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Lasith Malinga produced an incredible last over to defend nine runs as Mumbai Indians claimed undisputed supremacy in the IPL by securing their fourth title with a narrow one-run win over Chennai Super Kings in a pulsating final

CSK needed nine runs off the last over but the experienced Lankan paceman Malinga kept his nerve to concede eight. He trapped Shardul Thakur leg before in the last ball after Watson (80 off 59) got run out two balls earlier.

Before that Jasprit Bumrah kept Mumbai in the hunt with his tidy overs and two wickets, getting rid of Dwayne Bravo and Ambati Rayudu. The premier Indian pacer produced 13 dot balls in his testing overs. Young leg-spinner Rahul Chahar also played a key role in the middle overs as he too created pressure by bowling 13 dot balls.

Both teams were tied at three IPL titles each heading into the finale with Mumbai holding the upper hand, having beaten CSK thrice earlier in the competition.

The heart-stopping finish came after a disciplined bowling performance from CSK who restricted Mumbai Indians to 149 for eight.
CSK have now lost to Mumbai for the third time in four finals.

Credit : Times of India 

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Mumbai Indians have been the most successful franchise in the Indian Premier League, having won five titles - 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2020. Along with it, they also won the now-defunct Champions League Twenty20 once in 2011. They are one of the most consistent sides in the tournament having made it to the playoffs in nine out of 13 seasons, going on to win five times, and ending up as runners-up once, in 2010.

Mumbai Indians clinched the title in the 2020 edition by beating Delhi Capitals (by five wickets) at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Mumbai Indians have the second-best win percentage of 59.11, behind Chennai Super Kings (59.83). They have won 118, the most by any team, of the 203 matches, lost 81, won 2, and lost 2 in the Super Over.

Rohit Sharma is Mumbai Indians' top run-getter with 4060 runs from 151 innings at an average of 31.47. He has scored one hundred and 31 fifties and possesses a strike rate of 130.37. Overall, Rohit is the fourth-highest run-getter in the IPL with 5230 runs from 195 innings.

Lasith Malinga is also the highest wicket-taker in the IPL with 170 wickets from 122 matches at an average of 19.80. He has scalped one five-wicket haul and six four-wicket hauls, the most by any bowler in the league, and possesses an economy rate of 7.14 and a strike rate of 16.6.

Among the current crop, Jasprit Bumrah is the highest wicket-taker with 109 wickets from 92 innings at 23.72, possessing an economy rate of 7.41 and striking every 19.1 balls.

Credit : First Post

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Ireland's Curtis Campher not only became just the third bowler to take four wickets in four balls in a T20 international, but also became the first to achieve it in a World Cup game.

Bowling the 10th over of Ireland's first game of the 2021 T20 World Cup against the Netherlands, Curtis Campher picked up wickets off the second, third, fourth and fifth ball of the over, becoming just the third person to do so in T20 internationals.

After having Colin Ackermann caught behind. Ryan ten Doeschate was out lbw. Campher completed his hat-trick when he dismissed Scott Edwards lbw. Campher made it four out of four when he cleaned up Roelof van der Merwe, who chopped the ball on to his stumps.

Even though Ireland failed to qualify for the Super 12 stage, Camphers feat is a special one. Apart from picking four out of four, he also became just the second bowler, after Brett Lee against Bangladesh in 2007, to pick a hat-trick in a T20 World Cup game.

Afghanistan's Rashid Khan became the first player to take four wickets in four balls in a T20 international when he achieved the feat against Ireland at Dehradun in February 2019. After dismissing Kevin O'Brien off the last ball of the 16th over, Rashid got the wickets of George Dockrell, Shane Getkate and Simi Singh off the first three balls of the 18th over.

Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga became the second player to take four wickets in four balls in a T20 international and the first to do it in both ODIs and T20Is when he did it in a game against New Zealand at Pallekele, Sri Lanka in September 2019. In the third over of New Zealand's chase, Malinga dismissed Colin Munro, Hamish Rutherford, Colin de Grandhomme and Ross Taylor off the third, fourth, fifth and sixth deliveries of the over.

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Mumbai Indians became the first team in IPL history to win the tournament four times when they defeated Chennai Super Kings by a single run in the final of IPL 2019.

The 12th edition of the tournament was played completely in India, despite the fact that tournament dates largely overlapped with the country's general elections.

At the end of the league stage of the tournament where each team played 14 matches, three teams finished on 18 points and three more finished on 12 points.

Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals were the three teams who finished on 18 and they took the first three places respectively based on net run rate. Sunrisers Hyderabad took the fourth place based on superior run rate.

After losing Qualier 1 against MI, CSK made it to the final by winning Qualifier 2 against DC after DC had defeated SRH in the eliminator. Even though MI posted only 149 for eight in the final against CSK, they held their nerve to win the match by a single run, as CSK finished at 148 for seven in their 20 overs.

Did you know?

Victory in IPL 2019 made Mumbai Indians the most successful franchise in IPL history as they became the first team to win the tournament four times. They remain the most successful franchise still, having won the title in 2020 as well to take their tally to five. Chennai Super Kings, who won the 2021 title, are second with four titles.

Sunrisers Hyderabad's David Wamer, who scored 692 runs in 12 matches, took the Orange Cap as the tournament's top scorer in the season.

Chennai Super Kings Imran Tahir, who picked up 26 wickets in the 17 matches he played, finished with the Purple Cap as the tournament's highest wicket-taker in the season.

Kolkata Knight Riders Shubman Gill was named as the Emerging Player of the Season.

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Nineteen-year-old Canadian Bianca Andreescu sealed her first Grand Slam title on Saturday, downing 23-time major champion Serena Williams in the 2019 US Open women's singles final, 6-3, 7-5. 

The teenager from Mississauga, Ontario, becomes the first Canadian woman to win a Slam singles title in the Open era, and joins Naomi Osaka and Ashleigh Barty as first-time Slam winners in their maiden final appearance over the past 12 months. 

For the first hour of the match, the rookie looked more like the veteran, as she kept Williams guessing with precise, aggressive hitting off the ground, and dominated rallies with her forehand.

Williams, meanwhile, struggled on serve, and allowed Andreescu to build a hefty 6-3, 5-1 lead. The American double-fautled three times to lose serve over the first set-and-a-half, and found herself a point away from defeat as Andreescu served for the match the first time, in the seventh game of the second set.

Saving match point with a big forehand winner, Williams was given new life—as a partisan crowd inside Arthur Ashe Stadium also roared alive in support—and she embarked on a run of four straight games to level the set. 

Credit : US Open 

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On October 15, 2021, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by 27 runs in the final of IPL 2021 to win the tournament for the fourth time.

CSK's bowling unit worked collectively, with different players chipping in different games and even different passages within a game to provide crucial breakthroughs. In fact, Shardul Thakur was the only CSK bowler who finished in the top five of the season's wicket-takers chart. With 21 wickets from 16 matches, Thakur finished fourth in the most wickets table. CSK, however, had three more players in the top 20. Dwayne Bravo (14 wickets from 11 matches), Deepak Chahar (14 wickets from 15 matches) and Ravindra Jadeja (13 wickets from 16 matches) finished 15th, 17th and 19th respectively this season. With Josh Hazlewood also picking 11 wickets from the nine matches he played in the tournament, it meant that all five bowlers who bowled in the final had finished with more than 10 wickets in the tournament.

Faf du Plessis was CSK's hero in the final against KKR. His 59-ball 86, which was dotted with seven fours and three sixes, helped CSK post 192 for three in their 20 overs, a total that proved 27 runs too many for KKR.

