Bangalore, May 22
Chris Gayle's blazing form in the Indian Premier League continued as he butchered the Chennai Super Kings bowlers to score an unbeaten 75 off 50 balls to guide Royal Challengers Bangalore to a comprehensive eight-wicket win here today. The win put RCB on top of the table with 19 points and more importantly, gives them a match more to reach the final in case they lose the first play-offs.

Restricting CSK to a modest 128 for eight, RCB, who finished their league engagements with nine wins and a draw (no result), sauntered home with 12-balls to spare. Gayle was in imperious form again. But unlike in the earlier matches when he swung his bat at everything that was flung at him, the towering Jamaican was watchful, smashing the ball only when the bowlers begged to be punished.

He picked Dougie Bollinger and Suresh Raina for punishment, smashing them for effortless sixes at the start of the innings. The lanky Jamaican struck six sixes and four fours during his 50-ball mayhem, taking his aggregate to 511 runs in only nine innings. He is now the proud owner of the Orange Cap surpassing Shaun Marsh who had aggregated 504 runs.

It wasn't just Gayle all the way. Virat Kohli too, batted with maturity, defending when the bowlers demanded him to use soft hands, hitting out when they either over-pitched or bowled short. If RCB had lost AB de Villiers to the third ball of their innings, Kohli ensured that his side was firmly in the saddle, playing the supporting role to Gayle to a nicety.

Kohli made 31 before clipping Albie Morkel into the hands of Ravichandran Ashwin. With barely 48 needed in 60 balls with nine wickets in hand, RCB made the remainder of the target without much fuss. Saurabh Tiwary remained unbeaten with 13, while posting 49 runs for the unbroken third wicket.

Earlier, put in to bat by Daniel Vettori, CSK lost wickets at regular intervals throughout their innings, and reached 128 for eight in their 20 overs, thanks entirely to Dhoni, who smashed three fours and six towering sixes in his unbeaten 40-ball knock of 70. Dhoni was particularly severe on young paceman Abhimanyu Mithun, who conceded 17 runs in the final over of the innings and was clobbered for 35 runs in his four overs, even as the rest of the RCB attack was discipline personified.

Zaheer Khan, back in the side like Vettori, finished with excellent figures of two for 19, Vettori himself took two for 14 and impressive left-arm medium-pacer Sreenath Arvind returned with two for 20 to ensure that the defending champions did not get away to a massive score. — PTI

Chandigarh: The league phase of the fourth edition of the IPL ended today with Royal Challengers Bangalore topping the table by beating Chennai Super Kings. Chris Gayle was again instrumental in RCB’s win and also took the Orange Cap with 511 runs from just 9 matches.

In the other match of the day, Ambati Rayudu’s last-ball six meant that Mumbai moved to third and Kolkata finished fourth.

Now the league will get its first rest day tomorrow and then RCB will once again take on Chennai in the first Qualifier in Mumbai.

The winner directly goes into the final. That game will be followed by an Eliminator between Mumbai and Kolkata.

The winner of the Eliminator goes on to play the loser of Qualifier 1. The winner of this game goes on to play in the final on May 28 in Chennai. — TNS

Kolkata, May 22
The Mumbai Indians, who seemed to be losing steam during the last stretch of the league matches, bounced back in style as they registered an unlikely looking last -ball five-wicket victory against Kolkata Knight Riders in the final round-robin league match of the IPL here tonight.

Ambati Rayudu, with four required off the last ball, hit a six and with James Franklin playing a blinder, the two came down heavily on Lakshmipathy Balaji, to see Mumbai sail through to the play-offs with a win. Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh had chipped in before it looked like Mumbai had too much to do in the death overs. But luckily for Tendulkar and his men, Franklin and Rayudu had other plans.

Earlier, Jacques Kallis stood tall with a brilliant half-century as Kolkata Knight Riders overcame early hiccups to post a challenging 175 runs for seven.

