Hyderabad, May 17
Mumbai Indians notched up their sixth win on the trot to continue their hunt for a semifinal place after pipping Deccan Chargers by 25 runs in their Indian Premier League encounter here today. The Mumbai team first scored a competitive 178 for 7, thanks to some sensible batting by Abishek Nayar and Dwayne Bravo, and then restricted hosts to 153 for 7 in 20 overs.

The win was a sweet revenge for the visitors as they had lost by 10-wickets against the Chargers at home. Bravo, who was playing his last match in the tournament, ended the tournament on a high note as he first collected 30 crucial runs and then took three wickets, playing a vital role in his team’s victory.

Y. Venugopal Rao top scored for the Hyderabad team with a sparkling 57-run knock before walking back to the hut. It was his third half-century in the tournament and it came off just 38-balls with the help of four boundaries and three sixes.

Sri Lankan paceman Dilhara Fernando dealt a severe double blow to the hosts by dismissing Gilchrist and Rohit Sharma (6) on consecutive deliveries in his very first over. This left the hosts stuttering 20 for three and leaving a big task for Rao and Chamara Silva. 

Scoreboard

Mumbai Indians

Jayasuriya c Singh b Rao 36

Tendulkar c Silva b Afridi 23

Thornely lbw b Afridi 8

Nayar c Sharma b Singh 38

Uthappa c Afridi b Rao 7

Bravo b Singh 30

P Shah b Singh 10

YV Takawale not out 5

RR Raje not out 1

Extras (lb 11, w 7, nb 2) 20

Total (7 wickets; 20 overs) 178

Fall of wickets: 1-39, 2-72, 3-72, 4-96, 5-150, 6-156, 7-175

Bowling: Vijaykumar 2-0-24- 0, Zoysa 3-0-37-0, Rao 3-0-25-2, RP Singh 4-0-35-3, Afridi 4-0-23-2, Ojha 4-0-23-0

Deccan Chargers

Gilchrist c Shah b Fernando 13

Afridi c Thornely b Bravo 0

R Sharma lbw b Fernando 6

C Silva c Takawale b Nayar 17

Y Venugopal Rao c Shah b

Bravo 58

DB Ravi Teja b Bravo 37

DNT Zoysa not out 10

H Das run out (Takawale) 2

RP Singh not out 3

Extras: (b 1, lb 2, w 3, nb 1) 7

Total: (7 wickets; 20 overs) 153

Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-20, 3-20, 4-56, 5-130, 6-136, 7-145

Bowling: Nehra 4-0-29-0, Bravo 4-0-24-3, Fernando 4-0-39-2, Raje 2-0-19-0, Nayar 3-0-18-1, Thornely 1-0-8-0, Jayasuriya 2-0-13-0

Player of the match: Bravo (Mumbai Indians)— PTI

Kolkata, May 18
A floodlight disruption and a norwester curtailed a promising match, as Chennai Super Kings inched closer to a semi-final berth with a two-run victory against Kolkata Knight Riders via Duckworth-Lewis method in an Indian Premier League match here today.

Replying to the Knight Riders' modest total of 149 for 5, that saw Super Kings pacer Makhaya Ntini get a hat-trick, the Chennai team were 55 without loss after eight overs, when a sudden burst of wind resulted in some of the bulbs in each of the four light towers conking off at the Eden Gardens.

The play was immediately halted and the situation turned worse as a norwester with high wind velocity raged accompanied by rains, tossing into the air the tarpaulin sheets, which had been brought in to cover the wicket and the outfield.

The Duckworth-Lewis rain rule was called into play and the authorities declared Chennai Super Kings the winner by two runs, based on the complex DL formula, after waiting in vain for 90 minutes for the situation to improve.

The Knight Riders were 46 for 2 after eight overs, but the Chennai side needed to make 53 without losing a wicket for a victory.

