Atletico de Kolkata beat Kerala Blasters 1-0 to become ISL champions

December 21, 2014

ISL champions

Mumbai, Dec 21: The Indian Super League trophy will go to the traditional and most passionate home of Indian football as Atletico de Kolkata edged past Kerala Blasters 1-0 in the final here today, bringing the curtains down on what proved to be a successful inaugural event.

Mohammad Rafique scored the most-important goal in the dying minutes to help Atletico de Kolkata emerge triumphant at the DY Patil Stadium.

It was an exciting finish to the new league as the two teams battled it out for 90 minutes before Rafique found the target in the fourth minute of added time.

Just when it looked like the match would enter into extra time, substitute Rafique drove a header home in the last minute of the stoppage time off a corner kick by Jakub Podany.

Rafique, who came on in the 74th minute, slotted it to the left bottom corner leaving Sushanth Matthew, Sandesh Jhingan and Kerala goalkeeper David James shocked.

Even though Rafique starred with his deciding goal, custodian Edel Bete was the hero for

Atletico de Kolkata with his sensational saves.

The southern outfit started well as they created a good chance in the fifth minute. Former Newcastle United striker Michael Chopra and Iain Hume played well to enter the box but Josemi cleared the ball with a tackle to deny them an opportunity to go one up.

Six minutes later Ishfaq Ahmed took a good left foot shot but it was blocked by the ATK custodian Edel Bete.

The Sourav Ganguly co-owned ATK had a chance in the 25th minute when Arnal Llibert sent the ball through to Mohammed Rafi, but Nirmal Chettri made a last-ditch tackle to deny the forward from entering the box.

Chettri earned a yellow card for his wild tackle but Podany's free-kick from just over 20m sailed over the post.

Llibert tried to slide the ball past Kerala Blasters' marquee player-cum manager James in the 35th minute, but the English shot-stopper showed great reflexes and blocked the shot with an acrobatic effort.

Two minutes later, the Sachin Tendulkar co-owned Kerala Blasters had the opportunity to take the lead when Michael Chopra was clipped by Ofentse Nato while trying to go for the goal.

It earned his side a free-kick but Hume's superb shot was saved by a brilliant effort by the Cameroonian Bete.

Starting the second half the Kerala outfit created a couple of good scoring chances. Stephen Pearson tried to cross the ball off Ishfaq Ahmed's pass but Bete pouched it with a good dive.

Ishfaq then, a minute later, made a terrific run to pass the ball inside the box, but Pearson's shot was wide from the post. Kerala still created another chance in the 52nd minute when Chopra tried to steer Hume's volley, but ATK's custodian pulled out another great save to maintain a clean sheet.

Three minutes later, Chopra combined well with Forcado to feed the ball to Hume, but the Scottish-born Canadian Hume delayed taking a shot and allowed the ATK defenders to push the ball away.

It clearly wasn't Chopra's night. He missed a sitter in the 83rd minute after doing all the requisite hard work. Collecting the ball from Hume, he took a couple of touches to edge past the defenders, but Bete dived to the left to pull off another stunning save.

Atletico de Kolkata skipper Luis Garcia started on the bench and Spanish forward Arnal Llibert was drafted in his place in the starting 11.

The winners became richer by Rs 8 crore, while the runners-up pocketed Rs 4 crore. League toppers Chennaiyin FC and FC Goa, the two semi-finalists, received a cash prize of Rs 1.5 crore each.

The Hero of the League award went to Blasters' Hume, while the Golden Boot was won by Chennaiyin FC's Brazilian recruit Elano Blumer. Sandesh Jinghan was named Emerging Player of the League while scorer of the title clash, Rafique was declared Hero of the Match.

Both the team owners, Ganguly and Tendulkar, came to cheer their teams along with spinner Harbhajan Singh and tennis veteran Leander Paes.

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Agencies
January 26,2020

Chennai, Jan 26: Former India cricketer Kapil Dev on Saturday said that it will be a big loss for the Indian side when MS Dhoni decides to hang up his boots.

"I think he has served the country so well and nobody has done it like him. Everyone has to retire sooner or later. He is not playing matches currently. So I don't know when he will come out one day and say -- I have had enough. I think it will be our loss because he is such a fabulous cricketer," Dev told reporters here.

