Rest is best for 'tired' Zaheer Khan

Zaheer Khan failed to unleash the pent-up frustration of a tepid IPL 4 outing with a match-winning performance against Chennai Super Kings in the final, on Saturday, but the Indian pace spearhead is hopeful of a comeback in the Test series against West Indies later next month. With the IPL being played within six days of a gruelling World Cup, there were obvious doubts of injury and fatigue. Though the Indian players turned out for their respective franchises in the T20 carnival, the ensuing 74 days took a toll on the injured Gautam Gambhir and the likes of MS Dhoni and Zaheer Khan. Meanwhile, Yuvraj Singh too pulled out of the entire tour to the West Indies due to an illness. Notably, Sachin Tendulkar will also not feature...

Read more »

The greatest one-day knock of all

1984 The greatest innings in one-day international history according to everyone who witnessed it. Viv Richards smeared England all round Old Trafford in the first Texaco Trophy match: his 189 came off only 170 balls, with 21 fours and five sixes. What makes the innings so great is its context: West Indies were 102 for 7 at one point, then 166 for 9. They ended up making 272 for 9, and won by 104 runs. Of the last-wicket partnership of 106, Michael Holding made 12. Eldine Baptiste was the only other West Indian even to reach double figures. 1999 Eyebrows were raised as Pakistan lost to Bangladesh in an amazing World Cup match at Northampton. In Wisden Cricket Monthly, Kamran Abbasi wrote that "Pakistan lost their heads in a flurry...

Read more »

We can be Man United of IPL, says Ashwin

So what is it about MS Dhoni that helps him keeps his cool in final after final, year after year? Well, the World Cup winning skipper, and now two time IPL champion finally revealed those cards that he had held so close to his chest.  “You dont want to be desperate to win the final, but you want to show intent that you want to win. I think we did just that,” said the ever-composed MS Dhoni, who walked his talk after his side took the fourth edition of the IPL with a commanding 58-run win over Royal Challengers Bangalore.  Dhoni, however, rated 2010’s IPL win, CSK’s first, as a superior achievement.  “Last year, we struggled a bit to make the semis, this time it was more comfortable,” he said. Chennai also won the...

Read more »

Chennai IPL Kings again

Tamil Nadu boy Murali Vijay set up the final for Chennai Super Kings with a sizzling 95 while another local hero, R Ashwin, effectively clinched the Indian Premier League title with a brilliant opening spell — and Chris Gayle's wicket for a duck — against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday. The men in luminous yellow produced a superb all-round performance to give evidence of their impregnability at the MA Chidambaram Stadium and continue their dream run. CSK, also the reigning Champions League winners, became the first team to retain the IPL title. Against any other team, a total of 205 at the slow Chepauk track would have meant curtains for the chasing team. It is the highest score at the venue this season, CSK eclipsing its...

Read more »

Not afraid of challenges: Abhinav Mukund

Abhinav Mukund, riding on the back of two brilliant seasons on the domestic circuit, is naturally elated at having got into the Test squad for the tour to the Caribbean. With both of India's frontline openers missing, the Tamil Nadu player is almost certain to make his Test debut in the Caribbean. Mukund, who was the second-highest Ranji Trophy run-getter last season with 1211 runs, just behind teammate Badrinath's aggregate of 1226, told TOI he had to change his approach towards the game to become more consistent. "I'm glad that to be a part of the Indian Test squad. As a cricketer I always dreamt about that. I'm looking forward to having a great series," the 21-year-old left-hander said, adding: "I had a very good domestic...

Read more »

Injury issues not new: Srikkanth

The BCCI’s selection committee chief Krishnamachari Srikkanth on Friday said that despite battling injury issues for the past one and a half years, they have been able to find replacements who have done well to ensure India’s dominance in world cricket. “Injury issues have been there for the last one and half years but don’t forget we have been able to find good replacements (for those injured) and India have been doing very well,” Srikkanth told reporters after the selection committee meeting to pick the Test squad for the West Indies tour next month. Sachin Tendulkar had requested to allow him to skip the full tour to spend time with his family and Srikkanth defended the champion batsman on his decision. “Tendulkar deserved to...

Read more »

Super Kings favourites to lift IPL crown, again

Having tasted blood in their own den, the Chennai Super Kings, with a Lion as their motif, are hungry for another kill in the Indian Premier League (IPL) that concludes on Saturday when the grand finale between the host team and the winner of Friday's qualifier-2 between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians will be played.  Fortified by the fact that they have won all the seven home games this season, the Super Kings have already made it known that they are not unduly concerned whom they play on Saturday as they have the team to deliver the spoils. IPL's most consistent team after reaching the semi-finals all four seasons, thrice finalists (including 2011) and winners last year, the Super Kings have the pedigree...

