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IPL 5: KKR close in on playoffs with win over MI

May 17, 2012

kolkata

Kolkata Knight Riders put one foot in IPL 5 playoffs with a 32-run win over Mumbai Indians at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday. It was their ninth win in 15 matches and took them to the second spot in the table ahead of Mumbai, who despite the loss can advance to the next stage if they win their last game against Rajasthan Royals on May 20.


Chasing 141 to win, Mumbai openers Herschelle Gibbs and Sachin Tendulkar got off to a very slow start before the former was sent back by Iqbal Abdulla for 13 in the sixth over with only 26 runs on the board. Karthik joined Tendulkar but the scoring rate remained a concern with both scoffing a lot of balls.

Tendulkar however played a few delightful strokes during his innings of 27 off 24 balls, one upper cut in particular that sailed over the wicketkeeper’s head for a six. Just when he was getting ready to cut loose, West Indian spinner Sunil Narine cleaned him up in the 11th over with an unplayable off-break. Karthik (21 off 26 balls) followed suit two overs later with just 66 runs on the board. Last-match hero Ambati Rayudu took on an aggressive approach straight away with the required run-rate creeping up but he could not contribute much and fell for 11.

Jacques Kallis turned the match absolutely in Kolkata’s favour with back-to-back wickets of the dangerous Kieron Pollard (8) and Dwayne Smith (0) in the 17th over - the visitors still needing 44 to win. Narine soon disposed of Harbhajan Singh and Rohit Sharma to put them out of the contest. Last year's runners-up folded for 108 in the 20th over with Narine returning with figures of 4 for 15.


Earlier, after being put into bat, KKR started their innings on the wrong foot with Brendon McCullum (1) and Kallis (0) back in the hut inside two overs. RP Singh accounted for both batsmen on back-to-back deliveries in the second over of the innings. The Kiwi was trapped lbw, while the South African allrounder was bowled neck and crop. Gambhir (27) kept on playing some good shots at the other end but was out before long, with Pollard getting through his defences with only 44 runs on the board.

Manoj Tiwary and Bangladesh allrounder Shakib Al Hasan then began the repair work and added 45 runs for the fourth wicket to bring some semblance of normalcy to the Kolkata innings. Tiwary did the bulk of the scoring in the partnership, but the visitors gained the upper hand again with the departure of both batsmen in the space of five balls. Smith cleaned up Shakib for 13, while Tiwary holed out to Lasith Malinga off the bowling of Munaf Patel after scoring 41.

Next batsman Debabrata Das did his team no good as he ran himself out for 2. Yusuf Pathan remained unbeaten on 21 and with his 29-run stand with Rajat Bhatia (12), he ensured the hosts got to a fighting 140 for 7 on a pitch conducive to spinners.



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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
July 25,2020

New Delhi, Jul 25: Former India spinner Anil Kumble said that he has never understood why people compared him with Australia's Shane Warne.

Kumble was doing an Instagram live session with former Zimbabwe pacer Pommie Mbangwa and it was then that the spinner also talked about being the third-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket.

"It feels really wonderful to finish with these many wickets. I never bothered about statistics or what my average should be, I wanted to bowl the whole day and be the one to take wickets. To finish as the third-highest wicket-taker in Tests alongside Murali and Warne is very special. All three of us played in the same era, there were a lot of comparisons, I do not know why people compared me with Warne. Warne was someone really different and he was on a different plane," Kumble told Mbangwa during the interaction.
"These two guys could spin the ball on any surface so it became really difficult for me when they started comparing me with Warne and Murali. I learnt a lot by watching them both bowl," he added.

The Indian spinner announced his retirement from international cricket in 2008. He finished with 619 wickets in the longest format of the game.

He has the third-highest number of wickets in Tests, only behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan (800) and Australia's Shane Warne (708).

Kumble is the second bowler in the history of international cricket after England's Jim Laker to take all ten wickets in an innings of a Test match.

He had achieved the feat against Pakistan in 1999 at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi. Kumble had bowling figures of 10-74 from 26.3 overs in the second innings of the Test match.
Kumble will be coaching Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League (IPL). 

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News Network
January 17,2020

Jan 17: Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza cruised into the women's doubles final of the Hobart International with her Ukrainian partner Nadiia Kichenok here on Friday.

Sania and Kichenok sailed past the Slovenian-Czech pair of Tamara Zidansek and Marie Bouzkova 7-6 (3) 6-2 in the semifinal contest that lasted one hour and 24 minutes.

The fifth-seeded Indo-Ukrainian combination will lock horns with second seeds Shuai Peng and Shuai Zhang of China. The Chinese pair got a walkover after Belgium's Kirsten Flipkens and Alison Van Uytvanck conceded the other semifinal match because of injury.

While Sania and Kichenok had to fight hard in the opening set, the second set was a cakewalk for the combination.

The first set was a tough contest between the two pairs, bringing the tie-breaker into the equation after it was level at 6-6.

In the tie-breaker, Sania and Kichenok upped their game by a few notches to outsmart their opponents and take the lead.

The second set was a no-contest as Saina and Kichenok broke their opponents thrice -- in the second, sixth and eighth game -- to easily pocket the set and a place in the summit clash.

Saina and Kichenok got 11 break chances out of which they converted four, while their opponents utilised two out of the five break chances that came their way.

The 33-year-old Sania is returning to the WTA circuit after two years. During her time away from the game, she battled injury breakdowns before taking a formal break in April 2018 to give birth to her son Izhaan. She is married to Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik.

Before the ongoing event, Sania last played at China Open in October 2017.

A trailblazer in Indian tennis, Sania is a former world No.1 in doubles and has six Grand Slam titles to her credit.

She retired from the singles competition in 2013 after becoming the most successful Indian woman tennis player.

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