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Nothing less than a win will do for Rajasthan
world c’ship
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Adam makes it an eve to remember
Dharamsala, May 17 Thankfully for Kings XI Punjab, Adam Gilchrist enjoyed a dream-like scenario as he helped his side beat the Chennai Super Kings by six wickets here today. Chasing a modest 121 for a win, Gilchrist slammed 64 off just 46 balls as the Kings kept hanging to their hopes of a place in the play-offs. He was also instrumental in the field earlier as he took four neat catches behind the stumps. The Kings started in style and Mandeep and Gilchrist came out all guns blazing. Runs were flowing and it didn’t look like Chennai would be able to hold on to the game for long. But Mandeep lost his wicket to Albie Morkel and then Nitin Saini and David Hussey also followed in quick succession.
Earlier, Kings XI Punjab won the toss and put the visiting Chennai Super Kings in to bat. The Kings were buoyed by the return of their regular skipper Adam Gilchrist, who finally shrugged off a hamstring issue to lead his side. And it proved to be a fruitful return for Gilchrist as his bowlers put in an extremely disciplined bowling effort to restrict the Chennai Super Kings to just 120 in their allotted 20 overs.
Chennai made not only a slow but also a terrible start to proceedings as they lost Murali Vijay early on. The overcast conditions and the nature of the pitch meant that the ball was nipping around a fair bit and Praveen Kumar exploited the conditions to the maximum as he got Vijay to edge one to the keeper. Mike Hussey was then joined by Suresh Raina and the two were painstakingly patient in getting a move on. And that agony was further compounded when Praveen got Hussey to edge one behind. The score read 20 for 2 and out walked skipper MS Dhoni to a thunderous applause. But the thunder and the applause were shortlived as Raina became the third consecutive batsman to be caught behind — with Azhar Mahmood claiming the wicket. Dhoni followed just four runs later, mistiming a shot and sending an edge flying to third man for an easy catch. That brought Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja together and the left-right combination started chipping away some precious runs on a wicket tailor-made for seam bowling. That partnership was broken when Jadeja played a rather rash shot, going for the pull only to edge it and get caught comfortably in the circle. Albie Morkel joined Bravo, who was staging a little bit of a fightback at the other end. And after some lusty hits in an Azhar Mahmood over, he fell into a trap and holed out to a simple catch at the wide long-on boundary. Bravo missed out on a well-deserved half century as he was the fourth Chennai batsman to be caught behind, making it a merry comeback for Gilchrist. SCOREBOARD Kings XI Punjab Man of the Match: Adam Gilchrist
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Gayle blows Delhi away
New Delhi, May 17 RCB have now taken their points tally to 17, to be in the reckoning, while Daredevils suffered their third home defeat, though they still retain the top spot. Chasing a victory target of 216, Daredevils were restricted to 194 for 9, as RCB emerged triumphant in a must-win situation. It was Chris Gayle’s show all the way. The big-hitting, big-built West Indian played havoc with the Daredevils’ bowling to hammer an unbeaten 128, off just 62 balls, with 13 sixes and seven fours, and his 204-run second-wicket partnership with captain Virat Kohli (73 n.o, 53b, 9x4,1x6), helped Royal Challengers Bangalore record the highest total of 215 for 1 in the Indian Premier League-V. This was also the second 200-run partnership in the IPL ever, which is likely to take quite a beating.
Gayle’s 13 sixes today took his total tally to an incredible 57 sixes, and today’s was his eighth half century, to have the highest aggregate of 706 runs. And the run-feast he provided enabled the visitors to set a stiff target of 10.7 runs per over, which proved beyond the reach of Delhi, despite a daredevil knock by Ross Taylor, who cracked 55 off 25 balls with seven fours and two sixes. When he fell, Daredevils needed 57 runs from 22 balls, which was a steep target they could not attain.
SCOREBOARD Delhi Daredevils Man of the Match: Gayle.
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Nothing less than a win will do for Rajasthan
With 14 points from equal number of games (with seven wins and as many losses), Rajasthan Royals still have an outside chance of making the playoff stage if they can record big wins in their remaining two matches against the Chargers tomorrow and Mumbai Indians on Sunday. The Chargers, lying at the bottom of points table with 11 loses in 14 matches so far, are already out of the contention (for the playoffs) and they can only hope to improve their performance when they take on the Royals at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at Uppal here tomorrow.
