Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by four wickets

Agencies
May 5, 2019

May 5: Shimron Hetmyer and Gurkeerat Singh Mann engineered an incredible turnaround that will linger long in IPL memory, powering Royal Challengers Bangalore to a four-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad on Saturday.

Both Hetmyer and Gurkeerat hit blazing fifties as RCB recovered from a hopelessly placed 20 for three in the third over to reach the 176-run target with four balls to spare.

The win meant RCB ended what has been a forgettable season on a positive note, while SRH's hopes of securing a playoffs berth were kept on standby.

During their 144-run partnership for the fourth wicket, Hetmyer smashed half a dozen sixes and four boundaries for his 47-ball 75, while Gurkeerat made 65 in 48 deliveries with the help of eight fours and one maximum.

This was the first time that RCB had a hundred-plus partnership since 2013 when Kohli and De Villiers were not involved.

After Parthiv Patel was dismissed early by Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Virat Kohli made his presence felt with two delightful strokes -- a straight-driven boundary and a flicked six -- but the mainstay nicked a length ball to stun the home crowd.

More trouble was in store for RCB as they lost AB de Villiers, who snicked Bhuvneshwar to the first slip where Martin Guptill took a neat catch.

RCB were tottering at 20 for three in the third over but Shimron Hetmyer and Gurkeerat Singh Mann had other ideas.

It rained sixes and fours as the duo of Hetmyer and Gurkeerat blunted the opposition attack with their exemplary batting, bringing the smiles back on the face of skipper Kohli and the faces of their players.

Gurkeerat was content to play second fiddle to Hetmyer initially when the Guyanese was dealing in fours and sixes but opened up later.

Earlier, Kane Williamson dealt in fours and sixes as Sunrisers Hyderabad plundered 28 runs in the final over to reach a challenging 175 for seven.

SRH were 147 for seven at the end of the 19th over but Williamson cut loose after that, smashing Umesh Yadav for two sixes and as many fours to finish the innings on a high.

Williamson remained not out on 70 off 43 balls, hitting four sixes and five fours at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

To make matters worse for Yadav, he was wrongly called for a no-ball by umpire Nigel Llong.

Sent into bat, SRH were off to a brisk start with Martin Guptill and Wriddhiman Saha (20) putting on 46 runs for the opening wicket in 4.3 overs, but the keeper-batsman failed to clear pacer Navdeep Saini as the visitors lost their first wicket.

After the addition of another 14 runs to the team total, SRH lost their second wicket when Guptill was dismissed by Washington Sundar for a 23-ball 30.

Manish Pandey, who stretched Mumbai Indians with his brave half-century in their last game, fell cheaply, for nine, leaving the visitors in some trouble at 61 for three in the eighth over.

Picked in the World Cup-bound Indian team for his 'three-dimensional' abilities, Vijay Shankar raced to 27 with the help of three sixes but again failed to translate the start into a big score.

Shankar was Sundar's third scalp of the evening and Yuzvendra Chahal picked up his 100th wicket in the IPL when he lured Yusuf Pathan into playing an irresponsible shot to leave Sunrisers at 127 for five in the final ball of 16th over.

Even as wickets fell at regular intervals, Williamson looked to rotate the strike and also go for the big hits.

Barring the opening stand, the only partnership that flourished a bit was the one between Williamson and Shankar, who ended up giving a catch while going for a slog sweep.

Williamson brought up his fifty in style, hoicking Yadav over long off for a six and followed that with some more lusty hits.

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News Network
June 6,2020

Mumbai, Jun 6: Reminiscing about his 'special knock' of 208 runs from 153 balls, Indian cricketer Rohit Sharma revealed why his wife Ritika had got emotional after he smashed his third double century in ODIs.

Rohit narrated the incident during his appearance in Episode 2 of the 'Open nets with Mayank'.

The batsman, who was accompanied by Shikhar Dhawan and Mayank on the show, said his wife thought that he had twisted his hand while diving for the 196th run during the innings.

"As you can see my wife got emotional there, this day was special as it was my anniversary. Probably the best gift I could give it to her while I am on the field, it was quite emotional though," said Rohit during the candid chat.

"When I came from the ground, I just asked her why did you (Ritika) cry? So she told me that she thought I (Rohit) twisted my hand when I dived for my 196th run and that was a little worrying factor for her, she got little emotional of because of that I guess," Rohit added.

