Kim Clijsters bags WTA Championships title

Kim Clijsters bagged her third WTA Championships title after defeating No. 1 ranking Caroline Wozniacki 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 in OHA. Clijsters was sidelined due to an infected foot, played in her first tournament since winning the U.S. Open in September. Clijsters earned $1.4 million with the win and she said that it was a tough match and glad to win it. Also she added that she doesn’t how many more years she is going to keep doing this. This is her 40th career title after victories in Brisbane, Miami, and Cincinnati and at the U.S. Open this year. She became the fifth player in WTA history to win the tournament three or more times. She also backed Wozniacki by assuring that she’s young, she’s No. 1 and she will win a Grand Slam if she keeps on working the way that she has been working.

Pakistan's Baseball Team @ Asian Games

Pakistan's baseball team is very serious in its preparation for the forthcoming 16th Asian Games starting on November 12 in Guangzhou, China. This event lasts for 6 days till November 17 and Pakistan is very keen to win in this event. There are on their way with a training camp at the Pakistan Sports Complex (PSC) with all prospective players from the national tournaments attending. The final team will be selected on the performance basis in the training camp. As of now, the Squad includes Mohammad Imtaiz, Sarfraz Ahmed, Ehsan Ullah, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Farooq, Zafar Iqbal, Mohammad Aseef, Zaheer Ahmed, Usman Azam, Salim Hyder, Dura Hussain, Musadaq Hanif, Hafiz Usman, Umair Bhatti, Mohammad Zubair, Irshad Ali, Tusif ahmed and Sumair Zawal.

 

Bangladesh's Victorious ODI series ever

This is the first time for Bangladesh to win the ODI series by 4-0 of five match series. Really it’s a bad time for New Zealand as they experienced a white wash lost against Bangladesh, which is considered to be under performing cricket nation. Of the 5 matches, Bangladesh won the first match by nine runs at Dhaka whereas the second match at Dhaka was abandoned due to rain. After then Bangladesh tasted the three consecutive victories. It won the third match by seven wickets, fourth match by nine runs and the fifth match by three runs. Rubel Hussain who captured four for 25 bagged the Man of the Match award and Shakib Al Hasan bagged Man of the Series award for his all round performance. As of now, Bangladesh won 61 ODIs in its history. There are some interesting facts at the end of the series like BB McCullum has an aggregate of 196 dismissals {189 catches and 07 stumpings} and against Bangladesh he has an aggregate of 30 dismissals {29 catches and 01 stumping} just one spot behind KC Sangakkara of Sri Lanka with 39 dismissals. DL Vettori became the 15th bowler to capture 275 plus wickets in one day games.

IPL scraps Punjab and Rajasthan

It’s been shocking news to hear two IPL teams have been ruled out of the world famous IPL Twenty20 tournament for breaching ownership rules. BCCI terminated franchises of Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab who were active participants in first three editions of the Twenty20 tournament, and of course Rajasthan Royals were the first to hold the IPL title. Also it has warned Kochi franchise to resolve their ownership issues soon to get out of trouble. BCCI gave no specific statements so far regarding the breaches and it is known that former IPL chairman Lalit Modi was earlier accused of having financial connections with these two teams. BCCI honorary secretary N Srinivasan told reporters that the decision to terminate the contract of Punjab and Rajasthan franchises were taken purely based on legal opinion we received and the breaches committed by these franchises. Rajasthan Royals was acquired by Manoj Badale, Lachlan Murdoch and co for $67 million. Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra paid approximately US $15.4 million for an 11.7% stake later. The big faces were Shane Warne, Shane Watson, Graeme Smith, Yusuf Pathan in Royals. Kings XI Punjab was bought by Ness Wadia, Mohit Burman and actor Preity Zinta for $ 76 million. Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Brett Lee, Shaun Marsh, Irfan Pathan and Yuvraj Singh were the big faces in it. Let’s wait and watch the future actions and auctions of IPL-4.

Common Wealth Games - Opening Ceremony

After a lot of allegations and criticism by media, India has come up with one of the grandest ever opening ceremonies at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi showcasing to the world the spirit of the games, Indian culture and tradition, music, rhythms, dance, colors, diversity of its culture and lifestyles. The Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, the representative of the Queen, inaugurated the opening ceremony of the 2010 Commonwealth Games (#19 CWG). More than 60,000 spectators with the participants and officials from 71 countries enjoyed the whole celebration.

The huge helium filled aerostat balloon of diameter 40 meters x 80 meters x 12 meters made at a cost of Rs.70 crore was a major attraction at the opening ceremony. While the whole stadium was sparked with colorful dances and music with huge puppets, the balloon was suspended above the main stage at a height of 25 meters. The lights were programmed to bounce off mirrors on the aerostat while sound effects of the magnitude of 500,000 watts made the whole crowd dancing. This shows the technological advancements in India apart than tradition and culture. 

Chennai Super Kings - King of Kings

Airtel Champions League has come to an end with a wonderful closing ceremony. This huge tournament starts on 10^th Sep 2010 and lasted for 17days with huge crowd, fun and entertainment. It has been a great show in terms of boundaries, wickets, thrills and of course super over too. The champion teams from India, South Africa, Australia, West Indies and New Zealand with a total of 10teams had played and finally Chennai Super Kings sealed the Champions League Twenty20 winners with their eight-wicket victory over Warriors in the grand finale in Johannesburg. It is the first team from India to bag this title.

