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Royals record first win
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RCB spank MI
Delhi Daredevils keen to arrest losing streak
New IPL teams likely to be named today
PCB clears Malik, Naved for Bangladesh T20
JCT beat Mumbai FC
Prabhjot apologises for provocative gesture
Doping fears keep big names away from WC
Another ‘Chak De’ effort to revive hockey
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Royals record first win
Chasing 169 to win, KKR started rather slowly as they scored at nearly six runs per over and once they lost opener Manoj Tiwary in the third over bowled by Yusuf Pathan things further slowed down. Cheteshwar Pujara and opener Brad Hodge tried to keep the scoreboard ticking and put up a brilliant 50-run partnership for the second wicket before the former's innings was cut shot by Siddharth Trivedi. Pujara’s inside edge off Trivedi hit the middle stump as the Knight Riders were reduced to 68 for two in the 11th over. Skipper Sourav Ganguly then joined Hodge and they added 27 runs before Hodge was bowled by Pathan in the 15th over. With the required run-rate rising every moment, Ganguly and newman Owais Shah threw there bat at everything but without much success as the match slipped through their fingers. In pursuit of runs, Ganguly perished in deep mid-wicket, caught by Adam Voges in the last over off Munaf Patel. Anjelo Mathews coming at number six also ran himself out in the last over, while Shah was left unbeaten at 19. Earlier, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala top scored with a 36-ball 45 to guide Rajasthan Royal to a modest 168 for seven after skipper Warne won the toss and decided to bat. Rajasthan found themselves in a spot of bother when they lost their opener Michael Lumb in the first ball but Naman Ojha, Faiz Fazal, Jhunjhunwala and Adam Voges fired in unison to lift Rajasthan bowlers to a competitive total. Lumb flopped for the second consecutive match when he was caught plumb in front of the wicket in very first delivery of the innings by Ashok Dinda. But other opener Ojha and Fazal steadied the ship with a 42-run first wicket partnership. Ojha blasted five boundaries in his 18-ball innings, while Fazal cracked six fours before being caught by Cheteshwar Pujara off Shane Bond. Ojha’s innings came to disappointing end as he was run by a combined effort from Bond and Murali Kartik. Yusuf Pathan failed to make any significant impact as he was caught by Brad Hodge off Dinda after just managing two hits to the fence. For Knight Riders, Dinda, Ishant Sharma and Bond picked up two wickets each.
— PTI Scoreboard Rajasthan Royals Kolkata Knight Riders |
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For a team that had won five of their first seven matches in the first edition in 2008, this year’s performance has come as a shocker. However, the tournament is still in its initial stages and skipper Sangakkara will have to ensure that are no hiccups from here on. In the batting department, except Bopara, others have lacked consistency and big guns like Yuvraj, Jayawardene and Sangakkara failed to get going.
