Royals edge past KKR in a thrilling 'Super Over' finish

April 30, 2014

Royals_edgeAbu Dhabi, Apr 30: Rajasthan Royals held their nerves in extreme pressure situation to pip Kolkata Knight Riders in a nail-biting Super Over finish in a fifth round encounter of the Indian Premier League here today.

It is the first match in the tournament that went to the wire with both main innings and the Super Over scores ending in a tie. Rajasthan Royals were adjudged winners as they hit 18 fours and a six across two innings compared to KKR's nine fours and three sixes.

In the Super Over, KKR batting first scored 11 off James Faulkner with Manish Pandey getting a six.

In reply, Steve Smith showed his cricketing acumen with a soft tap off the last delivery from Sunil Narine towards extra cover to get two runs which would have sealed the match in their favour.

Having set a target of 153 in 20 overs for KKR, the Royals bowlers kept their calm at the death as they restricted Gautam Gambhir's men to 152 for eight in 20 overs.

It was easily the most exciting contest of the UAE leg, with KKR needed 12 runs off the last over bowled by Kane Richardson. With three to get of the final delivery, Shakib al Hasan (29 no) could manage only two runs as the scores were tied at 152.

This was after a splendid penultimate over bowled by 'birthday boy' Faulkner (3/11 in 2 overs) in which he got the wickets of Suryakumar Yadav (31), Robin Uthappa (0) and R Vinay Kumar (0) when they needed 16 off the last two.

Suryakumar swept Watson for a six to signal his intent of chasing down tthe target and it was followed with a heave that went for boundary through third man region as he got equation down to 28 from three overs.

Shakib al Hasan then came to his own as he struck successive boundaries off Kane Richardson as KKR inched towards the target.

Surya's cameo of 31 from 19 balls ended as he was comfortably pouched by Smith off Faulkner.

Faulkner then bowled Robin Uthappa, who was shuffling across the crease to expose his leg-stump and got Vinay Kumar (0) off the very next ball as four runs came off the 19th over.

After a hat-trick of ducks and 1 from the four games, Gautam Gambhir (45) looked determined to make it count as he scored 45 off 44 balls with four boundaries. It wasn't a fluent innings but considering his form and confidence, one couldn't fault his effort. He did play considerable number of dot balls but showed his intent to stay at the crease come what may.

Gambhir showed a lot of resolve as he got his first boundary of this edition by cutting Richardson between point and cover. When James Faulkner dropped one short, Gambhir rocked back to pull it for a one bounce four.

Manvinder Bisla (3), playing his first match, was searching for the swinging deliveries. His ordeal ended when Richardson got one to cut back and the batsman played hard at it only to offer a catch to Karun Nair at first slip.

Jacques Kallis got a reprieve on 1 when he was caught behind off Shane Watson but it was adjudged a no-ball as the bowler was found overstepping.

However Kallis in his bid to prop up the rate was holed out in the deep off leggie Pravin Tambe with Steve Smith taking a well judged running catch.

Manish Pandey (19) had a nice little partnership with Gambhir but couldn't capitalise. After hitting Tambe for a six and boundary, he was done in by a flipper as he was struck on the pads rooted to his crease.

Gambhir was finally out for 45 when he tried to slog sweep Rajat Bhatia out of the park but only managed to find the fielder at mid-wicket boundary.

Earlier, Ajinkya Rahane hit a classy 72 as Rajasthan Royals posted a fighting 152 for five on a dry pitch at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium here today.

While Rahane anchored the innings with proper cricketing shots getting his runs off 59 balls, skipper Watson hit a few lusty blows to score 33 off 24 balls as the 64 runs in 7.3 overs for the third wicket.

Rahane's innings had six boundaries and a six. The manner in which he paced the innings was praiseworthy. When Watson and before that Samson were going after the bowlers, he dropped anchor getting those singles along with odd boundaries as Royals reached 150 because of the Mumbai man.

Once he got his half-century, he opened up pulling Vinay Kumar for a six. For KKR, Shakib al Hasan (1/23) and Sunil Narine (0/28) had a decent outing. R Vinay Kumar (2/30) was the most successful bowler for KKR.

Opting to bat, Karun's (1) struggle in this format continued as he tried to give his state captain Vinay the charge and saw delivery cutting back into clip the leg bail.

Sanju Samson (20) got four boundaries off Morkel in the final Powerplay over but was out in a freak manner. The talented Kerala youngster got onto the backfoot as Shakib bowled a fuller delivery. The ball hit his pads and rolled onto the stumps.

Rahane hit a few crisp boundaries and also got one when a thickish edge off a rising delivery from Morkel flew over the slip cordon.

When Chawla was introduced into the attack, Rahane played a copybook sweep shot to get a boundary when the bowler pitched one well outside the leg-stump.

The first 10 overs produced 62 runs for the loss of two wickets.

Skipper Watson's first big hit was a lofted one bounce four off a flighted delivery from Shakib. Rahane followed his skipper as he also used his feet to perfection to play the inside-out lofted shot over extra cover for a boundary.

The watershed moment for Royals came in the 14th over before the second strategic time-out as Watson got three boundaries off Piyush Chawla as it yielded 17 runs in all.

