McCullum's rearguard ton keeps NZ afloat

February 16, 2014

McCullums__ton

Wellington, Feb 16: India continued to enjoy the upperhand in the second and final cricket Test against New Zealand despite a fighting unbeaten century from home team captain Brendon McCullum, who led a spirited fightback on an absorbing third day, here today.

McCullum pulled the team out of early trouble and made full use of two reprieves to battle his way to 114 not out off 237 balls and together with BJ Watling, who scored an equally important 52 off 208 balls, led a brilliant fightback to keep New Zealand afloat.

McCullum, who was dropped twice early on in his knock, and Watling stitched unbroken 158 runs for the sixth wicket to guide New Zealand to 252 for five in 99 overs at stumps on the third day after they lost their five wickets for just 94 runs.

The pitch on offer today at the Basin Reserve was a far cry from the juicy green surface of the first day and was a perfect platform for New Zealand to wipe out the huge deficit after India made 438 in their first innings in reply to the hosts' 192.

But the start of the day was far from rosy for the Black Caps as veteran pacer Zaheer Khan inflicted early damage by removing two wickets in the opening session to reduce New Zealand to 87 for four at lunch.

The post-lunch session too started on a precarious note for New Zealand as they lost Corey Anderson (2)cheaply before McCullum and Watling joined hands to bail them out and ensured that India will have to come out to bat again in their second innings.

But with two full day's play remaining and New Zealand leading India by just six runs with five wickets in hand, the visitors will still fancy their chances to level the series after the hosts won the first Test by 40 runs at Auckland.

Zaheer (3/60) was the pick of the bowlers for India, charging his way throughout the day, albeit losing steam in the final session.

Ishant Sharma (0/63) and Mohammad Shami (1/72) did much of the horse work while Ravindra Jadeja (1/49) bowled a whopping 26 overs, the most of all the four Indian bowlers.

If the first session belonged to India, the next two sessions, especially the post-tea period, was all New Zealand's as McCullum and Watling batted with utmost cautious to frustrate the Indians.

McCullum decorated his ninth Test hundred with the help of 14 fours and one six, while Watling struck just four boundaries en route to his seventh Test fifty.

Starting at 146 for five after tea, New Zealand were staring down the barrel and were on recovery path after McCullum and Watling scored at a snails' pace in the post-lunch session, managing only 59 runs off 29.5 overs.

The duo carried on in the same fashion, picking and choosing the deliveries to score off, even as the Indian bowlers were maintaining tight line and length throughout the day.

Shortly into the final session, in the 68th over, McCullum reached his half-century off 146 balls, with five fours. It was a grinding innings but in the process he became only the fourth New Zealand batsman to reach the 5000-run mark Test cricket.

India had couple of good shouts against the two batsmen now and then, but they were nothing close to the two chances they offered McCullum earlier in the day.

India needed to break the sixth-wicket partnership and expectedly did not waste any time to take the second new ball in the 80th over of the innings.

But McCullum and Watling continued their resistance and raised their 100-run stand off 254 balls.

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni expected the new ball to do the trick but the move didn't work.

McCullum cloberred Ishant over the long-on boundary for a six to bring up his century in style off 197 balls.

At the other end, Watling give McCullum able support and reached a well-deserved half-century in the 93rd over off 190 balls.

It also marked McCullum and Watling's 150-run partnership and in doing so, they broke the record of Chris Cairns and Craig McMillan, who had scored New Zealand's previous best for the sixth-wicket in Tests against India. They had scored 137 runs at the same ground in 1998.

Earlier in the day, McCullum and Watling kept at bay the disciplined Indian bowlers to fight their way to 146 for five at tea.

After a dominating morning session, in which they picked up three wickets giving away just 63 runs from 25.1 overs, the Indian bowlers kept up the pressure in the post lunch period with some tight bowling.

But the visitors could pick just one wicket as skipper McCullum and Watling played fighting knocks to help New Zealand add 59 runs in the post-lunch session.

In a spot of bother, Anderson (2) joined McCullum at the crease after lunch.

But four overs into the session, Anderson departed giving a return catch to Jadeja off his own bowling. While trying to turn a slower one from the left-arm spinner, Anderson only managed to loop the ball to offer a simple return catch to the bowler.

McCullum was then joined by Watling and the duo played cautiously to deny any further breakthrough to the Indians.

McCullum and Watling had just one plan -- defend as scoring was not at all their priorities.The duo, however, brought up their 50-run partnership in the process when Watling punched Jadeja off the backfoot to the cover boundary.

But McCullum should consider himself lucky as twice he was handed reprieve by the Indians.First he was dropped by Virat Kohli off Shami at the personal score of nine and then Ishant put down a tough return-catch chance in the 55th over when the batsman was on 36.

Resuming at the overnight score of 24 for one, Kane Williamson and Hamish Rutherford's only purpose was to bat for time and save the Test match.

But their hopes were dashed early, as in only the second over of the day Zaheer struck and removed Williamson, who gave a faint edge to India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni behind the stumps. The in-form Kiwi batsman scored only 7 runs off 22 balls.

21 years after their fathers Ken Rutherford and Rod Latham batted together for New Zealand, Hamish and Tom did so for their team, and went past the paltry 15-run stand their fathers had managed.

But their partnership too wasn't a very fruitful one as they added just 25 runs for the third wicket as the Indians bowled with patience and kept a check on the scoring.

The duo did enough to take the score past the 50-run mark in the 16th over, but in the very next over Zaheer struck again, removing Rutherford as he nicked one to Dhoni again. He scored 35 runs off 55 balls with the help of six fours.

McCullum started slowly and was given his first life when when Kohli dropped a simple catch at silly mid-on off Shami in the 29th over.

