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IPL 1st semifinal
We need to execute our plans: Sehwag
Tendulkar to miss B’desh series, Asia cup
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French Open
President's Cup Boxing
Santosh Trophy
Champia leads charge
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Royals dare Devils
Mumbai, May 29 The two teams, which finished first and fourth in the preliminary 56-game phase of the Twenty20 league, look evenly matched ahead of what promises to be a top-drawer stuff in front of a capacity crowd at the Wankhede Stadium. The team that holds its nerves better and grabs chances that come its way would go through to the summit clash against the winners of the second semifinal, on May 31, between Punjab King's Eleven and Chennai Super Kings. The second semifinal is also to be held at the Wankhede while the final is scheduled on June 1 at the D Y Patil Stadium, having a bigger crowd capacity. The Shane Warne-led Rajasthan, impregnable at home in Jaipur, had finished with only three losses from their 14 preliminary phase ties and have a 1-1 head-to-head record against the Daredevils, led by Virender Sehwag, who got into the last four with seven wins and 15 points to their credit. Both had lost their matches to hosts Mumbai Indians when they visited this metro earlier and those ties were held in D Y Patil. Both must be wishing fervently that a change in venue for this knock-out tie would bring in happy tidings. Both the teams have depended on their top-order to fire well and pile up a big total, and middle orders of both the sides looked a bit under-prepared when chips were down. They would be keen to topple the top three rival batsmen cheaply to gain a big advantage. Tracks at the Wankhede for the IPL have helped the seam bowlers by providing lateral movement and extra bounce and someone of the calibre of Delhi Daredevils' champion bowler Glenn McGrath would relish rolling his arm over here. The battle between McGrath, with support from Sri Lankan Farveez Maharoof and V Yo Mahesh, and Rajasthan's successful innings launchers Graeme Smith (416 runs) and Swapnil Asnodkar could be crucial to the game's outcome. The same applies to the Sohail Tanvir-Shane Watson-Munaf Patel combine who will be up against the marauding Delhi opening pair of Gautam Gambhir (523) and Sehwag (403), as well as another in-form batsman at number three, Shikhar Dhawan. Tanvir, with his extra quick bowling arm action similar to another Pakistani Wasim Akram, has been a real revelation in the IPL and has hardly been collared by any rival batting line-up, indicated by his superb haul of 21 wickets at just 10 runs per victim. The left armer has been outstanding both in the beginning and at the death and is a major threat that needs to be negotiated well by the Delhi batsmen who did not play against him in the previous two clashes. Rajasthan possess a better spin attack in the great Warne and his understudies Yousuf Pathan and Dinesh Salunkhe while Delhi depend on Amit Mishra, for the most part, with Sehwag chipping in with his off breaks. But seam bowlers are expected to play a bigger role at the Wankhede. Delhi have had a sizeable break of five days going into the tie while Rajasthan, without a few key players including Warne, were outclassed by Punjab King's XI yesterday. — PTI
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We need to execute our plans: Sehwag
Mumbai, May 29
"Our planning is complete for the match and now we have to execute those plans. Both sides are equally matched," the flamboyant India opening batsman told a media conference ahead of the tie at the Wankhede Stadium. Sehwag felt that with the stadium track helping the bowlers in the first half of previous ties, winning the toss would induce the captains to put the other side in. "I have seen in previous matches that the ball does a bit in the first half of the match and in the second half batting is easier. Both teams have good bowlers and shot selection is important," Sehwag said. The Delhi swashbuckler felt that regaining momentum once lost in this format was difficult. "It's difficult to regain the momentum if we lose it in this format," he said. About his batsmen's prospects in facing the tournament's most successful bowler (21 wickets) Sohail Tanvir, Sehwag said the key was to play each ball on its merit. "We will play Tanvir on the merit of the ball (he delivers)," he said. Sehwag denied that his middle order was brittle and pointed out how wicket keeper Dinesh Karthick (56 not out) and Manoj Tiwary (36 run out) had bailed the team out in their previous must-win tie against Mumbai Indians. Chasing Mumbai Indians' 176, Delhi were struggling at 89 for four in the eleventh over when Tiwary and Karthick stitched the vital stand of 41 runs in less than five overs to set Delhi Daredevils on the path to a crucial win in the do-or-die encounter at the Ferozshah Kotla. "Dinesh and Manoj won the match for us. They may not have got hundreds and 50s earlier, but were getting 20s and 30s," he added. Sehwag said that his team had enough experience in the ranks to handle the pressure of a knock-out match which, he said, was different to the "normal tie". "We have experienced international players like (Glenn) McGrath, Farvez Maharoof, Shoaib Malik, myself, Dinesh Kaarthick and others. They know how to handle the pressure of a semi final which is different from the pressure which exists in a normal tie," he said. On Younis Khan, who has recently joined the rival ranks, Sehwag said that the experienced Pakistan player cannot be dismissed lightly in this format as he was capable of hitting a hundred in twenty overs. "Younis Khan is a world class player who's capable of getting a 100 in 20 overs," he explained. Team adviser Dennis Lillee felt that the team's three matches were more or less "finals" and the experience would stand the squad in good stead. "To me it's important that we played three finals to get here. If that's not good preparation for us nothing else is," he said referring to some crucial matches the team won after losing four in-a-row that put them under severe pressure. The Australian pace great singled out V Yo Mahesh from his team as the young pacer who had impressed him the most. — PTI
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Tendulkar to miss B’desh series, Asia cup
Mumbai, May 29 “Tendulkar is not available for the tri-series as well as the Asia Cup on the advice of Mumbai Indians physiotherapist Nitin Patel. He has not recovered sufficiently from the groin injury,” BCCI secretray Niranjan Shah told reporters here today. Tendulkar will also skip the Asia Cup, which will be held in Pakistan from June 24 to July 6, he said.
