Sehwag, Gambhir century stand gives India blazing start

November 15, 2012

seha

Ahmedabad, November 15: Virender Sehwag blasted his first half century in nearly 10 months and put on an unbeaten century stand with Gautam Gambhir as India made a blazing start on the opening morning of the first Test against England here today.

Sehwag was batting on 79 off only 66 balls, laced with 12 fours and a six while Gambhir remained unconquered on 37 in 103 balls as India went for lunch at 120 for no loss after skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni opted to bat first at the Sardar Patel Stadium.

The Delhi duo, who had failed to fire in unison for some time, stitched their 11th century stand for the opening wicket and their first in nearly two years. The last century stand between them was the 137 at Centurion Park in second innings of the opening Test against South Africa in December, 2010.

Sehwag and Gambhir started a tad shakily with the latter inside-edging James Anderson close to his stumps for the first of his three boundaries and the former being almost bowled by Stuart Broad while attempting an expansive drive and missing the ball.

However, after Sehwag whipped a ball from Anderson off his hips for his first four in the fifth over, things settled down for the Delhi duo on a bone-dry wicket of a slow pace pitch where the ball hardly rose above shin level unless banged short.

Sehwag packed off Anderson from the attack by smacking him for three fours between third man and covers in the bowler's fourth over while Gambhir struck his second four by turning Broad off his legs. Anderson's opening spell was a costly 4-0-24-0.

The duo's aggressive batting helped India race to 50 in the 12th over and at the end of the first hour, the hosts were 61 without loss, prompting England to summon off-spinner Graeme Swann in place of Broad immediately after the first drinks break. Broad gave away 23 runs in his six-over spell.

Sehwag hit the accurate Tim Bresnan for a couple of boundaries in the off side when the bowler erred in line. The Najafgarh marauder pushed Swann for a single to the off to complete his 50 in 45 balls and 81 minutes.

It was the batsman's 33rd half ton in his 99th Test and the second after his second innings 62 against Australia in the fourth and final Test at Adelaide in January.

Growing in confidence, Sehwag blasted Bresnan for two four and a six over long on in successive balls to further stamp his authority on the proceedings.

Fifteen runs came off the 19th over of the innings as the home team's as well as the partnership's hundred came in the first ball of the next over in 89 minutes. It was the duo's first three-figure stand after 26 innings.

Bresnan, after his expensive sixth over, was replaced by Broad at the far end of the ground to bowl the 21st over. The pace bowler operated without a slip fielder against Sehwag just before lunch.

Just before the break, the visitors brought on left-arm spinner Samit Patel in place of Broad after the latter's 2-over second spell for seven runs and the bowler's first ball, a full toss, was hit for a boundary by Sehwag.

In the morning, India left out Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Murali Vijay, Ashok Dinda and Ajinkya Rahane.

England omitted Steven Finn, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Graham Onions, Eoin Morgan, Monty Panesar and Stuart Meaker, giving opener Nick Compton his first Test cap.

Scoreboard at lunch on the first day of the opening cricket Test between India and England here today.

India 1st innings:

Gautam Gambhir batting 37

Virender Sehwag batting 79

Extras: (B-1 LB-2 NB-1) 4

Total: (for 0 wkts in 28 overs) 120

Bowling: Anderson 4-0-24-0, Broad 9-1-30-0, Bresnan 6-0-37-0, Swann 8-1-19-0, Patel 1-0-7-0.

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News Network
June 2,2020

New Delhi, Jun 2: Manchester United's Paul Pogba on Monday paid tribute to George Floyd, stressing that violent acts of racism can no longer be tolerated and they have to stop.

Pogba took to Instagram to write: "During the past few days I have thought a lot about how to express my feelings about what happened in Minneapolis. I felt anger, pity, hatred, indignation, pain, sadness."

"Sadness for George and for all black people who suffer from racism Every day! Whether in football, at work, at school, Anywhere! This has to stop, once and for all! Not tomorrow or the next day, it has to end today! Violent acts of racism can no longer be tolerated," he added.

Protests erupted in Minneapolis and other US cities on Tuesday after Floyd, an African-American man, died following his arrest by the four officers.

A viral video showed a police officer, Derek Chauvin, pinning 46-year-old Floyd to the ground with his knee on his neck for nearly eight minutes. Floyd died at a local hospital shortly thereafter.

The four police officers were fired. Chauvin was also charged with murder and manslaughter, according to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman.

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zaki ahmed
 - 
Wednesday, 3 Jun 2020

This photograph in the above mentioned article is of Floyd Mayweather Jr , the world welterweight & super heavy weight champion & wrongly menitoned as Pogba .

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News Network
June 6,2020

New Delhi, Jun 6: Former West Indies pacer Michael Holding has come out in support of MS Dhoni, saying that the wicket-keeper batsman indeed wanted to win the match against England in the 2019 World Cup.

India's performance in the World Cup match against England last year has once again become a matter of debate as all-rounder Ben Stokes in his book titled 'On Fire' questioned the intent of the Indian side.

Stokes also said that Dhoni's intent was questionable as he did not go for big shots when India still had a chance to win the match.

However, Holding said that nowadays people tend to write anything in their books.

"Well, people will write anything in books these days, because people are a lot more free with their opinions and when they are writing books, they need to be making headlines at times," Holding said on his official YouTube channel.

"But, to be honest, a lot of people watching that game perhaps wouldn't have arrived to the same conclusion that Ben Stokes arrived at that India were not trying to win," he added.

Holding did say that it seemed like that India did not have the same intensity as they would have had if the match was a do-or-die match.

"It was not the game that India had to win, but I don't think anyone can say that was a team tactic to lose the game. I watched that game and it appeared to me as if India weren't putting up their 100 per cent, but I realised it was not the case when the expression on MS Dhoni's face told me that he desperately wanted to win, so I do not think it was a team decision to not try to win," the former Windies pacer said.

"But I don't think they went with the same intensity of wanting to win the game, say, if it was a do-or-die situation. If it was, we would have seen a different game," he added.

On his official YouTube channel, Holding also said that no team goes in with a set pattern in terms of chasing targets.

In the round-robin stage match against England in Birmingham, India failed to chase down the massive target of 338 and fell short by 31 runs.

That was the only game that India lost in the premier tournament last year before the semifinal loss against the Kiwis.

India's chasing approach, in particular of wicket-keeper batsman Dhoni, was criticised by many, including the fans at home.

As soon as Stokes mentioned Dhoni's lack of intent in his book 'On Fire', Pakistan fans started saying that India deliberately lost the match to knock out their neighbours.

However, Stokes clarified that he never said India lost deliberately and some people were twisting his words.

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News Network
February 29,2020

Feb 29: India were all out for 242 in their first innings following a stunning battling collapse, triggered by paceman Kyle Jamieson on the opening day of the second cricket Test against New Zealand at the Hagley Oval, here on Saturday.

India were steady at 194 for five at tea but lost wickets in quick succession after the play resumed. Jamieson returned figures of 14-3-45-5.

Hanuma Vihari top-scored for India with his combative 55 while Prithvi Shaw (54) and Cheteshwar Pujara (54) hit contrasting half-centuries.

Virat Kohli's (3) poor run continued while his deputy Ajikya Rahane (7) also fell cheaply.

India lost last five wickets for 48 runs, of which 26 were contributed by last-wicket pair of Mohammed Shami (16) and Jasprit Bumrah (10).

Brief Scores:

India 1st innings: 242 all out in 63 overs. (H Vihari 55, P Shaw 54, C Pujara 54 batting; Kyle Jamieson 5/45, Tim Southee 2/38, ).

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