Hyderabad, May 1
Shikhar Dhawan smashed his second half century of the season as Sunrisers Hyderabad scored an easy seven-wicket victory over Mumbai Indians in a lop-sided Indian Premier League match here today.

Dhawan struck nine fours and a six in his 55-ball unbeaten 73 as the home side chased down the small target of 130 with two overs to spare at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at Uppal here.

The India opener shared 74 runs with Hanuma Vihari (25 off 23 balls) for the third wicket as the Sunrisers reached easily chased down the target. Captain Kumar Sangakkara contributed run-a-ball 21.

Despite today’s win, their sixth in 10 matches, the Sunrisers remained at fifth place with 12 points. Mumbai, whose three-game winning streak was snapped today, also remained at fourth place with 12 points from 10 matches.

The Sunrisers lost opener Akshath Reddy (7) in the third over with just 16 on the board.

Despite the early jolt, the home side had nothing much to worry about as the asking rate was low and captain Sangakkara and Dhawan finding the boundaries. Sangakkara hit the first four of his innings off his Sri Lankan compatriot Lasith Malinga in the fifth over and then finished off-spinner Harbhajan Singh with two consecutive boundaries in the sixth over. Dhawan was also settling down well with a four off Pragyan Ojha and a six off Harbhajan after hitting two boundaries off Dhawal Kulkarni early on.

Just as the Sangakkara-Dhawan second wicket partnership was threatening to end the game early, Harbhajan struck by dismissing the home side captain in the eighth over.

The asking rate climbed a bit at just below seven an over but the Sunrisers were cruising along at 61 for two at the halfway stage and the home side virtually took the game away from the reach of Mumbai Indians by taking 15 runs from the 12th over bowled by Dwayne Smith.

Earlier, a fine bowling performance from Sunrisers saw them restrict a star-studded Mumbai Indians side to a modest 129 for four.

Pacer Ishant Sharma (2/15) and leggie Amit Mishra (2/24) proved to be the most miserly in their four-over spells.

The others too bowled economical spells with Karan Sharma and Dale Steyn conceding just 25 and 27 runs in their quota of four overs.

Mumbai’s Ambati Rayadu played a useful 34-run knock while big-hitter Kieren Pollard (14 of 19 balls) found the going tough on a slow wicket.

The duo shared an unbeaten 50-run stand for the fifth wicket to take their side past 120.Mumbai got off to a steady start with openers Sachin Tendulkar and Dwayne Smith reaching 31 at the end of four overs. — PTI

Scoreboard

Mumbai Indians

Smith lbw b Mishra 38

Tendulkar b Ishant 14

Karthik c KV Sharma b Ishant 0

Rohit c Ishant b Mishra 22

Pollard not out 14

Rayudu not out 34

Extras: (lb 1, w 4, nb 2) 7

Total: (4 wkts; 20 overs) 129

Fall of wickets: 1-32, 2-32, 3-74, 4-79

Bowling

Karan Sharma 4-0-25-0

Steyn 4-0-27-0

Ishant 4-1-15-2

Perera 4-0-37-0

Mishra 4-0-24-2

Sunrisers hyderabad

Reddy c Smith b Johnson 7

Dhawan not out 73

Sangakkara c & b Harbhajan 21

Vihari c Rayudu b Kulkarni 25

Sammy not out 1

Extras: (w 2, nb 1) 3

Total (3 wkts; 18 overs) 130

Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-53, 3-127

Bowling

Johnson 3-0-21-1

Kulkarni 2-0-13-1

Harbhajan 4-0-35-1

Malinga 3-0-23-0

Ojha 4-0-18-0

Rohit 1-0-5-0

Smith 1-0-15-0

New Delhi, May 1
Top seed PV Sindhu advanced to the second round of the Malaysia Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament after recording a win over Singapore’s Chena Jiayuan on a day that saw three Indians qualifying for the pre-quarterfinals of the men’s singles event in Kuala Lumpur.

