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Super Kings down Royals
Dadagiri in Delhi |
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Tendulkar returns as Mumbai face Kings XI
Gilchrist out for 2 weeks, says Hussey
Vettel bags his first pole of the season
DC still looking for first win
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Chennai, April 21 Du Plessis was the main scorer as he smashed six fours and two sixes to set the tone for the defending champions at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. This was the Super Kings' fourth win from seven matches while Rajasthan, who had four wins prior to this match, suffered their third defeat in this edition of the cash-rich Twenty20 league. Chasing a rather modest total, the Super Kings were off to a sedate start, by IPL's standards, as openers du Plessis and Subramaniam Badrinath (15) added 55 runs in eight overs. Slow left-arm spinner Brad Hogg gave the visitors their first breakthrough when he had Badrinath stumped by Shreevats Goswami with a ball that had a bit of flight. The dismissal, though, hardly had any effect on du Plessis as he continued with his attacking game and, along with Suresh Raina, added 61 runs for the second wicket, much to delight of the home crowd. Raina scored 26 runs in 24 balls and hit three fours. While he started hitting fours from the second over, du Plessis struck his first six in the seventh over, when Ashok Menaria's delivery was lofted over the extra-cover region. The South African struck his second six, against medium pacer Siddharth Trivedi, before Kevon Cooper brought to an end his stay by having the batsman caught by Goswami. Cooper then sent back Raina, thanks to Ajinkya Rahane's excellent catch in the deep, but skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja denied the visitors any further success while taking Chennai home. Earlier, the Super Kings rode on a disciplined bowling display to restrict Rajasthan to a modest total despite a half century by Owais Shah on a swealtering day. Electing to bat on what looked like a slow pitch, the Rajasthan Royals batsmen started off in brilliant fashion, scoring 15 runs off Dwayne Bravo's first over. They were 34 for no loss by the fourth over before Ravichandran Ashwin put the brakes on the scoring rate. Ashwin gave his team a vital breakthrough when he dismissed an in-form Rahane (15) off the third ball of his spell. Rahane looked in good nick, opening his account with a straight bat cover drive off Nuwan Kulasekara. The batsman then dismissed Bravo thorough mid-off and pulled the second delivery of his over through the vacant square-leg region to stamp his authority on the Chennai bowlers. He, however, got out while trying to go over mid-off only managing to give a simple catch to Kulasekara. Rahane's dismissal brought Shah in the middle -- the English recruit took seven balls to open his account before hitting Shadab Jakati over the mid-on fence to bring the second six of the innings. Rahul Dravid, at the other end, was going nicely, hitting three boundaries and a six before his 26-run inning was cut short by Jakati. With the scorecard reading two for 50 at the end of eighth over, the onus was again on Shah to take his team to a respectable total. Shah, in the company of Menaria, stitched a 92-run third-wicket partnership off just 65 balls to help the visitors post a modest total. After a sedate start both the batsmen opened up. Menaria, in particular, was lucky to survive the initial few balls from Ashwin. Shah carried on his good work with yet another substantial knock, which helped his side to a respectable total, but not quite an imposing one. — PTI Scoreboard Rajasthan Royals Dravid c Bollinger b Jakati 26 Rahane c Kulasekara b Ashwin 15 Shah c Dhoni b Kulasekara 52 Menaria c Jakati b Bollinger 36 Hodge not out 3 Extras: (b-1, lb-2, w-11) 14 Total: (4 wkts, 20 ovrs) 146 Fall of wickets: 1/36 2/50 3/142 4/146. Bowling: Kulasekara 4-0-17-1, Bollinger 4-0-31-1, Bravo 3-0-32-0, Ashwin 4-0-19-1, Jakati 2-0-12-1, Jadeja 3-0-32-0. Chennai Super Kings Badrinath st Goswami b Hogg 15 Plessis c Goswami b Cooper 73 Raina c Rahane b Cooper 26 Dhoni not out 15 Dwayne not out 16 Extras: (lb-1, w-1) 2 Total: (3 wkts, 20 ovrs) 147 Fall of wickets: 1/55 2/116 3/117. Bowling: Menaria 2-0-10-0, Binny 2-0-20-0, Singh 4-0-45-0, Cooper 4-0-23-2, Hogg 4-0-18-1, Trivedi 4-0-30-0.