In the recently released BCCI contracts list, Dhoni did not find a place for himself. The former World Cup winning captain Dev said that it is unfortunate that Dhoni was not included in the contract list.

"I feel sorry that they have not included him. 

Tendulkar, Gavaskar had to witness the same. It's not my job and I am not there to give the contract to anyone. It is the job of the cricket board. So, I don't know. You can ask this question to the cricket board. They will be able to answer this question," Dev said.

The 38-year-old Dhoni is currently enjoying some time away from the game. He last played competitive cricket during the 2019 World Cup.

Dhoni had to face criticism for his slow batting approach during India's matches in the tournament. 

Especially in the games against England and New Zealand (semi-final), he had to bear the brunt of netizens, who deemed him as the reason for the Men in Blue's loss.

BCCI released the list of central contract list of players for the period from October 2019 to September 2020.

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News Network
June 20,2020

Melbourne, Jun 20: If 15 teams can be allowed to enter Australia for the T20 World Cup then fans will not be stopped from watching live action from the stadiums, Cricket Australia's interim CEO Nick Hockley said on Saturday.

Hockley replaced under-fire Kevin Roberts, who recently got the boot from Cricket Australia, which is grappling with financial woes.

Different possibilities are being worked out for the T20 World to go ahead as scheduled later this year and one of them is to host the tournament before empty stands in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.

However, Hockley said crowds will be allowed, though, hosting 15 teams with players, officials and support staff is "complex" as of now, hinting that probably the ICC flagship event could be pushed back.

"The reality is, and we've got much more understanding about this in recent weeks, is crowds are most likely to come back before international travel. Our biggest challenge is getting 15 teams into the country," Hockley told cricket.com.au when asked if he would like to see the World Cup proceed without fans.

"If I compare it with the prospect of a bilateral tour, you're talking about bringing one team in and then playing individual matches. But the prospect of bringing 15 teams in and having six or seven teams in one city at the same time, it's a much more complex exercise."

When specifically asked whether crowds would be permitted by the time borders have opened to the point that 15 teams will be allowed to travel to Australia, Hockley replied in an affirmative.

"That's the current thinking, yes."

Hockley said it came as a shock when he was asked by Cricket Australia to replace Roberts.

"I've had very mixed emotions. I was very shocked to be asked. I didn't see it coming at all, so I probably haven't had time yet to process it. I feel very sad for Kev (Roberts). On the other hand, I feel this is a massive privilege to be asked, it's a massive responsibility and a massive opportunity even if it's only for the next few months," he said.

Hockey did not commit when asked if he would like to assume the role full time, but he did say that he would quit as CEO of the T20 World Cup Organising Committee.

"My approach throughout my entire career has been to focus on doing the best job I can with what I've been tasked with, and the future will look after itself. And I'll continue the same approach.

"That's (T20 World Cup) been a real priority over the last 48 hours. We're reasonably well progressed and we will be appointing an interim because you just can't do both," he said.

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Agencies
February 7,2020

New Delhi, Feb 7: It was on February 7, 1999, that Anil Kumble became just the second bowler in the history of cricket to take all ten wickets in an innings of a Test match.

He achieved the feat against Pakistan at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, now known as Arun Jaitley cricket stadium in Delhi during the second Test of the two-match series.

India had set Pakistan a target of 420 runs in the match and the visitors got off to a steady start as openers Shahid Afridi and Saeed Anwar put on 101 runs for the first wicket.

It was then Kumble who came into the attack and wreaked havoc on the Pakistani batting line-up.

The spinner, also known as 'Jumbo' first dismissed Afridi (41) in the 25th over. After the right-handed batter's dismissal, India kept on taking wickets through Kumble and Pakistan was reduced to 128/6 in no time.

Kumble then kept on taking wickets at regular intervals and he got his tenth scalp in the 61st over after dismissing Wasim Akram.

This effort enabled India to register a win by 212 runs, and Kumble became the second bowler after England's Jim Laker to take all ten wickets in a single Test inning.

Kumble finished with the bowling figures of 10-74 from 26.3 overs.

Kumble announced his retirement from international cricket in 2008 and finished with 619 wickets in the longest format of the game.

He has the third-highest number of wickets in Tests, only behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan (800) and Australia's Shane Warne (708).

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