Bangalore, April 18
Brendon McCullum's incredible unbeaten century coupled with decimating fast bowling helped Kolkata Knight Riders inflict a humiliating 140-run defeat on Bangalore Royal Challengers in the opening match of the Indian Premier League here today.

Put in to bat, the Kolkata team scored a massive 222 for three and then skittled out their opponents for a paltry 82 to begin their campaign in the Twenty20 extravaganza in style.

McCullum produced a scintillating 73-ball knock of 158, which happens to be the highest individual total in T20 games.

The Kiwi wicket-keeper batsman single handedly took the Kolkata team past 200-run mark, punishing all the bowlers mercilessly before a packed house.

McCullum's innings was studded with 13 sixes and 10 fours as he scorched the Chinnaswamy stadium with his amazing stroke-play.

The Bangalore team's run chase was far from ideal as skipper Rahul Dravid (2) was the first to depart when teen sensation Ishant Sharma knocked over his stumps in the second over of the innings.

The Bangalore top-order collapsed like a house of cards as their batsmen buckled under pressure.

Jacques Kallis hit the first boundary of their innings off Ajit Agarkar in the fifth over but only to be dismissed on the next ball, handing a simple catch at mid-on to Murali Kartik.

No top-order batsman from the Vijay Mallya owned team could reach the double-digit mark against a disciplined fast bowling.

Agarkar was the pick of the bowlers as he accounted for three batsmen giving away 25 runs in his quota of four overs.

The start was deceptive. Six balls into his innings, McCullum didn't have a single run against his name as Praveen Kumar bowled an excellent first over. Four deliveries later, McCullum had blazed to 18, flicking and pulling Zaheer Khan for four, and then miscuing a flick which, quite incredibly, soared over third man for the first six of the tournament.

Scoreboard

Kolkata Knight Riders

Ganguly c Kallis b Zaheer 10

McCullum not out 158

Ponting c Kumar b Kallis 20

Hussey c White b Noffke 12

Mohammad Hafeez not out 5

Extras (b-4, lb-4, w-9) 17

Total (3 wkts; 20 overs) 222

Fall of wickets: 1-61, 2-112, 3-172.

Bowling: Praveen 4-0-38-0, Zaheer 4-0-38-1, Noffke 4-0-40-1, Kallis 4-0-48-1, Joshi 3-0-26-0, White 1-0-24-0.

Bangalore Royal Challengers

Dravid b Sharma 2

Jaffer c Ponting b Dinda 6

Kohli b Dinda 1

Kallis c Kartik b Agarkar 8

White c Saha b Agarkar 6

Boucher c Kartik b Ganguly 7

Akhil c Ponting b Agarkar 0

Noffke run out 9

Kumar not out 18

Zaheer b Ganguly 3

Joshi c McCullum b Shukla 3

Extras (lb-8, w-11) 19

Total (all out; 15.1 overs) 82

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-9, 3-24, 4-24, 5-38, 6-38, 7-43, 8-57, 9-70.

Bowling: Dinda 3-0-9-2, Sharma 3-0-7-1, Agarkar 4-0-25-3, Ganguly 4-0-21-2, Shukla 1.1-0-12-1. — Agencies

Clad in yellow ‘mini’ suits and red bom-boms in their two hands they danced to the swaying music. — UNI

New Delhi, April 18
Hours before the launch of Indian Premier League, top international news agencies have announced their decision to boycott the much-hyped multi-million dollar Twenty20 competition due to restrictions on distribution of photographs to cricket-specific websites.

Agence France-Presse (AFP), Associated Press and Reuters will not cover the competition till the term is “sorted out”.

The AFP and Reuters have issued advisories to their subscribers, saying no text would be provided on the IPL till their demands were agreed to.

“AFP will not, until further notice, offer any text, photo or graphics coverage of the inaugural Indian Premier League cricket, beginning Friday, due to restrictions imposed on international news agencies on the distribution of photographs,” the AFP advisory said.

Reuters also made it clear to its clients that the agency would be “unable to cover” the event due to restrictions on photographs.

The IPL terms and conditions prohibit news agencies from supplying photographs to cricket-specific websites for the eight-team club tournament.

Meanwhile, IPL Chairman Lalit Modi said the issue with news broadcasters was resolved and television channels would telecast all the 59 matches played over 44 days.

