A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Unbeaten in all the three games they have played so far in the tournament, Gujarat Lions would look to continue with their impressive winning run when they take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in an IPL match in Rajkot on Thursday. The Lions have been in red-hot form in their debut season with convincing wins in all the three games and they would seek to maintain a clean slate tomorrow at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium. The home side will also be bolstered by the return of all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja who did not play in the Lion's seven-wicket thrashing of defending champions Mumbai Indians in Mumbai due to his wedding.
Desperate to break their title jinx, Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore will be hoping for a positive start to their campaign in the ninth edition of the Indian Premier League, when they take on Sunrisers Hyderabad, in Bengaluru, on Tuesday.
The IPL, all of a sudden, may have some catching up to do with the Big Bash.
Rediff.com has chosen the highlights of Queen Elizabeth reign so far -- from her Coronation right up to the present day.
Powered by a swashbuckling 133 off just 59 balls by AB de Villiers and a classy 82 from skipper Virat Kohli, Royal Challengers Bangalore trounced Mumbai Indians by 39 runs in the Indian Premier League, in Mumbai, on Sunday.
For the Gujarat Lions to roar, their top-heavy batting order must first win in unison against a consistent KKR bowling attack.
AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli jointly orchestrated a mayhem by scoring magnificent centuries as Royal Challengers Bangalore demolished a hapless Gujarat Lions by a record margin of 144 runs, in the Indian Premier League, in Bengaluru, on Saturday.
Full text of Kevin Pieterse's Pataudi Memorial Lecture in Bengaluru
'Some Indians take the extreme view that everything was known to our ancients, but others go to the opposite extreme and consider everything Indian was superstition and rubbish.' 'Indian science was perhaps more rational than the European science of the time.'
It will be the second time he would make the cut in as many starts at the Open.
Be ready to be amazed as Rediff.com encapsulates all the sporting action from the past week in this super photo feature.
... 'is long lives are generally the norm today,' says Rahul Jacob.
Chennai Super Kings cruised to a comfortable eight-wicket victory over an out-of-sorts Royal Challengers Bangalore to strengthen their second place in the seventh edition of the IPL at the Eden Gardens on Saturday.
The outgoing chairman believed in building for the future; for his successor, the challenge will be to maintain the momentum, says Ishita Ayan Dutt.
Nothing but a win will keep their play-off hopes alive as defending champions Mumbai Indians take on Gujarat Lions in a do-or-die battle, which will be their final IPL league match in Kanpur on Saturday. With seven wins in 13 matches, Mumbai are currently placed fifth, tied on 14 points with Royal Challengers Bangalore (3rd) and Kolkata Knight Riders (4th) -- both having better net run-rate with one match to go. A loss on Saturday will knock them out of the race for play-offs and Mumbai will hope to pull the rug from under the feet of the Lions this time after suffering a defeat during their home leg on April 16.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Mumbai Indians are all set to open the defense of their title against new outfit Rising Pune Supergiants.
AB is a cricketer like none other, says Dhruv Munjal, adored by Indian fans just as they did Sachin Tendulkar. 'His name chanted by thousands of otherwise ridiculously partisan fans at stadiums across India.'
The eighth edition of the Indian Premier League, says Haresh Pandya, provides Yuvraj Singh a chance to make up for time lost and opportunities missed or squandered.
Indian Premier League's costliest player Yuvraj Singh feels that Royal Challengers Bangalore is a team where he can express himself in the company of star cricketers like Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle.
Indian cricket's fortunes ebbed and flowed in 2015 with Virat Kohli successfully leading the national side in Tests and Mahendra Singh Dhoni appearing to be losing his midas touch, while in off the field drama Shashank Manohar returned as the president of Board of Control for Cricket in India.
2016 is at the halfway stage and the year has already seen some stunning sporting wins, underdogs emerging triumphant on the biggest stages of them all.
England all-rounder Ben Stokes became the most expensive overseas purchase -- bought by Rising Pune Supergiants for a whopping Rs 14.50 crore even as some unheralded Indian domestic players trumped seasoned names to land lucrative deals at the Indian Premier League players' auction.
Rediff.com brings you a collection of some of the best sports images from around the world...
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
The shortest format may have resulted in change of batting philosophy for many but India's star batsman Ajinkya Rahane says that he will never trade his "copybook style" for fancy shots.
This week's digest of stories that are weird, true and funny.
'His success confirms that the infirm 132-year-old party can still get to its feet if it allows regional leaders to come to the fore,' argues Amulya Ganguli.
Second seed Garbine Muguruza, bidding to add the Wimbledon crown to her French Open title, was sensationally beaten in the second round on Thursday by Slovakian qualifier Jana Cepelova 6-3, 6-2 in the shock of the tournament so far.
When Rediff.com's Archana Masih and Rajesh Karkera set course from the foothills of the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea, they could not think of a better place to begin their journey than the stately campus that has given India some of its greatest military heroes.
The Middle East's power house is about to get a new ruler who is only 31 and he may lead Saudi Arabia for decades, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'India missed the software products revolution (and now is in danger of missing the platform revolution), complacent that we are the software experts of the world based on IT services prowess,' points out Rajeev Srinivasan.
'If we had sent a few airplanes (into Tibet), we could have wiped the Chinese out.' 'And everything could have been different in the 1962 War.' 'They did not believe me there was no Chinese air force.' 'Can you imagine what would have happened if we had used the IAF at that time?' 'The Chinese would have never dared do anything down the line.'
'The entire BCCI order was based on the Delhi police's chargesheet.' 'Neeraj Kumar shouldn't be part of any BCCI committee that will look into lifting the life ban on the three cricketers.'
Away from the cricket field, it was a year in which Sania Mirza was unarguably the biggest success story with her staggering 10 titles on the Tour -- two of them Grand Slams.
'I can tell you the case that hurts me the most is the one in which the little boy is forced to sign the Kohinoor over.' 'You take a mother away from a child, you surround him with grown ups speaking a different language, you tell him he must sign this over or else...'