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
February 10,2020

Potchefstroom, Feb 10: India's under-19 cricket team manager Anil Patel says the ICC has taken a serious view of the aggressive celebrations by Bangladesh players after their World Cup triumph and will be reviewing the footage of the final game's "last few minutes".

Some Bangladeshi players got carried away while celebrating their historic three-wicket win over India in the final on Sunday. While their captain Akbar Ali apologised for the "unfortunate incident", his Indian counterpart Priyam Garg said their reaction was "dirty".

"We don't know what actually happened," Patel told 'ESPNCricinfo' on Sunday.

"Everybody was in a shock, absolutely, but we don't know what happened exactly. The ICC officials are going to watch the footage of the last few minutes and they are going to let us know," he said.

Even when the match was on, the Bangladesh players were overly aggressive while fielding and their lead pacer Shoriful Islam sledged the Indian batsmen after every delivery.

As soon as the match ended, it became tense with Bangladeshi players rushing to the ground and displaying aggressive body language. The two teams nearly came to blows before the situation was defused by the coaching staff and on-field officials.

Patel claimed that match referee Graeme Labrooy met him and expressed regret at what transpired on the field.

"The referee came to me. He was sorry about the incident. He clarified the ICC is going to take very seriously what has happened during the match and the last session. They are going to witness the footage and they will tell us in the morning (Monday)."

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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
February 13,2020

New Delhi, Feb 13: Sanjiv Chawla, a key accused in the match-fixing scandal involving former South African cricket team captain Hansie Cronje in 2000, was extradited from the UK on Thursday, Delhi Police said.

The 50-year-old British national, accompanied by a crime branch team from London, reached IGI Airport this morning, a senior officer said.

He is likely to be taken to the crime branch office for questioning, he added.

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