All hail King Khan! Bollywood Badshah is now IPL Badshah too

June 1, 2014

kkr 2

Bangalore, Jun 1: A resounding innings from Manish Pandey delivered Kolkata Knight Riders their second IPL trophy in three seasons, as a target of 200 was overhauled with three deliveries remaining at Bangalore's M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday night. If the first half of the IPL 7 final was dominated by Wriddhiman Saha's superb maiden Twenty20 century, the second was all about Pandey whose 54-ball 90 smoothed over the failure of Robin Uthappa and left Kings XI Punjab ruing some wasteful bowling.

It needed a special effort to outdo Saha's 55-ball 115* and Pandey produced just that; and though he fell before finishing the job the target was achieved in nerve-shredding manner with Piyush Chawla pulling Mitchell Johnson for six to leave KKR needing five off six balls. The winning runs also came from Chawla's bat, sealing a seven-wicket win and clearing the KKR dugout.

Chasing 200 is a daunting task in any situation, but even more so in a final and when a team loses their most valuable batsman in the first over. Uthappa's golden run of ten innings of 40 or more ended when he slashed Mitchell Johnson to a leaping Akshar Patel at point, leaving KKR to go about their job with a required rate of ten an over. They were dented further when first ball after the Powerplay - which contained just eight dot balls - Gautam Gambhir (22) heaved Karanveer Singh to wide long-on, ending a stand of 53 with Pandey.

But Pandey, on his home ground, showed some fight, slicing Karanveer over extra cover and pulling Parwinder Awana for two sixes in an expensive 11th over during which he reached fifty in just 31 balls. Akshar's overs were always going to be crucial and the 20-year-old left-arm spinner wheeled his first two away for just four singles while almost having Pandey caught at over by Bailey who fell backwards and missed the catch on the second and third attempts.

KKR needed one of their big-hitting all rounders to support Pandey and Yusuf Pathan did that briefly, clouting four sixes in his 32 before he holed out off Karanveer looking for another maximum. As he had two evening ago against Chennai Super Kings, George Bailey nailed a brilliant direct hit to run out Shakib for 12, leaving KKR to get 44 off 27 balls. Pandey replied by launching Karanveer for sixes either side of Ryan ten Doeschate's exit, forcing the bowler to send down two wides which added to KKR's cause, but a rush of blood saw Pandey slice the last ball of the over to Bailey at cover. Karanveer, 26, finished with a T20 best of 4 for 54.

The key blows from here came when Chawla slammed Johnson over deep square leg and sliced Awana over four for the winning hit, after which he ran around the field while his ecstatic team-mates chased after him.

This frenetic chase put in the shadow the excellent work from Saha, who had galloped to a century in 49 balls in KXIP's first appearance in an IPL final. The second part of KXIP's innings, after they had been put in to bat, was as frenetically eventful as the first was sedate and shaky. Where the first ten overs had produced just 58 runs for the loss of two overs, the last ten brought about 141, of which Saha's contribution was 100.

Saha wasn't very convincing at the start of his innings, slashing and wafting at deliveries far too early. There was also a leading edge to cover, but as Saha got his eye in the shots few off his bat. He sliced Chawla past point for four and cracked six over midwicket off Shakib, but the shot of the innings was the second six Saha hit off Chawla, a stylish lofted drive over long-off. With Sunil Narine's third over costing 19, during which Saha and Manan Vohra reached their fifties, KKR were well placed for a late surge and it duly came. They scored 62 off the last five overs, with Saha hitting Narine for six to get to his century; the legspinner's last over went for 17, leaving him to nurse his most expensive IPL figures of 1 for 46. Saha finished not out on 115 from 55 balls, inclusive of ten fours and eight sixes, but brilliance was overshadowed a couple hours later.

Brief scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 200 for 7 in 19.3 overs (Manish Pandey 94, Yusuf Pathan 36) beat Kings XI Punjab 199 for 4 in 20 overs (Wriddhiman Saha 115*, Manan Vohra 67) by three wickets

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Agencies
August 1,2020

Colombo, Aug 1: Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan has expressed his interest in playing the inaugural edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL), scheduled to start from August 28.