However, Sangakara hoped his team would raise their game in time and come out in flying colours tomorrow. “Morale is there in our team members and we will come out and perform. We need to perform to our potential. I do know the character of the Chepauk turf and it is a question of our adapting to the demands of 20-20 game,” Sangakara said. The hosts Chennai, on the other, looks well-settled and formidable and could easily be considered as clear favourites on their home turf to rout the challenge of Punjab. Matthew Hayden’s ‘mongoose’ bat was the highlight of their last game against Delhi Daredevils and Chennai’s young captain Suresh Raina would be hoping the burly Australian will continue with his lightening form tomorrow. Hayden will have to shoulder the responsibility of the batting and also assist Raina in the absence of regular skipper Dhoni, who is nursing an elbow injury and is out of the tournament for 10 days. Hayden had torn apart the challenge of Delhi bowlers at their home ground with a breathtaking 43-ball 93 to power his team to a five-wicket win. — PTI
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Mumbai, March 20 Chasing the modest target, RCB romped home with five balls to spare with opener Kallis top-scoring with a 55-ball unbeaten 66 - his third IPL III half century - and returning unconquered for the fourth time as the visitors notched up their third win on the trot after losing their opening match against Kolkata Knight Riders. Manish Pandey, the other opener, and one-down Robin Uthappa contributed 40 and 23 respectively as RCB ended at 155 for three in 19.1 overs with Kallis hitting a four to win the match in style. For Mumbai Indians, who tasted their first defeat after beating Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils in their earlier two matches, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh picked up a wicket apiece conceding 18 and 35 runs respectively. With tonight's win, RCB are now on top of IPL III table with six points from four matches. — PTI Scoreboard Mumbai Indians Royal Challengers Bangalore Pandey c Pollard b Harbhajan 40 (27)
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Delhi Daredevils keen to arrest losing streak
The Delhi batsmen could not cross the 200-run mark, which was within their reach after Virender Sehwag's early blitzkrieg against the Chennai Super Kings yesterday. AB de Villiers has been a let down and he needs to fire in the middle-order if Delhi has to make a big score. The Delhi team would also want Australia's David Warner to contribue though scoring runs against in-form Chaminda Vaas would not be easy. The Sri Lankan paceman is in good form and has given Deccan advantage by striking early. At least twice in the tournament, he has taken two wickets in a single over to unsettle the opponents' innings. Deccan spinners Pragyan Ojha and Rohit Sharma have also done well in stifling the rivals innings. Yet again, key for Delhi would be Sehwag's performance. They badly need him to give a solid start. — PTI
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New IPL teams likely to be named today
Chennai, March 20 Earlier, Groups with a net worth of $1 billion were allowed to be part of the process and that too with a bank guarantee of $100 million. But now as per the relaxed conditions, the buyers are to choose from eight cities - Pune, Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Nagpur, Indore, Cuttack, Gwalior and Visakhapatnam - with an advance deposit of $10 million. The base price for each new franchise would be $225 million. The BCCI sources said 13 companies had bought the bid document and five bids were received by the cut-off time which ended yesterday evening. “The auction could not be held earlier but this time we are sure of opening the bids to find out the largest bidder. But it is likely to take time since the IPL Committee need to peruse the documents and financial standing of the winners before being made public,” one source said. It has been learnt that Sahara Group, Jaypee Group, A Pune Consortium of Cyrus Poonawla, Videocon and Maharashtra Cricket Association President Ajay Shirke are in fray. The bids will be opened tomorrow morning and results may be announced in the evening. The successful bidders will be given 48 hours to pay 10 per cent of their bid price. — PTI
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PCB clears Malik, Naved for Bangladesh T20
Lahore, March 20 All the three players along with former captain Younis Khan were banned earlier this month on the recommendations of an inquiry committee, which probed the dismal show of the national team during the recent Australia tour. While Yousuf and Younis were banned for indefinite periods as the inquiry committee felt their differences caused problems in the team, Malik and Naved were banned for one year and fined Rs 2 million each for misconduct. The inquiry committee has charged Malik with creating disharmony in the team and faking an injury. "Look, the ban on these players does not allow them to play for Pakistan but they can play domestic cricket as well as in foreign leagues," a senior official said. He said the Board would not stop players from earning their livelihoods by playing abroad in foreign leagues. "Their punishment is that they will not be able to wear the Pakistan blazer till the ban remains," he said. — PTI
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JCT beat Mumbai FC
With this victory, JCT have secured 22 points to improve their standing on points table to seventh spot while Mumbai with 19 points remained at ninth place. The encounter began on a brisk pace with JCT players PJ Orji, Okuro and Jaswinder Singh weaving good moves.
