(General Awareness For Bank's Exams) Sports

January - 2015

Footballer Gasan Magomedov shot dead

•  A 20-year-old footballer for Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala has been shot dead near his home in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus.

•  Gasan Magomedov was driving into his home village when his car was sprayed with machine gun fire and he died from his wounds while being transported to hospital, Anzhi said in a statement.

•  No arrests have been made and the motive is unclear, the club said. Magomedov was a regular in midfield for Anzhi’s youth and reserve teams.
  S. Shrikrishna wins maiden title

•  Tamil Nadu’s S. Shrikrishna gave ample evidence of his emerging status by winning his maiden National sub-junior billiards title, upsetting top seed Ishpreet Singh Chadha of Maharashtra 326-283 in an hour-long final at the BRC.

•  Shrikrishna, who is competing in all three sections, quietly dominated proceedings beginning with a break of 54 on his very first visit to the table.

•  The early onslaught would have unnerved any other player, but not Ishpreet. From 9-104 down, the brave Mumbai lad staged a remarkable recovery to take the lead 193-185, with a break of 52 and many smaller ones.

•  The second seed came up with a break of 55 just after the halfway mark to consolidate the early gains to be at 240-193.

•  The 18-year-old came close to overhauling the free-stroking Shrikrishna (255-251), but the TN boy produced small but useful breaks of 20, 17 and 24 late in the game to run away a deserving winner.

Axar & Jadeja get the nod for ICC World Cup

•  After obtaining the opinion of its NCA-attached physiotherapist Nitin Patel, the BCCI has selected all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja in its 15-member team for the ICC World Cup to be played in Australia and New Zealand in February-March.

•  The 26-year-old from Saurashtra, who has played 109 One-Day Internationals, returned home from Australia in the last week of December to remedy the damaged shoulder of his bowling hand.

•  He is undergoing rehabilitation at the BCCI’s NCA set-up with SRMC, Chennai. “He’s doing wonderfully well. He should be able to hit training after 10 days,” said BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel at the first team announcement press conference in six years.

•  Patel also said that fast bowler Ishant Sharma had been laid low by a minor knee niggle and hence was not included in the XI for the fourth and final Test at Sydney. Taking into account the heavy workload for the likes of Ishant,

•  Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Shami in the four-Test series and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (he’s just recovered from an injury), the BCCI has made available to captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni two additional seamers for the tri-series in which the third team will be England.

Ishpreet Singh wins maiden title

•  Ishpreet Singh Chadha of Maharashtra won his maiden National sub-junior snooker title at the BRC, outplaying Shobhit Sethi of Punjab 3-0 in a final that lasted a little over an hour.

•  After winning a tough first frame, the 18-year old Ishpreet wrapped up the next two in quick time, winning 46-42, 71-31, 67-04.

•  “I have been trying to win this for the past five years. I have been training under (former Asian champion) Yasin Merchant for the past one year and this is a good result for me,” said Ishpreet.

•  The match was devoid of any big break, but it was Ishpreet’s consistency that proved decisive. Earlier, top seed S. Shrikrishna of Tamil Nadu — who won the billiards title beating Ishpreet — was shocked in the quarterfinals by Rohan Sahani of Maharashtra.

Indian weight lifters end with 14 medals

•  Indian weightlifters ended their campaign on a high by bagging a total of 14 medals, including six gold in the 17th Asian Youth (boys & girls), 22nd Junior Women and 29th Junior Men Asian Weightlifting Championships at Doha, Qatar.

•  Even those six lifters, who failed to make it to the podium, finished within the top six positions in their respective body weight categories.

•  India won a silver on the last day of the competition as Swapna Priya Baruah ended second in the Junior Women 69kg division.

•  Ragala Venkat Rahul clinched a gold in Junior Men 85kg with a total lift of 324kg -143kg in snatch and 181kg clean & jerk. Two Junior Women lifters - S Thasana Chanu (58kg) and Punam Yadav (63kg) - settled for a bronze each, while Kh Nungshiton also claimed the third spot in Youth Girls 58kg.

Sharapova moved into Brisbane International semifinals

•  Maria Sharapova moved into the Brisbane International semifinals with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Carla Suarez Navarro, weathering a challenging opening few games before taking the momentum away from her Spanish rival.

•  Top-seeded Sharapova dropped her opening service game and then needed eight breakpoints before converting for a 2-1 lead. From there, it was straight-forward progress.

