Maxwell, Warner crush India

February 9, 2015

Adelaide, Feb 9: India’s preparations for the cricket World Cup suffered a jolt as Australia thrashed the defending champions by 106 runs with Glenn Maxwell and David Warner striking blistering centuries in their first warm-up game here on Sunday.

Maxwell Warner

Electing to bat at the Adelaide Oval in a match where the two teams used their full 15-member squads, the hosts rode on Warner’s 104 and Maxwell’s 57-ball 122 to put up a mammoth 371 all out in 50 overs. Warner made his runs off 83 balls.

The hard-hitting Maxwell smashed 11 boundaries and eight towering sixes. Warner found the fence 14 times and cleared it twice. India were then bowled out for 265 in 45.1 overs to give the hosts another morale-boosting win ahead of the quadrennial event.

Ajinkya Rahane top-scored for the visiting side with a 52-ball 66, while Shikhar Dhawan (59) and Ambati Rayudu (53) too made half-centuries. But their efforts proved too less as the rest of the batsmen crumbled in the face of some aggressive bowling by the Aussies on a surface that looked pretty good for batting.

Pacer Pat Cummins was the most successful bowler for Australia as he returned figures of three for 30, while there were two wickets apiece for Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson and Josh Hazlewood.

Still in his comeback trail in international cricket following a month-long sabbatical due to a hamstring injury, 33-year-old pace spearhead Johnson had impressive figures of two for 26.

The star-studded Indian batting line-up that includes the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni failed to impress.

So was the case with all-rounder Stuart Binny and Ravindra Jadeja who were also smashed by the Australian batsmen.

‘It’s been tough to pick final XI’

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni admitted that he is having a difficult time?in identifying his playing eleven for the high-voltage World Cup clash against arch-rivals Pakistan.

“It has been difficult for us. When the batsmen click, the bowlers don’t and when the bowlers do, the batsmen fail. We need to sort that out.

What’s important is that we have one more game in our hand and before playing Pakistan it would be good to have the first XI in our hand,” Dhoni said at the post-match presentation. The Indian captain though said “there are plenty of positives in the game” for them.

Asked what he was looking at for identifying the final team, Dhoni said there were quite a few things to watch.

“It will depend on our utility cricketers. If the pitches remain as it is, we need our spinners to use the bounce more. It’s a very long tournament and what we have seen is the team that does well is the one that comes from the bottom and moves rapidly up,” he said.

?Speaking about his first ball dismissal against Australia in the warm-up match, he said,”I just played my shot with so many runs needed and the fielder up, but I never really thought it would go right to Starc.”

Australian captain George Bailey was naturally happy with his side’s performance.

“It was a great performance for us. I think you?can always improve. Early wickets?would be nice to blow the game out of the water. We’d like to have lost a few less wickets and I’d like?Starc to catch with both hands,” he said.

Score board

Australia

Warner b Axar 104

Finch c Kohli b Binny 20

Watson c Axar b Mohit 22

Smith b Yadav 1

Bailey c Jadeja b Shami 44

Maxwell (retired) 122

Marsh c Rahane b Yadav 21

Johnson c Mohit b Shami 19

Starc c Dhoni b Mohit 0

Cummins b Shami 5

Doherty (not out) 0

Extras: (B-2, LB-5, W-3, NB-3) 13

Total: (all out; 48.2 overs) 371

Fall of wickets: 1-62, 2-115, 3-120, 4-185, 5-227, 6-318, 7-345, 8-346, 9-371.

Bowling: Binny 6-0-41-1, Kumar 5-0-31-0, Shami 9.2-0-83-3, Yadav 9-1-52-2, Mohit 6-0-62-2, Ashwin 6-1-29-0, Axar 5-0-47-1, Jadeja 2-0-19-0.

INDIA

Rohit c Finch b Hazlewood 8

Dhawan c Starc b Johnson 59

Kohli b Starc 18

Rahane c Marsh b Cummins 66

Raina (run out) 9

Rayudu c Haddin b Hazlewood 53

Dhoni c Starc b Cummins 0

Binny b Johnson 5

Jadeja c Warner b Cummins 20

Axar (not out) 5

Ashwin c Cummins b Starc 1

Extras (LB-3, W-17, NB-1) 21

Total (all out, 45.1 overs) 265

Fall of wickets: 1-20, 2-53, 3-157, 4-172, 5-173, 6-173, 7-185, 8-254, 9-258.

Bowling: Starc 4.1-0-16-2, Johnson 6-0-26-2, Hazlewood 6-1-25-2, Marsh 6-0-38-0, Doherty 7-0-51-0, Maxwell 4-0-29-0, Watson 3-0-21-0, Cummins 6-1-30-3, Smith 3-0-26-0.

