Barcelona beat PSG, cruise into Champions League semis

April 22, 2015

Barcelona, Apr 22: Spanish football club Barcelona booked their place in the semifinals of the Champions League for the seventh time in eight years as they defeated Paris Saint Germain (PSG) 2-0 to secure a 5-1 win on aggregate.

Barcelona beat

Neymar was the hero of the Tuesday night with two first half goals as Barcelona enjoyed a relatively tranquil night at Camp Nou here, reports Xinhua.

Despite the 3-1 win in the first leg and a difficult game next weekend, Barcelona coach Luis Enrique made no concessions to try and conserve tired legs and played what is probably his strongest side with Lionel Messi, Neymar, Luis Suarez and Ivan Rakitic.

Zlatan Ibrahimovoch was back for PSG to face his former club while Marco Verratti was also able to provide more control to the French side's midfield.

One player who didn't show control was PSG central defender David Luiz, who was booked for challenging with his foot up in the first foul of the game.

Barcelona opened the scoring in the 14th minute, virtually their first attack. Andres Iniesta collected the ball in his own half, ghosted past two players in midfield and threaded the ball for Neymar to round the keeper and slide the ball into the net.

The goal clearly hurt the French side and it was also soon clear that it was going to be a good night for Barcelona. The passes found their target, the pressing was aggressive and movements were fluid as their rivals suffered.

It was no surprise when Neymar doubled the lead with a header five minutes from the break after good work from Dani Alves down the right wing.

With his side up 5-1 on aggregate at the break, Enrique decided to rest Iniesta for Xavi Hernandez and with the PSG needing to score four goals to qualify, 10 minutes later Sergi Roberto replaced Busquets.

The game opened up, although there were few clear chances as Barcelona remained in control, although he forced a good save from Ter Stegen with 18 minutes left. That was virtually all that Barcelona suffered and Messi almost made it 3-0 with the last kick of the game but his shot slipped wide of the post.

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News Network
March 29,2020

New Delhi, Mar 29: Former Indian batsman Wasim Jaffer on Sunday picked his all-time IPL team and appointed wicket-keeper batsman MS Dhoni as its captain.

Jaffer's team's feature opener Rohit Sharma, current Indian skipper Virat Kohli, all-rounder Hardik Pandya, spinner R Ashwin, and pacer Jasprit Bumrah as seven domestic players.
While the foreign players spot have been occupied by West Indies' swashbuckling batsman Chris Gayle, all-rounder Andre Russell, Afghanistan's spinner Rashid Khan, and Sri Lanka's veteran pacer Lasith Malinga.
Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has been picked as 12th man by Jaffer.

Earlier this month, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to postpone the IPL to April 15, 2020, as a precautionary measure against COVID-19 outbreak.
The board also assured that it will work in unison with the Sports Ministry and will adhere to the guidelines issued.

The 13th edition of IPL was scheduled to commence from March 29. 

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News Network
January 13,2020

Mumbai, Jan 13: India spearhead Jasprit Bumrah on Sunday headlined the BCCI Annual Awards function, grabbing the prestigious Polly Umrigar award apart from annexing the Dilip Sardesai honour for his exploits in international cricket in the 2018-19 season.

Polly Umrigar award is presented to the best male International cricketer and it carries a citation, trophy and cheque for Rs. 15 lakh.

Dilip Sardesai award is conferred on both the highest wicket-taker and highest run-getter in Test cricket. Bumrah took 34 wickets in six matches with three five-wicket hauls.

Prolific Saurashtra batsman Chetshwar Pujara was picked for the honour for scoring 677 runs in 8 matches at an average of 52.07 with three centuries and two half centuries.

Bumrah, the world's number ODI bowler made his Test debut during India's tour of South Africa in January 2018 and hasn't looked back since.

He picked up a five-wicket haul in South Africa, England, Australia and the West Indies, becoming the first and only Asian bowler to achieve the feat.

He played a stellar role in the historic 2-1 Test series win in Australia, India's first Down Under and which helped them retain the Border Gavaskar Trophy.

While Bumrah netted the biggest prize in the men's category, Poonam Yadav claimed the top prize in women's section and was awarded the best international cricketer.

The award will be another feather in the leg-spinner's cap who recently received the Arjuna Award.

Former India captains Krishnamachari Srikkanth and Anjum Chopra were presented the Col CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award and the BCCI Lifetime Achievement Award for women respectively.

A member of the 1983 World Cup-winning team, Srikkanth took on the fearsome West Indies fast bowlers and scored an attacking 38, the top individual score in the low-scoring final at the Lord's.

He also captained India and post-retirement served as the chief selector and it was during his tenure that the 2011 World Cup squad was picked.

Anjum is one of the finest batswomen and the first Indian to play 100 ODIs. In a career spanning 17 years, Anjum represented India in four 50-over World Cups and two T20 World Cup (played in one).

Mayank Agarwal, who emerged as an impact batsman starting with his debut series in Australia in 2018-19, received the best international debut in men's category while talented 15-year-old Shafali Verma grabbed the same in the women's category.

Mumbai all-rounder Shivam Dube, who impressed in the recently concluded T20 series against Sri Lanka, was presented the Lala Amarnath Award for the best all-rounder in the Ranji Trophy while Delhi's Nitish Rana received the same for doing well in the limited overs competition.

India's middle-order batsmwoman Deepti Sharma received the Jagmohan Dalmiya Trophy for best woman cricketer in senior domestic circuit while Shafali was picked for honour in the junior category.

Virender Sharma was adjudged the best umpire in domestic cricket while Vidarbha Cricket Association were presented the best performance award in domestic cricket for wining the Ranji Trophy.

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said, “The BCCI Awards is our way of recognising the finest on-field performances right from the age group to senior level and also honour our legends.”

Board secretary Jay Shah said, “We wanted to make Naman bigger and better and have introduced four new categories highest run-getter and wicket-takers in WODIs and best international debut men and women from this year.”

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Agencies
January 5,2020

Mumbai, Jan 5: India captain Virat Kohli has refrained from making any comments on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), without gaining full knowledge on the sensitive subject.

The CAA will grant Indian nationality to people belonging to minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12, even if they don't possess any proper document.

In 2016, Kohli had termed demonetisation as the "greatest move in history of Indian politics", which met with sharp criticism from a lot of quarters, with people questioning his knowledge on the subject.

With Guwahati witnessing massive protests against the CAA till some days back, Kohli was asked about it and the Indian skipper weighed his words carefully.

"On the issue, I do not want to be irresponsible and speak on something that has, you know, radical opinions both sides. I need to have total information, total knowledge of what it means and what is going on and then be responsible to give my opinion on it," Kohli said ahead of India's first T20 International against Sri Lanka.

The skipper made it clear that he will not like to get embroiled in a controversy by commenting on a subject that he is not well aware of.

"Because you can say one thing and then someone can say another thing. So, I would not like to get involved in something that I don't have total knowledge of and it's not going to be responsible on my part to comment on it." However Kohli on his part was happy with the security arrangements and felt that the city is "absolutely safe".

"The city is absolutely safe. We didn't see any problems on the roads," Kohli said, giving his thumbs-up for the match at the Barsapara Stadium.

The Assam Cricket Association is using this match as a "curtain-raiser" ahead of their maiden IPL match this season as Rajasthan Royals have adopted this venue.

There has been deployment of Rapid Action Force for the teams and ACA secretary Devajit Saikia has said the spectators will not even be allowed to bring along handkerchiefs and towels on the match-day as the traditional Assamese scarf was used for protests against CAA.

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