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Unstoppable
Daredevils steamroll Mumbai
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Kings face revenge-seeking Knights
Shot selection let us down: Bhajji
Yusuf will come good, feels coach Bayliss
Yusuf Pathan takes a catch during practice as Gautam Gambhir (R) looks on. Tribune Photo: Vicky Gharu
Early wickets give Oz control
Gayle powers RCB to victory Royal Challengers Bangalore's Chris Gayle plays a shot against Pune Warriors at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Tuesday. RCB won by six wickets. — PTI
Haryana hunts for its own speedster
Sahara adopts Indian volleyball
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Unstoppable
Jaipur, April 17
It was glovesman Dishant Yagnik, playing his first match of the tournament, who hit successive boundaries off Dale Steyn to clinch the issue on a belter of a track at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium. Royals required 25 runs in the last two overs and it became all the more difficult after Johan Botha was caught in the deep off Anand Rajan's first delivery of the penultimate over. However, Hodge - who is the highest run-getter in the history of T20 cricket - had other ideas. First, Hodge (6x4 2x6) smashed Anand Rajan to long-on for a boundary and then hit a magnificent six over wide long-off to bring down the equation to 11 in the last over. First ball by Steyn was hit for two runs by Hodge before he gave the strike to Yagnik with a quick single. Yagnik smacked the third ball past the off-side field and down to deep cover and then smashed the next delivery past the diving cover fielder to set off wild celebrations in the Rajasthan camp. Earlier, Jean-Paul Duminy provided the late onslaught with an unbeaten 26-ball 58 after a solid opening stand as Chargers posted an imposing total. After skipper Kumar Sangakkara (44) and Shikhar Dhawan (52) laid the platform with a 94-run opening stand, Duminy took the opposition bowlers to the cleaners, piling up 53 runs in the last three overs. Duminy, playing his first match in IPL-V, struck five sixes, which included two off Pankaj Singh's penultimate over, and as many off Amit Singh's last over. Duminy found an able ally in Australian Daniel Christian, who hit a 19-ball 29, laced with two fours and a six, to propel the visitors to a competitive total. Chasing a stiff target, Rajasthan started on an attacking note with skipper Rahul Dravid (42) hitting Steyn for three fours in his first over. Dravid shed his usual calm self image this time where he himself plays steadily and provides his partner Ajinkya Rahane with a good platform. The just-retired veteran of 164 Tests and 344 ODIs took the attack to the opposition as he hit right-arm medium Rajan for two consecutive fours in the fifth over and then dispatched Christain for a six and a four. However, his batting exploits came to an end when he was cleaned up by Christain while trying to work the ball away to the on side but it deflected off his pads and pegged back the leg stump. Dravid's 24-ball innings was laced with seven fours and a six. Dravid and Rahane added 62 runs for the opening wicket in just 5.5 overs. The departure of Dravid somewhat put brakes on the scoring of Rajasthan as the overs between 7 and 9 yielded just 16 runs with Steyn and Christian maintaining a disciplined line. Orange cap holder Rahane (44) then broke the shackles when he took a few paces down the track and whacked a loose delivery from spinner Amit Mishra for a maximum over wide long-off's reach. Rahane completed his 300 runs in this IPL season when he clips Rajan down to long-on. The Mumbai batsman, in the company of local boy Ashok Menaria (22), kept the scoreboard ticking with occassional boundaries as both took the Rajasthan past 100-run mark in the 11th over. Both forged a 48-run stand for the second wicket before Menaria departed caught by Duminy off Amit Mishra at short midwicket. — PTI Q Scoreboard
Rajasthan Royals
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Daredevils steamroll Mumbai
Mumbai, April 17
Earlier, batting recklessly and without much purpose, Mumbai Indians collapsed in a heap for a meagre 92 in 19.2 overs. Sent in to bat, MI had lost half their side within the first 10 overs, results of either rash shots or poor running between the wickets. The hosts then recovered somewhat through a belligerent knock of 33 off just 22 balls with five fours and a six from skipper Harbhajan Singh, but the final tally looked well below par for the course. It was also their second-lowest in IPL history, a shade better than the 87 all out against Kings XI Punjab last year at Mohali. In the top order, only Rohit Sharma contributed with a chancy 29 in 27 balls with five fours while the others fell for single digit scores, including last match's man of the match Kieron Pollard who was out for a 3-ball 1. For the Daredevils, who came here after hammering last year's winners Chennai Super Kings at home, the wickets were shared by their impressive bowling attack. — Agencies Scoreboard
Delhi Daredevils
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Kings face revenge-seeking Knights
Mohali, April 17
The Kings came out triumphant in the last encounter, but only just. Now, at home, they will hope there is a repeat, and the points in the bag. But wishful thinking has no place in sports. The Kings have improved gradually over the past four games, but there still seems to be some element of doubt over their consistency. Mandeep and Gilchrist look like a decent opening pair, but the problems for both are ironically similar. Gilchrist has always been deadly, but never a steady bat, and Mandeep, still in the infancy of his career, is finding it hard to keep it going. He has had starts, but fades away too early. While Gilchrist can attribute all his shortcomings to the fact that he is over the hill, Mandeep is just at the start of what should be a hard climb, but a tremendous career as well. The middle order is the root of inconsistency. Shaun Marsh got out to a gem in Kolkata and David Hussey was unlucky to have been dismissed after settling in. The likes of Paras Dogra, Abhishek Nayar and Paul Valthaty, who sat out the last game, have just not looked up to scratch. But not all is gloomy, as the Punjab bowlers have got their act together. Praveen has been excellent, although wicketless. He has led the attack with tight spells. Harmeet Bansal displayed nerves of steel in the last game and ultimately won it for the Kings. Spinners too have done fairly well and Piyush Chawla has been bowling with lots of heart, and mind. They have shot out teams, restricted them and that has turned the results around. But T20 can be the cruelest format of the sport for bowlers and a strong KKR batting lineup will be a genuine challenge to restrict again. Gautam Gambhir and Jacques Kallis will shoulder the responsibility for a good start. They are followed by Manvinder Bisla, who has been pretty much reinvented himself as a power-hitter, Manoj Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib-al-Hasan, Debbrata Das and Ryan ten Doeschate. Now if you can’t deliver with that batting lineup, you probably won’t deliver with any other too. This should be a traditional bat versus ball contest, and the two teams will be hoping their strength can turn into full points tomorrow.
