The year 2014 has been a roller-coaster ride for Indian sports with the men’s Hockey team clinching the Asian Games Gold to qualify for 2016 Rio Olympics, Pistol King Jitu Rai, too, booking his berth for the mega sports spectacle and cricketer Rohit Sharma rewriting history by smashing the second ODI double century, to name a few.
Following are some of the sporting moments which made India proud in the year gone by.
India clinched Asian Games hockey gold, qualify for 2016 Olympics:
A spirited Indian men’s hockey team defeated arch-rivals and defending champions Pakistan 4-2 in a nerve-wracking shootout to end its 16-year gold medal drought in the Asian Games in October.
Indian goalkeeper PR Sreejesh produced breathtaking saves to deny Pakistan. By virtue of the coveted gold medal, India earned a direct qualification to Rio Olympics
Sushil, Yogeshwar shine in good year for Indian wrestling:
A long sabbatical and a rejig in weight categories notwithstanding, Olympic heroes Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt reaffirmed their dominance at the world stage, which included ending a 28-year gold drought at the Asian Games, even as youngsters showed the quality of Indian wrestling’s talent reservoir in a successful 2014. Despite taking to the mat for the first time since the 2012 London Olympics and climbing up weight divisions after international governing body FILA rejigged the weight
Sania Mirza wins US Open, sizzles at Asian Games: The year 2014 was undoubtedly the best phase in the career of India’s tennis sensation Sania Mirza. In January, Sania Mirza finished off as the Australian Open runner-up alongside her Romanian partner Horia Tecau after losing the mixed doubles final.
The 28-year-old tennis icon, in June, became world number six in doubles – her career-best ranking. In September, Mirza and her Brazilian partner Bruno Soares clinched the US Open mixed doubles title.
Sania carried her sublime form in the Asian Games where she bagged a gold medal in mixed doubles event that was followed by a bronze in women’s doubles tournament. She also partnered Zimbabwe’s Cara Black to clinch the historic WTA Finals title in October.
Magnificent Mary Kom bags boxing gold at Asian Games: Pugilist MC Mary Kom punched her way to a historic gold medal in October. The world number five defeated Zhaina Shekerbekova of Kazakhstan to win her first gold in the Asian Games. Mary was at her magnificent best in the final bout of women’s flyweight (48-51 kg) division. India avenge Tests rout with ODI series win against England:
India breaks Asiad record in 4x400m relay, bags gold medal: The Indian team comprising Priyanka Pawar, Tintu Luka, MR Poovamma and Mandeep Kaur shattered the Asian Games record to take gold in the women’s 4×400 metres relay in October. The team recorded their personal best time of 3:28.68. Japan and China bagged the silver and bronze respectively.
Indian Super League crosses 1 million in-stadia fans: The inaugural Indian Super League(ISL) has been successful in luring one million fans to the stadia. The average match attendance for the tournament since its commencement on October 12 is 24,357 – the highest across Asia.
Seema Punia ends India’s gold-less streak in track and field events: Discus thrower Seema Punia Antil ended India’s gold-less streak in track and field events on the third day of athletics competitions as she beat back a strong challenge from two Chinese rivals to bag the coveted yellow metal at the Asian Games in September. Seema ran away with the gold with a best throw of 61.03m in the women’s discus throw final while team-mate Krishna Poonia finished fourth with a below par 55.57m at the Incheon Asiad Main stadium.
Men’s archery team seals India’s gold at Asiad: The men’s compound archery team of Abhishek Verma, Rajat Chauhan and Sandeep Kumar fought out a close battle against higher ranked opponents South Korea in the finals. India won the gold medal by a narrow margin of 2 points (227-225). The year was not so good and not so bad for top Indian archer Deepika Kumari
India bag double gold in Kabaddi at Asian Games: The men’s and the women’s kabaddi teams both won gold medals at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games. This feat was achieved for the second time in a row.
Advani makes the cue his ‘magic wand’ in 2014: In the history of cue sports, he is already nothing short of a living legend and Pankaj Advani added some more sheen to his golden career by taking his world title count from 8 to 12 in a landmark year for himself and the sport.
