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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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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Agencies
August 1,2020

Colombo, Aug 1: Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan has expressed his interest in playing the inaugural edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL), scheduled to start from August 28.

Pathan is among 70 foreign players to have shown interest in playing the LPL, ESPNcricinfo reported.

It is believed that Pathan has taken permission from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to take part in the competition. 

BCCI doesn't allow active players to participate in other T20 leagues but Pathan announced his retirement in January this year.

Former swashbuckling all-rounder Yuvraj Singh also played in a foreign league last year. He played for Maratha Arabians in the T10 League in Abu Dhabi.

According to ESPNcricinfo, Pathan will now be put in a player draft unless one of the five franchises choose him to be a marquee player. The details of the draft, and the franchise owners, are yet to be finalised and announced. 

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is also waiting on some government clearances even as it decides on franchise owners. The five franchises will represent Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Dambulla and Jaffna.

On Monday, SLC Executive Committee granted approval for the tournament.

"The 23 match League will be played on the four international venues of R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium, Rangiri Dambulu International Cricket Stadium, Pallekele International Cricket Stadium and Suriyawewa Mahinda Rajapakse International Cricket Stadium. Five teams named after the cities of Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Dambulla and Jaffna will participate in the League," SLC said in a statement on Monday.

Sri Lanka has controlled the spread of COVID-19 better than many other cricket-playing nations.

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Agencies
January 5,2020

Mumbai, Jan 5: All-rounder Irfan Pathan on Saturday announced his retirement from all forms of cricket, ending an injury-ridden career that prevented him from realising his true potential.

The 35-year-old's retirement was on expected lines, considering he last played a competitive game in February 2019 during the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy for Jammu and Kashmir.

He did not even put himself in the IPL auction pool, last month.

The left-arm seamer's bowling was like a breath of fresh air when he made his India debut against Australia at the Adelaide Oval in 2003.

He never had express pace but his natural ability to swing the ball into the right-handers got him instant success, also drawing comparisons with the great Kapil Dev.

It seemed India had found the all-rounder they were looking for since Kapil left the scene. Pathan, who last played for India in October 2012, featured in 29 Tests (1105 runs and 100 wickets), 120 ODIs (1544 runs and 173 wickets) and 24 T20 Internationals (172 runs and 28 wickets).

He was part of the victorious Indian team at the 2007 World Twenty20 and was the man-of-the-match in the final against Pakistan.

One of his best performances came on the tour of Pakistan in 2006 when he became the second Indian after Harbhajan Singh to take a Test hat-trick, removing Salman Butt, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yusuf during the Karachi game.

He also played a big role in India winning a Test match against Australia on a tough Perth wicket, which offered steep bounce.

Injuries and lack of form troubled him thereafter and his ability to swing the ball deteriorated.

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