•  The reigning French Open champion has dropped just five games across her opening two matches of the season and next faces Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, who came from a set and a break down to beat third-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.

•  Third-seeded Milos Raonic moved into the men’s quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-4 second-round win over Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan. Roger Federer was scheduled to play a night match.

Indian team needs to sort out its bowling combinations says Srinath

•  Former India pace spearhead Javagal Srinath has raised doubts about the team’s bowling attack ahead of the upcoming ODI cricket World Cup though he has rated the defending champions’ batting line-up as the strongest going into the showpiece event.

•  “India must sort out its bowling combinations and resources at the earliest. It needs someone to lead the attack and it needs to zero in on the bowlers who Dhoni and the team management believe will play in all the matches of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015,” Srinath wrote in an ICC column.

•  The 45-year-old Karnataka cricketer has played in three 50-over World Cups, from 1992 to the 2003 edition in South Africa. “At this point, Bhuvneshwar Kumar seems the best bet to do that (lead the attack), unless Ishant Sharma finds his line and length and leads from the front.

•  India’s bowling form will be thoroughly tested during the tri-series preceding the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015,” Srinath wrote. He added, “Midway through this tri-series, Dhoni should have decided what his first choice bowling attack will be for the duration of ICC’s pinnacle event.

•  There will be some experimentation early on, but by the time the tri-series is over, India should have its best 11 in place, the team it believes will take it all the way to the title.”

•  Among the spinners, Srinath said Ashwin is an “automatic choice” in the playing XI. “The balance of the team will determine whether if India will play a second spinner or an additional medium-pacer.” He heaped praise on the Indian batting line-up.

•  “India’s batting is well set with the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Suresh Raina, not to mention MS Dhoni himself,” Srinath said.

•  “This is amply reflective of the strength at the top of the batting order, so perhaps the selectors might have felt that keeping Vijay in the squad was a bit of a luxury they could not afford.

Poland wins Hopman Cup

•  Poland has won its first ever Hopman Cup title, beating the USA 2-1 in the final. Agnieszka Radwanska showed why she should be considered among the favourites for the Australian Open later this month by beating the world No. 1 Serena Williams in the final.

•  The world No. 5 Radwanska teamed up with Hopman debutant Jerzy Janowicz to beat the US pairing of Serena Williams and John Isner 2-1.
  Avinash emerges champion in National junior snooker

•  Avinash Kumar continued his giant-killing spree to win his maiden National junior snooker title at the BRC. The 20-year-old Delhi cueist won all his round-robin semifinal league games, losing just three frames.

•  “He played spectacular snooker. His extraordinary show has caught the attention of everyone in this National meet,” said former World billiards champion Manoj Kothari.

•  “We will try and get him scholarship from one of the oil companies,” he informed. Avinash, whose parents migrated to Delhi from Patna, did not drop a single frame.

•  Playing his second league game against Hritik Jain from Madhya Pradesh, Avinash was thrashed 1-63 in the opening frame. “I came to the venue late and hardly had time to warm-up,” he said.

•  “Though I won the second frame I was still not be able to focus well. I got my rhythm back in the fourth and there was no stopping me.” Avinash lost the first frame to S. Shrikrishna of Tamil Nadu 11-72 in the final league game only to take the next four in a row.

India have slipped to 7th place in Test rankings

•  India have slipped a place to be seventh in the latest ICC Test rankings after losing the four-match away series against Australia 0-2. India’s slide in the rankings come after the two fighting draws which were not enough to prevent another series loss overseas.

•  India captain Virat Kohli however has gained three places to be 12th in the batsmen standings after amassing 692 runs in the eight innings Down Under. His Australian counterpart Steven Smith has reached a career-high fourth after piling up 769 runs in the series at a staggering average of 128.16.

•  Amongst the bowlers, pacer Mohammed Shami has risen seven places to a career-high 31st place after taking match figures of six for 145 runs in Sydney, while Australia’s Mitchell Starc has moved up nine places to 33rd after returning five wickets for 142 runs.

•  Amongst the other bowlers from the Sydney Test are Australia duo Shane Watson and Josh Hazlewood, up to 38th and a career-high 46th respectively.

Railways’ teams win in contrasting styles

•  It was double delight for Railways at the 63rd senior national volleyball championship as it clinched the men’s and women’s titles beating Tamil Nadu and Kerala respectively.

