Williams will be facing off Maria Sharapova at Flushing Meadows in New York.
Now even if you have never actively followed tennis, you know who Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams are. Both of them have previously faced off in the finals of the Australian Open, French Open and the Wimbledon. Both of them have also won the US Open. The thing that has gotten the blood pumping though is the fact that these two tennis greats have never gone face to face in the US Open till date. And that is set to change on the coming historic Monday despite the injuries that have plagued both players. Stay tuned folks, this is going to be fun!
5.Pro Kabaddi
In recent years, Pro Kabaddi has been catching a lot of attention around the country. Perhaps the fact that these matches take place on Fridays and Saturdays has also helped with generating a loyal audience. The Bengal Warriors faced off against the Patna Pirates and beat the Pirates 35-26 on Thursday. It seemed that while the entirety team of Warriors was playing, it was only Pardeep Narwal who was able to make any headway in terms of points from the Pirates side.
Friday saw the Patna Pirates returning to face the Fortune Giants. However, they face the same problems with Pardeep Narwal having to pull most of the weight which eventually leads to a 29-26 loss for the Pirates. The other matchup that also took place was between the Tamil Thalaivas and the U Mumba. This match turned out to be a nail biter though with both teams scoring the same number of raid points although U Mumba pulled ahead with Tackle points and scored a 24-29 victory.
6.Basketball World Cup
The Basketball World Cup is also set to start next week. However, even before the first match controversy has been rife around the event. The FIBA World Cup is set to start by August end and the US team seems to be making it to the headlines for all the wrong reasons. First of all, they seem to be losing most of their NBA players. Being the 2016 winners with an all-NBA team, this has cast doubts over the teams’ ability to perform. Only one player is from the NBA is Damian Lillard and is currently tasked with shouldering the US team. Despite the loss of players, the US team is still a favourite.
The players jumping ship is understandable though. Some have suffered injuries and some are looking to retire. However, the NBA preseason starts soon after the World Cup. This means that the 30 odd NBA teams want their players to be in good physical form and not risk injuries by playing extra games. Moreover the last 8 months have seen over 25% players changing jerseys and signing on with new teams. This means that the shifted players need to learn to play with other players. Apparently, the pride of the nation comes second to the money put on the players by the NBA teams.
- Nachiket Bhushan Kondhalkar
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