Put into bat, the Knight Riders had a cautious losing two wickets early with the scoreboard reading 22 but Kallis displayed a cool head and guided the home team innings with a a 42-ball 59.

Together with Manoj Tiwary (35 off 22) and Yusuf Pathan, Kallis shared 47 and 57 runs for the third and fourth wickets respectively to set the platform for the big score.

The burly South African entertained a sell-out Eden crowd with four boundaries and three sixes. Towards the end, Ryab ten Doeschate (18 off 12) and Rajat Bhatia (11 not out off 6) played good hands to take Knight Riders past the 170-run mark.

For Mumbai Indians, young right-arm pacer Abu Nechim Ahmed and Kiwi James Franklin took two wickets each, giving away 32 and 35 runs respectively. The Knight Riders also lost three of their batsmen (Shreevats Goswami, Tiwary and Rajat Bhatia) to run outs.

Lasith Malinga returned wicketless but the Sri Lankan pacer was impressive, conceding just 23 from his quota of four overs.

But Mumbai's back up bowlers, Keiron Pollard and debutant Ray Price were expensive as they gave away more than 11 runs an over to help the Knight Riders cause. Facing Malinga for the first time ever, Goswami had some anxious moments as the Knight Riders made a cautious apparoach to their innings.

After surviving a couple of fiery deliveries from Malinga, Goswami (1 off 3 balls) ran himself out following a mix up with Kallis. At the other end, Kallis looked unruffled as he attacked Malinga in the same over, picking up the ball over extra cover for a boundary in the last ball.

Knight Riders skipper Gautam Gambhir quickly got himself in the groove with a six of Abu Nechim. — PTI

Kolkata, May 22
Kolkata Knight Riders think-tank hailed Gautam Gambhir for his shrewd captaincy skills and said the left-hander is a popular figure in the team. Team coach Dav Whatmore and his assistant Vijay Dahiya praised Gambhir in unison ahead of their clash with Mumbai Indians.

"He (Gambhir) has been a wonderful captain. He has been terrific for the quiet way he goes about his business. He leads by example, he has got a pretty shrewd brain. He is a likeable character and a popular figure in the dressing room," said Whatmore. Former Delhi coach Dahiya added: "You grow over a period. The quality about him is whatever the situation, he has backed himself." "For him, team comes first and then the captain always.

“He is always thinking about the team first. That's a huge quality as a leader. He has all the qualities you need in a leader. Leading a first-class side is different from leading in IPL." The Knight Riders, who have assured their place in the last four after Kings XI Punjab lost against Deccan Chargers in Dharamsala tonight, have been one of the most consistent team in the IPL fourth season.

Under Gambhir, the Knight Riders have displayed superb team effort to overcome their disappointing show in the last three episodes as they have emerged as strong contenders for the title. "There is a strong undercurrent, a feeling. First of all the objective was to get into playoffs. Once we have achieved that we need to go as far as we can. Only handful of games left, so we are looking forward," Whatmore said.

The Sri Lankan World Cup winning coach further said the boys this time were more keen to execute the task in a superb team environment. "Understandably, it's pretty upbeat, everyone is buoyed, looking forward. You win games by skill, team things in a very healthy environment. That's what we have tried to create. Inputs from number of people have helped.

"If you rewind it to the time before the auction, we have put in a number of hours behind formation of this team. We were flexible during the auction. At the end of it, we have got a team that we are happy with," he said. — PTI

Paris, May 22
Gusty winds and half-empty stands gave no sense of the usual Parisian glamour as last year's French Open runner-up Samantha Stosur began with an easy win on Sunday and Lleyton Hewitt pulled out injured. Stosur shook off the effects of a virus to beat Czech Iveta Benesova 6-2 6-3 on a sunbathed, yet windswept court Philippe Chatrier.

