Ind vs Pak: India suffer humiliating ODI series defeat to Pakistan

January 3, 2013

New Delhi, Jan 3: India witnessed another batting collapse as Pakistan bundled out hosts for 165 to clinch massive 85-run victory in the second ODI and take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

Suresh Raina and skipper MS Dhoni tried to revive India innings but could not get going when Mohammad Hafeez dismissed the former to leave India in spot of bother.
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Umar Gul joined the party, removing Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh to turn the momentum in Pakistan's way. Sehwag was edgy throughout his innings, making 31 off 43 balls before caught plumb in front of the wicket.

Pakistan pacer Junaid Khan dismissed Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli in quick succession to rock Indian chase. Left-armer continued his dream run, giving India second blow by dismissing Virat Kohli to reduce them to 55/2 in 12 overs.

Kohli attempted to flick the wide down the leg side but only managed to play it with the inside half of the bat behind the stumps where Kamran Akmal dived full to his left to take a spectacular catch.

India got off to cautious start with Sehwag and Gambhir negotiated Pakistan pacers well and added 42 for the first wicket before the southpaw got his inside edge onto the stumps.

Earlier, opener Nasir Jamshed struck his second consecutive century to give Pakistan a solid start but a middle-order collapse saw India bundle out Pakistan for 250 in their must-win second match.

Under overcast conditions, Jamshed scored a fluent 106 from 126 balls (12x4, 2x6) and along with Mohammad Hafeez (76 from 74b; 10x4) put up a handsome 141-run opening partnership.

But India made a dramatic comeback riding on left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja's 3 for 41 as Pakistan were bundled out in 48.3 overs.

After giving the first breakthrough, Jadeja took two wickets -- Jamshed and Kamran Akmal -- in one over to trigger a collapse, as Ishant Sharma (3/34) polished off the tail.

From 141 for no loss, Pakistan lost 10 wickets in 25 overs as India made a spectacular comeback in their must-win match.

Put into bat, in-form Pakistani opening duo of Hafeez and Jamshed were at ease against the Indian pace attack up front and got off to a watchful start.

The inexperienced Indian attack of Ashok Dinda and Bhuvneshwar Kumar could not make use of the overcast conditions like skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni would have expected after winning the toss.

On the other hand, it was intelligent cricket on display from the opening duo as they cleverly bisected the field to steal a boundary almost every over in the first Power Play to go almost six an over.

In his 'home' debut, Dinda was wayward with his bouncers, conceding three wides -- two in his second over -- while Bhuvneshwar too lacked the bite as the Pakistani duo went scotfree.

Against an ordinary Indian fielding that saw the ball flying past the fielders, it just made the task easier for the Pakistani opening duo.

The 23-year-old Jamshed continued from where he had left in Chennai, while Hafeez made up for his duck with a sensible batting display and rotating the strike.

The duo never panicked and such clinical was their approach that they put on 100 runs in exactly 100 balls -- incidentally, Pakistan's first century stand by any opening pair at the Eden.

Hafeez completed his 15th half-century from 50 balls with a single to deep square leg.

After two overs, Jamshed followed suit notching his seventh half-century hammering Ashwin for a boundary over long-on.

The New rules -- that stipulate five players inside the 30-yard circle for full 50 overs -- added to India's misery as Pakistani batsmen were not deprived of the boundaries.

Part-time spinner Jadeja finally gave the breakthrough almost at the midway stage when Hafeez missed the ball trying to break free to end the glorious opening wicket stand.

Azhar Ali (2) continued his poor run when he was run out after being sent back by Jamshed from the striking end as Pakistan lost their second wicket in four runs.

They quickly lost a third, when Younus Khan (10) was unlucky to be adjudged leg before despite a bat-pad as the Indians managed to arrest the free flowing Pakistani run-rate.

Jamshed, however, kept his cool in his elegant innings to bring up his second consecutive century, third overall, all against India.

Jamshed clobbered Jadeja over his head for a straight overboundary to move to 96 and retained the strike taking a single on the last ball with a cool-headed demeanour.

The left-hander straight drove one uppishly in the mid-off boundary region to bring up yet another century against India.

But he could not carry his innings through as he became Jadeja's second victim.

Jadeja claimed Kamran Akmal (0), his third, in the same over to bring in the Pakistani middle order collapse.

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June 6,2020

New Delhi, Jun 6: Former West Indies pacer Michael Holding has come out in support of MS Dhoni, saying that the wicket-keeper batsman indeed wanted to win the match against England in the 2019 World Cup.

India's performance in the World Cup match against England last year has once again become a matter of debate as all-rounder Ben Stokes in his book titled 'On Fire' questioned the intent of the Indian side.

