Varun Chakravathy remains No. 3 T20I bowler; England's Rashid rises to second
Rashid, 37, was a model of consistency in England's 3-0 T20I series sweep, returning figures of 1/22 at Chester-Le-Street, 1-59 in a high-scoring clash at Bristol, and a match-turning 2/30 in the final game at Southampton.
His efforts were enough to leapfrog both Sri Lanka's Wanindu Hasaranga and India's Varun Chakaravarthy, moving him into second place in the T20I Bowling Rankings with a rating of 710, just 13 points behind New Zealand's Jacob Duffy, the current No. 1.
The leggie's rise encapsulates a dominant run for England, who extended their momentum from the earlier ODI series win over the same opponents. Brydon Carse, another of England's pace options, also saw a reward for his tidy contributions. His two wickets across the final two T20Is pushed him up 16 spots to 52nd in the rankings.
The series was rich in runs, and the batter rankings reflected that. Ben Duckett made a stunning impact with a blazing 84 off 46 balls in the third T20I — a knock that catapulted him 48 places to a career-best 16th. Harry Brook's pair of quickfire cameos, 35* and 34, earned him a six-place bump to joint-38th.
West Indies had their moments, too. Captain Shai Hope's pair of 40-plus scores helped him climb 14 places to 15th in the batting list, while Rovman Powell's explosive 79 not out from 45 balls in the final game earned him a place in the top 20. All-rounder Jason Holder also enjoyed a productive series with both bat and ball, moving up 16 places to 26th in the All-Rounder Rankings thanks to 70 runs and a crucial wicket.
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Indian Express
22 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Koneru Humpy and Divya Deshmukh play out a second classical draw. Now what to expect in the tiebreakers of World Cup final?
If the FIDE Women's World Cup 2025 wasn't already a physically exhausting and mentally draining tournament, it became all the more so on Sunday after Divya Deshmukh and Koneru Humpy took their all-Indian final clash into an extra day in Batumi, Georgia. The second classical game of their final ended in a draw, pushing the decider to a tiebreak on Monday. While the first leg was a tale of missed opportunities for Divya, the second leg saw a different approach from Humpy, who opted for a non-risky opening with White. She began with knight to f3 from the right flank, choosing a well-known English opening, sticking to her strength, which is positional chess, in the hope of grinding Divya down later in the game. The players quickly exchanged all minor pieces, except for Humpy's dark-squared bishop, which she retained in exchange for Divya's knight, with queens still on the board for counterplay. GM Pravin Thipsay analysed Humpy's opening choice: 'It was expected that Humpy would try to press for an advantage, and that's what happened. She began with the English opening but eventually transposed into the regular Queen's Gambit Declined, the Semitarash variation,' Thipsay told The Indian Express. Explaining Humpy's middle-game strategy, Thipsay added: 'I expected her to play for a better pawn structure, as she excels at exploiting weaknesses. But on move 9, she had a choice between a bishop-over-knight advantage or a superior pawn structure and she opted for the former. In my opinion, a pawn structure advantage would have suited her better.' By the 22nd move, the players entered an endgame with equal pawns, though Humpy sought an edge with her active bishop, placing it on long diagonals. She even sacrificed a central pawn to keep the position sharp and pressure Divya into an error. 'Divya exchanged one of Humpy's knights for a bishop on move 9, and on the 12th move, she gave up her second bishop for a knight, leading to a complex but roughly equal position in a symmetrical pawn structure,' said Thipsay. 'Double bishops are generally better than double knights, but this was a semi-open position with central pawns. I've played this structure many times, and the advantage isn't significant. Divya correctly exchanged rooks, and by the 20th move, a draw seemed inevitable.' 'But Humpy took bold decisions,' he added. 