Pathan is among 70 foreign players to have shown interest in playing the LPL, ESPNcricinfo reported.

It is believed that Pathan has taken permission from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to take part in the competition. 

BCCI doesn't allow active players to participate in other T20 leagues but Pathan announced his retirement in January this year.

Former swashbuckling all-rounder Yuvraj Singh also played in a foreign league last year. He played for Maratha Arabians in the T10 League in Abu Dhabi.

According to ESPNcricinfo, Pathan will now be put in a player draft unless one of the five franchises choose him to be a marquee player. The details of the draft, and the franchise owners, are yet to be finalised and announced. 

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is also waiting on some government clearances even as it decides on franchise owners. The five franchises will represent Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Dambulla and Jaffna.

On Monday, SLC Executive Committee granted approval for the tournament.

"The 23 match League will be played on the four international venues of R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium, Rangiri Dambulu International Cricket Stadium, Pallekele International Cricket Stadium and Suriyawewa Mahinda Rajapakse International Cricket Stadium. Five teams named after the cities of Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Dambulla and Jaffna will participate in the League," SLC said in a statement on Monday.

Sri Lanka has controlled the spread of COVID-19 better than many other cricket-playing nations.

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News Network
April 22,2020

Dhaka, Apr 22: Star Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has decided to auction the bat he used during the 2019 ODI World Cup to help raise money for the fight against deadly coronavirus pandemic.

Shakib, who is currently serving a two-year ban from all forms of cricket -- one of which is suspended -- for not reporting corrupt approaches, is the second Bangladeshi cricketer after wicket-keeper batsman Mushfiqur Rahim to auction a personal cricketing gear to raise money for the cause.

"I had said before that I want to put up a bat for auction. I have decided to auction the bat I used in the 2019 World Cup. It's a favourite bat of mine," Shakib said during a Facebook live session.

The 33-year-old all-rounder had a hugely successful World Cup in England last year, scoring 606 runs in eight matches at an average of 86.57, which included two centuries and five fifties.

Besides, he also picked up 11 wickets in the tournament and became the only cricketer to score 600 plus runs and scalp 10 wickets in a single edition of the World Cup.

"I had a good World cup with the bat and ball. There were some good performances especially with the bat. I had used a single bat throughout the World Cup and even used tapes on it to get through games," Shakib said.

"It's not that this bat has only been used at the World Cup. I have scored over 1500 runs with this bat and had used it prior to the tournament and after it as well.

"Although I like the bat a lot but I have decided to put it up for auction with the thought that maybe it can leave some contribution to forming a fund during the ongoing coronavirus crisis."

The money raised from the auction will go to the Shakib Al Hasan foundation.

"This is a very special bat to me, but my people are even more special to me," Shakib said.

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News Network
April 30,2020

New Delhi, Apr 30: Indian skipper Virat Kohli on Thursday mourned the demise of veteran Bollywood actor Rishi Kapoor, called his death 'unreal and unbelievable' loss.

"This is unreal and unbelievable. Yesterday Irrfan Khan and today Rishi Kapoor ji. It's hard to accept this as a legend passes away today. My condolences to the family and may his soul rest in peace," Kohli tweeted.

Opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan also expressed his heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.
"It's shocking to hear about the sudden demise of #RishiKapoor ji. My heartfelt condolences to his family and friends. May his soul rest in peace," Dhawan tweeted.

Earlier today, actor Amitabh Bachchan confirmed the news of the demise of the 67-year-old Rishi Kapoor. Rishi Kapoor was admitted to the Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital in Mumbai on Wednesday.

In September 2019, the veteran actor returned to Mumbai after staying in New York for almost a year for cancer treatment.

He was last seen in the 2019 film 'The Body' alongside Emraan Hashmi and Shobita Sobhita Dhulipala.

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