In the end, a boundary hit by Stephen Fleming (32 not out, 20b, 6x4) with a fine leg glide in the penultimate delivery sent down by Ajit Agarkar proved crucial in sealing the win for the Chennai team, who now have 12 points from 11 matches and look well poised to make it to the last four. A ball earlier, Ashok Dinda had failed to latch on to a catch offered by Parthiv Patel (19 not out, 28 b, 2x4) at long off.

Earlier, South African pacer Makhaya Ntini came up with a fine hat-trick to restrict the Kolkata Knight Riders to a modest 149 for 5.

The 30-year-old new ball bowler got rid of Knight Riders skipper Sourav Ganguly with the last ball of his third over, before he was taken off the attack by stand-in skipper Stephen Fleming, who called the shots as regular captain M S Dhoni retired to the dressing room with an injured finger.

Ntini came back in the 17th over and immediately struck a double blow, by showing the door to Debabrata Das (27) and David Hussey (0) with his first two balls, to complete the third hat-trick of the tourney after pacer L Balaji and leg spinner Amit Mishra. He finished with highly impressive figures of 4-0-21-4.

For the Knight Riders, Pakistani left-hander Salman Butt (73; 84 balls, 10x4, 1x6) deftly anchored the innings after the hosts lost two early wickets, and steadied the ship by putting on 86 runs for the third wicket alongside the young Debabrata Das. 

Scoreboard

Kolkata Knight Riders:

Butt lbw b Balaji 73

Hafeez c Gony b Ntini 6

Ganguly b Ntini 2

D Das b Ntini 27

D Hussey b Ntini 0

Shukla not out 13

WP Saha not out 15

Extras (b 2, lb 7, w 3, nb 1): 13

Total (5 wickets; 20 overs): 149

Fall of wickets1-14, 2-28, 3-114, 4-114, 5-122

Bowling: M Ntini 4-0-21-4, M Gony 4-0-17-0, M Muralitharan 4-0-41-0, L Balaji 4-0-36-1, J Morkel 4-0-25-0

Chennai Super Kings:

P Patel not out 19

S Fleming not out 32

Extras (lb 1, w 3): 4

Total (0 wickets; 8 overs): 55

Bowling: Shoaib Akhtar 2-0-14-0, I Sharma 2-0-16-0, A Dinda 2-0-10-0, A Agarkar 2-0-14-0

Player of the match: M Ntini (Chennai Super Kings)— PTI

Bangalore, May 18
After successive defeats, the Bangalore Royal Challengers will have to utilise all their resources for a victory over Delhi Daredevils to be played at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium here tomorrow.

Dravid’s men, playing their sixth match on home turf with only one win, would have to make all out efforts for a victory against the Sehwag-led team to salvage their prestige.

A win against Daredevils might be a herculean task for the ‘frustrated’ Dravid, as his men, despite adopting various game plans, failed to perform effectively.

Daredevils, though placed fifth with 10 points, with six wins and five losses from 11 matches, have the edge over the hosts who are in seventh place with four points from two wins and eight defeats from 10 matches.

Tomorrow’s match is crucial for the visitors to keep afloat and Sehwag’s men will certainly go all out for victory. It is also a must win game for the visitors after having lost their match against Kings XI Punjab last night. Though Delhi has two more matches, one against Kolkata Knight Riders and another against Mumbai Indians, both the teams are fighting for semifinal berths. To stay in contention, the Daredevils know that they need a big win tomorrow, and they will certainly leave no stone unturned to ensure it.

Teams:

Bangalore Royal Challengers: Rahul Dravid (capt), Abdur Razzak, Balachandra Akhil, K.P. Appanna, Jagadeesh Arunkumar, Praveen Kumar, Devraj Patil, Vinay Kumar, Mark Boucher (wk), Nathan Bracken, S. Chanderpaul, Bharat Chipli, Shreevats Goswami (wk), Anil Kumble, Dale Steyn, Cameron White, Wasim Jaffer, Sunil Joshi, Jacques Kallis, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, Misbah-ul-Haq, Ross Taylor, Venkatesh Prasad (Coach).