This victory was CSK's fourth IPL triumph. They are only behind Mumbai Indians, who have won the tournament on five occasions, for most IPL titles in the history of the competition.

This was the ninth time CSK were playing in the final of the IPL. This means that even though CSK have a phenomenal record in the competition, they have actually lost more finals than they have won so far. CSK's IPL triumphs came in 2010, 2011, 2018 and 2021. They lost in the final on five occasions-2008, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2019.

CSK also made it to the semi-finals in 2009 and the play-offs in 2014. This means that CSK made it to the knock-out stages on 11 out of the 12 occasions they took part having been suspended from the IPL in 2016 and 2017.

The 2020 edition was the only one when they played and didn't qualify for the knock-out stages, making their come-back and victory in 2021 all the more special.

CSK openers Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis were the chief architects of CSK's success on the batting front. Gaikwad finished with the Orange Cap for most runs scored in IPL 2021-635 runs from 16 matches. Faf du Plessis wasn't too far behind, hitting 633 runs from 16 games, finishing second in the most runs in the season table.

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Bianca Andreescu not only became the first Canadian to win a singles Grand Slam title, but she also became the first player born in the 21st Century to claim a singles Grand Slam championship. She did this at the US Open in 2019.

Andreescu had straight sets victories in her first three matches as she got rid of American Katie Volynets, Belgian Kirsten Flipkens and former world number Caroline Wozniacki from Denmark.

Things were a little difficult in the fourth round as she needed three sets to defeat American qualifier Taylor Townsend.

She faced another Belgian, Elise Mertens, in the quarter-finals. She lost the first set, but went on to win the match in three sets.

In the semi-finals against Switzerland's Belinda Bencic, Andreescu won 7-6 (3), 7-5. That put her against Serena Williams in the final. Andreescu emerged victorious in the final, defeating the American, looking for her 24th Grand Slam singles title, 6-3, 7-5. With that, she collected her first Grand Slam singles title. She, however, chose not to defend her title in 2020 as she withdrew from the tournament.

DID YOU KNOW?

When Serena Williams won the first of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles so far on September 11, 1999 in the US Open, Bianca Andreescu wasn't born yet. Andreescu was born nine months later, on June 16, 2000, when an 18-year-old Serena was taking the tennis world by storm.

Nineteen years later, the two were facing each other in a final, accounting for the biggest age gap until then in a Grand Slam final in the Open era (1968 onwards).

Andreescu's achievement is even more remarkable given the fact that she was ranked 208 a year before this final and was making her main-draw debut in the US Open that year. In fact, she was the first player to win the US Open on her main-draw debut.

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Uruguay is, by population, the smallest country to win the FIFA World Cup. In 1930, when they beat Argentina 4-2 in the final, just 1.7 million people were living in the country. When they beat Brazil 2-1 in 1950, their population was 2.2 million. Although Uruguay's population is now around 3.4 million, it's still smaller than any other winning nation.

Uruguay again won the World Cup in 1950, beating hosts Brazil in one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history. The decisive match was at the Maracanã Stadium in Brazil. Uruguay came from behind to beat the host nation in a match which would become known as the Maracanazo. Many Brazilians had to be treated for shock after the event, such was the surprise of Uruguay's victory.

After their fourth-place finish in the 1954 World Cup, the team had mixed performances and after the fourth-place finish in 1970, their dominance, quality and performance dropped. They were no longer a world football power and failed to qualify for the World Cup on five occasions in the last nine competitions. They reached an all-time low and at one time ranked 76th in the FIFA World Rankings.

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This magazine has been blessed in recent times thanks to the number of teenagers who have been hogging the limelight in various spheres of activities around the world; it always gives us an opportunity to write about them and also serves as an inspiration for the readers of this youth magazine. The latest teenage sensation has been Emma Raducanu; winner of the U.S. Open and even more sensational was her victory in straight sets in the women's final of the tournament.

