The Sports Express

Cricket

• The 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League got underway on the 9th of April, 2021 with the schedule of playing in two different stadiums simultaneously and rotating across 6 stadiums throughout the entire season. The first half of the season saw Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru emerge as strong favorites for the playoff spots. Defending champions, Mumbai Indians endured a rather inconsistent start to the tournament alongside the Punjab Kings while Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad struggled, culminating in the dropping and replacement of Sunrisers captain David Warner. Other notable moments included centuries by Sanju Samson and Jos Buttler, a 5-wicket haul by the unexpected purple cap holder Harshal Patel, Ravi Jadeja’s 37 run over off the aforementioned Harshal, a couple of classic AB De Villiers innings as well as a classic game between arch-rivals Mumbai and Chennai, ending in a final ball finish.
• However, there was some criticism on holding the IPL while India was going through a severe increase in Covid-19 cases and the pandemic caught up to the IPL, with Varun Chakravarthy testing positive for the virus. Initially, the match between Kolkatta Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians was postponed however more positive cases including Amit Mishra and Wriddiman Saha forced the postponement of the tournament.

• The first test match of the 2-test series between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh ended in a high scoring draw with Dimuth Karunaratne scoring his maiden test double century. Mominul Haque, Dhananjaya De Silva and Najmul Hossain Shanto also scored centuries as Sri Lanka’s plan of preparing a green pitch suited for pace bowling backfired.

• South Africa and Pakistan faced each other in a 3 match ODI series where Pakistan emerged 3-1 victors. The first match was won by Pakistan on the back of a Babar Azam hundred, while South Africa levelled the series in the second match despite a heroic innings by Fakhar Zaman who scored 193 runs. Pakistan won the third game against a depleted South Africa side who had four players departing for the IPL. The 4-match T20I series which followed also ended in a 3-1 Pakistan victory, notable for a Babar Azam century. Babar Azam ascended to the No.1 position in the ODI batting rankings due to his performances in this series.

• South Africa’s problems continued off the field as the country’s sports minister Nathi Mthethwa derecognized Cricket South Africa from running the sport in the country due to their inability to agree on a new constitutional model. This made it quite possible that the South African national team would be unable to play international cricket, however the situation was resolved for the time being with a new governance model being agreed upon a few days later.
• Nepal, Netherlands and Malaysia took part in a triangular T20I series hosted in Kirtipur, Nepal. Nepal dominated the tournament, crushing Netherlands by 142 runs in the final. The tournament was also notable for Max O’Dowd scoring the first T20I century by a Dutch cricketer.
• The Sheffield Shield title, Australia’s premier First Class competition went to Queensland, who defeated New South Wales by an innings and 33 runs in the final. Despite, New South Wales boasting 3 members of Australia’s regular test bowling attack in Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon they were put to the sword by Marnus Labuschagne who kept up his fine run of form with 192 runs in the first innings. The Queensland bowling attack led by Michael Neser, Jack Wildermuth, Xavier Bartlett, Brendan Doggett and Mitchell Swepson dismissed New South Wales for scores of 143 and 213.  However, New South Wales made amends in the Marsh Cup final, the domestic 50 over competition in Australia, winning the final against Western Australia. 

• For the first time in the two tournaments’ century plus long history, the English County Championship and the Sheffield Shield saw matches being played simultaneously. The County Championship introduced a new format with 3 groups of 6 teams each with 2 teams from each group progressing to different leagues based on their position within the group. Defending champions Essex endured a slow start to the season, placed 5th in Group A which is currently led by Warwickshire with a resurgent Nottinghamshire who won their first County match in more than an year in second place. Group B sees surprise leaders in Gloucestershire with usual suspects Somerset in second while group C is led by the two Roses rivals, with Lancashire and Yorkshire occupying the top 2 spots.

Football

• Undoubtedly, the biggest story coming out of football in the past month was the proposed European Super League, which was proposed as a Champions League replacement with 12 founder clubs in Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea, Juventus, Inter Milan and AC Milan, with a further 3 teams expected to sign on as founding members. There was swift public outrage both from UEFA as well as from fans which led to 9 clubs dropping out of the project within the next few days. Currently, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus have not dropped out of the project but it remains to be seen if the project ever becomes reality. PSG and Bayern Munich were swift in their condemnation of the project and reiterated their commitment to the Champions League which itself will see a major format change from 2024 onwards. The protests against the Manchester United ownership, the Glazers increased massively in the following days which culminated in fans breaking into Old Trafford causing the Manchester United vs Liverpool game to be postponed.

• The Champions League quarterfinals took place with defending champions Bayern Munich being knocked out by PSG on the back of a 3-2 win in the first leg. Manchester City progressed to the semifinals as well despite being troubled by Borussia Dortmund. Chelsea continued their impressive form since the appointment of Tomas Tuchel with a 2-0 victory over Porto in the first leg enough for a victory in the tie while two injury hit squads in Real Madrid and Liverpool battled against each other with Real Madrid emerging on top after a 3-1 victory in the first leg.

• The UEFA Europa League semi-finalists were also determined with Manchester United making their way past Granada, Arsenal eliminating Slavia Prague, Roma defeating Ajax and Villarael defeating Dinamo Zagreb.
• The Premier League continued with Manchester City going within one win of cementing the Premier League title. Manchester United continues to be in second place with Chelsea and Leicester remaining in the top 4. West Ham still stand a chance of making it to the Champions League while Liverpool and Tottenham also harbour ambitions of their own. Chelsea faced their first loss under Tomas Tuchel with a surprise 5-2 demolition at the hands of West Brom and Jose Mourinho was sacked by Tottenham Hotspur days before the League Cup Final which they would go on to lose 1-0 to Manchester City courtesy of a late Aymeric Laporte goal. However, City’s hopes of a quadruple were smashed by Chelsea who defeated them in the FA cup semi finals. Chelsea will face Leicester City in the final after they defeated Southampton in the other semi final.

• The La Liga title fight continues to be enthralling with stuttering form from Atletico Madrid has seen both Barcelona and Real Madrid as well as an inform Sevilla draw close to them in the league table. All 4 sides will have genuine title ambitions with Atletico only remaining in the lead due to a shock Barcelona loss against Granada and Real Madrid enduring two consecutive 0-0 draws against Getafe and Real Betis. Real Socieded won the 2019/20 Copa Del Rey title after the postponed final from last season against Athletic Bilbao resulted in a 1-0 win courtesy of a Mikel Oyarzabal penalty. Athletic Bilbao would go on to lose their second cup final of the month after being demolished 4-0 in the 2020/21 Copa Del Rey final against Barcelona.

• Inter Milan won their first Serie A title in 11 years after a strong run of form corresponding with hiccups to their closest contenders in AC Milan and Juventus resulted in them sealing the title with time to spare. Juventus and AC Milan could still miss out on the Champions League altogether as Atalanta and Napoli ensure that the battle for the 3 remaining Champions League spots will go down to the wire.
• Bayern Munich got within one win of winning another Bundesliga title with only a shock loss to Mainz denying them. The battle for the Champions League spots continues to be intriguing as Borussia Dortmund surged into the top 4 after Eintracht Frankfurt and Wolfsburg dropped points. This corresponded with the current coach of Eintracht Frankfurt, Adi Hutter being named the Borussia Monchengladbach coach for next season. Meanwhile, Hansi Flick also decided to leave his post as Bayern Munich manager after the season’s end following tension with the sporting director, Hasan Salihamidžić and is heavily rumoured to be Joachim Low’s successor for the German National team manager. Julien Naglesmann, the RB Leipzig manager was named his replacement from next season.

• The Ligue I title race continues to be on the most exciting title races in the European leagues as Lille defeated Paris St Germain 1-0 to put themselves in pole position to win the title. However dropped points against Montpellier means Lille have a meagre one point advantage going into the final 3 games of the season. Lyon effectively dropped out of the title after losing 3-2 to Lille, however they were still able to ruin the title ambitions of Monaco, defeating them 3-2 to effectively end Monaco’s run at the title. Monaco and Lyon still have a slim mathematical chance of snatching the title but it’s effectively a two horse race between PSG and Lille with just one point separating the two sides. 

