Sports

ARCHERY
Senior National Championship
Steel Plant Sports Board (SPSB) emerged overall champion at the 32nd Senior National Archery Championship, held at Jamshedpur. Country's medal hope in the London Olympics, Deepika Kumari and her teammate Pawan Xalxo, both belonging to SPSB, earned individual gold in the women and men recurve Olympic round, respectively.

Gold in the compound individual Olympics event went to V. Jyothi Surekha (Andhra Pradesh) and Rajat Chauhan (Rajasthan) in the women and men categories, respectively.

Deepika and Atanu Das, probable for London Olympics, lifted gold for SPSB in the recurve mixed round while Manjudha Soy and J. Rama Rao of RSPB ensured gold in the compound mixed event.

Archery in Punjab got a major boost with women archers from the State emerging as champions (Recurve round).

CRICKET
Australia-India T-20 series
Australia thrashed lackluster India by 31 runs in the first T20 International. After the 0-4 drubbing in the Test series, the induction of the limited overs specialists didn't bring about any change in the script as neither the batsmen nor bowlers could create any sort of impact.

India relied on the young brigade to finally break their prolonged winless streak by spanking Australia by eight wickets in the second Twenty20 International and level the series 1-1. After restricting the fancied Australians to 131 in 19.4 overs, riding on some brilliant fielding and disciplined bowling, the Indians overhauled the target with two balls to spare to record their first overseas win in close to seven months. Ravindra Jadeja was declared the man-of-the-match for his brilliant bowling and fielding.

Pakistan-England Test series
Pakistan beat England by 71 runs in the third and final Test, played in Dubai, to sweep the series 3-0. This was England's first-ever series whitewash against Pakistan.

FOOTBALL
Africa Cup of Nations
Zambia toppled star-studded Ivory Coast 8-7 in a penalty shoot-out to claim their first-ever African Cup of Nations title.

HOCKEY
India qualifies for London Olympics
Ace drag-flicker Sandeep Singh slammed five goals, as India qualified for the London Olympics men's hockey by spanking France 8-1 in the final of the qualifying tournament, held in New Delhi.

SQUASH
World Junior Cup Team Championship
India lost 1-2 to Egypt to end runners-up in the Chennai Open World Junior Cup Team championship.