ESPN Independence Day quiz

The 2007 movie ‘Chak de India’ was loosely based on the Indian women’s hockey team’s performance at which edition of the Commonwealth Games?

After being showcased as an exhibition sport at the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi, which edition had kabaddi as a medal event for the first time?

Who picked up two of India’s 10 athletics gold medals at the 1951 Asian Games in New Delhi, and has one of the blocks in the now residential Games Village named after him?

In 2010, who became the first Indian to successfully defend an English billiards singles title at the Asian Games?

Which sport family features in the autobiography ‘A Touch of Tennis’?

Which Indian is the first Asian footballer to score an Olympic hat-trick?

The best coach award in the I-League is named after which former football coach, who was in charge the last time India won the Asian Games gold in 1962?

Which Indian delivered the first ball in the history of the men’s World Cup, bowled to John Jameson of England at Lord’s?

Who was the non-playing captain the last time India made the Davis Cup World Group semi-finals?

Which of these pupils of cricket coach Ramakant Achrekar scored a century on Test debut for India?

What name follows immediately after Otis Davis, Carl Kaufmann and Malcolm Spence?

Who captained India the last time they finished on the podium in Olympic hockey?

Sachin Tendulkar featured in the first five of India’s six 50-over World Cup wins over Pakistan. In which of these years was he not adjudged Player of the Match?

Poland-born Jeremy Bujakowski, a student at Darjeeling and Kolkata in his younger years, became independent India’s first competitor at the Winter Olympics in 1964 Innsbruck in what sport?

Whom did Leander Paes beat at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics in the bronze medal match?

Sania Mirza has only one WTA singles title to her name. Where did she win it?

Nishant Mehra starred as the little boy in a sunflower oil ad in the early ‘90s, which featured oversized food items falling over as he ran and cartwheeled around. Which I-League club would he become captain of?

Only three people have been awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian honour, till date for sport. Edmund Hillary (posthumously) and Sachin Tendulkar were the second and third. Who was the first?

India have made the Davis Cup final on three occasions, beaten 4-1 by Australia in 1966 and 5-0 by Sweden in 1987. Which team were they drawn to face in 1974?

A Telugu film based on which athlete, premiered in the Indian Panorama section at the International Film Festival of India in 1991, earning its female lead the Nandi Award for Best Debut Actress?

Who became the first Dronacharya Awardee in the sport of badminton in 2000?

Who was the Indian cricket captain when they made the women’s World Cup final for the first time in 2005?

Against which country did India miss two penalties in a 2-1 defeat at the men’s football event at the 1948 London Olympics, which was also their first ever international match?

Deanna Syme Tewari, a contemporary of Milkha Singh’s who held the women’s long jump record for India for some time, was one of two athletes who lit the torch at the 1982 Asian Games. Which multiple Olympic gold medallist accompanied her?

Which former captain finished his international career with 99 Tests against his name?

Leander Paes completed a career Grand Slam in mixed doubles by winning the 2016 French Open with Martina Hingis. With whom did he complete his set of four majors in men’s doubles in 2012?

Who remains one of only two Indian badminton players to have won the singles title at the All England Open, and also coached the third Indian finalist in the early part of the latter’s career?

There's a stadium in Brescia, Italy, named after an Indian sportsman, an Asian Games bronze medallist and a legend in his sport in India. (There's a stadium in India named after him too). Which sportsman?

Who was the first Indian to participate in five Olympic Games as competitor?

Warne c Ramesh b Harbhajan, 2001. This wicket marked a landmark feat - what was it?

With which sport would you associate three-time Olympian Limba Ram, who equalled a world record on way to gold at the Asian championships in 1992, the same year he narrowly missed out on a podium finish at the Olympics?

Which Indian sporting venue, located in the capital city, was a gift from the princely state of Bhavnagar and originally named the Irwin Amphitheatre?

Which became only the second Indian team to win the Durand Cup, football’s third-oldest active tournament after the FA Cups of England and Scotland, after its resumption post-Independence in 1950?

Indian football’s first international captain and the country’s flag-bearer at the 1948 London Olympics, Talimeren Ao would go on to become Director of Health Services of which Indian state in 1978?

Who won India’s first wrestling gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi?

Which team was the first that India hosted as an independent nation in international cricket?

In which year did Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium not host a knockout match during a cricket World Cup?

In the history of the cricket World Cup, India have twice lost by one run against the same team. Name that team.

In which country did PV Sindhu capture her first Super Series title, not long after her silver-medal finish at the 2016 Rio Olympics?

Which city hosted the final of the 2017 FIFA Under-17 World Cup, the first FIFA event hosted in the sub-continent?

On the same day in 2016 that Sakshi Malik made history as India’s first woman wrestler to win an Olympic medal, which compatriot of hers had to withdraw from the quarter-finals with an injury suffered during the bout?

Who is the only foreign national to have been recommended for the Dronacharya Award, on “special consideration” of his contribution to Indian sport?

Which member of the shooting contingent was India’s flag-bearer at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics?

Who was the first Indian squash player to play professionally on the PSA World Tour?

In which city was the first day-night ODI on Indian soil played?

The Captain Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior last hosted an international cricket match more than eight years ago. What world record was set in that match?

In which sport did Deborah Herold become the first Indian woman to be ranked as high as world number four in 2015?

Which Indian sportperson’s autobiography is titled ‘A Shot at History’?

Who won India’s first medal at the World Championships of athletics?

Which cricketer, a debutant alongside Sachin Tendulkar, went on to make his celluloid debut with the 2000 film ‘Kurukshetra’?

Who is the only Indian to have won two individual medals at the Olympics post-Independence?

What was the name of Sanjay Manjrekar’s debut album, released in the mid-1990s, where he ‘sings the favourites of Azhar, Sachin, Srinath, Kumble’, according to the cover?

Who won India silver at the 25m rapid-fire pistol event at the 2012 London Olympics?

In what specific track event at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics did PT Usha miss out on winning independent India’s first athletics medal, finishing fourth by a difference of 0.01 seconds?

In 2014, who became the first male Indian to win a badminton Superseries singles title?

In which sport did Murlikant Petkar win India’s first Paralympics gold in Heidelberg, West Germany in 1972?

In which country did Jordan-Toyota’s Narain Karthikeyan become the first Indian racer to start in a Formula One race in 2005?

When Dipa Karmakar became the first Indian to make an Olympic gymnastics final at the 2016 Rio Games, who claimed the gold in the women’s vault event where Dipa stood 4th?

When Emilio Correa Junior of Cuba won his middleweight boxing bout at the Olympics, who became assured of earning India’s first boxing medal in history?

Who was the first Indian to score a hat-trick in the Indian Super League in 2015?

Who is the only Indian to have top-scored in a final for India at both the ICC World Cup as well as the ICC World T20?

Which Indian cricketer plays a cameo in an eponymous 2005 film, where the central character names one of his domestic animals after him?

The National Award for Best Feature Film in 2000 went to a film called ‘Shantham’, directed by Jayaraj. Who played the male lead?

Manika Batra won gold in women's singles during the 2018 Commonwealth Games. How many medals did she win at Gold Coast in total?

Who played the male lead opposite Parveen Babi in the 1973 film ‘Charitra’?

If Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar did it in Pakistan, and Virat Kohli in Sri Lanka, where did Mahendra Singh Dhoni do it?

When did India win their last Olympic hockey gold?

Who registered a world record English billiards break of 1276 on his way to winning the World Professional Billiards Championship in 1992?

Who captained India to their first Test win?

When Saina Nehwal picked up a badminton medal at the 2012 London Olympics, whom did she beat in the bronze-medal playoff?