Abhishek Sharma breaks the T20I century record with 30 balls
The fastest hundred by any batter from an ICC Full-Member nation. What the record required, how the innings unfolded, and what it does not settle.
J. R. Patel ·
J. R. Patel
Editor
Writes and edits SportTrack under a pen name — one independent editor, covering Indian sport cricket first. Every post is researched from public sources: official scorecards, governing-body statements, broadcasts and published reporting. Not a news agency, not at the ground, and every post is read before it goes live.
Stories by J. R. Patel
Ganges Grandmasters win the Global Chess League
Nepomniachtchi beats Carlsen on the Icon board, Tsolakidou clinches it against Humpy. A 7-5 aggregate over Alpine APL Pipers crowns a second title.
J. R. Patel ·
India finish eighth, their worst World Cup result
A shootout loss to Belgium in the seventh-place match. Harmanpreet Singh finishes joint top scorer with eight goals, and none of it changes the number.
J. R. Patel ·
Dhiraj Bommadevara becomes the first Indian man to win an Archery World Cup Final
A shoot-off in Saltillo, a 10 against a 9, and a 19-year wait ends. What the title means for Indian recurve archery.
J. R. Patel ·
India complete the Junior Asia Cup double, and the pipeline delivered again
The men beat South Korea 4-1 for a sixth title. The women beat China 1-0 on their home turf for a third straight. Both teams head to the World Cup.
J. R. Patel ·
Abhishek Sharma becomes the fastest Indian to 6,000 T20 runs
The milestone came off a six in the first over against Afghanistan. What the numbers say about how he bats, and what they leave out.
J. R. Patel ·
India win a record eighth Women’s Asia Cup, and the opening stand settled it
Seventy per cent of the total came before the first wicket fell. What the opening stand actually did, and what a 72-run final still does not settle.
J. R. Patel ·
Praggnanandhaa wins the Grand Chess Tour, the first Indian to do it
Trailing by six points on the final day, he won both rapid games to seize the lead and held on through the blitz to beat Caruana 15–13.
J. R. Patel ·
How the Grand Chess Tour works, with the scoring system
Five events across classical, rapid and blitz, then a knockout final. Points accumulate differently at each time control.
J. R. Patel ·
Neeraj Chopra is out. Yashvir Singh steps in.
A ligament tear ends the defending champion’s season. India’s javelin at the Asian Games now rests on a 24-year-old who won Commonwealth bronze six weeks ago.
J. R. Patel ·
India vs Afghanistan: two new captains, one brief series
Shreyas Iyer leads India. Ibrahim Zadran leads Afghanistan for the first time. Three T20Is in Delhi before both sides head to Japan.
J. R. Patel ·
How board order works in team chess
The captain decides who plays which board, and there is no rule requiring rating order. Here is why the World Champion is fourth.
J. R. Patel ·
Ishan Kishan rewrites the Duleep Trophy record book with 270
The first wicketkeeper to score a double century in the final. East Zone end a 13-year title drought. Here is what the numbers actually mean.
J. R. Patel ·
How esports works at the 2026 Asian Games, and where India stands
Eleven medal events across fighting games, MOBAs and battle royales. The format, the qualification, and what a medal would actually mean.
J. R. Patel ·
Gukesh defends his World Championship title rated 75 points below his challenger
A defending champion lower-rated than the challenger is rare. Understanding why it happened explains how chess ratings actually work.
J. R. Patel ·
Harmanpreet Kaur becomes the first player to captain 150 T20Is
No man or woman has led a national side in the format as often. The gap to second place is 29 matches and still growing.
J. R. Patel ·
How the Chess Olympiad works, and why India start as favourites
A Swiss-system team event across eleven rounds. India arrive as defending champions with four of their Budapest five and a record field of 400 teams.
J. R. Patel ·
Satwik-Chirag win China Masters, the first Indians in 21 years
Down 11-21 in the first game, they took the next two 21-13, 21-17. What the comeback says about how they play under pressure.
J. R. Patel ·
Pakistan 55 all out: a historic low
Shree Charani and Prema Rawat claimed six wickets between them for 16 runs. Pakistan’s previous lowest T20I total was 56.
J. R. Patel ·
India’s junior teams arrive in China to defend both crowns
New coaches, new captains, same expectation: the men seek a record sixth Junior Asia Cup, the women a third straight.
J. R. Patel ·
Mandhana’s 124 rewrites two records at once
The opener passed Meg Lanning for most centuries in women’s cricket and overtook Mithali Raj as the all-time leading run-scorer, both in one innings.
J. R. Patel ·
The Women’s Asia Cup is on, and India want back what they used to own
Eight teams in Dubai until 13 September. India open against Thailand, meet Pakistan on 5 September, and are chasing a trophy Sri Lanka took from them in 2024.
J. R. Patel ·
Three wins or nothing: India’s women defend Asian Games gold
Eight teams, no league stage, straight to the quarter-finals. The format at Aichi-Nagoya gives the defending champions no room for a bad afternoon.
J. R. Patel ·
The ISL’s new rule: an Indian striker on the pitch at all times
The 2026-27 season starts on 4 September with three foreigners and an OCI player allowed to start — plus one rule that reshapes every forward line.
J. R. Patel ·
Fifth in Amstelveen, and the first top-five in 52 years
India beat Germany 3-1 to finish fifth at the World Cup, and Hockey India put ₹50 lakh behind it. The number that decided the tournament was one goal.
J. R. Patel ·
India send 503 athletes to Aichi-Nagoya. The number is the story.