Sindhu beat Jiayuan 21-13 19-21 21-13 in a match that lasted 47 minutes.

Sindhu will meet Hong Kong’s Cheung Ngan Yi in the quarterfinals tomorrow.

Making the pre-quarters of the men’s event were RMV Gurusaidutt, Sameer Verma and K Srikanth.

Verma defeated Malaysia’s Wei Feng Chong 21-15 16-21 21-19 in 55 minutes while Gurusaidutt beat Giap Chin Goh, also from the host country, 21-8 21-9 in just 26 minutes. K Srikanth got the better of Suppanyu Avihingsanon of Thailand 21-9 21-19 in 36 minutes.

PC Thulasi tasted defeat in the first round of the women’s section, losing to China’s Yao Xue 21-18 21-5. Also losing was Arundhati Pantawane, who was shown the door by Indonesia’s Maria Febe Kusumastuti 13-21 21-10 21-14.

Tanvi Lal too lost, to Japan’s Ito Kana 21-8 21-14.

H S Prannoy, who got a walkover in the first round, lost his second round match to Malaysia’s Zainuddin Iskandar Zulkarnain 15-21 21-14 21-15.

In mixed doubles, Sanjeeth S and Jagadish Yadav lost to Indonesian duo of Hardi Hardianto and Agripinna Prima Rahmanto Putra 21-16 21-17. — PTI

St Petersburg, May 1
World champion Viswanathan Anand played out a draw with Boris Gelfand of Israel in the ninth and final round to finish third in the Alekhine memorial chess tournament here.

Playing the black side of a Semi-Slav, Anand got nothing to push for as Gelfand played solidly for one of his best performance ever. The Israeli ended as joint first along with Levon Aronian of Armenia who defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagraev of France in his final game.

In other games of the day, Nikita Vituigov of Russia mishandled a promising position and drew with Ding Liren of China while another Russian, Peter Svidler, shared a point with Laurent Fressinet of France.

World No. 3 Vladimir Kramnik was still pressing for a victory against Michael Adams of Englands and though the result will not have much implication for the winners, Adams can finish joint third if he pulls off a draw.

Both Gelfand and Aronian ended on 5.5 points and Anand is sole third as of now with five points in all. After a shocking first-round loss, it was a good comeback by Anand who started winning only in the fifth round of the tournament. For the records, the Indian ace won two, lost one and drew the remaining seven games.

Anand went for a similar variation he had employed against Vachier-Lagraev in one of the earlier rounds and did not face problems as Gelfand was also content with a peaceful result.

The Israel pressed for some time but could not make any progress with Anand going for piece trading in a heap. The players soon arrived at a drawn endgame where the draw was agreed to after 40 moves.

Earlier, Anand had been held to a draw by Russian Peter Svidler in the eighth round, but had risen up to the joint second spot.

On what turned out to be an off-day in office after a couple of remarkable victories with white pieces, Anand could do little against Svidler who had things under control for the most part of the game despite playing black. Anand enjoys a great record against Svidler but on this day the Russian had worked his opening well. The closed Ruy Lopez by the Indian ace only resulted in a level position after Svidler successfully exchanged minor pieces at regular intervals. — PTI

New Delhi, May 1
The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) today filed an appeal in the Delhi High Court exactly nine days after the court declared the shooting body’s April 6 elections as null and void.

The procedure adopted for electing four representatives as life members on March 4, and the April 6 NRAI polls, had been challenged by Athens Olympic silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.

Taking note of Rathore’s plea, the court had said that denying him the right to contest elections was not justified, which prompted the NRAI to take legal discourse.

In a shot in the arm for Rathore, the Delhi High Court on April 22 quashed the nomination of eight members to general body of NRAI including its president Raninder Singh for depriving the shooter an opportunity to contest the election of the sports body.

