India skipper Virat Kohli dropped a spot to No.2 in the latest ICC rankings for Test batsmen, a day after his side slumped to an innings and 159-run loss to England in the Lord’s Test.

Kohli, who rose to the numero-uno spot by overtaking banned Australian Steve Smith last week, scored 23 and 17 at the home of cricket, even as the visitors succumbed for 107 and 130, to concede a 0-2 lead to the hosts in the five-Test rubber.

Besides Kohli, his deputy Ajinkya Rahane (23), and openers Lokesh Rahul (25), Murali Vijay (34) and Shikhar Dhawan (26) also slipped in their rankings.

However, Ravichandran Ashwin was the notable exception, moving up in the list for batsmen from 67th to 57th, with defiant innings of 29 and 33 not out.

Ashwin has also leap-frogged South Africa’s Vernon Philander to grab the third position among all-rounders.

For England, wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow’s 93-run knock has lifted him back into the top 10, in ninth place.

Among the bowlers, veteran quick James Anderson has become only the seventh England bowler and the first in 38 years from his country to breach the 900-point mark.

No.1-ranked Anderson’s outstanding match figures of 9/43 have enabled him to reach 903 points and join a select group comprising Sydney Barnes (932), George Lohmann (931), Tony Lock (912), Ian Botham (911), Derek Underwood (907) and Alec Bedser (903), all of whom peaked at over 900 points during their careers.

Anderson now leads second-placed South Africa fast bowler Kagiso Rabada by 21 points in the bowlers’ list.

India’s Ravindra Jadeja and Ashwin are stable at No.3 and No.5, respectively with Philander separating the duo.

Among others, India all-rounder Hardik Pandya has moved up 25 places to take the 74th spot among bowlers.

England’s Chris Woakes, who slammed an unbeaten 137 in England’s only innings and chipped in with four wickets in the match, has gained 34 places to reach a career-best 50th position among batsmen while also moving up three places to 32nd among bowlers and by five places to seventh among all-rounders.

India progressed to the semi-finals of the SAFF Under-15 Football Championship, defeating hosts Bhutan 1-0 at the Changlimithang Stadium here on Monday.

Shilky Devi’s 58th-minute strike proved to be the difference between the two teams in a match tightly contested where India rattled the bar twice.

With this win, India top Group A, winning both of their matches. India will face either Nepal or Bangladesh in the semi-finals on Thursday.

Although Bhutan started the game on an attacking note and dominated possession in the early minutes of the match, the Indian girls had an excellent opportunity to go ahead in the 13th minute but Kiran failed to make the most of her chance from inside the box.

In the 31st minute, India rattled the woodwork after Sunita Munda found Kritina Devi on the flanks with some crafty work. Kritina’s first time effort from long range hit the bar and came back into play, only for her to shoot wide off the resulting ball.

Five minutes later, Bhutan caught the Indian defence napping and hit the side netting from inside the box to give the Indians a scare.

Shilky Devi’s volley from inside the box in the 41st minute went inches over the bar as India continued to press the opponents. A stalemate ensued at half-time as both teams went into the tunnel on level pegging.

In the 55th minute, Avika Singh’s effort from a distance rattled the crossbar but India had to wait for the breakthrough that came three minutes later. Shilky Devi found the back of the opponent’s net with ease from inside the box with sheer composure in the 58th minute to give India the lead as the scoreline read 1-0.

India pressed to double their advantage and came close when Shilky’s shot missed the target. On the other end, the Indian defence had a busy day to stop Bhutan’s counter-attacks that came quite frequently.

Bhutan committed to attack to search for an equalising goal but the Indian defence shut the gates tight and held on to eke out a 1-0 win over the hosts.

Indian golfer Viraj Madappa, who won the Take Solutions Masters title last weekend in Bengaluru, has jumped from 1561st rank to be 460th in the world rankings, which were announced on Monday.

Madappa became the record youngest Indian, at the age of 20 years and nine months, to win on the Asian Tour as he claimed a two-shot victory at the Take Solutions Masters.

That win has catapulted him inside the top-500 rankings for the first time in his career.

The Bengaluru event also proved beneficial for Khalin Joshi and S.S.P. Chawrassia. Khalin, who finished tied sixth, jumped 48 places to be 376th. Chawrasia, who also finished sixth in Bengaluru, vaulted 33 places to be 380th.

However, Shubhankar Sharma and Anirban Lahiri dropped four places each to be ranked 92nd and 97th respectively after failing to make the weekend cut in the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Championship — which resulted in their losing ground.

The third highest ranked Indian, Gaganjeet Bhullar, dropped three places to be 117th, while Ajeetesh Sandhu moved down two places to be at the 230th spot.

