Mumbai's dominance at home continues

May 16, 2013

Mumbais_dominance

Mumbai, May 16: Mumbai Indians once again proved their invincibility at home as they successfully defended their impeccable home record with a comfortable 14-run win over Rajasthan Royals in their Indian Premier League match here on Wednesday.

Defending a total of 166 for eight, Mumbai made early inroads which proved decisive in the end as the Royals were restricted to 152 for seven. It was the last game for MI at the ‘Fort Wankhede’ which hasn’t been breached by any team this season.

The win took Mumbai to 22 points from 15 games but they pipped CSK to the top of the table by virtue of better run-rate.

As far as Royals are concerned, they are in the Play-Offs but might have just lost a golden opportunity to get two shots in the knock-outs by finishing among the top-two.

Stuart Binny (37 n.o.) and Brad Hodge (39, 7x4) added 56 runs for the seventh wicket after they were reduced to 58 for five within the first 10 overs.

23 runs off a final over from Lasith Malinga was a Herculean task and the script unfolded as the home team would have expected. Chasing a target of 167, Royals got to the worst possible start as they lost four wickets in the first five overs with only 28 on the board.

While Rahul Dravid (4) was very unhappy when he was adjudged caught behind off a short pitched delivery from Mitchell Johnson which he tried to pull. The TV replays were inconclusive.

James Faulkner (11) and Ajinkya Rahane (4) played poor shots to back of the length deliveries from Dhawal Kulkarni while Sanju Samson was done in by pace and bounce from Johnson.

Shane Watson (19), who had some verbal exchanges with Kieron Pollard pulled Malinga for a couple of sixes but played a rank bad shot off a Pragyan Ojha delivery. It was Pollard who caught Watson in the deep and then gave him a ‘Calypso style’ send-off.

At 58 for five, the onus was on Binny to resurrect the innings. Along with Dishant Yagnik (10), Binny added 30 runs before the former was cleaned up by Harbhajan Singh.

Veteran Hodge got four boundaries off Ojha in the 16th over to bring down the equation but that wasn’t enough in the end.

Earlier, young glovesman Aditya Tare hit an attacking half-century as Mumbai scored 166 for eight.

Tare, who replaced an injured Sachin Tendulkar, paid back for the faith showed in him by the team management, with a 37-ball-59 that was studded with eight boundaries and a six.

Warriors put an end to Kolkata's faint chances

Warriors

Ranchi, May 16: Pune Warriors snapped their nine-match losing streak and knocked Kolkata Knight Riders out of the Indian Premier League with a thrilling seven-run win, here on Wednesday.

Manish Pandey (66), skipper Aaron Finch (48) and Yuvraj Singh (30) guided Pune to a competitive 170/4 after being asked to bat.

Yusuf Pathan (72) cracked his first IPL half-century in three years and almost steered KKR home with splendid hitting but he got out in a bizarre fashion towards the end of the chase as he became the first batsman in IPL history to be given out for obstructing the field.

After managing to negotiate a yorker from Wayne Parnell, Pathan attempted a single. As Pathan ran, the bowler too tried to get close to the ball but Pathan pushed the ball with his foot, causing obstruction in the field.

The matter was refereed to third umpire and he was declared out. His dismissal in the 18th over was the turning point of the game as KKR did not have the batsmen to score the required 23 runs from 13 balls after that.

Pune restricted Kolkata to 163 for seven to complete their third win from 15 matches.

KKR’s chase was far from ideal as they lost the top three batsmen, including skipper Gautam Gambhir, inside five overs to be struggling at 30 for three.

Parnell trapped Manvinder Bisla (1) in the second over and then castled Jacques Kallis (1) in his next over.

Ishwar Pandey saw the back of the rival skipper when Gambhir ballooned one up high in the air while attempting a big shot and the top edge landed in the hands of Yuvraj Singh.

Pathan and Ryan Ten Doeschate (42 off 30) repaired the innings with a 98-run stand for the fourth wicket that put them on the way to win.

However, Pune struck twice in four balls to bring themselves back in the match. Doeschate’s run out ended his partnership with Yusuf and at that time KKR needed 44 off the last four overs.

From 30 for three in five overs, Pathan brought his side so close to the win but his strange dismissal nullified all the good work he did with the bat.

Earlier, Pandey, who has been struggling for form this season, faced 47 balls in his knock while Yuvraj took 20 balls for his 30 to help Pune raise a challenging total.

