Sunrisers Hyderabad won IPL 2016

In their first IPL Final, Sunrisers Hyderabad showed their intent early by opting to bat against Royal Challengers Bangalore at a venue where tall scores have been chased down nonchalantly. It was their bowling line up, the best in the tournament that delivered the maiden IPL title with an eight run win over the hosts. Ben Cutting lent the finishing touches with an unbeaten 15 ball 39 to help them post 208 for 7.

RCB had breached the 200 mark thrice previously at home this season and there was no reason why they could not do so again, except the pressure of chasing in a final. Gayle alone contributed 76, with four fours and eight sixes. Sunrisers attack was under pressure early on, but they clinically applied the brakes after Gayle wicket. Shane Watson rare off day with the bowl was costly for RCB. He fed the batsmen an assortment of hittable deliveries.

Gayle, Kohli, and de Villiers fell in the space of 20 deliveries as RCB slipped to 148 for 3. They needed 61 off 37 and they needed Watson to make up for his lapses with the ball. There were promising signs when he swatted Henriques for six over long-on, but his dismissal in the 17^th over immediately after KL Rahul wicket, left the hosts in a position they could not recover from.

Orange Cap for most runs was given to Virat Kohli for his 973 runs in the tournament. Purple Cap for most wickets was given to B Kumar for his 23 wickets in the tournament. Virat Kohli also won Man of the Tournament award. Sunrisers Hyderabad won their maiden IPL title.

Lewis Hamilton wins Monaco Grand Prix

The Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco started behind the safety car in wet conditions, but was run mainly in glorious sunshine with Mercedes Lewis Hamilton narrowly defeating Red Bull Daniel Ricciardo after an epic battle around the streets of Monte Carlo.

As the early rain eased, pole sitter Ricciardo pitted first for intermediate tyres, while Hamilton chose to stay out until conditions improved enough for slick rubber. Ricciardo had enough time in hand to make a further stop and regain his lead, but when he arrived at his garage, a miscommunication meant Red Bull had no tyres ready for him and the Australian was stationary for a very costly 13.6s. He rejoined just behind the world champion, a position on which he was never able to improve.

Sergio Perez took his sixth career podium with third place, after an inspired decision from Force India to switch him early to the hardest of the dry tyres. That allowed Mexican to finish just ahead of Ferrari Sebastian Vettel. Fernando Alonso secured McLaren best result of 2016 to date with a distant fifth place, while a very cautious Mercedes Nico Rosberg lost sixth place on the final straight to Force India Nico Hulkenberg with his championship lead over Hamilton reduced by 19 points as a result.

Toro Rosso, Carlos Sainz, McLaren Jenson Button and Williams Felipe Massa completed the top ten. Max Verstappen went from Spain hero to Monaco Zero with his third crash of the weekend, putting his Red Bull into the wall at Massenet on lap 35. Next race will held in Canada on 12^th June 2016.

Real Madrid won UEFA Champions League 2016

Real Madrid handed Atletico Madrid another cruel Champions League Final defeat when Cristiano Ronaldo spot kick saw them beat their neighbors on penalties to win Europe top club trophy for a record 11^th time.

The match ended 1-1 after extra time as Atletico, giving their usual never say die performance, conceded an early goal, missed a penalty, clung on by the skin of their teeth and then found the strength to equalize at the San Siro. But it was all in vain as Juanfran struck their fourth penalty against the post, allowing a previously subdued Ronaldo to stride up and coolly blast home the decisive penalty for a 5-3 shootout win his third European cup success.

Real former playmaker Zinedine Zidane was left to celebrate winning Europe elite club competition five months after starting his first coaching job and become the seventh man to claim the trophy both as a player and a manager. But it was another demoralizing end for Diego Simeone Atletico who was within a minute of winning the 1974 European Cup Final and 2014 Champions League finals but conceded equalizers and eventually lost them both.

The latter was also against Real Madrid when Sergio Ramos scored in stoppage time to set his side up for a 4-1 extra-time win. This time, Ramos gave Real a 15^th minute lead but after Antoine missed a penalty for Atletico at the start of the second half, the Mattress makers hit back with a superbly taken equalizer by substitute Carrasco. Cristiano Ronaldo has finished as the UEFA Champions League top marksman for the fourth season running, notching 16 goals and the Portuguese star is closing in on a century in Europe premier club competition.

