Australian Open 2016

Novak Djokovic crushed Andy Murray 6-1, 7-5,7-6(3) to match Roy Emerson record of six Australian Open titles and leave the Briton heartbroken again at Melbourne Park. The defending champion was at his ruthless best under the lights at Rod Laver Arena, mauling Andy Murray in the baseline duels and closing out the match in two hours and 53 minutes.

Murray succumbed to his fifth loss in five Australian Open finals, and fourth against the Serbian World number one, who claimed his 11^th Grand Slam title to draw level with the totals of Australian Rod Laver and Swede Bjorn Borg. For a man who has owned the year’s first Grand Slam for five of the past six years and won his first in 2008, Djokovic celebrations were subdued and he gave Murray a consoling pat on the chest as they shook hands.

In Female single, Angelique Kerber upset world number one Serena Williams 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to clinch the Australian open and become the first German to win a grand Slam title. In Men’s double Jamie Murray became the first Briton to win the Australian Open men’s doubles title in 82 years as he and Bruno Soares beat Daniel Nestor and Radek Stepanek 2-6, 6-4, 7-5.

Women Doubles title is won by World Number one Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza by 7-6, 6-3. Mixed Double title is won by Elena Vesnina and Bruno Soares by 6-4, 4-6 (10-5). Bruno Soares won two titles in a single day winning Mixed Doubles and Men Doubles. Next Grand Slam Tournament will be French Open which is played on Clay Court.

Big Bash League 2016

The fifth BBL final was a tale of two innings and two collapses. Kevin Peterson who is in marvelous form scored 74 before Usman Khawaja who is in simply superhuman touch, made 70 which as wickets tumbled proved enough to hand Sydney Thunder their first title. Thunder had never finished outside the bottom two for the first four sessions and 2015-16 has been a topsy turvy one too.

They lost four consecutive games after winning their first three and only crept into the finals when their fate was beyond their control. Thunder have won only 11 out of 41 matches since the Big Bash inception and Hussey has been at the helm of nine of them, including a final on the same day Thunder won the inaugural Women BBL too. In final game, Hussey was given a guard of honor by Stars led by their captain, David Hussey.

Stars were 50 for 2 in seven overs when the other opener Luke Wright fell, but Pieterson was unperturbed. In Peter Handscomb and David Hussey, Pieterson found a pair of willing assistants to run hard and exploit the MCG vast expenses. But when Kallis bowled Hussey with a magnificent Yorker, it sparked a collapse as Stars lost six wickets for 45 runs.

In response, Khawaja ends the BBL with 345 runs in four innings, three of which were genuinely match winning. In last Ben Rohrer flicked to leg for two, and drove down the ground for six to win the game. Usman Khawaja was named Man of the Match and Chris Lynn was named as Man of the Series.

Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy

Uttar Pradesh clinched their maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy with a thumping 38 run win over two time champions Baroda in the final played under lights at the Wankhede Stadium. Displaying all round display, UP pulled out all stops even overcoming the loss of the toss, to put it across the champions of 2011-12 and 2013-14 and win the summit clash in front of a crowd of 5000 spectators.

This was UP ninth straight win in the tournament, including five in the preliminary league phase and three more in the super league stage. UP built their innings around opener Prashant Gupta 49 in 41 balls and Captain Suresh Raina unbeaten 47 in 37 balls to post a challenging score of 163 for 7. In reply, Baroda lost half their side for 84 and then was stopped at 125 for 7 wickets.

Medium pacer Ankit Rajpoot picked up an early wicket in his opening spell and then came back to snap up two more to end up his figures of 3 for 30. Fellow medium pacer Amit Mishra grabbed 2 for 33. Yusuf Pathan, known for his big hitting prowess, flopped miserably once again by crawling to 14 off 27 balls. Captain Irfan Pathan came in at No 7 but by that stage the asking rate had climbed beyond 12 per over.

Delhi Acers won Premier Badminton League Title

A high octane action coupled with Bollywood Star quotient kept the spectators enthralled in the final of the Premier Badminton League between Delhi Acers and Mumbai Rockets. The city team didn’t disappoint a sizeable crowd at the Siri Fort Sports Complex as it clinched the title beating Mumbai 4-3 in an exciting tie.

Mumbai who entered the final match with a 3-2 lead, saw themselves losing the last match when Delhi’s Rajiv Ouseph playing in his trump match, aside Gurusai Dutt 15-11, 15-6 to power the hosts to title victory. Mumbai mixed doubles pair of former world champion Kamilla Juhl and European champion Vladimir Ivanov which drew the first blood. 2014 World Championship bronze medalist Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia proved that he is a force to reckon with as he maintained his unbeaten record in the league.

There was an intense fight between the duos in the first game as they engaged in long rallies and scored points on smashes. Sugiarto won second and third game against Indian shuttler Prannoy. After the match, Bollywood actors Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh and Abhishek Bachchan entertained the capacity crowd as they took up raquets to play the match along with and against established Badminton stars.

In the beginning of the fourth match, Thulasi seemed to steal the thunder from Li as Delhi Shuttler won the first game 15-12. But she probably invested her entire energy in the first game itself as Li eased past the Delhi shuttler in remaining two games 15-8 and 15-8. In Final match, Ouseph kept Dutt at bay throughout the match and won both the games to hand Delhi title victory in front of home crowd.

Australian Open 2016: The Contenders

Novak Djokovic, World No 1 and had won 10 Grand Slam Titles. He was virtually unstoppable in 2015, when he put together one of the best seasons even seen: three grand slam titles among 11 tournament victories and a win loss record of 82-6. As the season closed, it was only the rapier backhand of Wawrinka in the French Open final that had stopped Novak Djokovic from completing the first men’s calendar year Grand Slam.

