Sehwag's ton leads Punjab into final as Raina's blitzkrieg goes in vain

May 31, 2014

May 31: For 37 minutes, each and every Kings XI Punjab player, official, owner and fan had his or her heart in the mouth.

Chasing a mammoth target of 227, Suresh Raina batted like a man possessed, and virtually every ball he touched raced to the boundary or over it.

In 25 balls, he whacked 87 runs, helping Chennai Super Kings score 100 for two in six overs.

Sehwag RunsThe neutral Mumbai crowd was up on its feet, basking in the awesomeness of Raina's knock and Virender Sehwag's preceding ton.

None of the Kings XI pacers – Mitchell Johnson, Sandeep Sharma and Parvinder Awana – was spared as Raina pulled, flicked and lofted his way to 12 boundaries and six sixes.

Thanks to his assault, Chennai scored 9, 18, 9, 20, 11 and 33 in the first six overs.

But off the first ball after the Powerplay, Punjab captain George Bailey took matters into his own hands.

A slight bit of hesitation from Brendon McCullum and Raina allowed him enough time to pick up the ball in his left hand at cover, swivel, change hands and throw down the stumps with a direct hit at the striker's end.

A diving Raina couldn't make it.

Punjab were back in the hunt. And they stayed there by exerting even further pressure through their fielding.

The pressure paid off as none of Chennai's four overseas batsmen could support Raina's knock. In the end, the task was too big even for the amazing finishing talents of Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

He tried his luck, was even bowled off a no-ball by Johnson, but couldn't pull it off. Punjab won by 24 runs to make their first IPL final, and set up a rematch with Kolkata Knight Riders who beat them in the first Qualifier on Wednesday.

Of course, the pressure of a mountain of runs also contributed to Chennai's downfall, and for that, Punjab had to thank Virender Sehwag.

The legend rolled back the years to hit just the second century of this IPL, and put up crucial partnerships with Manan Vohra (110 for the first wicket), and David Miller (63 for the third wicket).

Glenn Maxwell failed to set the Wankhede Stadium alight, hitting just one six in an intriguing minibattle with Ashwin but falling to a top-spinner off the very next ball. Till Sehwag was dismissed off the first ball of the penultimate over, Punjab were looking invincible.

The fact that they scored just 15 off the last 11 deliveries could've hurt them on the flattest of tracks at this small ground.

But thanks to Bailey and that run-out of Raina, they were able to hold on and stay in the hunt for their maiden IPL title.

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News Network
June 10,2020

Kingston, Jun 10: "Enough is enough", said West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo as he opened up on the raging issue of racism and called for "respect and equality" for black people, who have faced discrimination for years.

Bravo joined the likes of his former captain Darren Sammy and Chris Gayle in denouncing racism in the wake of African-American George Floyd's killing at the hands of a white police officer in the USA.

"It's sad to see what's going on around the world. As a black man, we know the history of what black people have been through. We never ask for revenge, we ask for equality and respect. That's it," Bravo told former Zimbabwe cricketer Pommie Mbangwa in an Instagram live chat on Tuesday.

"We give respect to others. Why is it that we are facing this over and over? Now enough is enough. We just want equality. We don't want revenge, war.

"We just want respect. We share love and appreciate people for who they are. That's what is most important."

The 36-year-old, who has played 40 Tests, 164 ODIs and 71 T20Is for West Indies, said he wants the world to know that they are powerful and beautiful people and gave the example of greats such as Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan.

"I just want our brothers and sisters to know that we are powerful and beautiful. And at the end of the day, you look at some of the greats of the world, whether it is Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan we have had leaders who paved the way for us," he said.

Two-time T20 World Cup-winning captain Sammy had earlier alleged that a racist nickname was used to address him during his IPL stint with Sunrisers Hyderabad and demanded an apology.

Sammy said he was called 'Kalu' while he was in India. 'Kalu' is a derogatory word to describe black people.

Gayle, who too plays in the IPL, took to Twitter to back Sammy, saying that racism does exist in cricket.

"It's never too late to fight for the right cause or what you've experienced over the years! So much more to your story, @darensammy88. Like I said, it's in the game!!," Gayle tweeted.

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News Network
April 2,2020

New Delhi, Apr 2: It was on April 2, 2011, when the Men in Blue went on to win their second 50-over World Cup title.

India won its first World Cup in 1983 and then had to wait for 28 years to again lift the title.
Going into the 2011 tournament, India went in as the clear favourites as the competition was to be played in the sub-continent.

Under MS Dhoni's leadership, India lost just one match in the competition against South Africa.
India had defeated arch-rivals Pakistan in the semi-final to set up a summit clash with Sri Lanka.

In the finals, Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat first. Mahela Jayawardene top-scored for Sri Lanka as he struck a century to take the team's score to 274/6.

India in their chase got off to a bad start as the side lost Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag with just 31 runs on the board.

But Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni stepped up and stitched a match-winning 109-run partnership.

Gambhir perished after playing a knock of 97 runs, but in the end, Dhoni and Yuvraj took the team over the line by six wickets.

The winning six struck by Dhoni is still viewed as one of the most exciting moments in India's sporting history. 

As the winning six was hit, Ravi Shastri was doing commentary then, and he famously remarked, "Dhoni, finishes it off in style, India lifts the World Cup after 28 years".
As soon as the match-winning shot was hit, Tendulkar erupted with joy and had tears to see his dream finally being fulfilled.

Earlier this year, former Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar's famous lap around the Wankhede Stadium after the 2011 World Cup win, titled 'Carried On the Shoulders Of A Nation', was voted the greatest Laureus Sporting Moment of the last twenty years.

The lap after the World Cup is still edged into everyone's hearts.

Playing in his last mega 50-over tournament, it was the last chance for Tendulkar to lift the coveted trophy.

Before the 2011 World Cup, Tendulkar had played five tournaments (1992,1996,1999,2003 and 2007), and he fell short every time.

The closest he came to winning the trophy was in 2003 as India made the finals under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly.

But the Men in Blue fell short in the finals against Australia.

Then in 2007, the biggest setback was in store for the legend has India bowed out of the tournament in the group stages.

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News Network
January 28,2020

Gibraltar, Jan 28: Young Indian Grand Master R Praggnanandhaa pulled off a huge upset, beating former world champion Veselin Topalov in the sixth round of the 18th Gibraltar chess festival to record his fifth straight win here.

The 14-year-old Chennai lad needed just 33 moves to put it across the Bulgarian. He had started with a loss against compatriot P V Nandhidhaa but since then he has been on a winning spree.

Praggnanandhaa, who recently won the world under-18 title, said: "It was very tough to prepare against him."

He is in second spot on five points with six other players and will take on Chinese GM Wang Hao in the seventh round.

Seventeen-year-old Russian GM Andrey Esipenko jumped to sole lead with 5.5 points with a win over Georgia's Ivan Cheparinov

The Russian player would be unpaired in the seventh round as he decided to take a bye.

A bunch of players including Indians — B Adhiban, K Sasikiran, Shardul Gagare, Karthikeyan Murali, SL Narayanan — are in joint third place with 4.5 points.

Adhiban beat Gabriel Flom, while D Gukesh, the world's second youngest Grand Master ever, defeated Martin Percivaldi to move to four points.

Also winning were Karthikeyan Murali against Qi B Chen and Gagare over France's Maxime Lagarde.

Top-seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov's moderate run continued as he was held to a draw by GM Aryan Chopra.

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