Barcelona won Copa Del Rey 2016

Down a man with top goal scorer Luis Suarez on the sidelines with an apparent hamstring injury, Lionel Messi led Barcelona to a 2-0 extra time victory in an eventful Copa Del Rey final that featured three red cards, two Messi assists and one bizarre game stoppage for the cramping match referee.

When the final whistle blew, Messi stood out as the best player in the park. Argentine defender Javier Mascherano took down Sevilla striker Kevin Gamerio in the 34^th minute to receive the fastest red card in the history of the Spanish Cup Final. However, Messi and Iniesta offered special magical performances. Messi played a perfectly timed pass for Neymar in stoppage time of regulation, and Banega put in a fateful, last ditch tackle to stop the Brazilian from getting in a goal unmarked.

Barcelona and Sevilla were both down to 10 men with 30 minutes of added time to come. Considering Gerard Pique clean clearances in the back, Sergio Busquets tireless tackling in the middle and Messi and Iniesta magical inspiration in the attack, Barcelona being back level up put the Catalans in complete control from that point forward.

With the win, Messi and Barcelona earned the club 28^th Copa Del Rey crown to go with its 24^th La Liga title. The double salvaged a season that had started strong, peaked with a 39 match unbeaten run and nearly collapsed over a three week period that featured four defeats in five games.

MotoGP 2016: Grand Prix of Italy

Jorge Lorenzo won a ferocious last lap duel with Marc Marquez to clinch victory at Mugello, where Valentino Rossi face ended in bitter disappointment with an engine failure. Italian hero Rossi had been shadowing his Movistar Yamaha team-mate Lorenzo in second place when his race came to an unceremonious end on lap nine, when he was forced to park up his smoking factory M1.

It was the second engine blow up to hit Yamaha on Sunday after Lorenzo bike suffered a similar fate during morning warm-up. As Lorenzo and Marquez engaged in a game of cat and mouse at the front, Andrea Lannone who was down in 10^th place following the opening lap after blowing his front row start was on the move and came through to take third from his Ducati team-mate Andrea Dovizioso.

Dani Pedrosa also came on strong in the second part of the race and became embroiled in a battle with Lannone, although the Italian rider prevailed to seal the final place on the podium. Lorenzo and Marquez traded passes on a nail biting final lap and it looked as though the Honda rider had managed to make the decisive move to lead out of the final corner onto the main straight, but Lorenzo managed to draft past on the blast to the line to win in dramatic style.

Dovizioso finished fifth on the second of the factory Ducati GP16 machines, with Maverick Vinales sixth on the Ecstar Suzuki. Spaniard Vinales also blew his start and had to fight his way through from 11^th place on the GSX-RR. It was Rossi second DNF of the season after he crashed out in Texas and he is now 37 points behind Lorenzo after the first six rounds.

UEFA Europa League 2016

Sevilla continued their reign as kings of the UEFA Europa League as a rousing second half fight back proved too much for Liverpool at Basel and secured them an unprecedented third straight title in the competition and a record extending fifth overall.

Sevilla were in their third successive final whereas Liverpool had not appeared in a European showpiece for nine years, yet there was little sign of nerves from the English newcomers. Emre Can forced the first save of the evening from David before ten minutes had been played, then Daniel Carrico acrobatically cleared a Daniel Sturridge header off the line. Roared on by a fair portion of crowd, Liverpool kept coming, with Soria quickly off his line to block another Sturridge effort.

Captain Marvel and Sevilla hero, Coke is not a natural goal scorer. His 169 games for Sevilla before tonight brought a grand total of 13 goals. A right back by trade, he has been used in midfield this term and twice he turned up in the right place at the right time. Disappointed to be a substitute last season, here he scored two and lifted the trophy. Eight of the last 13 teams to lift this trophy have been from the Liga and this triumph was tenth in all.

Spain surpasses Italy as the leading nation in the competition history. It is a similar story in the European Cup, where Real Madrid and Atletico will face in ten days, time to become the fifth Spanish winner in eight seasons. 

