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Knights get darker, Kings XI shine
Kings XI’s Mahela Jayawardene congratulates Irfan Pathan after their win over Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday. — AFP
Dillon du Preez bowls Challengers to victory |
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CSK eye hat-trick of wins
Uncertainty over WC hockey, Commonwealth Games
Barca blast at Bernabeu
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Knights get darker, Kings XI shine
The victory catapulted KXIP to the top of the league table with Deccan Chargers and Delhi Daredevils. It was no surprise to see Kumar Sangakkara open, since he does so for Sri Lanka in limited overs cricket. But the move failed as Ishant Sharma’s extra bounce extracted a top edge. Simon Katich filled the breach and was rather fortunate when Chris Gale dropped a sitter at thirdman running back from slip. The Australian was then six; Sharma was the one to suffer. Katich’s partner Sunny Sohal, replacing Karan Goel, was let off twice before it proved to be third time unlucky - Sourav Ganguly at mid-on not making a mistake. Sohal’s was a damaging but all too brief cameo, as he muscled to 25 off 17 balls with the aid of three sixes. Katich, not a limited overs reveller by temperament, joined the shindig by on-driving Ashok Dinda in the 4th of the innings that cost Ashok Dinda two more maximums - over extra cover and point invented by Sohal. Indeed, a magnificent catch by Wriddiman Saha (making amends for spilling Sohal) off a full toss by Hodge to ultimately terminate Katich’s essay. Enter Yuvraj Singh: he gave himself room to slash at Sharma, but only picked out Hodge at deep extra cover. A few heated words, then, transpired between bowler and batsman. Neither Yuvraj’s spoken language nor body language after he lost the toss exactly exuded positive vibes. He was perhaps still bitter about his teammates’ lack of contributions in the last game after he had recorded a hat-trick and a 50. But leadership is about concealing your disappointment; else this becomes divisive. A combination of his side’s desperate needs and a desire to maximise his earnings had kept Chris Gayle for this, his last appearance in the 2009 IPL before he flew to London to skipper the West Indies in the 1st Test against England at Lord’s on Wednesday. In dismissing Yusuf Abdullah to the boundary off the first two balls of the 5th over, he raised hopes of a memorable farewell. But in the same over he drove straight to Yuvraj at mid-on to dash such expectations. It complicates matters if a captain doesn’t pull his weight. It has mostly been a lean trot for Brendon McCullum; and he scratched around before pulling a short ball from Piyush Chawla to square leg. Yuvraj opened the bowling with off-spinner Ramesh Powar; and he was overall economical. In contrast, Chawla was expensive, but also captured Saurav Ganguly’s wicket, when this left-hander top-edged a slog sweep, having connected sweetly in the same over to send the ball sailing over midwicket. Hodge has been the saving grace of an un-impressive Knight Riders side in the current IPL. Not only did this Aussie hit second half-century in successive innings, but realised a 50 partnership for the 3rd wicket with Ganguly. His innings was decorated with a six to long-on off Abdullah in addition to a number of improvised fours. Anything short was pulled fiercely to midwicket. Cashing in on wickets in hand, notwithstanding a score of only 75 for two after 13 overs, Knight Riders nailed a run rate of 11 per over in their last seven overs, which included 48 off a mere 24 balls for the 4th wicket between Hodge and van Wyk. Hodge’s effort off 43 deliveries told its own story. Van Wyk rounded it off with a maximum off the last ball of the innings - the final over cost Pathan an embarrassing 21 runs. Scoreboard Kings XI: |
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Dillon du Preez bowls Challengers to victory
South Africa hosting the Indian Premier League has meant that the competition’s participating franchises have been able to call upon this country’s fringe players, who nevertheless have the advantage of being accustomed to local conditions. Such a ready dip has, in fact, proved to be a boon for some of the sides who have been anguishing over the vagaries of Australians, Englishmen and West Indians being fitfully available. Another lesser-known face who made his debut on Sunday night was Dillon du Preez for Bangalore Royal Challengers; and what an impact he immediately had! Off the 3rd and 4th balls of his opening over (a maiden), this fast medium exponent dismissed Sachin Tendulkar and Ajinkya Rahane. Then, with the first ball of his second over, he removed Jean-Paul Duminy. Thereby, he had Mumbai Indians reeling; and thanks to a rare figure stand between Jacques Kallis and Robin Uthappa thereafter, the issue was emphatically put beyond doubt. Not surprisingly, Royal Challengers, with their South African coach, is revealing the most rabbits out of the hat - Roelof der Merwe earlier. But King’s XI Punjab’s coach Tom Moody has been shrewd in securing Yusuf Abdullah, now the leading wicket taker in the tournament. Morne van Wyk looked promising in his first appearance for Kolkata Knight Riders earlier in the day. The tournament is, of course, being staged post-season, when wickets have worn out and are, consequently, slower and more responsive to spin. In-season, the wickets would have been quicker and bouncier. Also, there would have been less dew, for the evenings in altitude are becoming perceptibly chilly. Incidentally, a section of West Indian media have been asking why is Dwayne Bravo still in South Africa when he should have been heading in the direction of Lord’s for test match duty for the West Indies. While he was not considered for the home test series against England because he was recovering from injury, surely-as his half-century against Royal Challengers emphasised - he’s good enough to make the West Indian squad, if not the XI. West Indies loss is Bravo’s financial gain! Scoreboard
