Weekly Digest (Sep 9-15): From Australia retaining Ashes to Kim Clijster's return from retirement

While Jack Leach and Stuart Broad helped England draw level at The Oval, Smith's brilliance ensured Australia retained the Ashes. Former world No.1 Kim Clijsters has announced a second comeback from retirement to the WTA tour in 2020.

Australia retained the Ashes by beating England in the fourth Test at Old Trafford.

Cricket:

England clinched the fifth and final Ashes Test by 135 runs on Sunday to draw the series in a fine response to  Australia  retaining the urn. (Report)

Josh Hazlewood struck the final blow as Australia beat battling England by 185 runs on a tense final day of the fourth Test at a raucous Old Trafford to retain the urn. (Report)

India U-19 beat Bangladesh U-19 by five runs to win the 2019 ACC Asia Cup at the RPS stadium in Colombo on Saturday. This is India's seventh triumph in the continental tournament for junior cricketers. (Report)

India U-19 beat Bangladesh U-19 by five runs to win the 2019 ACC Asia Cup at the RPS stadium in Colombo.

The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) on Thursday renamed the Feroz Shah Kotla as Arun Jaitley stadium in memory of the late politician-cum-sports-administrator. (Report)

Speculation about Dhoni’s cricketing future has been rife ever since the team bowed out of the World Cup in July, and it took a categorical dismissal from Indian selectors to put the rumours to rest. (Report)

Shubman Gill earned his maiden Test call up as India announced its squad for the three-match home series against South Africa starting October 2 in Visakhapatnam. (Report)

Bengaluru, Jaipur and Baroda will host the Elite group matches while the Plate group teams will play each other in Dehradun. Here’s a list of who’s playing whom and where. (Report)

#WeekThatWas

 

Football:

The FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, to be hosted by India, will be held from November 2 to 21 next year. (Report)

Sadio Mane led Liverpool’s fightback after Jetro Willems gave visiting Newcastle United an early lead. Mane scored a brace to haul the Reds ahead before half-time and Mohamed Salah added a third to make sure of the victory. ( Report )

Norwich City secured a 3-2 win at home over visiting Manchester City with Teemu Pukki playing a decisive role in the Canaries’s second and third goals. ( Report )

Teemu Pukki of Norwich City celebrates with team mates after scoring their 3rd goal during the Premier League match between Norwich City and Manchester City at Carrow Road.

 

Real Madrid edged Levante 3-2 with Eden Hazard also making his debut for his new club coming on in the 60th minute for Casemiro. ( Report )

Tammy Abraham continued his fine form by scoring a hat-trick as Chelsea defeated Wolves 5-2 at Molineux on Saturday. (Report)

Borussia Dortmund beat Bayer Leverkusen 4-0 in a marquee Bundesliga match at the weekend. Paco Alcacer scored a brace and Marco Reus and Raphael Gurreiro also got on the scoresheet. ( Report )

Fiorentina held Juventus to a goalless draw with Maurizio Sarri watching on from the dugout. The Old Lady was without Douglas Costa and Miralem Pjanic, while Franck Ribery made his made his first start for new club Fiorentina. ( Report )

Wrestling:

#WATCH

 

Inspired by the ‘Dangal’ movie, Andrew Cook landed in India with a “scientific edge” to transform the country into a wrestling powerhouse and the American coach is confident of making it a reality. (Report)

India’s Greco-Roman wrestlers have failed to make a mark on Saturday and Sunday at the 2019 Wrestling World Championships (WWC) in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. (Report 1)(Report 2)

Badminton:

India’s Sourabh Verma registered a thrilling three-game win over China’s Sun Fei Xiang to claim the men’s singles title at the USD 75,000 Vietnam Open. (Report)

Rising Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen stunned second seed Victor Svendsen of Denmark in straight games to clinch the men’s singles title at the Belgian International Challenge here on Saturday.. ( Report )

The newly-crowned world badminton champion, P.V. Sindhu, will miss the services of the women’s singles coach Kim Ji Hyun of Korea when she leaves on Saturday for the China Open World Tour Super 1000 (September 17 to 22) and the Korea Open World Tour Super 500 (September 24 to 29). ( Report )

