Knight Riders through to final after Kings XI unravel

May 29, 2014

Knight RidersMumbai, May 29: Kolkata Knight Riders eased into the IPL final with their eighth-successive win, beating a listless Kings XI Punjab at Eden Gardens. Robin Uthappa prolonged a stellar season and took the record for the most runs scored by an Indian batsman in an IPL season. Gautam Gambhir, though scratchy with the bat, had helmed an impressive turnaround by Kolkata Knight Riders. The satisfaction of making the final was sweetened all the more when both players returned into national reckoning. Uthappa found a place for the ODI tour of Bangladesh and Gambhir could contemplate a Test comeback in England.

Rain tends to favour chasing teams, if it's impact is expected. On Wednesday, sunny skies welcomed Kings XI and Knight Riders but as the evening waned, the weather soured. Kings XI would not have been flustered by a target of 164, but the advent of a non-stop drizzle in the third over meant they had to tackle one of the wilier bowling attacks with the prospect of the match being curtailed at any given moment. Having fallen behind the Duckworth-Lewis equation, one of the most assured batting line-ups suddenly looked out of their depth, but they have another crack on Friday when they meet the winner of the eliminator.

The jitters began when Manan Vohra, empowered by a few solid hits, miscued to long-on. His 26 off 19 had originally put Kings XI ahead on the rain rule but now they were four runs behind par. Glenn Maxwell's attempts to dance around the crease to upset the bowler's rhythm backfired when he was found plumb in front. Kings XI were 11 behind and the downward spiral steepened.

Umesh Yadav was not among those bound for England in July. His chosen way to vent was an opening spell of 2 for 12 in three overs. As rain persisted, the batsmen were uncertain regarding the length of the match and the approach they should employ. If they took undue risks and the game ended up lasting the 20 overs, they could end up without enough batsmen. If they didn't press on, Knight Riders would clinch the game with ease.

Wriddhiman Saha and David Miller flailed at the crease, attempting to hit on the up and hack across the line, and by the time their struggle came to an end their side was more than 20 runs behind the Duckworth-Lewis equation.

With the umpires doing their best to ensure a full game - at one point they waved the invading groundsmen off the field to ensure five overs of the chase were completed - the Knight Riders spinners continued the strangle. Shakib Al Hasan and Piyush Chawla grabbed a wicket each, while conceding only 11 runs in three overs, as Kings XI meandered to 97 for 6 in after 16 overs. George Bailey attempted a counterattack, but Sunil Narine kept the penultimate over to four runs to all but seal the result.

Spin had played a prominent part in the first innings as well. Akshar Patel snared the in-form Robin Uthappa and a struggling Manish Pandey in the same over. Karanveer Singh furthered his stocks with three wickets. However, in between their strikes Knight Riders had benefited from important cameos to secure a formidable total.

Uthappa was at his fluent best again, depositing Mitchell Johnson and Parvinder Awana into the crowd with authoritative pulls. Having showcased his skills off the back foot, he drilled some eye-catching drives both through and over the off side field to fuel his 10th 40-plus score on the trot. His exit however seemed to drain Knight Riders' momentum until Yusuf Pathan and Shakib Al Hasan contributed 41 off 33 balls in the push towards the death overs.

Both batsmen fell just before a 20-minute break for rain, but Chawla, Suryakumar Yadav and Ryan ten Doeschate managed 49 runs in the final four overs to provide more than enough cushion for their bowling attack.

Also read:

Chennai Super Kings’ all-round effort with bat helps beat Mumbai Indians by 7 wickets in IPL 2014 eliminator

Chennai Super KingsMumbai, May 29: Chennai Super Kings made lightweight of a massive score of 173 by Mumbai Indians and good knocks by almost all the top order batsmen chipped in with quick-fire cameos to kick the defending champions out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2014 in what turned out to be a revenge for last season’s tame defeat in the finals. Chennai cruised to a seven wicket win with eight balls to spare.

On a placid wicket Lendl Simmons continued his fine form in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2014 and scored yet another fine half-century to propel Mumbai Indians to a competitive 173 for eight after Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s won the toss and elected to field first.

Dwayne Smith took no time to get things under way for Chennai with a a typical one-legged flick that reached the fence. Chennai was on the march right away. Faf du Plessis looked even more comfortable at the crease after Corey Anderson was given the new ball to bowl.

It was a wrong move from Rohit Sharma and it backfired straight away. Du Plessis came down the track to whack a boundary past mid-off and then the ball reached the deep-mid wicket fence with a ferocious pull shot. Then there was a loud leg-before appeal and it was turned down by the umpire. It was a good decision by Bruce Oxenford as the ball took a big inside edge.

Catches win matches is an old adage that has always proven to be true over the years. In a crunch tie, a knock-out tie like this, you don’t drop catches of a player of the caliber of du Plessis. The ball went high in the air and a mix up between harbhajan singh and Ambati Rayudu ensued and a golden chance to strike an early blow was lost as it fell in no-man’s land.

The South African willow-wielder was in full flow and there was huge six over deep-mid wicket and then went for a the same pull shot that reached the boundary. Dwayne Smith was in full cry against the pace of youngster Jasprit Bumrah. smith eased to three consecutive boundaries of the over and the score raced to 60 for no loss in six overs. Just like his counterpart MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma also turned to his spinners and for wickets and he was immediately rewarded from the wrists of the wily old hands of Harbhajan Singh. Both batsmen fell in identical fashion. First Smith went big on the leg side but only found the massive palms of Kieron Pollard. du Plessis also departed playing an needless loft trying to clear the boundary.