Read more »

Gambhir, Yuvraj out; Tendulkar rested for Windies tour

Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh were left out of India's entire tour of the West Indies as the national selectors announced the 16-member squad for the Test series next month. Tamil Nadu opener Abhinav Mukund was the lone new face in the squad announced by the BCCI secretary N Srinivasan after a marathon meeting of the selection committee. The young Suresh Raina was named captain of the ODI series after original choice Gambhir was ruled out for the entire tour because of a shoulder injury. Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh would be Raina's deputy. Yuvraj was also unavailable for the entire trip as he is suffering from an upper respiratory infection with a small patch of pneumonitis in the left lung. "Gautam Gambhir...

Read more »

Trevor Penney hopes to be in India before Windies tour

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday confirmed a DNA report on the appointment of Trevor Penney as India’s new fielding coach. Board secretary N Srinivasan told this paper that Penney will be joining Team India as the new fielding coach. Given the recent profile of Penney, who has been employed at different places as an assistant coach, there was some confusion if he would be a deputy to Duncan Fletcher. However, Srinivasan cleared the air over the job profile of the 43-year-old Zimbabwean. “He will be the new fielding coach,” the board secretary said. He has also made it clear that Penney would join duty immediately. “We expect him to be with the team from the West Indies tour itself,” Srinivasan remarked. Almost similar...

Read more »

India need to prove its Test status in England: Botham

India achieved the numero uno Test status primarily by virtue of their triumphs at home but the forthcoming away series against England will be the real test for the visitors, said legendary cricketer Ian Botham. “India are currently ranked No 1 in the world and they got there by playing some decent cricket, mainly at home. But when you consider that they have only beaten Bangladesh and New Zealand in their last six away trips, then you realise that they have got a bit to prove to people this summer,” Botham wrote in his column for Mirror newspaper. The battle for Test supremacy begins this summer when world number one India face number three England in a four-match series starting July. During the tour, India will play four Tests -- the...

Read more »

Play county cricket to improve, Zaheer advises young bowlers

Zaheer Khan Zaheer Khan, the Indian seamer, has singled out his stint with Worcestershire as the "turning point" in his career and encouraged young Indian bowlers to play county cricket to prepare themselves better for international cricket. Zaheer, who was the joint-leading wicket-taker in the 2011 World Cup won by India, joined Worcestershire in 2006 after a phase in which he had struggled with injury and was left out of the national team. He topped the Division Two wickets list that season, picking up 78 in 16 games at 29.07. "In many ways it was [the turning point], Zaheer told the magazine GQIndia.com. "The stint at Worcestershire helped me understand the game, why I am playing and other things in terms of preparations for matches and...

Read more »

Gambhir will be dropped if he is unfit, says BCCI

The Indian cricket board on Thursday said Gautam Gambhir will be dropped from the tour to the West Indies if he is found unfit. "We are looking into his medical report and he will be dropped from the squad if he is found unfit," board secretary N Srinivasan said. Gambhir was appointed captain for the Twenty20 and ODI fixtures for the West Indies tour in absence of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who has been rested. Captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier league, Gambhir has been advised rest for six weeks to nurse his "sore shoulder" which he was carrying right through the IPL tournament. He had injured the shoulder during the final of the World Cup against Sri Lanka in April and if he is rested Suresh Raina will be leading...

Read more »

I am more confident now: Parthiv Patel

Parthiv Patel looks forward to his role as wicketkeeper in India’s side that will travel to the West Indies in the coming weeks, while England’s Jonathan Trott looks back on England’s recent performances and ahead to a busy summer of cricket, on this week’s ICC Cricket World Radio Show. Patel, who has played in 18 ODIs, will most likely keep wicket ahead of squad member Wriddhiman Saha during the limited overs tour as India captain MS Dhoni is rested for the first part of the country’s tour of the West Indies. The 26-year-old says: “I was very young when I first came into the side, but I’ve now more confidence and belief having scored runs in my domestic games which has seen me rise up the batting order. “I was willing to change anything about...

Read more »

Test cricket my ultimate goal: Virat Kohli

Having become the new poster boy of Indian cricket with his sizzling performances in the last few months, Virat Kohli now wants to graduate to the next level. A stage for which the 22-year-old, according to former India coach Gary Kirsten, is ready. Having cut his teeth in international cricket in 2008, Kohli has already played 54 ODIs and three T20 Internationals, and he now wants to don the Test cap. "My main aim since childhood is Test cricket. It depends on when I get a chance, but my ultimate target is to play Tests," said a visibly-tired Kohli at a promotional event at a five-star hotel on Wednesday. Kohli seemed a bit low too, which is understandable considering how his team, the Royal Challengers Bangalore, lost the first qualifier...

