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Rajasthan Royals beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets to keep playoff hopes alive

Agencies
April 28, 2019

Apr 28: Rajasthan Royals defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets to end their home campaign on a winning note and theoretically keep alive their playoff chances in the ongoing Indian Premier League on Saturday.

Opting to bowl in a must-win match, Rajasthan first restricted the Sunrisers to 160 for eight and then chased down the target in 19.1 overs.

By virtue of this win, Rajasthan have now moved to the sixth position in the eight-team standings with 10 points from 12 games.

But to stay in contention for a playoff berth, Rajasthan first must win their remaining two away games against Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 30 and Delhi Capitals on May 4 and then hope for favourable results from other matches.

Despite the loss, Sunrisers have managed to hold on to their fourth place in the table with 10 points from 11 games.

Chasing 161, Liam Livingstone (44 off 26) and Ajinkya Rahane (39 off 34) got Rajasthan off to a flying start with the former taking the attack to the opposition.

The duo raced off to 78 runs off 55 balls for the opening wicket, scoring 60 runs off the first six powerplay overs before Livingstone perished.

Livingstone was in a murderous mood as he didn't spare a single Rajasthan bowler and struck four boundaries and three sixes during his explosive knock before departing in the 10th over, edging one to Wriddhiman Saha behind the stumps off Rashid Khan's (1/30) bowling.

An over later Rajasthan suffered yet another blow in the form of Rahane, caught by David Warner at long-off off Shakib Al Hasan (1/26).

Then Sanju Samson (48 not out off 32) and skipper Steve Smith (22) held fort and shared a partnership of 55 runs in 5.3 overs to take Rajasthan within sniffing distance of a win before the latter departed.

But by that time the damage had already been done for Sunrisers as Samson and Ashton Turner completed the formalities with ease.

Earlier, Manish Pandey hit a quick half-century before Sunrisers witnessed a middle-order collapse to be restricted to 160 for eight.

Sent into bat, Sunrisers got off to a good start even after the early dismissal of skipper Kane Williamson (13) with Warner and Manish Pandey sharing a partnership of 75 runs off just 50 balls for the second wicket before losing the plot after the halfway stage.

Nicely placed at 103 for one after 12 overs, the Sunrisers lost their next seven wickets for just 44 runs before Rashid (17 not out off 8) played a short cameo towards the end to take the visitors to the 160-run mark.

Sunrisers lost Williamson early, cleaned up by Shreyas Gopal (2/30) with a googly in the fourth over. Warner and Pandey then joined hands and played aggressively to stabilise the Sunrisers innings.

While Pandey was the aggressor of the two, Warner played the second fiddle.

Pandey reached his fifty in 27 balls with the help of eight fours but just when the partnership was looking threatening, a brilliant catch by Smith sent Warner packing.

Warner backed away a long way and tried to slap an Oshane Thomas (2/28) short delivery over extra cover but didn't time the shot perfectly and Smith ran back and dived full length to his right to hold on to a beautiful catch.

Warner's innings was a struggle as he scored 37 off 32 balls but failed to hit a single boundary.

Pandey continued his aggressive instinct and lofted Gopal over extra cover for an exquisite boundary. But the leg-spinner had the last laugh as he dismissed Pandey off the very next ball, brilliantly caught by Samson as Sunrsiers slumped to 121 for three after 15 overs.

Pandey made a fine 61 off 36 balls with the help of nine boundaries.

Vijay Shankar (8) too perished cheaply, caught by Jaydev Unadkat off Varun Aaron (2/36) in the next over as the batsman went for a big shot.

Wickets kept on tumbling for Sunrisers after a fine first wicket stand between Warner and Pandey. The next to depart was Deepak Hooda for a duck caught one-handed off his own bowling by Unadkat (2/26) in the next over.

But Rashid took the onus on himself and scored 18 runs off Aaron's final over to take the Sunrisers to a respectable total.

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News Network
February 22,2020

Sydney, Feb 22: India's demolition of a formidable Australia in the Women's T20 World Cup opener will give them a huge boost going forward, said star batswoman Mithali Raj, who also lauded leggie Poonam Yadav for her magical performance.

Poonam took four for 19 to help India complete a 17-run victory against defending champions Australia on Friday.

"Everyone has been talking about how much batting depth Australia have, yet they couldn't chase 132," Raj, a former India Test and ODI captain, said in an ICC release.

"India will take so much confidence from that victory, but this World Cup is still very open. The match between Australia and India proved how competitive the tournament will be. It proves it does not matter where you stand in the ICC rankings.

"We will be seeing more of the same drama yet. This victory proves every team has a chance," said Raj, who has retired from T20 cricket.