The court gave the sports body the liberty to hold fresh elections in accordance with law. “No election which has been held after depriving the persons desirous of contesting the chance to contest can be held to be a valid election and cannot be given any recognition,” Justice PK Bhasin had said in that ruling. — PTI

Chennai, May 1
Struggling for form but showing some spark at the same time, Kings XI Punjab will have to brace up for another massive challenge when they take on former champions and table-toppers Chennai Super Kings in their Pepsi IPL match here tomorrow.

Punjab ended just four runs shy of what could have been a morale-lifting win over the Mumbai Indians in their most recent match.

They showed the stomach for a fight but just did not get that one crucial knock from any of their batsmen which could have take them to a win. Chennai, on the other hand, leaders by quite a distance on the points table after eight wins from 10 matches, are the team to beat this IPL.

Chennai have won their last six matches, with opener Michael Hussey in sublime form. The Australian is the second highest run scorer in the series with 450 in nine games. Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni too has been in ominous form with the bat, while all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has always proved to be a handy finisher. West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo is the highest wicket-taker for Chennai with 16 wickets but he has struggled with the bat in the tournament.

On the bowling front there is some concern as South African all-rounder Albie Morkel has picked up just one wicket in his four games. But young Indian medium pacer Mohit Sharma has done reasonably well, scalping nine wickets in seven matches at an average of 14.6.

In contrast, Punjab are coming into the game after being outsmarted by Mumbai. An unlikely victory over CSK would increase their points tally to 10.

The visitors’ under-performing captain Adam Gilchrist dropped himself from the team in the previous match. The wicket-keeper batsman failed to provide the flying starts which he was known for in his heydays and a tally of 94 runs in eight games hurt his side’s chances badly.

Mandeep Singh, who has the ability to clear the ropes with nonchalance and has scored 228 runs in nine matches, is now partnering another Australian, Shaun Marsh, in the opening slots.

With another experienced Aussie campaigner, David Hussey (199 runs in nine matches), also not among the runs, the batting has struggled.

The last time they visited Chennai, they were shot out for 138. Given the huge contrast in their current fortunes, it would take more than just a big heart for fight for Punjab to upstage Chennai tomorrow. — PTI

Raipur, May 1
Rajat Bhatia’s cameo of 26 runs helped a struggling Kolkata Knight Riders post 136 for seven against Delhi Daredevils in their IPL match here at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium on Wednesday.

Bhatia, who came into bat when his team was struggling at 50 for five, scored 26 valuable runs off 26 balls, helping his team reach a total that was significantly above the embarrasing score they seemed set for at one stage.

Bhatia had a 30-run partnership with tailender Sumit Narwal, who smashed four fours in his 15-ball 23.

It was a horrible start for the Kolkata after they elected to bat first on winning the toss. They lost captain Gautam Gambhir in the first over to a run-out, when he was out without facing a single ball. In-form opener Bisla left soon after, bowled by Umesh Yadav. Yusuf Pathan and Kallis tried to build a partnership but Pathan departed in the sixth over, caught by brother Irfan off Morkel. When Eion Morgan was caught by Yadav off Shahbaz Nadeem, KKR were reduced to 48/4. — TNS

Brief scores

Kolkata Knight Riders 136/7 in 20 overs (Bhatia 26, Narwal 23, Pathan 20; Yadav 2/36, Pathan 1/16, Morkel 1/22)

Barcelona, May 1
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has voiced its disappointment the decision by the judge in Spain’s “Operation Puerto” doping trial to destroy all the evidence from the case instead of making it available to other sports bodies and said it is considering an appeal.

Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, the central figure in the trial, was given a one-year prison term for endangering public health and the judge also ordered the evidence, including bags of blood possibly belonging to athletes from sports other than cycling, to be destroyed. Her decision not to release evidence to anti-doping authorities for further investigation damaged hopes that the case would unmask other athletes involved in illegal doping.

