India Beat Bangladesh, to Meet Pak in Finals

DHAKA, Bangladesh: Opener Gautam Gambhir smashed an unbeaten 107 to guide India to a seven-wicket victory over Bangladesh in a tri-series limited-overs international Thursday, setting up a weekend final against Pakistan.

Gambhir's fifth ODI century took India to 223-3 in just 35.1 overs, replying to Bangladesh's 222 all out.

India beat Pakistan by 140 runs in the league round and will face its arch rival against in Saturday's final. Pakistan beat Bangladesh by 70 runs in the series-opener and finished 1-1.

Gambhir hit 13 boundaries and one six in his 101-ball innings and shared an 85-run partnership with Virendra Sehwag (59).

Sehwag struck seven boundaries and two sixes in his 32-ball knock before being caught by Tamim Iqbal off Dolar Mahmud.

Rohit Sharma (26) fell to spinner Abdur Razzak and Yuvraj (26) was bowled by Farhad Reza.

Earlier, Roqibul Hassan scored 89 from 117 balls and shared a vital middle-order partnership with Mohammad Ashraful to help salvage Bangladesh's innings after it slumped to 17 for two.

Hassan's patient innings, the highest ever by a Bangladeshi in a one-day international against India, contained only five boundaries. It ended after he hurt his hamstring and was out to R.P. Singh.

Hassan's 76-run third wicket stand with captain Ashraful (36) came after Bangladesh, winning the toss and electing to bat first, lost two early wickets just for 17.

Ashraful was also cautious, his 36 coming off 67 balls.

India's first breakthrough was provided by in-form paceman Praveen Kumar, who removed openers Tamim Iqbal — caught behind for a duck — and Shahriar Nafees (9) to return 3-46 in his 10 overs.

Irfan Pathan claimed 2-48, while his brother Yusuf Pathan celebrated his first ever international wicket by removing Ashraful as India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni used seven bowlers.

Source: Sulekhanews

Bangla Tri-series: India to Take on Pak Today

DHAKA: With the IPL euphoria settled, MS Dhoni and his team will have to quickly get back into ODI mode to snap Pakistan’s 12-match winning streak when the traditional rivals face off in the tri-series on Monday.

Pakistan routed Bangladesh by 70 runs in the tri-series opener last night to extend their unbeaten streak to 12 matches and it could be a tough task for Dhoni’s young Indian side to halt the arch-rivals.

Source: TOI

Sehwag 'shocked' at Being Stoned in Home Ground

New Delhi, May 16: The disarming smile was replaced by a sombre look and Delhi Daredevils captain Virender Sehwag simply cannot believe that he has been stoned at his home ground of Ferozeshah Kotla, of all places.
His team had just tamed the Deccan Chargers by 12 runs to snap the string of defeats but instead of looking upbeat, Sehwag looked thoroughly upset in the post-match press conference late Thursday night.

"Unfortunately, an Indian player has been pelted in India. It's a matter of shame that a stone was thrown at a Delhi player in Delhi," Sehwag said.

Asked to name the player, he said "Sehwag. I was fielding in the boundary line when it hit me."

The incident happened in the 19th over of the Deccan innings when Sehwag was fielding in the deep.

The Daredevils skipper was suddenly seen rushing to umpire Brian Jerling to convey something and the match was held up for a few minutes.

Nobody outside had any clue about what was going on in the middle, which gave rise to speculation that probably the cheerleaders had been subjected to some taunts or something like that.

Sehwag, however, finally cleared the air in the press conference.

Incidentally, this is not the first time that the accusing finger was pointed at the Kotla crowd.

England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff claimed in his book 'Being Freddy' that he had been shot at here during an ODI against India in 2002.

"I felt something hit me and, looking down, saw pellets on the ground," Flintoff wrote in the book.

"You expect to have plastic bottles thrown at you when you are playing on the sub-continent, but you don't expect to be shot," he said.

The Delhi and District Cricket Association, however, rubbished Flintoff's claim.

Meanwhile, Sehwag looked far from worried even after he was out for his second successive duck in the IPL.

"It does not matter at all. Cricket is not about an individual. It's a team game and as long as the team keeps winning, I don't have any problem," he said, almost nonchalantly.

He also sought to dismiss the notion that the Daredevils relied too much on its top order and the middle order has a brittle look about it.

"To be honest, I can't blame the middle order. The fact remains that they are not getting a chance on most occasions, because the top order is finishing the job.

"I mean players like Manoj Tiwary or Rajat Bhatia have got just 2-3 chances so far because the top order was doing so well," he explained.

Source: Express India

After IPL, PPL Gets Tremendous Response

Karachi: The Pakistan Cricket Board has got a tremendous response to buy franchise rights/sponsor teams in the planned Pakistan Premier League Twenty20 competition.

