Pune Warriors Taste Victory At Chepauk

Aaron Finch and Bhuvneshwar Kumar engineer 24-run win over Chennai Super Kings.

CHENNAI: The side with the poorest recent record in IPL pulled off what is generally considered to be the competition’s toughest assignment: a victory over Chennai Super Kings at Chepauk.

Pune Warriors, without Yuvraj Singh and captain Angelo Mathews, managed precisely that on Monday night by a margin of 24 runs. The visit side first posted 159 through bursts at the top and bottom of the order and then restricted Chennai to 135/8 in the pursue, as Bhuvneshwar Kumar came up with a stand out performance with the new ball.

The young Indian seamer return figures of 4-1-12-2, the scalps coming early in Chennai’s chase. Pune had earlier been served well by opener Aaron Finch’s 45-ball 67 and Steven Smith, who returned to the team and contributed a quickfire 39 and three smart catch in the deep.

Bad start

Chennai’s pursuit started most ominously. S. Anirudha – in the side for Mohit Sharma – was trapped in front by a now expected Bhuvneshwar in-swinger second ball. The home team would have plumbed deeper into distress were Vijay not drop by Tirumalasetti Suman off Ashok Dinda in the second over, a straight-forward chance at mid-on off a savage pull.

Vijay (24) went on to strike a couple of scary blow off pacer Mitchell Marsh, but just when he was looking to ease into a groove a top-edge against Abhishek Nayar’s military medium claimed him at extra cover.  That IPL behemonth Suresh Raina had, a little earlier, turn out to be Bhuvneshwar’s second victim - thanks to a mis-time to mid-on, located Chennai in somewhat of a soup at 40/3 inside of seven overs.

Regular wickets

Renowned escape artiste Ravindra Jadeja (27) and the reliable Subramaniam Badrinath (34) took things ahead.  The latter was crisp as he pulled and steered Nayar and flicked Dinda for four. But Badri’s first and only moment of uneasiness cost him his wicket: a slice high to Smith at long-off.

Having carted leggie Rahul Sharma for six, Jadeja frittered absent a solid platform by guiding Marsh into the hands of short fine-leg. Sixty-one were necessary off the last five overs when Ms Dhoni struck Dinda hard and low to Smith at long-off, signal the end of the chase.

Finch fires

Opener Aaron Finch’s 45-ball 67 stirred belongings up nicely to start with as the visitors, after choosing to bat at Chepauk, rode on a racy opening company. Finch claimed three boundaries in Dirk Nannes’ first over and seemed to deal exclusively in that mode of run-gathering, as his first 32 contained seven hits to the fence. Pune reached 48 without defeat in the Powerplay, with Robin Uthappa (26) playing the holding roll.

Finch smoked sixes off spinners R. Ashwin and Jadeja and brought up his half-century in 32 deliveries, before he was confused to the latter. Uthappa followed suit, holing out to South Africa all-rounder Chris Morris in an attempted correction of his dismal score rate.

Pune lost two more quickly. Morris got rid of Ross Taylor and Mitchell Marsh was taken in the deep off Bravo. Smith then came in for his first game of the season. The Aussiesmashed an unbeaten 39 in 16 balls, including strong sixes off the seamers Nannes, Bravo and Morris. Smith’s charge pressed Pune to 159, a total they defended admirably by chip away regularly at Chennai ‘s vaunted batting line-up.

Gambhir-Kohli Involved in Ugly On-Field Spat, Virat-Gambhir Fight IPL 2013

This is going to be the biggest & saddest news for all the cricket fans of India. Their two stars batsman’s Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli has got involved in ugly on field spat on Thursday. That was the strong & unbelievable verbal duel between Kolkata skipper cum Indian Opening batsman Gautam Gambhir and Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli during their IPL 6 clash on Thursday. This Virat- Gambhir fight cum verbal duel took the fans by surprise on Thursday.

