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ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 kicks off with 60-second challenge

Agencies
May 30, 2019

May 30: Cricket World Cup often termed as the `Olympics of Cricket` was kicked off on Wednesday with a unique 60-second challenge at the Mall opposite Buckingham Palace in London.

The opening ceremony was hosted by former England cricketer Andrew Flintoff and cricket presenters Shibani Dandekar and Paddy McGuinness.

Both Eoin Morgan (England skipper) and Virat Kohli (Indian skipper) were present at the event.

"We can`t wait to start. Tomorrow`s obviously a very exciting day. Incredibly proud to be where we`re at. Hope to be good hosts," Morgan said at the opening ceremony.

"Lovely to be here. Such a huge fan base here. That`s a thing of pressure and a thing of pride as well. We`ll look to utilise the crowd advantage," Kohli added.

Before the commencement of the 60-second challenge, English singer John Newman sang `Feel the love` at the opening ceremony. In the 60-second challenge, a competition was held between various teams as each side was represented by two guest figures.

The team with the highest score in sixty seconds would win the challenge. Former Australian batsman David Boon was the umpire for this little game.

Former Indian skipper Anil Kumble and Bollywood actor Farhan Akhtar represented India at the event. The event also involved legends such as Viv Richards, Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, and Kevin Pietersen, among others.

Afghanistan started off the challenge and they scored 52 in one minute. Next, former Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene came out to represent Sri Lanka and the team scored 43.

West Indies were represented by legend Viv Richards and Olympic athlete Yohan Blake and they scored 47 in one minute. Abdur Razzaq featured in Bangladesh`s team. They scored just 22.

Pakistan scored 38 and they were represented by Malala Yousafzai. They were followed by Australia. Brett Lee represented the Aussies and they were able to muster the highest score of the 60-second challenge when they scored 69 runs.

New Zealand was able to score only 32. The South African team had Jacques Kallis and footballer Steven Pienaar. They scored 48 runs

India represented by Anil Kumble and Farhan Akhtar registered the lowest score of 19 among all teams.

The English team then came out to bat and it featured Kevin Pietersen. They scored 74 in one minute and they ended up winning the challenge.

After the challenge, the World Cup trophy was showcased. It was escorted to the stage by former World Cup-winning captain Michael Clarke and former English off-spinner Graeme Swann.

"There are five to six teams that can win this World Cup. England definitely are the favourites for this tournament as they have been some good quality cricket," Clarke said at the opening ceremony.

In the end, the theme song of the World Cup "Stand By" was performed by the singer LORYN and Rudimental.

The first match of the World Cup will be played between the hosts England and South Africa on May 30 at the Oval.

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News Network
January 9,2020

New Delhi, Jan 9: The Union government has removed the central security cover of Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Paneerselvam and DMK leader M K Stalin, officials said on Thursday.

They said while Paneerselvam had a smaller 'Y+' cover of central paramilitary commandos, Stalin had a larger 'Z+' protection.

The security cover of these two politicians has been taken off from the central security list after a threat assessment review was made by central security agencies and approved by the Union home ministry, they said.

Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) commandos were protecting these two leaders of Tamil Nadu.

However, they said, the central security cover will be formally taken off after the state police takes over their security task, they added.

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Agencies
February 11,2020

New Delhi, Feb 11 Congress's performance touched a record low in the Delhi Assembly election as the party bagged less than 5 per cent of the total votes polled and 63 of its candidates lost their deposits.

The party, which ruled Delhi for 15 years on the trot under former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, failed to open its account for the second consecutive assembly election in Delhi.

Only three of its candidates Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhi Nagar, Devender Yadav from Badli and Abhishek Dutt from Kasturba Nagar managed to save their deposits.

Security deposit of a candidate is forfeited if he/she fails to secure one-sixth of the total valid votes cast in a constituency.

Most of Congress candidates got less than 5 per cent of the total votes polled in their respective constituencies.

Delhi Congress chief Shubhash Chopra's daughter Shivani Chopra, who was the party candidate from Kalkaji, also could not save her deposit.

Former Delhi Assembly Speaker Yoganand Shastri's daughter Priyanka Singh also forfeited her deposit.

The party's campaign committee chairman Kirti Azad's wife, Poonam Azad, lost badly and stood fourth, polling only 2,604 (2.23) votes.

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Agencies
February 25,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 25: India opening batsman KL Rahul will be available for Karnataka's Ranji Trophy semi-final clash against Bengal at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on February 29.

Rahul had asked to be rested from Karnataka's quarter-final match but is now available for the climactic stages of the Ranji Trophy. 

Karnataka had already been strengthened by the addition of Manish Pandey for the quarter-finals, with both Pandey and Rahul having returned from New Zealand after India completed the limited-overs leg of their tour, ESPNcricinfo reported.

Last year's finalists Saurashtra will take on Gujarat in the other semi-final at Rajkot. The other prominent players who will be part of the last four include Parthiv Patel (Gujarat), Jaydev Unadkat (Saurashtra) and Manoj Tiwary (Bengal).

Gujarat, Bengal, Karnataka, and Saurashtra had finished on top of the combined Groups A and B table, and all four progressed to the semi-finals after dominating their respective quarter-final matches.

Rahul has been phenomenal with the bat in the limited-overs series against Australia and New Zealand. He scored one century and four fifty-plus scores in his last ten innings in ODIs and T20Is combined

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