Chennai, May 27
Manvinder Sultansingh Bisla. Next time you hear that name, just remember that it was this lad from Hisar, who won the Kolkata Knight Riders their maiden IPL title. Bisla was the star of the show as it was his 48-ball 89 that helped the Kolkata Knight Riders beat the Chennai Super Kings by five wickets in their IPL final here tonight.

Chasing a daunting 191 for a win, the Knight Riders got off to the worst possible start as they lost skipper Gambhir off the last ball of the first over. But from there on, Bisla took on himself to play an innings that will change the story of not just his life, but that also of his team. Along with the experienced Jacques Kallis, Bisla stitched a 136-run stand that made this highest run chase ever in an IPL final possible. Bisla's knock was studded with five sixes and eight fours. Even Kallis, who initially played counter foil to Bisla, came into his own and played a sublime knock of 69 from just 49 balls.

But Bisla was dismissed when he mistimed a shot off Albie Morkel and was caught by Badrinath running back from point. Yusuf Pathan and Laxmi Ratan Shukla didn't last long and it was down to Kallis keeping his nerve. After having brought them within kissing distance, Kallis fell trying to create room for hitting a boundary and was caught in the deep off the bowling of Hilfenhaus.

The tension was getting unbearable but when Manoj Tiwary hit consecutive boundaries off Bravo's final over, the title had been won. KKR had lifted their first title, and Chennai would have to wait for another day!

Earlier, an onslaught led by Suresh Raina and Mike Hussey ensured that the Chennai Super Kings reached 190 for three in their allotted 20 overs here tonight. Chennai won the toss and opted to bat, and they made the most of a wicket that was pretty much a batting paradise.

Chennai Super Kings’ Michael Hussey plays a shot during the final against Kolkata Knight Riders in Chennai. — PTI

Hussey and Vijay started cautiously, but after a couple of silent overs, launched a scathing attack on the KKR bowling. It was Hussey who took charge this time around and he was particularly harsh on fellow Australian Brett Lee. But Vijay was not far behind himself, and Chennai raced to a fifty in the sixth over. The signs were ominous for KKR, and skipper Gautam Gambhir turned to his most potent weapon, Sunil Narine.

But it seemed that the West Indian was not in his element as he kept dropping the ball just short of length and the Chennai opening pair played him late and with ease. The opening partnership was finally broken when Vijay was dismissed by Rajat Bhatia.

Shakib taking a sharp catch to bring a little cheer to the beleaguered KKR camp.

But that was all the relief that was in sight for them on the night, as Suresh Raina walked in to torment them furthermore. Raina played an action-packed knock of 73 off just 38 balls, hitting three fours and five sixes. He tore into Yusuf Pathan and was at ease against the rest of the bowling attack as well.

Mike Hussey on the other hand completed a crucial fifty and he was instrumental in keeping the run flow constant. By the time he was cleaned up by a fuller Jacques Kallis delivery, Hussey had played a fine 54 off just 43 balls.

MS Dhoni and Raina kept up the good work and when Suresh Raina was caught brilliantly on the boundary by a diving Brett Lee, Chennai had already reached the second highest score in an IPL final. No prizes for guessing who has the highest score. It was 205 by Chennai against Royal Challengers Bangalore in last year's final.

Monaco, May 27
Australian Mark Webber won the showcase Monaco Grand Prix for champions Red Bull today as Formula One celebrated an unprecedented six different winners in six races this season.

Germany's Nico Rosberg finished second, 0.6 seconds behind Webber, while Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was third and a further 0.3 adrift to go three points clear at the top of the overall championship standings.

Webber led a nail-bitingly close race, with the top three separated by less than a second at the finish, from pole position to chequered flag as a threatened deluge held off despite darkening skies and occasional drizzle.

It then chucked it down once Webber had accepted the trophy from Prince Albert, sprayed the champagne and hugged Red Bull designer Adrian Newey.

It was Webber's first win since Brazil at the end of last season, the eighth of his career and Red Bull's third in a row, all from pole, around the treacherous metal-fenced streets and crowded harbourside of the millionaires' playground.

There remained a question mark over the result, however, with talk sweeping the paddock ahead of the race of a possible protest by rival teams questioning the legality of his Red Bull's floor.

Red Bull rejected that and Webber, winner in Monaco in 2010, was ready to party. He stood on his car and punched the air in triumph.

"It's an amazing day for the team, myself and really happy to have won here again," said the winner, who told reporters he did not accept victory was in the bag until the very last corner of the last lap.

"It's Monaco. You never get ahead of yourself here because you get bitten in the arse," he added. — Reuters

Sahara Force India recorded their best finish of the season with Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg securing seventh and eighth positions, respectively, at the Monaco Grand Prix here today.

It was the second double finish of the season for Force India since both its cars got into the top 10 at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia in March.

Force India thus picked up 10 points after Resta and Hulkenberg started in the 11th and 12th position on the grid.

The team has so far recorded eight points twice in Malaysia and Bahrain.

Ecstatic to secure six points, di Resta said their aggressive strategy paid off today. "A great result today and I'm very happy to make up so much ground on my starting position. We went aggressive with the strategy and I have to say the team really optimised it," Paul Di Resta said after the race.

"The secret was managing the tyres and trying to find clean air when we could. The car felt really good, much stronger than yesterday, and that allowed me to push when we needed to.

