Author: Prantik Mazumdar

The Monank Patel-led USA national team managed to beat a top international T20 side in Pakistan in an exciting Super Over, after the tw0 teams were tied at 159 runs each in the alloted 20 overs! The victory was understandably celebrated beyond the South Asian community in the US, a five-million strong group which typically plays, follows and supports the sport in the land where baseball, basketball and American Football rule the charts. While the result would be touted as a surprisingly huge upset, it was in the making as the US side has been consistently improving its performances in…

Hosts USA won their first ICC T20 World Cup match, which was the very first of the tournament. It was symbolically significant, since the competing nations were the very first two nations to play an international match in 1844. The following day we witnessed a low-scoring tied match between Namibia and Oman, which the former won thanks to David Weise’s heroics in the Super Over with bat and ball. The next day Sri Lanka registered their lowest score in a T20 international, a paltry 77 off 115 balls, with South Africa’s Anrich Nortje registering his career best of 4 for…

A smooth and stress-free entry into Roland Garros that is facilitated by a digital gantry, after which one can immediately pay homage to a metallic structure of a certain living legend, who has ruled the clay courts of this temple over the last 19 years. To its right, there is an exhibition pickleball court, where young paddlers can entertain themselves to a new racquet sport that has taken the world by storm – maybe it’s a sign of things to come as, in a couple of decades, the next generation could be playing this competitively at the Grand Slams or…

Last Saturday, I had the privilege of being one of the 100,000 fans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad that bled blue and cheered India as it registered a comprehensive and clinical 7 wicket victory against Pakistan. Was it exciting? Yes, indeed. An India-Pakistan duel in any format brings back nostalgic memories of the rivalry, expectations of the mini battles between specific players like a Rohit-Shaheen Shah or a Virat-Rauf. Also the environment where one collectively cheers and chants slogans, sings ‘Vande Mataram’ in unision and celebrates good cricket, definitely adds to the occasion. Was the experience memorable and…

On the fifth ball of the fourth over of the Asia Cup 2023 final between India and Sri Lanka, Mohammed Siraj was on a hat-trick after rapping Sadeera Samarawickrama on the pads and scalping Charith Asalanka, both for naught. Had he got the hat-trick, he would have been the third bowler after Kapil Dev and Farveez Maharoof to achieve the feat in the Asia Cup, but a fluent on-drive from Dhananjaya de Silva deprived him of that record. But what Siraj did on that ball will be remembered and spoken about for ages, alongside the fiery spell that helped him…

It was not just Nagalakshmi, his own mother, but all of India and Asia that looked at Praggnanandhaa with pride after he finished runner-up in the FIDE Chess World Cup on Thursday evening in Azerbaijan’s capital city of Baku. Pragg lost to Magnus Carlsen, the Norwegian world No. 1, after a valiant contest that lasted two days and four games. The final went into a two-game tie-break after the first two games failed to produce a winner. Carlsen won the first game and the second ended in a draw, giving him a hard-earned victory. Praggnanandhaa had previously beaten Carlsen at…

On the evening of September 19, 2007 in Durban, this man was smashed across the park for a record-breaking six 6s by Yuvraj Singh, India’s then-upcoming, match-winning left-hand batter. That sort of public humiliation at the raw age of 21 has ended many a career, but not that of Stuart Broad. For him, it was a beginning, a baptism by fire. Within 80 days of that incident, he made his Test debut in Colombo, an unremarkable affair where he toiled for 36 overs to return with just one wicket, but since then, he has persisted and never looked back. He…

Did you know that in the 127-year history of the Summer Olympics, India has only won 35 medals? To put that into perspective, USA and China won more gold medals than that at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, and the Netherlands, ranked seventh in the medal tally, took home 36 medals from that event. That’s how depressing India’s Olympics journey has been. The good news, though, is that since the London 2012 Olympics, India has bagged 15 medals (1G | 5S | 9B), and 12 of those have come from athletes that have been supported and nurtured by the good…

Since the FIFA Women’s World Cup was first played in China in 1991, the tournament has been held eight times and been won by four nations. The United States, the defending champions, have won it on four occasions, while Germany have won it twice. Japan and Norway have a title each. Apart from China, five other nations have hosted the tournament. The United States has done so twice, with the other hosts being Canada, France, Germany, and Sweden. From July 20, 2023, Australia and New Zealand will host the ninth edition, and 32 nations will participate, an expansion from the…

“Oh, Ravi Jadejaaaaa, Oh, Ravi Jadejaaaaa” – that energizing refrain created a carnival-like atmosphere in the Bharat Army stands at The Oval after Ravindra Jadeja disrupted the aggressive flow of runs from Steven Smith and Travis Head, the pair who put on 285 runs in the 1st innings. When Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul Thakur were displaying grit and determination to stitch together a resilient 109-run stand to bring India back into the game, the whole stadium was chanting “Ganpati Bappa Morya” in unison to support every drive, cut, pull, defence, and nudge, backing the ‘khadoos’ and ‘kadak’ cricket from the…