Delhi Daredevils: Virender Sehwag (capt), Rajat Bhatia, A.B. de Villiers, Shikhar Dhawan, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Pradeep Sangwan, Daniel Vettori, Gautam Gambhir, Brett Geeves, Dinesh Karthik, Glenn McGrath, Farveez Maharoof, Shoaib Malik, Tejashwi Yadav, Yo Mahesh, Mithun Manhas, Amit Mishra, Mohammad Asif, Yogesh Nagar, Manoj Tiwary, Mayank Tehlan. — UNI

New Delhi, May 18
Even though Delhi Daredevils have slipped to the fifth spot in the IPL rankings, captain Virender Sehwag is still hopeful that his team will bounce back in the tournament to claim a semi-final berth.

Speaking to mediapersons here last night, after Kings XI Punjab defeated Delhi Daredevils by six runs, Sehwag said,''A semi-final place is still on the cards. If we win all our remaining three matches, we still have a chance to book a place in semi-finals.''

Sehwag led his team from the front and scored a swashbuckling 26-ball 51, but was unfortunate to finish on the losing side.

Kings XI Punjab emerged winners when they were comfortably placed at 94 for three after eight overs and were ahead of the required run rate under Duckworth-Lewis system.

However, Sehwag was of the view, that had it been a 20-over match, the result could have been in his favour.

''We were batting quite well and we always had a chance if it would have gone till the 20th over,'' he said.

The Delhi captain added that his over, in which he gave away 22 runs, made it a little easy for the visitors to reach the target.

''It was an expensive over and it came at a crucial stage too. If it would have been a 10-run over, the run rate would have gone up but it was a difficult choice as I had to save McGrath for the slog overs as well,'' Sehwag added.

Meanwhile, the victorious Kings XI Punjab captain Yuvraj Singh said since his side was aware of the target, it went in their advantage in yesterday's rain-curtailed match.

''Obviously, it does help in such situations, but in any case, even if I would have won the toss, I would have chosen to field,'' said Yuvraj who hit a bristling eight-ball 23. — UNI

Kolkata, May 18
Power disruption returned to Eden Gardens after a month during the Indian Premier League match today as some of the bulbs in each of the four floodlight towers went off in the second half of the match.

However, the authorities were saved the blushes by a norwester which hit the city soon after with brute force accompanied by rain forcing the match officals to stop the game at that point.

Finally, the Chennai Super Kings were adjudged winners over the Kolkata Knight Riders via the Duckworth-Lewis rain rule after it was decided that play could not be resumed due to a soggy outfield and pitch.

CAB president Prasun Mukherjee said the bulbs went off due to the storm. "I have been told by the technical people deployed there that it was due to the norwester that the bulbs conked out".

Mukherjee claimed the problem was immediately attended to and the lights restored within a few seconds.

"But these bulbs are made in such a way that once they go off, they will take 10-15 minutes to be restored to full capacity. And that's what happened," he told PTI.

Mukherjee, however, stressed that the match was mainly affected by the norwester and the accompanying rains.

"The light disruption did not affect the match. It was the weather that led to the curtailment," he said.

Power utility CESC also washed its hands off. "There was no fault on our part," said the company's Executive Director D Sen.

On April 20, the IPL match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Deccan Chargers was halted for 31 minutes after lights in two of the four towers went off, plunging the stadium to semi darkness.

Despite setting up an expert committee and holding a plethora of meetings, the West Bengal government failed to pinpoint the reasons for the breakdown, though several short-term measures were later taken to prevent any recurrence. — PTI

Melbourne, May 18
In what could snowball into an embarrassment for the Indian Premier League, some Australian cricketers who participated in the cash-rich Twenty20 series claim they have not received the wages for their short stints despite repeated reminders to their respective franchise owners.

Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) chief Paul Marsh has claimed that the players, who returned home after playing in the IPL for the first two weeks due to national commitment in West Indies, were frustrated with the impasse. 'The Sun Herald' quoted an un-named Australian player as saying that his franchise was not clearing his money despite claiming on three occasions that his wage was on its way.

