Pakistan beat India by five wickets in World Twenty20 warm-up match

September 17, 2012

pk

Colombo, September 17: Kamran Akmal smashed a blistering unbeaten 92 as Pakistan dented arch-rival India's confidence ahead of the ICC World Twenty20 with a thrilling five-wicket win in their last warm-up game on Monday.

India posted a competitive 185 for three riding on Virat Kohli's unbeaten 75, but their listless death bowling allowed Pakistan to overhaul the target with five balls to spare at the R Premadasa Stadium.

At one stage, the Pakistanis were in a spot of bother at 91 for five, but the diminutive Akmal launched a fierce counter-attack and together with experienced Shoaib Malik added 95 runs off 50 just balls to see the side home.

For India, birthday boy Ravichandran Ashwin was the most successful bowler, scalping four wickets for 23 runs.

Earlier, Kohli celebrated his ICC ODI Player of the Year award with yet another sterling knock, while Sharma returned to form with a 40-ball 56 to power India to the challenging total.

The highlight of India's innings was the 127-run fourth-wicket partnership between Kohli and Sharma that came off just 77 balls.

Kohli decorated his 47-ball stay at the crease with seven fours and two huge hits over the fence, while Sharma struck six boundaries and two maximum during his knock.

Off-spinner Saeed Ajmal starred with the ball for Pakistan with figures of two 22 from his four overs.

Chasing the competitive total, Pakistan received twin blows in the fourth over in the form of opener Imran Nazir and young Nasir Jamshed.

In search of a big hit, Nazir skied a delivery from Ashwin to a running Suresh Raina at long-on. A ball later an unlucky Jamshed fell victim to an unnecessary mix up with his skipper Mohammad Hafeez as Pakistan slumped to 33 for two by the fourth over.

Hafeez and wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal then joined hands and held fort for Pakistan with a 51-run stand.

Kamran adopted an aggressive approach from the onset as all the Indian bowlers faced the Pakistani stumper's wrath.

Kamran welcomed Harbhajan Singh with a six over mid-off off the spinner's first delivery and then hit Yuvraj Singh for two boundaries in the next over.

Harbhajan was once again at the receiving end as the Pakistani wicketkeeper-batsman smashed the Indian for two more fours in his next over.

But some erratic shots from the Pakistani batsmen brought India back into the match when, returning to the attack, Ashwin struck twice in the 10th over.

Ashwin accounted for Hafeez and Shahid Afridi in a span of three balls. While Hafeez hit one straight to Sharma at long-on, Afridi's ariel shot was taken by Zaheer at long-off.

Ashwin struck again in his next over as Umar Akmal lobbed one straight back to the bowler to see Pakistan in some trouble at 91 for five.

Kamran, however, was in no mood to give up without a fight and clobbered Zaheer for two consecutive sixes in the 15th over to bring up his fifty in style.

In experienced Malik, Kamran found an able partner. The duo went about their business sensibly.

While Kamran was at his devastating best, Malik adopted a calm approach.

Needing 56 off 30 balls, Kamran kncoked the stuffing out of pacer Laxipathy Balaji, who conceded a mammoth 32 runs off his final two overs.

Kamran then hit Irfan Pathan out of the part to finish off the proceedings in an emphatic fashion.

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News Network
June 13,2020

New Delhi, Jun 13: Five centrally contracted Indian cricketers including Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul have been issued notices by National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) for failing to disclose their whereabouts as the BCCI cited "password glitch" as the reason for delay.

The other players to have received the notice include women stars Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma, who are among the five cricketers in the 110 strong National Registered Testing Pool (NRTP). Speaking to PTI, NADA DG Navin Agarwal confirmed that BCCI has sent an official explanation for their five NRTP players' failure to submit whereabouts.