Rajasthan Royals, who beat Pune Warriors in their last match by 45 runs, will certainly start as favourties. With improved performance during their match against Pune, the Royals are expected to go all out against the Deccan Chargers to keep their playoff hopes alive. The Royals have played good cricket against fancied rivals but have been guilty of frittering away opportunities. On the batting front, the Royals will bank heavily on their inspirational leader, Rahul Dravid and his opening partner Ajinkya Rahane, who has been in prolific form so far in this season, besides Australians Brad Hodge and Shane Watson and English batsman Owais Shah. Rahane has scored 541 runs so far in this season, while Dravid has 418 in his kitty, followed by Shah with 284 and Hodge with 245 runs. As far as bowling is concerned, medium pacers Siddharth Trivedi and Amit Singh have been among the wickets for Royals with 11 and 10, respectively, while Brad Hogg has also claimed 10 and Ankeet Chavan has taken seven. The Royals also have the likes of off-spinners Johan Botha and Ajit Chandila, who can attack the opposition. On the other hand, nothing seems to have materialised for the Chargers, who despite posing big totals in the current season have only ended up on the losing side, especially in the last game where they lost despite scoring 190 odd runs against Kings XI Punjab. For the Chargers, in-form top order batsman Shikhar Dhawan has been the highest run-getter with 538 runs, while Australian Cameron White, captain Kumar Sangakkara, Parthiv Patel, JP Duminy and Daniel Harris, too have contributed with good knocks. However, that hasn't helped the Chargers much in reviving their fortunes. They would be playing for pride and hoping to notch up a victory tomorrow to salvage some prestige. But for that their bowling department need to fire in unison with the likes of South African speedster Dale Steyn (13 wickets) and spinner Amit Mishra (9 wickets) coming good. — PTI
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world
c’ship
Moscow, May 17 This was the fifth successive draw in as many games and leaves the score tied at 2.5-2.5. Gelfand will now wield white in the sixth game scheduled for tomorrow. It turned out to be another dull day as Anand could not get any advantage with his white pieces despite changing gears and going for the King pawn opening instead of his now trusted queen pawn. As expected the surprise element was missing as the Israeli GM seemed to have anticipated this move from Anand and the game fizzled into draw after 26 moves. Gelfand went for the Sveshnikov Sicilian, something that has not being in vogue recently at top level chess. However, it holds the reputation of being a forced opening and home analysis again plays a crucial role in the forced lines. Anand himself went for the most solid reply in the system, an indication that he had not been expecting the Sveshnikov. The Indian ace obtained only a minuscule advantage out of the opening and it was not enough. As the game progressed, Gelfand was seen playing faster than Anand, another rarity in this match. The Israeli came up with a new idea by giving his light squared Bishop on the 16th turn for Anand's centralised knight. Anand got better space control thereafter but it was still not easy to improve the position further as the exchanges on queenside were imminent. What had helped Gelfand getting closer to equalising was the presence of opposite coloured Bishops, something that the 16th move had guaranteed. — PTI
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Modi College bags Pbi varsity’s overall trophy
Patiala, May 17 This was declared during the annual sports prize distribution function organised by the sports department of Punjabi University on the campus today. Punjab Education Minister Sikander Singh Malooka was the chief guest. The university distributed cash awards amounting to Rs 60 lakh among coaches and players who won medals in various national, international and all-India inter-university tournaments. Commonwealth Games bronze medallist archer Gagandeep Kaur was awarded the highest cash award of Rs 2.28 lakh. Vice-Chancellor of the university Dr Jaspal Singh awarded The Vice-Chancellor Coach of the Year award for 2009-10 to fencing coach PS Bhangu. Sports luminaries — Mangal Singh Dhillon, Dr GK Dhillon, Capt BS Poonia, Principal ML Kamlesh and Sukhminder Singh Sidhu were bestowed the lifetime achievement award. Principals of colleges that contributed towards the achievement of the prestigious MAKA trophy by the Punjabi University were also honoured.
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Then, Gilchrist found an able partner in Siddharth Chitnis. And when Gilchrist tore into Yo Mahesh in the 15th over — taking him for 22 — the end was a mere formality from that moment onwards. 
Gayle’s marauding century was the fifth of the season, though it was the best and biggest, by far.(The other century makers were Ajinkya Rahane for Rajasthan Royals, Kevin Pietersen and David Warner for Delhi Daredevils and Rohit Sharma for Mumbai Indians). The kind of power play Gayle indulged in was so brute that his 50 came off 37 balls, and 100 off 53balls, with the first half having only three sixes, and the rest coming in the second half. 
Hyderabad, May 17