Miller delivers a killer blow

May 7, 2013

David_MillerMohali, May 7: Royal Challengers Bangalore stared in shock and disbelief. Anyone who saw David Miller bat on Monday night would have. Challengers had put up a dominant performance and were cruising before the South African left-hander produced the innings of his life, a 38-ball 101, as the Kings XI Punjab pulled off a memorable six-wicket victory at the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) Stadium.

Few would have given a chance to the Kings XI who at one stage were reeling at 64-4 while chasing an imposing 190/3 set by the Challengers. But Miller (101, 38 balls, 8x4, 7x6), who had been consistently showing signs of exploding, sprang to life as Kings XI

raced away with a stunning victory right under the Challenger’s nose.

Miller’s knock was the third fastest hundred in IPL and his partnership with R Sathish, the highest for the fifth wicket for Kings XI, brought 82 runs in their last four overs.

After a pedestrian fare by their bowlers, Kings XI desperately needed their ace batsmen to rise to the occasion. But both Shaun Marsh and Mandeep Singh were back in the dugout with mere 25 runs on the board and Kings XI were quick to find themselves on a sticky wicket.

But Miller slough Kings XI off from the stupor with some sensational heaves and got the capacity crowd grooving in delight. Like a man possessed, he batted with amazing authority and urgency to scatter the field. Kings XI, who were nowhere close to reaching the target at one stage, closed the gaps in a flurry through a tornado in the shape of Miller.

His blitzkrieg triggered panic in Challengers’ rank and captain Virat Kohli was at his wits’ end. To add insult to injury, it was Kohli who dropped Miller at 41 and the left-hander celebrated it by mowing RP Singh for 26 runs in the next over with a six and three boundaries in a row.

Miller’s innings paled the entertaining knocks of Chris Gayle (61) and Cheteshwar Pujara (51) after Challengers were put in to bat.

It never takes Gayle long to break the shackles and Michael Nasser was made to feel the music with two successive sixes in the fifth over. The Jamaican makes stroke-making look so effortless that it belies the power behind it.

His effervescence seemed to rub off on a quiet Pujara too and he responded by cracking three back-to-back hits to the fence off Manpreet Gony (2-41) in the next over. It opened the floodgates and the two set out to pulverize the Kings XI attack. Runs came at a fast clip; Gayle taking the aerial route at will and Pujara attacking with flair and timing the ball brilliantly.

Gony halted their march. He knocked off Gayle’s middle stump when the latter attempted a pull but missed the line to spark frenzied celebrations. Pujara, who was looking good after completing his half-century, perished shortly while going for a slog.

The reliable middle order pairing of Virat Kolhi and AB de Villiers (38 not out) was separated by Parvinder Awana when the former mistimed a pull off a short ball and Shaun Marsh held on to the catch while running backwards from mid-wicket.

De Villiers in company of Moises Henriques (16 not out) brought Challengers back on track and they accelerated superbly towards the end to take 21 runs off last over.

It was a competitive total, one that Challengers could have felt confident of defending. But it was Miller’s night. He reached his century in style with a six, that also brought the winnings runs, and single-handedly shorn the Challengers of yet another away victory.

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE: Cheteswar Pujara b Gony 51 (48b, 8x4), Chris Gayle b Gony 61 (33b, 6x4, 3x6), Virat Kohli c Marsh b Awana 14 (14b, 1x4), AB de Villiers 38 n.o. (19b, 4x6 2x4), MC Henriques 16 n.o. (7b, 2x4, 1x6). Extras (LB-5, W-4, NB-1) 10. Total (for 3 wkts; 20 overs) 190.

Fall of wickets: 1-102 (Gayle), 2-133 (Pujara), 3-144 (Kohli).

Bowling: Praveen Kumar 4-0-28-0 (2w), Parvinder Awana 4-0-28-1 (1w), Manpreet Gony 4-0-41-2, Michael Neser 4-0-62-0 (1nb), Piyush Chawla 4-0-26-0 (1w).

