Chennai, April 16
Defending champions Chennai Super rode on a blistering unbeaten 83 from Michael Hussey as they thumped Royal Challengers Bangalore by 21 runs to bounce back after their last match defeat in the Indian Premier League here today.

Playing his first match of the tournament, Hussey smashed 11 fours and a six in his 56-ball knock to anchor Chennai to an imposing 183 for five after electing to bat at the M A Chaidambaram Stadium.

Chasing 184 for five for a win, Bangalore struggled throughout after losing three key wickets inside the first five overs before A B de Villiers made a last-ditch effort to snatch a win with a strokeful 64.

But the asking rate, which rose to nearly 15 by the 15th over, was too much to overcome and Bangalore could manage 162 for seven in 20 overs to slump to their third successive loss in the tournament.

De Villiers played some stunning shots, including a reverse-sweep six off Tim Southee, to make a match out of it before he was out in the penultimate over. His 64 off 44 balls contained five fours and two sixes.

Albie Morkel and Suraj Randiv took two wickets each for Bangalore while Tim Southee, Ravichandran Ashwin and Sadab Jakati scalped a wicket each.

Bangalore were at the backfoot as soon as they started the chase with two batsmen returning to the hut for just 17 runs on the board by the second over itself.

Opener Tillakaratne Dilshan's poor run of form in the tournament continued as he fell for a first-ball duck, caught by Anirudha Srikkanth at mid-wicket region off Morkel in the second ball of the chase.

One-down Asad Pathan looked like he was not concerned by the early jolt and hit two fours and six off Morkel as if taking revenge for dismissing Dilshan.

Pathan's brief aggression turned out to be flash in the pan as he was sent packing for 14 (off five balls) in the second over by Southee who bowled the batsman who played across while attempting a scoop shot. — PTI

Chennai Super Kings have won 28 IPL games out of 49 contested -- Lost 20 and Tied 1 — success % 58.16. Their tally of victories and winning % are the best in the IPL.

Michael Hussey (83 not out off 56 balls) has posted his eighth fifty in Twenty20. He has completed his 1,200 runs in Twenty20, aggregating 1224 at an average of 45.33 in 47 matches.

Hussey’s first fifty in the IPL is his second highest, next only to the 116 not out off 54 balls against Kings XI at Mohali on April 19, 2008.

AB de Villiers' (64 off 44 balls) recorded his eleventh fifty in Twenty20.

De Villiers has aggregated 156 at an average of 52.00 in four matches — the most for Bangalore in the present edition of the IPL.

In the course of his fifty, de Villiers has completed his 800 runs in the IPL, amassing 827 in 32 matches at an average of 34.45, including one century and five fifties.# Tillakaratne Dilshan has recorded his eighth duck in Twenty20.

Michael Hussey has been adjudged the Man-of-the-Match for the second time in the IPL.

Royal Challengers Bangalore became the first side to lose three games in the IPL. They also became the first team to play 50 games in the IPL.

Bangalore's tally of 28 losses is the second highest in the IPL, behind Deccan's 29.

Suresh Raina's runs' tally in the IPL (1437 at an average of 36.84 in 49 games) is the highest by a batsman.

Raina's sixes' tally to 62 is exceeded only by Adam Gilchrist (64) in the IPL.

Scoreboard

Chennai Super Kings

Hussey not out 83

Vijay c Zaheer b Ninan 31

Raina c Agarwal b Ninan 29

Dhoni c Villiers b Zaheer 22

Morkel c Agarwal b Wath 9

Badrinath c Ninan b Wath 5

Extras: (b 1, lb 2, w 1) 4

Total: (5wkts; 20overs) 183

Bowling: Zaheer 4-0-33-1, Vettori 4-0-23-0, Wath 4-0-49-2, Dilshan 2-0-21-0, Ninan 3-0-31-2, Kohli 3-0-23-0.

Royal Challengers

Agarwal c Morkel b Ashwin 7

Dilshan c Anirudha

b Morkel 0

Asad b Southee 14

Kohli c Anirudha b Jakati 35

de Villiers c Anirudha

b Morkel 64

Tiwary c Dhoni b Randiv 14

Pujara c Vijay b Randiv 2

Wath not out 14

Vettori not out 2

Extras (lb 4, w 6) 10

Total (7 wkts, 20 overs) 162

Bowling: Albie 4-0-34-2, Southee 4-0-32-1, Ashwin 4-0-22-1, Randiv 4-0-24-2, Jakati 3-0-36-1, Raina 1-0-10-0.

