CLT20: Sydney Sixers beat Titans by 2 wickets to enter final

October 27, 2012

Sydney

Sydney Sixers kept kept their cool to beat Nashua Titans by two wickets in a nerve-wracking second semi-final of the Champions League Twenty20 here today.

Needing eight runs from the final over to reach the target of 164, Sydney Sixers' Pat Cummins held his nerves to scamper home for a bye off the last delivery as the Big Bash Champions won the most thrilling match of an otherwise drab Twenty20 competition. Sydney will now take on Highveld Lions in the final to be played on Sunday. The match went onto the wire and all three results were possible but Sydney ultimately reaped dividends due to a good opening stand.

The winners started the chase in right earnest as opener Steve O'Keefe hit offspinner Eden Links for couple of boundaries. His partner Michael Lumb got two more in the second over from Ethy Mbhalati. A flurry of boundaries from the duo saw Sydney reach 50 in the fifth over but Lumb was dismissed by Alfonso Thomas after scoring 33 off 19 balls. He offered a skier to rival captain Martin van Jaarsveld. Lumb hit six fours and a big six off Thomas.

O'Keefe however didn't let the momentum drop as Sydney maintained 10 per over run-rate. O'Keefe was finally bowled for 32 off 21 balls when he tried a wild slog of Links' delivery. He hit six fours. However O'Keefe dismissal brought about a collapse as skipper Brad Haddin and glovesman Nic Maddinson who scored a quick 20 were back in the dug-out. From 85 for 1, Sydney team were reduced to 92 for 4 having lost three wickets in a space of 11 deliveries.

Moises Henriques then again steadied the ship with a brisk 27 that had couple of huge sixes but once he was gone, Sydney were 132 for 7. But Cummins and Ben Rohrer ensured that the Australian team cross the finishing line. Earlier, David Wiese's brilliant counter-attacking innings helped Nashua Titans reach a commendable 163 for 5 against Sydney Sixers .

The big-bodied Wiese came in when Titans were tottering at 82 for 5 and then carried out a swift yet brutal assault smashing an unbeaten 61 off only 28 balls. The pace trio of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Moises Henriques were left stunned by the Wiese carnage as he completed his 50 off 25 balls and hit five fours and four huge sixes. He changed his gears suddenly after playing 10 balls without a boundary he hit the pull shots and straight over the long-on region with equal ease.

Along with opener Henry Davids who carried his bat through with an impressive 59 not out in 44 balls (3x4, 3x6), they added 81 runs in only 6.3 overs. The last six overs produced a whopping 79 runs after the first 14 fetched them only 84 runs at the expense of five wickets. Aussie pace sensation Cummins bowling figures went for a toss as he gave away 51 runs in his four overs. Henriques and Starc gave away 36 and 33 runs respectively and this happened solely due to Wiese. Opting to bat, veteran batsman Jacques Rudolph slashed one hard from Josh Hazlewood but Michael Lumb stationed in the deep third man took a nice catch running to his left.

Left-arm paceman Starc bowled a short one to Heino Kuhn who misread the length as he tried a pull shot but the ball clipped the off-bail. Skipper Martin van Jaarsveld couldn't check his drive as he lobbed a simple catch to Cummins at cover to give Starc his second wicket.

At 36 for 3, the home team was certainly in trouble but Davids took some calculated risks as he hit a few big hits during his 46-run fourth wicket partenrship with Farhan Behardien to stage a recovery. Once Behardien and Roloef van der Merwe were out in quick succession, Sixers thought of wrapping it up quickly but Wiese had other ideas.



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News Network
April 12,2020

Mumbai, Apr 12: Always eager to share his vast knowledge and experience, cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar has interacted with 12,000 doctors on sports injuries.

In his over two decade long illustrious career, Tendulkar suffered many health issues, the most prominent being the tennis elbow injury.

The veteran of 200 Tests and 463 ODIs, got to know through one Dr Sudhir Warrier, an orthopaedic surgeon, that several young doctors across the country were utilising the lockdown time to effectively gain knowledge on sports injuries through live webinars.

A session on sports injuries was held on Saturday and Tendulkar, knowing that his experiences will help these doctors, volunteered to be a part of it.

Tendulkar, accordingly, interacted with around 12,000 doctors, who attended the session.

It is reliably leanrt that the 46-year-old legend said he was grateful to the medical fraternity for their service.

During the session, the young orthopaedic doctors got to know how the requirements and treatment outcomes of athletes are different from regular patients, sources said.

Dr Warrier moderated the session with Dr Nitin Patel, physiotherapist, who has worked with Indian cricket team and IPL franchise Mumbai Indians.

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Agencies
May 17,2020

Berlin, May 17: Top-flight football in Germany kicked off again on the weekend, becoming the first major sports league in the world to resume play, as parts of Europe took more tentative steps towards normality after the devastation unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic.

With the worldwide death toll past 310,000 and the global economy reeling from the vast damage caused by lockdowns, the reopenings in some of the hardest-hit countries provided much-needed relief from the pandemic.