"The conditions weren't always so easy with some gusts of wind and whatever else, but, yeah, overall, very happy," said Stosur, who noticed with a smile that there "weren't quite as many people this time".

The claycourt French Open is the only grand slam event to start on a Sunday rather than the traditional Monday and the feeling is quite bizarre, according to Stosur, who lost to Italian Francesca Schiavone in last year's final.

"With all the others not doing it, it definitely is a bit of, not a shock, but it's just weird knowing that, okay, my tournament starts on Sunday and then I think you get two days off now," she explained.

"So it's just a bit of a different feel, and I guess there's still a lot more people here practising today than playing matches." The crowd grew bigger on court Philippe Chatrier when local favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga sparked off his campaign but the fireworks did not last long as the 17th seed spent less than two hours to dismiss Czech Jan Hajek 6-3 6-2 6-2.

Serbian Jelena Jankovic, a three-times semi-finalist in Paris, was also untroubled on court Suzanne Lenglen as she breezed past Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko 6-3 6-1. This year's French Open has been hit hard by injuries and Hewitt, the Australian former world number one, added to the list of absentees when he pulled out because of a left ankle problem.

American Andy Roddick and former champion Juan Carlos Ferrero both pulled out on the eve of the year's second grand slam, joining the likes of Serena and Venus Williams and Dinara Safina in being forced to miss out.

Croatian Marin Cilic would certainly get the feeling his tournament was finished before it had properly started as the 19th seed was sent packing with a 7-6 6-4 6-4 defeat by Spain's Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo.

There was no smell of an upset on as seventh seed David Ferrer of Spain thrashed Finn Jarkko Nieminen 6-3 6-3 6-1 to advance into round two. — Reuters 

Chandigarh, May 22
By finishing a poor sixth in Azlan Shah hockey tournament at Ipoh, Malaysia early this month, Indian hockey appears to be struggling hard for survival as different power centres - Hockey India, Indian Hockey Federation and Ministry of Sports - are reportedly pulling it in different directions, to wrest control over the administration of this once national game of the country.

While Hockey India is playing a subdued second fiddle to the Union Ministry of Sports in meeting its international commitments of the International Hockey Federation, the sport is unfortunately heading to its nadir, as players and State Hockey Associations are vertically divided over the national body.

Early this month, the Indian Hockey Federation organised its Federation Cup Tournament in Jalandhar at a time when the national team was getting drubbings from Pakistan and New Zealand in the Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament in Ipoh. Both Hockey India and Indian Hockey Federation are going ahead with their tournaments, including National championships, not only for seniors, but also for juniors and sub juniors, independent of each other.

Things are not working out well. How a team that has 10 or more players who can run first 10 metres of 100 metre sprint faster than the World’s fastest man Usain Bolt, can lose out on stamina in their last play off match against Korea. Even earlier in the tournament, the Indian team squandered 1-0 lead to be beaten by Pakistan and then got a huge drubbing from New Zealand, before losing the last game to Korea to finish sixth.

As of now, the control, except for national Hockey India (HI) tag, lies with the Ministry of Sports that overlooked suggestions from the Technical Committee (of HI) in training the team for the Azlan Shah tournament.

India will be playing host not only to the Champions Trophy Hockey Tournament in New Delhi in December, but will also play host to Olympic qualifier and Junior World Cup in the next year. What are the level of preparations of our national teams for these tournaments that the country is going to host?

The Union Ministry of Sports thinks it to be expensive to hire a foreign coach but can spend Rs 2 crores on training of Indian team by keeping it in five star hotel for Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament. Hockey experts differ on the subject maintaining that putting a team in a hotel during training camp is not only an avoidable distraction, but also a big drain on time of players who have to travel to different places for various training requirements, including checking of their physical fitness, stamina, strength and endurance. Food in hotels is not what the players need in a training camp. Further, the camps are without sufficient number of trainers, including coaches, physical fitness experts, psychologists, doctors, masseurs, videographers and other support staff.