Talking about the match, Virat Kohli was on fire by smashing sixes & fours during Bangalore’s chase of 155. The situation became unbalanced when Lakshmipathy Balaji took the wicket of Virat Kohli by getting him caught by Eoin Morgan. Gambhir’s supposedly uttered a word to Virat Kohli on his dismissal that made Bangalore skipper angry. On Kohli’s reply, Gambhir was seen walking angrily towards Kohli before Rajat Bhatia intervened to avoid a possible collision.

Watch Gambhir- Kohli Fight in IPL 2013

Sreesanth’s Original Slapgate Video May Release Soon

Former IPL (Indian Premier League) chairman Lalit Modi made ​​a revelation on Friday in which he said that the idea of not releasing  the only Original video of ‘slap gate’ incident was of vice-president of the board Arun Jaitley, while adding he will now investigate it. The protagonist of the infamous Slapgate, 2008, S. Sreesanth Friday made ​​an explosive claim, says the whole Slapping incident was pre-planned and that his former teammate Harbhajan Singh was a ‘sneaky person’.

Indicating that he will consider the release of the video modes further wrote on his Twitter page, “Yes, I have the only copy of slapgate original video, will examine whether to release or not in the next few weeks.”

Sreesanth was the member of Kings XI punjab in that tournament, and he is currently playing for Rajasthan Royals, Sreesanth claimed that he was not all at fault in the incident and the real video of IPL Slapgate incident will show his version, which has never been released till now. He demanded that the videotape of the incident to be made public.

IPL 6: Bullish Mumbai Indians Hand Delhi Third Straight Loss

Mumbai: Rare is the day that a team recover from 1 for 2 to post a 200-plus total. Tuesday evening at the Wankhede Stadium saw hosts Mumbai Indians do just that, thanks to blazing fifties from Dinesh Karthik and Rohit Sharma that deliver the highest total of IPL 6.

Delhi Daredevil lost a wicket first ball of their run after thanks to one of the best catches of the modern era from 40-year-old Ricky Ponting, and the visitors wilted under the force of a daunting target to end up 44 runs short. The result took Mumbai to top of the table and level on four point with Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad. Delhi's third successive defeat was their heaviest.

Mumbai's inning got off to a awful start as both openers departed in nine deliveries with a solitary run on the board, but a startling counter-attack from Karthik put Delhi on the back foot quickly. Ponting was the first to fall for a duck, chipping Irfan Pathan to Mahela Jayawardene at mid-off. In the second over, Jayawardene completed his presence felt with a direct hit as of the same position to run out Sachin Tendulkar for 1.

But Karthik was not about to back away, and hit three fours in his first 11 balls faced. He then waded into Ashish Nehra in the sixth over with two fours and a six, after which Rohit top-edged a free hit for six over third man. The horse had bolted. Shahbaz Nadeem, the left-arm spinner, was welcome into the attack with a deft dab from Karthik for four as Mumbai's run rate crossed seven. Three fours off Umesh Yadav in the ninth over carried the score to 75 for 2, which Karthik bringing up his second fifty of the season in just 29 balls. At this stage, Rohit was a silent spectator with 12 as the partnership reached 74.

Stunningly, Karthik just continued to back himself to beat the fielders. The IPL debutant Jeevan Mendis was not on time cut for four and Nadeem slog-swept for six and slashed past extra cover to raise Mumbai's 100. Taking a cue, Rohit drove Mendis for six over extra cover to shift into the 20s. Consecutive fours to Karthik off Irfan took Mumbai to 124 for 2 going into the second strategic time-out. This was not slogging, but spotless hitting from Karthik.

The first two balls of the 15th over were edged and paddled to the boundary by Rohit, after which Morne Morkel got Karthik to drive a catch to extra cover off the fourth. He had fall four short of his Twenty20 best. Kieron Pollard smacked 13 off six balls before driving his seventh to mid-off, but Ambati Rayudu smashed 24 off eight balls of which 20 came in four successive deliveries from Irfan. Rohit - who had collected a welcome fifty off 42 balls in between Pollard's carefree hitting - finished the innings by means of three sixes off Nehra, who bled 20 in the last over.