The French returned to the beach and Italy announced a resumption of European tourism with outbreaks in Europe slowing, but the rising number of fatalities in the United States and Brazil were a grim reminder of the scale of the crisis, with more than 4.6 million infections reported globally.

With governments trying to reopen their economies while avoiding the second wave of infections that could necessitate more lockdowns, Germany's Bundesliga resumed its season on Saturday with games played in vacant, echoing stadiums.

League heavyweights Borussia Dortmund hosted rivals Schalke at the all-but-empty Signal Iduna Park -- which would usually be packed with more than 80,000 raucous fans.

"It's sad that matches are played in empty stadiums, but it's better than nothing," said 45-year-old Borussia Dortmund fan Marco Perz, beer in hand, as he prepared to watch the game on TV.

Dortmund's Erling Braut Haaland became the first player to score a goal after the two-month shutdown and celebrated by dancing alone -- away from his applauding teammates -- in keeping with the strict hygiene guidelines which allowed the league to resume.

The only noise was the cheering and clapping of players and coaches.

League champions Bayern Munich will play Union Berlin in the capital on Sunday, with the resumption in Germany seen as a test case as other top sports competitions try to find ways to resume play without increasing health risks.

"The whole world will be looking at Germany, to see how we get it done," said Bayern boss Hansi Flick.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte of Italy, however, said Saturday he needed more guarantees before the government can give the green light for the resumption of its top football league, which is struggling with logistical difficulties as clubs try to arrange training sessions and quarantine facilities.

With the Northern Hemisphere's summer approaching, authorities are moving to help tourism industries salvage something from the wreckage.

Italy, for a long stretch the world's worst-hit country, announced that European Union tourists would be allowed to visit from June 3 and a 14-day mandatory quarantine would be scrapped.

"We're facing a calculated risk in the knowledge that the contagion curve may rise again," Conte said during a televised address.

"We have to accept it otherwise we will never be able to start up again."

In France, the first weekend after the strictest measures were lifted saw many ventures out into the spring sunshine -- and hit the beach.

In the Riviera city of Nice, keen swimmers jumped into the surf at daybreak.

"We were impatient because we swim here all year round," said retiree Gilles, who declined to give his full name.

With the threat of a second wave of infections on their minds, authorities in many countries have asked people not to throng public spaces like beaches as they are made accessible again.

Officials in parts of England on Saturday warned people to stay away from newly reopened beauty spots and avoid overcrowding.

Germany also saw the latest in a growing wave of anti-lockdown protests in many parts of the world, with rallies in major cities bringing together conspiracy theorists, anti-vaccine activists and other extremists.

There were similar protests in France, Switzerland and Poland.

Since emerging in China late last year, the coronavirus has whipped up a catastrophic economic storm, which has left tens of millions unemployed in the United States and many are wondering when a recovery will be possible.

With more than 88,000 deaths and 1.47 million confirmed coronavirus cases, the United States is the worst-hit country on the planet, and the administration of President Donald Trump has faced intense criticism of the way it has handled the crisis.

Former president Barack Obama took a swipe at the response to the pandemic, telling graduates at a virtual commencement ceremony that many leaders today "aren't even pretending to be in charge" -- a remark widely regarded as a rare rebuke of his successor.

Trump is keen to reopen the US economy -- the world's largest -- despite warnings from experts that infections could flare up again if social distancing measures are eased too quickly.

Forty-eight of the 50 US states have now eased lockdown rules to some extent.

Much like Trump and his political allies, Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro is also keen to end lockdowns, which he claims have unnecessarily damaged the South American nation's economy over a disease he has dismissed as "a little flu".

But the virus has continued its deadly march in Brazil, where the death toll passed 15,000 on Saturday and it became the country with the fourth-largest coronavirus caseload with 230,000 infections.

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News Network
March 31,2020

New Delhi, Mar 31: Australia batsman David Warner on Tuesday decided to shave off his head to show support towards all those people who are working relentlessly on the frontline in the battle against coronavirus.

After shaving off his head, Warner also challenged his Australian team-mate Steve Smith and India skipper Virat Kohli to do the same.

Warner, shared a time-lapse video on Instagram, of him shaving his head, and captioned the post as: "Been nominated to shave my head in support of those working on the frontline #Covid-19 here is a time-lapse. I think my debut was the last time I recall I've done this. Like it or not".

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Australia's death toll stands at 19, as per the Sydney Morning Herald.

As of 8 am today, 4460 people across Australia have tested positive for COVID-19.

The World Health Organisation had termed coronavirus as a 'pandemic' on March 11.

Earlier in the day, Australia Test skipper Tim Paine also confirmed that the side's tour of Bangladesh is unlikely due to the virus spread.
"You don't have to be Einstein to realise (the Bangladesh tour) is probably unlikely to go ahead, particularly in June. Whether it's cancelled or pushed back, we're not quite sure at the moment," cricket.com.au quoted Paine as saying.

Currently, Australia has 296 points in the WTC from 10 matches, while India has 360 points from nine matches.

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