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Dadagiri in Delhi New Delhi, April 21 Warriors thus inflicted season five’s first home defeat on Daredevils, who were riding high after scoring two successive home wins, to top the table. Warriors ended their losing streak to record their fourth victory in seven matches to log eight points, and be in the company of the table toppers like Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils. Chasing a victory target of 193, Daredevils seemed to be on track for yet another home win when captain Virender Sehwag and Kevin Pietersen rained sixes and fours through some lusty hitting to race ahead to be on par with the Warriors’ total at the seventh-over mark, as they made light of Mahela Jayawardene’s early exit. Sehwag and Pietersen put on 75 runs, but suddenly Sourav changed the course of the contest when he castled Pietersen with a deceptive delivery, which the batman missed, only to see his stumps castled. Sourav also got the crucial scalp of Irfan Pathan to put Daredevils on the defensive, and when Murali Karthik scalped the dangerous Virender Sehwag, Warriors sensed victory, and they never let go the chance. It was just not Daredevils’ day, as their bowling today lacked teeth with Jesse Ryder, Sourav and Steve Smith riding roughshod over them. Put into bat, Pune Warriors rode on Jesse Ryder’s power-packed knock of 86 (58b,7x4,2x6) to hoist 192 for 3, which was a challenging total. Though Warriors lost Robin Uthappa early and captain Sourav Ganguly got two lives in the 12th over bowled by Shahbaz Nadeem, he stayed put to help add 93 runs for the second wicket to lay the foundation for Warriors’ handsome total. Morne Morkel, who for once proved to be very costly by his lofty standards, eventually took all the three wickets of Warriors for 50 runs, though Ganguly and Ryder indulged in power play to add runs at a fast clip. When Morkel forced Ganguly to play into the hands of Umesh Yadav, the skipper had made 41 for 35, with five fours and one six. Ganguly survived two chances on 31 off Nadeem, when Yogesh Nagar failed to hold the ball as it feel in front of him, and then the bowler himself failed to hold a return catch. Then Ryder and Steve Smith punished the at times loose and often wayward Delhi bowling to crank up some quick runs. Daredevils gave away 10 wides, and also spilled some catches, to give the visitors much leeway, and a victory. Robin Uthappa smote two successive fours off Irfan Pathan in the third over to break free as Delhi Daredevils had conceded only three runs in the first two overs of Irfan Pathan and Shabaz Nadeem. But Uthappa fell in the next over of Morne Morkel, which was a kind of poetic justice as Morkel had been greeted with an outside-edged six and then an inside-edge four, past slip, by Jesse Ryder. Though Morkel conceded 13 runs in his first over, which included a wide, he forced Uthappa to edge into the gloves of the wicket-keeper off the fifth ball, to take the first wicket of Pune Warriors India for 26 runs in 3.5 overs. It was very unusual for Morkel to get such a punishment in his opening over, as in the two previous matches played at the Kotla ground, against Chennai Super Kings and Deccan Chargers, the South African pacer’s four overs each read 2 for 19 and 3 for 23.Ganguly joined Ryder, and quickly, the duo got into the act to race up the scoreboard, and get to 50 by the sixth over. Ryder continued to ride roughshod over the Delhi bowling, but eventually he fell in the first ball of Morkel’s fourth over, and the last of the innings, to deny him the pleasure of remaining unconquered. Scoreboard Pune Warriors: Uthappa c Ojha b Morne 10 Ryder b Morne 86 Ganguly c Yadav b Morne 41 Smith not out 34 Mathews not out 6 Extras: (lb-4, w-10, nb-1) 15 Total: (3 wkts, 20 ovrs) 192 Fall of
wickets: 1/26, 2/119, 3/186. Bowling: Irfan 4-1-25-0, Nadeem 4-0-44-0, Morne 4-0-50-3, Umesh 4-0-29-0, Pietersen 2-0-21-0, Sehwag 1-0-9-0, Nagar 1-0-10-0. Delhi Daredevils Mahela c Smith b Thomas 7 Sehwag c & b Kartik 57 Pietersen b Ganguly 32 Irfan c Ryder b Ganguly 15 Negi run out 8 Taylor c Smith b Thomas 12 Nagar c Ganguly b Thomas 24 Naman not out 11 Morne not out 1 Extras
(lb 2, w 3) 5 Total (7 wkts; 20 ovrs) 172 Fall of
wickets: 1/12,2/87, 3/114, 4/115, 5/125, 6/143, 7/167. Bowling: Thomas 4-0-22-3, Nehra 4-0-26-0, Kartik 3-0-25-1, Mathews 2-0-32-0, Rahul 2-0-20-0, Ryder 1-0-18-0, Ganguly 4-0-27-2.