A senior official of the Board on Wednesday said the only thing holding up the organisation of the Pakistan edition of the successful Indian Premier League was finding a slot in the packed Future Tours Programme of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

"I can tell you this much the response from companies and organisations and even individuals to buy franchise rights or sponsor teams in the PPL have been beyond our expectations," the official said.

Source: Express India

Harbhajan Likely to be Banned for 10 ODIs,,

New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) appointed Appeals Commissioner Sudhir Nanavati has submitted his report on the Harbhajan Singh-S Sreesanth slapgate issue on Tuesday to the cricket board's Disciplinary Committee.


The Ahmedabad-based lawyer's 14-page report was prepared after Nanavati recorded statements of Harbhajan, Sreesanth, Match Referee Farokh Engineer and the two on-field umpires - Aleem Dar of Pakistan and India's Amiesh Saheba.


CNN-IBN also has learnt that Nanavati's report says that Harbhajan has already been punished harshly and should be given another chance and Engineer has echoed his (Nanavati) views.

Read more news here

Sachin Set to Play Against Chennai Super Kings

MUMBAI: All speculations surrounding batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar’s fitness came to an end on Monday when the man himself admitted that he is fit to play in the cash-rich Indian Premier League.

He will be seen in action when Mumbai Indians take on Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday.

Talking to the media after a gruelling practice session, Tendulkar said that getting back in shape had been tough. “I will be playing in Wednesday’s game. I have worked hard to get back. The physiotherapist and the masseur have helped me a lot to get back into shape and it’s looking good.”

For Sachin, who injured his groin during the first Test against South Africa, the injury break down has been a disappointing one. “I missed two tests and the first half of the Indian Premier League. In the first phase, I just had to rest and then later on I worked on strengthening my muscle. Now everything is fine” he said.

Source: DNA

IPL Cheerleaders Cover Up After BJP Warning

Hyderabad: The BJP's threat to disrupt the DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) match in Hyderabad on Sunday to protest the "indecent" dresses of the cheerleaders forced the organisers to change the dress code minutes before the match.

The dress code was changed by the management of the Deccan Chargers before they clashed with Kolkatta Knight Riders at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.

The cheerleaders of Deccan Chargers and Knight Riders were seen with their bodies fully covered. Even the dancers and singers, who entertained the spectators before the start of the match, were fully covered.


The BJP had threatened to disrupt the match if the cheerleaders continue "indecent" performances. The police made elaborate security arrangements at the stadium to prevent any incident.

Source: CNN-IBN

Mallya Takes Potshots at Dravid for IPL Debacle

New Delhi: Controversy refuses to leave the Bangalore Royal Challengers. First, team owner Vijay Mallya sacked the team's chief executive Charu Sharma. Now, Mallya has taken potshots at team captain Rahul Dravid.

Mallya was quoted by a national daily as saying, “My biggest mistake was to abstain from the selection of the team. Though, I watch a lot of cricket whenever possible, I am no cricket expert at the end of the day.”


“I had a separate list of players that I wanted. But since Dravid is such an iconic player I trusted his judgment. And Charu Sharma also backed him. After seeing the final list, my friends told me it looked like a Test team. But I backed both of them thinking that they advised me properly,” Mallya added.

Meanwhile, Sharma also broke his silence after an early exit from the Bangalore IPL team.

See detailed story here

IPL: Super Kings beat Kings XI

CHENNAI, PTI: Lakshmipathy Balaji registered first hat-trick of the Indian Premier League to help Chennai Super Kings assert their supremacy over Kings XI Punjab and beat them by 18 runs on Saturday.

Balaji claimed five wickets, including a hat-trick in the last over of the match, and gave away just 24 runs in his four overs to seal his team's victory.

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IPL: Rajasthan Royals Win by 8 Wickets

JAIPUR: A century stand between openers Yusuf Pathan and Graeme Smith helped Rajasthan Royals notch up a convincing eight-wicket victory over Deccan Chargers in the Indian Premier League match here on Friday night.

Put in to bat at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Chargers spoiled a good start to score a modest 140 for eight in 20 overs. The hosts overhauled the target in 16 overs by losing only two wickets.Right from the start, Yusuf unleashed his fireworks and hit the Chargers bowlers all over the park.

At an envious strike rate of 183, he struck nine boundaries and two massive sixes in his 37-ball 68 and put up a 109-run opening stand with Smith. Before being caught by Herschelle Gibbs off left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha in the 13th over, Yusuf had taken his side closer to the victory target.

Gavaskar resigns as chairman of ICC Cricket Committee

Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has resigned as the chairman of ICC Cricket Committee on Thursday.

Gavaskar, who is also well-known cricket commentator and columnist, said, "With more and more cricket being played it has become clear that it is not possible for me to do justice to two jobs, the chairmanship of the ICC Cricket Committee and my media commitments.

"As an example of that, I had to leave my professional commitments as a commentator on the Indian Premier League matches in order to come and chair this year's meeting in Dubai.

Source: NDTV