Chennai Super Kings beat Kolkata Knight Riders to win Champions League T20 title

October 5, 2014

Bangalore, Oct 5: Suresh Raina smashed a brilliant unbeaten century as Chennai Super Kings romped to an eight-wicket victory over Kolkata Knight Riders in the Champions League T20 final in Bangalore.

Champions League

Kolkata made 180-6 in their 20 overs after being put in to bat, opener Gautam Gambhir scoring 80, but the Super Kings reached their target with nine balls to spare and claimed the title for the second time.

The Knight Riders had won the Indian Premier League as they compiled a record winning sequence but their streak came to an end after 14 matches, despite a good start to the contest.

Robin Uthappa (39) and Gambhir put on 91 in less than 11 overs but Uthappa was then stumped by MS Dhoni off left-arm Pawan Negi, who went on to take 5-22 in an incredible spell.

Negi was playing in just his second match of the tournament but went on to remove Jacques Kallis (1), Manish Pandey (32), Ryan ten Doeschate (stumped for a first-ball duck) and Suryakumar Yadav (0).

And Gambhir hit three sixes and seven boundaries in his 52-ball knock before holing out off Ravindra Jadeja in the 17th over.

The Knight Riders were without banned spinner Sunil Narine but they removed Dwayne Smith (8) in the first over, clean bowled by Pat Cummins after hitting a pair of boundaries.

However, that brought Raina to the crease and he produced a superlative innings, treating Kolkata’s spinners with disdain as he marched out of his crease to hit big sixes.

He survived a stumping chance on 78 and Yusuf Pathan put down a very difficult caught and bowled opportunity when Raina had reached 88, but Chennai were firmly on top by this stage in any case.

Raina reached his third T20 century off 59 balls and finished with 109 not out off 62 balls, with six fours and eight sixes.

Opener Brendon McCullum (39 off 30 balls) played the junior role in a second-wicket stand which yielded 118 in 12.2 overs.

And Super Kings captain Dhoni then came in at number four to help guide the team to victory, finishing on 23 not out and hitting the winning runs.

Negi was named man of the match on the day while Raina was named player of the series.

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News Network
April 7,2020

London, Apr 7: Bowling coach Waqar Younis feels that it was the absence of pacers Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Amir which saw Pakistan getting whitewashed during Australia tour last year.

Amir and Riaz had quit the red-ball format ahead of the matches against Australia in 2019.

"Just before the Australia series, they ditched us and we had the only choice to pick youngsters.

We were the new management and decided to go on with taking in the younger lot and groom them. ESPNcricinfo quoted Younis as saying.

Pakistan was not able to win a single match in Australia as they got defeated both in T20Is and Test series.

"It's not like we have lost a lot, but yes they left us at the wrong time. But anyway, we don't have any grudge against them," Younis added.

"We cannot control players' choice on what they want to play, but then there should be a mechanism so we all are on board. "It's not like I am saying we could have won in Australia but we could have done better than what we have done," he opined.

Amir gave up the red ball format in July in order to manage his workload and extend his white-ball career for Pakistan as well as in T20 leagues around the world, while Riaz took an "indefinite break" from Test cricket in September last year.

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News Network
July 14,2020

New Delhi, Jul 14: Indian bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who features in the list of A category players released by BCCI, has revealed his first-ever paycheck.

Bhuvneshwar was participating in a question and answer session on Twitter where he gave his take on fans' queries.

The 30-year-old bowler was asked about his first paycheck by a fan and Bhuvneshwar responded by saying, "It was for Rs 3000. I shopped and still managed to saved some."

During the question and answer session Bhuvneshwar picked Barcelona striker Lionel Messi over Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo.

The right-arm bowler also revealed that football and badminton are his favourite sports other than cricket.

Earlier this year, Bhuvneshwar was named in the list A category of players. BCCI had released the list of centrally contracted players for the period from October 2019 to September 2020. Annually, A category players get Rs 5 crore.

The right-arm bowler would have been in action for Sunrisers Hyderabad if the Indian Premier League (IPL) had commenced from March 29. However, the tournament was postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Agencies
August 2,2020

New Delhi, Aug 2: Batting great Rahul Dravid has attributed Chennai Super Kings' consistent run in the IPL to skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni's instincts, game-smarts and the incredible amount of work that goes behind the scenes.

N Srinivasan, the former BCCI president and head of India Cements, which owns the CSK franchise, agreed that Dhoni is a man of instinct who doesn't believe in attending team meetings and going over data.

Both were speaking at a webinar organised by the Great Lakes Institute of Management.

"If you look at the success CSK has had, they've got really good access to data and they've got really good access to people behind the scenes and they've run cricket teams at the junior level," Dravid said at the webinar according to ESPNcricinfo.

The former India captain added, "They understand talent and they've obviously got a good scouting process in place. But, what they also have is a captain who really understands instincts.

"So, I mean, look, I know Dhoni quite well and I hope he hasn't changed, but I know Dhoni is probably not one to look at reams of data and statistics."

The Super Kings have won the lucrative tournament three times -- one less than Mumbai Indians -- and reached the knockouts in each of the 10 seasons they have been a part of.

Srinivasan also spoke about how Dhoni's instinct and judgement contributed to his team's success at a time when a lot of emphases is placed on data.

"We're awash with data just now. To give you an example, there are bowling coaches and in a T20 game, they play videos of every batsman whom they're going to come against and they see how he got out, what's his strength, what's his weakness etc.

"So, MS Dhoni doesn't attend this, he's a pure instinct man. The bowling coach, (head coach Stephen) Fleming will be there and everybody will be there, everyone is giving opinions, (but) he'll get up and go.

"In the context of instinct, he feels that okay he can assess a batsman or player on the field, that's his judgement. On the other hand, there is so much of data that is available to help a person also analyse. It's a very difficult line to draw (between data and instinct)."

Srinivasan also recalled how Dhoni once refused to take "one outstanding player" suggested by the franchise boss as that could have broken the team's cohesion.

"There was one outstanding player that we suggested to MS, he said: 'no sir, he will spoil the team'. The cohesion within the team is important and see in America, franchise-based sport has been there for such a long time," he said.

"In India, we're just starting and we're new to it. But we at India Cements have had a lot of experience running teams at junior levels."

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