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Knight Riders crush Royals to take top position

Agencies
April 19, 2018

Apr 19: Kolkata Knight Riders delivered a professional performance to beat Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets here on Wednesday, putting their IPL campaign back on track with back-to-back victories.

The highly-rated KKR spinners restricted Royals to 160 for eight before opener Robin Uthappa (48 off 36 balls), Nitish Rana (35 n.o. off 27 ) and captain Dinesh Karthik (42 n.o. off 23) did the job with the bat as the visitors cruised to victory in 18.5 overs.

It was a second emphatic performance in a row for KKR, who now have three wins from five games. Royals have lost two games out of the four they have played.

The away team was always in control of the chase despite losing Chris Lynn in the first over. Uthappa put up a show that is expected of him, entertaining the crowd with a blazing knock that comprised six fours and two sixes.

Captain Karthik then batted responsibly alongside Rana, taking KKR home comfortably.

Earlier Royals, put in to bat, were not able to build on the start provided by captain Ajinkya Rahane (36 off 19) and D’Arcy Short (44 off 43) after the openers shared a 54-run stand off 41 balls.

The trio of Piyush Chawla (1/18), Kuldeep Yadav (1/23) and part-timer Rana (2/11) conceded 52 runs in 10 overs, sharing four wickets amongst themselves.

KKR’s lead-spinner Sunil Narine had an off-day as the West Indian went wicketless and leaked 48 runs in four overs. Pacer Tom Curran (2/19) chipped in with a couple of wickets towards the end.

The highlight of Rahane’s knock was hitting Narine for four consecutive boundaries in his opening over.

His innings ended when Karthik effected a brilliant run-out after collecting the ball from in front of the stumps.

Rahane’s opening partner Short ended up with his highest score in the tournament so far but it was not one of his fluent knocks. The Australian, used to playing on bouncy pitches back home, later said he is still getting used to the low bounce in his maiden IPL stint.

The in-form Sanju Samson (7) getting out cheaply also hurt the home team which could never got a move-on with wickets falling at regular intervals.

Kolkata began with the spin from both sides and Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav kept things tights, conceding nine runs in the first three overs.

Rahane welcomed Narine in the next over with four hits to the fence as the over went for 18 runs.

The following over from pacer Shivam Mavi too produced 13 runs, giving the innings a much-needed impetus.

However, Royals did not get a big enough partnership thereafter as KKR spinners continued to control the innings.

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Agencies
April 12,2020

London, Apr 12: Former Formula 1 legendary driver Stirling Moss died at the age of 90 on Sunday.

"All at F1 send our heartfelt condolences to Lady Susie and Sir Stirling's family and friends," Formula 1 said in a statement.

Often referred to as the greatest driver never to win the world championship, Moss contested 66 Grands Prix from 1951 to 1961, driving for the likes of Vanwall, Maserati and Mercedes, where he famously formed a contented and ruthlessly effective partnership with lead driver Juan Manuel Fangio.

In his 10-year-long stint at the tracks, Moss took 16 wins, some of which rank among the truly iconic drives in the sport's history - his 1961 victories in Monaco and Germany in particular often held up as all-time classics.

Moss won the 1955 Mille Miglia on public roads for Mercedes at an average speed of close to 100mph, while he also competed in rallies and land-speed attempts.

Following an enforced retirement from racing (barring a brief comeback in saloon cars in the 1980s) after a major crash at Goodwood in 1962, Moss maintained a presence in Formula 1 as both a sports correspondent and an interested observer, before retiring from public life in January of 2018.

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News Network
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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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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