F1

• The Australian GP street circuit is getting a layout change to promote overtaking with turn 9 and 10 being straightened and turn 13 getting a bit of an extension.
• It was found out that the low rake cars have about a second loss in lap time due to the 2021 regulations. Mercedes and Aston Martin are the main two teams to run low rake cars for several years now.
• Nico Hulkeburg is confirmed as the Test and Reserve driver for Aston Martin.
• F1 has asked the Canadian GP promoters (Octane Racing Group) for an extra $6 Million as compensation to organise a closed-doors event. A deadline was set as april 12th. With the promoters being unable to pay, the Canadian GP was cancelled.
• It was pole position for Lewis Hamilton at the 2nd race in Imola. It was also noteworthy that Sergio Perez beat his teammate Max to 2nd place while Lando Norris set a time for P3 but the time was deleted due to track limit violations.
• Max Verstappen wins the Imola GP with a lead of over 20 seconds, The wet starting race saw Verstappen lunging into turn 1 and taking the lead while having a bit of contact with Lewis Hamilton.
• Valterri Bottas and George Russell crashed midway through the race when Russell in the slow Williams was trying to overtake Bottas, went into the wet part of the track and lost control. The race was Red flagged as there was too much debris. 
• When 1 Mercedes had a huge loss the other Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton benefited, after Lewis Hamiton went off the track and dropped to 9th with a lap down on the race leader he was able to unlap himself before the restart and was able to make up places and finish P2. and the Mclaren Driver Lando Norris finished 3rd afet a brilliant race, The brit collected his 2nd Podium finish. 
• The Miami GP is confirmed for 2022.
• The FIA officially announced Sprint Race Qualifying. This format will be first tested at the British GP and the format will be, Friday 1st session is a practice session, Session 2 of friday will run the usual qualifying format which will set up the grid for the Saturday Sprint race. On Saturday the 1st Session will yet again be a Practice session and the evening will be a 100km Sprint race where the finishing order will be the starting grid for the main race on Sunday. In the Sprint race, there will be no mandatory pit stops and in the case of damage to the car, the FIA will allow up to 200,000 euros for damages. 

• It is planned to have 3 sprint Qualifying sessions this year starting with the British GP.
• This 3 race sprint Qualifying will be a test for the FIA to bring more exciting races to Formula 1
• Formula 1 announces a deal extension with the Suzuka Circuit to host the Japanese Grand Prix for three more years.
• Alfa Romeo announces Callum Ilott as their new additional reserve driver with Robert Kubica.
• The Turkish GP returns to F1 in place of the Canadian GP.
• Bottas denied 100th Pole position for Lewis Hamilton at the Portugese GP.
• Even without getting Pole Lewis Hamilton’s masterclass driving saw him take the checkered flag 1st even though Lewis fell back to 3rd at the opening stages. Max Verstappen and Valterri Bottas finished P2 and P3 in a very uneventful race. 
• Meanwhile, Lewis, Max and Valterri now have the record for the most common podium shared in F1. The 3 drivers finished in the top 3 15 times.
• It’s 2:1 race win ratio in the favor of Lewis Hamilton for the battle in the title fight with Max Verstappen.

Cricket

• India surged to a 3-1 victory in the Anthony De Mello Trophy with a resounding innings victory in the final test match. The victory was set up by a maiden test hundred at home by Risabh Pant with valuable contributions with both bat and ball by Washington Sundar, Axar Patel and Ravi Ashwin. This win also confirmed India’s place in the World Test Championship final against New Zealand, scheduled for June at the Ageas Bowl, Southampton. Ravi Ashwin was named the man of the series for his all-round efforts.

• In the T20I series following the test matches, there was a much closer battle among teams with both teams exchanging wins with the series going into the final match tied 2-2. This decider was won by India thanks to an outstanding spell of bowling by Bhuvaneshwar Kumar. From the Indian perspective, this series was also notable for the debuts of Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan, both of whom hit half-centuries in their first international innings.
• This was followed by an ODI series which also served as part of the ICC ODI Super League which was again won by India with a margin of 2-1. The first match was notable for Krunal Pandya’s 50 on debut, the fastest 50 on debut by any player in ODIs and an England collapse leading to an India win. The second match saw a dominant chase by England courtesy of destructive innings by Johnny Bairstow and Ben Stokes while India clinched the series with victory in the decider despite a heroic effort by Sam Curran.
• Sri Lanka undertook its tour of the West Indies, starting with the T20I series which ended in a 2-1 victory for the home side. The first T20I was notable for the debuts of Ashen Bandara and Pathum Nissanka as well as Akhila Dananjaya’s Jekyll and Hyde night, first taking a hat-trick and then becoming only the 3rd player at the international level to be hit for 6 sixes in a single over thanks to Keiron Pollard. West Indies would clinch a nervy chase to take a 1-0 lead before a superb Sri Lankan effort in the second match, with special mention to an outstanding all-round effort by Wanindu Hasaranga levelled the series before Sri Lanka would go on to lose the third match, another nailbiter which went down to the penultimate over.
• The ODI series ended in a comfortable 3-0 victory for the West Indies with Shai Hope and Evin Lewis making hay with a handy contribution from Keiron Pollard in the 3rd ODI. Some solace for Sri Lanka could be found in the encouraging performances of Wanindu Hasaranga as well as debutant Ashen Bandara with Danushka Gunathilaka and Dushmantha Chameera also playing their part.
• The test series ended in a hard-fought 0-0 draw with the first test saw history being made with Pathum Nissanka becoming just the 4th Sri Lankan to score a test match century on test debut, an outstanding effort which led Sri Lanka to a comfortable draw from a vulnerable position. Suranga Lakmal was consistent as ever bagging a 5-wicket haul in the first innings while Nkrumah Bonner drew the match with a 4th innings century. The second match saw a similar narrative with Sri Lanka falling behind in the first innings thanks to an outstanding hundred by new test captain Kraigg Brathwaite, before a solid second innings performance (aided by some inclement weather) led Sri Lanka to a draw. Lahiru Thirimanne kept up his consistent form with Oshada Fernando also playing a key role.
• Afghanistan and Zimbabwe played a multi-format series in the UAE, with Afghanistan sweeping Zimbabwe 3-0 in the T20Is before the test series was drawn 1-1. Zimbabwe won the first test match in just 2 days thanks to a Sean Williams century and an outstanding bowling effort with a major role being played by debutant Blessing Muzarabani, before Afghanistan would go on to earn a hard-fought victory in the 2nd test which created history when Hasmatullah Shahidi became the first Afghan double centurion in test cricket before a 10-wicket haul for Rashid Khan earned Afghanistan a victory despite another century by Sean Williams.
• March also saw several domestic cricketing competitions, with Sinhalese Sports Club coming out on top in the SLC T20 Tournament, defeating Army Sports Club in the final. Dolphins won the domestic First Class tournament in South Africa while Mumbai won the Vijay Hazare trophy thanks in no small part to 4 centuries by Prithvi Shaw who became the highest run scorer in a single edition of the tournament.

Football

• March saw Manchester City continue their march towards the Premier League title while surprise Champions League challengers Leicester City and West Ham United maintained their good form as well as Manchester United and Chelsea. The North London Derby ended in a 2-1 victory for Arsenal despite an astounding piece of skill by Erik Lamela to give Tottenham the lead
• Atletico Madrid maintained their position at the top of the La Liga table despite two draws against Elche and Real Madrid in the Madrid derby giving both Barcelona and Real Madrid a sniff at the title
• A familiar story in the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich edging closer to the title despite the best efforts of RB Leipzig in second place. Notable for the month of March was Der Klassiker, where Bayern Munich completed a wonderful comeback from 2-0 down thanks to a Robert Lewandowski hat trick against his former club to win the game 4-2
• Inter Milan raced clear in the Serie A title race, winning all of their games in the month, while their closest rivals AC Milan and Juventus stumbled
• Ligue 1 sees maybe the closest title race of any of Europe’s big leagues with Lille continuing their strong challenge on the French title despite a loss to Nimes and a draw to fellow challengers Monaco bringing the chasing group closer. Another member of this chasing group Paris St Germain faced their own stumble with a loss against Nantes which they made up for with a comprehensive victory against the other challenger, Lyon. Any of the above mentioned four clubs still stand a realistic chance of winning the Ligue 1 title
• March also saw the second legs of the Champions League round of 16, with Paris St Germain eliminating Barcelona thanks to a 1-1 draw to follow the 4-1 win in the first leg. However, the match that dominated the headlines was 10-man Porto eliminating Juventus. Porto came into the second leg 2-1 up, before a goal by Sergio Oliveira extended the lead before Fredico Chiesa scored a double to bring the tie to equal terms. Porto hung on after a red card for Mehedi Taremi to take the game to extra time with the score tied at 3-3, before Sergio Oliviera scored with a free kick to take Porto 4-3 up and despite a late goal by Adrien Rabiot bringing the score to 4-4, Juventus would lose on the away goals rule. In the other ties in the round, Chelsea defeated a surprisingly mediocre Atletico Madrid with Real Madrid eliminating Atalanta. Dortmund eliminated Sevilla thanks to another brace by Erling Haaland while Bayern Munich and Manchester City won comfortably against Lazio and Borussia Monchengladbach respectively. Liverpool also found the round more comfortable than previously expected with a comfortable win against RB Leipzig
• March also saw the international break and world cup qualifying matches, with Germany falling to a shock 2-1 loss against North Macedonia while Turkey also shocked the Netherlands with a 4-2 win. Meanwhile, the South American qualifiers were postponed due to travel restrictions in the continent affecting players based in Europe.

