Kochi, April 30
Virender Sehwag hit a rollicking half-century as Delhi Daredevils scored a 38-run win over Kochi Tuskers Kerala to keep its play-offs hopes alive in the Indian Premier League here today.

Sehwag blazed his way to a 47-ball 80 to lead his side to a competitive 157 for seven after electing to bat on a very difficult track, which had uneven bounce. Delhi were gasping 37 for three at one stage but Sehwag played sensibly as he first guarded his wicket when his teammates were vanishing from the other end and then played his usual aggressive self.

The visitors then bowled out the hosts for 119 in 18.5 overs to record a much-needed win as they were languishing at the bottom of the points table, coming into this contest. It was Delhi's third win in eight matches while Kochi now have suffered third defeat in a row.

With this win Delhi have jumped to seventh spot from 10th while Kochi are now second from last. Batting was a big challenge on the Nehru stadium wicket for both the sides as some balls did not bounce above the ankles and some zoomed up to the chin level.

The Delhi pace trio of Morne Morkel (3/18), Ajit Agarkar (2/23) and Irfan Pathan (2/27) shared seven wickets among them and played a crucial role in scripting their side's win. Spinner Roelof van der Merwe (3/20) ran through the Kochi tail, taking three wickets in five balls in the 19th over, to contribute in win.

Ravindra Jadeja (31) and Brad Hodge (27) were the only batsmen who went past the 25-run mark for Kochi. Kochi needed 59 runs off the last four overs and Jadeja kept their hopes alive by smashing van der Merwe for a six, taking 10 runs from the 17th over.

Vinay Kumar (11) hammered Agarkar for a six in the next over and Delhi players had their hearts pumping fast. But Agarkar did a big favour to his side by getting the danger man Jadeja out in the last ball of that over. Kochi still needed 40 from 12 balls but van der Merwe took all three remaining wickets — Ramesh Powar (0) and Sreesanth (0) and Vinay — in space of five balls to seal the fate of the hosts.

Kochi's chase was disastrous as Pathan and Morkel rocked the Kochi top order by taking three quick wickets. It was Morkel who started the slide as he dismissed Michael Klinger (2) and then Pathan saw the backs of Brendon McCullum (7) and Parthiv Patel (1) in his successive overs.

Runs were hard to come by on the slow track but Kochi skipper Mahela Jayawardene and Hodge both found two boundaries each from Umesh Yadav's overs. The hosts reached 37 for three in six overs but the situation deteriorated when Jayawardene became a victim Ajit Agarkar in the 10th over.

It could have been worse for the hosts had Pathan not dropped Hodge, then on 15, off van der Merwe in the next over. Morkel though ensured that Pathan's mistake does not cost them dear as he had the Australian caught behind in the 14th over.

Balachandra Akhil hit some lusty blows but could not last long and became the third victim of Morkel. Earlier, Sehwag played a true captain's knock as it came on a very difficult track and under difficult circumstances. Yogesh Nagar (22) and Travis Birt (20) also supported Sehwag well as they shared 56 and 41 runs stand with their skipper for the fourth and fifth wickets respectively.

Sehwag got out in the 18th over when he attempted a big shot off Vinay Kumar, but not before hitting eight fours and five sixes. Seamer S Sreesnath was most successful bowler for the hosts as he gave away just 10 runs in his four overs and scalped two top-order batsmen.

It was a horror start for Delhi after electing to bat as Sreesanth bowled David Warner (3) and trapped Naman Ojha (0) in his first over, second of the innings. But both the batsmen were unlucky as both the balls kept low, specially the ball in which Ojha was declared lbw, was almost unplayable. — PTI

Kolkata, April 30
Fluent knocks by captain Gautam Gambhir (45) and Manoj Tewari (34) took Kolkata Knight Riders to a comfortable 8-wicket victory over Kings XI Punjab at the Eden Gardens here tonight.

Set to score a modest 120 for a win, KKR achieved the target in 17.2 overs with eight wickets to spare. Earlier, Kings XI Punjab lost their grip after a brilliant start as Kolkata Knight Riders restricted them to 119 for six.

Put into bat under damp conditions following a spell of shower in the afternoon, the Punjab outfit began dangerously with skipper Adam Gilchrist giving a rollicking start taking on his former Australia teammate Brett Lee.

Just when the KXIP top-order looked like to explode, Iqbal Abdulla (2/19) and Yusuf Pathan (1/24) put brakes as KKR fought back by sending the visiting side top-order packing in front of a near capacity crowd. Dinesh Karthik played a responsible run-a-ball innings of 42 that had four boundaries.

