Hosts Australia  swept the 4-match Test series, 4-0, after defeating India by 298 runs in the fourth and final cricket test at Adelaide. This was India’s second consecutive series defeat on foreign soil.

Facing a daunting victory target of 500, the touring Indian side resumed the final day today at the overnight score of 166 for 6, with Wriddhiman Saha and Ishant Sharma at the crease.

Failing to withstand the pressure of batting one full day with just 4 wickets in hand, India were dismissed for 201 in the second innings, with the batsmen failing to match the accurate and hostile bowling attack of the hosts.

Paceman Peter Siddle was adjudged man of the match, while Aussie Skipper Michael Clarke was named man of the series.

Both the teams are scheduled to play two Twenty-20 matches, before the tri-nation ODI series, that includes Sri Lanka, beginning on the 5th of February. The first T-20 will be played at Sydney on 1st February.

Jaxtr Inc., founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Yogesh Patel, has announced the launch of JaxtrSMS, a cross-platform, open-texting application to send SMSs to anyone in the world for free.

Reserve Bank of India deregulated non-resident external (NRE) deposits on 16 December 2011 allowing banks  to offer higher interest rates to dollar-denominated accounts. Reserve Bank freed the rates on non-resident external accounts, offering interest as high as 9.6% per annum.

Following RBI’s deregulation five Indian banks, including HDFC Bank and Yes Bank on 23 December 2011 raised their interest rates on such deposits in order to lure foreign money.
The Tokyo and Osaka stock exchanges have agreed to merge in 2013 to create the world’s third-biggest bourse with listed stocks worth around $3.6 trillion. The combined value of stocks listed on exchanges would trail only NYSE Euronext at $12 trillion and NASDAQ OMX Group Inc at nearly $4 trillion.

Prashant Ruia, presently the vice chairman, will take over as interim chairman while Ravi Ruia will continue as a director of Essar Energy.

Adidas, the German sportswear and equipment maker, is set to launch a shoe costing one dollar a pair in India. The shoe will be sold in villages through a distribution network.

British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC chairman James Murdoch was re-elected on 29 November 2011 in the company’s annual general meeting. He was re-elected to the position of chairman though he faced a powerful protest vote from the satellite-TV company’s independent shareholders. News Corp., run by James’s father, Rupert Murdoch, owns 39.1% of BSkyB.

British Sky Broadcasting Group comprises film and television production as well as newspaper publishing and other activities.
California-based mobile video service provider, Vuclip, has launched India’s first independent mobile movie portal — Starlight Cinema. This would offer users the options of watching shortened feature films, movie clips, songs, reviews and trailers.

US team of Matt Kuchar and Gary Woodland has won the World Cup, 2011, giving USA its 24th victory in the event. US has won the title after a gap of eleven years.

India retain SAFF football title

NEW DELHI — Defending champions India retained the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) title with a 4-0 win over Afghanistan in the final in New Delhi on Sunday.

The hosts were kept at bay for the first 45 minutes by a strong Afghan defence, but broke the deadlock late in the second half and went on to score a quartet of goals.

India finally hit the back of the net in the 71st minute when Sunil Chhetri converted a penalty after Jeje Lalpekhlua was brought down by Faisal Safa following a pass from the centre.

Afghanistan were reduced to 10 men as goalkeeper Hameedullah Yousufzai was sent off for arguing with the referee over awarding the penalty to India.

India seized the opportunity to score twice in as many minutes through Clifford Miranda and Jeje, before Sushil Singh netted the fourth goal in injury time.

It was India’s 11th win over Afghanistan in 14 meetings. The Afghans have a single win, while the other two games ended in a draw.

The other teams in the tournament, which is contested every two years between South Asian nations, were Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan.

Ashwin bags Dilip Sardesai Award

Rewarding Ravichandran Ashwin for his stupendous show in the just-concluded Test series against the West Indies , the BCCI, on Monday, decided to bestow the Dilip Sardesai award on the off-spinner.

The 25-year-old, who was the man-of-the-series in the three-Test series with 22 wickets, will be presented the trophy at the BCCI Annual Awards Ceremony in Chennai on December 10.

ESS bags broadcast rights for Cricket Australia in Asia

ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has bagged the broadcast rights of all the domestic and home international matches of Cricket Australia (CA) until 2017.

The deal covers television, internet, mobile and radio distribution across Asia and the Indian subcontinent.

ESS currently has the broadcast rights for 27 test matches, 44 one day internationals and 12 Twenty20 (T20) matches under the Future Tours Programme (FTP).

The deal means that ESS will broadcast the 2013-2014 Ashes series, tours by South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies and New Zealand. ESS will also broadcast two India series during this period.

Ace shooter Gagan Narang, who notched up four gold medals at last year’s Commonwealth Games, was  conferred the country’s highest sporting honour — the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award — in a glittering ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan here.

The 28-year-old rifle shooter, who was the first Indian marksman to qualify for next year’s London Olympics with a bronze in the World Championships last year, was an automatic choice for the prestigious award.

Narang, who was disgruntled at being “ignored” for the award last year, received the trophy, that consists of a medal, citation and cash prize of Rs 7.5 lakh, from President Pratibha Patil.

Besides winning four gold medals in the 2010 CWG, Narang bagged a silver in the men’s 10m air rifle singles event at the Asian Games last year. He also won a team silver at the Asian Games when he combined with Abhinav Bindra and Sanjeev Rajput in the 10m air rifle event.

Among the Arjuna awardees, the most high-profile among the ones chosen this year — Indian pace spearhead Zaheer Khan — could not attend the function as he was recently operated upon on his injured ankle in England.

Uruguay win record Copa America title

URUGUAY won a record 15th South American title today with a convincing 3-0 victory over Paraguay in the final of the 2011 Copa America.