Chasing 210 is a daunting task andDelhi were rocked first ball by a terrific catch from Ponting at small cover, leaping horizontally to his right as Unmukt Chand got a leading edge off Harbhajan Singh. It could have been two wickets in three balls for Harbhajan but Lasith Malinga dropped a catch at short fine leg when Jayawardene top-edged a brush. Delhi were 1 for 1 in one over.

The drop cost little, because Mitchell Johnson struck in his first over with the big wicket of Jayawardene, edging a drive to Karthik. David Warner was left to guide the chase and did so well until, having collected 11 runs off three Johnson deliveries, he chipped the fourth straight to deep cover for a 61 off 37 balls. Warner's innings mixed smart running and four huge sixes - the pick of the lot was a swiveled pull off Johnson - but his exit hurt Delhi. That was followed by Mendis' first-ball dismissal, pop a return catch to Pollard, as the visitors lost two wickets in four balls.

With the asking rate crossing 13, young Manprit Juneja was left to wage a lone battle. Irfan (10) swung Pragyan Ojha to a boundary rider, Kedar Jhadav (1) popped a return catch to Malinga, Nadeem (2) and spooned Ojha to point. A direct hit from Rishi Dhawan cut off Juneja on 49 and some free swinging from Morkel (23 not out off nine balls) ensured Delhi were not bowled out.

Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Sunrisers Hyderabad – IPL 6 – Toss Report

Sunrisers Hyderabad’s skipper, Kumar Sangakkara, won the toss against Royal Challengers Bangalore and his side will bat primary in the 9th match of the ongoing Indian Premier League Season, at present being played at the Bangalore, April 9, 2013.

The undefeated franchise complete one change to the line-up, leaving out left-arm spinner Ankit Sharma, and bring in batsman Biplab Samantray, in a bid to bolster their batting resources. Sangakkara expects the playing field to assist the batters.

His counter, Bangalore’s skipper Virat Kohli, was not too disappointed with the outcome of the throw, claiming that the track will turn into better as the match progresses. The home surface made two changes to their playing XI, bringing in South Africa’s ODI skipper, AB de Villiers in place of the out of form Tillakaratne Dilshan. The Sri Lankan all-rounder had be in poor knick of late, scoring just 5 runs in the opening two sports competition, including a duck. As for de Villiers, he recently arrived after performing his duty for his domestic franchise, the Titans.

The other change come in the bowling department for the Challengers, where they have included left-arm pacer RP Singh. He take the place of batsman Karun Nair.

The home side will be looking to avenge the defeat they suffered at the hands of their current opponent at Hyderabad just two nights ago. After being tied at the end of the 40 overs, the Sunrisers won the tie, via the Super Over eliminator, with Cameron White life form the star of the show.

Hyderabad will be aiming to win their third consecutive game following wins against the Challengers and Pune Warriors. The home side made a good start to the season by defeating Mumbai Indians and will be hoping to return back to winning ways.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Mayank Agarwal, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 AB de Villiers, 5 Moises Henriques, 6 Vinay Kumar, 7 Arun Karthik (wk), 8 Murali Kartik, 9 Jaidev Unadkat, 10 RP Singh, 11 Muttiah Muralitharan

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 1 Akshath Reddy, 2 Parthiv Patel (wk), 3 Kumar Sangakkara (capt), 4 Cameron White, 5 Thisara Perera, 6 Hanuma Vihari, 7 Biplab Samantray, 8 Ashish Reddy, 9 Amit Mishra, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Ishant Sharma

Tagged in: Royal Challengers Bangalore, Indian Premier League, Sunrisers Hyderabad

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Sehwag, Gambhir Come Good In Different Hue

While the Indians were scything from side to side the Aussie batting line-up at Mohali for a win inside four days, made likely by their new opening pair, the just-discarded duo of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir was taking fresh guard together some 300 km away in Gurgaon.

