Author: G Rajaraman

They feasted on Shubman Gill’s explosive batting in the second half of the league and Mohammed Shami’s uncanny skills with the new ball. They groaned with disappointment that Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis could not secure their team a berth in the play-offs. They gasped in awe at some of the brilliant catches that were held in the past few weeks. It is not as if the fans were merely filling up the galleries nearly each night across the country over the past eight weeks, watching their favourites and others to see if they shook hands with one another…

Shubman Gill left everyone with something simply superb to remember for a long time, even in an era in which public memory is short and a hectic cricket format makes it shorter. Gujarat Titans rode on his superlative century for a 62-run victory over Mumbai Indians at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday, and entered their second successive Indian Premier League (IPL) final. As he scripted a powerfully magical century, his third in four games, he drew comparisons with a number of batters, Indian and overseas, from earlier eras. But it would only be fair to say that…

It is hard not to think of Nehal Wadhera as the most successful IPL rookie batter of the year after he tellingly made his presence felt as Mumbai Indians’ Impact Player Substitute, replacing Suryakumar Yadav, in the Tata Indian Premier League 2023 Eliminator 1 game against Lucknow Super Giants at the M Chidamabaram Stadium in Chennai on Wednesday. The other IPL rookies who have caught my eye are spinners – Noor Ahmad, Gujarat Titans’ Afghan import, and Kolkata Knight Riders’ Suyash Sharma. They have bowled craftily and with large hearts through the season. Though the 18-year-old Noor is already a…

The small company of Indian athletes who have risen to be world champions or got the world No.1 ranking would be delighted to receive Neeraj Chopra, the Olympic Games javelin-throw champion, as the newest addition in their midst. It is easy to imagine them being dignified, sober, calm, graceful and proud to extend him a warm welcome. And, he respectfully reflects them all. Indeed, one must resist the temptation to go overboard in welcoming the latest Indian entrant to a small club of world No.1s. Each Indian athlete who has ever occupied the world No. 1 spot in their own…

You can dismiss this as the lament of an old-fashioned lover of sport. You can ignore this as the grieving of a man living in the glory of times long gone. You can ignore an old-school voice that is clearly in the minority when asking for greater sanity in the behaviour of modern fans of sport and sportspersons. It is such a pity that instead of admiring brilliant centuries by Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill, both innings crafted with care and unrivalled beauty, fans went berserk with their toxicity on social media after the game. No cricketer or athlete or…

Cameron Green’s sensational unbeaten 100 off 47 deliveries (eight fours, eight sixes) ensured that Mumbai Indians placed themselves in line for a berth in the play-off stage of the Tata Indian Premier League with an overwhelming and predictable eight-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. The win became predictable only because Akash Madhwal and Chris Jordan turned the script on its head in the final four overs of the Sunrisers Hyderabad innings. The duo engineered a fantastic comeback against the run of play with splendid bowling, conceding just 32 runs and claiming four wickets to stand…

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) scripted a close-to-perfect game in a 77-run victory over Delhi Capitals to secure another entry into the play-off stage of the Tata Indian Premier League. With the Delhi crowd also celebrating the perceived farewell tour of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Chennai skipper, Delhi came nowhere close to its stated desire of spoiling the visiting team’s party. As Chennai head home, it will be delighted that Gai-Way, the opening pair of Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway, found the perfect time to score a half-century each while sharing a second century stand this season. There would have been…

Twenty-year-old Chirag Khandal may have won a battle in Supreme Court but there is no end in sight for his bitter tussle with the Equestrian Federation of India (EFI). Admitting a Special Leave Appeal by Chirag Khandal against EFI, a Supreme Bench comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice MM Sundresh passed an interim order directing EFI to include 20-year-old in the long list of athletes for the Eventing competition in the Asian Games to be held in Hangzhou, China, later this year. Instead of making things any easier for the young man and letting him get back on a saddle,…

The alarm bells are a-ringing, but is anyone who cares for Indian badminton listening? India’s maiden title victory in the Thomas Cup last year not only sparked euphoria, but also raised expectations. It’s natural then that the disappointing run in the ongoing BWF Sudirman Cup Finals in Suzhou, China, has plunged the community into despair. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand claimed a sole win for India against Chinese Taipei and Malaysia. There never was any doubt that India would be hard-pressed to make it to the quarterfinals after being drawn in group C with Chinese Taipei and Malaysia. The victory…

The Indian men’s team returned home from Tashkent after their most successful campaign at a World Boxing Championships. Deepak Bhoria, Mohammed Hussamuddin and Nishant Dev, the rising star, each won a bronze medal to gift India their best showing, improving on the two medals claimed in Belgrade in 2021. Coming on the heels of the four-gold show by the Indian women’s team at the recent World Championships in New Delhi, the triple-medal haul in Tashkent is indicative of the happy trajectory that Indian boxing has been on, leading to the country being second in the International Boxing Association’s rankings. While…