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ESPN staff
From PV Sindhu getting the finals monkey off her back to Mary Kom’s unprecedented sixth Worlds gold, 2018 had its share of memorable matches. Here are the nominees for the Match of the Year award.
Bengaluru Bulls win first PKL title
Bengaluru Bulls pipped Gujarat Fortunegiants 38-33 to claim their first PKL title. The Fortunegiants, runners-up in 2017 as well, were condemned to successive runners-up finishes, with Pawan Kumar Sehrawat leading the Bulls from the front.
Related: Pawan Kumar Sehrawat steals the show as Bengaluru Bulls win first PKL title
India win Asiad rowing gold
The quartet of Sawarn Singh, Dattu Bhokanal, Om Prakash and Sukhmeet Singh combined to win India the gold at the quadruple sculls event in rowing at the Asian Games. It was the final day of rowing competition, and the Indian contingent had had a pretty poor outing as a team. On a hot, humid day in Palembang, Sawarn, Dattu, Om and Sukhmeet rallied around each other, fighting fatigue, illness and the conditions to bring India their only rowing gold at the Games.
Related: With tired limbs, exploding hearts, historic gold wins India rowing redemption
Manika’s CWG win over Tianwei
On her way to winning a historic women’s singles gold in table tennis at the Commonwealth Games, Manika’s biggest obstacle was three-time Olympic medallist and world No.4 Feng Tianwei of Singapore. Manika trailed two games to three at one stage in their encounter, but hung on and took the last two games 11-9, 13-11, to set herself on the way to a straight-games win against Yu Mengyu in the final.
Related: The long-distance weapon that helped Manika Batra conquer Gold Coast
Mary Kom’s sixth Worlds gold
MC Mary Kom became the first woman in boxing history to win six World Championships by beating Hanna Okhota of Ukraine by a unanimous points decision in the final. Her performance through the tournament led to her also winning the title of the best boxer of the championships.
Related: Invincible Mary Kom consolidates her legend among the pantheon of greats
Panghal’s Asiad gold
For Amit Panghal to win the Asian Games 49kg gold, he had to overcome Uzbekistan’s Hasanboy Dusmatov, the 2016 Olympic gold medallist and someone adjudged the best boxer at the Rio Games. Dusmatov had also beaten Panghal in both previous meetings, at the Asian Championships and the World Championships, both in 2017, so the odds were stacked against Panghal. He went on to do the improbable, fashioning his own defence against the Uzbek boxer’s famed left hook.
Related: Hook, line and sinker: How Amit Panghal took down a monster
Sindhu wins World Tour Finals
Over a year after their famed World Championship final meeting, Sindhu met Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara in the BWF World Tour Final summit clash, and beat her in straight games to become the first Indian to win the season-ending event. This was also Sindhu’s first tour title for 2018, and came at just the right time to quell any doubts about her ability to close out tournaments, having beaten world No.1 Tai Tzu Ying in the group stages, and Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the semis of the same tournament.
Related: ‘Was getting tired of reading silver in headlines’ – PV Sindhu