F1 

• Hass announced that they will stop all development of their 2021 contender after testing to focus more on their 2022 contender.
• Ferrari Trento Sparkling Wine has replaced usual champagne in podium celebrations for at least the next 3 years.
• 3 Sprint races are being planned for 2021 to increase the excitement of Qualifying and the Main race, It will replace the Saturday qualifying and the finishing order will decide the grid for the main race. Sprint race qualifying is planned to be done on FP2 time on Friday.
• F1 reveals the new Aston Martin Safety car and Medical car. The Safety car is an Aston Martin Vantage and the Medical car is an Aston Martin DBX. They are planned to run in countries where they have a bigger market share.
• The Mercedes AMG GTR safety car and C63 Medical car will now be in Red and have a sponsor as well.
• Pre Season testing went underway for the 2021 season with just 3 days the teams had a lot of running to do.  Day one saw Max Verstappen top the charts and a sand storm hit on the evening session, despite this, the teams still ran their tests.
• Day two saw Valterri Bottas topping the timing sheets while 7-time world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton had a spin and got stuck in the gravel in the morning session.
• Day 3 saw Max Verstappen again topping the timing sheets with them being very strong with the new regulations while the low rake cars such as Mercedes and Aston Martin struggled with rear-end grip.
• Mercedes completed the minimum laps in testing with just 304 laps while Alfa Romeo completed 422 laps of Bahrain along with Alpha Tauri.
• 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix organizers revealed the Jeddah Street Circuit, a fast circuit on the city coast with 27 turns and 3 Potential DRS zones. It is expected to be the fastest street circuit in F1 
• F1 is ‘investigating’ active aerodynamics for 2025, as confirmed by F1’s Technical Chief Pat Symonds.
• The 1st F1 race weekend got along on the Final weekend of march.
• Max Verstappen got pole for the 1st race and it’s the first time the young Dutchman got back to back poles in his F1 career.
• Despite Max getting pole for the 2021 Bahrain GP, Lewis Hamilton won the race after a very heated battle towards the end of the race with Max. Max Verstappen did take the lead at the closing stages but since he went over the track limits he was forced to give the position back to Hamilton a few corners later. 
• From what we see in the season opener we are infor a good title fight between Hamilton and Verstappen for the drivers title and Mercedes and RedBull for the constructors title.
•  Overall it’s looking forward to be a very exciting season that is going to unfold over 23 races
• It’s a 3 week wait for fans until the Next race that is happening in Imola.

Football

• February saw the return of European football, starting off with the round of 16 in the UEFA Champions League and the round of 32 in the UEFA Europa League. In the Champions League, Manchester City and Bayern Munich cruised to comfortable first-leg wins over Borussia Monchengladbach and Lazio respectively, while Liverpool, Chelsea and Real Madrid also took first-leg leads. Meanwhile, Juventus suffered a shock defeat from Porto, while PSG dominated Barcelona in their first leg, courtesy of a Kylian Mbappe hat trick. In the Europa League, Leicester was surprisingly knocked out by Slavia Praha
• Manchester City continued their stranglehold on the Premier League, winning all of their matches in the month of February and currently look on course for a comfortable title win. Manchester United and Leicester follow in 2nd and 3rd respectively, with one of the highlights of United’s month being a 9-0 win against Southampton. Liverpool continued their horror run, losing against Brighton, Leicester and Everton with the derby loss to Everton being their first loss in the Merseyside derby at Anfield in 22 years. Meanwhile, Chelsea continue to remain unbeaten under new manager, Tomas Tuchel
• A 3-0 Milan derby win for Inter Milan ensured a commanding lead for them in the Serie A title race over city rivals AC Milan. Juventus in the midst of an inconsistent season has also closed the gap on 2nd place AC Milan who have been suffering heavily from injuries including one to star Swedish forward, Zlatan Ibrahimovic
• An inconsistent month of February for Atletico Madrid including draws against Celta Vigo and Levante as well as a loss against the latter ensured that the La Liga title race was still alive and kicking with both Real Madrid and Barcelona closing the gap on Atletico following strong recent form in the league. Atletico Madrid still holds a slender lead going into the business end of the season but the title race is certainly on.
• Bayern Munich suffered a couple of hiccups in the Bundesliga, including a draw against struggling Arminia Bielefeld as well as a loss against Eintracht Frankfurt, which allowed a RB Leipzig team in red hot form to come with two points of the serial winners. Meanwhile, Marco Rose, the current Borussia Monchengladbach coach was confirmed as Dortmund manager for the next season while arch-rivals, Schalke 04 remain rooted to the foot of the table and seem destined to be relegated
• Surprise package Lille maintained their slender lead in the Ligue 1 table over giants Paris St Germain, with both Lyon and Monaco following close by making the Ligue 1 season into a genuine 4 team title race, It currently seems that Lille and PSG are the teams to beat, but both Lyon and Monaco will also fancy their chances in what has been a rather inconsistent season for defending champions PSG, who haven’t had the best start to the league under new manager Mauricio Pochettino

Cricket

• The England India test series got underway in Chennai with Joe Root continuing his sizzling form with a double century on the way to a famous England win with notable contributions from Jack Leach, Dom Bess and the ageless Jimmy Anderson who bowled a candidate for one of the greatest overs of recent times with a stunning display of reverse swing. The pitches for the 2nd and 3rd tests were drastically more bowler-friendly with the second test in Chennai going India’s way thanks to centuries from Rohit Sharma and Ravi Ashwin while debutant Axar Patel also made his mark with a 5-wicket haul on his test debut. The 3rd test was also the first test match at the world’s biggest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad which was christened the Narendra Modi International Cricket stadium. The first test match at the ground, a day/night affair ended inside 2 of the allocated five days as a combination of a spin-friendly pitch and the skiddy nature of the pink ball led to a series of low scores and dominance from Axar Patel, who picked up a 12 wicket haul while English captain Joe Root also claimed a surprising 5-8. India leads the series 2-1 going into the final test match, again at Ahmedabad.
• Pakistan played South Africa in a series at home with Pakistan winning the test series 2-0 with outstanding contributions from debutant Nauman Ali who picked up a 5-wicket haul as well as Mohammed Rizwan who notched his first test century. However, the sweetest moment of all came when Hasan Ali returned from a lengthy injury layoff to take a 10-wicket haul with a searing display of skiddy pace. The T20I series also ended 2-1 in favour of Pakistan with highlights including a sublime century from Mohammed Rizwan and Dwaine Pretorius’s 5-wicket haul in South Africa’s only win on the tour.
• An inexperienced West Indies team under Kraigg Brathwaite sealed an unexpected 2-0 win over Bangladesh in a series that will be forever remembered for Kyle Mayer’s double century on debut, the very first double century by a debutant in the second innings. The second match was an extremely tense affair with Rakheem Cornwall bowling his side to the brink of victory before sealing the win with a sharp catch of Mehidy Hasan Miraz at slip off the bowling of Jomel Warrican
• Australia postponed their tour of South Africa, citing health risks while also starting a T20I series against New Zealand where Devon Conway scored 99 not out in the first match of the series
• The IPL auction took place in Chennai with Chris Morris becoming the most expensive player in the history of the IPL when he was bought for 16.25 Cr(approx $2.28 million)  by the Rajasthan Royals. Other notable buys were Jhye Richardson and Rilee Meredith by the newly renamed Punjab Kings, Glenn Maxwell and Kyle Jamieson by Royal Challengers Bangalore and Moeen Ali and Krishnappa Gowtham by Chennai Super Kings. IPL 2021 will also make history by being the first IPL edition with no participation from Sri Lankan players

Tennis

• The 2021 Australian Open concluded with a 9th Australian Open victory for Novak Djokovic who also won his 18th Grand Slam title, moving within 2 of the overall record. He achieved this by dismantling Danil Medvedev in straight sets in the final. In the Women’s singles edition, Naomi Osaka continued her domination on hard courts beating Jennifer Brady in the final to win her 4th Grand Slam title.

F1

• There were significant changes made to the Australian GP track layout to make overtaking better and the race a bit more exciting for the fans

• The plans for an F1 race in Rio De Janeiro was cancelled after taking the economical downfalls from Covid-19.
• Nikita Mazepin together with all Russian drivers competing in FIA-run Championships, not only in F1, will be banned from racing under the Russian flag from 2021.
• Lewis Hamilton was confirmed as the driver for Mercedes but it was only a 1-year contract which got fans thinking if 2021 will be his last season with Mercedes or even in F1.
• The calendar was finalised with the Portuguese GP being announced to take the 3rd race of the 23 race season.

