McCullum, Mohit guide CSK to third consecutive win

April 26, 2014

Dubai, Apr 26: Brendon McCullum smashed a belligerent unbeaten 71 after Mohit Sharma's heroics with the ball to guide Chennai Super Kings to a comfortable seven wicket win over defending champions Mumbai Indians in an Indian Premier League match here today.

The win was Chennai's third on the trot while Mumbai is yet to open their account in the tournament after having slumped to their third straight defeat.

McCullumAsked to bowl, Mohit (4/14) produced a fine death bowling display to help Chennai restrict the title holders to a modest 141 for seven.

Coming on to bowl the 19th over, Mohit picked up three wickets - Ambati Raydu, dangerman Kieron Pollard (12) and Harbhajan Singh - to prevent a late burst from Mumbai batsmen.

Apart from Mohit (4/14), Ben Hilfenhaus (2/39) picked up two wickets for the Chennai outfit.

Mumbai's innings mainly revolved around captain Rohit Sharma and Correy Anderson. While Rohit made 50 off 41 balls with the help of three fours and two sixes, big-hitting Anderson scored 39 off 31 balls.

In fact, the 84-run third wicket partnership between the duo was the highlight of Mumbai's innings especially after they lost their openers for just 25 runs inside five overs.

But once the duo departed their innings fell apart as Mumbai could manage just 33 runs off the last five overs for the loss of five wickets.

Chasing the target, Dwayne Smith (29) and McCullum got Chennai off to a flier with a 57-run opening stand off just 38 balls.

After two quiet overs, Smith took Pragyan Ojha to the cleaners and clobbered the left-arm spinner for two sixes straight over his head to get Chennai going.

Smith then slammed Zaheer Khan for another six before Brendon McCullum joined the party and struck consecutive fours to pick up 16 runs off the fourth over.

McCullum matched his partner stroke for stroke and welcomed Anderson with three cracking boundaries as Chennai raced off to 51 in just the sixth over.

Smith, however, departed in the next over in search of one too many. He was holed out by Anderson off Ojha just after smacking the bowler for a six in the previous ball.

Chennai's most-prolific scorer Suresh Raina too got out cheaply, stumped by C M Gautam of off-spinner Harbhajan's Singh's (2/27) bowling as Mumbai clawed back into the match with two quick wickets.

But McCullum and new man Faf du Plesis went about their business in style and stitched 50 runs for the third wicket to take Chennai closer.

While du Plesis played the anchor's role, McCullum continued in the aggressive fashion and dispatched the bad deliveries for fours and sixes.

Du Plesis made 20 off 25 balls before he was stumped by Gautam off Harbhajan but the wicket hardly had any impact on Chennai'S chase as they romped home with an over to spare. Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (14) was the other not out batsman at the crease for Chennai.

Earlier electing to bat, Mumbai did not have the best of starts as they lost Mike Hussey (1) and Aditya Tare (23) early.

Hussey's poor form in the tournament continued as he was bowled by fellow Australian Hilfenhaus in the second over.

An over later, Tare perished in search of a big hit, caught by Raina off Mohit.

Anderson, who is yet to fire in the tournament, justified the team's decision to send him ahead of Rohit as he made a fine 39 off 31 balls with the help of three fours and one six.

Together with Rohit, Anderson shared 84 runs off 64 deliveries for the third wicket before a direct hit from Ravichandran Ashwin cut short his stay.

After failing in the first two matches, Rohit finally came to his fore and together with Anderson played sensibly to lay the platform for the score.

Rohit started cautiously before opening up but he departed just after reaching his fifty, caught by Smith off Hilfenhaus in the 18th over.

Thereafter, Mumbai batsmen just failed to open their arms as Chennai got their grip over the proceedings.

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News Network
May 15,2020

New Delhi, May 15: Former England skipper David Gower feels Sourav Ganguly has the right "political skills" to lead the ICC one day and he has already displayed that as BCCI president, which is a "far tougher job".

The elegant left-hander is very impressed with Ganguly's leadership abilities and believes that he has what it takes to head the global body in the future.

"One thing I have learnt over the years is that if you are going to run BCCI, you need to be many, many things. Having a reputation like he (Ganguly) has is a very good start, but you need to be a very deft politician.

"You need to have control of a million different things," Gower said ahead of "Q20", a unique chat show for the fans presented by 'GloFans'.

Gower reckons being president of the BCCI is the toughest job imaginable in world cricket.

"And of course, you need to be responsible for a game that is followed by, I mean, should we say a billion people here in India," he said.

"We all know about the immense following for cricket in India. So it is indeed a wonderful thing to behold. Sourav has the toughest task imaginable in charge of BCCI, but so far I would say the signs are very good.