If coming events cast their shadows before then Emma's U.S. Open win should not surprise ardent tennis followers. After all, at Wimbledon, the Grand Slami event preceding the U.S. Open during the calendar year, Emma was a wildcard entry as a consequence of being Britain's number one ranked player and she managed to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon. The U.S. Open was even more surprising as she came through the qualifying rounds to wrest the title, beating Leylah Fernandez 6-3, 6-4.

Emma's rise as a player has been awe-striking. She entered the WTA Tour only in June this year and had a ranking somewhere in the 300s. Due to her exceptional performances in a short period of just three months, she has climbed to the 22d rank. In the Open era of tennis, she is the only person ever to enter as a qualifier and lift a Grand Slam trophy.

Emma Raducanu is a good example of international integration. She was born in Canada on 13 November 2002. Her father has a Romanian ancestry while her mother is Chinese. Emma was just two years old when her family moved to Britain, so she is now a British citizen but holds dual citizenship of Canada, as well. As a consequence of her ancestry, she is fluent in Romanian, Chinese and English; surely a rare combination in every sense of the word.

Emma took to tennis from the age of five years and all her upbringing was in London but one would scarce believe that many of her younger day success came on Indian soil. She participated with considerable success in various girls' tournaments in Chandigarh, New Delhi, Pune and Solapur. Emma turned professional in 2018. However, as with many sports personalities, Emma's career too was punctuated by the Covid-19 year of 2020. However, she kept herself up in competitive tennis by participating in a few exhibition matches and some minor tennis tournaments.

Although the year 2021 began with some disappointment for Emma due to her first-round loss at the Nottingham Open to compatriot, Harriet Dart, at Wimbledon, she became the youngest-ever British tennis player to reach the third round of the tournament. Subsequently, she broke into the top 200 rank in women's tennis when she beat Sorana Cristea to enter the fourth round at Wimbledon and in the process become the youngest-ever British woman in the Open Era to reach the fourth round. An entry into the final of the WTA 125 final at Chicago assured Emma a place among the top 150 women players and then her breaking into the top 25 rank after her victory at the U.S. Open is now a well-known history.

There have been some noteworthy things that happened in Emma's march to the U.S. Open title and perhaps the most significant among them is the fact that she did not drop a single set in her crusade. Twenty two years after Serena Williams and Martina Hingis clashed in the finals, the U.S. Open 2021 finals featured the first all-teenager clash between Emma and Leylah Fernandez.

Basically a baseline player, Emma has an ideal height of 175 cm which is good enough to help her have a strong first serve. Even her second serves are as good as the first serve of several women players but her real strength lies in her down the-line shots, especially the ones that come from her two-handed backhand. Like all top players, she has a good and fast court coverage and her sliced forehands are good enough to change the pace of the game to her liking.

Although Emma prefers to play on hard courts, there is very little doubt that with her type of grasp over the basics of the game, the day isn't far, as she gains in physical strength, when she will be a hard nut to crack for the others who as of now are more versatile on the grass and clay courts. The tennis world has just about seen the rise of a new tennis star.

Credit : Gp Capt Achchyut Kumar (The Teenager Today)

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The current Indian cricket team has had the luxury of two genuine all-rounders in the shape of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. However, more often than not they have been competing for the same spot in the team specially whenever the Indian team is on an overseas tour and the pitches are not very conducive to spin. Ever since the exit of Kapil Dev, the Indian team has lacked an all-rounder who can form a part of India's pace battery. For some time, Hardik Pandya seemed to be a bright prospect, but somehow, he has not been able to carry his limited over heroics to the longer version of the game.

The advent of Shardul Thakur, however, has brought in high hopes as one who can be accommodated in Kapil Dev's rather oversized shoes. This rather fresh entrant to the Indian Test team has proved his worth on foreign soil and his two half centuries in the crucial fourth Test against in the recently concluded Test Series against England have established beyond doubt that this lad can handle pressure at the highest level of the game.