But, in trying to improve the run rate in the death overs, he ran himself out, KXIP's third of the day, to set a seemingly easy target for the home side. After a watchful start, Gilchrist hit Lee for a six and a four for 13 runs in one over to set the tempo for KXIP. Gilchrist looked in fine touch, while Paul Valthaty did well to rotate the strike to put pressure on KKR.

With 22 for no loss after three overs, KXIP had set the ball rolling but could not sustain the momentum against Knight Riders slow bowlers. — PTI

Jaipur, April 30
Buoyed by back-to-back comprehensive victories, a confident Rajasthan Royals would start outright favourites when they take on the lowly Pune Warriors in an Indian Premier League match here tomorrow.

The hosts have shown remarkable grit to bounce back after three consecutive losses away from home. After coming back to their own citadel, Shane Warne's men have taken full advantage of the home conditions to upset Kochi Tuskers Kerala and Mumbai Indians with stunning performances.

The legendary leg-spinner has been outstanding tactically and as impressive as ever with the ball. One of his most recent strategic masterstrokes came when he dared to open the attack with the unorthodox left-arm spin of youngster Ashok Menaria against the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and flamboyant Davy Jacobs. Perhaps he had sensed that Menaria was rather an unknown bowler for the maestro.

South African Johan Botha has been in tremendous form both with bat and ball. He has 177 runs from five matches and has been dismissed only once. He has also picked four wickets, including a 3 for 6 haul against Mumbai Indians.

Shane Watson and Ross Taylor are not in best of form but have come up with useful contributions with the willow, but former India captain Rahul Dravid is yet to prove his worth for the team. Relishing the home conditions, Rajasthan have won 11 matches at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium and lost just three. "We have been lucky here. We know a few things more about this ground like the angles to be blocked off and that gives us the extra confidence," Warne said.

The Pune Warriors, on the other hand, have lost five matches on the trot and need to play out of their skins to snap Rajasthan's winning streak. They are ninth on the points table with five defeats out of seven matches and have 4 points. Though Skipper Yuvraj Singh and Jesse Ryder have more than 200 runs under their belt, the rest of the batting has left much to be desired.

Robin Uthappa has made good starts but has not been not at his best. Neither Mithun Manhas nor Nathan McCullum have been able to fill the void left by the injured Graeme Smith. As a unit, Pune Warriors have failed to make an impression so far but they will have to put all that behind pretty quickly to bounce back.

The presence of Yuvraj, who had a nice time here as the rest of India skipper Irani Trophy, was able to get back into the Indian side after his fine performance in last September. He and Robin Uthappa are capable of destroying any attack. — PTI

Bangalore, April 30
Young Indian batsman Virat Kohli had more than one reason to be delighted after his team Royal Challengers Bangalore's triumph over Pune Warriors as the right-hander didn't just produce a match-wining knock, he also overtook Sachin Tendulkar as the leading run-scorer of the ongoing IPL.

Kohli was handed the Orange Cap for topping the batting aggregate with 291 runs, 24 ahead of batting maestro Tendulkar who plays for the Mumbai Indians. "I had been keen to bat up the order in the last three IPLs. But I could get to bat only at five, six or seven. This time I got the chance to bat at three and I am happy that I have been able to score runs and contribute to the good showing of the team," said Kohli, who also completed 1000 IPL runs during the course of his breezy 67.

"I am happy to don the orange cap. I would like to hold on to it for a while, but the competition is very tough as there are five quality batsmen who are there in the top five among runs. Let me see how long I can hold on to it," added a beaming Kohli after RCB's 26-run win over Pune Warriors last night.

Pune captain Yuvraj Singh, on the other hand, rued that his team conceded 20 runs too many during RCB's innings. "I think we gave 20 runs in excess and couldn't score rapidly when we batted," said Yuvraj after his team's fifth consecutive defeat in the IPL.

The beleaguered Warriors' skipper felt that the road to the play-offs would get tougher from here on. "It is really tough from now on. We have to win six out of six to have a chance. We will give our best. I wished I should have lost the toss today. I have won the toss five times and we have lost those matches. I don't know what to say," he said.

Yuvraj also felt that batting effort wasn't good enough against RCB. "It was a gettable target because it was a good batting wicket. In the first six overs, we didn't lose many wickets but Manish and Jesse partnership didn't yield many runs. If the runs had come at that time, me and Robin could have finished off things. We will look at ourselves on where to improve on."

Did he make a mistake in not batting up the order? "We didn't lose early wickets and the batsmen upfront have to go at the bowling. Batting at four and five is the mainstay of the team,” he replied. — PTI

New Delhi, April 30
The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) has taken a strong view of the increasing incidence of positive cases in competitions, which has shown a disturbing picture about sportspersons belonging to organised sports control boards, like the Police Sports Control Board (PSCB), Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) and the Services Sports Control Board SSCB).