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Shot selection let us down: Bhajji
Mumbai, April 17 Mumbai were shot out by Delhi for a mere 92 runs and the visitors overhauled the target with 31 balls to spare to register a seven-wicket win and Harbhajan laid the blame on the poor show by his top-order batsmen. "Yes, the score was low. There was some bad selection of shots. We lost lot of wickets in the first six overs to be 20-odd for two which was the main cause of not achieving whatever we wanted to on the score front. We lost the game in the first six overs," said the 31-year-old off-spinner in the post-match press conference here last night. "It was difficult for us to score runs as we continued losing wickets. We lost Dinesh Karthik early on. (Openers) Davy Jacobs and (Richard) Levi did not give us the start we were looking for. Rohit (Sharma) was looking good, but unfortunately he also got out. We were not able to rotate the strike and also giving away wickets. That was the turning point in the game," he explained. The home team, put into bat, slumped to five for two in 3.1 overs and then slid further into the hole to be 44 for six after 10.2 overs before recovering a bit. But the final tally on a good, bouncy Wankhede Stadium track was well below par for the course. Harbhajan, who top-scored with 33 from 22 balls, stopped short of calling it reckless batting even though poor shots were played and also a foolish attempt for a non-existent run led to Ambati Rayudu's dismissal. "What do you mean by that (reckless batting)?" he shot back. — PTI
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Yusuf will come good, feels coach Bayliss
Mohali, April 17 According to KKR’s coach Trevor Bayliss, back in Kolkata the team lost its intensity during the match and gifted away two easy wickets to the visitors but they will, hopefully, get sweet revenge of the defeat. “I haven’t gone through the pitch yet but after watching the last game played here, I can judge that my team has everything to win this game and, moreover, our bowlers and batsmen are doing a good job” said Bayliss. Talking about the last game, he added, “One’s loss is other’s gain. We were playing the match at a good intensity, 65 off 60 was a chaseable score with eight wickets in hand. But, we failed to keep up the intensity that the Kings’ picked and reverted back the pressure on us” said Bayliss. Hinting over some changes in the final squad for the upcoming match Bayliss added, “Hopefully the team will see some changes tomorrow. The team management will decide it in the meeting before the match. We need to click on to an all-rounder or a fast bowler; however, the final decision will be taken after the meeting”. Bayliss also said that they continued to count on Yusuf Pathan, who so far has failed to make an impact. “He is a match winner and hopefully he will come in form soon. The team needs him and he is well aware of this. Hopefully the local crowd will witness some of his high towering shots tomorrow. He is struggling but will surely prove his iron” Bayliss concluded.
