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Ben Stokes led from the front as England went on to register one of its most thrilling wins against India in recent times at Lord’s. As things got tough and India tried its best to seize the initiative, Stokes extracted every bit from his team-mates and ensured the side put up a spirited show to secure a crucial lead in the five-match series.

Former England captain Allan Lamb believes that while England has slowly realised it’s important to adopt the horses for courses approach, instead of getting into Bazball mode every time, it’s Stokes, who has instilled that belief and a positive mindset in the dressing room.

“When it comes to even chasing 180 on the last day, it is still a big thing in the mind, especially with India losing those wickets the night before. The pressure was always on India. Stokes had motivated the team. I think everything came down to Stokes, because the night before, he was so fired up. He wanted to bowl as he was fired up. And, he got his whole team behind him,” Lamb told The Hindu.

“They are a team that believes they can win anything. That brought a real positive approach to it…”

Moving on from its Bazball approach, wherein England would invariably ask the opposition to bat first and then chase down a target, the team decided to bat first, and that proved crucial. “Everyone thinks that England is going to play Bazball. But now, they’ve learned when the wicket is not right for the Bazball
approach, they have to get in. I don’t think it was a great wicket at Lord’s. It was the right wicket to bat first. It was very difficult to score runs,” he said.

And, England eventually managed to win the Lord’s Test. While his captaincy has impressed Lamb, he wants to wait before passing a judgment on whether Stokes is one of the finest skippers to have led England. “It’s a little bit early, but his approach is great,” he said.

Two Indian swimmers, Srihari Nataraj and Benedicton Rohit, have set new ‘India best’ times at the World University Games in Rhine-Ruhr, Germany.

Srihari bettered his own time by clocking 1:48.22 in the men’s 200m freestyle heats to finish at the top and qualify for the semifinals on Friday. Previously, he lowered the record in June when he timed 1:48.66 in the Singapore National championships.

Benedicton rewrote the ‘India best’ time twice for men’s 50m butterfly within a day. Benedicton, who had set a new mark (24.11) at the National championships in Bhubaneswar last month, clocked 24.00 in the heats and then lowered it further by timing 23.96 in the semifinals. He finished sixth in his leg of the semifinals and could not make it to the final.

The second Women’s Kabaddi World Cup will take place in Hyderabad from August 3 to 10 at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium. The event was originally scheduled to take place in Bihar in June.

“When Bihar pulled out, we requested the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India to have the event take place in Telangana, and they obliged. We want to encourage women’s kabaddi, even if it doesn’t always get many sponsors. Hyderabad had hosted the Asian Kabaddi Championship in 2005, and now, 20 years later, the city will be hosting another international women’s kabaddi tournament,” Kasani Veeresh, president of the Telangana Kabaddi Association, told The Hindu.

Fourteen countries are set to take part in the tournament. Host India and 12 others — Argentina, Bangladesh, Chinese Taipei, Germany, Holland, Iran, Japan, Kenya, Nepal, Thailand, Uganda and Zanzibar — have confirmed their participation, with Poland the only one yet to give the green light.

The Pro Kabaddi League is set to skip Hyderabad this year, with the event moving to Visakhapatnam, which will incidentally host the opening leg of the league’s 12th season.

“Both Vizag and Hyderabad are treated as our home grounds. After 2018, there has been no PKL in Vizag. Keeping that in mind, we wanted to have it there this time,” Trinadh Reddy, Telugu Titans CEO, told The Hindu.

“The TRPs (Target Rating Points) that we get from both Telugu States are very high. Keeping that in mind, we moved from Hyderabad to Vizag this year. The Port Indoor Stadium will be the venue there,” he added.

According to sources, the event, which will get underway on August 29, will also take place in Jaipur, Chennai and New Delhi. The venue for the playoffs and final is yet to be decided.

The season’s opening round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Car Racing Championship will begin at the Kari Motor Speedway here on Saturday.

The two-day event has attracted 75 entries across various categories. The compact 2.3 km long circuit with 16 turns, will witness both single-seaters, the MRF F2000 and F1600, Formula LGB 1300 and saloon cars that include popular Indian Touring Cars (ITC), newly introduced ITC1625, Super Stock and the Indian Junior Touring Cars (IJTC) besides the Volkswagen Polo Cup.

The two MRF Formula categories contain several familiar names. Veteran Chetan Korada from Chennai will make another attempt in the MRF F2000 with a few young guns, notably 16-year-old Ishaan Madesh (Bengaluru) who has been making a mark in the karting circuit.