"He has listened, given his own opinion and has pulled strings gently," he said.

Political skills are a must in administration and that's where Gower finds his fellow left-hander ticking all the boxes.

"He is a very, very good man and has those political skills. He has the right attitude and can keep things together and will do good job. And if you do a good job as BCCI chief in the future, who knows?

"But I would actually say the more important job, to be honest, is running BCCI. Being head of ICC is an honour, there is a lot that can be done by ICC, but actually look at the rankings, look at where the power is heading up. BCCI is definitely the bigger job," he said.

On the cricketing front, Gower believes World Test Championship has given the format much-needed context.

"The idea of this World Test Championship has come about for one very simple reason that people are worried about the survival of Tests. Back in the seventies, eighties, I don't think we needed context to be fair.

"Test cricket was very much more obviously the most important format and if there was anything to be judged by, it was the performances in Test matches both as an individual and as a team.

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News Network
February 5,2020

Aukland, Feb 5: Striker Navneet Kaur scored a brace to guide the Indian women's hockey team to a convincing 3-0 win over New Zealand in the last game of its five-match tour here on Wednesday.

Navneet found the net in the 45th and 58th minutes, while Sharmila scored a field goal in the 54th minute as India drew curtains on the New Zealand tour on a bright note.

After a goalless opening two quarters, Navneet finally broke the deadlock for India in the 45th minute.

Sharmila then doubled the lead when she struck a powerful shot past the New Zealand goalkeeper in the 54th minute. Navneet found the net again just two minutes from the final hooter with a beautiful field strike.

India began the tour by thrashing New Zealand Development squad 4-0 before suffering close 1-2 and 0-1 defeats to the home senior team.

In penultimate game of the tour, skipper Rani's lone strike handed India a 1-0 win over Great Britain.

"...I am happy we produced three goals against New Zealand in the last match. This tour gave us a good insight about where we need to improve and one of the things is to create faster play than we do now," said India's chief Coach Sjoerd Marijne.

Commenting on his side's performance during the tour, Marijne said, "Sometimes we tend to keep the ball too long on the stick and then we create pressure. We need to avoid that by passing faster.

"On the defence side, we need to be a bit more calmer and need to improve our tackling. We will have a four week camp after a short break when we return home and we will be working on these points."

The Indian team will return home on February 7.

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News Network
January 12,2020

Mumbai, Jan 12: India's pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah will receive the prestigious Polly Umrigar Award for his exploits in international cricket in the 2018-19 season, the BCCI announced on Sunday.

The world's leading pacer will be honoured during the BCCI Annual Awards here on Sunday.

The world's No. 1 ODI bowler made his Test debut during India's tour of South Africa in January 2018 and has not looked back since. He picked up a five-wicket haul in South Africa, England, Australia and the West Indies becoming the first and only Asian bowler to achieve the feat.

He played a stellar role in the historic 2-1 Test series win in Australia, India's first Down Under and which helped them retain the Border Gavaskar Trophy. While Bumrah nets the biggest prize in the men's category, Poonam Yadav will claim the top prize in women's section and will be awarded the best international cricketer.

The award will be another feather in the leg-spinner's cap who recently received the Arjuna Award. Former India captains Krishnamachari Srikkanth and Anjum Chopra will be presented with the Col CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award and the BCCI Lifetime Achievement Award for women respectively.

A member of the 1983 World Cup-winning team, Srikkanth took on the fearsome West Indies fast bowlers and scored an attacking 38, the top individual score in the low-scoring final at the Lord's. He also captained India and post-retirement served as the chief selector and it was during his tenure that the 2011 World Cup squad was picked.

Anjum is one of the finest batswomen and the first Indian to play 100 ODIs. In a career spanning 17 years, Anjum represented India in four 50-over World Cups and two T20 World Cup (played in one).

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said, "The BCCI Awards is our way of recognising the finest on-field performances right from the age group to senior level and also honour our legends.

"It will be a special evening in Mumbai as we will also have the 7th MAK Pataudi lecture and I am delighted to inform that it will be Virender Sehwag, who will address the gathering."

Board secretary Jay Shah said, "The BCCI Awards are an important feature in India's cricketing calendar, a melange of aspiration and inspiration. "We wanted to make Naman bigger and better and have introduced four new categories – highest run-getter and wicket-takers in WODIs and best international debut men and women – from this year. A total of 25 awards will be presented."

Arun Singh Dhumal, the board's treasurer, said, "Right from domestic to international level, Indian Cricket has had a memorable 2018-19 season. We have started the year on the right note with Team India completing a convincing series win against Sri Lanka and they will be in attendance. The U-19 team is in South Africa for the World Cup and all eyes will be on the stars of tomorrow. It will be a special evening and I congratulate the award winners".

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