Dwayne Smith’s well-measured innings helps Chennai Super Kings to beat Mumbai Indians in IPL 2014

May 11, 2014

CSK_winMumbai, May 11: In the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2014 game played between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings at Mumbai, the match had its fair share of spills and thrills, before Chennai won it by four wickets. It was MS Dhoni, who provided the finishing touches by smashing a sixoff Kieron Pollard in the last over of the game. The track that was holding up a little bit made sure that Chennai’s batsmen struggled to up the ante, while chasing down a modest target of 158 on the board. Mumbai’s key bowler, Lasith Malinga‘s burst right at the end made it interesting, but they perhaps were 15-20 runs short of a winning total. It was their first win against Mumbai on their homes turf.

Even Dwayne Smith, who has been in prime form in IPL 7 struggled to find the boundary with ease. Those red-lightning shots were surely missing from his bat early on in his innings. He finally smashed the experienced, Harbhajan Singh for a six with a hoick across the line. Chennai also were not helped by two decisions going against them and that too it went against their key players, Brendon McCullum and Suresh Raina.

Once Smith thwacked a towering six off Harbhajan though, Chennai’s batsmen opened up their shoulders with some big hits. Faf du Plessis took advantage of Corey Andersen’s medium pace bowling by smashing him for a six. Smith followed it up by hammering Praveen Kumar for a six with another agricultural hoick across the line. Smith then reached his fifty in 49 balls. His slowest fifty in this year’s IPL, before getting out to P Kumar’s bowling caught by Lendl Simmons at deep mid-wicket.

For Mumbai, Harbhajan bowled well during the middle overs of the game, and two close decisions didn’t go his way during the 13th over of the game. He to some extent used the track that was helping him to his advantage. Malinga then, snared the wicket of MS Dhoni with a slow yorker. He could have got Ravindra Jadeja’s wicket too, but the umpire turned down an lbw appeal perhaps citing that there was an inside edge. Other bowlers tried their best.

Earlier, Mumbai, despite losing a single wicket during the first 10 overs of the innings stuttered a bit. Chennai’s spinners, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin bowled tight overs to keep the opposition ranks on tenterhooks. Even the seamers in their line-up bowled with good control. Among the seamers, Mohit Sharma was the best bowler on view. It eventually led to the dismissal of the opener, Lendl Simmons, who was caught by Faf du Plessis on the boundary line off the bowling of Ashwin for a well-measured innings of 38. It finally meant that Mumbai could get 157 for the loss of six wickets in their allotted 20 overs and that too on their home turf.

Actually, Chennai’s spinners went through their overs very quickly and that didn’t help Mumbai’s cause, as their batsmen didn’t have much time to settle down at the crease and up the ante against parsimonious bowlers. Even someone like Rohit Sharma known for playing shots wasn’t able to get things going. Kieron Pollard too lost the plot and got out early.It was left to Ambati Rayudu to play fine strokes to at least take them to a fighting total on the board. Corey Anderson chipped in with a few hefty blows right at the end.

Chennai’s fielding though, was a bit of a letdown. Samuel Badree dropped a catch off Ambati Rayudu at deep third man and there were also mis-fields. du Plessis though, made up for it with a fine piece of fielding at long-off to prevent a six. However, they would have been happy with their bowling effort.

Brief scores:

Mumbai Indians 157 for 6 in 20 overs (Lendl Simmons 38, Ambati Rayudu 59; Ravichandran Ashwin 3 for 30, Mohit Sharma 1 for 26) lost to Chennai Super Kings 160 for 6 in 19.3 overs (Dwayne Smith 57, Faf du Plessis 31; Lasith Malinga 2 for 15, Praveen Kumar 2 for 31) by 4 wickets.

Man of the Match: Dwayne Smith

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News Network
January 10,2020

Karachi, Jan 10: Former Pakistan batsman and current U-19 head coach Ejaz Ahmed feels that his side can beat defending champions and arch-rivals India in the forthcoming ICC Youth World Cup beginning in South Africa on January 17.

"India has a very good cricket system and it is organized but I know that we have more passion than them when we play against each other and that is how we also beat them in the semi-finals of the recent Asian Emerging Nations Cup," Ejaz said.

Ejaz, who has played 60 Test and 250 ODIs, was head coach of the Pakistan Emerging side which beat India before eventually winning the title in Bangladesh last year.