"There are two ways to fill up the whereabouts form in the ADAMS (Anti Doping Administration & Management Systems) software. Either athlete does it himself or association fills it up on his or her behalf," Agarwal said. "Now athletes in some discipline aren't educated enough or do not have access to internet and find themselves unable to handle the whereabouts clause of the ADAMS or upload the filled up

"They use assistance of their concerned federations. So federations have accepted responsibility of uploading their whereabouts," Agarwal said.

He said cricketers too at times find it tough to complete the process on their own. "Similarly in cricket also, although these people are well qualified and they can do it, perhaps they don't have the time for whatever reasons, so the federation concerned, the BCCI has taken upon itself the responsibility of uploading their whereabouts." So why didnt BCCI upload the the three-month whereabouts this time?

"Well they have given an explanation which appears to be reasonable but a decision will be taken. They have said that there has been a glitch with regards to password in ADAMS. Now they have said that issue has been resolved," Agarwal added. NADA DG added that "BCCI's explanation will be discussed as to whether it will be counted as one of three filing failures or not. It will be decided on the explanation given and how they (BCCI) proceed from here."

While country has been under lockdown, the rule to submit three months of whereabouts is mandatory. Three such failures to disclose leads to one Anti Doping Rule Violation (ADRV), which could lead up to two years of suspension upon hearing.

While BCCI has "officially gagged" its employees from talking to the media, it couldn't be ascertained that why as normal a glitch as a password error took days to resolve. A BCCI veteran, who has been privy to cricket operations, asked why the five cricketers were not told to upload the form themselves.

"This was lockdown period where they are not living out of suitcases. Some of the names have also engaged in multiple instagram chats and podcasts which their agents are managing," he said.

"If cricket operations team were having a glitch in fixing password, well the five cricketers could have been asked to do so and they would have done it individually with some guidance. "Probably NADA would be lenient this time but if it becomes an official warning, then who's responsible," he added.

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Agencies
August 3,2020

Silverstone, Aug 2: Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton on Sunday won his seventh British Grand Prix title after a dramatic last-lap at the Silverstone Circuit.

Hamilton and teammate Valtteri Bottas were at the first and second spot respectively until tyre drama struck.

Second-placed man Bottas was the first to suffer as his tyre deflated on lap 50, resulting in 11th place finish. Hamilton also suffered a similar issue before the final few seconds of the race.

However, with Max Verstappen having opted to pit a few laps from the end to try and claim the fastest lap, Hamilton had enough time in hand to just cross the line first, five seconds ahead of Verstappen and the third-placed Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

McLaren's Carlos Sainz had been set to finish fourth, but his own last lap tyre issue saw him eventually come home P13, allowing Renault's Daniel Ricciardo to claim fourth, following a late pass on the sister McLaren of Lando Norris.

Renault's Esteban Ocon finished sixth, having enjoyed a race-long battle with Lance Stroll's Racing Point, with Pierre Gasly having enjoyed a fine race to finish seventh for AlphaTauri.

Alex Albon finished eighth for Red Bull, having recovered from a lap 1 tussle with the Haas of Kevin Magnussen that saw him fall to last, while Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top 10, Vettel holding off a late charge form the recovering Mercedes of Bottas.

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News Network
April 8,2020

London, Apr 8: England wicketkeeper Jos Buttler has raised more than 65,000 pound (USD 80,000) to help fight the coronavirus by auctioning off his World Cup final shirt.

Buttler's shirt, which he wore when completing the last-ball run-out that saw England beat New Zealand at Lord's last year, was sold to raise money for specialist heart and lung centres provided by the Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals in London.

Buttler, who earlier in the showpiece match had hit a fifty and batted in the Super Over, put his long-sleeve keeping jersey up for sale on eBay a week ago.

By the time the auction closed on Tuesday, the shirt had attracted 82 bids with the winner paying 65,100 pound.

Buttler, speaking on Monday, said: "It's a very special shirt but I think it takes on extra meaning with it being able to hopefully go to the emergency cause.

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