"First I was told it would be in two weeks," the player said.

"That passed by and I was told it would be in the following week. Then I was told it would be in in the next few days. I just said, 'I'll believe it when I see it'," he revealed.

Another player was reportedly trying to get his money in instalments as he needed it urgently to make mortgage payments. The newspaper's report said one of the players got his payment only a few days ago but that too after a lot of effort.

The top Aussie cricketers who returned after the first couple of weeks in IPL included skipper Ricky Ponting, pace spearhead Brett Lee, Michael Hussey, Simon Katich and all-rounder Andrew Symonds among others.

Marsh said the ACA was keeping a close eye on the matter and will assist the players in getting their due from the IPL franchisees.

"It's something we're aware of. There's still a few that haven't been paid," Marsh said. "It's certainly something we've got our eye on but it's not something that we're panicking about. We just want to get a result as soon as we can," he added. — PTI 

Ipoh (Malaysia), May 18
Mario Almada struck a golden goal as a spirited India suffered a narrow 1-2 defeat to Argentina in the final of the Azlan Shah hockey tournament here today.

Sandeep Singh's 10th minute penalty corner conversion put India ahead in the title clash, but veteran Almada led Argentina's fightback and scored a brace (14th, 73rd) to help his side clinch the championship.

India will take the silver medal with pride as they showcased a brilliant turnaround in the tournament and won four matches in a row after two defeats to book a berth in the final after a huge gap of 12 years.

The title clash had all the components of a final match as the keenly-contested and ill-tempered encounter went down to the wire before being decided through Almada's golden goal in the extra-time.

From the beginning, both the wingers of Argentina worked overtime to give some jittery moments to the Indian defenders.

But Diwakar Ram and Sandeep Singh warded off the initial inroads and goalkeeper Adrian D'Souza came out with some scintillating saves to deny their rivals any early advantage.

In the fourth minute, when umpire Ged Curran of Scotland awarded a penalty corner to Argentina after Adrian made a diving ground clearance, the enraged Indians advanced menacingly towards him. Durran talked to his colleague Amarjit Singh, but at the end preferred to stick to his decision.

Ignacio Gilardi took the shot, but Adrian saved it with his characteristic calmness.

Shivendra Singh and S V Sunil staged a counterattack in the 10th minute and when they were brought down near the circle, Amrajit signalled India's first penalty corner.

Sandeep Singh put it across Argentinian goalkeeper and captain Manuel Vivaldi without much trouble to open the account for India and score his ninth goal of the tournament.

But, India could not hold on to the lead for long. Four minutes later, hard working right winger Tomas Argento sent in a cross and veteran Mario Almada netted the equaliser for Argentina.

A few minutes before the break, Argentina came close to take the lead when defender Gilardi's freehit was tapped by Facundo, but the Indian defence rose to the occasion and thwarted his attempt.

But players of both the teams got into a scuffle in the melee forcing the umpires to halt the match for six minutes.

The second half was relatively incident free with both the sides exercising a degree of caution. Though the Pan Americans were better in terms of attacks, Indians also made some inroads.

Argentina got an easy penalty corner five minutes before the hooter, but Gilardi's flick narrowly missed the target.

In the second half, India got two short corners in 42nd and 53rd minutes, but Sandeep could not bring cheers to capacity crowd that supported his team.

As the scores remained tied at 1-1 after the regulation time, the match went into extra-time where Almada shot home the golden goal to seal the issue in Argentina's favour.

With nine goals, Sandeep Singh became the top scorer of the tournament. Rehan Butt of Pakistan was declared player of the tournament, while Lucas Argento of Argentina was declared the man of the final.

Malaysia got the Fair Play Award.

Indian coach A K Bansal was satisfied with the team's performance and backed the players despite the defeat.

"My boys played a marvelous game. We did not win the cup, but it does not matter," Bansal told PTI. "Looking at the way we built on from two defeats, we are extremely satisfied with the results," manager of the side Pargat Singh said.

Argentinian coach Carlos Retegui was also impressed with the performance of the Indian side.