• The Paul Ricard circuit has reprofiled 70% of its track to improve overtaking and drainage.
• FIA and F1 have announced that the engine development is frozen until 2022 and the teams now only get one chance before the season starts to take as much power from their PU. 
•  Fernando Alonso was involved in a bicycle accident in Swaziland and was reported to have a broken jaw because of it. He is fully recovered and back to training for the 2021 season.
• Redbull confirmed they will be taking over the F1 engine development of Honda to power their cars till 2025. This was a result of Honda getting out of F1 to focus more on electric car development.
• Ferrari is confident they found the lost power from their engines and now have faster straight-line speed.
• Pirelli has announced its tyre compounds for the entire season at once when they usually announce them as the season progresses.
• 

Cricket

• India defeated Australia on their home turf for the second consecutive series after winning the 4 match test series 2-1. The series was poised at 1-1 going into the Sydney Test where India batted out the last day to seal an unlikely draw with heroic knocks by Hanuma Vihari and Ravichandran Ashwin, both of whom were battling injuries. The final test match took place at the Gabba, a ground where Australia had not lost since 1988 and with India going into the match with an injury-depleted lineup little was expected. However, substantial contributions by Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan, Mohammed Siraj and Washington Sundar, as well as contrasting final day innings by Cheteshwar Pujara and Rishabh Pant, helped seal the deal for India, in what was undoubtedly one of the greatest test match victories of all time. Despite ending up on the losing side, Pat Cummins was awarded the Man of the Series for his outstanding bowling while Ajinkya Rahane lifted the Border-Gavaskar trophy for the second time.
• Sri Lanka got off to a dismal start in their first test series of the year, succumbing 2-0 to England. Both test matches were played at Galle, with Sri Lanka collapsing in the first innings to hand England a huge advantage with Joe Root capitalized on with a double century. Despite a hundred by Lahiru Thirimanne and a fighting effort by Angelo Mathews in the second innings, Sri Lanka ended up losing the match by 7 wickets. The second match saw a better fight in the first innings with Angelo Mathews scoring a century for Sri Lanka and the evergreen James Anderson picking up 6-40. In reply, Joe Root kept up his unbelievable form with 188 while Lasith Embuldeniya picked up 7 wickets. However, the match was decided by yet another Sri Lankan collapse, this time in the second innings leaving England a small target to chase which they achieved with 6 wickets in the bag. Joe Root was named Man of the Series for his outstanding batting in both matches
• The Big Bash League title went to the Sydney Sixers who defeated the Perth Scorchers in the tournament final. James Vince was in outstanding form in the final scoring 95, while Josh Philippe, another Sydney Sixers star who had an outstanding tournament.

• The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, India’s Domestic T20I tournament title went to Tamil Nadu who defeated Baroda in the final. This was an important tournament for Indian domestic players with the IPL auction coming up soon on the 18th of February
• South Africa toured Pakistan for the first time since 2007, where they lost the first test thanks to an outstanding hundred by Fawad Alam and solid bowling performances by debutant Nauman Ali who picked up a 5-wicket haul and Yasir Shah. This was the first test for Pakistan under their new captain, Babar Azam
• The ICC ODI Super League saw 3 series being completed in the month of January. Initially, Afghanistan whitewashed Ireland 3-0 which was followed up by another 3-0 victory for Bangladesh against a depleted West Indies team. The Bangladesh vs West Indies series was notable for the return of Shakib Al Hasan to international cricket, following a one year ban for failing to report a corrupt approach

Football

• Liverpool faltered badly in their defence of the Premier League title losing at Anfield for the first time since 2017 against Burnley, which they followed up with another loss against Brighton and Hove Albion. This allowed first Leicester City and then Manchester United to move to the top spot in the table. However, their reign at the top was short-lived as a rampant Manchester City side who have won 13 matches in a row moved to the top of the table and current. The month of January was also notable for the sacking of Frank Lampard from the Chelsea manager’s spot to be replaced by former Borussia Dortmund and PSG manager, Thomas Tuchel.

• Atletico Madrid maintained their lead at the top of the La Liga table and look strong favourites to win the title. Barcelona rediscovered some of their form after struggling in the initial stages and currently occupy the second spot while Real Madrid have also had a similarly inconsistent season. 

• Bayern Munich remained at the familiar position at the top of the Bundesliga table followed in second by RB Leipzig. Borussia Dortmund continued to struggle under caretaker manager Edin Terzic and currently occupy 6th place while Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt with a rejuvenated Luka Jovic occupy the Champions League spots. BVB’s archrivals Schalke 04 remain rooted at the foot of the table and narrowly avoided breaking the record for the longest interval between league victories in the Bundesliga, winning for the first time in 358 days when they defeated Hoffenheim 4-0.
• Serie A still sees the lead in the hands of AC Milan with Inter Milan following closely in second. However, Juventus seem to have rediscovered some of their old form and remain closely behind in 3rd with Roma, Lazio, Napoli and Atalanta following not too close behind. AC Milan, despite losing to Juventus were buoyed by the return of talismanic striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic from injury.
• Ligue 1 remains an unexpectedly close battle between Lille, Lyon and PSG with Lille being the surprise leaders going into the month of February. Monaco are also on a strong run of form with an outside chance of challenging for the title. In the last week of January, PSG lost 3-2 to a struggling Lorient side and they might not seal the deal as easily as they have tended to do in the last few seasons. Meanwhile, Marseille appears to be in turmoil with fans attacking the clubs training session, resulting in injuries to security staff and a player, their manager Andre Villas-Boas tendering his resignation to the board over a disagreement over the transfer of Oliver Ntcham. His request was rejected by the board who opted to suspend him pending further disciplinary action.
• Rangers seem set to end Celtic’s dominance in the Scottish Premier League under the stewardship of Steven Gerrard. The championship had been won for the last 9 consecutive seasons by Celtic
• The January Transfer window while not being proliferated by huge deals still saw many significant moves. Here is a list of some of the moves you might have missed (currency in pounds)

1. Dominik Szobszlai- Midfielder, Red Bull Salzburg to RB Leipzig, 22.9 million

2. Amad Diallo- Winger, Atalanta to Manchester United, 18.7 million

3. Sebastian Haller- Forward, West Ham to Ajax, 20 million

4. Moussa Dembele- Forward, Lyon to Atletico Madrid, loan

5. Luka Jovic- Forward, Real Madrid to Eintracht Frankfurt, loan

6. Mario Mandzukic- Forward, free agent signed by AC Milan

7. Arkaduiz Milik- Forward, Napoli to Marseille, loan

8. Fiyako Tomori- Defender, Chelsea to Milan, loan

9. Willian Jose- Forward, Real Sociedad to Wolves, loan

10. Mesut Ozil- Midfielder, Arsenal to Fenerbahce, free transfer

11. Papu Gomez- Midfielder, Atalanta to Sevilla, 5.5 million

12. Morgan Sanson- Midfielder, Marseille to Aston Villa, 16 million

13. Martin Odergaard- Midfielder, Real Madrid to Arsenal, loan

14. Jesse Lingard- Midfielder, Manchester United to West Ham, loan

15. Sami Khedira- Midfielder, Juventus to Hertha Berlin, free transfer

16. Jean Clair Todibo- Defender, Barcelona to Nice, loan

17. Ozan Kabak- Defender, Schalke to Liverpool, loan

18. Shkodran Mustafi- Defender, Arsenal to Schalke, released

19. Takumi Minamino- Winger, Liverpool to Southampton, loan

20. Ainsely Maitland-Niles- Midfielder, Arsenal to West Brom, loan

21. Josh King- Striker, Bournemouth to Everton, undisclosed fee

Football

• Despite an injury-depleted squad, Liverpool managed to stay on top of the Premier League table during the festive season, despite dropping points against Newcastle and Southampton. A resurgent Manchester United follow close behind, while Leicester also is just one point behind. Only 4 points separate the top 7 teams in an exceptionally close season. On the other end of the spectrum, a struggling West Brom fired manager Slaven Bilic, replacing him with Sam Allardyce.

