India crush Pakistan by 8 wickets to stay in semis hunt

September 30, 2012

indiapak

New Delhi, September 30: Virat Kohli scored a fine 78 to guide India to a convincing eight-wicket win over Pakistan in the Super Eight game and keep their semifinals hope alive in the Twenty20 World Cup at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Sunday.

India attained 129-run target in just 17 overs with Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh unbeaten on 78 and 19 respectively.

Kohli and Yuvraj put on an unbeaten 54-run stand for the third wicket to comfortably guide India home.

Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli stitched a crucial 74-run partnership for the second wicket to lay the foundation for Indian victory.

Kohli's fine half-century came off in 41 balls. Kohli slammed 8 boundaries and 2 sixes during his winning knock.

Sehwag, who scored a 24-ball 29, was sent back to hut by Shahid Afridi after the Delhi dasher tried to loft Afridi's slower ball over the ropes but it was eventually caught by Umar Gul at long off.

India lost Gautam Gambhir early as he played a lose shot straight back to the bowler Raza Hasan who made no mistake in taking a simple catch to rid India of its opener.

Earlier, Indian bowlers fired in unison as they restricted Pakistan to 128. Pakistan's innings were bundled up in 19.4 overs after L Balaji dismissed Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal in successive deliveries.

Pakistan got a terrible start as they lost Imran Nazir, Shahid Afridi, Nasir Jamshed and Kamran Akmal inside 50 runs against India after opting to bat.

Ravichandran Ashwin too joined the party as he struck twice to dent Pakistan's brief recovery.

Shoaib Malik and Umar Akmal added crucial 47 runs for the sixth wicket to give some respite to Pakistan after early jolts.

Ashwin first got rid of the perilous Shoaib Malik, who played a decent cameo of 28 runs with the help of 3 boundaries. Malik was caught at midwicket by Rohit Sharma while trying to drive.

Soon after dismissing Malik, Ashwin claimed his second wicket in the form of Umar Akmal after the right-hander was brilliantly caught deep in the field by Suresh Raina.

Virat Kohli got rid of skipper Mohammad Hafeez as Pakistan lost half of their side at the score of 59 in 9.5 overs.

Yuvraj Singh's double strike gave denting blows to Pakistan after getting early blows from the seamers.

Yuvraj first dismissed Nasir Jamshed behind the wicket and then picked up his second wicket in the form of Kamran Akmal, who in an effort to strike a slightly offside pitched ball through covers could only find the gloves of MS Dhoni.

Paceman Lakshmipathy Balaji gave India second breakthrough in the form of dangerous Shahid Afridi.

Seamer Irfan Pathan gave India crucial early breakthrough as he dismissed dangerous Pakistani opener Imran Nazir in their Super Eight game.

Pakistan skipper Mohammad Hafeez won the toss and decided to bat first against arch-rivals India.

Dashing opener Virender Sehwag returned to the playing XI after missing last two matches against England and Australia.

Seamer Lakshmipathy Balaji also made his way back in to the team. Piyush Chawla and Harbhajan Singh were left out for today's match.

On the other hand Pakistan have retained the same playing XI which beat South Africa in their first Super Eight game.

Teams:

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Ravichandran Ashwin, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, Irfan Pathan, Suresh Raina, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh.

Pakistan: Mohammad Hafeez (captain), Imran Nazir, Nasir Jamshed, Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi, Yasir Arafat, Raza Hasan, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal.

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News Network
April 24,2020

New Delhi, Apr 24: Veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh said he doesn't think Mahendra Singh Dhoni will play for India again, adding to the guessing game over the future of the superstar former captain.

Dhoni, 38, has not appeared for club or country since last year's 50-over World Cup and India's coronavirus lockdown could threaten his chances of getting back into the national team.

The Indian Premier League, the main platform before this year's scheduled T20 World Cup, is likely to be truncated or cancelled because of the pandemic.

Harbhajan, who plays with Dhoni at IPL side Chennai Super Kings, said international retirement was on the cards for Dhoni and that he was increasingly being asked about his teammate.

"It's up to him. You need to know whether he wants to play for India again," Harbhajan said in an online forum.

"As far as I know him, he won't want to wear India's blue jersey again. IPL he will play, but for India I think he had decided the (2019) World Cup was his last."

Dhoni, who gave up Test cricket in 2014, started training for the Super Kings in March but has not commented on his international future.

Dhoni led India to win the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in 2007. He hit a six to seal the 2011 World Cup final victory and, along with it, his status as a national hero. He has amassed 10,773 runs from 350 ODIs.

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Agencies
February 12,2020

Mumbai, Feb 12: Former Indian greats Kapil Dev and Mohammad Azharuddin have been left disappointed by the behaviour of the Under-19 team after the World Cup final where they were involved in an altercation with their Bangladeshi counterparts.

After Bangladesh won the final beating India by three wickets (via DLS) at the Senwes Park on Sunday, the players of the two teams were seen engaging in an exchange of words and even some pushing and shoving on the field.

"I would like to see the board (BCCI) take some strict action against the players to set an example. Cricket is not about abusing the opponent. I am sure there is enough reason for these youngsters to be dealt with firmly by BCCI," Kapil was quoted as saying by The Hindu.

"I welcome aggression, nothing wrong in it. But it has to be controlled aggression. You can't cross the line of decency in the name of being competitive. I would say it was unacceptable that youngsters put up such an obnoxious display on the cricket field," he added.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has sanctioned five players, including three from Bangladesh -- Towhid Hridoy, Shamim Hossain and Rakibul Hasan --and two from India --Akash Singh and Ravi Bishnoi for the scuffle.

Azharuddin also reiterated what Kapil said, insisting that players need to be disciplined.

"I would take action against the errant Under 19 players, but I also want to know what role has the support staff played in educating these youngsters. Act now before it is too late. The players have to be disciplined," Azharuddin said.

Earlier, Bishan Singh Bedi has lashed out at the Priyam Garg-led team, saying their behaviour was disgusting and disgraceful.

"You bat, bowl and field badly�happens, but there's no excuse for behaving badly. The behaviour was disgusting and most disgraceful. The innocence of that age was not visible at all," Bedi told Mid Day.

Bedi, who represented India in 67 Tests and 10 ODIs, said the behaviour of the Bangladesh cricketers is not our problem.

"Look, what Bangladesh do is their problem, what our boys do is our problem. You could see that there was abusive language used," he said.

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Agencies
August 1,2020

Bengaluru, Aug 1: Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK) are aiming to set up their preparatory camp for the 13th edition of the tournament from early August.

This year's IPL was slated to commence from March 29 but the tournament was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Recently, the IPL Governing Council chairman Brijesh Patel had confirmed that the 13th edition of the mega event will commence on September 19 in the UAE.

As per a report in ESPNcricinfo, CSK players have been asked to report to Chennai first, following which they will leave for Dubai via a charter flight only after approval from the Indian government.

The IPL Governing Council will meet on August 2 to finalise the schedule and other key arrangements for the tournament. Also, the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) around securing eight teams for 51 days across three venues will be formally established in that meeting.

CSK, who has the oldest squad in the IPL, are looking for a month's preparation before ahead of the tournament.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, the side was the first team to start their training camp in March. Senior players like Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayudu had begun training their training in December 2019.

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