•  While the women’s final was a cakewalk, the men’s title-round will probably go down in the history of Indian volleyball as one of the greatest comebacks in the finals of the national championship.

•  Railways was down two sets and staring down the barrel before it saved three match points in the fourth set and went on to turn it around and win the match 19-25, 18-25, 25-23, 26-24, 15-9.

•  Defending champion TN had no one to blame but itself for the result — letting its crown slip when it had one hand on it with some poor defence work and unforced errors in the final three sets.

•  For Railways, attacker S. Prabagaran was the star performer of the day. He, along with all-rounder Manu Joseph, kept the visitors in the game with some attacking play.

Women’s hockey camp begins

•  The Indian women’s hockey team began its preparatory camp for a Test series against Spain at the National Stadium.

•  Goalkeepers: Yogita Bali, Savita, Rajni Etimarpu.

Brett Lee announced retirement from all forms of cricket

•  Former Australia fast bowler Brett Lee announced his pending retirement from all forms of cricket after a 20-year career.

•  The 38-year-old pacer quit international cricket in July 2012, but had been a Twenty20 regular, both in the Indian Premier League and the domestic competition in Australia.

•  Lee, who made the announcement at the Sydney Cricket Ground, remains the equal leading wicket-taker for Australia in ODIs with Glenn McGrath, with 380 in 221 appearances. Lee also took 310 wickets in 76 Tests for Australia.

Advani to meet Sitwala in National billiards final

• Six-time champion, Pankaj Advani, will take on PSPB teammate Dhruv Sitwala in the 82nd National billiards championship final at the BRC.

•  Advani overcame Siddharth Parikh of Railways 4-2 and Sitwala, looking to win his maiden crown, registered a thrilling 4-3 victory over B. Bhaskar of Karnataka for the third entry into the title round.

•  Advani took three hours to tame Parikh. An unfinished break of 148 gave Advani the first frame at 150-37 and two small breaks of 50 and 66 ensured 2-0 lead (150-87).

•  Parikh compiled an unfinished 107 to neutralise Advani’s lead of 114 to take the frame at 114-150. The 12-time world champion hit back with vengeance in the fourth.

•  A lead of 52 disappeared as Advani showed his cueing prowess with a terrific unfinished 154 to make it 3-1. It was a close fifth frame when Pankaj missed a fairly easy canon at 140-138 and Parikh ensured 2-3 in his favour.

•  The master of green baize, however, proved his class with two good breaks of 70 and 53 to take the frame at 150-45. “I am glad that even on a day when I was not at my best I managed to pull it off,” Advani said.

•  “Full credit to Siddharth who has come into top four after ten years. I am happy that I am through to the final,” a relieved Advani said.
  Sania wins first title of the season in Sydney Open doubles

• India’s Sania Mirza won her first title of the season and 23rd of her career when she and Bethanie Mattek-Sands shocked top-seeded Americans Abigail Spears and Raquel Kops-Jones in the summit clash of the Apia International.

•  The unseeded Indo-American combine humbled the top seeds 6-3, 6-3 in just 69 minutes.

India set for tri-series with one eye on World Cup

•  All set to defend its cricket World Cup crown in less than a month, India will get its preparations underway with the aim to find the right combination for the marquee event when it takes on Australia in the ongoing ODI tri-series.

•  While this tri-series provides the perfect setting for experimentation, the need of the hour is to get a settled combination going ahead to instil confidence in the side.

•  Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni will return to international cricket after a little over two weeks since his Test retirement at the same venue, and he will have some decisions to make. The first order of business will be to make a firm choice about the opening combination.

•  Ahead of Sunday’s game, the team management has failed to specify whether it will be Ajinkya Rahane or Rohit Sharma pairing up with Shikhar Dhawan at the top of the order, or indeed whether a third possibly surprising combination might be thrown up.

•  Unlike the team’s preparations ahead of any Test match, its net sessions for an ODI do not throw up any suggestive patterns and it was the same on Saturday as well. In no particular order then, all batsmen enjoyed a decent hit in the nets including Ambati Rayudu and Stuart Binny.

•  Among the bowlers, playing two spinners is definitely par for the course for India, with R. Ashwin and Axar Patel slated to take up those spots.

