Sports

written by Atharva Jori Chess world champion D Gukesh of India laid down the marker on Day 1 of the Clutch Chess Champions Showdown 2025 at the Saint Louis Chess Club, leading the standings ahead of Magnus Carlsen with four points from six rapid games on Monday. The Clutch Chess Champions Showdown 2025 is the highest-rated chess tournament of the year, comprising the world’s top three players – world No 1 Carlsen (2839), world No 2 Hikaru Nakamura (2816), world No 3 Fabiano Caruana (2789) and the world champion Gukesh (2752), who is currently ranked 11th in the FIDE ranking. Gukesh, who had been struggling for form recently and dropped out of the top 10 in the world earlier this year after a horrific FIDE Grand Swiss, stunned the highest-rated field in the world on Day 1 to emerge as the frontrunner despite losing his opening match to Carlsen. Gukesh, who isn’t known for his prowess in the rapid format, lost the opener to Carlsen in 40 moves despite playing with white pieces. He qui...

written by Atharva Jori In the latest episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati 17, Himanshu Shekhar takes the hot seat with host Amitabh Bachchan. He is from Khagaria, Bihar and is a station master in Fatehpur. He uses audience poll lifeline for Rs 5000 question: In which Hindi film do Kalpana and Sanjay SInghania, characters played by Asin and Aamir Khan, appear? A. Chak De India, B. Ghajini, C. Devdas, D. Taare Zameen Par. He correctly answers option B with the help of the poll. Himanshu shares a funny incident, “Once my friends and I went somewhere to give exams and reached that place very late at night. We were looking for a stay but didn’t find any. We thought we would sleep on the platform. With the money saved, we thought of having dinner. We went to a good restaurant and ate. At the end before giving bill, they brought us warm water with lemon on side, we thought it is complimentary. We drank it, adding salt to it. When we narrated this incident, someone told us that it was meant fo...

written by Atharva Jori India (IND) vs Australia (AUS) 1st ODI Live Cricket Score Updates: Australia have taken a 1-0 lead in the three-match ODI series against India after chasing down India’s target of 131 in 21.1 overs in a rain-interrupted game in Perth’s Optus Stadium. Mitchell Marsh was Australia’s rock with the bat, staying unbeaten on 46 off 52 balls at the end. IND vs AUS 1st ODI Live Cricket Score, India vs Australia Match Live Score Updates: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill registered low scores as India got off to a poor start after Australia elected to bowl first. Earlier in the first innings, India got off to a horrendous start after Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and new One-Day International skipper Shubman Gill fell inside PowerPlay with none of them going past the individual score of 10 runs after Australia invited India to bat first in the first ODI on Sunday. The focus was on Kohli and Rohit, who have already retired from T20Is and Tests. This was the first ...

written by Atharva Jori One of the greats of the game, Virat Kohli, made a much-anticipated return to Indian cricket as he lined up to take on Australia in the first ODI of the three-match series on Sunday. Ahead of the toss at Perth on Sunday, Kohli sat down with former India head coach Ravi Shastri and Australia great Adam Gilchrist for a candid chat that included talks over his retirement from two formats, family time in the United Kingdom, and the plan going forward. During the chat, Kohli was asked about the last four-to-five-month period, most of which he spent in the United Kingdom with his wife, Anushka Sharma, and the kids. After the conclusion of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 campaign with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in May, Kohli flew straight to the UK and returned to India only before his flight to Australia. "Yeah, as I was just saying, just catching up on life. You know, I haven't been able to do anything for the last, I don't know how ma...

written by Atharva Jori India’s Anmol Kharb entered her maiden BWF Super 500 semifinals after beating Amalie Schulz in the women’s singles quarterfinal at the Arctic Open 2025 tournament in Vantaa, Finland, on Friday. The Indian, currently 62nd in the women’s singles BWF rankings, beat the Danish world No. 63 21-15, 21-14 in just 36 minutes to progress.Her deepest run in a BWF Tour tournament was a runner-up finish at the Guwahati Masters Super 100 last year. She will face either top seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan or another Danish shuttler, eighth seed Mia Blichfeldt, for a place in the final. Meanwhile, Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto bowed out after losing to Jiang Zhenbang and Wei Yaxin. The Chinese duo, the 2025 World Championships silver medallists, beat the Indian pair 21-7, 21-10 in just 25 minutes.

written by Atharva Jori Masters of team events, Indonesian Ubaidillah (men's singles) and Wiryawan (women's singles) highlight the gap in class, with scalding second set loss marginsIndia might have cone a long way in winning a mixed team bronze at the Badminton World Junior Championships in Guwahati. But they have a considerably longer way to go in junior development and preparing those on the brink of seniors transition, before they get into the top tier. ad The top tier right now is Indonesia, winner of Asian event earlier and defending champions. Their junior brigade that there’s more to winning than aggression, attack and skill – and Indians remain tactically very suspect, especially in doubles. Unnati Hooda, India’s most optimistic bet to drag India out of their struggle, ‘lost’ her matches 9-10 and 7-9 to Thalita Wiryawan as India went down 45-35, 45-21 in straight sets in the relay format, though the sucker punches cane in womens doubles. India’s only segment wins c...

written by Atharva Jori Young batter Shubman Gill on Saturday was appointed India's ODI captain ahead of the upcoming white-ball tour of Australia, starting October 19. Gill replaced Rohit Sharma at the helm, signalling a gradual shift in leadership ahead of next year's ODI World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia. Shreyas Iyer, on the other hand, was named vice-captain of the side, having recently decided to take a break from red-ball cricket. On the decision to name Gill as captain, Ajit Agarkar, the BCCI's chief selector, stressed on long-term preparation for the upcoming World Cup. "Rohit Sharma has been communicated about change of captaincy. We don't play too many ODIs and we needed to give the next guy enough time. How Rohit has taken the decision to change captain is between him and selection committee," Agarkar said during a press conference on Saturday.India won the Champions Trophy earlier this year, in what was Rohit's final assignm...