At the time of our going to press, Shardul in his short career of just four Tests has a batting average of 38.00 and a bowling average of 22.7 which clearly gives an indication of him being a genuine all-rounder. He has a very similar ratio in T20 Internationals although he needs to prove an equal versatility in One Day Internationals. However, in terms of economy Shardul's performance is far from being impressive. While conceding more than three runs in an over in Tests is not of much consequence, his conceding close to seven runs per over in ODIs and over nine runs an over in T20Is can be worrisome for any team captain.

Born at Palghar, Maharashtra, in October 1991, Shardul Narendra Thakur has had several misfortunes in his cricketing career. While he made his first-class debut for Mumbai in 2012, he had a poor start to his career but came into the limelight a few years later when in a Ranji Trophy final match against Saurashtra, he took eight wickets to carry Mumbai to victory. Very soon, he was included in the sixteen member Test team for a tour of the West Indies but did not play a single Test. He had to wait till February 2017 to make an international debut when he was included in the first eleven to play a One Day International against Sri Lanka.

Appearing in coloured clothes with the number 10 behind his shirt, Shardul created quite a furore for a number which till then had been worn only by Sachin Tendulkar. In fact, Rohit Sharma has even said to have chided Shardul for his temerity as a consequence of which Shardul has now chosen number 54 as his jersey number. Shardul had to wait for another six months before he could make his T20 International debut against South Africa and then another eight months for making his Test debut against the West Indies.. The latter may have been probably the shortest debut as a groin injury put him out of play.

Even in the Indian Premier League, Shardul has been far from impressive. He was bought initially by Kings XI Punjab, then Pune and now finally by the Chennai Super Kings. Believe it or not, Shardul has one of the most unimpressive records in the IPL. Having played in 52 IPL matches, he has just 51 wickets at an average of 31.5 and an economy rate of 9.13 runs per over. What is even worse is that he has a batting average of just seven.

However, his failings of the past should now be consigned to a pack of bad memories. His performance in the very last segment of the Australian tour and now once again in the last segment of the English tour have finally exposed his true mettle and of what he is capable. So let us now keep our fingers crossed to watch him in action in the last segment of IPL 2021. With such an impressive Test record, Shardul Thakur is bound to be a changed player in the IPL; while he would be performing with confidence his opponents will definitely be facing him a sense of awe.

With a versatile performance in Tests, India can remain comforted that it has finally found a genuine all-rounder who is a pace bowler but there is also a sad part to the whole story; with Shardul Thakur turning 30 this month, India may have exhumed an all-round talent just a bit too late.

Credit : Gp Capt Achchyut Kumar (The Teenager Today)

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Sindhu took the lead in the first game at 20-19 with a swooping over-the-head winner and capitalised on that to wrap it up 21-19.

Carolina Marin knew she had a fight on her hands and bounced back with her trademark style of play in the second. The Spaniard predominantly used her strong forehand to rush Sindhu, proving equally adept at cross-court and down-the-line shots.

It kept Sindhu guessing and though the Indian managed to retrieve many, Marin had settled into a rhythm to win the game 21-12.

PV Sindhu vs Carolina Marin in the Olympics final was going down all the way to the wire.

The effect of the second game was felt in the third. Sindhu gave away a few easy points and Marin took a 9-5 lead. But Sindhu reeled off five consecutive points to level at 10-10. At this point, it was not going to be skills alone.

Carolina Marin did remarkably well to keep her composure as she went about slowly rebuilding the lead (16-14).

The Spaniard then shifted to top gear. Marin unleashed a barrage of powerful smashes to clinch a dream Olympic medal letting Sindhu win just one point in between. Carolina Marin won 19-21, 21-12, 21-15.

The world No. 1 shrieked in delight and fell to the floor, crying in celebration, having won the coveted Olympics gold to break the Asian domination and become the first European woman to win the grand title.