Shiv Kapur maintained his 232nd rank, while Rahil Gangjee dropped two places to be 328th.

Meanwhile, United States’ Dustin Johnson maintained the No.1 spot, while his compatriot Brooks Koepka climbed two spots to world No.2 after his victory at the PGA Championship on Sunday, dropping his countryman Justin Thomas to the next spot, reports Efe.

Having finished fourth in the same tournament, Spain’s Jon Rahm jumped to the fifth place, replacing Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, who dropped to world No.7.

US’ Tiger Woods, meanwhile, jumped from world No.51 to the 26th, thanks to his second-place showing at the PGA Championship in Town and Country, Missouri.

Further down in the rankings, Adam Scott of Australia rocketed 31 places to 45th after finishing third on Sunday, while former world No.99 Stewart Cink of the US was elevated to world No.70 after his fourth-place finish at the PGA Championship.

The England selectors have named an unchanged squad for the third cricket Test against India at Trent Bridge, starting August 18.

Already 2-0 up in the five-match Test rubber after wins at Edgbaston and Lord’s, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said in a statement that it will make an assessment of all-rounder Ben Stokes’ availability after the conclusion of the trial in Bristol.

This means Stokes is likely to miss out even if he is found not guilty of affray at Bristol Crown Court this week.

Stokes’ absence from the Lord’s Test, however, did not affect England in the second game, with fellow all-rounder Chris Woakes striking his maiden century and putting in a man-of-the-match performance.

Woakes registered a maiden Test century, scoring 137 not out, along with match figures of 4/43.

England squad for 3rd Test: Joe Root (Captain), Moeen Ali, Jimmy Anderson, Jonny Bairstow (WK), Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Alastair Cook, Sam Curran, Keaton Jennings, Ollie Pope, Jamie Porter, Adil Rashid, Chris Woakes.

Social media giant Facebook has bagged the media rights of Spain’s top-division football championship, La Liga, for the Indian subcontinent, both parties have confirmed the path-breaking deal.

With this mega-deal, La Liga will be the first European football league to be broadcast exclusively live on Facebook in the Indian subcontinent.

La Liga will be available for free on Facebook in India, Bhutan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, championship’s India Country Manager Jose Cachaza revealed to IANS on Monday.

The period of the deal is for three seasons and it begins with the 2018-19 campaign starting on August 17, Peter Hutton, Facebook Head of Global Live Sports Programming, said.

“La Liga has a very wide global audience and the league has two of the most supported clubs on our platform — Real Madrid and Barcelona. Fans can either go to La Liga page on Facebook and can view any of the matches or they can go on to the Facebook page of their favorite clubs to watch the match. No subscriptions are needed,” he said.

“We are delighted to have the opportunity to expand La Liga’s fan base in India with free live streaming of football games. Apart from the live games, the fans will also have access to see other programmes like studio discussion, preview shows and highlights,” Hutton said, adding that interacting with fellow fans is a very interesting feature that Facebook will offer during the live streaming.

Earlier, the La Liga media rights for the Indian subcontinent was with Sony Pictures Networks India. According to sources, Sony Pictures Networks was not ready to match the figure offered by Facebook.

Alfredo Bermejo, Head, Digital Strategy, La Liga, said: “For us, India is one of our most important markets and Facebook is one of our most important and traditional partners in digital world. We want to reach out to the biggest audience with the biggest platform possible.

“We wanted to improve our broadcasting strategy with technology — like production, new camera, new angles, new way of viewing football. Facebook shared our strategy. Facebook is the biggest platform with 270 million users, out of which 60 million are interested in football. So Facebook has the perfect features to help us what we want to.”

Cachaza added: “For us it is a great opportunity to give Indian football fans free live broadcast of La Liga games through Facebook. Digital landscape in India is interesting for us. Indian market is ahead of others in terms of digital audience.

“We have seen the growth of digital audience in India whether it is for FIFA World Cup or the Indian Premier League. One out of every four IPL viewers followed the matches on a digital platform. Digital broadcasting platforms are already there.

“We want of be ahead of time. So we think this is the best way to reach out to our audience,” he stated, refusing to reveal the financial figures involved in the deal.

Around 50 million fans watched La Liga 2017-18 season and Facebook aims to make the most of the growing market.

Facebook will also provide analysis of the matches by a pool of experts including former Real Madrid defender and four time La Liga champion Michel Salgado, as well as former Barcelona and Atletico Madrid midfielder Luis Garcia.

Hutton said that over the course of the next three seasons, they want to learn about sports live broadcasting in the Indian market, though they have the experience of showing live couple of sports championships in the United States.