"Fortunately the rain held off at the end because that could have had a big impact on the end of the race. It's great that we managed to get both cars in the points and we can celebrate tonight," he added. — PTI

Indian F1 driver Narain Karthikeyan posted his and HRT F1 team's best result of the season by finishing 15th in a chaotic and incident-filled Monaco GP. Coming into the sixth round of the 2012 FIA F1 championship, the team's best finish had been a 19th place at the Spanish GP.

Starting 22nd on the grid, Karthikeyan did well to keep his nose out of the first corner incident that took out several cars including his teammate Pedro De La Rosa.

"It was a crazy sight at the start, I arrived at the first corner looking at several cars spinning around, across and pretty much everywhere else," he exclaimed. — PTI

Ipoh (Malaysia), May 27
Five-time champions India squandered chances galore to slump to a 2-3 defeat against Great Britain in the Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament here today.

Playing a brisk game, India failed to capitalise on several opening created by their strikers, faltering in the final execution on numerous occasion.

After bouncing back from a two-goal deficit to draw parity, India gave it away through a defensive lapse in the 62nd minute when three defenders were beaten on top of the circle by a through ball that Nick Catlin picked up to score Great Britain's match-winner. Great Britain earlier scored two goals through penalty corners from Glen Kirkham (28th minute) and Ben Hawes (43rd).

But India struck back to score twice in the space of four minutes through a penalty corner conversion from V R Raghunath (55th) and a dazzling deflection by S V Sunil (59th) to make a stunning return to the match.

With this win, Great Britain moved into the second position with four points from two matches, behind New Zealand who clinched their third successive victory by defeating Pakistan 3-1 earlier in the day.

Last year's losing finalists Pakistan have three points from two outings, while India have slipped to the fifth spot with three points from as many matches.

India's points came from a 2-1 victory over South Korea, while they lost 1-5 to New Zealand in their tournament opener. — PTI

Paris, May 27
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga made the Paris spectators happy when he recovered from a first-set loss to move into the second round of the French Open on Sunday's first day.

Minutes later, Nicolas Mahut doubled the home fans' delight when he joined his fellow Frenchman in the next round after a four-set defeat of American Andy Roddick.

World number five Tsonga, the highest seed in action on the opening day, beat Russian qualifier Andrey Kuznetsov 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 waking up after a slow start on the Philippe Chatrier court to earn a standing ovation at the end.

Mahut, who had lost eight times in the Roland Garros first round before this year, looked vulnerable again when, having strapped up his left knee, he dropped the third set, but he came back to take the match 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.

Argentine Juan Martin del Potro also overcame a knee injury in beating Spaniard Albert Montanes 6-2, 6-7, 6-2, 6-1. The ninth-seeded Del Potro, who won the Estoril Open on clay three weeks ago, said problems with his knee had started after his semifinal defeat at the Madrid Open two weeks ago.

Former champion Juan Carlos Ferrero knocked out battling local player, and Roland Garros debutant, Jonathan Dasnieres de Veigy 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 in bright sunshine on the Suzanne Lenglen Court.

Ferrero will now play Marin Cilic after the Croatian defeated Spain's Daniel Munoz 6-4, 6-4, 7-5.

Ana Ivanovic, the 2008 French champion, blew kisses to the crowd after making short work of Spanish qualifier Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino in her opening match.

The Serbian former world number one, seeded 13th, finished off a 59-minute 6-1, 6-1 demolition with an ace. Australian Samantha Stosur, seeded sixth, was also in a hurry, taking just over an hour to dismiss Britain's Elena Baltacha 6-4, 6-0.

Stosur, runner-up here in 2010, was happy to be back on red clay in Paris after players criticised the blue clay surface introduced at the Madrid Open this month, saying it was slippery. — Reuters

Chennai, May 27
The BCCI today distributed the remaining installment of its one-time benefit payments to the country's 20 former international and domestic players ahead of the IPL final between Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here.

Former India cricketers Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, S Venkataraghavan, Javagal Srinath-who have all played 100 or more Test matches-were handed a cheque of Rs 6 crore by BCCI President N Srinivasan, BCCI Secretary Sanjay Jagdale and IPL Governing Council Member Arun Jaitley.

Navjot Singh Sidhu accepted a cheque for Rs 3 crore on behalf of the three players who have played between 50 and 74 Test Matches.

BS Chandrasekar, BS Bedi and Sanjay Manjrekar accepted a cheque for Rs 6 crores on behalf of the eight players who have played between 50 and 74 Test Matches.

FM Engineer and Shivlal Yadav accepted a cheque for Rs 10 crore 20 lakhs on behalf of the 17 players who have played between 25 and 49 Test matches.

Abbas Ali Baig accepted a cheque for Rs 8 crore 50 lakhs on behalf of the 17 players who have played between 10 and 24 Test matches.

The others to have been awarded were Madhav Mantri, AG Milkha Singh, Rajinder Goel, Amrjeet Kaypee, S Hyder Ali, K Bhaskar Pillai, Col G Inderdev, CD Gopinath and V Sivaramakrishna.

The BCCI also extended the fund to include wives of former cricketers who are no more. Mrs Nirupama Mankad, Mrs Eknath Solkar, Mrs Ramakant Desai and Mrs Kripal Singh accepted the cheque of Rs 15 crores 25 lakhs on behalf of the 34 wives. — PTI