Lanka crush listless India

July 25, 2012

srilanka

Sri Lanka exacted sweet revenge on India with a crushing nine-wicket victory in the second ODI here to draw the series level at 1-1.


It was an absolutely contrasting performance by the Indian batsmen from their last match as they were bundled out for a paltry 138 in only 33.3 overs.

Chasing a target of 139, which isn’t good enough for even Twenty20 format, Sri Lankan openers Upul Tharanga (59 n.o., 60 balls) and Tillekaratne Dilshan (50, 49 balls, 5x4) added 119 runs as the islanders hardly broke sweat while racing to the target in only 19.5 overs.

The win also means that India won’t get a shot at No 1 spot in ICC ODI rankings, for which they needed a 5-0 victory in the current series.

Although the second ODI was played on a different strip, it was inexplicable as to how a team, which scored 314 a couple of days back, showed complete lack of application to get bowled out inside the 34th over.

Save opener Gautam Gambhir, who scored a fighting 65 (96 balls, 4x4), the other batsmen paid heavy price for their indiscretion on a pitch that demanded judicious shot selection. Thisara Perera (3/14) and Angelo Mathews (3/19) ran through the Indian top-order.


India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and expectedly decided to bat despite windy conditions that aided swing bowlers.

The visitors got off to a brisk start courtesy Virender Sehwag (15) as he blasted debutant Isuru Udana for a couple of boundaries as they raced to 31 in just three overs.

After Udana went for 16 in his first over, Mahela Jayawardene had no option but to turn to Perera whose slower delivery did the trick after Sehwag committed to the shot early for the bowler to take a sharp reflex catch.


Failure is a rarity for Virat Kohli (1) these days but Tuesday was different. He chased a delivery from Perera that was wide outside off-stump and the faint nick gave Kumar Sangakkara first of his four catches.


Rohit Sharma (0), who is lucky to be still persisted with despite a run of poor scores, once again flattered to deceive as he played on while going for an ambitious cut off a very wide delivery from Mathews.

Suresh Raina (1) dragged one from Perera back onto his off-stump. Dhoni (11) hit a couple of fours but then went for a non-existent cut shot off a Mathews delivery. The ball reared up from short of good length and there was virtually no room to play the square cut and Sangakkara latched onto the edge.

With all the top-order batsmen save Gambhir back in the pavilion before completion of first 15 overs, the Delhi left-hander had an onerous task of saving his wicket as well as scoring some runs.

Irfan Pathan (6) too didn’t stay long but Ravichandran Ashwin (21, 15 balls, 3x4) did throw his bat around during a 28-run eighth wicket partnership after which the burly Tamil Nadu offie was needlessly run-out.

Gambhir, meanwhile, got to his 32nd half-century with No 10 batsmen Pragyan Ojha for company.

score board

INDIA

Gambhir c Sangakkara b Malinga 65
Sehwag c&b Perera 15
Kohli c Sangakkara b Perera 1
Rohit b Mathews 0
Raina b Perera 1
Dhoni c Sangakkara b Mathews 11
Irfan c Perera b Malinga 6
Ashwin (run out) 21
Zaheer lbw Herath 2
Ojha c Sangakkara b Mathews 5
Yadav (not out) 0

Extras (B-2, LB-4, W-5) 11

Total (all out, 33.3 overs) 138

Fall of wickets: 1-31, 2-33, 3-38, 4-41, 5-60, 6-79, 7-107, 8-113, 9-132.

Bowling: Malinga 7.3-0-36-2, Udana 6-0-42-0, Perera 8-3-19-3, Mathews 7-2-14-3, Herath 5-0-21-1.

Sri Lanka

Tharanga (not out) 59
Dilshanc Dhoni b Ashwin 50
Chandimal (not out) 6

Extras (LB-10, W-14) 24

Total (for 1 wkt, 19.5 overs) 139

Fall of wicket: 1-119

Bowling: Zaheer Khan 6-0-39-0, Irfan Pathan 4-0-27-0, Umesh Yadav 4-0-38-0, R Ashwin 5-1-18-1, Pragyan Ojha 0.5-0-7-0.



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Agencies
January 24,2020

Mumbai, Jan 24: Former Indian cricket captain and former MP Mohammad Azharuddin on Thursday denied allegations of cheating levelled by a travel agency in Maharashtra and threatened to file defamation suit of ₹100 crore.

"Those who filed the FIR have done it only to be in the limelight. There is no truth in it. The allegations are baseless," Azharuddin said in a video message on Twitter.

Azahruddin, who is now president of Hyderabad Cricket Association, said he would soon seek advice from his lawyer and will file Rs 100 crore defamation case against those who lodged the FIR.

A case was filed in Aurangabad on Wednesday against Azharuddin and two others for allegedly cheating a local travel agent of around ₹21 lakh.

The complaint was lodged by Shahab Y. Mohammed, 49, proprietor of Danish Tours & Travels here, a former executive with the defunct Jet Airways.

"We have lodged a first information report against Mujeeb Khan (Aurangabad), Sudheesh Avikkal (Kerala), Mohammed Azharuddin (Hyderabad). No arrests have been made and further investigations are underway," Investigating Officer A.D. Nagre, of the City Chowk police station, told IANS.

