IPL 2014: Sunrisers Hyderabad’s victory over Rajasthan Royals provides opportunity for rest to catch up

May 9, 2014

Rajasthan_RoyalsAhmedabad, May 9: Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) defied all odds to beat Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2014 on May 8. Hyderabad produced a joke of a batting display against a good bowling. But somehow managed to comprehensively beat Rajasthan in the end. Shrikant Shankar writes Sunrisers’ victory provides the rest an opportunity to catch up with the leaders.

How Sunrisers Hyderabad managed to beat Rajasthan Royals by a convincing margin in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2014 on May 8 is a complete mystery. First they produced an abject batting performance to post a lowly 134 for nine in their 20 overs at Ahmedabad. The score in itself does not suggest that their batting was woeful. Many teams can be bowled out quickly. Such is the nature of T20 cricket. But some of the shots played and the lackadaisical attitude shown by Amit Mishra, did not warrant Hyderabad to post a score any higher.

They looked dead and buried as Rajasthan looked to win their fifth match on the trot. That kind of momentum is hard to stop. Last season in the IPL, Hyderabad managed to just about win matches posting low totals. Hyderabad’s strength is their bowling attack. But that is a known fact. With Dale Steyn, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mishra and Karn Sharma, they will always slow down the opposition. They may have the odd off-days viz. Steyn’s unraveling against AB de Villiers. But on the whole, they have a good bowling line-up.

What that 32-run win did was to open up the IPL and hand the rest an opportunity to close the gap. Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings already have 12 points each. If Rajasthan would have won, they too would have got a dozen points. This has still kept a four-point gap between Rajasthan in third position in the IPL 7 Points Table and Kolkata Knight Riders in fifth place with six points. Despite the loss, Rajasthan have that cushion and will be looking up rather than down the table. But the rest will have got a glimmer of hope to catch up with the leaders.

There is a genuine possibility that Punjab, Chennai and Rajasthan fight for the top-three positions and the remaining five teams battle it out for fourth spot in the standings. This may not give the IPL 2014 the intensity of previous seasons where most of the top-four positions were not decided until the last day of the group phase. The teams at the top may not mind, but the fans and the neutrals would always want to see things go down to the wire. Teams like Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore, who have genuine quality, will even think that both can get into the play-off spots displacing Rajasthan.

It is almost a given that Punjab and Chennai will finish in the play-offs. But Rajasthan don’t actually have it that easy. They are not playing at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. Rajasthan are playing all their home matches at Ahmedabad. This loss shows that they can not only be beaten here, but also by a convincing margin. Last season, Rajasthan banked on their 100 per cent record in Jaipur, despite their away form being mediocre. This seasons technically, Rajasthan are not playing at home at all.

Another aspect that came out from the match was the slowly fading thought of putting the runs on the board formula. Rajasthan proved against Kolkata and then Hyderabad again on May 8 that if wickets are taken regularly in the second innings, the pressure rises increasingly on the chasing team. There is also a case that Rajasthan might have taken Hyderabad for granted and thought chasing down a 135-run target was just a formality. Either way, Hyderabad’s victory has just given the rest of the teams in IPL 2014 an opportunity to string a run of victories and increase the pressure on the ones at the top.

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News Network
January 10,2020

New Delhi, Jan 10: Injured Assam archer Shivangini Gohain underwent a critical surgery at the AIIMS. Dr. Deepak Gupta, professor of Pediatric neurosurgery at AIIMS, revealed about the delicate nature of the procedure and said there was no room for error.

"It was touching vertebral artery which supplies blood to the brain stem. The arrow was 0.5 cm in front of the spinal cord and the child could have become quadriplegic if someone tried to pull it out," Gupta said.

According to doctors, the arrow accidentally went inside the body damaging the shoulder bone, part of the neck, spinal cord and left lung.

Dr Gupta said, "Now the patient is fine. We had planned the surgery in a very unique way. Last whole night, our team was doing the planning and plotting to conduct this complex surgery. About 15 cm part of the arrow was inside the body which has entered through shoulder bone and affected neck, spinal cord and left lung".

"We started the surgery in the morning at 6 am which lasted for three and a half hours. We have successfully removed the arrow. The patient is stable now and shifted to ICU for observation," he added

Shivangini Gohain, the 12-year-old Assam archer who was impaled by an arrow shot accidentally at the SAI centre in Dibrugarh, was training unsupervised and the mishap was a result of negligence by the local coach and officials, the state's archery association has said.

The child was training at the Dakha Devi Rasiwasia College at Chabua, which serves as an extension centre under the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Regional Centre in Guwahati when the incident took place on Wednesday.

She was airlifted to Delhi on Thursday night and admitted to the AIIMS Trauma Centre. Pulin Das, a joint secretary of Assam Archery Association and executive member of the state Olympic association said the injury to the school girl from the Deodhai village, which is 3km from Chabua, happened as the trainees were practising without any coach and other officials.