Earlier, New Zealand beat Pakistan 2-1 in the third-place match to win the bronze.

Simon Child and Gareth Brookes scored for the Black Sticks while Rihan Butt found the target for Pakistan. — PTI 

New Delhi, May 18
The Indian Olympic Association today lauded the performance of the men’s hockey team which won the silver medal at the Sultan Azlan Shah tournament, saying the performance would be the benchmark for building a future side.

India, who had recorded four consecutive wins after two defeats to reach the final of the prestigious tournament, lost 1-2 to Argentina in the final via a golden goal.

“This is the benchmark from where we are going to build up our future team. The boys have shown what motivation can do to them, they have shown how it is when sports persons come together,” IOA general secretary Randhir Singh said in his congratulatory message for the side.

“It is no mean feat to match up to a team like Argentina and defeat three other Olympic qualifying sides, especially after having failed to qualify for the Olympics,” he said.

The team, packed with several youngsters and in charge of junior coach A.K. Bansal, exhibited tremendous fighting abilities to come out second best in the Azlan Shah meet. The IOA general secretary also showered praise on comeback man Sandeep Singh, who emerged as the highest scorer of the tournament.

Meanwhile, chairman of the ad hoc selection committee Aslam Sher Khan said the Indian team’s performance indicated that the game could be revived in the country. “The boys’ performance has encouraged us. It proves that hockey can be revived,” he said. Aslam praised the players for showing good fighting spirit in the final. “It was a befitting final which was fought hard. It was anybody’s game. Our team showed good fighting spirit,” he said. — PTI

Jalandhar, May 18
The chairman of the ad-hoc committee for Indian Hockey, Aslam Sher Khan today lifted the ban on three hockey players from Punjab. Addressing media persons here Khan said the ban had been lifted from Punjab and Sind Bank players Tejbir Singh and Maninder Singh and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) player Kamaldeep Singh. He said, “The decision has been taken following their contribution to the national game”.

Talking to The Tribune over phone a jubilant Tejbir said, “I am thankful to Indian Hockey Selection Committee for lifting the ban. The ban virtually brought my career to an end. Though I played during the last year’s 56th All India Police Championship on special permission but I could not perform well due to an injury. However, improving my performance will now be my top priority”.

Meanwhile, commenting on the future of Indian hockey, Khan expressed hope that the golden days of the national game would be back very soon as the administration had now come directly into the hands of the players. “Whatever happened in the past, has come to an end. It is time for us to upgrade the game at the grass-root-level and bring golden days of Indian hockey back”.

On the lack of sponsors for the game he said the IHF had decided to initiate league matches on the lines of Indian Premier League (IPL) to give fillip to the game. “If there is money involved in the game the players would definitely come forward to play. Probably this will help us in roping more spectators and bring back some charm to the game”, he said adding that a decision in this regard would be taken in the next meeting.

On a query about the status of Indian women’s hockey, Khan maintained that adequate steps were being taken to bring both men and women hockey at the same level. “We have decided to make a confederation for the women players to give them a much needed boost. Despite any proper facilities they have been performing well, however, a lot needs to be done for them in every sphere”. 

Adare Manor (Ireland), May 18
Ace Indian pro Jeev Milkha Singh had a disappointing penultimate day at the Irish Open as he stumbled to three-over 75 and was at tied 36th spot. Jeev, who had a great start to the tournament when he was tied for the lead on the opening day, continued to slip and took his total to one-over 217.

It was a disastrous start for the Chandigarh golfer and as if the two bogeys on second and fourth were not enough, Jeev dropped a double bogey on the sixth hole to make it even tougher for himself. However, he did sink a birdie and made the turn three-over.

He then tried to fight back and picked up a stroke on the 10th hole but bogeys on the 13th and 17th further dented his prospects. He then sank in a birdie on the par-five 18th hole to round off the disappointing day on a positive note.

