A win away from rewriting history after a long gap of 15 years, Indian colts would look to showcase their best and leave nothing to chance when they take on Belgium in the summit showdown of the men's Junior Hockey World Cup in Lucknow on Saturday. The wintry Sunday could turn out to be the biggest day for these Under-21 Indian hockey players as they chase a dream of winning the mega event for the second time. India had earlier won the trophy way back in 2001 in Hobart, Australia. This is India's third entry into the final of the Junior World Cup after having finished runners-up in 1997. Assured of the silver medal, the Indians would now eye nothing less than the yellow metal.
India settled for silver after losing to Australia 3-1 (0-0) in penalty shootout in the final of Champions Trophy hockey tournament in London on Saturday. After their spectacular effort to hold World No.1 Australia at 0-0 in regular time, India missed three penalties in the shootout to go down fighting in a morale-boosting clash. SK Uthappa, vice-captain SV Sunil and Surendar Kumar missed the strokes for India.
With one win and a draw, India are currently placed on top of Pool C ahead of Belgium
Eager to change the shade of the Tokyo bronze, the Indian men's hockey team is now focussing on directly qualifying for the Paris Olympics by winning next year's Asian Games, says young midfielder Hardik Singh.
The Indian Olympic Association presented cash rewards worth Rs 20 lakh, 10 lakh, and 7.5 lakh to the gold, silver and bronze medallists respectively.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
Former champions Chennai City FC defeated Gokulam Kerala FC 2-1 in their opening match of the I-League, Kalyani, on Saturday.
Though the India Women's Cricket team could not mark victory in the ICC Women's World Cup final, their families back at their home were seen celebrating their daughters' brilliant performances.
India would look to seal a direct quarterfinal berth with a win against Canada in their final Pool C match of the men's hockey World Cup on Saturday.
Indian cricket in 2022 was chaotic, to say the least and messy at most of the time both on and off the field.
India continued to torment Pakistan in the Hero Hockey World League Semifinals, hammering the arch-rivals 6-1 in a 5th-8th place classification match, in London on Saturday.
India's defence held its ground against desperate Great Britain as they clinched a 2-1 victory in the 36th Champions Trophy in London on Saturday. The victory puts India at the top of the league standings with four points. Goalkeeper PR Sreejesh stood his ground against a number of shots at the goal, four of them on penalty corners, as India made use of a breakaway opportunity created by right winger SV Sunil and their defenders covered the angles well to emerge victorious. Playing deep inside their own territory in the first quarter against early British raids, India scored through Mandeep Singh on their first raid by Sunil in the 17th minute.
The Indian women's cricket team would now go through a trial by fire when it make its day-night Test debut against Australia in the one-off game, starting in Gold Coast on Thursday.
India women team captain Mithali Raj quit international cricket on Wednesday after a stellar 23-year career.
All the results from the I-League and ISL matches played on Saturday
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
Belgium stunned six-time champions and title holders Germany 4-3 in the shoot out to progress to their maiden final of the men's Junior Hockey World Cup in Lucknow on Friday.
World champions Australia completed their all-win sequence in the round-robin league competition of the 25th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament by posting a facile 3-0 victory over Canada, in Ipoh, Malaysia, on Friday.
All that's transpired on and off the cricket pitch on Wednesday.
Captain Virat Kohli unveiled Team India's new jersey for the 2019 World Cup, saying the 'new team kit is a testament to our style of play'.
New Zealand sprung a fantastic turnaround to defeat India by three wickets
A nervy India squandered a one-goal advantage as they allowed Canada to stage a fightback with a late strike and earn a 2-2 draw in their final men's hockey pool game of the Rio Olympics Games.
Coach Ramesh Powar is 'not concerned at all' as he attributed the poor performance to lack of game time
The Indian women's cricket team's horror tour of New Zealand continued as they suffered a 63-run defeat in a rain-curtailed fourth ODI in Queenstown on Tuesday with the hosts inching towards a series clean sweep.
Harmanpreet Kaur's half-century went in vain as West Indies women eked out a 15-run victory over India to complete a 3-0 sweep of the T20I series in Malapadu, Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday.
After having maximum possession till the 2nd quarter, India finally took the lead in the 19th minute as Akashdeep Singh scored on rebound of a penalty corner.
Title holders Delhi Waveriders register their first victory of the season, following a 3-1 win over debutants Dabang Mumbai in a league match of the third edition of the Hero Hockey India League.
Featuring India's most revered cricketers such as Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar, the BCCI has created a new video to promote wearing masks in public places and help the country battle the coronavirus pandemic. The 'Team Mask Force' has been created to spread awareness about wearing masks in public places.
World Champions Australia thrashed India 4-0 to reclaim the Azlan Shah Cup hockey title in Ipoh, Malaysia, on Saturday.
A listless India slumped to a heart-breaking 0-1 defeat to hosts Malaysia in their last league match as they failed to reach the final of Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament for the second consecutive year in Ipoh, Malaysia on Friday.
Jordan Murray put Kerala ahead in the 64th minute before Neville's stoppage-time equaliser (90+5) ensured that SCEB extended their unbeaten run to six games.
Australia finished on top of the standings despite losing 2-3 to Olympic champions Argentina earlier in the day. India, which needed just a draw to progress, finished second.
It was a perfect display of attacking hockey as the Indian strikers toyed with the Malaysian defence with short passes, one-touch ball delivery to pump five beautiful field goals.
Former India women's coach W V Raman says the 25-year-old is a good reader of the game and has already played few years of cricket.
India's captain Mithali Raj says youngsters like Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh have shown that they have the ability to compete at the highest level and the last few series have helped the team figure out its composition ahead of women's ODI World Cup next month.
Minnows Austria continued to impress in the ongoing men's Junior Hockey World Cup as they spanked declining Asian powerhouse Korea 5-2 in Lucknow on Saturday to remain in contention for a surprise quarter-final berth from Pool A in the 16-team tournament.
Mary was back in her preferred 48kg category as she overcame the challenge from younger competitors to make it to the Indian team for the marquee continental event, which is to be held from November 2 to November 11 in the Ho Chi Minh City.
Former India football captain Baichung Bhutia was given the Lifetime Achievement award, while hockey legend and three-time Olympic gold medallist Balbir Singh Sr was honoured with the Icon of the Century award.
Indians dominated the limited-over teams by having three and four players in the ODI and T20I respectively
Rediff.com introduces you to the athletes who have brought India glory in Birmingham.