“I am glad that the issues relating to footage and accreditation for News and Current Affairs Broadcasters, have been resolved amicably,” News Broadcasting Association quoted Modi as saying in a statement issued today. — PTI

New Delhi, April 18
Delhi Daredevils are flush with so much talent that they would not miss some of their star foreign players when they take on Rajasthan Royals in the second match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 Cricket tournament at the flood-lit Ferozeshah Kotla ground here tomorrow.

The match will start at 8.30 pm after 20 minutes of entertainment, starting at 7.15 pm, by Bollywood star Akshay Kumar and party.

Mentor of Delhi Daredevils T.A.Sekhar said the team was in "very good shape" after ten days of rigorous practice, including two practice matches under the newly installed floodlights at the Kotla ground. He said the experience of playing under the lights will stand the Daredevils in good stead.

Sekhar said the Kotla pitch would be a “typical Delhi wicket” - a sporting one at that - aiding both the bowlers and the batsmen alike. But he admitted that it was very difficult to judge the wicket just like that.

He said the Daredevils were not worried about the presence of Australian spin wizard Shane Warne in the Royals team, led by Mohammad Kaif, but noted that Warne would have no problem adjusting to the pitch, because of his ability to swing the ball.

Sekhar said the Delhi players will have no difficulty adjusting to the Twenty20 format because of their experience of playing a lot of 40-over matches in the capital's cricket circuit. He said the playing eleven and the vice-captain of the team will be finalised only tomorrow.

Gautam Gambhir, deputising for Delhi Daredivils captain Virender Sehwag, who had gone to Bangalore to attend the IPL opener, said Daredevils were an "equally balanced team" and there would be no "ego clashes" in the dressing room, with all the players determined to give off their best for the team cause, instead of resting on their star status.

Tillakaratne Dilshan, who joined Daredevils after playing a gruelling series for Sri Lanka in the West Indies, said it was a great feeling to share the dressing room with star cricketers from other countries. "It's a new experience for us", he said.

Even without players like Shoaib Malik, Mohd Asif and AVD Villiers, Delhi Daredevils will have a problem of plenty with Glen McGrath, Sehwag, Gambhir all expected to play in the team's lung opener.

There has been encouraging response for tickets for the match with Yogesh Shetty of franchise GMR claiming that nearly 70 per cent of the tickets had been sold out, including the highly priced tickets in the hospitality enclosure. After meeting the obligatory complitary passes requirements of the Delhi and District Cricket Association, GMR had reportedly sold over 14,000 tickets by Friday afternoon.

And thanks to the IPL, particularly GMR, who are into building the new Delhi International Airport, the Ferozeshah Kotla stadium, particularly the old block, has got a nice make over, with everything looking spick and span.

Mohali, April 18
Don’t be surprised. This will be a contest with a difference. In fact, a novelty for cricket enthusiasts.

It will be a pleasant surprise for them when Australia spearhead Brett Lee opens the bowling for Kings XI Punjab along with S. Sreesanth or Kyle Mills in the DLF Indian Premier League match against Chennai Super Kings in the evening match at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium here tomorrow.

There will be no Harbhajan Singh to tie up the rival batsmen in knots. Instead, this will be the responsibility of UP’s Piyush Chawla or Mumbai’s Ramesh Powar as Bhajji will be doing duty for Mumbai Indians, while the former two will don Kings XI Punjab colours.

Punjab skipper Yuvraj Singh will not be too friendly, at least on the field, with his pal Mohinder Singh Dhoni, when the two teams take the field. On his part, Yuvi will be found scratching his head to find out ways and means to see the back of Jharkhand player as soon as possible. For, Yuvi knows that if allowed to settle down, Dhoni would be a dangerous customer with the bat.

Similar will be the priority of Dhoni vis-a-vis local favourite Yuvraj. Familiar with the conditions, Yuvraj’s departure at the earliest will be Dhoni’s aim when the swashbuckling southpaw arrives at the crease.

Such is the composition of the teams playing in the inaugural edition of the IPL, the build-up of which has been nothing less than frenzied, that the cricketing world is abuzz with excitement.

Spectators will need some time to get a hang of the new concept of city-based teams taking on each other rather than Team India fighting tooth and nail with Pakistan or Australia in a Test match or a one-dayer.

But these are not strictly city teams but have some of the best cricket players in the world which were snared by an open auction a couple of months ago in Mumbai.

Players like Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds, Brett Lee, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumara Sangakkara, Stephen Fleming, et al, will be seen in action in the 44-day competition spread over eight venues in the country with the inaugural match in Bangalore today.