“WADA has carefully considered the decision rendered by the Criminal Court in Madrid,” the agency’s director general, David Howman, said. “The decision to order the destruction of all the blood bags is particularly disappointing and unsatisfactory for WADA, and the whole anti-doping community. Access to this evidence motivated WADA’s involvement in this case. This would ensure appropriate sports sanction processes against cheats.” — Reuters

Madrid, May 1
Borussia Dortmund survived a stirring Real Madrid fightback to reach the Champions League final on Tuesday with a 4-3 aggregate victory despite losing 2-0 after conceding late goals at an electric Bernabeu. Real looked down and out before substitute Karim Benzema scored from close range in the 83rd minute and Sergio Ramos struck five minutes later but with the home fans going wild as they urged their team forward Dortmund held on.

Jose Mourinho’s Real team had missed several early chances before Dortmund settled and as the hosts committed men forward in the second half the visitors squandered several opportunities of their own before their defence was breached twice.

Dortmund, the European champions in 1997 on their only appearance in the final, will play German rivals Bayern Munich or Barcelona in the May 25 showpiece at Wembley stadium. Barca trail 4-0 heading into Wednesday’s second leg at the Nou Camp.

Real defender Sergio Ramos told Spanish broadcaster TVE: “It’s a shame. You can lose and football is like that but when you lose it should be with this version of Real Madrid. If we had come out playing like we did tonight in Dortmund things would be very different.”

With Spanish King Juan Carlos watching from the VIP tribune and chants of “Yes we can!” echoing around Real’s giant arena, the home supporters unveiled an enormous mosaic depicting the Champions League trophy before kickoff. Nine-times European champions Real were fired up and took the game to Dortmund early on and Gonzalo Higuain drew a smart save from Roman Weidenfeller in the fourth minute.

Dortmund looked nervous but while also managing to get forward and Robert Lewandowski, who scored all four of the German side’s goals in last week’s 4-1 first-leg victory, volleyed straight at Diego Lopez in the 13th minute.

After Dortmund playmaker Mario Goetze was forced off injured in the 14th minute, his Germany teammate Mesut Ozil had a golden chance to open Real’s account when he was clean through on goal but his low strike flew narrowly wide of the post.

With Dortmund pressuring the Real players and denying them time on the ball, the home support began to get restless as the chances for the hosts started to dry up. By halftime the Dortmund fans were starting to make themselves heard and the “Yes we cans!” from the frustrated local fans seemed increasingly half-hearted.

As the second half began, Real’s coach Mourinho cut a worried-looking figure.

Dortmund had two chances early in the second period and both fell to Lewandowski. The Poland forward struck a wild shot over the bar in the 49th and then raced clear onto a Marco Reus pass a minute later but smashed his effort against the crossbar.

Madrid goalkeeper Diego Lopez somehow managed to scramble across to deny Ilkay Guendogan who had the goal at his mercy and Lewandowski’s shot was blocked by Michael Essien in the 76th.

Ramos smashed the ball into the roof of the net to set up a frantic finale but it was all too late. — Reuters

Madrid, May 1
Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho dropped another hint he was considering his future by saying he might not be with the Spanish giants next season after they lost in the Champions League semi-finals on Tuesday.

Following Real’s 4-3 aggregate defeat by Borussia Dortmund, the former Chelsea manager was asked if he would remain in Madrid next term and he told ITV Sport: “Maybe not. I don’t know but I want to be where people love me to be.”

The former boss of Porto and Inter Milan, who won the Champions League with both clubs, has been surrounded by rumours he might leave Madrid after this campaign with England his most likely destination despite having a contract until 2016. “I know I am loved in England, I am loved by the fans and the media,” Mourinho said. “They treat me fairly. They give me credit when it is due and criticise when it is deserved.”

“I am loved by some clubs, especially one,” he added referring to Chelsea. “In Spain it is different, some people hate me, many of you in this room.” — Reuters