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Bhupathi out of doubles, Paes advances
Paris, May 29 Fourth seeds Bhupathi and Mark Knowles of Bahamas could not do justice to their reputation as the went down 4-6 4-6 to the unseeded Austrian Stephen Huss of Austria and his German partner Ross Hutchins. Ninth-seeded pair of Paes and Dlouhy, however, did not lower guard against unheralded Sanchai Ratiwatana and Sonchat Ratiwatana and beat the Thais 6-2 6-4 to move to the next round. They would now meet the winner of the first round match where the Tomas Behrend-Tomas Cibulec pair meets Jose Acasuso and Sebastian Prieto. Rohan Bopanna is the other Indian in the fray in men’s doubles where he teams up with Pakistani Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and faces top-seeded American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan. — PTI
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Paris, May 29 Before arriving at Roland Garros, Carla Suarez Navarro had never played at a grand slam. That did not stop the Spanish qualifier from shoving 22nd seed Mauresmo towards the exit with a 6-3 6-4 victory. Latvian teenager Ernests Gulbis ensured Blake’s nightmare in Paris continued with a 7-6 3-6 7-5 6-3 humbling on Court One. Nalbandian had enjoyed a good track record at the clay-court grand slam after reaching the semi-finals in 2004 and 2006, but he surrendered a two-set lead to go down 3-6 4-6 6-2 6-1 6-2 to French wildcard Jeremy Chardy. Earlier, Venus Williams and Jelena Jankovic survived the carnage to stride into the third round. Williams was a 6-2 6-4 winner over Tunisian qualifier Selima Sfar while Jankovic overcame a wrist injury scare to see off New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic 6-2 7-6. Top seeds Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were in second-round action when the rain which had disrupted the first three days of the tournament returned.
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President's Cup Boxing
New Delhi, May 29 Dinesh, who got a bye in the opening round, proved no match for his Uzbek opponent in the lop-sided bout yesterday. Dinesh's ouster means India can hope for just one medal - from Vijender - in the tournament, being contested by Olympic qualified boxers. The Doha Asiad bronze winner takes on Thai Angkhan Chomphuphuang in the semifinals tomorrow after stunning Olympic champion Bakhtiyar Artayev of Kazakhstan in the last-eight stage. The other Indians in fray had crashed out earlier with A L Lakra losing to Dmytro Bulenkov of Ukraine in the opening round of the 57 kg category, while Jitender going down to Yunusov Anvar of Tajikistan in 51 kg. Apart from the medals up for grabs, the boxers competing in the tournament will also have a chance to pocket $ 2000, the prize money to be given to the winner of each category. — PTI
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J&K whip Himachal 8-0
Srinagar, May 29 Jammu and Kashmir led 5-0 at the breather. Meanwhile, star midfielder K.M. Abdul Noushad will lead the Kerala senior team for participation in the Santosh Trophy, being played at Srinagar. Defender M. Abdul Basheer is the vice-captain of the team and NIS Football coach Victor Manjila is the coach of the team, K.P. Sunny, secretary, Kerala Football Association (KFA), said. The team has nine new players in K.T. Nazaz (GK), C.K. Jithesh and V.S. Anooj (Backs), T.K. Prasoon, K.V. Lalu and P. Rahul (Half-Back), O.K. Javed, C.J. Renil and Jacken Sebastian. The second phase of the coaching camp of the team was held at Thrissur from May 9 and the team selection was held today. About 16 days coaching was held at FACT ground in Kochi from April 2 in the first phase. Among the 20 players, six are from Kerala State Electricity Board and four from professional club Viva Kerala. Kerala, being the semi-finalist in the last edition of the tournmanet, has been directly seeded into the quarter-finals along with Punjab, Maharashtra and Bengal. — PTI
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A high-octane contest between two well-balanced sides is on the anvil when table toppers Rajasthan Royals take on the confident Delhi Daredevils in the first semifinals of the IPL here tomorrow.
The onus is on the Delhi Daredevils players to execute the elaborate plans chalked out by the team's think tank during their IPL semi final tie here tomorrow against table toppers Rajasthan Royals, captain Virender Sehwag said today.
"Our planning is complete for the match and now we have to execute those plans. Both sides are equally matched," the flamboyant India opening batsman told a media conference ahead of the tie at the Wankhede
Stadium.s
Sachin Tendulkar was today ruled out from the upcoming tri-series to be played in Bangaldesh and the subsequent Asia Cup as the master batsman has not recovered fully from his groin injury. Tendulkar, who had missed the first seven matches of the Indian Premier League owing to the injury, has been declared unfit by Mumbai Indians physiotherapist Nitin Patel for the June 8 to 14 tri-series, also involving Pakistan.
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