The MRF F1600 grid has a promising teenager from Pune, Saishiva Sankaran who made his debut last season with three podiums in six outings after joining the championship for the final two rounds.

The Formula LGB 1300 category has attracted 38 entries across Open and Junior classes with a mix of experienced drivers and rookies.

But the highlight of the weekend will be the touring cars, headlined by local star and a multiple National champion in the ITC class, veteran Arjun Balu, who returns to the championship after a year’s break, driving the super-quick Race Concepts prepared Honda City IVTEC. He will contend with last year’s champion Biren Pithawalla (Team N1) from Mumbai who will be racing in a VW Polo.

The ITC1625 class will witness the championship’s oldest driver, Vidyaprakash Damodaran from Coimbatore who will turn 80 in August, in action along with another local ace Suprej Venkat.

In seven previous editions spread over the last 10 years, Indian Railways and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) have won the MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament thrice each.

The two institutional teams have been dominant, have the best players from the country, and have mastered the art of peaking at the right time and absorbing the pressure.

Railways, looking for a hat-trick of titles, will have quite a tough battle against arch-rival IOC in the semifinal to be held here on Saturday. In the other semifinal, Indian Navy will take on Indian Army.

While three teams — IOC, Railways, and Army — have been regulars in the last four stage and have won the tournament earlier, one team hasn’t done so, and will be eager to lay its hands on the coveted trophy.

Navy, having not been invited last year due to its poor performance the previous year, has reorganised and recouped under its head coach Ajay Kumar, and has now taken the tournament by storm.

Its performance has been near-flawless as it comfortably defeated Karnataka, Central Board for Direct Taxes, the Malaysian National junior team and former champion IOC in Pool-B.

The manner of its victory over IOC was a lesson in masterclass. Trailing by a goal, Navy blew away a team that has nearly a dozen International players, in a matter of six minutes in the fourth quarter by scoring three goals.

Railways, IOC and Army have been off-colour in the league matches, but one can’t take them for granted.

Come Saturday, all eyes will be on Navy.

Misty, Treat and Kimiko pleased when the horses were exercised here on Friday (July 18) morning.

Inner sand:

600m: Renaissance (S.J. Sunil), Enchanting (Gore) 41. Both were easy.

800m: Ataash (T.S. Jodha) 55, 600/40. Moved fluently. Laim (T.S. Jodha), Empower (app) 53, 600/39. Former was superior. Aperol (Nirmal) 54, 600/41. Moved freely. Higher Love (T.S. Jodha) 56, 600/41. Easy. Ourense (Bhawani), Baleno (Bharat) 53, 600/40. They moved level freely. Don Julio (Zervan), Arbitrage (Gore) 54, 600/40. Both moved freely. Her Charge (Bhawani) 52, 600/38. Worked well. Mulan (Nirmal), Claude (Santosh) 52, 600/39. Former was urged to end level. Bezazel (Bhawani), Equilateral (Bharat) 53, 600/39. Former ended two lengths in front. Silver Braid (Mosin), Epic Endeavour (Bharat) 53, 600/40. Former finished well clear. Floyd (T.S. Jodha) 53, 600/39. Shaped well. Kimiko (Bhawani) 51, 600/38. Moved attractively. Heart (Yash), Hooves Of Thunder (S.J. Sunil) 52, 600/39. Former moved well and finished four lengths ahead. Foxy (T.S. Jodha), Storm (Vinod) 51, 600/38. Former was superior. Madison (Nirmal) 53, 600/39. Moved well. Azrinaz (Bhawani) 53, 600/40. Worked well. Caliph (Bharat) 51, 38. Urged in the last part. Daianne (Bhawani) 53, 600/39. Moved freely.

1000m: Majorella Blue (T.S. Jodha), Looking Like A Wow (Mosin) 1-8, 800/53, 600/40. Pair moved together freely. Misty (A. Prakash) 1-5, 800/52, 600/40. Pleased.

1200m: Treat (Neeraj), Golden Glow (Mosin) 1-21, 1000/1-7, 800/53, 600/40. Former easily finished four lengths ahead.

1400m: Evaldo (S. Sunil) 1-39, 600/42. Moved fluently.

The recently concluded FIH Pro League was not too kind to Indian hockey. While the women’s team got relegated after finishing last in the nine-team competition in June, the men, who were on a high after winning a second straight Olympic bronze in Paris nearly 12 months ago, finished eighth in the Europe leg of the marquee league after a run of seven consecutive defeats.

