Sports Smarter

The India New Zealand ODI series ended with a cracker of a contest in Kanpur.This blog is about the key takeaways from this series. As expected the Inia New Zealand series was a very exciting series.India managed to come back pretty well after loosing the first ODI in Mumbai. The best performer in the series was Virat Kohli with two hundreds in a three match series.He went past Ricky Ponting in most number of ODI hundreds and stands only behind the great Sachin Tendulkar.The next performer was Dinesh Kartik.A 37 in the first ODI and a 64 in the second,he surely has overcome his habit of hurrying and giving his wicket.His two not out innings must have given him some confidence.Among bowlers it was Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah.Especially in the last ODI Bumrah was great.He got his length correct in the most pressure situation. Among disappointments were Shikhar Dhawan.Just a 68 in the second ODI.Let me tell you he is playing in place of Rahane and KL Rahul.He has been st...

Each and every government in the world spends a huge sum of money in sports.This blog will answer why a government should spend on sports? There are various arguments for this statement-: Job creation: With each and every sport there are a lot of people involved other than the players themselves.Each stadium built requires many unskilled workers for its maintenance.Hence money from the richer players goes to these unskilled people of the country. Also with every sport there comes a big federation,its board,its members.This all are job positions that will not exist without sports.With every stadium comes the role of architect,engineers etc. Inspirational role models: Every popular sportsperson is an inspirational and emotional journey in itself.A poor person in a slum can easily connect to a sportsperson who has been brought up in similar circumstances.Also politicians,actors and other eminent people constantly keep on changing their stance ,their image but sport...

After    days long tournament,finally the top two most deserving teams have made it to the finals.This blog is about the final match prediction and analysis. Gujrat FortuneGiants and Patna Pirates will be battling it out for the finals in Chennai on 28 October.Where Patna Pirates have already won a season of Pro Kabaddi,for Gujrat it is the first ocassion.The new franchaise has managed to do well in its first season itself.The defense of Gujrat has been the main reason of its amazing journey.Abozar Mighani has been exceptional for the team.He has been the key player in defense of his team.Fasal Atlachali,Amit have provided a good support to the defense.Gujrat FortuneGiants stand second in the list of most tackle points.It has been the key and will be the key for this team in the finals. For Patna Pradeep Narwal has been the match winner.He already tops the list of most raid points.None of the teams have been able to find out the key to this amazing player.His 'dupk...

Tigers Woods is all set to make a comeback in golf.This blog is about this legend and his comeback. After a long halt,the most celebrated golf player is ready to make a comeback to professional golf.Tiger Woods is a 14 time major champion.Along with this he also has 74 titles to his name.All these records make Tiger Woods one of the greatest golf players of all time. But since 2013 his carrier has taken a dip.He has failed to win majors and even make a notable performance in the major events. He has constantly been surrounded by controversies.In 2017 he was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.Also injuries have constantly been haunting this legend.He had constancy been suffering from back injury.This is the reason he had to withdraw from the February tournament.Also elbow injuries have been prevalent. But one needs to take a bow for Tiger Woods for making a comeback at the age of 41.In a recent tweet Hank Haney confirmed Tiger's fitness. Over the...

India will be playing a ODI and T-20 series against New Zealand from tomorrow i.e 22 October.This blog is about the the various possibilities and predictions about the ODI series. Starting with the squads India              :Virat Kohli(c), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey,                                  Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep                                   Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur  New Zealand :Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, Kane Williamson(c), Ross Taylor, Colin de                                             Grandho...

Starting with a new series i.e Sporting Moments,the first one needs to be an event that is one of the biggest display of sportsman spirit.The 1992 Barcelona Olympics is the most appropriate one to start the series. Derek Redmond is a British runner who used to compete in 400m event.He broke the british national record in the 400m event in 1985.He was one of the favourites to win the 400m race in the Barcelona Olympics.He already had won a gold in Tokyo and and silver medal in the Rome World Championships.Infact he had clocked the fastest time in the first round. In the semi finals,he started the race pretty well but within 250 m he pulled his hamstring and eventually was not able to run.Now unlike any other athlete he did not just stopped at the point but he started hopping towards the finish line. The organisers immediately arranged a stretcher but Derek was determined to complete the race.At the same time his father and coach came to his help.But he convinced him t...

Last one week has been quiet happening for the tennis world.From Federer-Nadal final to the comeback of Maria Sharapova,the last week had a lot to offer. Starting with the most talked point i.e.the Federer -Nadal faceoff. It was fouth time this year and first time in Shanghai that both these legends were playing against each other for the title.But this time it was not so difficult for Federer to get past the challenge Nadal.Federer won in straight sets 6-3;6-4.The match was not that close but thanks to the hype that helped the publicity of this match.Federer broke Nadal in the very first game and send out a statement for the rest of the match.What followed this was complete dominance.It was the fifth time in a row that Federer beat Nadal and second time that he won the China Masters crown.Federer now has send a clear message to everyone about the rest of the season.This has made Federer a clear contender for the ATP World Tour Finals starting from 12 November. The nex...