According to the complainant, between November 9 and 12, 2019, Avikkal booked several international airline tickets and Azharuddin's personal secretary Mujeeb Khan promised to pay the ticket charges. He said since no payment was made, he was compelled to lodge the police complaint.

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Agencies
February 5,2020

Hamilton, Feb 5: Ross Taylor and Tom Latham played knocks of 109 and 69, respectively, as New Zealand defeated India by four wickets in the first ODI of the three-match series here at the Seddon Park on Wednesday.

Chasing 348, New Zealand got off to a steady start as openers Martin Guptill and Henry Nicholls put on 85 runs for the first wicket, however, India finally got the breakthrough in the 16th over as Shardul Thakur dismissed Guptill (32).

Tom Blundell and Nicholls then put on 24 runs for the second wicket, but their vigil came to an end in the 20th over as Kuldeep Yadav had Blundell (9) stumped at the hands of wicket-keeper KL Rahul, reducing Kiwis to 109/2.

Nicholls then retrieved the innings for the hosts as he found support in Ross Taylor. The duo mixed caution with aggression to stitch together a partnership of 62 runs. But with their back against the wall, skipper Kohli lifted the side up as he ran out Nicholls (78) in the 29th over, reducing New Zealand to 171/3.

Skipper Tom Latham, came out to bat next, and he increased the tempo of the Kiwi innings. He took a special liking to Kuldeep and kept on sweeping him to pick easy boundaries on the legside.

Taylor and Latham put on a stand of 138 runs to take Kiwis closer to victory. But with 39 runs away from the target, Kuldeep dismissed Latham (69) to revive India's hopes of making a comeback.

Mohammed Shami removed Jimmy Neesham (9) in the 46th over while Colin de Grandhomme (1) was sent packing via a run-out to send cat among the pigeons in the Kiwi camp. In the end, Mitchell Santner and Taylor took the hosts over the line by four wickets and with 11 balls to spare.

Earlier, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul's knocks of 103 and 88, respectively, helped India post 347/4 in the allotted twenty overs.

After being put in to bat, India got off to a quickfire start as openers Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal put on 50 runs. Colin de Grandhomme finally provided the breakthrough to the Kiwis as he sent Shaw (20) back to the pavilion in the eighth over.

Agarwal (32) was also dismissed soon after by Tim Southee and the Men in Blue were reduced to 54/2 in the ninth over.

Skipper Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer then retrieved the innings for the visitors as the duo put on 102 runs for the third wicket. Kohli brought up his 58th half-century in the 28th over.

Ish Sodhi got the crucial breakthrough of Kohli (51) in the 29th over as he clean bowled him to reduce India to 156/3. However, Iyer continued to march on and brought up his maiden ODI century in the 43rd over.

KL Rahul, who came in to bat at number five provided the much-needed impetus to the innings. He along with Iyer put on a stand of 136 runs for the fourth wicket.

Iyer (103) was finally sent back to the pavilion by Southee in the 46th over, reducing India to 292/4.

In the final overs, Rahul and Kedar Jadhav hammered the Kiwi players to take India's score past the 340-run mark. Jadhav remained unbeaten on 26.

Brief Scores: New Zealand 348/6 (Ross Taylor 109*, Henry Nicholls 78, Kuldeep Yadav 2-84) defeat India 347/4 (Shreyas Iyer 103, KL Rahul 88*, Tim Southee 2-85) by four wickets.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

New Delhi, Jul 28: 'Your character stood out for me than the number of runs you scored," said India skipper Virat Kohli while explaining his decision to give opening Mayank Agarwal a Test debut in the 2018-19 Australia series.

Mayank Agarwal had made his Test debut against Australia in the third Test of the four-match series.

Playing the third Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Agarwal managed to register a half-century in his very first innings in the longest format.

"I had seen you play for RCB, even then you played international bowlers with conviction and you would take them on. You were performing in first-class matches in a dominating way. That is something always stood out with you, I would say your character stood out for me than the number of runs. I knew you would be fearless without having any baggage," Kohli told Mayank Agarwal in a video posted on the official website of BCCI.

In the longest format of the game, Agarwal has managed to score 974 runs from 11 matches at an average of 57.29 with three centuries as an opening batsman.

The Indian skipper also explained as to what makes him notice in a player and added that it is important that guys in the team look to face new challenges and emerge triumphantly.

"For me, the biggest marker is how a person approaches the game, so for example when you opened and we made Vihari open with you. The first opportunity we presented Vihari to open the batting, he said yes to it and that matters me to the most," Kohli said.

"I opened in my first series for India, I said yes to this opportunity and things worked out fine for me. So, a guy who wants to get into tough situations will come out either holding his head high or learning from his mistakes," he added.

Kohli and Mayank would soon be seen in action for Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab respectively in the Indian Premier League (IPL) starting from September 19 in the UAE.

The comparisons between Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar keep on 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 currently has 70 centuries across all formats.

At present, Kohli is ranked at the top spot in the ICC ODI rankings while he is in the second place in Tests rankings. Kohli has so far played 86 Tests, scoring 7,240 runs with 27 centuries at an average of 53.62.

His knock of 254 against South Africa at Pune in 2019 remains his highest Test score to date. When it comes to ODIs, the current Indian skipper has played 248 matches and has 43 centuries.

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