Scoreboard

Deccan Chargers

Sohal c Karthik b Harris 7

Dhawan c Sunny b Valthaty 45

S’kkara c McLaren b Chawla 35

Duminy c Chawla b McLaren 18

Chipli c Marsh b Valthaty 14

Christian b Valthaty 30

Gony b McLaren 0

Teja not out 10

Mishra lbw b Valthaty 0

Steyn not out 1

Extras (lb 3, w 1, nb 1) 5

Total (8 wkts; 20 overs) 165

Bowling: Praveen 4-0-29-0, Harris 4-0-31-1, McLaren 3-0-33-2, Malik 2-0-13-0, Nayar 1-0-10-0, Chawla 2-0-17-1, Valthaty 4-0-29-4.

Kings XI

Gilchrist c Teja b Mishra 61

Valthaty c Ishant b Mishra 75

Nayar not out 13

Karthik not out 3

Extras (lb 7, w 5, nb 2) 14

Total (2 wkts, 17.4 overs) 166

Bowling: Steyn 3-0-24-0, Ishant 4-0-23-0, Gony 2-0-35-0, Mishra 4-0-28-2, Christian 2.4-0-28-0, Duminy 2-0-21-0.

Kolkata, April 16
The away battle won, Kolkata Knight Riders will aim to win the home contest as well, when they take on Rajasthan Royals in the return leg match of the Indian Premier League here tomorrow.

The Knight Riders yesterday stopped the promising Rajasthan Royals two-match winning run with a clinical nine-wicket victory in Jaipur. The two sides now meet again at the Eden Gardens tomorrow, with the hosts emerging overwhelming favourites this time.

The new-look Knight Riders under Gautam Gambhir started the season IV campaign shakily against Mahendra Singh Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings, losing the battle from a winning position. But the Knight Riders, who shunned local hero Sourav Ganguly, earned back the confidence of the city with an easy win over Deccan Chargers in their first home match.

From there on, Knight Riders looked unruffled against the more fancied Royals in their away match yesterday that saw some failed strategies by the wily Shane Warne. The Aussie legend raised many eyebrows by keeping an in-form Shane Watson at number four in the batting order. With Watson not opening, Rajasthan Royals failed to get the blistering start that is so needed in Twenty20s.

Fresh from his brutal 185 not out with a record 15 sixes against Bangladesh, Watson scored a breezy 22 from 13 balls. Bangladeshi skipper Shakib-al-Hasan, who saw Watson wreck his side a few days ago, did the Aussie all-rounder in after being hit for two sixes as Royals gave KKR a target of 160. — PTI

Mumbai, April 16
At the bottom of the points table after losing the first two games, the Delhi Daredevils will have to raise their game considerably, when they take on high-flying debutants Pune Warriors in their Indian Premier League match here tomorrow.

The Daredevils, led by swashbuckling opener Virender Sehwag, need to get their act together, after two straight losses to Mumbai Indians at home and Rajasthan Royals at Jaipur, to score their first points in the Twenty20 event.

Fielding more or less the same eleven in the first two games, Delhi have been thrashed by eight and six wickets, respectively, after failing to put up a competitive total and it is in this department that they would like to turn things around, immediately.

For this to happen, their top-heavy line-up needs to fire strongly and none more than Sehwag, who has tallied 23 runs in the first two matches, needs to bat for most number of overs for the Daredevils to set a challenging score or chase a stiff target. The only batsmen to show some sort of form have been diminutive opener David Warner, unheralded wicket-keeper batsman Naman Ojha and Venugopal Rao.

The twin failures of Sehwag have cost the team dear and the Warriors bowlers know that by dismissing the dasher cheaply, they can put enormous pressure on the rest of the batting line-up.

In bowling too, Ashok Dinda seems a lightweight proposition to open it with the gangling South African Morne Morkel and it would be a huge surprise if 21-year-old Varun Aaron, considered among the fastest bowlers in the country, is again benched. Unmukt Chand and Aaron Finch have also not utilised their chances in batting and could give way to some others.

Table toppers Pune, on the other hand, are sitting pretty high after winning both their first two home games - the only unbeaten side so far in the tournament - with a measure of comfort. — PTI

Mumbai, April 16
Mumbai Indians captain Sachin Tendulkar blamed his team’s poor fielding, especially a first-ball dropped catch of Brendon McCullum (81), for the shock eight-wicket loss to IPL debutants Kochi Tuskers Kerala here.