Even a letter was written by the Secretary-General of Hockey India, Narinder Batra, to Ministry of Sports late last month for an urgent meeting to resolve issues like deciding venue for training of Indian men, women and junior teams for coming international tournaments, choosing coaches, support staff, scientific equipment required for training, naming doctors, physiotherapists and videographers to stay with national teams and starting develoment camps for the junior team. The request has reportedly gone unattanded.

New Delhi, May 22
Newly-married Vijender Singh has decided to skip the upcoming training-cum-competition trip to Cuba where 12 other Indian boxers will compete as part of their build-up to the Olympic qualifiers starting in September. Vijender, who tied the knot last week, will instead train in Patiala during this period.

Indian Boxing Federation officials said the star boxer pulled out citing "domestic reasons." In his absence, the middleweight slot in the team has gone to three-time national champion Kuldeep Singh.

But the likes of Asian Games bronze-medallist Suranjoy Singh (52kg), fit-again Asian Championships silver-medallist Thokchom Nanao Singh (49kg) and Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Paramjeet Samota (+91kg) will be in action in the three-week training and competition at the 41st "Giraldo Córdova Cardin" - an International Tournament to be held in Havana from May 24 to June 8.

The 12 boxers would be accompanied by four coaches during the event, which is part of the training program ahead of the Olympic qualifiers beginning with the World Champiopnships in Azerbaijan. Last year, the Indian team won eight silver and three bronze medals in the event. The 13 boxers who went last year also got a chance to interact with three-time Olympic and six-time world champion, the legendary Felix Savon Fabre.

Nanao, who suffered a hand injury last year, staged a stunning comeback to win the gold at the 34th National Games. Shiva Thapa (56kg), who recently won a gold medal at an international boxing tournament in Serbia, would be making his first trip to Cuba.

The squad: Nanao Singh (49kg), Amandeep Singh (49kg), M Suranjoy Singh (52kg), Santosh Harijan (52kg), Shiva Thapa (56kg), Vikas Krishnan (60kg), Manoj Kumar (64kg), Balwinder Beniwal (69kg), Kuldeep Singh (75kg), Dinesh (81kg), Manpreet Singh (91kg), P Samota (+91kg). — PTI

Barcelona, May 22
Red Bull's Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel took his fourth win in five races on Sunday in a Spanish Grand Prix that shed its reputation for predictable processions.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton finished second, just 0.6 seconds behind, after harrying the 23-year-old German over the closing laps in a far closer finale to a race many had forecast would be a duel between the dominant Red Bulls.

"That was crazy, crazy man, you were coming, coming, coming," Vettel told Hamilton before the podium Champagne celebrations. Hamilton's team mate and fellow-Briton Jenson Button was third, beating Red Bull's Australian Mark Webber for the final place on the podium and helped by a three-stop strategy to the others' four.

However, the stewards announced some 19 minutes after the end of the race that Hamilton, Button and Webber were all under investigation for failing to slow for yellow flags. The rest of the field, including Ferrari's fifth placed local hero Fernando Alonso and sixth placed Michael Schumacher, were lapped.

Vettel stretched his championship lead over Hamilton, the 2008 champion and only man to have beaten him so far this year, to 41 points. Even if Vettel's 14th career victory came as no surprise, it still marked the first time since 2000, when Finland's Mika Hakkinen beat Michael Schumacher to the chequered flag, that the race was won by someone, other than the driver starting on pole.

At a circuit previously renowed for scant overtaking or excitement, with just 10 moves in last year's race, the new driver operated rear wings (DRS) and KERS systems transformed the landscape.

"It was pretty tough, obviously," said Vettel, whose KERS system giving a brief power boost at the push of a button was working only intermittently. — Reuters

New Delhi, May 22
Vijay Kumar became the seventh Indian shooter to qualify for next year's London Olympics by clinching a silver medal in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event of the ongoing ISSF World Cup in Fort Benning, USA.

