Chennai Super Kings beat Mumbai Indians to reach IPL 6 final

May 22, 2013

Super_KingsNew Delhi, May 22: Chennai Super Kings might have come a cropper against Mumbai Indians in the league stages but the two-time champions showed their superiority by turning a high-profile encounter into a one-sided operation. Chennai’s 48-run victory on Tuesday night powered them to the Indian Premier League final, their fifth overall in the event.

Their march to the final was fashioned by Michael Hussey (86 n.o., 58b, 10x4, 2x6) and Suresh Raina (82, 42b, 5x4, 5x6) who exemplified Super King’s big-match temperament with a superlative domination of Mumbai bowling. Their unbeaten 140-run second wicket partnership propelled them to 192/1 in 20 overs.

Up against a towering target, Mumbai, in the absence of injured Sachin Tendulkar, were in the chase till the ninth over with Dwayne Smith going berserk, smashing 68 off 28 balls. His 75-run partnership with Dinesh Karthik pressed the panic button for the Super Kings but it didn’t last long. Smith perished to a soft dismissal off Ravindra Jadeja (3-31).

The pair of Karthik and Rohit Sharma held the best promise for Mumbai but Jadeja struck for the second time in two overs. Karthik, choosing to sweep, was hit on the pads to be out leg before. Rohit followed him in the next over.

Kieron Pollard, with a couple of mighty heaves, kept the interest alive but departed soon with a mistimed flick that ended in a low catch well-taken by Hussey.

It was then a matter time before the Mumbai batting wilted and they eventually folded up for 144.

It was a favourable toss to win by Super Kings and the opportunity was fully exploited by Hussey and Raina. With Kotla laying out a good batting strip, Hussey and Murali Vijay rustled up quick opening runs with none of the Mumbai bowlers able to make an impact.

Harbhajan Singh, however, did manage to slow things down. Skipper Rohit Sharma desperately shuffled the bowling around, introducing five bowlers in seven overs but Hussey, in particular, was in sublime touch and unstoppable.

It was not that Mumbai attack didn’t try to put in the breaks, none of their overs were significantly expensive, barring the last that went for 19 runs. But runs came in a steady stream engineered by Hussey.

His strokeplay ranged from soft flicks to late cuts to reverse sweeps. Even his solitary hit over the fence, glanced to fine leg in the last over off Malinga, was effortless. He had opened the innings with a boundary off fellow Australian Mitchell Johnson and only grew in strength.

The first six overs produced 47 runs with only Harbhajan making an impression. Pollard, introduced in the seventh over, got the only wicket of the Super Kings innings when Vijay lifted him for an easy catch to Dwayne Smith at midwicket.

In walked Suresh Raina, defiant and in-form. If Hussey was scorching the ground with his penetrative drives, Raina was quick to take the aerial route, clobbering Harbhajan for the first six of the innings in the 11th over.

With wickets in hand, the two opened their arms with Raina delighting a packed gathering with some spectacular heaves. Their onslaught put pressure on Mumbai, that reflected in a few slips with Rohit cutting a lonely figure in the middle.

Hussey and Raina attacked with flair, brilliantly accelerating towards the end that fetched 123 runs in last 10 overs.

Their partnership took Super Kings to familiar territory and once again made them the front-runners in title quest.

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News Network
July 3,2020

Karachi, Jul 3: Pakistan limited overs captain Babar Azam is tired of his constant comparisons with India skipper Virat Kohli and says he would rather be compared to the greats at home.

Babar, six years younger to Kohli, has a long way to go in getting close to Kohli's staggering numbers across formats. The India skipper has 70 hundreds to his name and averages more than 50 in all three formats.

"I would be more happy if you compare to me say a Javed Miandad, Muhammad Yousuf or Younis Khan. Why compare me to Kohli or any Indian player?" asked the 25-year-old, who is in England with the national team, said in an online media interaction on Thursday.

Babar has scored 16 international hundreds and averages more than 50 in ODIs and T20s. In 26 Tests, he has scored 1850 runs at 45.12.

He also said that he is not targeting any English bowler for the series next month.

"I don’t see who the bowler is or his reputation. I just try to play each ball on merit. England no doubt has a top bowling attack and they have advantage of playing at home but this is a challenge I want to score runs in," he said.

Before the squad’s departure for England, Pakistan batting coach Younis Khan said that pacer Joffra Archer will be a handful for the Pakistani batsmen.

Babar said that he would try to play every English bowler on merit but conceded that after getting runs in Australia last year, he was keen to leave his footprint in the coming Test and T20 series in England.

Reminded that some former Test players had already written off Pakistan for the England series, Babar said they were entitled to their opinion.

"But we don’t have a bad team and already we have been enjoying our training. It is good to be back on the field after such a long lay-off. I think we have the bowlers to trouble them like Abbas, Naseem, Shaheen and others while we have some experience in our batting line-up."

Babar said he would love to get a triple century in a Test match.