'She sacrificed a pawn on move 23, putting Divya in a tricky spot. Divya missed the best 24th move, which would have forced a draw. After that, Humpy had chances, especially on move 28, where she could have regained the pawn with some advantage.' However, Humpy allowed Divya's position to improve before regaining her pawn, by which point she also forced Divya to end the game by perpetual checks. In the all-Chinese battle for third place, Tan Zhongyi prevailed over top seed Lei Tingjie, clinching her spot in the 2026 Candidates Tournament. Though both players are drained after nearly a month of relentless chess, one can still expect a high-octane tiebreak clash, with neither player likely to back down until the very end. Humpy holds an edge in shorter time controls as a two-time and reigning World Rapid Champion. However, the odds aren't entirely skewed as Divya has never lost to her in Rapid chess. In their two recorded rapid encounters, Divya has one win and one draw. Things will change though, if the tiebreak heads to the Blitz round, the gulf between the two players widens. Humpy, the 2022 World Blitz Championship runner-up, has dominated Divya in this format, winning four of their five blitz games. Five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand analysed their strengths ahead of the tiebreak. He said, 'On paper, Humpy has better results, but Divya has more momentum. Humpy's wins have been shakier, but since the 2024 Olympiad (where Humpy didn't play) she's won the Women's World Rapid Championship, the Pune Grand Prix, and performed strongly at Norway Chess. Divya, though, must be relieved this tournament is finally here. Everyone's been waiting for her breakthrough, and both seem pleased with how things are unfolding,' Anand said on ChessBase India YouTube stream. This will be Humpy's second Candidates appearance in a row after her second-place finish in 2023. 'It's a great result (two Indians in the World Cup final), but what I like is this twin thing that on the one hand, we have Harika and Humpy as two veterans of the game but on the other hand, the last Candidates was Vaishali and now we're guaranteed a spot for Humpy and Divya so I like this combination of one youngster and one of the veterans,' Anand remarked. Praising India's first female Grandmaster, he added, 'What Humpy is doing is incredible. I feel bad calling her a veteran, but this is amazing stuff. She has come from a break, so her ability to relaunch herself, so to speak and even she's specialising in the faster format, she's doing quite well there. If you look at her openings, it's all current. In that sense, she shows that not only she's able to play but she's also fully in touch with all the current developments in chess.'
The Hindu
22 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Asian youth table tennis championships
Fresh from her U-15 gold medal at the Asian youth table tennis championships at Tashkent recently, Divyanshi Bhowmick continued her fine run to claim the U-19 girls' title at the WTT Youth Contender in Almaty (Kazakhstan) on Saturday. She overcame Zlata Terekhova of the Russian Federation 11-4, 8-11, 11-7, 11-2 in the final. In an all-Indian U-17 boys' final, Priyanuj Bhattacharyya rallied to beat P. B. Abhinandh 8-11, 11-9, 11-3, 11-6. In the U-15 girls' final, Ananya Muralidharan went down down 8-11, 8-11, 8-11 to Lu Yu-En of Taiwan. India wrapped up the Almaty event with a total of 11 medals—two gold, two silver, and seven bronze.
India Today
33 minutes ago
- India Today
Divya Deshmukh and Koneru Humpy play out draw in Game 2, tiebreakers to decide winner
The Women's World Cup 2025 will be decided via tiebreakers after Grandmaster Koneru Humpy and teenage International Master Divya Deshmukh played out draws in two classical games. The second game of the FIDE Women's World Cup ended in a draw on Sunday in Batumi, Deshmukh fought hard with black pieces to eke out a draw against veteran Koneru Humpy on Sunday. Koneru headed into Sunday's Game 2 with an advantage after having drawn with black pieces in the opening game. However, both players decided to shake hands and take the intriguing battle into tie-breakers, scheduled for Monday, July of the result on Monday, India will have its first-ever Women's World Cup winner. Koneru and Divya made history by setting up a first-ever all-Indian FIDE Women's World Cup WILL THE TIE-BREAKER WORK?The tiebreaker will see two games of 15 minutes each with a 10 second increment after every move is the scores are still level, the players will play another set of 10 minutes per game with a 10 second increment. If the tie doesn't get resolved, it will be two more games of five minutes plus three second the deadlock continue, one game will be played with three minutes to both players with a two second increment unless one player ends up 2 RECAPPEDDivya, who did not make utmost use of her promising opening in the first game of the match, was far more composed against a Queen pawn opening and faced little trouble playing with black got the optical advantage with her pair of bishops out of the opening but Divya knew that if she placed her knights perfectly, white will not be able to create many problems. As it happened in the game after two minor pieces, the pair of rooks also changed hands and the queen-and-minor-piece endgame only offered little tried to make some headway with a pawn sacrifice in the endgame but in the process her bishop pair was gone, and though a pawn plus, Divya had to cover some the dust settled, Humpy recovered the pawn back and Divya repeated the position through checks to sign peace in 34 moves. (WITH PTI Inputs)- Ends