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News Network
July 5,2020

Colombo, Jul 5: Sri Lanka batsman Kusal Mendis was on Sunday arrested for knocking down a pedestrian while driving, police said.

Mendis hit a 74-year-old man, killing him in the wee hours, in the Colombo suburb of Panadura.

He is to be produced before a magistrate later today, police said.

The 25-year-old wicket-keeper batsman has represented Sri Lanka in 44 Tests and 76 ODIs. Mendis was part of the national squad which had resumed training after the Covid-19 lockdown.

Sri Lanka's international assignments, including a tour by India, have been cancelled due to the pandemic.

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News Network
April 21,2020

New Delhi, Apr 21: India skipper Virat Kohli on Tuesday said people seem to have become more compassionate while coping with the COVID-19 pandemic and hoped the sense of gratitude towards frontline workers like doctors and police personnel remains even after the crisis is over.

Speaking in an online class organised by "Unacademy", Kohli and his actor wife Anushka Sharma spoke at length about the challenges they faced before tasting success.

"The one positive out of this crisis that we as a society have become more compassionate. We are showing more gratitude to the frontline workers in this war, be it police personnel, doctors or nurses.

"I hope it stays this way even after we overcome this crisis," said Kohli with Sharma seated next to her.

Kohli said the pandemic has taught the world a very important lesson.

"Life is unpredictable. So, do what makes you happy and not get into comparisons all the time. People have a choice now how to come out of this phase. Life is going to be different after this," said the skipper.

For Sharma, the pandemic has forced people to care about the basics in life.

"There is a learning in all of this. Nothing happens without a reason. If the frontline workers were not there, we would not have access to basics," she said..

"This has taught us that no one is special than the other. Health is everything. We are more connected as a society now," she added.

During the session, Kohli was asked about the moment when he felt most helpless.

"I felt nothing was working for me when I was not picked for the state team initially. I cried the whole night and asked my coach 'why did I not get selected'?" he responded.

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News Network
February 21,2020

New Delhi, Feb 21: Vinesh Phogat yet again fell to Japanese nemesis Mayu Muakida to go out of the gold medal race but Sakshi Malik will fight for the title after winning her semifinal bout at the Asian Wrestling Championship, here on Friday.

Vinesh had lost twice to Mukaida in 2019 – at World Championship and Asian Championships —and the trend continued as the gritty Indian yet again struggled to break the strong defence of the Japanese.

In a tough opening round, Vinesh tried single leg attacks a number of times but every time Mukaida blocked her move and eventually got the upper body lock to subdue the home favourite.

In her last two meetings, Vinesh had not scored a single point against the 2019 world silver medallist. She managed a takedown this time before eventually losing 2-6.

The hard-working Vinesh will now fight for bronze against Vietnam's Thi Ly Kieu but even a medal won't suffice to lift her mood as she and the fans have high expectations from her.

Rio Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik, who has been struggling of late, lost her opening round 1-2 to Naomi Ruike from Japan but later overcame two weak opponents to eventually reach the final of the non-Olympic 65kg category.

She could hardly attack Naomi but outplayed Korea's Ohyoung Ha in the next round, winning by technical superiority.

In her semifinal against Uzbekistan's Nabira Esenbaeva, Sakshi led 5-0 but her rival pulled off consecutive two-point moves to make it 5-4.

Sakshi has been losing in closing stages of late but this time she managed to hold on to her narrow lead, surviving anxious last two seconds.

Also in medal contention are India's brightest youngsters Sonam Malik (62kg) and Anshu Malik (57kg).

Sonam, who had defeated Sakshi in the trials, showed good tactical mind in her resounding win against Korea's Hanbit Lee and also in the 2-5 defeat against world bronze medallist Yukako Kawai.

She pulled off a superb point-scoring move from a disadvantageous position and resisted the 2018 U-23 world champion Yukako in a good fashion.

She will now fight for bronze against Aisuluu Tynbekova.

Anshu Malik opened up her campaign against Kyrgyzstan's Nuraida Anarkulova, winning by technical superiority but was outplayed by reigning world champion from Japan Riskao Kawai.

She will have to beat Sevara Eshmuratova from Uzbekistan to grab a bronze.

In the non-olympic 72kg, Gursharanpreet Kaur is in bronze medal contention. She beat Uzbekistan's Svetlana Oknazarova but lost to Kazakhstan's Zhamila Bakberzenova.

She still made it to the semifinal in which she lost to Japan's Mei Shindo.

She is now up against Mongloia's Tsevegmed Enkhbayar.

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