Actress Preity Zinta has apologised on behalf of her team Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) for “not being up to the mark” and losing to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL).

The Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led CSK knocked out KXIP from the play-offs race of the IPL, after defeating them in the last league match by five wickets in Pune on Sunday.

Reacting to the loss, Preity said in a tweet: “Who would have thought that after winning five out of six games in the beginning, Kings XI Punjab would have ended the IPL on this note.”

“I am sorry to all our fans and supporters for not being up to the mark this season. Next year we won’t let you down. Disappointed,” she added.

The Punjab side under new skipper Ravichandran Ashwin managed to win six out of their 14 league games to end their campaign at the penultimate spot in the IPL tally with 12 points.

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will take on already-qualified table toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad in a must-win Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter here on Thursday with their playoffs chances hanging by a thread.

After registering successive victories over Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab, the Virat Kohli-led RCB are a rejuvenated unit while SRH have been the team to beat this season, having won nine matches out of 12.

RCB are still languishing at the second last position on the table, while SRH are on top of the table with 18 points.

RCB lost seven of their 12 matches so far but the recent turnaround have rekindled hopes of a possible shot at the play-offs albeit some other results also going their way.

Kohli and ace South African batsman AB De Villiers are RCB’s key players as far as the batting in concerned.

The pair have combined to pile up nearly half of RCB’s total runs this season but the side needs bigger contributions from the likes of Moeen Ali and Corey Anderson.

Kohli has led from the front with 514 runs in 12 games.

De Villiers (358 runs) is next to him, although he has played two games less than the Indian captain.

RCB’s bowling is spearheaded by India pacer Umesh Yadav who has looked in inspired form this term.

Umesh has delivered for the team, taking 17 wickets so far.

Coming to the away side, SRH depend quite a lot on opener Shikhar Dhawan (369 runs) and skipper Kane Williamson (544 runs) for inspiration.

Williamson has been a top leader since David Warner was ruled out of the IPL due to his role in the ball tampering incident.

The New Zealand captain would look to consolidate the team’s top spot and ensure a top-two finish at the end of the league stage.

Apart from Dhawan and Williamson, Yusuf Pathan (186), Manish Pandey (189) and Shakib-Al-Hasan (166) have also chipped in at crunch situations for SRH.

The former champions’ bowling has been their strength with the likes of Siddharth Kaul (13 wickets), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (8), Sandeep Sharma (8), leg-spinner Rashid Khan (13) and Shakib-Al-Hasan (12) adding a lot of variety to their arsenal.

Teams:

RCB: Virat Kohli (Captain), Quinton de Kock (WK), Brendon McCullum, AB de Villiers, Sarfaraz Khan, Mandeep Singh, Chris Woakes, Washington Sundar, Kulwant Khejroliya, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Colin de Grandhomme, Moeen Ali, Manan Vohra, Aniket Choudhary, Navdeep Saini, Murugan Ashwin, Pawan Negi, Mohammed Siraj, Corey Anderson, Parthiv Patel (WK), Aniruddha Joshi, Pavan Deshpande, Tim Southee.

SRH: Kane Williamson (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Manish Pandey, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Siddharth Kaul, Deepak Hooda, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Shreevats Goswami, Ricky Bhui, Basil Thampi, T Natarajan, Sachin Baby, Bipul Sharma, Mehdi Hasan, Tanmay Agarwal, Alex Hales, Carlos Brathwaite, Rashid Khan, Shakib Al Hasan, Mohammad Nabi, Chris Jordan.

Defending Champions India continued their winning performance as they beat World No.8 China 3-1 in their second round-robin match at the fifth Women’s Asian Champions Trophy at the Sunrise Stadium here on Wednesday.

India had earlier beaten Japan 4-1 in their opening match on Sunday.

It was experienced forward Vandana Katariya who starred in India’s victory as she scored double goals in the 4th and 11th minute that gave a formidable lead early on for the Defending Champions while Gurjit Kaur (51st) was the other goal scorer for India.

India were in attack mode right from the start. While a constructive defence against a strong Chinese squad was imperative, India showed zeal as they pushed for an early goal.

It was impeccable team work between Lilima Minz, Navjot Kaur and Vandana that ensured India were put ahead of China by a goal in the fourth minute.

An assist by Navjot to Lilima who used a reverse shot to the post found a perfect deflection off Vandana’s stick.

Their second goal came off Udita’s clever assist to Vandana who smashed it past China goalkeeper giving India a comfortable 2-0 lead.

Udita had taken the shot on goal herself but was obstructed by the Chinese goalkeeper; she picked up the rebound, but surrounded by Chinese defenders she pushed the ball to Vandana who took her time to channel the ball into the goal post.

Having pushed China on the back foot early on, the World No.8 squad were desperate for a breakthrough.

Their moment of reckoning came in the 15th minute when Wen Dan converted a well-struck field goal to narrow the lead to 2-1 before going into the first break. China had earlier won four back-to-back penalty corners but could not breach Savita’s fine goalkeeping.

While the second quarter saw India keep up the momentum and show excellent defensive skills that kept China from equalising, the third quarter saw Savita showcase good goalkeeping skills to keep China from converting their fifth penalty corner.

India put up a attacking front yet again in the fourth quarter that fetched an important penalty corner in the 51st minute.

Gurjit Kaur, who is India’s lone drag flick expert, made no mistake in swiftly striking the ball to the centre of the post taking India’s lead to 3-1.

With the clock ticking away, China looked to come back into the game but a goal remained elusive. Though they won a penalty corner in the dying minutes of the game, the Indian defenders steered clear to register their second successive win.

The strength of a team in the Indian Premier League (IPL) depends on the quality of Indian players as only four overseas players are there in the eleven. That gives the Indian youngsters plenty of opportunities to impress the national selectors.