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Early wickets give Oz control
Port-of-Spain, April 17 Hussey (73) and Pattinson (32) helped push the tourists, who are 1-0 up in the three-match series, to 311 all out as the West Indies finished the day on 49 for three yesterday, still trailing by 262 runs. Hussey top-scored for Australia before falling to Narsingh Deonarine. Rain arrived shortly before lunch, just after Hussey had brought up his fifty, and Australia added 59 runs for the loss of one wicket before lunch to take the score to 267 for six. Unfortunately, the showers became heavier and another 100 minutes were lost which will mean early starts for the remainder of the Test. After the extended break, the West Indian team appeared to be getting more and more frustrated. Hussey and Pattinson were batting with as much confidence as had been seen but still deliveries were regularly passing the edge. With the score on 297 the breakthrough finally came. It surprised everyone when Hussey didn't move his feet to a Deonarine delivery and simply slapped it to short extra cover where Kraigg Brathwaite held the chance. Like Deonarine's other victim, Michael Clarke, Hussey couldn't believe the shot he had played. He had batted for over four hours in another fine innings. His seventh wicket partnership with Pattinson had been worth 89 runs but the fall of the wicket opened up the tail. As so often seems to happen, when one falls the other batsmen goes too. Just five balls later, without further addition to the score, Pattinson got a top-edge to a ball from Shane Shillingford. Despite confusion between the fielders, Darren Bravo took the skied chance. — AFP Scoreboard West Indies 1st innings |
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Bangalore, April 17 Chasing a daunting 183 for a win, Gayle started slowly, but picked up the momentum when it mattered the most. He took Rahul Sharma to the cleaners as he hit five consecutive sixes off the leggie’s second over. Although Gayle was removed for 81 by Nehra, AB de Villiers and Saurabh Tiwary wrapped up the proceedings in style. De Villiers hit two sixes off Nehra, and with 3 required off the last ball, Tiwary hit a straight six to seal the points for RCB. Earlier, local boy Robin Uthappa's belligerent knock of 69 along with useful contributions from Jesse Ryder and Marlon Samuels helped Pune Warriors India post a commendable 182 for six.Pune openers Jesse Ryders and Robin Uthappa got off to a cracking start adding 63 runs for the first wicket in only seven overs. The Royals introduced offie Tillekratne Dilshan in the second over where he was hammered for 13 runs which included a six and four. Ryder started from where he left in the last match against CSK while Uthappa showed why he is so highly rated in this format. Just when it looked that Ryder-Uthappa duo would murder the bowling, Harshal Patel provided RCB the breakthrough as Kiwi opener tried to pull him over lbackward square leg only to be caught by Mayank Agarwal at the boundary. The Karnataka lad quickly raced to his fourth IPL half century reverse sweeping Dilshan past short third-man for his second consecutive boundary. His 50 had seven fours and two sixes and came off only 34 balls. The Warriors reached 100 in the 11th over. RCB responded with two quick wickets in two overs. R Vinay Kumar first picked up an woefully out-of-form Sourav Ganguly whose slash was easily caught. — Agencies Scoreboard Royal Challengers Bangalore
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Haryana hunts for its own speedster
Sirsa, April 17 Anirudh Chaudhary, honorary secretary of the Haryana Cricket Association (HCA), Dr Ved Beniwal, vice president of the HCA and secretary of District Sirsa Cricket Association were present during the trials held in Shahid Bhagat Singh Stadium here today. “In order to hunt raw talent in fast bowling, the HCA has decided to hold trials at Rohtak, Bhiwani, Karnal, Faridabad besides Sirsa,” said Chaudhary. Today was the beginning of these trials and the HCA experts will go to other four towns for this purpose soon. “After completing trials in the five centres, the HCA will select young raw fast bowlers based on their speed, age and biomechanics and those chosen will be provided training under the watchful eyes of Ian Pont, a top bowling coach,” Chaudhary said. |
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Sahara adopts Indian volleyball
New Delhi, April 17 Chairman of Sahara Group, Subrata Roy, said: “We see a lot of scope to develop volleyball and therefore we have come forward to lend our support to the national teams on the eve of the Olympics, so that these talented athletes are motivated to perform better to bring more laurels to the nation.” Volleyball Federation of India president Dr B Sivanthi Adityan said the tie-up with Sahara would encourage the players to perform better, besides giving the federation an opportunity to build a stronger Indian team for the upcoming qualifiers and World Championships. |
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T20 specialist Brad Hodge played an excellent cameo to guide Rajasthan Royals to their fourth victory in the Indian Premier League, pipping Deccan Chargers by five wickets in a thrilling finish, here today.
Sport can be cruel, as it can be forgiving. It can be harmless, as it can be breathtaking. Life-like for once, and then, completely different. Sometimes you get a second chance, sometimes you just don’t.
A last-over thriller played out between Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders will witness its second leg in
Mohali, as the two teams square off tomorrow at the PCA Stadium.
Cricket is unpredictable and so are the results. In their last home encounter, the Kolkata Knight Riders faced a mere two-run defeat by the Kings XI Punjab team and tomorrow at PCA stadium, the Kolkata outfit will once again face Kings, with a hope to settle scores, during their match of the ongoing IPL-5.
According to KKR’s coach Trevor Bayliss, back in Kolkata the team lost its intensity during the match
An 89 run partnership between Mike Hussey and James Pattinson ensured Australia remained in control at the end of the second day of the second Test against the West Indies at Queen's Park Oval.
Hussey (73) and Pattinson (32) helped push the tourists, who are 1-0 up in the three-match series, to 311 all out as the West Indies finished the day on 49 for three yesterday, still trailing by 262 runs.
Chris Gayle played a blinder of an innings as he decimated the bowling to lead the Royal Challengers Bangalore to a six-wicket win against Pune Warriors in their IPL match here, tonight.
Chasing a daunting 183 for a win, Gayle started slowly, but picked up the momentum when it mattered the most.
A last-over thriller played out between Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders will witness its second leg in Mohali, as the two teams square off tomorrow at the PCA Stadium.