• Despite a loss in the Madrid Derby, Atletico Madrid remained on top of the La Liga table with Real Madrid following in 2nd with Barcelona in 3rd. Having 3 games in hand over their nearest rivals, Atletico Madrid seems to be in a strong position to win the title. Surprise package Real Sociedad struggled, falling down to 5th place with Villareal hanging on to 4th. Lionel Messi broke the record for the most goals scored for a single club, breaking Pele’s record of 643 for Santos, during a game against Real Valladolid. (Although, the claim was disputed by Santos)

• AC Milan maintained their position on top of the Serie A table, with city rivals Inter Milan following 3 points behind. Despite beating the leaders, Juventus have been inconsistent under Andrea Pirlo, remaining in 4th place in the table. Cristiano Ronaldo also moved past Pele on the records list, this time going past Pele’s 758 career goals while scoring a brace against Udinese.
• Bayern Munich went into the Bundesliga winter break leading the table over rivals RB Leipzig, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen. Borussia Dortmund bid farewell to manager Lucien Favre after a 5-1 loss at Stuttgart with caretaker manager Edin Terzic taking over. Archrivals Schalke remain in the relegation spots and have gone for nearly a year without a single Bundesliga win, coming near to breaking a 50+ year old record.

Cricket

• Despite getting off to a strong start, Sri Lanka suffered a 2-0 loss at the hands of South Africa with injuries to several key players hampering the squad. The first test match saw Faf Du Plessis falling just short of a double century, falling for 199 in a match that South Africa won by an innings. In the second test, despite a strong bowling performance in the first innings with Vishwa Fernando getting his maiden test 5-wicket haul and a Dimuth Karunaratne century, Sri Lanka would fall to a 10 wicket loss.
• The Border-Gavaskar trophy got off to an explosive start as an astonishing second innings collapse saw India dismissed for 36 after taking a substantial first-innings lead. Ajinkya Rahane took over as captain for the second test, with India hitting back immediately to win the Boxing Day test match at the MCG, on the back of a Rahane century.
• New Zealand rose to No.1 on the test cricket rankings for the first time, completing a 2-0 series victory against Pakistan after a 2-0 series victory against the West Indies. The first test against Pakistan was a close affair with Pakistan surviving into the final session of the game before Mitchell Santner took the crucial final wicket. That match was also notable for Fawad Alam scoring his first test century in more than 10 years and Neil Wagner bowling with 2 broken toes. Kane Williamson’s sublime form saw him rise to the top of the test cricket batting rankings, overtaking Steve Smith.
• The Big Bash League got underway with the introduction of several new innovations such as the Power Surge (Where the last 2 overs of the powerplay can be taken at any point after the 10-over mark in the innings), Bash Boost (where teams can get an extra point for being ahead of the opponents at the 10-over mark of the innings) and X-Factor (Which allows a team to substitute a player at the 10-over point of the first innings). Sydney Sixers currently lead the points table, with Sydney Thunder and Adelaide Strikers following close behind.

F1

• F1 raced on December for the second time in history, the last time F1 race in december was the 2019 Abu Dhabi GP held on December 1st 2019
• With Lewis Hamilton testing positive a wide variety of names were thrown around the paddock for who can replace the 7 time world champion.Finally George Russell was announced as the replacement for the Champion at the Baharin outer ring race. Jack Aitken replaced Russell at Williams.

•  Russell showed what he was capable of doing with the Mercedes car by being the fastest in 2 practice sessions and qualifying P2 behind Bottas with just 0.028 seconds off.
• The race start was quite exciting for fans as all eyes were on the new star of the show. George got an absolutely stunning start getting Bottas by turn 1 and into the distance.
• By turn 4 Leclerc locked up his breaks and crashed into Perez who spun round while Leclerc broke his suspension and was in the wall along with Verstappen who was in a wrong place, wrong time situation. Perez was last by the end of lap 1 but was quickly up the order due to the high speed and short track F1 raced on in the week.
• With another safety car session about ¾ of the way during the race caused by Aitken crashing at the exit of the last turn, Mercedes decided to double stack the drivers which went horribly wrong with the pit crew mixing up the tyres of Russell and Bottas. Very un Mercedes like!
• This disaster made a Mercedes 1-2 finish impossible and with the drama that unrolled Bottas was P4 and Russell was P5, After the restart Russell did a brilliant move on Bottas which the fans absolutely loved and was on the hunt for the win.Russell was upto P2 while he was said to pit again due to a slow puncture on his left rear. This stop made him drop out of the points.

• This made way for Sergio Perez who was last at the end of Lap 1 on to his first win in F1 which after a brilliant effort he got, with Esteban Ocon taking his first podium at P2 and Lance Stroll finishing P3
• Russell finished P9 with the fastest lap and driver of the day and earned his first points in F1 which could have been a first win for him.
• Coming on to the Abu Dhabi GP the coming week it was still unsure if Lewis Hamilton was going to race the final race of the season. But on friday it was confirmed Lewis  will be racing at Abu dhabi.
• Russell was back in the Williams while Mick Schumacher debuted his first F1 practice session with Hass.

• Mercedes seemed to struggle a bit at the track while Verstappen was fastest in all the sessions and taking his 3rd pole in his career in qualifying.
• The race was quite boring to watch as there was not much track action happening due to the layout of the track which makes following the cars really difficult. But there were some moves done in the mid feild 
• Max Verstappen won the race with Bottas and Hamilton finishing P2 and P3.
• Max Verstappen was on to get a Grand Slam (Pole Position, Race win, Fastest Lap, Lead every lap of the race) which would make him the youngest to do so, But on the last lap his former teammate Riccardo took the fastest lap.
• What’s interesting is Riccardo was also the person who sabotaged Verstappen being the youngest pole sitter

• Mclaren was P3 in the constructors championship which was a really tight battle between Renult and Racing point.
• Sergio Perez was announced as the new teammate of Verstappen at Redbull with Albon being demoted as the Reserve driver for the team.
• Yuki Tsunoda was announced as the second driver of Alpha Tuari. We now have a Japanese F1 driver since 2014

• Lewis Hamilton is sey to be Knighted by the Queen of England on new years eve. But the knight still has a contract to be signed with Mercedes where there is rumored to be some irregularities in the clauses.
• Nikita Mazepin is probably the most hated driver on the 2021 grid with his actions that were posted on his social media and was taken down very soon as the fans started to rage.
• Australian GP is planned to be the Season opener in 2021. 

Cricket

• The Lankan Premier League finally got up and running and has served up some truly excellent cricket so far with the very first games between Kandy Tuskers and Colombo Kings going all the way to a super over. Jaffna Stallions led by Thisara Perera and his blistering form are unbeaten at the top after 3 games, with Dasun Shanaka’s Dambulla Viking and Colombo Kings in hot pursuit. In a rain-curtailed 5 over game Andre Russel blasted a 16 delivery half-century, while other standout performances include wonderful knocks from Kusal Perera, Dinesh Chandimal, Isuru Udana, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Shahid Afridi, Thisara Perera and Danushka Gunathilaka. The highest wicket-taker so far is Asela Gunaratne of the Kandy Tuskers.
• The Women’s Big Bash League ended in a victory for Sydney Thunder, defeating Melbourne Stars by 7 wickets in the final. Sophie Devine won the player of the series for the second consecutive season while Shabin Ismail was the player of the final.

• India’s tour of Australia got off to a poor start with a 2-1 loss in the ODI series. Steven Smith was the star of the show, scoring consecutive 62 ball hundreds.
• England whitewashed South Africa 3-0 in the T20I series, with David Malan scoring an unbeaten 99 in the series finale
• New Zealand defeated Windies 2-0 in the T20I series between the two teams
• The Pakistan Super League was won by the Karachi Kings after defeating Lahore Qalanders in the final. The player of the final was well as the series went to Pakistan’s new all-format captain, Babar Azam.

Football

• Argentine footballing legend, Diego Armando Maradona died at the age of 60 after suffering a sudden heart attack. Commonly regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Maradona led Argentina to victory at the 1986 FIFA World Cup, scoring a brilliant goal against England in the quarterfinals. At the club level, he was known for his exploits with Boca Juniors, Barcelona and Napoli. On the weekend both Barcelona and Napoli showed respect for Maradona during their goal celebrations, with Messi unveiling a Newell’s Old Boys shirt, a club which Maradona played for at the end of his career. He will be fondly remembered for his exploits on the football pitch.

• The UEFA Champions League neared the end of its group stages with a couple of groups having all teams in contention. 13 time champions Real Madrid suffered a second surprise loss to Shakhtar Donetsk leaving them under pressure going into the final game of the group stage. Braut Erling-Haaland of Borussia Dortmund became the fastest player to reach 15 Champions League goals, achieving the milestone in just 12 games.
• The UEFA Nations League took place during the international break with Belgium, Italy, France and Spain progressing to the 4 nation finals. Meanwhile, Scotland qualified for Euro 2020, their first major tournament since 1998 while North Macedonia qualified for their very first major international tournament. Euro 2020 ( not 2021), will take place across several European Stadiums in the summer of 2021
• Tottenham Hotspur under Jose Mourinho moved to the top of the Premier League table after an excellent month where they beat Manchester City and drew against Chelsea. Defending champions Liverpool remain in hot pursuit, on equal points with Tottenham while Chelsea and Leicester City take up the remaining Champions League places.