The first was a slog sweep while the second was a cover drive and the third one a lucky escape as the inside edge went for a boundary.

In the next over from Narine, Watson smashed him over extra cover for a boundary. Rahane in the meantime completed his second 50 off the tournament off 44 balls.

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Agencies
January 11,2020

London, Jan 11: Former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar's famous lap around the Wankhede Stadium after the World Cup 2011 win has been nominated in Laureas's list for the most inspiring sporting event in the last twenty years.

The moment featuring Tendulkar has been described as "Carried on the shoulders by a nation".

On his sixth attempt at the World Cup and with India not having won the competition since 1983, Tendulkar finally became a part of the team that lifted the coveted trophy. Carried on the shoulders of the Indian team, he made a lap of honour, shedding tears of joy after the victory was sealed in his home city.

The 2011 World Cup was also the first time, in which a host nation ended up winning the trophy.

Apart from Tendulkar, England's Andrew Flintoff is the only other cricketer to feature in the list. In 2005, England managed to defeat Australia in an Ashes Test, but Flintoff chose to first shake hands with Brett Lee rather than celebrate with his side.

Matthias Steiner (weightlifting), Natalie du Toit (swimming), Sky Brown (skateboarding), Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee (triathlon), Xia Boyu (mountaineering) have been nominated in the list.

Female tennis stars also feature in the list for coming up with an equal play, equal pay campaign. After pressure from Venus Williams and others, Wimbledon announced that female tennis players would receive prize money equal to the men's.

German international footballer Miroslav Klose was playing for Lazio in Italy's Serie A in 2012 against Napoli when he rose for a ball in the early moments of the game.

The ball came spiraling off his hand and skirted into the back of the net and a goal was awarded. While most players would carry on as if nothing had happened, Klose was honest with the referee and admitted that he handled the ball.

As a result, he also finds a place on the list.

The Laureus Sporting Moment Award celebrates the moments where the sport has unified people in the most extraordinary way.

This campaign has shortlisted 20 sporting stories from the last 20 years that have left their mark on the world.

The winner will be decided on the basis of public voting. It has already started, and the final date to cast the vote is February 16.

Finally, the result will be declared on February 17.
With three knock-out rounds, the top-20 moments will be whittled down to ten then five, with the top-five moments going head-to-head.

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News Network
March 23,2020

Colombo, Mar 23: Sri Lankan batting great Kumar Sangakkara has said he is currently in self-quarantine, following his government's guidelines for those recently returning from Europe, which has now become the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authorities are concerned over people returning from the most-affected COVID-19 countries in Europe not registering with the police and practising isolation.

"I have no symptoms or anything like that, but I'm following government guidelines," Sangakkara told News First.

"I arrived from London over a week ago and the first thing was there was a news bulletin saying that anyone who had travelled from within March 1 to 15 should register themselves with the police and undergo self-quarantine. I registered myself with the police."

The former captain said this even as the government confirmed there have been at least three cases of recent returnees attempting to hide the novel coronavirus symptoms from authorities.

Both Sangakkara and his former teammate Mahela Jayawardene have been active on social media, urging Sri Lankans to avoid panic and to exercise proper social distancing, as the country went into curfew on Friday evening.

Sri Lanka has so far reported more than 80 active COVID-19 positive cases in the country.

Across the world, the number of infected has crossed three lakh besides a death toll of more than 14,000 people.

Meanwhile, former Australia pacer Jason Gillespie has also gone into a two-week isolation after returning from the United Kingdom.

Gillespie, who is the head coach at Sussex, had been in Cape Town with the team for a pre-season tour, which was cut short as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

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News Network
March 19,2020

London, Mar 19: Talking about the break in cricketing activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, South Africa pacer Dale Steyn said that the disease seems to be to the only topic of conversation these days.

"I don't know how to describe it. Doesn't matter where you go, everyone is talking about it - whether it is on an airplane or you are just popping into a grocery store. It just seems like it is the only topic of conversation," ESPN Cricinfo quoted Steyn as saying.

"Yeah, it's so strange. Normally if I am on holiday I'll be planning a fishing trip or a surfing trip. At the moment I am just chilling at home," he added.

Steyn was last seen in action in the Pakistan Super League where he took two wickets in two matches.

When asked whether he has enough hand sanitizers, he replied: "We just decided that stockpiling is definitely not the way to go. It is not fair on everybody who needs that stuff. I went to the grocery store the other day and everyone had bought all the toilet paper. We have what we need, and when that runs out, that runs out, and we need to go and get some more".

"We didn't feel it was necessary to go and absolutely just, like, zombie our lives up. There's other people that live on a day-to-day basis. They are not going to get all of that stuff, so we thought it was best not to do that".

Steyn also had a message for the fans, "Stay healthy, wash your hands, look after yourself, don't be greedy. Right now they are saying old people are really struggling, so if in a position to help, rather help them than help yourself. Pretty simple, really."

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the ODI series between India-South Africa and Australia-New Zealand have been postponed.

The start of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has also been postponed until April 15.

Cricket South Africa has suspended all forms of cricket for 60 days while Cricket Australia has advised all its employees to work from home.

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