According to the data available with NADA, it has been observed that during the year 2010-11, six samples (weightlifting 3, bodybuilding 1, boxing 1 and judo 1), eight samples (weightlifting8) and 11 samples (weightlifting 2, bodybuilding 1, judo 2, athletics 2, equestrian 2 and rowing 2) respectively of PSCB, RSPB and SSCB have tested positive in competitions organised by these boards.

NADA director-general Rahul Bhatnagar informed that this list did not include those Railway and Police athletes who have been tested positive for dope in competitions other than those organised by the respective sports boards. He said these cases have been referred to the Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel - an independent authority constituted under the provisions of the anti-doping rules of NADA — who have been awarding penalties to the offenders, after conducting an impartial hearing.

“This is an extremely disturbing trend and the NADA is deeply concerned, particularly so since all the sportspersons of these boards are Government employees and have largely been recruited through sports quota,” Bhatnagar said. He expressed “deep concern” at the mounting incidence of doping and has written to the heads of all sports control boards to remain vigilant and take effective steps to contain the menace of doping in their boards.

New Delhi, April 30
World number one Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia today set up a mouth-watering summit clash against experienced Danish shuttler Peter Hoeg Gade in the inaugural Indian Open Super Series after both notched up contrasting wins in the men's singles here today.

The two-time All England Champion, Lee prevailed over eight seed Yun Hu of Hong Kong 21-11 21-15 while 34-year-old Gade, who won four European Championship crowns beside the All England title in 1999, defeated sixth seed Korean Sung Hwan Park 21-15 21-19 in a 45-minute semifinal at Siri Fort Complex. — PTI

Belgrade, April 30
After pulling off one of the biggest wins of his career in the last match, Somdev Devvarman gave seventh seed Jano Tipsarevic a run for his money before losing out in a hard-fourth three setter in the quarter-finals of the Serbia Open here today.

Devvarman, who upstaged world number 26 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the second round yesterday, lost 3-6 6-3 6-4 to the 36-ranked Tipsarevic. The 71st-ranked Indian made his fancied Serbian opponent toil hard for 2 hours, 38 minutes and 45 seconds to book his place in the semi-finals of the clay court event.

Tipsarevic will now face the winners of another quarter-final between top seed Novak Djokovic and Blaz Kavic. Somdev, who broke into top-100 early this year, had scored a thrilling 7-6 (6) 2-6 7-6 (8) win over Garcia-Lopez in the second round. The win over the Spaniard was Somdev's first win over a top-30 player this year. — PTI

Chandigarh, April 30
Daly College Indore won the 8th Honoria Lawrence Basketbal Tournament for girls by beating hosts Lawrence School Sanawar in the final played in Sanawar today.

The concluding phase of the 3-day Basketball Tourney held at The Lawrence School Sanawar witnessed some brilliant matches played among six participating teams.

It was a manifestation of agility, stamina and skill that kept the spectators agog in the final match in which Daly College defeated the hosts by a margin of 38 to 11 points.

Dr Rajeev Bindal Health Minister, Himachal Pradesh presided over the closing ceremony and gave away the prizes. Pooja Laddha was declared player of the tournament.

results

Winners: Daly College Indore

Runners up: The Lawrence School Sanawar

Most Promising Player: Yashodhan Thakur of The Lawrence School Sanawar

Player of the tournament: Pooja Laddha of Daly College Indore.

Harare, April 30
Elton Chigumbura has resigned as Zimbabwe cricket captain to focus on improving his own form.

The 25-year-old all-rounder was appointed captain in May last year as replacement for spinner Prosper Utseya, but his own performances have suffered under the pressure of the captaincy. He was sharply criticized after the team's disappointing results at the recent World Cup. —AP

New Delhi, April 30
Defender Usha B. will lead a 20-member Delhi State senior women’s football team for the 19th Senior National Football Championship, to be held at Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, in May.

Forward L. Naobi Chanu of Janaki Devi College will be the vice-captain. Twenty-six teams are playing in the national championship and Delhi have been clubbed with Pondicherry and West Bengal.

The squad: Goalkeepers: Aditi Chauhan, Ayesha Mahur; defenders: Anju Gosain, Usha B., Shabnam, Seema Bisht, Neha Yadav, Poonam Chauhan and Sucheta Bisht; mid-fielders: Akansha Chhibber, Vinita Baloni, Deepika, Yangzee Lepcha, N. Montessori Chanu; forwards: L. Naobi Chanu, Jyoti Ann Burret, Manisha Jha, Sonia Gaur, Kanchar and Sanchi Singh.