• Real Sociedad maintained their surprise lead in the La Liga Table, with 3 wins and a draw in the month of October. Atletico Madrid remain one point behind, but with 2 games in hand while usual suspects Real Madrid and Barcelona are yet to find their best form with Real Madrid losing to Alaves over the weekend while Barcelona were also beaten by Atletico Madrid during the month

• Business as usual in the Bundesliga as Bayern Munich maintained their lead in the table, 2 points above RB Leipzig. Der Klassiker, the rivalry between Bayern and Dortmund ended in a 3-2 victory for Munich, consolidating their lead at the top.
• AC Milan maintained their unbeaten start in Serie A, buoyed by the goals of Zlatan Ibrahimovic who unfortunately was injured in their win against Napoli. Inter Milan and Juventus as well as surprise package Sassuolo take up the rest of the top 4

Rugby

• The 2020 Six Nations Rugby Championship commenced after the initial postponement due to the pandemic with England emerging as champions following a victory against Italy.
• Argentina defeated New Zealand for the very first time in their history with a 15-25 win in the Tri-Nations tournament in Sydney

F1 

• November F1 weekend kicked off after a week’s break from the last race in Imola.
• It was yet another return to an iconic race track, it was none other than Turkey. This track has given us a lot of exciting races and just 3 drivers of the current grid have raced in F1 when they were last here.
•  Max Verstappen was so confident coming into the weekend where he said in a podcast that he can take the magnificent double apex turn 8 in full throttle and with his eye closed.

• But from FP1 it was obvious that it was not gonna happen as the track had been resurfaced and drivers often referring to it to be smooth as a baby’s bottom. It was a very slippery track indeed.
• The Turkish GP was the first time this season where the dominant team was genuinely struggling and did not secure a pole position for the first time this season.
• But yet a Mercedes powered Racing point (Some Say its the copy of last years Mercedes) of Lance Stroll secured pole from the weekend dominating Max Verstappen who would have been gutted to not get Pole and secured P2 while Sergio Perez got P3

• Despite leading the race for the most of the first part of the rainy race Lance Stroll had damage on his car and a wrong strategy call made him lose the lead. Sebastian Vettel got a superb start while Bottas and Ocon spinned into Turn 1 at the start.
• With a lot of spins on track and varying track conditions, drivers had to improvise. What most drivers did was use the softer intermediate tyres and wear out the tread to make it a tyre good for the wet and the dry. 
• With all this happening Lewis Hamilton drove a Championship worthy drive till the end and Won the Turkish GP along with securing his 7th world title Equaling him to the record held by Michale Schumacher.

• Sergio Perez Secured P2 while Sebastian Vettel finished in P3. These 3 drivers were the only 3 drivers to have raced in F1 the last time F1 was in Turkey.
•  After another week of a break F1 is in the middle east for the final 3 back to back races including the season finale.
• First race of the final triple header was in Bahrain.
• The race was filled with one very big incident at the exit turn 3 on lap 1 where fans were in shock when the car of Romain Grosjean went into the barrier and went up in flames instantly.
• Thanks to the FIA and F1 for increasing the safety of the modern day F1 car, the driver only suffered 2nd degree burns on the back of his hands despite his car breaking into two and him being in a raging fire for more than 20s before jumping out to safety.

• This incident also meant that any argument on the Halo will no longer be spoken of as if it hadn’t been there the outcome would have been very bad.
• After a 90 minute delay they restarted only to have the safety car deployed since Lance Stroll was hanging upside down after having contact with Kyvat.
• Despite the incidents in the opening stages the race continued with much excitement in the mid field, with multiple strategies being used in the high degradation circuit and at the closing stages the Podium finishes seemed to be settled.
• Perez was in P3 at the closing stages but  with just a few laps to go his MGU-H gave up and burst into flames which ended his race.
• Lewis Hamilton collected his 95th win with Max Verstappen P2 and Alex Albon P3. The first time Redbull had a Double podium finish since the 2017 Japanese GP.

• The final 2 races of the season will be held at the outer ring of the Bahrain circuit where lap times will be under a minute and the Season closer in Abu Dhabi.
• On the 30th of November, the day after the Bahrain GP, the 2020 world champion Lewis Hamilton was tested Positive for Covid-19, which will now make the Battle for 4th in the drivers standing and 3rd for the Constructor Championship very interesting and there is a lot of speculation on who the replacement will be.
• Will it be Hulkenburg? Will it be Vandoorne? Will it be Russell? Wait for the 2020 December edition of the sports express to find out!

Cricket

• The Indian Premier League group stages concluded on the 3rd of November, with Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils taking up the top 2 spots on the table with Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad taking up the remaining playoff spots. The past month saw a lot of unforgettable moments including Shikhar Dhawan becoming the very first batsman to score back-to-back IPL centuries, a wonderful century by Ben Stokes and a Chris Gayle 99. However, the most memorable day of the group stage came on the 18th of October when Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkatta Knight Riders went to a super over with KKR emerging victorious. This was tipped by the next match which saw not one but two super overs with Kings XI Punjab finally emerging victorious over the Mumbai Indians helped by an acrobatic Mayank Agarwal effort on the boundary.

• The draft for the inaugural Lankan Premier League took place online with several local and foreign players up for grabs. Although the draft had its fair share of hiccups the squads were finalized with some notable picks being Chris Gayle for the Kandy Tuskers, Shahid Afridi for the Galle Gladiators, David Miller to the Dambulla Hawks. Unfortunately, the announcement of the England tour of South Africa caused Faf Du Plessis and David Malan to pull out of the tournament. However, the franchises are optimistic about finding quality replacements. The tournament is scheduled to start on the 21st of November

• The Women’s Big Bash League and the Sheffield Shield signalled the beginning of domestic cricket in Australia, with all the Sheffield Shield matches being played in a hub in Adelaide and the WBBL being played entirely in Sydney. During the second round of the Sheffield Shield Marcus Harris and Will Pucovski broke the record for the highest partnership in the history of the competition putting on 486 runs for Victoria against South Australia, breaking the 30 year old record of the Waugh Twins for New South Wales against Western Australia.

Football

• The English Premier League ended the month with defending champions Liverpool returning to the top of the table following consecutive defeats to Everton and Aston Villa, both of whom had won their first 4 games. Leicester City and a Tottenham Hotspur buoyed by  rampant Harry Kane and Heung Ming Son follow closely with Manchester City yet to discover their best form

• Real Sociedad took a surprise  early lead in La Liga with Real Madrid close behind. Barcelona are struggling in 12th place, following no wins in their previous 4 matches.

• Inter Milan with a brilliant Zlatan Ibrahimovic got off to a strong start in Serie A, with defending champions Juventus still finding their groove under new manager Andrea Pirlo.
• Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund share top spot in the Bundesliga table with RB Leipzig following close behind
• The Champions League returned with Bayern Munich getting off their title defence with 2 consecutive wins. Other notable results included Real Madrid getting shocked by Shakhtar Donetsk and Barcelona beating Juventus missing Cristiano Ronaldo due to his Covid-19 diagnosis.
• Deeply unpopular Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu and his entire board resigned from their positions with an interim board being appointed to run the club until elections to select a new president can be held.

Tennis

• Rafael Nadal continued his dominance at the French Open, winning the title for the 13th time out of 15, demolishing world number 1 Novak Djokovic in straight sets in the finals. This title took Nadal to the top of the ladder of most Grand Slam victories in Men’s Tennis, equalling Roger Federer on 20 titles.

• Iga Swiatek became the first Polish player and the youngest woman since Monica Seles in 1992, to win a grand slam title with her victory at the French Open following a victory in the final against Sofia Kenin. 

Cycling

• Tao Geoghegan Hart won the Giro d’Italia, one of the 3 grand tours following a thrilling time-trial final stage which he entered tied at the top alongside Jai Hindley. This was his first grand tour title 

F1

• It was all returns this month with F1 returning to some old locations
• F1 returned to Germany, and it returned back to the iconic track of the country in the greens, the iconic track of Nurburgring. It’s been 9 years since the last time F1 raced on the track.
• The Eifel GP was the first time we saw a Mercedes retire the car in the entire season. Even if Bottas didn’t have his luck on the track Lewis Hamilton equalled the all-time record for the most race wins in F1. Which was held on by the all-time great Michael Schumacher. He was Followed by Max Verstappen and in a very long time the Smiling man Daniel Riccardo 
• The Australian had a bet going on with his Team Principal, That if he gets a podium this season his boss will get a tattoo and we were assured the tattoo will be coming.  
• With Lewis Hamilton equalling the record, He was presented with a race helmet of Michael by his son Mick Schumacher which is now considered an iconic moment in F1. 
• F1 also returned to Portuguese 1996 and the first time at Portimão Circuit. Lewis Hamilton now holds the record for the most wins in a season. He was accompanied by his teammate and the Redbull driver of Max Verstappen on the podium.
• With the Portuguese GP, Mercedes were set to win their 7th consecutive Constructors Championship where just one car had to finish the race in 4th.
• The next race was held in the historic circuit of Imola. This was the circuit that claimed the lives of  Aryton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger in the 1994 San Marino GP.