The duo shared a 65 runs for the third wicket in 40 balls. Pandey hit eight fours and a six before being run out in the final over. Yuvraj too was dismissed on the last ball after hitting three big sixes in his knock.

Pune got off to a steady start with openers Finch and Uthappa looking in good touch.

Uthappa hit Lakshmipathy Balaji for two sixes in the third over to complete his 400 runs in this edition of the IPL.

However, Uthappa’s innings did not last long as he was dismissed by Sri Lankan off-spinner Sachithra Senanayake for 25 off 21 deliveries. The duo put on a 41-run opening stand.

Finch, who shared 56 runs with Pandey for the second wicket, started to attack after nine overs when he hit Kallis for two consecutive sixes. Pune were 57 for one at that time.

Just when Finch seemed to have settled down to set up a platform for a big total, Balaji removed him for the individual score of 48 in 32 balls. His knock was laced with two fours and three sixes. Yuvraj looked sluggish at the start as he took six balls to get off the mark while Pandey was the aggressor.

For Knight Riders, Balaji, Senanayake and Kallis picked up a wicket each.

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News Network
February 18,2020

New Delhi, Feb 18: Skipper Virat Kohli has become the first Indian to reach the 50M followers mark on social media platform Instagram. Kohli, who is breaking cricketing records with each passing match, has a great social media following.

The 31-year old has so far made 930 posts on the platform and his social media posts continue to enthrall fans worldwide. Overall, Instagram's official account has the most number of followers and it is followed by Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, who has 200M followers.

In terms of Indians with most number of followers, Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra is on the second spot with 49.9 followers while Deepika Padukone is on the third place with 44.1 followers.

Last year, Kohli had become the most successful Indian Test captain, surpassing Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Currently, Kohli is in action against New Zealand and his side would take on the hosts in the two-match Test series, slated to commence from February 21.

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Agencies
January 5,2020

Mumbai, Jan 5: India captain Virat Kohli has refrained from making any comments on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), without gaining full knowledge on the sensitive subject.

The CAA will grant Indian nationality to people belonging to minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12, even if they don't possess any proper document.

In 2016, Kohli had termed demonetisation as the "greatest move in history of Indian politics", which met with sharp criticism from a lot of quarters, with people questioning his knowledge on the subject.

With Guwahati witnessing massive protests against the CAA till some days back, Kohli was asked about it and the Indian skipper weighed his words carefully.

"On the issue, I do not want to be irresponsible and speak on something that has, you know, radical opinions both sides. I need to have total information, total knowledge of what it means and what is going on and then be responsible to give my opinion on it," Kohli said ahead of India's first T20 International against Sri Lanka.

The skipper made it clear that he will not like to get embroiled in a controversy by commenting on a subject that he is not well aware of.

"Because you can say one thing and then someone can say another thing. So, I would not like to get involved in something that I don't have total knowledge of and it's not going to be responsible on my part to comment on it." However Kohli on his part was happy with the security arrangements and felt that the city is "absolutely safe".

"The city is absolutely safe. We didn't see any problems on the roads," Kohli said, giving his thumbs-up for the match at the Barsapara Stadium.

The Assam Cricket Association is using this match as a "curtain-raiser" ahead of their maiden IPL match this season as Rajasthan Royals have adopted this venue.

There has been deployment of Rapid Action Force for the teams and ACA secretary Devajit Saikia has said the spectators will not even be allowed to bring along handkerchiefs and towels on the match-day as the traditional Assamese scarf was used for protests against CAA.

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Agencies
March 1,2020

New Delhi, Mar 1: Former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif on Sunday heaped praise on Ravindra Jadeja after the all-rounder took a spectacular catch on the second day of the Christchurch Test against New Zealand.

Jadeja grabbed a one-handed stunner at deep square leg in the 72nd over to dismiss Neil Wagner, who had to depart after scoring 21 runs.

"Sir Jadeja for a reason! Jadeja Airlines, flying high! Terrific stuff," Kaif tweeted.

In the match, Jadeja also impressed with the ball. The left-handed bowler took two wickets while giving away 22 runs.

On day two, India bundled out New Zealand on 235 runs in the second Test. However, in their second innings, Indian batsmen again struggled to tackle the New Zealand pacers and lost six wickets with a lead of just 97 runs.

India went to stumps at 90/6, with Trent Boult doing the majority of the damage with three wickets.

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