Ace Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth has pulled out of the upcoming tournaments in China and Korea, owing to a knee injury that flared up after the World Championship last month. ( Report )

Boxing:

Asian champion Amit Panghal and Manish Kaushik reached pre-quarterfinals at the World Men’s Boxing Championships in the 52kg and 63kg categories respectively. Panghal defeated Chinese Taipei’s Tu Po-Wei, while Kaushik got the better of The Netherlands’ Enrico Lacruz. ( REPORT )

Six-time world champion M.C. Mary Kom, has been recommended for the prestigious Padma Vibhushan Award -- the country’s second highest civilian honour after Bharat Ratna. This is for the first time the Sports Ministry has recommended a woman athlete for  the award. ( REPORT )

Athletics:

Hima Das’ participation in the World Championships relay events became a matter of intense speculation after she was left out of the initial entries.

 

The Athletics Federation of India refrained from naming everyone who had achieved a qualification mark, dropped the ones battling known injuries, and scheduled confirmatory trials for non-campers while naming a modest 25-member contingent for the IAAF World Championships to be held in Doha later this month, including the relay squads. ( REPORT )

High jumper Tejaswin Shankar has conveyed his inability to compete in the World Championships to be held in Doha from September 27, the Athletics Federation of India said on Tuesday. ( REPORT )

Sprinter Dutee Chand has been added to India’s team for the World Athletics Championships to be held in Doha later this month after the national federation accepted an invite for her participation from the international parent body. ( REPORT )

World junior champion Hima Das’ participation in the World Championships relay events became a matter of intense speculation on Friday after she was left out of the initial entries even though her name can still be added by September 16. ( REPORT )

Kabaddi:

Pardeep Narwal of Patna Pirates became the first player in the history of the Pro Kabaddi League to cross the 1000 raid points mark. He achieved this feat when he helped his team defeat Tamil Thalaivas 51-25 during the Kolkata Leg. (Report)

Jaipur Pink Panthers’ skipper Deepak Niwas Hooda became the third player to reach 800 raid points in the history of the Pro Kabaddi League. Despite crossing the milestone, he wasn’t able to get his team across the line as Jaipur played out a 32-32 draw with Haryana Steelers. (Report)

Puneri Paltan began its home leg at Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Pune with a 43-33 victory over the Gujarat Fortunegiants. Pune put up an all-round masterclass as one of its raiders completed a ‘Super-10’, while two defenders ended the night a ‘High-5’. (Report)

The EKA Arena in Ahmedabad will host the playoffs of the 2019 Pro Kabaddi League season in October. The playoffs get underway from October 14 and will include two eliminators, semifinals and the final of the league slated to take place on October 19. (Report)

Motorsport

Mercedes-Benz has extended its contract with British Formula One outfit Williams until the end of 2025. (Report)

Shooting:

Qualifying with an impressive 587, six points better than the next best, Saurabh Chaudhary shot 246.8 in the seventh National selection trials final, to beat his world record by 0.5 points at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad on Saturday. (Report)

Sanjeev Rajput, who had protested a ‘zero’ registered for a shot during the kneeling position in the qualification stage of the Rio World Cup, finally got the national record (1181) he deserved to have against his name after a member of the ISSF Technical Committee Wilhelm-Xaver Grill, who was the Technical Director in Rio, effected the change in scores, after returning to the headquarters in Germany. (Report)
 

Tennis:

Former world No. 1 Kim Clijsters has announced a second comeback from retirement to the WTA tour in 2020.

 

Former world No. 1 Kim Clijsters has announced a second comeback from retirement to the WTA tour in 2020, having stepped away from the game in 2007 and 2012. (Report)

The rescheduled Davis Cup tie between India and Pakistan will be tentatively held on November 29 or 30 in Islamabad subject to another security review, the All India Tennis Association (AITA) said on Friday. ( Report )

US Open champion Bianca Andreescu has withdrawn from the Tokyo Open due to a right leg injury. (Report)

The WTA Hong Kong Open women’s tennis tournament has been postponed, organisers said on Friday, citing the “present situation” after months of sometimes violent pro-democracy protests. (Report)