In the most expected final match, Warriors won the toss and had got off to a violent start with bat. It was a reverse sweep by Davy Jacobs that changed the entire complexion of the game. After his wicket, the game came into the Chennai’s control with tremendous bowling performance from R Ashwin, Muttiah Muralitharan and L Balaji. They restricted the Warriors to 128, which was never going to be tough to chase. M Vijay and Michael Hussey played both pace and spin very well providing a steady and solid start with assured knocks shutting warriors out of the contest. When Vijay and Suresh Raina fell in quick succession, Dhoni did his job well. CSK were richer by USD 2.5 millions for winning the second edition of the tournament, their second crown in five months after their IPL triumph in April. Warriors received USD 1.3 million for finishing runners-up. It was a real emotional moment as this was their last match playing as a unit as they may lose some players in the auctions. Dhoni thanked the whole crowd, their coach Stephen Fleming, Hayden, Muralitharan and Hussey for constantly helping the youngsters.

 Murali Vijay is the Man of the Match for scoring 58 runs off 53 balls. Ravichandran Ashwin is the Man of the Series for taking 13 wickets in the competition. Vijay wins the golden bat for becoming the highest run scorer in the competition. Ashwin wins the Golden wickets for being the highest wicket taker in the competition. The Super Kings are now the Emperors of the T20 world. This tournament has produced some entertaining cricket, Chennai were clinical right throughout and it's been a joy covering this.

FLINTOFF says 'Bye' to Cricket

Andrew Flintoff, usually called as Freddie by all with love, a great asset to England Cricket team in all formats has announced his retirement after suffering with injuries. In the international cricketing career, he has played 79 Tests for England, with five centuries on his way to 3,845 runs at an average of 31.77 and 226 wickets at an average of 32.78. He has taken 52 catches of which most of them in the slips. In his 141 ODI matches, he scored 3394 at an average of 32.01 at a strike rate of 88.82. he had his test debut against South Africa on 1998 and ODI debut against Pakistan on 1999. He was one of those loveable rogues and an iconic figure within the game and his reputation was gained as much off the pitch as on it. He was voted BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year in 2005 for his role in England's famous Ashes victory. Unfortunately, he had been plagued with injuries for much of his career, most of them affecting his back and knees. The latest of his injuries though, which required yet another operation on his knees, proved one too many and after consulting with medical advisers he decided to quit his career in cricket. In his final note, he said “My body has told me it's time to stop.I would like to thank my family, Lancashire, England, all my sponsors, friends and advisers for all the help and support they have given me throughout my career." Australian Captain Ricky Ponting was surprised to hear his retirement adding that he's been a great figure in the game. The way he's gone about his cricket, the way he's played the game and how much he's enjoyed the battle - probably particular in Ashes cricket - is something that's been very fun to be a part of for me. Freddie was the higher paid cricketer next to Kevin Pieterson in IPL. He was a fierce competitor till the end. His innings with Pietersen against Australia in Ashes, 2005 is an unmemorable moment. Let us wish him good luck for all his steps in the rest of his life.

First Indian in London Olympics

Shooter Narang becomes first Indian to qualify for London Olympics. He won the bronze in the 10 metre air rifle event at the World Championship in Munich and became the first Indian to set for the 2012 London Olympics. World No.2 Narang shot 597 in the qualifying and 102 in the final round for a total of 699 to win the bronze. the most expected Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra finished with 25th spot which disappoints almost everyone in his nation and also he failed to qualify for the final round. Italian Niccolo Campriani bagged the gold, who shot a total of 702.5 (599 qualifying + 103.5 final) while Hungarian Peter Sidi bagged the silver with 700.4 points (599 qualifying + 101.4 final). As of now, Narang is India’s best bet in the Commonwealth Games He shot the bronze in his pet 10m air rifle event at the Beijing World Cup and qualified for the World Championships.

Brewer in Bulls

Ronnie Brewer confirmed that he has agreed to a three-year contract with the Chicago Bulls. The deal reunites Brewer with former Utah teammates Carlos Boozer and Kyle Korver, who became Bulls earlier this month. Brewer finished last season with Memphis after being dealt from Utah at the trade deadline in February. Because of a strained hamstring, he played in only five games with the Grizzles.  The three-year deal with the Bulls is worth of $12.5 million. Brewer figures to get a chance to start at shooting guard in Chicago alongide All-Star Derrick Rose.

Serena Out of Upcoming Tournaments

The top-ranked women's player, Serena Williams will miss three tournaments leading to the U.S. Open, the WTA Tour as she needs surgery on her right foot after cutting it on a broken glass at a restaurant last week. Williams has withdrawn from tournaments in Istanbul, Cincinnati and Montreal. She said that she was as upset as she could not play in the upcoming events because of this foot surgery.  Her Washington Kastles team said she cut the bottom of her foot and needed stitches. On July 10, Williams attended the wedding of Denver Nuggets star in New York. In a wedding photo of Carmelo Anthony, she appeared with two bandages on the top of her right foot. Williams won her fourth Wimbledon crown and 13th major title in July. She lost in the French Open quarterfinals in June before capturing Wimbledon. The Rogers Cup in Montreal begins Aug. 16, and the U.S. Open starts Aug 30.