“They fielded better. In bowling and batting we matched each other, but in the fielding department they were better as they held on to whatever catches they got. We missed those opportunities. All we need to do is to make sure we don't repeat those mistakes,” Tendulkar said.

“When we started earlier we thought anywhere between 160-165 was a good total as the ball seamed around a bit initially and later on it was a good track to bat on.

"But I thought if we had hit the right areas in bowling - though at times we did manage it - and those important catches ...McCullum was dropped 1st ball itself (by Rohit Sharma off Lasith Malinga). These things happen and that's why you say catches win matches," added the champion batsman, who hit his maiden IPL century, a 66-ball 100. — PTI

Shanghai, April 16
Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel ran away with Chinese Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday to plant his Red Bull on pole position for a likely season-opening hat-trick of wins.

The 23-year-old German, gunning for his fifth win in a row dating back to last November, nailed his fourth successive pole with so big a margin that McLaren's Jenson Button felt he might as well not have bothered trying to beat him.

"We did it again but I tried keep reminding myself and the team as well that every single time it's tough," Vettel, winner in Australia and Malaysia for a perfect score of 50 points, told reporters after his lap of one minute 33.706 seconds.

Button, the 2009 champion who won at the Shanghai circuit last year after Vettel also took pole position for that race, needed no reminding. He was seven tenths of a second slower in securing the other slot on the front row.

The Briton did one lap more than team mate Lewis Hamilton, who completed a trio of champions in the top three slots, in the final third stage of qualifying but that also left his compatriot with one more set of fresh tyres for the race. "Sebastian was just too fast...if I had realised Sebastian was seven tenths up the road, maybe I would have thought again," he said.

While Vettel celebrated his 18th career pole, team mate Mark Webber was left staring at 18th place on the grid and wondering where his luck had gone. The Australian had to sit out for most of the final practice in the morning due to problems with his kinetic energy recovery system (KERS), and then the team made the wrong tyre call at the crucial moment in the first phase of qualifying.

Monaco, April 16
Fourth seed David Ferrer roared back from a shaky start to cruise into the Monte Carlo Masters final with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Juergen Melzer on Saturday.

Austria's Melzer was inspired after beating Roger Federer on Friday to prevent the top four seeds reaching the semi-finals at the beachside Monte Carlo Country Club; but he was only half as potent against the dogged Spaniard.

Melzer broke early for 2-1 as Ferrer struggled with his first serve. But the Austrian inexplicably let his opponent back in by losing his serve twice, with a double fault, effectively sealing his fate in the first set.

Chandigarh, April 16
The Imperial Golf Estate, an 18-hole Championship Golf Course conceived by Nicklaus Design, a company created by the legendary Jack Nicklaus, has been honoured by London-based organization, Demystifying India.

The award was presented by Keith Vaz, MP and A. Vekaria, “For Excellence in Planning and Design of a Premier Golf Community in Punjab, India”. The award was accepted by Ariel Podrojski, Head of India for BCRE, Vijay Chowdhry, director, Silverglades and RC Bawa IL&FS.

At a glittering ceremony held at the House of Commons on April 6, Chowdhry, Director Imperial Golf Estate, said, “We in India are on the cusp of a sporting revolution, and it is our firm belief that some of the young golfers form the Imperial Academy will don the Indian colours for the forthcoming 2016 Olympics in Rio.

“Institutions like the Imperial Golf Estate are created with a lot of planning, foresight, passion and impeccable execution. In this endeavor we have illustrious partners like Brack Capital who bring vast international development expertise and IL&FS, who are the largest Infrastructure Development and Financing group from India,” he added.

Kolkata, April 16
Mohun Bagan struck a second half goal to hold Chirag United 1-1 in a Round 22 return-leg match of the I-League that saw three players being shown red cards at Yuba Bharati Krirangan here today.

Chirag United's Bapi Saha was sent off in the 23rd minute for his second bookable offence. Playing with 10 men, Chirag United scored through a penalty with India forward Sunil Chhetri (31st) converting from the spot.

Mohun Bagan escaped the blushes with Subair Muritala Ali (80th) scoring the equaliser. Soon there were exchange of two red cards in a space of three minutes as Chirag were reduced to nine players in the 82nd minute when Joshimar was sent off.

Mohun Bagan's Chidi Edeh was given marching orders in the 85th minute. After 21 matches each, Mohun Bagan now have 27 points, while Chirag have 25. Under pressure, Mohun Bagan missed many chances and luck did not favour the city giants. — PTI