They, though set up a fast pace for attacks, the moves hardly grew into threats because Daljit and Gurwinder were slow and let the Mumbai men nip and snatch the ball away. JCT’s best chance came midway through the first session when Sakatar Singh hit over the cross piece with a rising shot, with even Mumbai goalee out of charge. They went on to mount pressure in the rival’s territory but fumbled near the target. With four minutes into the second half, Jaspal Singh gave a parallel pass to N Henry who sent a sizzler into the net but the refree denied the goal, declaring the latter offside. In the 55th minute, substitute Balwant Singh broke through the defence with a sudden burst of speed and deft work before releasing the ball to E Okuro who with an angular header, put his side into the lead (1-0). The visitors had almost the equaliser in the 78th minute when Nishant Mehra’s attempt just went wide off the target, much to the relief of home side players. JCT managed to hang on to the lead till the long whistle to romp home victors 1-0.
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Prabhjot apologises for provocative gesture
New Delhi, March 20 Hockey India, taking a serious view of the incident, had issued a show cause notice to Prabhjot through national coach Harendra Singh for his “unseeming conduct” and the player has expressed his regret for his behaviour, which, he said, he did in the “heat of the moment”. “Firstly, I would like to apologise that an inappropriate picture of mine was published on 13th March, 2010. The incident that happened was a result of a series of events that took place”, Prabhjot wrote in his reply to Hockey India. He said the incident happened due to provocation from a section of the spectators. “A particular group of people, supporting the opposition team, had been regularly staying back after every match and passing lewd comments about me and the team during our cool-down sessions. I had ignored their provocative behaviour during the previous matches. However, during our last match, they came down to the protective grills and started passing comments on my family. In addition, they started showing provocative gestures and became derogatory.”
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Doping fears keep big names away from WC
Ludhiana, March 20 According to the organisers, the big names of the game preferred to keep themselves away from the selection trials of the tournament in which Rs 1 crore would be at stake. It is learnt that players who were reportedly taking performance-enhancing drugs preferred not to participate in the tournament, as they feared that if they were found positive in the dope test then they would be banned to play in Canada, US and UK. The World Kabaddi Cup organisers had earlier announced to take the doping test of all the kabaddi players participating in the tournament from World Anti Doping Agency (WADA). Watching the trial Gurmail Pehwalwan, Senior Vice President of Punjab Kabaddi Association lamented, “It is enough evidence that how many players are actually not taking drugs. Players, who take performance- enhancing drugs have sided themselves away from the tourney.” On the other hand the kabaddi players were also mocking at the fellow players who were not participate in the trials. Balraj, a grappler from Mandi Ahmedgarh said, “You can easily spot hundreds of players vie for a petty prize money, but today hardly 90 players could manage to gather the strength of participating in the trials. What more should I say.” “We cannot afford to put our future at stake. If found positive in the doping test our careers would be ruined. We would be banned from playing abroad,” said a player on the condition of anonymity and added that an average kabaddi player earns over Rs 25 to 40 lakh in a season while playing abroad. The organisers took the samples of nearly 35 players. They said that a single test costs Rs 12,000 and they could not afford to take the sample of all the players.
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Another ‘Chak De’ effort to revive hockey
Ludhiana, March 20 The two days seminar started at encouraging note as all the hockey coaches from across the state marked their presence to learn new techniques from the best in the business. For this purpose video clippings were shown to coaches to acquaint them about the movement and strategies of European teams dominating the world of hockey. “It is time to return to the basics. When the foundation would be strong only then we could make a strong building over it. Europeans were no different, they stuck to basics and thus dominated the game,” said Jagday.
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Ahmedabad, March 20
Ludhiana, March 20
Ahmedabad, March 20
In all the three matches, Punjab worked themselves into a positions from where they could have won but falter at the last hurdle and if Kumar Sangakkara’s men have to win tomorrow they will have to get over this last minute jittery and play as a unit.
A highest score of 26 between the trio sums up the situation for Punjab and unless the senior pros fire, the mood in the dug-out will not improve. Their bowling have been equally lacklustre as none have troubled the opponent batsmen, even though S Sreesanth have shown some sparks. 
Deccan are coming into the match with two wins in a row while Delhi suddenly are seen struggling after a tremendous start to season-III. Not cashing on a good start is a concern for the Delhi team, who are without injured skipper Gautam
Gambhir.
Ludhiana, March 20