"When you score a century, you naturally want to go on and convert that into a double or a triple century. This is something I would like to do during the Test series.

"I like to play my natural game but my selection of shots depends on the conditions and bowlers."

Babar also ruled out any problems in the Pakistan dressing room due to the presence of former skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed, who was sacked last year.

But he said that since Muhammad Rizwan had been playing in all formats for Pakistan in recent times, he would be the starting keeper in the Test series ahead of Sarfaraz.

"I think we first have to give Rizwan a proper chance and Sarfaraz is there as back up."

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News Network
April 2,2020

New Delhi, Apr 2: BJP MP and former cricketer Gautam Gambhir on Thursday said that he will donate his two year's salary to PM-CARES Fund to support the battle against coronavirus pandemic in the country.

"People ask what can their country do for them. The real question is what can you do for your country? I am donating my 2 year's salary to #PMCaresFund. You should come forward too! @narendramodi @JPNadda @BJP4Delhi #IndiaFightsCorona," Gambhir tweeted.

The total number of coronavirus cases in India climbed to 1965 on Thursday after 131 people confirmed positive in the past 12 hours, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

At present, there are 1764 COVID-19 active cases in the country and 50 people have died due to the lethal infection.

Interestingly, on this day in 2011, India lifted its second World Cup title after a drought of 28 years. Gambhir played a crucial role in the final and anchored the run-chase.

India won its first World Cup in 1983 under the leadership of former all-rounder Kapil Dev. 

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News Network
July 19,2020

Dubai, Jul 19: On hold for the past two months, the fate of this year's T20 World Cup will be up for a decisive round of deliberation when the ICC board meets virtually on Monday with the BCCI hoping for a postponement to ensure that the IPL can go ahead.

The global event is supposed to be held from October 18 to November 15 in Australia but the country's cricket board had, in May itself, expressed its inability to host amid a second surge of Covid-19 cases in the state of Victoria.

With India's case load also exceeding the 10 lakh mark, including more than 26,000 deaths, the IPL, if it is held, is likely to move to the UAE once the central government gives its go ahead.

"The first step was postponement of Asia Cup, which has happened. We can only start to move ahead with our plans after the ICC announces the postponement. They have been sitting on the decision even after Cricket Australia said that they are not too keen on hosting the event," a BCCI Apex Council member told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

This year's T20 World Cup will likely be held in Australia in 2022 as India doesn't want to swap its 2021 hosting rights with Cricket Australia as of now.

That Australia won't be hosting the mega event was clear after the cricket board told its players to prepare for a white-ball series against England scheduled for late September.

CA has even announced a 26-strong preliminary squad for that tour.

The ICC, on its part, has maintained that it wants to explore all possible "contingency" options before taking a call of such immense magnitude. And it is not unusual for the governing body to wait this long.

"Pakistan was supposed to host the Champions Trophy in 2009. After the terrorist attacks on the Sri Lankan team bus, everyone in their proper senses knew that PCB will never host a big event in distant future," said a source familiar with the functioning of the ICC.

"Yet, ICC deputed its employees in Pakistan for months when South Africa was already preparing to host the event. Everyone knew but a formal announcement of shift took months as threat assessment was part of protocol.

"The ICC couldn't have just postponed 9the T20 World Cup) immediately as initially, the top ministers of the Australian government expressed keenness to host," he added.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has also resigned itself to this outcome after vehemently opposing the Indian board.

The postponement of Asia Cup, which was supposed to be hosted by the PCB, to 2021 was a big blow to Ehsan Mani and his team.

"We have had a lot of discussions and the feeling is it (T20 World Cup) would not be possible this year. ICC has World Cups lined up in 2021 and 2023 so we have a gap year where we can adjust this event," Mani had recently said while talking to reporters in his country.

It has been learnt that PCB is contacting other boards in the hope of finalising some bilateral engagements as the national team has nothing lined up after its England tour.

Nomination process for Chairman's election:

The other issue that is likely to come up for discussion in Monday's meeting is the nomination process for the next independent chairman of the ICC after Shashank Manohar's resignation earlier this month.

It is learnt that there is no consensus on what should be the criteria in case multiple candidates join the fray.

"The board is not united on whether the usual 2/3rd majority to decide will be used (as its in case of policy decision) or the case of simple majority among the 17 board members," an ICC Board member said.

England and Wales Cricket Board's Colin Graves was considered the top contender with BCCI president Sourav Ganguly's name also being floated.

Ganguly's candidature will certainly depend on whether the Supreme Court waives off the cooling off period and allows him to continue as BCCI president beyond July 27 when he completes six years as an office-bearer in the Indian Board's state and national units.

When asked about the possibility of taking up the ICC job in a recent interview, the 48-year-old said he is young and and in no hurry for the position.

New Zealand's Gregor Barclay, Hong Kong's Imran Khawaja, who is currently the interim chairman, are also being talked about as potential candidates.

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