Read more »

Belief and desire, Raina's big weapons

It's easy to comprehend why Suresh Raina was one of the four players the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) retained along with MS Dhoni, Murali Vijay and Albie Morkel. The southpaw is a terrier who, till the last ball is bowled, doesn't believe the game is done and dusted. CSK needed someone of that belief on Tuesday when they took on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the first play-off at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium. They needed some magic as they were chasing 176 and lost early wickets and despite a stabilising 63-run stand with between Raina and Badrinath, the defending champions were struggling to keep up with the run rate. Raina provided them with that magic by belting an unbeaten 73 in 50 balls to script an unlikely victory for CSK and enable...

Read more »

It was time I gave something back to India: Brett Lee

Australian cricketer Brett Lee tells DNA that he wants to bring the joy of music to lesser-privileged children in his ‘second home’ From Kings XI Punjab to KKR, how has the journey been? It’s great to be back in India playing IPL again. It’s a fantastic tournament and the Knight Riders have been great to play with. The entire squad is full of talent. I have enjoyed my time with both teams and have been eager to learn from my teammates, who play in all parts of the world. How was it playing under Michael Clarke’s captaincy? How different are Ponting and Clarke? Michael is a terrific leader and has taken to his new role in a professional manner. It’s difficult to compare both Ricky and Michael as Michael has only just started. All...

Read more »

After Beating Kolkata, Mumbai Is Set for Déjà Vu

Previous results suggested that Ambati Rayadu had less than a one-in-six chance of winning the match when he faced up to the final ball of the Indian Premier League regular season.  His team, Mumbai, needed four runs from that final delivery against the Kolkata Knight Riders. Rayadu, a 25-year-old who also keeps wicket, had struck 51 boundaries — 42 fours and 9 sixes — from the 330 previous balls he had received during the 2011 I.P.L.  Yet still he was confident. “I was pretty relaxed, and I knew he was under pressure,” Rayudu said of bowler Lakshmipathy Balaji, who had already conceded 17 runs from the first 5 balls of the over. “I was just blank, anywhere he bowls, I thought I could hit a boundary.” Rayadu’s confidence...

Read more »

Topping IPL points table shows RCB's character: Mallya

Royal Challengers Bangalore franchisee director Siddharth Mallya on Monday said the fact that the team topped the points table after being written off, shows its character. "After our first win, we unfortunately lost our three next games. The commentary team wrote us off, the journalists wrote us off, the critics wrote us off. They said we had selected a wrong team. Where is (Rahul) Dravid? Where is (Robin) Uthappa? they asked," he told reporters during a promotional event. "To bounce back from there, it shows the character of the team. We have created a new IPL record of winning seven games in a row and were unbeaten in eight consecutive games if we include the one washed away by rain. We are here on our merit. However, we still...

Read more »

Kings XI Punjab, Deccan Chargers meet in friendly encounter

In order to celebrate the spirit of cricket and IPL, the promoters and management of Kings XI Punjab and Deccan Chargers will be playing a friendly match against each other on Saturday. The friendly match will be organised post the IPL match between Deccan Chargers and KXIP at the HPCA stadium. The promoters of the Kings XI Punjab - leading actress, Preity Zinta, industrialists Ness Wadia and Mohit Burman, Deccan Chargers owners T Vinayak Ravi Reddy and Gayatri Reddy will also be participating in the game. "At the beautiful HPCA stadium of Dharamsala, a friendly match will be played between two contending teams during the season. This friendly match is a celebration of the sport and also an endeavour to provide a class entertainment...

Read more »

Knights squash a Warriors’ uprising

The 55,000-capacity stadium saw its second biggest turnout of the season after witnessing a packed house for the Pune Warriors India's Indian Premier League (IPL) tie against the Mumbai Indians. As much as it was to see Sourav Ganguly in action one last time, that too against his former IPL team,it was also to get a glimpse of the king of entertainment Shah Rukh Khan.  And if the noise levels at the stadium when Khan, a Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner, was shown for the first time on the giant screen were compared with Ganguly's entry to the crease, there were more takers for Khan than his former captain. War within war Well, the cricketing fraternity may have been looking up to Thursday's IPL tie as a battle between the Kolkata...

Read more »