The 25-year-old Indian missed the gold by a whisker to German Christian Reitz, an Olympic bronze medallist from the Beijing edition, who won the match with an overall score of 29 hits. Reitz, who also qualified for the Olympics, outdid Vijay in a shoot-off for gold by four hits to one.

Vijay Kumar finished with an overall score of 29 hits plus one hit in the shoot-off, after scoring series of five hits during the final. The bronze medal went to China's Ding Feng, the winner of last year's World Cup final round here in Fort Benning.

Vijay joins rifle shooters Ronjan Sodhi, Gagan Narang, Hari Om Singh and Sanjeev Rajput, and fellow pistol shooters Rahi Sarnobat and Annu Raj Singh to clinch a quota place for the London Olympics. More than 600 athletes coming from 70 countries are participating in the third ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup stage of the year. — PTI

Memphis, May 22
The Dallas Mavericks blitzed the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first quarter and held off a late rally for a 93-87 victory on Saturday that gave them a 2-1 lead in their best of seven Western conference finals series. The series continues with Game Four at the Oklahoma City Arena on Monday.

The Mavericks raced out to a 15-point lead at the end of the first quarter and led throughout, despite a furious fourth quarter from Oklahoma, where they reduced the deficit to four points with 24 seconds remaining. The Thunder struggled with their shooting throughout the game and set a dubious NBA record missing their first 16 three-point attempts.

They connected on their 17th and final attempt with 35 seconds remaining to trim the lead to 88-83. Russell Westbrook scored 14 of his game-high 30 points, while Kevin Durant scored nine of his 24 in the fourth quarter to lead Oklahoma's charge as the Thunder outscored Dallas 31-23.

Dirk Nowitzki struggled for much of the game, but scored 10 of his 18 points in the final period, which helped hold off the charging Thunder. Shawn Marion also scored 18 points for the Mavericks. — Reuters

New Delhi, May 22
Singles stars Saina Nehwal and P Kashyap recorded victories but that was not enough to save India from defeat as it lost 2-3 to Chinese Taipei in the Sudirman Cup mixed team badminton competition in Qingdao, China, today.

Chinese Taipei rode on its strong doubles pairs to edge past India, which badly missed the experienced duo of Jwala Gutta and V Diju, who is nursing an injury. The tie was locked 2-2, courtesy wins of Saina and Kashyap, but the Jwala and Ashwini Ponappa could not win it for India as they lost the decisive fifith rubber 15-21, 17-21 to world No.2 Wen Hsing Cheng and Yu Chin Chien in the women's doubles.

The 32-ranked Indian pair, who won Commonwealth Games gold last year, lost in 23 minutes. In the first clash, Aparna Balan and Arun Vishnu, ranked 88, lost to world number 15 pair Sheng Mu Lee and Yu Chin Chie 17-21, 10-21 in the mixed doubles.

Kashyap, the top Indian in the men's singles at 28, brought India back with a 21-16, 21-13 victory over Hsuan Yi Hsueh. — PTI

London, May 22
Eoin Morgan won the race for the vacancy in England's middle-order when he was named in a 12-man squad today for the first Test against Sri Lanka, seeing off the challenge of Ravi Bopara. Former Ireland left-hander Morgan filled the place created by the Test retirement of Paul Collingwood, who quit the five-day format following England's Ashes series win in Australia in January.

Morgan, who was in the Ashes squad but did not play in any of the Tests, has long been considered the next batsman in line and his inclusion for the opener against Sri Lanka, the first of a three-match series, in Cardiff on Thursday reflects England's desire for consistency of selection.

Earlier this week the 24-year-old scored 193 against Sri Lanka for the second-string England Lions in a four-day fixture in Derby that concludes later on Sunday. "Eoin Morgan impressed us last summer when he was given his opportunity in the Test side and has worked hard on his game.” — AFP