• The Emilia Romagna GP had a special weekend format of just 3 days rather than the usual two. Where Friday was media day, Saturday was practice (1.30 hrs) and qualifying and Sunday as race day.
• This weekend format was an experiment to see if it could be done in the future where the FIA is planning to do 25 races a year.
• While Valtteri Bottas was successful in grabbing pole from his teammate and got to lead the first stint of the race, with Hamilton switching strategies and being lucky with a VSC Lewis Hamilton collected his 93rd win in his F1 career.  While Valtteri Bottas could make it a 1-2 finish for Mercedes, Daniel Riccardo got his second podium of the season 2nd Podium in 2 races and he did not forget to do his iconic ritual the Shoey where Lewis Hamilton joined in which was a surprise.

• Even though the Australian got lucky with Max Verstappen retiring from the race after a tyre failure he had to work hard to keep his place as Danil Kyvat was Hot on his tail at the closing stages. With many happy scenes in the paddock, one moment left all the fans heartbroken as George Russell was on set to get his first points in F1 but he went off to a wall behind the safety car trying to warm up his tyres. 
• With Mercedes getting a 1-2 finish they are now mathematically  Double World Champions. Winning their 7th consecutive Double World Championships and Lewis Hamilton and Valterri Bottas the only drivers able to win the Drivers Championship.  

Cricket

• The Indian Premier League started on the 19th of September with all matches being played in 3 stadiums in the UAE; Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah in front of no crowds. Delhi Capitals, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Mumbai Indians got off to strong starts with the early matches having notable performances including KL Rahul’s 132 runs off just 69 deliveries for Kings XI Punjab against RCB, Rahul Tewatia’s unforgettable cameo including 5 sixes off one Sheldon Cottrell over propelling Rajasthan Royals to a record-breaking run chase against Kings XI Punjab as well as the emergence of young players such as Devdut Padikkal, Priyam Garg, Shubman Gill and Sam Curran.

• The Sri Lanka- Bangladesh 3 test match series that was scheduled to be played in October has been indefinitely postponed after the Sri Lanka Cricket Board and the Bangladesh Cricket Board disagreed on quarantine requirements.
• The Lankan Premier League which was originally scheduled for the 14th of November was pushed back one week to the 21st of November as the original dates did not allow for the Covid-19 quarantine period
• England and Australia played a T20I and ODI series with the T20I series finishing 2-1 in favour of England while the ODI series was won by Australia by the same margin. The series was memorable for England snatching victory from the jaws of defeat in the 2nd ODI, after strong lower-order performances propelled them to a reasonable total before Australia collapsed from a strong position and a mammoth partnership between Alex Carey and Glenn Maxwell taking Australia to a series victory in the deciding ODI.

• Essex won the Bob Willis Trophy, the First Class Tournament that replaced the County Championship for this year. Essex drew with Somerset in the 5-day final at Lord’s, winning the championship on account of scoring more runs in the first innings on the back of an Alistair Cook century. This loss means that Somerset’s wait for a domestic First Class trophy continues, with the club not having won the county championship since acquiring first class status in 1895, despite coming close on numerous occasions

• England Women and West Indies women took part in a 5-match T20I series with England Women running out 5-0 winners with strong performances from Tammy Beaumont, Nat Sciver and Sarah Glenn

Football

• The Premier League got underway on the 12th of October, with Liverpool emerging 4-3 victors in the opening match against newly-promoted Leeds. After the first 3 weeks, Everton has emerged as a surprisingly strong team buoyed by new signings, especially that of 2014 world cup star, James Rodriguez. Other notable signings included Gareth Bale and Sergio Reguilon arriving at Tottenham Hotspur, Donny Van Der Beek to Manchester United and Thiago Alacantara to Liverpool

• The 2020/21 La Liga season also got underway. Barcelona were able to keep star player Lionel Messi even after he had expressed a desire to leave the club but was unwilling to enter into a legal battle with the club regarding his contract. Atletico Madrid strengthened their team by the arrival of Luis Suarez. After the month of September, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid have all got off to reasonable starts.

• The 2020/21 Serie A season started with Juventus under new manager, Andrea Pirlo aiming to win their 10th consecutive title. Inter Milan under Antonio Conte will hope to be title challengers along with Napoli.
• The Ligue 1 match between Paris Saint-German and Olympique Marseille, dubbed ‘Le Classique’ for the rivalry between the teams ended in a surprise 1-0 victory to Marseille. The result was marred by an on-field brawl which saw 5 red cards shown, including one for PSG star player, Neymar
• The 2020/21 UEFA Nations League got underway with defending Champions Portugal getting their title defence underway with a 4-1 victory over Croatia

Cycling

Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia became the youngest winner of the Tour de France since 1904, and the first winner to be on debut since 1983. He achieved this feat by overhauling pre-race favourite and countryman, Primoz Roglic on the time trial on the penultimate day of the race in an incredible performance.

F1

• The FIA imposed a rule on teams that they can use only one engine mode from the start of qualifying till the end of the race which will be from the Italian GP. 
• This was done in order to slow the Mercedes team down and close up the Pack.
• Gasly wins the Italian GP for Alpha Tauri with Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll finishing as 2nd and 3rd respectively.

• The Tuscan GP was next and it was the 1000th Grand Prix race for Ferrari with Ferrari running a special livery for the race and the iconic safety car also getting a colour change from Silver to Red.
• It was announced that Sergio Perez will not be racing with Racing Point (Aston Martin from next season) and Sebastian Vettel will be taking his seat.
• Lewis Hamilton won the Tuscan Gp with Valterri Bottas 2nd and Alex Albon getting 3rd and his first F1 career podium with it.
• The Tuscan GP was also a race we saw having multiple red flags, with a safety car restart going wrong for the drivers behind the pack and creating a massive crash involving 4 cars. Luckily no one was injured.

• The last race of the month was the Russian GP. Lewis Hamilton was given 2×5 second penalties for doing practice starts outside the designated area. Which made the race of his teammate a bit easier and since his win on the season opener, Valtteri Bottas collected his 2nd win of the season
• With the Russian GP, standings were as follows. Lewis Hamilton has a 44 point lead over his teammate and Valtteri Bottas has a 33 Point lead on Max Verstappen. As for the constructor’s standings, Mercedes is very clear of any potential threat from a rival team getting their place on top with a 174 point lead to their closest rival Redbull Racing.

• As for the rumours Mick Schumacher son of the 7-time world champion Michael Schumacher might be in for a seat at a Ferrari powered car next season, probably in Alfa Romeo.
• On F1 records, Lewis Hamilton is just 1 race win short of matching the all-time win record of 91 wins currently held by Michael Schumacher.

Tennis

Dominic Them became the first male player born after 1990 to win a grand slam, beating Alexander Zverev in the US Open final. Pre-tournament favourite Novak Djokovic was disqualified in the quarter-finals after hitting a line judge. In the women’s tournament, Naomi Osaka won her 3rd grand slam and 2nd US open title after defeating former world number 1, Victoria Azarenka.

Cricket

• The England vs Pakistan test series took place during the month of August. In the first test match, Pakistan batted first and achieved a first-innings lead of 107, courtesy of a Shan Masood century before collapsing in the second innings and leaving England a chase of 277, which they achieved with 3 wickets left, mainly due to a crucial partnership between Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes. Both the next two matches were rain-affected draws with the 3rd test match notable for Zak Crawley’s epic 267, as well as James Anderson, becoming the 4th bowler overall and the 1st pacer to reach the milestone of 600 test match wickets. England won the series 1-0. Jos Buttler and Mohammed Rizwan were named man of the series

• The T20I series between the two countries ended in a 1-1 draw as the first match was washed out, the second was won by England before Pakistan won the 3rd match. Mohammed Hafeez was named man of the series.

• The Lankan Premier League was postponed after Sri Lanka Cricket was unable to get government permission to hold the tournament. Sri Lanka Cricket expects to hold the tournament later in the year.
• The Caribbean Premier League got underway with all matches being played in Trinidad in only 2 stadiums; The Brian Lara Cricket Academy Stadium and Queen’s Park Oval. All matches would take place behind closed doors. At the end of August, Trinibago Knight Riders remain top of the table, winning all their matches.