A 768-strong contingent across 36 disciplines, three weeks after a fourth-place Commonwealth Games. What the size of a squad does and does not tell you.
J. R. Patel ·
Padikkal and Suthar turn Galle into a 165-run win
A maiden Test hundred and ten wickets on a ground that punishes tourists who expect it to do the work. India lead 1-0 with one to play in Colombo.
J. R. Patel ·
The World Test Championship points system, explained with the numbers
Twelve points for a win, four for a draw, and a percentage table that makes a two-match series worth exactly as much as a five-match one.
J. R. Patel ·
The Hockey World Cup points system and format, explained
Three points for a win, one for a draw, and a tiebreaker order that decides more pools than the results do.
J. R. Patel ·
The ISL points system and season format, explained
Three points for a win, one for a draw, two trophies, and a tiebreaker order that decides more than the results do.
J. R. Patel ·
The Pro Kabaddi points system, explained with the numbers
Five points for a win, three for a tie, one for losing narrowly — plus every single way a point is scored on the mat.
J. R. Patel ·
How teams qualify for the Hockey World Cup
Continental championships do most of the work, and that is a deliberate design choice with real consequences for India.
J. R. Patel ·
What the Impact Player rule actually changed
A twelfth player sounds like a small tweak. It reshaped how a T20 innings is built, and quietly devalued the all-rounder.
J. R. Patel ·
How the Candidates Tournament works, with the scoring
Eight players, fourteen rounds, one point for a win — and a tiebreak system that has decided the whole thing more than once.
J. R. Patel ·
What a false nine actually does
Not a striker who drops deep. A striker whose movement forces the opposition centre-backs into a decision with no good answer.
J. R. Patel ·
India at the Hockey World Cup: the whole history
One title, four turns as hosts, and a fifty-year wait that shapes how every campaign is received.
J. R. Patel ·
How battle royale tournaments are scored, with the points table
Ten points for a win, one per elimination, and a leaderboard across many matches that rewards patience over highlights.
J. R. Patel ·
Reading a scorecard: what strike rate and economy really tell you
Two of the most quoted numbers in cricket are also two of the most misused. Here is what they measure, what they hide, and what to look at instead.
J. R. Patel ·
The do-or-die raid and why it decides matches
Two empty raids and the third has to produce. It is the most loaded moment in the sport, and both sides can see it coming.
J. R. Patel ·
Domestic cricket deserves far more attention than it gets
The tournament that produces India’s Test players is followed by almost nobody. That is a choice, not an inevitability.
J. R. Patel ·
Expected goals, explained without the maths
xG is not a judgement on whether a chance should have been scored. It is a measure of how good the chance was.
J. R. Patel ·
The penalty corner, explained
A large share of goals at elite level come from one set piece. Here is exactly how it works and why it is so hard to defend.
J. R. Patel ·
Classical, rapid and blitz: the formats and time controls explained
The same game with three different clocks — and, in practice, three different skills with three separate world champions.
J. R. Patel ·
Why Indian pitches turn — soil, climate and preparation
Spin-friendly surfaces are not an accident of geography. They are made, and the making is far more interesting than the argument about it.
J. R. Patel ·
What people actually mean by "the meta"
Not the best strategy in theory — the best strategy given what everyone else is currently doing.
J. R. Patel ·
Why Indian clubs struggle in Asian competition
The gap is less about talent than about squad depth, continuity and a calendar that works against them.
J. R. Patel ·
Corners, covers and ins: how a kabaddi defence is organised
Seven defenders, named positions, and a chain that only works if everybody holds their ground.
J. R. Patel ·
The calendar is full. Something has to give.
Franchise leagues, international windows and player workload cannot all keep expanding at once. The arithmetic stopped working some time ago.
J. R. Patel ·
DRS and umpire’s call: the rules, the numbers, and why it divides everyone
Ball tracking gives a definitive-looking answer. The rule around it is deliberately less definitive, and for a defensible reason.
J. R. Patel ·
How the drag-flick rewrote hockey
One technique turned the penalty corner from a scramble into the most reliable scoring chance in the sport, and changed what a squad looks like.
J. R. Patel ·
How esports teams are built and funded in India
Prize money is the least reliable line on the sheet. Everything else is what actually keeps a roster together.
J. R. Patel ·
How Elo ratings actually work, with the formula
A rating is not a score. It is a prediction, updated by exactly how wrong that prediction turned out to be.
J. R. Patel ·
How transfer windows work, and why deadline day exists
Two fixed periods a year, registration rules that matter more than the fee, and a deadline that creates its own weather.
J. R. Patel ·
How the Pro Kabaddi auction works
Salary purses, player categories, retention slots and the Final Bid Match card that makes the room tense.
J. R. Patel ·
India’s Olympic pipeline needs school sport, not just academies
Elite academies find talent that has already surfaced. School sport is what makes it surface in the first place.
J. R. Patel ·
Why India produces so many grandmasters now
Coaching infrastructure that compounds, online play that removed geography, and a generation raised on engines.
J. R. Patel ·
Mobile versus PC esports in India
One has the audience, the other has the international pathway. They are not really competing.
J. R. Patel ·
The physical cost of a kabaddi season
Repeated maximal efforts, constant contact, and a fixture list that leaves very little room to recover.
J. R. Patel ·
Esports belongs in the sports pages
The objection was never really about whether it is a sport. It was about who was watching.
J. R. Patel ·
Reading chess notation for beginners
Algebraic notation takes about ten minutes to learn and unlocks every game ever recorded.
J. R. Patel ·