In the match, the 32-year-old scored 208 runs with 13 fours and 12 sixes against Sri Lanka at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali.

This enabled India to post a score of 392/4 in the allotted fifty overs.

India then went on to win the match by 141 runs.

"To be honest I was going pretty slow, I never thought I will get to a double hundred but once you cross 125, I feel it gets easier for you because bowlers are under pressure. Unless you make a mistake I don't think you can get out," said Rohit.

Rohit has scored two double hundreds against Sri Lanka and one against Australia in ODIs. The right-handed batsman is the only cricketer to make three double hundreds in ODI history.

Rohit, Shikhar, and Mayank would have been in action for Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals, and Kings XI Punjab respectively, had the Indian Premier League (IPL) commenced from March 29. However, the tournament was suspended indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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News Network
June 25,2020

New Delhi, Jun 25: India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Thursday called the 1983 World Cup win as the 'landscape' changing moment for the game of cricket in the country.

Today, India is celebrating the completion of the 37 years of the maiden World Cup triumph under the leadership of Kapil Dev.

"Today 37 years ago, changed the cricketing landscape in India. Thank you @therealkapildev and team for making the game a career for many of us today. Deeply indebted," Ashwin tweeted.

In 1983, in the finals between India and West Indies, the latter won the toss and opted to bowl first.

The Kapil Dev-led side managed to score just 183 runs as Andy Roberts took three wickets while Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, and Larry Gomes picked up two wickets each.

Defending 183, India did a good job of keeping a check on the Windies run flow, reducing the side to 57/3.

Soon after, the team from the Caribbean was reduced to 76/6 and India was the favourites from there on to win the title.

Mohinder Amarnath took the final wicket of Michael Holding to give India their first-ever World Cup title win.

In the finals, West Indies was bowled out for 140, and as a result, India won the match by 43 runs.

Kapil Dev lifting the trophy at the balcony of Lord's Cricket Ground still remains an image to savour for all the Indian fans.

In the finals, Mohinder Amarnath was chosen as the Man of the Match as he scored 26 runs with the bat and also picked up three wickets with the ball.

India has been the regular participant in the World Cup from its beginning to the latest edition. The first edition was held in 1975 and from there on, it has taken place after a span of every four years.

West Indies won the first two World Cup titles (1975, 1979) and was the runner-up in 1983. India has won the title two times, in 1983 and in 2011.

MS Dhoni captained the 2011 team to win their second title after 28 years. Australia has won the tournament five times (1987, 1999, 2003, 2007, and 2015).

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News Network
May 26,2020

Mumbai, May 26: Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar said that if he was playing currently he and Virat Kohli would have been the best of friends off the field, but real enemies whenever they stepped on the field.

Akhtar also said that he would have liked to challenge Kohli to drive the ball.

"Virat Kohli and I would have been the best of friends as both of us are Punjabi, but on the field, we would have been the best of the enemies. I would have loved to get inside the head of Kohli. I would have told him that you cannot play a cut or pull shot against me," Akhtar told Sanjay Manjrekar in a videocast hosted by ESPNCricinfo.

"I would have gone wide of the crease and bowled a ball that would go away from him, I would have forced him to drive the ball as it is his favourite shot. So I would keep forcing him to play the drive shot at my pace," he added.

Akhtar also said that he wishes that Kohli could have played against some of the top bowlers in the game.

The Rawalpindi Express said that Kohli would have enjoyed the challenge of facing bowlers like Wasim Akram, Shane Warne, and Waqar Younis.

"I would also keep talking to him, because if I get him to lose his focus then that would have been great. The great thing about Kohli is that he gets more focused when he is challenged. But I believe Virat Kohli would have still scored the same amount of runs if I was playing," Akhtar said.

"I really wish that he had played against Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shane Warne, and then Virat would have also enjoyed the challenge," he added.

Akhtar played 224 matches for Pakistan in international cricket and took 444 wickets across all formats.

Over the years, comparisons between Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar have been growing and many have picked the current Indian skipper to break the records set by Tendulkar.

Tendulkar called time on his career after registering 100 international centuries, while Kohli has 70 centuries across all formats.

Currently, Kohli is ranked at the top spot in the ICC ODI rankings while he is in second place in the Tests rankings.

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