• Thabang Moroe, CEO of Cricket South Africa was fired with immediate effect after being suspended nine months earlier. The South African Cricket administration is facing scrutiny after financial mismanagement as well as recent accounts of black and coloured players recalling unfavourable experiences while playing for the national team
• Dinesh Chandimal posted the highest score in Sri Lankan domestic cricket history with 354* for Army Sports Club against Saracens Sports Club, breaking the previous record held by Kithruwan Vithanage. Colombo Cricket Club had secured the championship of the Premier League Tier A Tournament at this point. Lahiru Udara of NCC finished as the highest overall run-scorer while Duvindu Tilakaratne of BRC was the highest wicket-taker. Moors Sports Club secured the Plate League

• India which was scheduled to host the 2021 ICC World Twenty20 tournament retained hosting rights while the 2020 tournament, scheduled to be held in Australia but which was postponed due to the pandemic was pushed to 2022. The ICC Women’s ODI World Cup scheduled to be held in New Zealand in 2021 was also postponed to 2022

Football

• The UEFA Champions League resumed in the month of August with all matches ( except the round of 16 ties not yet completed ) to be played at neutral venues in Lisbon, Portugal. Atlanta advanced into the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time in their history and RB Leipzig made it into the semis for the very first time, both teams eventually getting knocked out by PSG. Bayern Munich became the first time to score 8 goals in a Champions League knockout game, defeating Barcelona 8-2 before beating Lyon in the semi-finals to set up a final against PSG. The final at the Estadio Da Luz was decided by a Kingsley Coman goal as Bayern Munich won the title for the 7th time in their history, winning all their games in the process. Robert Lewandowski finished as the top scorer

• The defeat to Bayern Munich caused huge consequences at Barcelona, with the coach, Quique Setien as well as the Sporting Director, Eric Abidal being sacked by the club before star player Lionel Messi also expressed his desire to leave the club.
• The UEFA Europa League also came to an end with all knockout matches from the quarter-finals onwards being played at neutral venues in Germany. Sevilla and Inter Milan defeated Manchester United and Shakhtar Donetsk respectively in the semi-finals. The final was held at the RheinEnergieStadion in Cologne and Sevilla won 3-2, following a Romelu Lukaku own goal in the 75th minute. Sevilla won the Europa League title for a record 6th time with Bruno Fernandes of Manchester United finishing as the top scorer ( he also scored for Sporting CP in the tournament )

• Arsenal won the FA Cup for the 14th time, defeating Manchester City 2-1 in the final thanks to a double from Pierre Emerick Aubameyang.  
• Manchester City had their 2-year ban on playing European Football due to breaching Financial Fair Play(FFP) regulations overturned by the Court of Arbitration of Sport after they found that UEFA had insufficient conclusive evidence to uphold all of the conclusions that resulted in the ban.
• Ligue 1 became one of the first European football leagues to resume for the 2020/21 season, starting on the 21st of August.
• Manchester United captain and England international Harry Maguire was arrested while on holiday in Greece after reportedly assaulting police. He was found guilty of repeated bodily harm, attempted bribery, violence against public employees and insult after arrest and given a suspended prison sentence of 21 months which he is appealing against stating that he is innocent of all charges.

Athletics

• Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda broke the 16 year world record of Kenenisa Bekele in the 5000m, a record which was previously thought to be near unbreakable, He achieved this at the Monaco Diamond League posting a time of 12:35:36, beating the previous record by almost 2 seconds.

• Karsten Warholm ran the second-fastest 400m hurdles of all time in Stockholm with a time of 46.87 seconds, only behind Kevin Young’s world record of 46.78 set at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.

F1

• The British GP was held in Silverstone where we saw a lot of tyre failures occur at the end of the race with Lewis Hamilton winning the race with just 3 wheels, Max Verstappen 2nd and a very lucky Charles Leclerc in 3rd after Bottas had a tyre failure.  
• During the British GP, Sergio Perez was tested positive with Covid-19 and had to sit out of 2 races which made the German driver Nico Hulkenburg to race for the Racing point team.

• The following week the 70th anniversary GP was held at Silverstone again where F1 had their 1st F1 race back in 1950.
• The tyre supplier Pirelli made the choice to go with softer tyres in spite of the failures in the last GP and it made a very interesting race with people doing 2 and 3 stops to make it to the end.
• Max Verstappen won the race ahead of the two Mercedes, becoming the first winner of the season who was not in a Mercedes car.

• Next up was the Spanish GP held at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya where F1 pre-season testing happens in the month of February.
• Max Verstappen managed to split the two Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton collecting another win.
• After a week’s rest for F1 after a Tripleheader, F1 came to Belgium on the stunning track of Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. 
• Lewis Hamilton took another win with his teammate finishing 2nd and Max Verstappen in 3rd.

• In off-track news, Bottas to stay at Mercedes till 2021 while Lewis Hamilton says it’s not a good time to negotiate such a huge deal.
• Vettel and Ferrari are not having the greatest time as there seem to be flames between the two parties. 
• All the teams signed the concord agreement to have equal budgets in developing the car.
• Williams team was sold to a private investment company but the contract agrees to race with the legendary name

• FIA put out a new rule banning engine modes and from the Italian GP onwards only one single engine mode should be used from Qualification to the end of the race.
• F1 announces the final calendar for 2020 with races in Portugal, Turkey and two races in Baharin with the second being on the outer circuit of the track (We will see sub 1 minute laps) with Abu Dhabi being the season finisher for 2020 on December 13th.

Cricket

• Live cricket returns with the England vs West Indies series.
• Ben Stokes becomes England’s 81st test match captain after Joe Root is unavailable for the game due to the birth of his son.
• West Indies win the first test match to take a 1-0 lead in the series.
• In the second test match, England fights back through a Ben Stokes century to level the series 1-1.
• In the series decider, Kemar Roach becomes the first West Indies bowler in 26 years to reach the milestone of 200 test match wickets.
• Stuart Broad becomes just the 7th bowler in history to reach the milestone of 500 test match wickets after dismissing Kraigg Brathwaite in the second innings.
• England wins the deciding test match to regain the Wisden trophy with a 2-1 scoreline.

• The ICC ODI Super League is launched, 1 12-team competition with the top 7 teams gaining direct qualification to the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup. The first series in the league between England and Ireland is starting on the 30th of July.
• The ICC decides to postpone the 2020 ICC T20 World Cup to 2021.
• The IPL will be starting on the 19th of September and will be hosted by the UAE.

• Sri Lanka Cricket announces the launch of the Lankan Premier League, starting on the 28th of August.

Football

• Real Madrid wins La Liga for the 34th time after defeating Villarreal 2-1.
• La Liga ends for the season with Real Madrid as the champions. Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Sevilla qualify for the Champions League. Villarreal, Real Sociedad and Granada qualify for the Europa League while Leganes, Mallorca and Espanyol are relegated.

• Liverpool wins the league title for the first time since 1990, and for the very first time in the Premier League era.
• The Premier League ends with Liverpool as the champions, Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea earning Champions League qualification. Leicester City, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur qualifying for the Europa League while Watford, Norwich and Bournemouth are relegated.

• PSG win the Coupe de France, defeating St.Etienne 1-0 in the final. However, Kylian Mbappe is injured ruling him out for 3 weeks.
• Juventus win the Serie A title for the 9th year in a row, defeating Sampdoria 2-0.
• The Ballon D’Or is cancelled for the year 2020 with no player being awarded the title for the year.
• Leeds United won promotion to the Premier League for the first time since 2004 with West Bromwich Albion joining them in the top flight.

F1

• July 5 – 2020 Formula 1 season starts with the Austrian Grand Prix.
• July 5 – The Austrian GP was held at the Redbull Ring, Valtteri Bottas won from pole position with Charles Leclerc 2nd and the first time podium sitter Lando Norris 3rd.

• July 13 – The Styrian GP was held at the Redbull Ring. It was the first time ever in F1 history that a Grand Prix was held at the same track twice on the same season. Lewis Hamilton collected his first win of the season in pole position with his teammate and possible main championship rival Valtteri Bottas finishing 2nd with Max Verstappen finishing 3rd.

• July 19 – The Hungarian GP was held in the Hungaroring in Budapest. The race started with a damp track with Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz getting great off the line starts and the Haas team making a good gamble changing from wet tyres to mediums before the start of the race. The podium positions were, Hamilton 1st, Verstappen 2nd and Bottas 3rd.
• The US, Mexican and Brazillian GPs have been cancelled.
• F1 announces 3 races in Italy, F1 returns to the Nurburgring.
• Fernando Alonso comes back from retirement.

Olympics

• The Tokyo 2020 Olympics which were scheduled to be held in this month has been postponed to 2021.