Jeev is the only Indian to make the cut after Jyoti Randhawa, Shiv Kapur and Indian Masters champion S.S.P. Chowrasia moved out of the fray. Welshman Bradley Dredge took the sole lead and carded an impressive six-under 66 to take his total to nine-under 207, one clear of England’s Richard Finch, who posted a seven-under 65.

GREENSVILLE: Meanwhile, Arjun Atwal maintained his impressive performance and climbed up the leaderboard to share the ninth place as he carded a three-under 69 on the penultimate round in BMW Charity Pro-Am golf tournament.

Atwal, with a total score of 10-under 205, was seven strokes adrift from leader American David Mathis (68) in the Nationwide Tour event. A bogey on the 18th made the turn even-par after Atwal began steadily as he parred the first five holes and sank in a birdie on the 16th. The Orlando-based golfer then made sure that his next nine holes were bogey-free and picked up three birdies - on the fourth, fifth and seventh. — UNI 

Bangalore, May 18
Zersenay Tadesse of Eritrea bagged the $1,50,000 Sunfeast World 10K Race title, while Grace Momanyi of Kenya and Elevan Abeylegesse of Turkey were declared joint winners in the women’s section here today.

Zersenay ran the 10 km distance in 27 minutes 51 seconds, just three seconds ahead of his rival Moses of Uganda, while Ethiopian Tsegave Kebede, with a timing of 28 minutes 10 secs, finished third.

In the women’s section, the race authorities, who had declared Elvan (32 minute 00 secs) as the winner earlier, had to withhold the result following objection by Grace.

The juries after going through the timing and finish recorded on TV camera, later declared them as joint winners with timings of 32 minutes 02 secs. Doris Chernwego of Kenya, who clocked 32 minutes 31 secs, came third.

For 26-year-old Zersenay, it was his maiden title in India. The Eritrean lad said, “Moses gave me a tough fight especially from 50m to the finishing point. But I preserved my energy and made it despite the mercury touching 32° C. It was a really good experience and the win was a morale booster before the Beijing Olympics,” he said.

Moses said that “Though I wanted to overtake Zersenay to finish first, my legs did not respond to my call. I am satisfied and will concentrate on my physical fitness before going to Beijing”.

While the winners (both men and women) won $20,000 each, second and third place finishers were richer by $12,000 and $8,000 each.

In the women’s section, the total prize money for winner and runners-up ($20,000 and $12,000) were divided equally ($32,000) between Grace and Elvan.

In the national women’s section, Puneetha Rao won the title in ‘Elite Indian Women 10K’ category with a timing of 36 minutes, while Sudha Singh (37 minutes 35 secs) and Kiran Tiwari (38 minutes 26 secs) were placed second and third, respectively.

All the three top finishers belong to the Railways and were training at the Sports Authority of India southern centre here in preparation for the Beijing Olympics qualification. —PTI

Hamburg, May 18
Rafael Nadal struck a telling psychological blow, a week before the French Open, by beating world number one Roger Federer in the final of the Hamburg Masters on Sunday. The Spaniard claimed the only Masters Series event on clay to have eluded him by ousting the Swiss top seed 7-5 6-7 6-3 to give him the perfect preparation for his defence of the Roland Garros crown in Paris.

Federer, the defending champion who ended Nadal’s 81-match unbeaten run on clay in last year’s Hamburg final, began the match strongly, opening up a 5-1 lead and twice serving for the set. But Nadal refused to lie down and reeled off the next six games to take the first set and then broke Federer’s serve in the opening game of the second.

The Swiss broke back twice and missed a chance to level the match serving at 5-3 but upped his game in the tiebreak, winning it 7-3. Nadal got the crucial break in the fourth game of the deciding set and closed out the match with a whipped cross-court backhand winner after just under three hours of play.

After losing the final, Federer showed utmost respect for Nadal, but also fired a warning for the French Open champion. “Rafa has played incredibly well again the whole week and the whole clay season,” Federer told the 11,000 spectators after accepting his runners-up trophy. “It’s hard for the rest of us but hopefully it will be a different story in Paris,” he added. — Reuters