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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coastaldigest.com web desk
August 3,2020

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will not end its partnership with Chinese companies. Vivo, the Chinese smartphone maker, is the main sponsor of the new IPL season as well. Apart from Vivo, PayTM and Dream 11 will also be at the helm of the 13th edition of the IPL. The IPL governing council meeting on Sunday decided to retain the old sponsors.

As soon as the IPL GC announced the decision of retaining the sponsors, a huge number of fans took to Twitter to slam the board for the same. #BoycottIPL started trending as the users urged others to boycott the tournament for the Chinese connection.

Earlier, the demand for exclusion of Chinese companies from the IPL was strong in the wake of the India-China border dispute. But the BCCI cannot abruptly end its collaboration with them. Because of the signed contract itself. And in this age of declining economy, it is difficult to find new sponsors quickly.

The current BCCI contract with Vivo is for five years. Vivo has invested Rs 2,199 crore to become the main sponsor of the IPL. The contract was signed in 2017. However, the BCCI’s move is paving the way for new discussions as calls are mounting across the country to boycott Chinese companies.

The BCCI announced other important decisions besides retaining sponsors. The IPL will be held from September 19 to November 10. The Indian government has given permission to the BCCI to hold the IPL in the UAE. With this, all obstacles in the way of organizing the tournament were removed.

The IPL matches will be played at 7.30 pm Indian time (6 pm UAE time). Most matches are about one match a day. There are a total of ten ‘double headers’ (two matches a day) in the tournament. Franchisees are allowed to appoint as many replacements as they want in the new season in view of the new health situation. At the same time, the maximum number of players a franchise can accommodate is 24. The BCCI is also planning to host a women’s IPL tournament.

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Agencies
March 15,2020

Chennai, Mar 15: Wicket-keeper batsman MS Dhoni has left the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) training camp following the postponement of the Indian Premier League (IPL) amidst the coronavirus scare.

The former India skipper had joined the CSK's camp earlier this month in order to practice for the upcoming IPL season.

CSK's official handle tweeted a video of Dhoni and captioned the post as: "It has become your home sir!" Keep whistling, as #Thala Dhoni bids a short adieu to #AnbuDen".

Thirty-eight-year-old Dhoni has been currently enjoying some time away from the game. He last played competitive cricket during the 2019 World Cup.

Dhoni had to face criticism for his slow batting approach during India's matches in the tournament.

Earlier this year, Dhoni did not find a place for himself in the BCCI's centrally contracted players list.

BCCI had released the list of central contract list of players for the period from October 2019 to September 2020.

On Friday, BCCI decided to postpone the IPL until April 15 as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus pandemic.

On Saturday, all the IPL franchises met in Mumbai to discuss as to how to go on with the tournament in the future.

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Agencies
June 4,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 4: Indian men's hockey team defender Harmanpreet Singh is delighted and honoured to be nominated for the Arjuna Award by Hockey India.

The Indian women's hockey team captain Rani Rampal has been nominated for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award while her compatriots Vandana Katariya, Monika and Harmanpreet Singh have been nominated for the Arjuna Award.

"I was extremely delighted to hear the news. It's an honour to be nominated for the Arjuna Award and I am sure the nomination will motivate me to perform even better in the upcoming years. All of us have received tremendous support from Hockey India over the years and I was extremely happy to know that Rani has been nominated for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award and Vandana Katariya and Monika have been nominated for the Arjuna Award. They have put up some brilliant performances in the recent past and I would like to extend my congratulations to them," Harmanpreet said.

The 24-year-old dragflick sensation stepped up his role in the team and shouldered the responsibility of vice-captain with aplomb. As a defender-dragflicker, he was instrumental in the team's winning performance in the FIH Series Finals in Odisha. At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Test Event, he captained the team to victory in the absence of Manpreet Singh who was rested for the tournament.

Harmanpreet was also part of the Indian team that won the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers against Russia last year. Harmanpreet said that he has been able to perform for the team only because of the support he has received from his teammates.

"I am very happy with the way I have been contributing to the team in the last couple of years. However, I have been able to come up with the goods only because of the way my teammates have supported me. Hockey is a team sport and all of us ensure that we are contributing to the team's cause in some way or the other. If we score a goal, then it's not only the goal scorer, who takes the credit, but the entire team is credited for a particular effort," said the defender.

Harmanpreet added that booking a place in the Tokyo Olympic Games was the biggest achievement for the team in 2019.

"It was simply amazing to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics in front of our home crowd last year. I will cherish the memory forever. The balance of our side was fantastic and everyone chipped in to make the tournament a memorable one. Now, we will give everything we can to come up with great results at the Olympics next year. It's our sole target at the moment and all of us are up for the challenge. Hopefully, we will become a much better side once we play our first match in Tokyo," he said.

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