The presence of offie Muttiah Muralitharan, the most successful Test bowler, will surely add teeth to the Chennai bowling attack which otherwise does not look as penetrative as the bowling attack at the disposal of Yuvraj Singh.

With Makhya Ntini and Albie Morkel slated to join the team after the first two games, Dhoni, the Chennai skipper, will rely on all-rounder Jacob Oram, comeback seamer L. Balaji, Joginder Sharma and Sudeep Tyagi to shoulder the pace bowling burden.

Chennai, however, have an array of impressive batsmen. Apart from skipper Dhoni himself, dangerous opener Mathew Hayden, Stephen Fleming and Mike Hussey and some of the most profilic domestic batsmen like S. Badrinath and Suresh Raina make the Chennai batting formidable.

Though both the teams boast of impressive line-ups, Kings XI Punjab led by Yuvraj Singh have a better pace attack led by fiery Lee who will be joined by nippy Sreesanth.

In Irfan Pathan and Australian James Hopes, Kings XI have two all-rounders, who can make a difference in this version of the game.

In batting, besides Yuvraj, Kings XI will be banking on Kumara Sangakkara, his Sri Lankan team-mate Mahela Jayawardene and Ramnaresh Sarwan and domestic players Pankaj Dharmani and Karan Goel to give solidity to the batting.

King’s XI Punjab (from): Yuvraj Singh, (C), S. Katich, K. Sangakkara, M. Jayawardene, K. Goel, P. Chawla, S. Sreesanth, J. Hopes, K. Mills, I. Pathan, P. Dharmani, W. Mota, VR V Singh, B. Lee, Tanmay.

Start of play: 5 pm

Bangalore, April 18
National coach Joaquim Carvalho today asserted that the Indian hockey team was under no pressure as it leaves for Australia to play a four-nation tournament, first after the Olympic Qualifiers fiasco, tomorrow.

“We are leaving tomorrow for Australia without any pressure attached and we will put up a good show. It would be further creditable, if we win the tournament,” Carvalho told PTI.

“After failing to qualify for the Olympics, it is difficult for anything to come by but these boys are raring to go. There will be less pressure on these boys,” he said.

The national coach said the tournament — also featuring China and Korea — would serve as an opportunity to try out new youngsters and re-build the team.

“We have inducted lot of youngsters. These youngsters will be rotated in matches Down Under in order to provide exposure to have a strong pool of players for 2010.

“We are going to give as much chances as possible to the new faces. The team is good. We do not have anything to lose since being out of Olympics. We can try out various players,” he said.

Carvalho insisted the boys mean business and they were not taking the two-leg tournament lightly.

“Nothing much should be read out of context irrespective of the results. We are in the process of rebuilding the team. It does not mean that we are going there just to take part but we are determined to in matches and tournament,” he said.

As for the team for the Australian tournament, Carvalho said ‘we have inducted lot of youngsters.These youngsters will be rotated in matches Down Under in order to provide exposure to have a strong pool of players for 2010. We are going to give as much chances as possible to the new faces’.

‘The team is good. We do not have anything to lose since being out of Olympics. We can try out various players. Nothing much should be read out of context irrespective of the results.We are in the process of rebuilding the team. It does not mean that we are going there just to take part but we are determined to in matches and tournament,’ he said.

‘After failing to qualify for the Olympics,it is difficult for anything to come by but these boys are raring to go. There will be less pressure on these boys’, he said.

Panaji, April 18
Former Nigerian world cupper Emeka Ezeugo has signed in as the head coach of Churchill Brothers Soccer Club.

He replaces Moroccan Karim Bencherifa, who resigned in March to join
Mohan Bagan.

Churchill Bros’ patron Churchill Alemao said that they are proud to have Emeka as the coach and his club was looking forward to reaching newer heights this season.

Emeka, who played for East Bengal and Mohammedan Sporting, has worldwide experience. He has toured Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh, Denmark, Spain and Hungary.

While the United States remains his recent destination where he played and coached of late before grabbing the Churchill Bros offer.

Emeka, who is coaching for the first time an Indian club will join Churchill Bros in June, said he will try to run the club more profesionally as it is important that we improve the players attitude, beside making them realize that playing is not just job.

“Football is a larger than life sport and needs to involve the officials, players and coaches together to move forward,” he said.

Churchill Bros has retained most of the players that played last season. Former Salgaocar foreigner Felix C along with Air India’s Dhanachandra and ex-sporting cube player Nicholas Rodrigues will be the club’s new signings. — PTI