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Mumbai look to seal playoff berth

May 12, 2012

kolkata_vs_mumbai

Kolkata, May 12: Thirty-eight days and 57 games into IPL 5, Kolkata and Mumbai finally get to spar with each other for the first time this season.

For a change, it's Kolkata who have their noses in front. In fact, they even have one foot in the play-offs, thanks to a bouquet of six straight victories. Mumbai are within sniffing distance as well, and their priority at the Eden Gardens on Saturday will be to log two points and 'lock' their knockout berth.

Defeat will, however, not straightaway affect their chances of progressing to the last-four stage -- they have three more matches to play after this -- but will almost certainly hurt their ambition of finishing among the top two.

Led by the feisty Gautam Gambhir, Kolkata will be determined not to take the foot off the pedal as they look to strengthen their chances of qualifying as the No. 1 or No. 2 team in the round-robin league. Going by the way they have been playing over the past one month, it will take a brave man to bet against Kolkata.

The last game they lost was on April 15 that too by 2 runs to Mohali. Since then, they have blown away teams like Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi. Mumbai are the last 'target' en route to establishing their ascendancy over the big guns.

It's no secret that Kolkata owe their red-hot streak to their prolific captain Gambhir (457 runs, 5 fifties, 146.94 strike rate) and a frugal bowling attack, spearheaded by Sunil Narine. The 23-year-old Trinidadian spinner is third on the wicket-takers' list with 15 scalps so far, but much more significant is his economy rate -- 5.30 runs conceded per over, which is unheard of for a spinner in this format of the game.

Not many have read his 'mystery' ball so far, and it will be interesting to see how the maestro copes with it.

The likes of Brett Lee, Jacques Kallis (the bowler) and Rajat Bhatia have been doing a fair job too, as a result of which no more than just two teams have managed 150-plus scores against them.

Little wonder then that Kolkata's economy rate (7.01 runs per over) is best in the tournament. The Mumbai batsmen have blown hot and cold this season, but their attack ranks a close second, thanks to the brilliance of Lasith Malinga (20 wickets, economy rate 5.32).

Skipper Harbhajan, despite averaging one wicket in two games, has not been easy to score off, while Keiron Pollard and Munaf Patel have the knack of breaking promising partnerships.


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Agencies
January 14,2020

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Agencies
August 6,2020

New Delhi, Aug 6: The BCCI on Thursday suspended the IPL title sponsorship deal with Chinese mobile phone company Vivo for the event's upcoming edition amid heightened tensions in Sino-India diplomatic ties.

The BCCI sent out a one-line statement, without giving details, saying that Vivo would not be associated with the IPL this year. "The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and vivo Mobile India Pvt Ltd have decided to suspend their partnership for Indian Premier League in 2020," the statement said.

Meanwhile, Vivo released its own statement saying that the two entities "have mutually decided to pause their partnership for the 2020 season".

Vivo won the IPL title sponsorship rights for five years from 2018 to 2022 for a reported sum of Rs 2,190 crore, approximately Rs 440 crore per annum.

The two parties are now working out a plan in which Vivo might come back for a fresh three-year period starting 2021 on revised terms.

However, a top BCCI official offered a different view. "Here we are talking about diplomatic tensions and you expect that after November, when IPL ends and before the next IPL starts in April 2021, there would be no anti-China sentiment? Are we serious?" a veteran BCCI official said on conditions of anonymity.

The anti-China sentiment in the country peaked after the violent face-off between the Indian and Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh. India lost 20 soldiers in the clash, while China also acknowledged unspecified casualties.

The stand-off at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) caused outrage across India with several calls for boycotts of Chinese companies and products.

The BCCI is now likely to float a tender for new IPL title sponsors as mandated by its constitution. The glitzy T20 league starts on Sept. 19 in the UAE, forced out of India due to the rising COVID-19 cases.

The new development is in stark contrast to what came out of Sunday's IPL's Governing Council meeting, where it was decided that Vivo, along with all the other sponsors, will remain on board.

This was after the BCCI had announced in June that all sponsorship deals pertaining to IPL will be reviewed in the aftermath of the clash in the Galwan Valley.

However, after Sunday's meeting, there was a huge backlash on social media about the BCCI holding on to Vivo.

Both parties then began thrashing out an amicable separation plan, at least for this season.

However, the end of this deal could spell losses for the franchises as they get a substantial share from the sponsorship pool. Half of the annual Vivo sponsorship money is distributed equally among eight franchises, which comes to Rs 27.5 crore.

"As of now, it will be very difficult for the BCCI to match the sponsorship amount at such short notice. Therefore, both BCCI and the franchises should be prepared to lose out on some money -- BCCI more but each franchise from Vivo's exit will potentially lose 15 crore," the official said.

"This year will be difficult for everyone but the show must go on," the official said.

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Agencies
March 3,2020

Mumbai, Mar 3: India on Tuesday retained their number one spot and captain Virat Kohli remained static at second in the ICC rankings despite a dismal Test series against New Zealand.

India have 116 rating points, six more than New Zealand with third-placed Australia accumulating 108 points. The 0-2 result against New Zealand was India's first series loss in the World Test Championship.

Kohli remains in second position in the batting rankings despite a forgettable Test series in which he made 38 runs in four innings, the ICC said in a statement.

New Zealand opener Tom Blundell and his Indian counterpart Prithvi Shaw and debutant paceman Kyle Jamieson were among the biggest movers in the rankings, released on Tuesday.

Blundell had a successful series against India, scoring 117 runs in four innings, with one half-century, which put him among the top two run-scorers in the series.

The performance meant he was rewarded with a jump of 27 places to No. 46. Shaw, who returned for his first series since his Test debut against West Indies in 2018, and made a punchy 54 in the first innings of the Christchurch Test, rose 17 places to No.76.

Australia's Steve Smith retained his top spot, holding a 25-point advantage over Kohli. Smith's apprentice Marnus Labuschagne jumped one spot to round off the top three, taking the place of New Zealand captain Kane Williamson.

England all-rounder Ben Stokes and India opener Mayank Agarwal moved a spot each and swapped places to break into and fall out of the top 10 respectively.

Among bowlers, Tim Southee's Player of the Series winning performance against India took him into the top five, with a jump of two places to No.4, while Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult returned to the top 10, gaining four places each to occupy the seventh and ninth positions respectively.

But the biggest gainer was Jamieson, who rose from No. 80 to 43.

There was only one change in the top ten among all-rounders, with Southee dropping a spot to No.10 and team-mate Neil Wagner falling out of the top 10 with a drop of four spots.

As with the bowling rankings, Jamieson, who frustrated India with handy lower order runs, gained big on the all-rounders' table, rising 26 places to No. 22.

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