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Rain forces early tea at Galle, India lead SL by 365 runs

Agencies
July 28, 2017

Galle, Jul 28: India lost first innings centurions Cheteshwar Pujara and Shikhar Dhawan cheaply before rain forced an early tea break, leaving India at 56 for two and 365 runs ahead of Sri Lanka on day three of the first Test here.

Before the break, Sri Lanka were bowled out for 291 runs in their first innings after resuming the day at 154 for five. Besides Pujara (15), the other first innings centurion who fell cheaply was Dhawan (14). Abhinav Mukund, who failed on day one, was batting on 27.

Post lunch, Ravindra Jadeja (3-67) brought the hosts’ innings to a quick end as he bowled Lahiru Kumara (2). Dilruwan Perera was stranded on 92 not out, facing 132 balls, inclusive of 10 fours and four sixes. India took a first innings' lead of 309 runs.

Dhawan then fell quickly, caught at backward point off Perera (1-20), chasing after a wide delivery. He put on 19 runs for the opening wicket with Mukund. The latter then added 37 runs with Cheteshwar Pujara for the second wicket.

Some 40 minutes before tea, a thunderstorm lashed the sea-facing ground. But the Lahiru Kumara (1/9) had enough time to bowl one more delivery and Pujara was caught at leg gully. An early tea was taken to make up for lost time.

Earlier, Perera and Angelo Mathews (83) defied India as Sri Lanka reached 289/8 at lunch. The two batsmen put on 62 runs for the 6th wicket as the visitors led by 11 runs.

Starting from overnight 154/5, Perera and Mathews continued from where they had left on Thursday evening and extended their defiant partnership. Umesh Yadav (1-78) and Jadeja got proceedings underway for India, but neither were troubled the duo as they brought up their 50-partnership off 96 balls.

Sri Lanka’s 200 came up in the 57th over, and they nearly batted out the first hour without any loss when Mathews chipped a catch off Jadeja straight to Virat Kohli at short cover in the 59th over.

There was slight turn available for the spinners on this day three pitch and this wicket was a result of constant pressure built up by the left-arm spinner. In all, Mathews faced 130 balls inclusive of 11 fours and a six.

Two overs later, Perera survived a confident lbw shout off Jadeja via DRS. Originally, he was ruled out lbw but the review came out in his favour, surprisingly. The ball appeared to be sailing well over the stumps, as seen from Kohli’s astonished reaction.

Perera then reached his 5th Test half-century off 94 balls, inclusive of four fours and three sixes. He added 36 runs with Herath for the 7th wicket and another 39 runs with Nuwan Pradeep (10) for the 8th wicket.

At the other end though, stand-in skipper Rangana Herath (9) was not so lucky as he went for a reverse sweep off Jadeja and only ended up lobbing up the ball off his glove to Ajinkya Rahane at slip for a catch. The batsman went in for DRS confidently assuming the ball had hit his arm, but Ultra-Edge replay showed that there was some glove involved.

Sri Lanka’s 250 came up in the 70th over, as Perera started throwing his bat around and getting runs in boundaries. Hardik Pandya (1-13) came on to bowl close to the end of session, and cleaned up Pradeep to claim his maiden Test wicket.

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Agencies
May 23,2020

New Delhi, May 23: Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju on Saturday said India will not host any international event in immediate future and fans will have to learn to live with the new normal of sporting activities happening behind closed doors in the post-COVID-19 world.

Rijiju's statement gain greater significance in the context of the suspended IPL, which the BCCI wants to host in October-November in case of the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia is postponed.

"We have been working for quite some time now to resume sporting activities but before that, we have to think about practice and training. We are not going to have a tournament kind of situation immediately," Rijiju was quoted as saying by India Today.

For latest updates on coronavirus outbreak, click here

"We have to learn to live with the situation where sporting events will have to be carried forward without spectators in stadiums and sports venues," he added.

Talking specifically about the 13th edition of IPL, which has been put on hold for an indefinite period due to the pandemic, Rijiju said it is the government's prerogative to take a call on conducting any tournament in the country.

"In India, the government has to take a call and it will take a call depending on the situation. We cannot put health at risk just because we want to have a sporting event.

"Our focus is fighting Covid-19 and at the same time, we will have to work a mechanism to get back to normalcy. It is difficult to confirm dates but I am sure we will have some kind of sporting events this year," he said.

Rijiju's statement came close on the heels of Sports Authority of India (SAI) laying out a detailed Standard Operating Procedure for the resumption of sporting activities across the country in a phased manner.

"In the background, their (athletes) fitness and everything has been tracked. They are in touch with the coaches, the fitness experts, the high-performance directors. We are monitoring each and every athlete who are of the higher stature, who played for India and higher clubs," he said.

"Now it has been laid out. SAI has prepared a detailed SOP. These are prepared by experts from different fields. This SOP has already been issued to all sports federations and other sports bodies including govt stakeholders. So, based on this SOP training will start."

Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths on May 23

The Sports Minister, however, reiterated that resumption of sporting activities will entirely depend on guidelines of respective states and local administrations.

"We have been clearly advising that health and safety are top priorities. Besides that we have to keep in mind two other things, one is the guidelines issued by the Home Ministry, second, is the guidelines issued by the administrations of the respective localities or states. So, these are to be taken into account," he said.

"But we have clearly stated that sports complexes and stadiums are open, other than that there should not be any activities till the lockdown is there or we come up with a renewed kind of advice."

Asked about the prospect of the Tokyo Games that were scheduled for this year but were postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic, the Sports Minister said he is hopeful of the quadrennial event taking place on the revised dates.

"Olympics is still far away and we have full confidence in the Japanese government and IOC and every country will support that the conduct of Tokyo 2021 will not be postponed. There are too many stakes in Olympics, so it is difficult to even foresee that the Olympics can be postponed," he said.

"As far as India's preparation goes, we are at the best stage of our preparation of any Olympics so far in history. This is going to be India's biggest contingent so far and have medal-winning prospects. But I am not saying we are so prepared to finish in the top 10 or 5 but our long term target is that India will be in the top 10 in 2028.

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Agencies
August 7,2020

Islamabad, Aug 7: Former Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, known for his blistering deliveries on the cricket field, recently baffled many with a deadly off-field bouncer by claiming he is willing to eat grass if it enabled an increase in budget for his country's Army!

"If Allah ever gives me the authority, I will eat grass myself but I will increase the budget of the army," said Akhtar in an interview with ARY News.

The 'Rawalpindi Express', considered the fastest bowler in history said he does not understand why the civilian sector cannot work in collaboration with the Armed forces.

"I will ask my army chief to sit with me and make decisions. If the budget is 20 per cent, I will make it 60 per cent. If we insult each other, the loss is ours only," the once feared fast-bowler said.

Akthar had also claimed to ARY News interview that he was willing to take a bullet for his country and had turned down a county stint just because he wanted to fight the 1999 Kargil War.

Ties between India and Pakistan have been strained in the recent months over several issues, the latest being Pakistan's attempt to broach in the UNSC the issue of Kashmir on the first anniversary of the India's move to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and to split the erstwhile state into two union territories .

Pakistan also has not been in a good financial position and under prime minister Imran Khan, himself an all rounder cricketer, has added nearly USD 22 billion, that is 35 per cent to the nation's international debt pile in the last two years, according to an Asia Times report in July.

While Pakistan recently received USD 1.39 billion from the IMF to cushion the economic shocks caused due to COVID-19 outbreak, Akthar had a few months ago proposed that a joint cricket match be played between India and Pakistan to raise funds to fight the coronavirus. The suggestion that was put down by cricketers in India.

Meanwhile the 'Pindi boy' whose deadly pace and bounce was once dreaded by batsmen had recently taken to Twitter to deny former India cricketer Virender Sehwag's claim of sledging him.

Sehwag along with other Indian crickerters such as Harbhajan Singh and even Rahul Dravid had been at the receiving end of Akthar's sledging and antics during their playing days.

"Yes, totally self made story by him. Mujhe yeh bol k bach k jana kidhar tha us nay," Akthar tweeted to a report in which Sehwag claimed that he had sledged the 'Rawalpindi Express' by telling him that Sachin Tendulkar was his father.

During an awards ceremony Sehwag had recounted that fed up with Akthar's sledging and retaliated by telling him to say the same things to Tendulkar, who smashed the 'Pindi boy' for a six. Sehwag quipped that he told Akthar then that "Baap baap hota hai".

In the recent ARY interview, asked about the allegation made against him by former India cricketer Virendra Sehwag that he makes pro-India comments for greater following on social media channels, Akhtar said, "I cannot talk on the basis of hate." 

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News Network
May 9,2020

May 9: Indian cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar has donated an undisclosed amount to financially help 4,000 underprivileged people, including children from Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) schools, amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tendulkar made the donation to the Hi5 Foundation, a non-profit organisation based out of Mumbai.

“Best wishes to team Hi5 for your efforts in supporting families of daily wage earners,” Tendulkar tweeted.

The organisation, through a tweet, thanked Tendulkar for doing his bit for the needy.

“Thanks @sachin_rt for proving once again that #sports encourages compassion! Your generous donation towards our #COVID19 fund enables us to financially aid 4000 underprivileged people, including children from @mybmc schools. Our budding sportspersons thank you, Little Master!”

The legendary batsman had earlier contributed Rs 25 lakh each to Prime Minister’s Relief Fund and Chief Minister’s Relief Fund for the country’s fight against COVID-19. Tendulkar had earlier pledged to bear the cost of feeding 5,000 people for a month in a couple of areas in Mumbai.

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