McCullum went for a wild heave and perished too after he was caught outside his crease trying to go for a wild heave and was smartly stumped by Aditya Tare of the bowling of Pragyan Ojha. IPL is his battleground and Suresh Raina was easing along with his characteristic flicks and cuts to steady the chase.

David Hussey was giving company in the middle and he started very slowly. After carefully seeing things through in the early overs, Hussey clobbered two massive sixes and Raina smashed another six and the the target was in touching distance. Raina now has 400 runs in each of the IPL’s played so far and yet another fifty towards the end and finished things off with a stylish boundary. On this form, Chennai will hold all the aces in the upcoming knock-out games.

Brief scores:

Mumbai Indians 173 for 8 in 20 overs (Lendl Simmons 67, Michael Hussey 39, Corey Anderson 20; Mohit Sharma 3 for 42, Ravindra Jadeja 2 for 31) lost to Chennai Super Kings 176 for 3 in 18.4 overs (Faf du Plessis 35, Suresh Raina, David Hussey; Harbhajan Singh 2 for 27) by 7 wickets.

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News Network
February 18,2020

Berlin, Feb 18: Sachin Tendulkar being lifted on the shoulders of his teammates after their World Cup triumph at home in 2011 has been voted the Laureus best sporting moment in the last 20 years.

With the backing of Indian cricket fans, Tendulkar got the maximum number of votes to emerge winner on Monday.

Tendulkar, competing in his sixth and last World Cup, finally realised his long-term dream when skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni smacked Sri Lankan pacer Nuwan Kulasekara out of the park for a winning six.

The charged-up Indian cricketers rushed to the ground and soon they lifted Tendulkar on their shoulders and made a lap of honour, a moment etched in the minds of the fans.

Former Australian skipper Steve Waugh handed the trophy to Tendulkar after tennis legend Boris Becker announced the winner at a glittering ceremony.

“It's incredible. The feeling of winning the world cup was beyond what words can express. How many times you get an event happening where there are no mixed opinions. Very rarely the entire country celebrates,” Tendulkar said after receiving the trophy.

“And this is a reminder of how powerful a sport is and what magic it does to our lives. Even now when I watch that it has stayed with me.”

Becker then asked Tendulkar to share the emotions he felt at that time and the Indian legend put in perspective how important it was for him to hold that trophy.

“My journey started in 1983 when I was 10 years old. India had won the World Cup. I did not understand the significance and just because everybody was celebrating, I also joined the party.

“But somewhere I knew something special has happened to the country and I wanted to experience it one day and that's how my journey began.”

“It was the proudest moment of my life, holding that trophy which I chased for 22 years but I never lost hope. I was merely lifting that trophy on behalf of my countrymen.”

The 46-year-old Tendulkar, the highest run-getter in the cricket world, said holding the Laureus trophy has also given him great honour.

He also shared the impact the revolutionary South African leader Nelson Mandela had on him. He met him when he was just 19 years old.

“His hardship did not affect his leadership. Out of many messages he left, the most important I felt was that sport has got the power to unite everyone.

"Today, sitting in this room with so many athletes, some of them did not have everything but they made the best of everything they had. I thank them for inspiring youngsters to pick a sport of their choice and chase their dreams. This trophy belongs to all of us, it's not just about me.”

In a tweet on Tuesday, Tendulkar dedicated the award to his country, teammates and fans.

"Thank you all for the overwhelming love and support! I dedicate this @LaureusSport award to India, all my teammates, fans and well wishers in India and across the world who have always supported Indian cricket," he tweeted.

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Agencies
January 25,2020

Headingley, Jan 25: England have become the first team in the world to score 500,000 runs in Test cricket. They achieved the feat during the ongoing fourth and final Test against South Africa being played at The Wanderers.

On Friday - the opening day of the Test match -- England captain Joe Root's single through the covers took the Three Lions to a landmark 500,000 run-mark in the longest format of the game. They achieved the feat in their 1022nd Test match.

Australia comes second in the list, with 432,706 runs in 830 Tests. India, meanwhile, are third, with 273,518 runs in 540 Tests, followed by West Indies (270,441 runs in 545 Tests).

In the third Test played at St George's Park in Port Elizabeth, England had become the first team to play 500 Test matches on foreign soil. Australia are the second team to play the most away Test with 404 matches they have played so far.

India have played 268 Tests on foreign soil in which they have won 51, lost 113 and 104 have ended in a draw.

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News Network
January 9,2020

Kuala Lampur, Jan 9: Saina Nehwal and reigning world champion P V Sindhu produced dominating performances to progress to the women's singles quarterfinals of the Malaysia Masters Super 500 badminton tournament here on Thursday.

Sixth seed Sindhu notched up a commanding 21-10 21-15 victory over Japan's Aya Ohori in a pre-quarterfinal match lasting just 34 minutes. It was Sindhu's ninth successive win over Ohori.

The 24-year-old Indian, who won the World Championships in Basel last year, will take on world number 1 Tai Tzu Ying in the quarterfinals after the Chinese Taipei shuttler got the better of South Korea's Sung Ji Hyun 21-18 16-21 21-10.

Saina, who had won the Indonesia Masters last year before going through a rough patch, dispatched eight seed An Se Young of South Korea 25-23 21-12 after a thrilling 39-minute contest to make the last eight.

This is Saina's first win over the South Korean, who got the better of the Indian in the quarterfinals of the French Open last year.

The two-time Commonwealth Games champion will next take on Olympic champion Carolina Marin.

Saina had defeated Lianne Tan of Belgium 21-15 21-17 in the opening round on Wednesday.

In the men's singles, India's challenge ended after both Sameer Verma and HS Prannoy crashed out in the second round.

While Verma lost to Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia 19-21 20-22, Prannoy was shown the door by top seed Kento Momota of Japan 14-21 16-21.

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