Just a handful of people at the secluded 'green' TERI Gram - built on power-saving techniques - witnessed the duo's spine-tingling start to a 161-run chase in the Syed Mushtaq Ali national T20 opener against Punjab.

Clad in Delhi's yellow and blue, away from fans and media with Sehwag even dumping his spectacles, they, as MS Dhoni insists in media session, 'expressed themselves'.

Bright start

Sehwag found the meat early next to paceman Sandeep Sharma, glancing one to fine leg and then clearing mid on; an edge to third man fence finished the over.

Gambhir, deciding not to play the sheet fasten he is known for, survived jitters. Siddharth Kaul got some bounce that left Gambhir missing a couple of swats and after that mistiming one.

Through the early part, while Viru blaze away to a 26-ball 36, the Gauti rushed into his shots. He was dropped twice, survive a run-out chance once.

But he soon found his groove at what time a full delivery was creamed through cover. From thereon, Gambhir waited, saw and shattered.

After Sehwag was caught small of his crease in a rather clumsy manner, not grounding his bat even after reaching the crease, and Unmukt Chand holing one to bottomless point for a duck, Gambhir took charge and guided the pursue as Puneet Bisht went berserk.

The Viru-Gauti unite realized 76 in just 8.3 overs.

When Sehwag last played in nationwide T20s - just last season - he was eye return to India team from injury.

Since then, he has been axed from the T20 squad, then as of the ODI squad and finally from Tests. This time though, he seem to be eyeing a return - as a pair with Gambhir.

BriefScores

Punjab 160/7 (Gurkeerat 57, M Sidhana 35, V Sood 2/24, P Negi 2/36, P Awana 1/37) 

lost to Delhi 162/4 in 19.1 overs (G Gambhir 68*, V Sehwag 36, P Bisht 32)

J&K 108/7 (S Khajuria 61, I Khan 2/16, A Sakuja 2/23) 

lost to Services 109/5 in 19.2 overs (N Verma 39*, R Paliwal 22) 

by five wickets.

Published by HT Syndication with permission from Hindustan Times.

Praveen Kumar Ready To Turn A New Leaf

Few would disagree that Praveen Kumar was the one who brought back the venomous effect of swing bowling back in the Indian bowling sphere. His stint with the Indian team has, however, been interspersed with injuries.

That hasn’t affected his morale, stresses Praveen. “I won’t say that I contain been unlucky with injuries. Only the elbow injury had worried me for a while. Although I have missed a lot of big tournaments like the World Cup because of injuries, I don’t have any regrets,” Praveen told Mail Today on Monday.

Althoughthe 26- year- old paceman has recently been in the news for all the wrong reasons, he’s ready to move on and give his best in the upcoming Indian Premier League. He also said that the Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 Trophy is a perfect open pad for the IPL. “For the moment, I am looking forward to the IPL and am working hard to make sure Kings XI Punjab do well in the tournament. I am presently playing in the Mushtaq Ali Trophy and am bowling in the right areas. It is absolutely a good preparation ahead of the IPL,” he said.

On Kings XI Punjab’s prospects, Praveen said so as to he was looking forward to work under new coach Darren Lehmann, who was the coach of the erstwhile Deccan Chargers. He also said that although momentum is key in a rivalry like IPL, they have to take one match at a time.

“I have heard a lot of positive things about Darren Lehmann from the Hyderabad players and am excited to play under him. We did well last year and only just missed a playoff berth. In the IPL, we have to take one match at a time,” he said.

The Deodhar Trophy in Guwahati saw a overabundance of former India players like Gautam Gambhir, Munaf Patel and Dinesh Karthik taking fraction in the limited overs tournament. And Praveen did his reputation no harm by bagging the wicket of Gambhir and bowling a stingy spell, which included two wickets at the cost of 28 runs in seven overs.

Praveen is, however, not overtly concerned at his lengthy absence from the international scene, “My job is to perform and I know I will be rewarded if I keep drama well at the domestic level. Personally, I have always enjoyed live at every level, be it domestic, international or Twenty 20,” he said.