"Even in the past, we beat India because of our greater passion and this time also I know the passion of our players will prevail over them although they have a very strong outfit," he added.

The 51-year-old Ejaz, however, said at the end of the day it would be all about how a team plays on that particular day.

"It is the same in the World Cup it does not matter which team is number one or defending champions what will matter is how a team plays on a given day. I personally feel our team is well balanced," he said.

Ejaz did not believe that India would get advantage of having played a four-nation tournament with South Africa, New Zealand and Zimbabwe in South Africa before the World Cup.

"Our players have also trained hard in Lahore and we have played around 11 matches. We will also reach South Africa nine days before the World Cup and we have some practice games and I think our preparations are also very good for the tournament," he said.

The former batsman also said the absence of fast bowler Naseem Shah will not impact much on the team's performance. Naseem was withdrawn from the Pakistan U-19 squad after he played for the senior team in three Test matches against Australia and Sri Lanka.

"Look there was no controversy at all. The way we now see things is that you can't expect a MBA to go and take BA exams. That is how we look at Naseem Shah, he has made the grade for Pakistan and now he should be performing for the senior team," said the head coach.

"We have a couple of exciting young talent in the ranks. I expect Rohail and Haider to play for the senior team in two to three year's time, they are that good."

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News Network
June 24,2020

New Delhi, Jun 24: Star Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan deeply regrets his "silly mistake" of not reporting a corrupt approach by an Indian bookie to the ICC, leading to his one year suspension from the game.

Shakib was banned for two years, one year of it suspended, for failing to report corrupt approaches during an IPL edition by an alleged Indian bookie named Deepak Aggarwal.

"I took the approaches too casually When I met the anti-corruption guy and told them and they knew everything. Gave them all the evidence and they knew everything that happened," Shakib told Harsha Bhogle on 'Cricbuzz in Conversation'.

"To be honest, that's the only reason I was banned for a year, otherwise I'd have been banned for five or 10 years," he added on the ICC's investigation.

The 33-year-old, who was in brilliant form before the ban, amassing 606 runs in the 2019 World Cup in the UK, said he regrets how he went about the situation.

"But I think that was a silly mistake I made. Because with my experience and the amount of international matches I've played and the amount of ICC's anti-corruption code of conduct classes I took, I shouldn't have made that decision, to be honest."

Lesson learnt, Shakib's advice to all young criceters is to never take any such message lightly.

"I regret that. No one should take such messages or calls (from bookies) lightly or leave it away. We must inform the ICC ACSU guy to be on the safe side and that's the lesson I learnt, and I think I learnt a big lesson," he added.

The all-rounder, whose ban ends on October 29, said he became a bit arrogant and never felt he was doing anything wrong by not reporting the bookie's approach immediately.

"Because you do most things right in your life, you tend to get arrogant with some decisions. You may not realise but you're doing wrong by the books. It never came to my mind that I am doing something wrong

"It was just a feeling of 'okay, what's going to happen, leave it' and I continued with my life. But that's the mistake I made. And that happens," Shakib said.

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News Network
May 28,2020

May 28: Former India captain and Kings XI Punjab head coach Anil Kumble is hopeful of the IPL happening this year and is not averse to the idea of conducting the cash-rich event without spectators due to the COVID-19 threat.

It is not official yet but there is speculation that the BCCI wants to hold the IPL in the October window after the tournament was postponed indefinitely earlier this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Yes we are hopeful and optimistic that there is still a possibility (to hold IPL this year) if we can cram in the schedule," Kumble was quoted as saying by Star Sports show 'Cricket Connected'.

"If we are going to have a stadium without spectators, then probably have 3 or 4 venues; there's still a possibility, we are all optimistic," said the former spinner, who is also the chairman of ICC's Cricket Committee.

Former India batsman VVS Laxman said the stakeholders can stage the league in cities which have multiple stadia to reduce travelling by players.

"Absolutely (there is chance to hold IPL this year), and also make sure that all the stakeholders have a say," he said.

"...you should identify one venue, which probably has 3 or 4 grounds; if at all you find that kind of a venue because travel is again going to be quite challenging," said the former stylish batsman.

"You don't know who's going to be where at the airports, so that I'm sure the franchises and the BCCI will be looking into."

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