Andy Murray, World No 2 and had won 2 Grand Slam Titles. Murray has contested four Australian Open finals without winning any. Murray won four tournaments last season, including two Masters Titles, and finished the year as World No 2 for the first time. But his runner-up finish behind Djokovic in last year Australian Open final turned out to be his best performance in a major tournament.

Roger Federer, World No 3 and had won 17 Grand Slam titles. Federer lost to Djokovic in the Wimbledon and US Open Finals last year, and piercing the armour of the World No 1 is a key challenge as he looks to add to his collection of major titles. Federer, the oldest man in the top 10, and without a Grand Slam title since 2012, has not had a trouble free build up to the year first Grand Slam as he lost to Raonic in the Final.

Stan Wawrinka, World No 4 and had won 2 Grand Slam Titles. One of the few men to trouble Djokovic in recent times will be watched warily by rivals in the men’s draw. Wawrinka stunned Djokovic on his way to winning his first Grand Slam title in the Australian Open in 2014 breaking a four year stranglehold over the Grand Slam Titles by the men’s “Big Four”. In 2015 he won four titles including French Open title.

Rafael Nadal, World No 5 and had won 14 Grand Slam Titles. A wretched spell last year prompted Nadal to wonder whether his Grand Slam winning days were over as the oft injured Spaniard looked a busted flush. Nadal failed to win a major tournament last year for the first time in a decade, and saw his ranking drop to 10^th before he clawed his way back up late in the season. Runner-up finishes in Beijing and Basel and victories over Wawrinka, Murray and David Ferrer at the World Tour Finals.

Cricket Weekly

In the first week of Cricket around the world, matches were played with different teams in different countries. Sri Lanka toured New Zealand, West Indies toured Australia, England touring South Africa, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan are playing in UAE, and Big Bash league in Australia.

Sri Lanka lost Test Cricket & ODI cricket series in New Zealand. Both series were dominated by New Zealand in form batsman Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson. Sri Lanka tried best to give good challenge but team without retired legends is still looking for good combination of players. In another Australia remain unbeaten this year in test cricket and their complete team work won test cricket series against West Indies.

Australian Openers, captain and their bowlers are in tremendous form and players in all three cricket formats are in good form. England cricket team is showing a winning determination in South Africa to win Test cricket series. Ben stokes created records in second test match. England won the first test match and now lead the series. South African Skipper has stepped down as Captain.

Afghanistan won ODI cricket series against Zimbabwe in UAE in a thrilling finish in last match. They now are close to win T20 Series too if they win last match. In Big bash League; Adelaide Strikers is on top now followed by Perth scorchers, Melbourne Stars, and Sydney Thunder. In coming week, Pakistan will tour New Zealand for T20 and ODI series. India will tour Australia for T20 and ODI series. 

Retired Cricketers in 2015

2015 is the year where a lot of experienced players and iconic players have been retired which will miss by a lot of cricket lovers in World Cricket. Here is the list of Cricketers who retired in 2015.

Michael Clarke: (All Formats) The Skipper of Australia in both formats had called his career off in 2015. Retired after memorable 2015 World Cup Championship but unfortunately lost in Ashes Test before retirement.

Brad Haddin: (All Formats) The Wicket Keeping batsman from Australia also retired from Cricket in 2015 along with Michael Clarke in ODI after World Cup and also in Tests after Ashes.

Shane Watson: (Test Cricket) An all-rounder from Australia who is blessed with rich all round abilities but unfortunately could not showcase his talent in the middle. His trouble with in-swinging deliveries is spot on which made him trouble in this format of game.

Chris Rogers: (All Formats) The Veteran Cricketer who only represented for Australia in Tests also announced his retirement in 2015. He had not been picked in the squad for many years as the Australia team is having golden players in their side.

Ryan Harris: (All Formats) Harris the one of the reason for Australia to lose against England in Ashes Test Series. His ankle injury made him to take the decision of retirement. One of the successful bowlers for Australia.

Shahid Afridi: (Test and ODI) Big hitter from Pakistan also retired in this year after their elimination from World Cup 2015. He had a glorious career as an All-rounder for Pakistan.

Kumar Sangakkara: (All Formats) The legendary cricketer called time on his career in all formats of the game in 2015.

Mahela Jayawardene: (All Formats) Another Sri Lanka Great called time of his career after 2015 World Cup.

Zaheer Khan: (All Formats) Indian legendary bowler recently retired from Cricket this year in October. Zaheer had been facing injury from a long time. He was not able to bowl as he was bowling in his earlier phase of Cricket.

Virender Sehwag: (All Formats) He put curtains on a remarkable career in which he scored 17,253 international runs across formats. Sehwag is the only Indian batsman to score a triple century in Tests and he did it twice.

Mitchell Johnson: (All Formats) One of the most shocking decisions of retirement. Johnson announced retirement from International Cricket in November in a test series against New Zealand. He was not able to maintain his speed and was not effective since the Ashes.

Some other Cricketers who retired from International Cricket are Matt Prior (All Formats), Brendon McCullum (All Formats), Daniel Vettori (All Formats), Shoaib Malik (Test), Ian Bell (ODI), Craig Kieswetter (All Formats), Misbah-ul-haq (ODI), Alex Cusack (All Formats), John Mooney (All Formats), Brendan Taylor (All Formats), Ramesh Powar, and Kyle Mills (All Formats).