ICC announced the World Test series that would be played from next year onwards.This blog is about this series and how it is going to affect the game. ICC announced the first World Test Championship.The tournament will start in year 2019 after the ICC cricket World Cup to be held in England.This is a very good move by ICC to make the oldest form of the game popular.The innaugral season will be played by top 9 teams.What this means is that the teams will also start focussing on test cricket as much as One-Day cricket.More test series are expected to be played next year and in the coming period.This will surely improve the game on the whole as Test Cricket is still the toughest form for both bowlers and batsman. Coming to the format. The tournament will last for two years ending in April 2021 where top two teams will play the final The tournament will start after the 2019 World and will consist of 9 teams Teams will play six series,three at home and three away from home The ...

The T-20 series between India and Australia has come to a very interesting point.This blog is the prediction of the last match between India and Australia. Finally after 30 days it looks like an India vs Australia cricket match.Australians who are known for their fighting spirit have been pretty off color in their tour against India.With the memories of 2013 series,what we expected was a fighting performance by the Australian team but the series ended up as a one sided series in the favour of India.But thank God there was much more to look in the T-20 series.After a rain halted first match victory the visitors bounced back strongly by winning the next match that too pretty comfortably. Now what has Australia done right to give such a great performance.First of all Jason Behrendorff,what a find he has been.He reminds me of Mitchell Starc.Secondly they took a very wise descision by promoting Henriques up the order.Travis Head and Moises Henriques played the spinners very well,what...

The hockey Asia Cup will be starting from 11 October.This blog is about the various chances and possibilities in the tournament. The hockey asia cup 2017 will see teams like India, Pakistan, South Korea as prime contenders to win this tournament.It is also a big opportunity for India and Pakistan to bring back the old glorious days. India has managed to win this tournament in 2003 and 2007,Pakistan has won this event in the years 1982,1985and 1989.But The biggest challenge in front of India is South Korea which has dominated this event in the recent times winning the event in 1993, 1999,2009 and 2013.Last time also South Korea defied India from winning this tournament. Though India is highest ranked in this tournament i. e six but has a tricky pool.It will have to face Pakistan in an mouth watering encounter and also Japan which has a potential of being an underdog.Hosts Bangladesh may also pose some challenges to the Indian team.While from the other pool South Korea are clear f...

Ever since cricket started T-20 cricket is something that has revolutionized this game.This blog is about the shortest form of cricket and how it has managed to change the game. T-20 cricket started in the year 2005 with the first match played between Australia and New Zealand.Intially this format was opposed by most of the teams.The extent was that in the innaugral T-20 world no senior player went to the World Cup from India.But after India won the first T-20 Worldcup,this format became extremely popular and IPL added to its popularity.Today it has managed to increase the popularity of this sport to a great extent.The way it has transformed the game is quiet amazing. Scoring runs has become more easier,the fielding standards have gone up,the money involved in this game has increased a lot.Scoring 200 runs in 20 overs was far more than a dream before T-20 came.Now it happens on quiet a regular basis.Infact it has also changed the way One Day cricket is played.Today there is a co...

India vs Australia T-20 series starts from 7 October.After a predicted comfortable victory in the ODI series it would be interesting to see the result in the T-20 series.This blog is about the team for this series and series prediction. After the one sided ODI series the Australians must be trying to bounce back in the T-20 series.The Indian team has got a couple of changes in the T-20 team.Ajinkya Rahane has been sent back and Shikhar Dhawan has been included in the team.Dinesh Kartik has been included in the team.Finally a n excellent performance in the domestic cricket has been appreciated by the selectors.This is a very nice pick.The selectors have given a message to other players that if you are performing well at the domestic matches,you would be rewarded.Also Ashish Nehra or fondly called "Nehra ji" has been included in the side.What a journey has it been for Nehra ji,from 12 surgeries back to the team,one needs some courage to do so. Several good players were k...

The 17th edition of the football world cup is going to start from 6 October and is going to be hosted in India for the first time.This blog is about this mega event and various possibilities and chances of teams especially Indian team. There are 24 teams which are divided into four groups.The top two teams directly qualify for the round of 16 while the 4 of the best thirds will make it to the knockouts.Nigeria has won this competition 5 times and is the most successful team in this competition.The tournament is going to be played in six stadiums.Salt Lake stadium being the largest with the capacity of 66,600. As far as India is concerned they are kept in pool A.The chances of qualification are quite challenging as they have two former champions in their group Brazil(1997,1999,2003) and Mexico(2005,2011).Other two teams like Germany and Mali have been performing quite well in this event.Mali was the runner up in the last edition of this tournament and Germany also has 3 medals ...