IPTL will help in expanding the frontiers of tennis

•  Former English tennis star Tim Henman feels the newly launched International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) is the best thing to happen in Asia, where the sport is yet to pick up.

•  Henman, who was in the city to conduct tennis clinics for trainees adopted by the ‘HSBC Road to Wimbledon’ junior development programme, said the tournament conceived by Indian star Mahesh Bhupathi will surely help in expanding the boundaries of the sport.

Starc sets up Australia’s win

•  Paceman Mitchell Starc took six for 43 to help Australia to a four-wicket victory over India, despite a brilliant century by Rohit Sharma.

•  Rohit’s 138 at the MCG enabled India post a competitive 267 for eight after electing to bat.

•  However, Australian opener Aaron Finch countered Rohit’s century with a match-winning knock of his own, making 96 as Australia reached 269 with four wickets in hand and six balls to spare.

•  He received great support from Steve Smith (47) as the pair put on 101 for the third wicket.
  IPL media rights: BCCI invites tenders

•  The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has invited bids for media rights relating to the future editions of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

•  The upcoming Pepsi IPL will be broadcast across the world through every technological medium available, thus reaching out to an even larger audience, BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel said in a statement.

•  Bids should be submitted by February 3, at a meeting of the BCCI Marketing Committee, at which time it is intended that the bids will be opened, evaluated and the tender awarded in the presence of bidders.

Panel to decide penalty

•  The Supreme Court formed a three-member committee to decide on the punishment against Chennai Super Kings (CSK and Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) betting scandal involving co-owners of the two teams.

•  Former Chief Justice India R. M. Lodha will head the committee that includes former Supreme Court judges Ashok Bhan and R. V. Raveendran.

•  The committee has been given six months for to further investigate and come to a decision regarding the allegations against Mr. Kundra and Mr. Meiyappan. The two teams face the possibility of being scratched from the high profile domestic T20 tournament.

•  The Board will have to elect its new president in six months’ time and N. Srinivasan can contest only if he lets go of his commercial interest in CSK. It is East Zone’s turn to have a president. However, BCCI rules allow a candidate from outside the zone to contest if there is a proposer and seconder a from that zone.

•  It is compulsory for the candidate to have attended two Annual General Meetings of the Board apart from being a principal office-bearer.

New Zealand wins series

•  New Zealand wrapped up its one-day series against Sri Lanka with a game to spare when Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor orchestrated a 120-run win in game six.

•  Williamson (97) and Taylor (96) provided the backbone of New Zealand's 315 for eight in 50 overs and Sri Lanka was all out for 195 in the 41st over.

•  The win puts New Zealand 4-1 up in the seven-match series with one game washed out.

•  Only Kumar Sangakkara looked at ease in Sri Lanka's run chase with 81 off 66 deliveries, but none of the other recognised batsmen were able to get past 30 as New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson stamped his mark on the game.

•  Anderson smacked 40 from 28 balls to support Williamson and Taylor during New Zealand's innings and then took four for 52 with the ball as the Sri Lankan batsmen again showed a lack of fight.

Gilchrist and Ryder to be inducted into Australian Cricket Hall of Fame

•  Celebrated wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist and late former captain and selector Jack Ryder will be inducted into Australian Cricket Hall of Fame at the annual Allan Border Medal ceremony .

•  ACHoF chairman David Crow today announced that Gilchrist and Ryder were the selection committee’s choice for induction this year.

•  The ACHoF recently expanded its criteria to include a player’s impact off the field following his playing career.

•  Gilchrist said he was humbled by his nomination alongside many of the greatest players to represent Australia.

•  Ryder was Don Bradman’s first Test captain but it is their association off the field for more than two decades as selectors which had a far greater impact on the game.

•  A tall and aggressive batsman and lively medium pace bowler, Ryder played 20 Tests for Australia and 20 years for Victoria.
  Boxing India to introduce new league, ranking system

•  In order to work in line with International Boxing Association (AIBA)’s ambitious leagues such as AIBA Open Boxing (AOB), AIBA Pro Boxing (APB) and World Series of Boxing (WSB), Boxing India (BI) has decided to launch the Indian Series of Boxing (ISB) and a national ranking system in the second half of the year.

•  The apex body has been making an effort for the synergy of amateur and professional boxing by allowing pugilists from professional leagues to qualify for the Olympics. BI’s new step will help the Indian boxers be part of the reforms “that will bring fresh value to boxers and boxing in India”.

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