Max Verstappen wins Spanish Grand Prix

Formula 1 Gran Premio de Espana Pirelli 2016 served up a battle royal between Red Bull and Ferrari, with Max Verstappen becoming the youngest F1 winner in history as he took an amazing victory from Kimi Raikkonen in his very first race with his new team.

It came after Mercedes Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton had dramatically collided into retirement on lap 1 in an incident which the stewards are investigating. Verstappen, aged just 18, held off relentless pressure from Raikkonen in the closing laps, while behind them Ferrari Sebastian Vettel did the same from the Sister Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo, until the Australian right rear tyre deflated just a lap from home.

Ricciardo came home fourth nonetheless, followed by William Valtteri Bottas, Toro Rosso Carlos Sainz and Force India Sergio Perez. Williams Felipe Massa, McLaren Jenson Button and Toro Rosso Daniil Kvyat completed the top ten. The Mercedes aside, there were just three other retirements. Nico Hulkenberg pulled off with flames licking from the rear of his Force India on lap 22, Fernando Alonso home race ended with power loss on his McLaren on lap 47, and Romain Grosjean brought his Haas into the Garage on lap 58.

MotoGP 2016: Grand Prix of France

Jorge Lorenzo ran away with the French GP, taking a flag to flag victory as former championship leader Marc Marquez fell. Tension hung in the air ahead of the 28 lap monster Energy Grand Prix de France as riders in the MotoGP World Championship sat patiently on the grid. Jorge Lorenzo had pole ahead of championship leader Marc Marquez and potential podium challenger Andrea Lannone.

Lorenzo made a perfect start as Marquez wheelied off the line, the Yamaha rider leading through the first chicane with Andrea Dovizioso behind him. Marquez was soon up to fourth as he charged past Pol Espargaro, Valentino Rossi attempted to follow him through but found himself swamped by the likes of Aleix Espargaro and Bradley Smith.

As they crossed the finish line for the first time Lorenzo lead stood at half a second with Dovizioso and lannone behind. It was not the start Rossi had wanted, able to make up just a single place from seventh on the grid as the second lap began. Dovizioso, who had seemingly banished his recent bad luck, remained strong in second.

Dani Pedrosa was unable to close the gap to Vinales despite his best efforts and settled for fourth. Pol Espargaro was once again the fastest independent team rider as he ended Tech 3’s home round in a credible fifth ahead of his brother. Aleix Espargaro, Danilo Petrucci, Hector Barbera, Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bardl completed the top ten. Of the 21 riders on the grid, 13 finished the race.

Nico Rosberg wins Russia Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg dominated Sunday 2016 Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix after a Sochi race in which his main rivals struck trouble. Team mate Lewis Hamilton fought his way up from 10^th on the grid to secure a Mercedes one-two, as Ferrari Kimi Raikkonen completed the podium.

It was Rosberg fourth win of the season and his seventh in succession, and gives him a 43 point lead in the driver standings. Hamilton, meanwhile, believed he had the pace to win, but yet again saw his challenge compromised as falling water pressure obliged him to back off after he had reduced a 12.9s deficit to 7.5s between laps 23 and 36.

Where the World Champion at least finished second this time, however, it was another pure disaster for 2016 other unlucky man, Sebastian Vettel. He was hit from behind by Chinese nemesis Daniil Kvyat in Turn 2 on the opening lap as he pushed the Ferrari inside Daniel Ricciardo sister Red Bull. Then as Vettel appeared to slow slightly with a resulting rear puncture he was again hit from behind by Kvyat and sent spinning hard into the wall in Turn 3. The Russian was given a 10s stop-go-penalty and three penalty points, but Vettel was done.

Valtteri Bottas was strong initially despite losing second place on the opening lap to Raikkonen, the Williams driver got that back after a safety car intervention because of Vettel accident and a resultant Turn 2 clash further back between Haas Esteban, the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg, Marcus Ericsson Sauber and Rio Haryanto’s Manor, as racing resumed on the fourth lap.

Rosberg now has a lead of 43 points over Hamilton and joins Alberto Ascari, Michael Schumacher and Vettel as the only men ever to win seven Grand Prix in a row. As Raikkonen rises to third with 36 points, Vettel himself lies fourth on 33, one ahead of Massa.