With favourites Argentina and Brazil both failing to advance beyond the quarter finals, Uruguay left little doubt about which was the top team in the region.

Luis Suarez opened the scoring after 12 minutes and Diego Forlan added a second goal just before the break.

Suarez and Forlan then teamed up on the third goal in the 90th minute to cap an impressive performance.

Uruguay took charge of the match early and almost scored in the opening two minutes when a corner kick was headed on goal by Diego Lugano, forcing a good reaction stop from goalkeeper Justo Villar.

Ace Indian shooter Gagan Narang, who notched up four gold medals at last year’s Commonwealth Games, is all set to be conferred with the country’s highest sporting honour – the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna – after being recommended for the honour by the awards selection committee today.

The 28-year-old rifle shooter, who was the first Indian marksman to qualify for next year’s London Olympics with a bronze in the World Championships last year, had been disgruntled at being “ignored” for the award last year.

“Gagan Narang has been recommended for the Khel Ratna this year,” a source in the awards selection committee told PTI.

“The recommended names for the Khel Ratna and Arjuna awardees have been sent to the Sports Ministry and it will be officially announced after being approved by the Ministry,” the source said.

Indian pace spearhead Zaheer Khan has been picked for the Arjuna award. The 32-year-old fast bowler, who is currently in England for the ongoing Test series, has taken 271 wickets in cricket’s longer format at an average of 31.94.

Zaheer has 273 one-day wickets at an average of 28.84. The last time a male cricketer got the Arjuna award was 2009 when Gautam Gambhir was picked for the honour.

The other Arjuna awardees this year include Indian football captain and striker Sunil Chettri, rising tennis star Somdev Devvarman and ace badminton player Jwala Gutta.

Somdev had struck a golden double last year by finishing on top in both the Commonwealth and Asian Games singles events.

Fly weight boxer Suranjoy Singh, who clinched an astonishing seven back-to-back gold medals last year including the Commonwealth Games gold, is also in the list of athletes recommended for the Arjuna.

Discus thrower Vikas Gowda, who won a bronze medal in the Asian Games last year, and long-distance runner Preeja Sreedharan, an Asian Games gold-medallist, were the track and field athletes who made the cut, according to the source.

Among shooters, India’s first woman world champion Tejaswini Sawant, who clinched the top honours in the 50m rifle prone event, has been recommended for the Arjuna award.

Ashish Kumar, the first Indian gymnast to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games, also made the list. Ashish had clinched a silver in the men’s vault and bronze in the men’s floor events of the Delhi Games.

Wushu player Sandhya Rani is set to feted for her Asian Games silver with the Arjuna award.

Archer Rahul Banerjee, who clinched the men’s recurve gold in the Commonwealth Games last year, has also made the cut in the recommended list.

The selection panel for the awards was headed by sprint legend P T Usha and comprised, among others, tennis ace Leander Paes, hockey icon Ashok Kumar, ace woman boxer M C Mary Kom, shooter Anjali Bhagwat and national squash coach Cyrus Poncha.

India won the toss and selected England to bat first.

Kvitova beats Sharapova to win maiden Wimbledon title

Wimbledon: Petra Kvitova won her first Grand Slam title Saturday by beating Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-4 in the Wimbledon final.

Kvitova was playing in her first major final, but it was three-time Grand Slam champion Sharapova that showed her nerves. The 2004 Wimbledon champion double-faulted six times, including twice to get broken to 4-2 in the first set.

The 21-year-old Kvitova is the first left-handed woman to win the Wimbledon title since Martina Navratilova in 1990.

Using a fast-paced and well-placed forehand, Kvitova did little wrong on Centre Court as Czech greats Navratilova and Jana Novotna sat in the Royal Box with a host of other former Wimbledon champions.

Kvitova kept Sharapova on the run with 18 winners, and never seemed to lose confidence despite being broken three times.

Sharapova was the clear favorite entering the match. Besides winning the title at the All England Club in 2004, she also won the U.S. Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2008. Shoulder surgery in October 2008 slowed her career, but she returned to the semifinals at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time since then at the French Open last month.

At Wimbledon, Sharapova had not lost a set heading into the final. But she struggled with her serve in the semifinals, double-faulting 13 times before beating German wildcard Sabine Lisicki.

Sharapova won the toss at the net before the final and elected to receive, perhaps because she wanted some time to get into game action before testing her serve.

Li Na Becomes First Chinese to Win French Open

Li Na made sporting history at the French Open today when she became the first player from China to win a Grand Slam singles title.

The 29-year-old from Wuhan defeated defending champion Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-4, 7-6 (7/0)) to take her place in the pantheon of Chinese sports stars.

Li clinched the watershed win with a superb 7-0 tie-break performance in the second set, falling onto her back in the red dirt when Schiavone hit long on match point

It was a thrilling display of shot-making from the Chinese player who has said she hopes that by winning a Grand Slam title she will act as a catalyst for the growth of tennis in her giant homeland.

For 30-year-old Schiavone it was a bitter pill to swallow one year after she upset the odds to become Italy’s first and so far only Grand Slam women’s champion.

CSK Retain IPL Title

Chennai Super Kings retained the Indian Premier League title after crushing Royal Challengers Bangalore by 58 runs in a thoroughly one-sided final here today.

After putting up a formidable 205 for five riding on a smashing 95 from Murali Vijay, the champions restricted their opponents to a meagre 147 for eight thereby winning an incredible eighth match on trot at the Chepauk.

Chasing 206, RCB depended on Chris Gayle (0) but the big Jamaican fell prey to the law of averages as he was snapped up by Dhoni in the very first over bowled by Ravichandran Ashwin. The match was over as a contest after that moment only.