Royal Challengers:
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CSK eye hat-trick of wins
East London, May 3 For Super Kings it is just the opposite. They are on a two-match winning streak and will be hoping to make a hat-trick of wins, which was done by Deccan Chargers early on in the league. Deccan Chargers, despite their last two losses, are a formidable outfit and are one of the favourites to win the title. This time under a new captain in Adam Gilchrist, Deccan Chargers have forced everyone to stand up and take notice of their performance. Their batting has looked solid with Gilchrist leading the charge. Youngsters like Rohit Sharma and Azhar Bilakhia have also come out with good innings. —
IANS |
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Uncertainty over WC hockey, Commonwealth Games
Chandigarh, May 3 “It should act as a wake-up call for India,” says a sports administrator. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, he says that Australia has been using shifting of IPL to South Africa as a tool for supporting its decision to pull out of the Davis Cup. Disturbances in the South Asian subcontinent because of Army actions both in Sri Lanka - against LTTE, and Pakistan, against Taliban are making the sports administrators in the western world rethink about their sports engagements here. The ICC has already dropped Pakistan as a co-host for the 2011 Cricket World Cup. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will continue to be the co-hosts. Even Pakistan has not taken well to India’s decision for suspending all exchange of sports teams between the two countries. Incidentally, Australia has a big say both in the International Hockey Federation as well as the Commonwealth Games Federation. Convincing Australia about New Delhi as safe venue for these two major sporting events will be a gigantic task for Indian sports administrators. If Aussies are convinced, the rest of the participating nations may not be that difficult to convince with India’s clean past record. Though the shifting of the IPL was more because of non-availability of security forces at the venue of the games, India has been free from any serious law and order problem since the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. India neither appears in the list of countries which Australian government wants its citizens to completely avoid or the other list of countries for which it wants its citizens to reconsider their travel plans. Pakistan figures in the second list. Afghanistan, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Iraq, Somalia and Sudan are the countries Australians have been told to avoid completely. Some recent terrorist or Taliban strikes across the border, including attack on the Police Training Centre near Lahore, have raised serious security concerns in India as well. The growing clout of the Taliban and their diktats are keeping the security agencies on Indian side on high alert. Foolproof sealing of the border along Punjab and J& K borders besides sensitising sea routes to prevent a repeat of 26/11 and other visible security measures can convince the decision makers of the World Cup Hockey as well as the Commonwealth Games to keep the 2010 venue of their events unchanged. India will have to bend backwards to convince the rest of the world that holding of major sporting events is as safe as elsewhere and shifting of IPL was more of logistical problems than any serious security concerns.
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Barca blast at Bernabeu
Madrid, May 3 It was the first time in the 80-year history of “El Clasico” that Barca had knocked six past Real in Madrid and the stunning victory for Pep Guardiola’s side on Saturday put them within touching distance of a first league title in three years. Barca fans partied into the early hours of the morning on the streets of the Catalan capital and thronged the city’s airport to welcome back their heroes, seven points clear at the top of the table with four matches left. “The best team in the world is leaving the Bernabeu as champions,” said the headline in Madrid-based sports daily Marca, alongside a photograph of Barca captain Carles Puyol kissing his armband in the colours of the Catalan flag. “The best Barca team of all time was on display yesterday and led Madrid a merry dance they will never forget,” said daily El Pais below a photograph of Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto’o celebrating one of the Frenchman's two goals. “Guardiola’s side put on a exhibition on the most challenging of stages against its only rival for the league, who were like putty in their hands,” it added. Barca’s victory evoked memories of a Johan Cruyff-inspired 5-0 win in February 1974 and took their goal tally for the season to 100 in 34 league matches, seven short of the record set by Real in 1989/90. It was sweet revenge for players like Puyol, Xavi and Samuel Eto'o, who had to applaud their rivals, newly-crowned champions for a second straight year, on to the pitch before last year’s match at the Bernabeu which Real won 4-1. — Reuters
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Not even a decent total of 153 for three on a slow surface - powered by an unbeaten 70 by Brad Hodge - was defended by Kolkata Knight Riders. King’s XI Punjab dramatically snatched a six wicket win off the last ball of the match - with Irfan Pathan securing the winning run. But it was really the calm of Mahela Jayawardene - a 41-ball undefeated 51 - that ensured victory.
Madrid, May 3
Not even a decent total of 153 for three on a slow surface - powered by an unbeaten 70 by Brad Hodge - was defended by Kolkata Knight Riders. King’s XI Punjab dramatically snatched a six wicket win off the last ball of the match - with Irfan Pathan securing the winning run. But it was really the calm of Mahela Jayawardene - a 41-ball undefeated 51 - that ensured victory.