But Shami struck just at the stroke of lunch and had Latham caught behind to Dhoni. Latham made 29 runs off 64 balls with three hits to the fence.

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News Network
February 13,2020

Feb 13: Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna were buried in a private funeral service in Southern California last week, multiple outlets reported late Tuesday.

Citing Kobe Bryant's death certificate, Los Angeles Fox affiliate KTTV reported the remains of the former Lakers star and his daughter were transferred to Pacific View Memorial Park and Mortuary in Corona del Mar. Kobe and Brianna were laid to rest in a private ceremony there last Friday.

According to KTTV, the death certificate cited Kobe's cause of death as "blunt trauma" sustained in a "commercial helicopter crash." It also said his death was "rapid."

Corona del Mar is a community within Newport Beach, where the Bryant family lives.

Kobe, 41, and Gianna, 13, were among nine people killed when the helicopter they were in crashed on a hillside in Calabasas, Calif., northwest of Los Angeles, on Jan. 26. Orange Coast College baseball coach John Altobelli, 56; his wife, Keri; and their daughter Alyssa, 14 -- who played on the same club basketball team as Gianna Bryant -- also were killed. Christina Mauser, a 38-year-old who was the top assistant coach of the Mamba girls basketball team, was also killed in the accident, as were Sarah Chester, 45; her daughter Payton Chester, 13; and pilot Ara Zobayan, 50.

A public memorial service for the Bryants will be held Feb. 24 at Staples Center, beginning at 10 a.m. PT.

While the date -- 2/24 -- conveniently falls between two Lakers' home games, it still could have been chosen symbolically. Gianna -- one Kobe and Vanessa' four daughters -- wore No. 2 on her basketball jersey while Kobe was No. 24 for part of his 20-year-tenure with the Lakers, and his retired jerseys -- he also wore No. 8 -- hang at Staples Center.

The Los Angeles Times reported that "entry is expected to be severely restricted" at the venue despite Staples Center's capacity of about 20,000.

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News Network
July 24,2020

Dubai, Jul 24: The eagerly-awaited Indian Premier League will start on September 19 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with the final slated on November 8, IPL Chairman Brijesh Patel told PTI on Friday.

While the event's Governing Council will meet next week to chalk out the final details and approve the schedule, it is understood that the BCCI has informally intimated the franchises about the plan.

"The GC will meet shortly but we have finalised the schedule. It will run from September 19 to November 8. We expect the government approval to come through. It is a full 51-day IPL," Patel confirmed the development after PTI reported the dates on Thursday.

The IPL has been made possible by the ICC's decision to postpone the October-November T20 World Cup in Australia owing to the COVID-19 pandemic due to which the host country expressed its inability to conduct the event.

Patel said that the Standard Operating Procedure to combat the COVID-19 threat is being prepared and the BCCI will formally write to the Emirates Cricket Board.

"We are making the SOP and it will be ready in a few days. To allow crowd or not depends on the UAE government. Anyway social distancing has to be maintained. We have left it for their government to decide on that. Will also be writing to the UAE board formally," Patel said.

There are three grounds available in the UAE -- Dubai International Stadium, Sheikh Zayed Stadium (Abu Dhabi) and the Sharjah ground.

It is learnt that the BCCI will be renting the grounds of the ICC Academy for training of the teams.

The ICC Academy has two full-sized cricket grounds along with 38 turf pitches, 6 indoor pitches, a 5700 square foot outdoor conditioning area along with physiotherapy and medicine centre.

As per the current health protocol in Dubai, there is no need to be in quarantine if people are carrying a negative COVID-19 test report, but if they are not, they will have to undergo a test.

While there was speculation that the IPL will start from September 26, the BCCI decided to advance it by a week in order to ensure that the Indian team's tour of Australia is not jeopardised.

"The Indian team will have a mandatory quarantine of 14 days as per the Australian government rules. A delay would have sent the plans haywire," a BCCI official said on conditions of anonymity.

"The best part is that 51 days is not at all a curtailed period and broadcasters will be happy with full seven-week window," he added.

While the original schedule had five double-headers, Patel said the new one will feature around 12 double-headers which means two matches each on both Saturdays and Sundays.

The Indians are set to play a four-match Test series against Australia starting December 3 in Brisbane after the IPL.

It is expected that with each and every team needing at least a month's time to train, the IPL franchises will be leaving base by August 20 which gives them exactly four weeks time to prepare.

The cash-rich event was originally scheduled to start at the end of March but the COVID-19 pandemic and the travel restrictions that were put in place to contain the virus, led to an indefinite postponement.

However, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly had always maintained that the event will be held some time this year.

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News Network
March 27,2020

New Delhi, Mar 27: India skipper Virat Kohli on Friday made a heartfelt appeal to the citizens of the country, asking them to follow social distancing as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus pandemic.
He also went on to say that over the past few days, he has seen some people still taking to the streets, and added that if people still continue to venture out, then they are not being honest with the country.
Kohli released a small video clip on Twitter, making the public appeal and captioned the post as: "Please wake up to the reality and seriousness of the situation and take responsibility. The nation needs our support and honesty"
"Today, I am talking to you as a citizen of the country. Whatever I have seen over the past few days, I have seen people not following the lockdown, it has made me feel that some people are taking the battle against COVID-19 very lightly. I request you all to please follow social distancing, whatever the government is asking you to do, please follow it," Kohli said in the video released on Twitter.
"Think about what can happen to your family members because of your negligence. Our medical experts are fighting this battle day in and day out. If you are still going out to the streets, then I don't think you are being honest to your country," he added.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to impose a 21-day lockdown in the country as a precautionary measure against coronavirus.
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the total number of COVID-19 positive cases have risen to 724 in India (including 640 active cases, 66 cured or discharged people) and 17 deaths.
The World Health Organisation had termed the coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic on March 11. 

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