Stokes also said that Dhoni's intent was questionable as he did not go for big shots when India still had a chance to win the match.

However, Holding said that nowadays people tend to write anything in their books.

"Well, people will write anything in books these days, because people are a lot more free with their opinions and when they are writing books, they need to be making headlines at times," Holding said on his official YouTube channel.

"But, to be honest, a lot of people watching that game perhaps wouldn't have arrived to the same conclusion that Ben Stokes arrived at that India were not trying to win," he added.

Holding did say that it seemed like that India did not have the same intensity as they would have had if the match was a do-or-die match.

"It was not the game that India had to win, but I don't think anyone can say that was a team tactic to lose the game. I watched that game and it appeared to me as if India weren't putting up their 100 per cent, but I realised it was not the case when the expression on MS Dhoni's face told me that he desperately wanted to win, so I do not think it was a team decision to not try to win," the former Windies pacer said.

"But I don't think they went with the same intensity of wanting to win the game, say, if it was a do-or-die situation. If it was, we would have seen a different game," he added.

On his official YouTube channel, Holding also said that no team goes in with a set pattern in terms of chasing targets.

In the round-robin stage match against England in Birmingham, India failed to chase down the massive target of 338 and fell short by 31 runs.

That was the only game that India lost in the premier tournament last year before the semifinal loss against the Kiwis.

India's chasing approach, in particular of wicket-keeper batsman Dhoni, was criticised by many, including the fans at home.

As soon as Stokes mentioned Dhoni's lack of intent in his book 'On Fire', Pakistan fans started saying that India deliberately lost the match to knock out their neighbours.

However, Stokes clarified that he never said India lost deliberately and some people were twisting his words.

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News Network
January 19,2020

Rome, Jan 19: India's star wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Ravi Kumar Dahiya kicked off the Olympic year in style, winning a gold medal each in their respective weight categories at the Rome Ranking Series here.

The 25-year-old Bajrang staged a remarkable comeback to secure a 4-3 win against USA's Jordan Michael Oliver in the summit showdown of the 65kg freestyle category.

Ravi, who competed in the 61kg category instead of his regular 57kg, also bagged gold after getting the better of Kazakhstan's Nurbolat Abdualiyev 12-2 in his final bout late on Saturday night.

The 23-year-old from Sonepat had made the final round after securing impressive wins over Moldova's Alexaandru Chirtoaca and Kazakhstan's Nurislam Sanayev.

Up against one of India's biggest medal prospects in the Tokyo Olympics, Oliver conceded that it was not his night against Bajrang.

The American lauded the competitive spirit of Bajrang.

"Wasn't my night… but I got a lot of work to do to be where I want to be! Hats off to @BajrangPunia dude is heck of a competitor! Until next time my friend," the American tweeted.

Bajrang had to sweat it out in the first round against Zain Allen Retherford of the USA before prevailing 5-4.

In the quarterfinal, the ace Indian wrestler went past another American Joseph Christopher Mc Kenna 4-2, before getting the better of Vasyl Shuptar of Ukraine 6-4 in the semi-finals.

However, it was curtains for Jitender in the 74kg and world championship silver medallist Deepak Punia in the 86kg category.

Jitender won his first bout against Denys Pavlov of Ukraine 10-1 before going down in the quarterfinals against Turkey's Soner Demirtas 4-0.

Jitender got a chance to fight in the repechage after Demirtas entered the final, but the Indian wasted the opportunity, losing 2-9 to Daniyar Kaisanov of Kazakhstan.

In the 86kg category, Deepak crashed out in the opening round, losing 1-11 to Ethan Adrian Ramos of Puerto Rico.

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News Network
April 24,2020

New Delhi, Apr 24: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Friday extended wishes to the "most prolific batsman of all time" Sachin Tendulkar on his 47th birthday.

ICC took to Twitter and wrote: "Happy birthday to Sachin Tendulkar, the most prolific batsman of all time! To celebrate, we will give you the opportunity to vote for his top ODI innings in a bracket challenge! Stay tuned to join the celebrations."

The Maharashtra-born player had an illustrious career in the game, creating several records.
Tendulkar made his debut in Test cricket on November 15, 1989. In the same year on December 18, he played his first ODI match.

The legendary cricketer has the most number of runs in the longest format of the game, amassing 15,921 runs. Along the way, Tendulkar scored 51 Test centuries, most by any player.

Things are no different in ODI cricket as Tendulkar atop the list of most runs in this format as well. He has accumulated 18,426 runs in ODI which includes 49 tons.

Tendulkar represented the country in six World Cups during his career that lasted for 24 years. He was the part of the 2011 World Cup-winning squad.

This year, Master Blaster decided not to celebrate his birthday due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis in the country.

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