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Tendulkar returns as Mumbai face Kings XI
The home team can expect a change of fortune with Tendulkar, who has seen the action only from the sidelines after getting hit on his finger in the opening game on April 4, returning to the opening slot and giving a much-needed dose of stability to the top order. Mumbai Indians paid the price of reckless batting against Delhi Daredevils as they managed just 92 runs, their second-lowest total in five seasons, to lose their last match comprehensively. According to Mumbai Indians coach Robin Singh, Tendulkar is all set to play tomorrow. "He's fine to play and is playing tomorrow," Robin Singh said. Tendulkar today practiced hard after missing the last four games and his presence tomorrow would certainly calm down the jangled nerves of the top order. Key MI batsmen -- Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard and Ambati Rayudu and Richard Levi — have all been inconsistent while wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik has been a total failure. The additional worry for MI is that paceman Lasith Malinga will not take the field for the second match in succession because of pain in his back. Whenever MI were in trouble, the team had lobbed the ball to the Sri Lankan sling-arm bowler and he had delivered. — PTI
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Gilchrist out for 2 weeks, says Hussey
Mohali, April 21 “This is his first injury in about 16 years, so he is obviously very disappointed. By the looks of it, he will be out for about 2 weeks, and we will see it how it goes after that,” Hussey said last night after his team’s loss. “I felt we were about 10-15 runs short in the end. Of course, Gayle and AB de Villiers batted brilliantly, and they are probably among the top batsmen in the world, so it is disappointing, but we will be looking to bounce back from this loss,” Hussey added. But the stand-in skipper said he could not complain about the way his team had played on the night. “I can’t fault the guys as they gave in their absolutely everything. Azhar Mahmood really made hjs mark in his very first game and gave a real good account of his abilities. Also the bowlers were extremely good. We want to improve as a bunch, and the entire team is focused on that.” He also felt that the Kings’ batting was getting close to finding its groove. |
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Vettel bags his first pole of the season
Manama, April 21 Vettel's Australian team mate Mark Webber was third quickest and shares the second row with McLaren's Jenson Button. The pole was the 31st for Vettel, who took a record 15 last season but had failed to get on the front row in the first three races of this year. He celebrated his achievement at the desert track, even if there appeared to be few paying spectators present to witness it, with his familiar single finger in the air — a gesture absent so far this season. "This one I completely owe it to the team," said the champion, who had a scare in the first phase when he dropped dangerously close to the cut-off point after assuming he had done enough. "The boys, I don't think had much sleep the last four races. It was a tough weekend in China and now here they seriously have a lack of sleep." — Reuters
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DC still looking for first win
But having lost all four of their matches so far this season, they will have to get their act together against a side high on confidence after defeating Kings XI Punjab comprehensively in their last match. Although the Knight Riders have only 50 per cent win ratio till now — three victories from six matches so far — the Kolkata outfit certainly starts as favourite tomorrow. Given the unpredictability factor associated with this format of the game, it would be a folly to rule out any team, but, in the current scenario, the Chargers are in a real spot of bother and it would certainly take a great effort from them to get the better of the Knight Riders. The only way they can hope to pull it off tomorrow, is by playing out of their skins, and hoping that the luck sides with them. It would be important for the openers — skipper Kumar Sangakkara and Shikhar Dhawan — to lay a solid platform for a competitive total. The in-form Dhawan and one-down batsman Parthiv Patel did well in the previous match, scoring quickfire 44 and 45, respectively, and the Chargers would once again hope that the top-order sticks to its job. — PTI
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Faf du Plessis stroked his way to a 52-ball 73 but Chennai Super Kings had to wait till the very last ball before eking out a seven-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals in a thrilling Indian Premier League match here today.
Captain Sourav Gangulye led from the front to power Pune Warriors India past Delhi Daredevils by 20 in the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground here tonight. Chasing 193 for victory, Daredevils folded up for 172 for 7 in 20 overs to gift a comfortable victory for Warriors.
Mumbai, April 21
Red Bull's Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel took his first pole position of the season in qualifying for the controversial Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday. The 24-year-old German will have McLaren's championship leader Lewis Hamilton alongside him on the front row for Sunday's race, the fourth round of the season, which will go ahead against a backdrop of anti-government protests elsewhere on the island.
Mumbai, April 21
Cuttack, April 21