Former India captain and goalkeeping great P.R. Sreejesh said the poor run of results should be a wake-up call for the men’s team ahead of next year’s Asian Games and World Cup. The 37-year-old, who retired at the end of the Paris Games, was speaking in the national capital on the sidelines of the launch of the 20th edition of the Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon. The race, which will be flagged off from the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, is slated for October 12.

“The players gave a good fight on the field. Sometimes, the results are not favourable. Looking forward to next year, the Asian Games and the World Cup are coming up. Pro League can be a very good wake-up call for the team to be on its toes and prepare for the World Cup and Asian Games,” the two-time Olympic bronze medallist told reporters.

Since hanging up his playing boots, Sreejesh has transitioned to training the young generation.

He is currently the chief coach of the Indian men’s junior hockey team. His major assignment this year is the Men’s FIH Hockey Junior World Cup in November and December that Chennai and Madurai are co-hosting.

Facing pressure

“I faced enough pressure as a player. Being a coach, it is time for me to take the pressure off the players. India is hosting the junior World Cup. Maybe there are going to be around 10,000 people watching the players. I’ve just told them to be ready to accept these things and give their best on any particular day,” he said.

Asian under-23 champion Sujeet Kalkal toppled some established names on his way to secure the 65kg freestyle gold medal at the Ranking Series wrestling event in Budapest.

Sujeet, also a Worlds under-23 bronze medallist in 70kg, defeated Paris Olympics bronze medallist Albanian Islam Dudaev 11-0 in the first round, European silver medallist Frenchman Khamzat Arsamerzouev 11-0 in the quarterfinals and two-time Olympian and 2023 World championships bronze medallist Armenian Vazgen Tevanyan 6-1 in the semifinals.

In the final, the 22-year-old Indian — who had picked up a Grade-3 ligament tear in his ankle during the senior Asian championships in March — beat European bronze medallist Azerbaijan’s Ali Rahimzade 5-1 to secure his second gold medal, after winning the Asian under-23 title about three weeks ago. This was Sujeet’s second Ranking Series gold after the one he won in Tunisia three years ago.

Rahul (57kg) defeated 2023 European under-23 champion German Niklas Stechele 4-0 for the bronze.

Olivia Smith became the most expensive player in women’s soccer history when she joined Arsenal from Liverpool for a world record transfer fee of £1 million ($1.34 million).

The new benchmark in women’s football surpasses the £900,000 ($1.1 million) Chelsea paid for Naomi Girma from San Diego Wave in January.

“She’s one of the most talented young players in the game and has huge potential for further development here at the club,” Arsenal director of women’s football Clare Wheatley said.

The 20-year-old Canada forward signed a four-year deal, a person with knowledge of the contract told The Associated Press.

The person, who also confirmed the record fee, spoke on the condition of anonymity because the full details of the transfer have not been made public.

Rapid increase in spending

Smith’s deal highlights the rapid increase in spending in women’s football with transfer records regularly broken in recent years.

Zambia striker Racheal Kundananji set a new record when joining Bay FC from Madrid CFF for $788,000 last year, and that figure was quickly exceeded by Girma’s move to Chelsea, becoming the first $1 million women’s football player.

As recently as 2020, the most expensive women’s player was Denmark’s Pernille Harder, who joined Chelsea from Wolfsburg for $355,000.

England’s Keira Walsh left Manchester City for Barcelona in 2022 for a deal worth $513,000, and Chelsea broke the record again in 2024 when signing Mayra Ramirez from Levante for $542,000.

Neymar’s record in men’s football

But those figures are still a long way behind the men’s game where Neymar remains the record signing following his 2017 move from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain for $262 million.

Kylian Mbappe joined PSG for $216 million and is the second most expensive player of all time.

After one season at Penn State, Smith joined Sporting Lisbon in 2023 and scored 16 goals in 28 appearances. She moved to Liverpool last year and scored nine times in 25 games.

Smith is also Canada’s youngest international after making her debut at 15 in 2019.

“Olivia is an exciting young player and we believe she can make a big contribution here at Arsenal,” head coach Renee Slegers said.

“We’ve been impressed by her mentality and character, excelling in two European leagues at such a young age.” Arsenal is a 15-time English champion and won the Champions League for the second time in its history last season.

Despite Chelsea being the dominant force in women’s football in England, Arsenal is the only English team to win the Champions League.

“It’s my dream to compete for the biggest titles here in England and in Europe and I’m excited to get started and contribute to doing that here with Arsenal,” Smith said.