Listen: Full script of Episode 52 of Spodcast where we discuss Deepika Kumari's bronze medal, Lewis Hamilton's victory in Russia and more

Welcome to Spodcast, where we cover the big sports headlines for the day. The new season of the ISL, or the Indian Super League, began on Saturday. In the opening match, the Kerala Blasters defeated ATK 2-0. On Sunday, Bengaluru FC beat defending champions Chennaiyin FC 1-0. Bengaluru got off to a quick start, with Eric Paartalu nearly scoring in just the third minute, but he kicked the ball straight to Chennai goalkeeper Karanjit Singh. Chennai created a few chances of their own. Gregory Nelson and Jeje Lalpekhlua broke at pace, and Lalpekhlua passed the ball to Germanpreet Singh. Singh, however, failed to score. Around the 30-minute mark, Jeje broke through and found himself facing only the Bengaluru goalkeeper, but lost his footing, thus letting another scoring chance slip by. In the 41st minute, Xisco Hernandez passed the ball to Miku behind the Chennaiyin defence and the Venezuelan sent the ball into the goal, giving Bengaluru a 1-0 lead. From there on, Bengaluru held their nerve to win their first match of the season. Some news from the world of archery now. Indian archer Deepika Kumari won a bronze medal at the Archery World Cup Finals in Turkey on Sunday. She defeated Lisa Unruh of Germany 6-5 in the recurve event for women. Kumari and Unruh were tied on a score of 5-5 after five sets, and the fight for the bronze went into a shoot-off. Both archers then shot nine but Kumari was declared the winner as her arrow was closer to the centre. She said, “This was for the first time I shot at a big competition like this without a coach. But I am very happy. The stronger the competition, the better we get.” She added that she started panicking during the shoot-off. Kumari said, “Most of the times, I end up losing a shoot-off so I started panicking. I told myself, ‘I will accept whatever the result. I will just give my best shot. I’m satisfied with the arrow’.” This is the fifth podium finish for Kumari at the World Cup Finals. She has won four silver medals at the World Cup Finals previously. In the men’s event, Abhishek Verma won a bronze in the compound event on Saturday. An update on Formula One now. Defending champion Lewis Hamilton won the Russian Grand Prix, which had Russian president Vladimir Putin in the audience as well, to increase his championship lead to 50 points. Hamilton started second on the grid behind Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas. It was team strategy that handed Hamilton the win. Bottas, who was in the lead, was asked to let Hamilton overtake him. He then held off Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari to finish 2.5 seconds behind Hamilton in second place. Vettel finished third, which allowed Hamilton’s lead to grow to 50 points. Bottas seemed unhappy about the team orders that deprived him of a possible victory while Lewis Hamilton looked sheepish about the maneuver after the race. He called it the strangest day of his career. He added, “I want to win the right way…If you tell us we can’t win, it’s taking our air away, it’s taking our life away. It’s not how I want to win.” Speaking about his teammate, Hamilton said, “It’s important to acknowledge Valtteri, who was an absolute gentleman…it’s the win on my list of wins that I’m least proud of. Passing him did not feel good and I didn’t know what was planned for the end — I was waiting for some news or something, but I knew the team wanted it to end that way." Mercedes chief Toto Wolff was heard telling Bottas, “Valtteri…a difficult day for you, difficult for us…let’s get together and discuss it later.” Wolff told the media, “It’s disappointing for a driver and the team, but if you can extend the championship lead by more points, then that’s what you have to do.” Hamilton now has 306 points with five races left in the season. Vettel is in second place with 256 points, while Bottas is a distant third at 189 points. The action now moves to Suzuka in Japan for the Japanese Grand Prix on 7 October. News from golf now and Team Europe defeated the United States to lift the Ryder Cup. Europe fought off a comeback from the US to win the biennial cup 17 ½ to 10 ½. British Open winner Francesco Molinari clinched the win for Europe after beating five-time major winner Phil Mickelson 4 and 2. Molinari said after the win, “It was amazing. It is an incredible achievement. We did just an amazing job." Prior to this, he had been winless in six Ryder Cup appearances. He became the first European, and just the fourth player ever, to go 5-for-5 in a Ryder Cup. This, just two months after winning the British Open. Europe had seized a 10-6 advantage on Saturday and required just 4 1/2 points from Sunday’s 12 singles matches to win the cup. The US, on the other hand, needed to win eight singles points to keep the Cup, but that was not to be. They managed to pull things back, taking it 10 ½ - 9 ½ , but Danish golfer Thorbjorn Olesen beat three-time Major winner Jordan Spieth 5 and 4. Jon Rahm of Spain also defeated Tiger Woods 2 and 1. Rahm said, “To beat Tiger, one of the greatest players of all time, for the pivotal point, it’s the best feeling of my life.”