The 37-year-old veteran batswoman said "the opening match definitely lived up to the hype of the tournament".

"It was a whirlwind. There were so many ups and downs. It was a great start to the tournament not only because India beat the defending champions on home soil, but also because of how the game progressed altogether.

"At no point could you say it was going in one side's favour. First we saw our early wickets fall, then we recovered and Australia had to chase 132 before their middle-order collapsed. India and Australia both took the game their own way at different points which made it fascinating for spectators to watch."

Raj said Poonam's spell was the turning point.

"She's been one of the main spinners for India for quite some time now, and her style worked again. Getting their (Australia's) middle-order out really titled the match towards India, she was brilliant.

"Although we recovered our innings through Deepti Sharma and her partnership with Jemimah Rodrigues, it was Poonam's flurry of wickets against Australia's megastars, which completely changed the game," Raj said.

Raj also praised 16-year-old Shafali Verma for scoring 29 off 15 on her World Cup debut.

"Shafali Verma impressed me too on her debut. She gave India's middle order the cushioning they needed to regain momentum. Verma has stuck with stroke play that she demonstrated in the tri-series," she said.

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Agencies
August 4,2020

New Delhi, Aug 4: Former India women's team captain Anjum Chopra firmly believes that the BCCI has a plan for women's cricket but she wants the Board to communicate its ideas more specifically.

Speaking to news agency, Chopra, who is now a successful broadcaster, said the BCCI is thinking in earnest about the progress of women's cricket.

"It's not that the BCCI is not thinking about women's cricket. I only think they need to be more specific in communication about women's cricket," Chopra said.

"I firmly believe that they must be thinking about women's cricket but the communication all this while has been very specific to men's cricket."

The latest trigger for criticism of BCCI was India's withdrawal from a tour of England in September owing to logistical issues arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chopra concedes it was "not nice" but Indian players' participation in the women's IPL, in November, will still be useful preparation for next year's ODI World Cup.

"It is heartening to see women's cricket making headlines. They should have been a part of that England tour and it did not feel nice initially but the women's IPL, irrespective of the format, will be helpful for World Cup preparations. Any form of cricket is good preparation," Chopra said.

"Missing out on a tournament is not nice, but logistically there may have been issues. And you can't send an under-prepared team."

"If you see in isolation we may have missed out on an opportunity to play in England. The more the girls play the better it is, before playing a tournament of the stature of World Cup. The assurance from the president is a very good thing."

Chopra welcomed the Sourav Ganguly-led BCCI's decision to hold the women's event in the UAE alongside the IPL, which will run from September 19 to November 10. The women's IPL will coincide with the business end of the men's league.

"I am definitely happy, it's always nice to be part of any cricket anywhere across the world.

"They should have been nearing the final stages of the preparation for the World Cup by now, but because of the pandemic things did not go as planned," she added.

Chopra had a successful international career spanning over 17 years, during which she represented India in a record six World Cups and became the first woman cricketer to appear in 100 One-day Internationals.

She also felt that the pandemic would not have much impact on the women's game that has gained momentum in recent times.

"...Cricket was on pause button...Once cricket resumes and players are back on the park, everything is going to get picked up. It might take some time to get started as everything starts from zero...

"The awareness the women's game has created, I hope it stays. They will just restart, not start after the pandemic."

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News Network
March 23,2020

Colombo, Mar 23: Sri Lankan batting great Kumar Sangakkara has said he is currently in self-quarantine, following his government's guidelines for those recently returning from Europe, which has now become the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authorities are concerned over people returning from the most-affected COVID-19 countries in Europe not registering with the police and practising isolation.

"I have no symptoms or anything like that, but I'm following government guidelines," Sangakkara told News First.

"I arrived from London over a week ago and the first thing was there was a news bulletin saying that anyone who had travelled from within March 1 to 15 should register themselves with the police and undergo self-quarantine. I registered myself with the police."

The former captain said this even as the government confirmed there have been at least three cases of recent returnees attempting to hide the novel coronavirus symptoms from authorities.

Both Sangakkara and his former teammate Mahela Jayawardene have been active on social media, urging Sri Lankans to avoid panic and to exercise proper social distancing, as the country went into curfew on Friday evening.

Sri Lanka has so far reported more than 80 active COVID-19 positive cases in the country.

Across the world, the number of infected has crossed three lakh besides a death toll of more than 14,000 people.

Meanwhile, former Australia pacer Jason Gillespie has also gone into a two-week isolation after returning from the United Kingdom.

Gillespie, who is the head coach at Sussex, had been in Cape Town with the team for a pre-season tour, which was cut short as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

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