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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News Network
March 23,2020

Colombo, Mar 23: Sri Lankan batting great Kumar Sangakkara has said he is currently in self-quarantine, following his government's guidelines for those recently returning from Europe, which has now become the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authorities are concerned over people returning from the most-affected COVID-19 countries in Europe not registering with the police and practising isolation.

"I have no symptoms or anything like that, but I'm following government guidelines," Sangakkara told News First.

"I arrived from London over a week ago and the first thing was there was a news bulletin saying that anyone who had travelled from within March 1 to 15 should register themselves with the police and undergo self-quarantine. I registered myself with the police."

The former captain said this even as the government confirmed there have been at least three cases of recent returnees attempting to hide the novel coronavirus symptoms from authorities.

Both Sangakkara and his former teammate Mahela Jayawardene have been active on social media, urging Sri Lankans to avoid panic and to exercise proper social distancing, as the country went into curfew on Friday evening.

Sri Lanka has so far reported more than 80 active COVID-19 positive cases in the country.

Across the world, the number of infected has crossed three lakh besides a death toll of more than 14,000 people.

Meanwhile, former Australia pacer Jason Gillespie has also gone into a two-week isolation after returning from the United Kingdom.

Gillespie, who is the head coach at Sussex, had been in Cape Town with the team for a pre-season tour, which was cut short as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

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Agencies
January 11,2020

London, Jan 11: Former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar's famous lap around the Wankhede Stadium after the World Cup 2011 win has been nominated in Laureas's list for the most inspiring sporting event in the last twenty years.

The moment featuring Tendulkar has been described as "Carried on the shoulders by a nation".

On his sixth attempt at the World Cup and with India not having won the competition since 1983, Tendulkar finally became a part of the team that lifted the coveted trophy. Carried on the shoulders of the Indian team, he made a lap of honour, shedding tears of joy after the victory was sealed in his home city.

The 2011 World Cup was also the first time, in which a host nation ended up winning the trophy.

Apart from Tendulkar, England's Andrew Flintoff is the only other cricketer to feature in the list. In 2005, England managed to defeat Australia in an Ashes Test, but Flintoff chose to first shake hands with Brett Lee rather than celebrate with his side.

Matthias Steiner (weightlifting), Natalie du Toit (swimming), Sky Brown (skateboarding), Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee (triathlon), Xia Boyu (mountaineering) have been nominated in the list.

Female tennis stars also feature in the list for coming up with an equal play, equal pay campaign. After pressure from Venus Williams and others, Wimbledon announced that female tennis players would receive prize money equal to the men's.

German international footballer Miroslav Klose was playing for Lazio in Italy's Serie A in 2012 against Napoli when he rose for a ball in the early moments of the game.

The ball came spiraling off his hand and skirted into the back of the net and a goal was awarded. While most players would carry on as if nothing had happened, Klose was honest with the referee and admitted that he handled the ball.

As a result, he also finds a place on the list.

The Laureus Sporting Moment Award celebrates the moments where the sport has unified people in the most extraordinary way.

This campaign has shortlisted 20 sporting stories from the last 20 years that have left their mark on the world.

The winner will be decided on the basis of public voting. It has already started, and the final date to cast the vote is February 16.

Finally, the result will be declared on February 17.
With three knock-out rounds, the top-20 moments will be whittled down to ten then five, with the top-five moments going head-to-head.

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News Network
March 31,2020

New Delhi, Mar 31: Australia batsman David Warner on Tuesday decided to shave off his head to show support towards all those people who are working relentlessly on the frontline in the battle against coronavirus.

After shaving off his head, Warner also challenged his Australian team-mate Steve Smith and India skipper Virat Kohli to do the same.

Warner, shared a time-lapse video on Instagram, of him shaving his head, and captioned the post as: "Been nominated to shave my head in support of those working on the frontline #Covid-19 here is a time-lapse. I think my debut was the last time I recall I've done this. Like it or not".

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Australia's death toll stands at 19, as per the Sydney Morning Herald.

As of 8 am today, 4460 people across Australia have tested positive for COVID-19.

The World Health Organisation had termed coronavirus as a 'pandemic' on March 11.

Earlier in the day, Australia Test skipper Tim Paine also confirmed that the side's tour of Bangladesh is unlikely due to the virus spread.
"You don't have to be Einstein to realise (the Bangladesh tour) is probably unlikely to go ahead, particularly in June. Whether it's cancelled or pushed back, we're not quite sure at the moment," cricket.com.au quoted Paine as saying.

Currently, Australia has 296 points in the WTC from 10 matches, while India has 360 points from nine matches.

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