Runs during Powerplay: 0-6: 58/0

KINGS XI PUNJAB: Mandeep Singh c Arun Karthik b Vinay Kumar 16 (12b, 3x4), Shaun Marsh c de Villiers b Rampaul 6 (7b, 1x4), Gurkeerat Singh lbw Kartik 20 (20b 3x4), David Hussey c Henriques b Kartik 13 (14b, 1x4), David Miller 101 n.o. 38 (8x4, 7x6), R Sathish 27 n.o. 18 (2x4 1x6). Extras (B-4, LB-2, W-4, NB-1) 11. Total (for 4 wkts; 18 overs) 194.

Fall of wickets: 1-13 (Marsh), 2-25 (Mandeep Singh), 3-51 (Gurkeerat Singh), 4-64 (Hussey).

Bowling: Ravi Rampaul 4-0-27-1, RP Singh 3-0-38-0 (1w), Moises Henriques 3-0-29-0 (1w), R Vinay Kumar 4-0-48-1 (1nb), Murali Kartik 3-0-24-2 (1w), Chris Gayle 1-0-22-0 (1w).

Runs during Powerplay: 0-6: 41/2.

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News Network
June 3,2020

Colorado, Jun 3: Formula One boss Chase Carey has said that races will go ahead even if a driver tests positive for coronavirus.

His remarks come as organisers revealed a revised 2020 calendar and the schedule for the first eight races was put in the public domain.

"An individual having been found with a positive infection will not lead to a cancellation of a race. We encourage teams to have procedures in place so if an individual has to be put in quarantine, we have the ability to quarantine them at a hotel and to replace that individual," the official website of Formula One quoted Carey as saying.

"Some things we'd have to talk through and work through. The array of 'what ifs' are too wide to play out every one of them, but a team not being able to race would not cancel the race. I do not think I could sit here and lay out the consequences," he said.

Carey added the organisers will be having the necessary procedures in place so that the race does not get cancelled if a driver ends up testing positive for coronavirus.

"But we will have a procedure in place that finding infection will not lead to a cancellation. If a driver has an infection, teams have reserve drivers available," Carey said.

"We would not be going forward if we were not highly confident we have necessary procedures and expertise and capabilities to provide a safe environment and manage whatever issues arrive," he added.

The Formula One 2020 season will be beginning with the Austrian Grand Prix in July.

F1 currently expects the opening races to be closed events but hopes that fans will be able to attend again when it is safe to do so.

The season will kick off with the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring on July 5, followed a week later by a second race on the same track.

The Hungarian Grand Prix will follow a week after that, before a break. There will be then two back to back races at Silverstone, followed by the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.

The Belgian Grand Prix will follow that, with the Italian Grand Prix at Monza a week later on September 6.

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News Network
April 2,2020

New Delhi, Apr 2: It was on April 2, 2011, when the Men in Blue went on to win their second 50-over World Cup title.

India won its first World Cup in 1983 and then had to wait for 28 years to again lift the title.
Going into the 2011 tournament, India went in as the clear favourites as the competition was to be played in the sub-continent.

Under MS Dhoni's leadership, India lost just one match in the competition against South Africa.
India had defeated arch-rivals Pakistan in the semi-final to set up a summit clash with Sri Lanka.

In the finals, Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat first. Mahela Jayawardene top-scored for Sri Lanka as he struck a century to take the team's score to 274/6.

India in their chase got off to a bad start as the side lost Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag with just 31 runs on the board.

But Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni stepped up and stitched a match-winning 109-run partnership.

Gambhir perished after playing a knock of 97 runs, but in the end, Dhoni and Yuvraj took the team over the line by six wickets.

The winning six struck by Dhoni is still viewed as one of the most exciting moments in India's sporting history. 

As the winning six was hit, Ravi Shastri was doing commentary then, and he famously remarked, "Dhoni, finishes it off in style, India lifts the World Cup after 28 years".
As soon as the match-winning shot was hit, Tendulkar erupted with joy and had tears to see his dream finally being fulfilled.