“There is a SAI contractual coach Marcy and he has left for the Khelo India Games in Guwahati. He didn't instruct the trainees to stop the camp for some time nor did the college principal, who acted as administrator of the extension centre, looked after the practice,” Das said on Friday.

The extension centre has 11 trainees, six boys and five girls, and they were training under SAI contractual coach A C Marcy from Nagaland, who is in Guwahati for the Khelo India Youth Games.

“The training ground itself is in very bad shape, it was not even a dedicated ground for archery training, some play football, cricket and other sports on that ground. But the worst part is that the SAI coach did not give instructions to stop the camp for a while and the archers were training without any supervision,” he added Das said Gohain was struck by an arrow shot by boys doing practice for compound event. The arrow remained stuck for more more than a day before she was airlifted to New Delhi on Thursday night.

“There was nobody to look after the archers, they were training on their own though their parents were outside the ground. An arrow shot by a boy trainee who was doing compound event practice hit her on the shoulder,” the official said.

Gohain's father Brinchi Gohain was outside the practice area and with no official of the college and SAI coming for help, she was taken to Assam Medical College in Dibrugarh, 33km from Chabua.

“She could reach the AMC in Dribugarh only on Thursday morning. There, the doctors told her parents to take her to a more reputed hospital like AIIMS in Delhi. With help from people close to the local Member of Parliament and Assam CM himself, she was taken by air ambulance to Delhi.

“I was told that she had a very tough time as the arrow remained stuck for more than a day. She is a strong-willed girl and she fought. Her father must be a daily wage labourer and he was distraught also.”

The SAI said that it will bear all the expenses of her treatment. The Assam Archery Association has contributed Rs 20,000 towards her treatment.

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News Network
June 6,2020

Mumbai, Jun 6: Reminiscing about his 'special knock' of 208 runs from 153 balls, Indian cricketer Rohit Sharma revealed why his wife Ritika had got emotional after he smashed his third double century in ODIs.

Rohit narrated the incident during his appearance in Episode 2 of the 'Open nets with Mayank'.

The batsman, who was accompanied by Shikhar Dhawan and Mayank on the show, said his wife thought that he had twisted his hand while diving for the 196th run during the innings.

"As you can see my wife got emotional there, this day was special as it was my anniversary. Probably the best gift I could give it to her while I am on the field, it was quite emotional though," said Rohit during the candid chat.

"When I came from the ground, I just asked her why did you (Ritika) cry? So she told me that she thought I (Rohit) twisted my hand when I dived for my 196th run and that was a little worrying factor for her, she got little emotional of because of that I guess," Rohit added.

In the match, the 32-year-old scored 208 runs with 13 fours and 12 sixes against Sri Lanka at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali.

This enabled India to post a score of 392/4 in the allotted fifty overs.

India then went on to win the match by 141 runs.

"To be honest I was going pretty slow, I never thought I will get to a double hundred but once you cross 125, I feel it gets easier for you because bowlers are under pressure. Unless you make a mistake I don't think you can get out," said Rohit.

Rohit has scored two double hundreds against Sri Lanka and one against Australia in ODIs. The right-handed batsman is the only cricketer to make three double hundreds in ODI history.

Rohit, Shikhar, and Mayank would have been in action for Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals, and Kings XI Punjab respectively, had the Indian Premier League (IPL) commenced from March 29. However, the tournament was suspended indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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May 2,2020

Melbourne, May 2: After becoming the number one side in Test cricket, Australia's head coach Justin Langer has said that his team has won back the respect of the country.

Australia dethroned India from the top spot in Tests and now the Men in Blue are in the third place.

Langer came in as the coach of Australia after the 2018 ball-tampering scandal and it took him some time to get the side back to winning ways.

Ever since the return of David Warner and Steve Smith, Australia went on to become a commendable side and the results reflect that.

"We have got lots of work to do to become the team we want to be. But over the last couple of years, not only have we performed well on the field, we have performed well off it. We have earned some respect back from other teams around the world but also from Australia," Langer said in an official statement.

"When we started on this journey, there had been a lot of talk about Australia wanting to be No. 1 in the world in all three forms of the game.

We took a different approach. Not once did we talk about being No. 1 ranked in the world. We wanted to be No.1 in our values and process. That is what I am most proud of," he added.

In the latest ICC rankings update, that rates all matches played since May 2019 at 100 per cent and those of the previous two years at 50 per cent, Australia (116) have taken over from India as the top-ranked side in the ICC men's Test team rankings with New Zealand (115) remaining in second place.

India is now third with 114 points. With only two points separating them, this is the second closest the top three teams have been since the Test rankings were launched in 2003.

The closest for the top three teams were in January 2016, when India had led Australia and South Africa by a single point.

Australia has also moved to the top spot in the T20I rankings for the first time in the format.

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