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Pusarla Venkata Sindhu is a sporting icon of the 21st century and a shining beacon for sportswomen in India. The shuttler has risen to the top of the world in the last decade, winning dozens of titles across the globe.

After becoming the first Indian woman to win a silver medal at the Olympics and gold at the BWF World Championships, PV Sindhu added another piece of metal to her glittering cabinet by winning her second straight Olympic medal - a bronze at Tokyo 2020, thus becoming the first Indian sportswoman to win two Olympic medals.

PV Sindhu’s consistency at the highest level can somewhat be attributed to the sporting genes she inherited from her parents. Born July 5, 1995, in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh to parents who were both volleyball players at the national level, sport already coursed through PV Sindhu’s veins since she was born.

While her parents may have been volleyball players, badminton caught PV Sindhu’s fancy after watching Pullela Gopichand in action, and by the age of eight, she was a regular at the sport.

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On October 10, 2021, world champions France defeated Spain 2-1 in the final of the UEFA Nations League to win the second edition of the tournament. They did it in style, as a number of key players notched up important milestones.

The Nations League final against Spain was Antoine Griezmann's 100th cap with the French national team. In terms of total French caps eamed so far. Griezmann now comes ninth, only behind Lilian Thuram, Hugo Lloris, Thierry Henry, Marcel Desailly, Olivier Giroud, Zinedine Zidane, Patrick Vieira and current coach Didier Deschamps.

In the Nations League semi-final against Belgium, Kylian Mbappe became the youngest player ever to reach 50 international caps with France. Mbappe reached the milestone at the age of 22 years and 291 days, almost two years younger than the previous record holder. Karim Benzema, who also scored in the Nations League final against Spain alongside Mbappe, had held the record previously, having reached 50 caps at the age of 24 years and 240 days.

With their victory against Spain, France became the second winner of the UEFA Nations League. The inaugural edition from 2018-19 was won by Portugal.

Including the four matches (two semi-finals, one third place play-off and one final) in the Nations League Final Four stage, a total of 164 matches were played in the 2020-21 edition of the competition. In these 164 matches, 376 goals were scored, accounting on average for a goal every 40 minutes and 2.3 goals per game.

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PV Sindhu became India's first woman silver medallist by claiming the coveted medal in the badminton event at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Seeded ninth, she was drawn in Group M. where she defeated Hungary's Laura Sarosi and Canada's Michelle Li. This put her into a Round of 16 clash against Taiwan's Tai Tzu-ying and Sindhu came out on top.

Sindhu next confronted second seeded Chinese opponent Wang Yihan in the quarter finals and came out victorious in a fiercely contested clash. She might have won in straight games, but the scoreline of 22-20. 21-19 showed how close the encounter was. In the semi-final against Japan's Nozomi Okuhara, Sindhu won the first set 21-19 and eased through the second set 21-10 to clinch the match in straight games.

She won the first game against Spaniard Carolina Marin 21-19 in the final as well, but went down in 83 minutes as Marin bounced back to win the next two games 21-12, 21-15.

Did you know?

Including Sindhu, seven Indian women have won a medal at the Olympics. The six others are weightlifters Kamam Malleswari and Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, badminton player Saina Nehwal, boxers Mary Kom and Lovlina Borgohain, and wrestler Sakshi Malik.

As Malleswari, Nehwal, Kom and Malik - Indian women who won their medals before Sindhu-won bronze medals in their respective sports. Sindhu was the first Indian woman to win a silver medal at the Olympics. She was joined by Chanu, who clinched silver at Tokyo 2020.

Saina Nehwal's bronze in 2012 and Sindhu's silver and bronze in 2016 and 2020 implies that India have now won three medals in badminton so far, putting the country ninth in the overall medals tally in badminton at the Olympics.

With her bronze at Tokyo 2020, Sindhu became the first Indian woman and only the second Indian to win two medals at individual events at the Olympics.

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