Earlier this year, former Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar's famous lap around the Wankhede Stadium after the 2011 World Cup win, titled 'Carried On the Shoulders Of A Nation', was voted the greatest Laureus Sporting Moment of the last twenty years.

The lap after the World Cup is still edged into everyone's hearts.

Playing in his last mega 50-over tournament, it was the last chance for Tendulkar to lift the coveted trophy.

Before the 2011 World Cup, Tendulkar had played five tournaments (1992,1996,1999,2003 and 2007), and he fell short every time.

The closest he came to winning the trophy was in 2003 as India made the finals under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly.

But the Men in Blue fell short in the finals against Australia.

Then in 2007, the biggest setback was in store for the legend has India bowed out of the tournament in the group stages.

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News Network
January 10,2020

New Delhi, Jan 10: Injured Assam archer Shivangini Gohain underwent a critical surgery at the AIIMS. Dr. Deepak Gupta, professor of Pediatric neurosurgery at AIIMS, revealed about the delicate nature of the procedure and said there was no room for error.

"It was touching vertebral artery which supplies blood to the brain stem. The arrow was 0.5 cm in front of the spinal cord and the child could have become quadriplegic if someone tried to pull it out," Gupta said.

According to doctors, the arrow accidentally went inside the body damaging the shoulder bone, part of the neck, spinal cord and left lung.

Dr Gupta said, "Now the patient is fine. We had planned the surgery in a very unique way. Last whole night, our team was doing the planning and plotting to conduct this complex surgery. About 15 cm part of the arrow was inside the body which has entered through shoulder bone and affected neck, spinal cord and left lung".

"We started the surgery in the morning at 6 am which lasted for three and a half hours. We have successfully removed the arrow. The patient is stable now and shifted to ICU for observation," he added

Shivangini Gohain, the 12-year-old Assam archer who was impaled by an arrow shot accidentally at the SAI centre in Dibrugarh, was training unsupervised and the mishap was a result of negligence by the local coach and officials, the state's archery association has said.

The child was training at the Dakha Devi Rasiwasia College at Chabua, which serves as an extension centre under the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Regional Centre in Guwahati when the incident took place on Wednesday.

She was airlifted to Delhi on Thursday night and admitted to the AIIMS Trauma Centre. Pulin Das, a joint secretary of Assam Archery Association and executive member of the state Olympic association said the injury to the school girl from the Deodhai village, which is 3km from Chabua, happened as the trainees were practising without any coach and other officials.

“There is a SAI contractual coach Marcy and he has left for the Khelo India Games in Guwahati. He didn't instruct the trainees to stop the camp for some time nor did the college principal, who acted as administrator of the extension centre, looked after the practice,” Das said on Friday.

The extension centre has 11 trainees, six boys and five girls, and they were training under SAI contractual coach A C Marcy from Nagaland, who is in Guwahati for the Khelo India Youth Games.

“The training ground itself is in very bad shape, it was not even a dedicated ground for archery training, some play football, cricket and other sports on that ground. But the worst part is that the SAI coach did not give instructions to stop the camp for a while and the archers were training without any supervision,” he added Das said Gohain was struck by an arrow shot by boys doing practice for compound event. The arrow remained stuck for more more than a day before she was airlifted to New Delhi on Thursday night.

“There was nobody to look after the archers, they were training on their own though their parents were outside the ground. An arrow shot by a boy trainee who was doing compound event practice hit her on the shoulder,” the official said.

Gohain's father Brinchi Gohain was outside the practice area and with no official of the college and SAI coming for help, she was taken to Assam Medical College in Dibrugarh, 33km from Chabua.

“She could reach the AMC in Dribugarh only on Thursday morning. There, the doctors told her parents to take her to a more reputed hospital like AIIMS in Delhi. With help from people close to the local Member of Parliament and Assam CM himself, she was taken by air ambulance to Delhi.

“I was told that she had a very tough time as the arrow remained stuck for more than a day. She is a strong-willed girl and she fought. Her father must be a daily wage labourer and he was distraught also.”

The SAI said that it will bear all the expenses of her treatment. The Assam Archery Association has contributed Rs 20,000 towards her treatment.

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