The past 12 months clearly belonged to India’s poster boy of cue sports after Advani took one title after another post his two-year snooker stint in the United Kingdom (UK).
Apart from Advani’s remarkable journey of four world titles, the year will also be remembered for another champion in the making, China’s teenage sensation Yan Bingtao.
The 14-year-old cueist not only stunned Advani in the IBSF World Snooker Championships quarterfinals in Bangalore last month but also went on to annex the title and become the youngest snooker champion.
Indian badminton makes unprecedented leap in 2014: It turned out to be a watershed year for Indian badminton as the home shuttlers clinched no less than eight individual titles and also broke new grounds in team championships, making India a dominant force at the international stage.
Saina Nehwal and K Srikanth clinching titles at China Super Series Premier and P V Sindhu bagging five bronze, including a World Championship medal, besides the historic bronze medals at Uber Cup and Asian Games, were the highlights of the year in which Indian badminton achieved unprecedented success at the global platform.
If Saina led the resurgence of Indian badminton in the last few years, the year also saw the emergence of younger stars, who made it a terrific season with the help of their stupendous performance.
Anand loses in World C’ship but good year for Indian chess: In what turned out to be a bitter-sweet year for Indian chess, five-time winner Viswanathan Anand lost his bid to regain his title in the Sochi World Championship but Indian men’s team clinched a historic bronze at 41st Olympiad.
After losing his World Championship crown at Chennai in 2013, this year saw Anand earn the right to challenge world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway again by winning the Candidates tournament at Khanty Mansiysk, Russia in March.
2014: A memorable year for Indian Squash: The year 2014 proved to be one of the best for Indian squash as new milestones were reached and reputations soared, even as India entrenched itself as one of the strong forces in the sport in the Asian continent. The happy tidings started with the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in July.
Never having achieved much in this quadrennial event, India had a couple of firsts this time. More specifically Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal made history by not just winning a medal but a gold — marking India’s first in the Games history.
Men’s team bags India’s first gold medal in squash at Asiad: The Indian team comprised of Saurav Ghosal, Harinder Pal Sandhu, Mahesh Mangaonkar and Kush Kumar gave the country its first-ever gold medal in squash at the Asian Games in September.
Ghosal played out of his skin to guide India to a 2-0 win against Malaysia in an energy-sapping contest in Incheon.
Good, bad and ugly: Indian cricket had it all in 2014
From Rohit Sharma’s record breaking double ton in ODIs, the team’s never-ending overseas woes, to the controversy surrounding BCCI president-in-exile N Srinivasan over IPL 6 spot-fixing scandal, Indian cricket had the good, bad and ugly in equal measure in 2014.
Rohit’s epic innings of 264 against Sri Lanka on the hallowed Eden Gardens turf was a stuff of legends.
The innings spoke about how one day cricket has evolved over time. There was a point in time, even 10 years back, when 264 was considered a good enough score in ODIs.
No one could ever imagine that someone would break the 200-run individual barrier in ODIs till Sachin Tendulkar became first among equals. Then Virender Sehwag bettered it and Rohit also scaled the ‘Mount 200’ peak. But 264 not out was something that few could have ever imagined, though the batsman’s Test form still remains a cause for concern.
The year was also the first time since 1989, when an Indian cricket team’s list didn’t have Sachin Tendulkar’s name in it. Life without Tendulkar actually started in 2014 and it’s been more lows than highs, if the parameter is performance in the Test matches played on foreign soil.
It was also the year that probably saw the end of another glorious bunch of Indian cricketers, who had played with distinction over the last decade.
Sehwag, arguably the biggest impact player after Tendulkar, probably might not play for India again after being overlooked from the 30-men probables for the 2015 World Cup.
Similarly, it looks like the selectors have ‘shut the door’ for good on Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and Gautam Gambhir.
Off the field, it was a series of court cases that saw Srinivasan remaining in exile on directives of Supreme Court. Yet he managed to wield enough powers to become the first chairman of ICC and India will now enjoy bigger pie of the ICC revenue.
Outside India, world cricket was left shocked and heartbroken following the death of Australian batsman Phillip Hughes.
While Rohit’s innings will always be remembered, the tragedy that snatched away Hughes, aged 25 at the time of his death, will never be forgotten.
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