Gone are the days when the IPL was seen as some kind of a circus or tamasha for entertaining spectators on summer nights after a hard day’s work. Talent scouts in the eight franchises watch the fresh faces going round the country during the domestic season.

All those who derided the popular Twenty20 league as a corrupt influence on young cricketers are now seeing virtues in it. Even the national selectors are taking it seriously and an impression is gaining ground that the IPL is the place to see the temperament of a young player in a matter of seven weeks, that, too, in a tough competition wherein he is competing with some of the top careerist limited-overs specialists.

The selectors had a wide range of young fast bowlers to pick from when they sat to pick teams for Test, One-Day and Twenty20 internationals and India A. There are seven of them, Barinder Balbir Sran, Mohammad Siraj, both of whom have already played for India, Shivam Mavi, Deepak Chahar, Avesh Khan, Mohammad Asif and Prasidh Krishna, who came in as replacement for Kamlesh Nagarkoti, one of the star performers of India’s junior World Cup winning team, in the Kolkata Knight Riders squad.

Strangely, Rajneesh Gurbani, who is chiefly responsible for Vidarbha winning the Ranji Trophy taking 39 wickets in six matches, including a hat-trick in the final, had no IPL takers, though the selectors did not forget him and included him in the India A team to England.

Among the young batsmen, Rishab Pant has been a big hit with his Delhi Daredevils teammate Prithvi Shah. Also Nitish Rana, Shubhman Gill and Ishan Kishan can keep reminding the selectors of their presence.

Youngsters playing in the IPL or hoping to make it must see Pant’s repertoire of strokes and his improvisation. His hundred against Sunrisers Hyderabad was something one doesn’t see all too frequently. Such hitting is associated with batsmen like Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Brendon McCullum of yore, David Warner and Mahendra Singh Dhoni or Yuvraj Singh on their day.

Yet, Pant had no place in India ODI or Twenty20 teams either as a batsman or as reserve wicketkeeper. Dinesh Karthik is preferred, also on current form and experience. Twitterati predictably went after the selectors and they would have done the same if Karthik had been dropped giving the same argument.

Pant went on the rampage soon after the squads were announced, cracking the IPL’s highest score, 128 off 63 balls hitting seven sixes, against table-toppers Sunrisers, after hitting 51 off 34 balls with four sixes against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the previous match. In his last two innings he smacked 69 (29 balls, 5 sixes) against Rajasthan Royals and 79 (45 balls, 4 sixes) against Chennai Super Kings to make the selectors squirm.

Like Pant, Rohit Sharma also must be feeling let down as he could have been given one last chance in the Test against Afghanistan, but then the selectors chose to reward Karun Nair for his heavy domestic scores.

Is it the end of the road for Rohit, as he may not have many opportunities to fight his way back into the Test squad for the series against England or even Australia unless he shows such remarkable touch in the limited overs cricket. Rohit though cannot complain about not getting enough chances.

If the limited-overs sides are picked on the basis of the IPL performances, then one would have liked to see the young Punjab leg-spinner Mayank Markande, who bamboozled even the big guns with his brilliant wrist work. It’s nice to see Nitish Rana, Krunal Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Krishnappa Gowtham and Ankit Rajpoot in the A squads.

The selectors thus spread the net wide to catch quite a few youngsters at the right time and even remembered Siddharth Kaul after his splendid death-overs bowling in the IPL. Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayudu will also thank the IPL for their return to big-time cricket.

Pant is there in the India A ODI side for the tri-series in England with West Indies as the third team, but not for the four-day “Test” match for which Andhra’s wicketkeeper-batsman Kona Srikar Bharat was preferred on his showing in domestic cricket. Chief selector Mannava Sri Kanth Prasad should know about wicketkeepers, being a former international ‘keeper himself.

Look at the number of players, playing for India today, first noticed in the IPL. That adds up to a healthy number.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) will look to outshine one another in their bid to secure a playoff spot when the two sides clash in the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Eden Gardens here on Tuesday.

Both Kolkata and Rajasthan are on 12 points from the same number of outings and have two more matches to play before the knockouts stages commence. While KKR are placed fourth owing to slightly better net run rate (-0.189), Rajasthan are fifth (NRR -0.347).

A victory for either side on the morrow may not rubber-stamp their passage to the playoffs but would surely help in the cause going to the final round of fixtures.

KKR take on already-qualified Sunrisers Hyderabad away on May 19 while Rajasthan host Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore on the same day.

Rajasthan were slow to get off the blocks and almost put themselves out of reckoning before some individual brilliance from England wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler catapulted them back into reckoning.

Against Mumbai Indians on Sunday night, Buttler racked up his fifth consecutive IPL fifty — a feat previously managed only by Virender Sehwag — while his team picked up their third back-to-back win on the spin.

Even a week ago, Rajasthan, who won the inaugural IPL in 2008, were on the verge of elimination. But Buttler’s unbeaten 94 ensured the Ajinkya Rahane-led side not only win but also improve their net run rate by reaching the target of 169 with two overs to spare.

Matching Buttler’s exploits with the bat, West Indian bowling all-rounder Jofra Archer has been in fine form for the Jaipur-based side. In the last game, the 23-year-old removed Suryakumar for 38 and Rohit Sharma for a golden duck in successive deliveries, much like what Andre Russell did for Kolkata against Kings XI Punjab.

Rajasthan would, thus, bank heavily on Buttler and Archer to deliver the goods. Australian opener D’Arcy Short has disappointed Rajasthan, mustering just 116 runs in his seven innings this season, at an average of 16.42.

Skipper Rahane made a good-looking 37 against Mumbai and joined hands with Buttler in an important 95-run stand for the second wicket, but his form too has been a concern, managing single digit scores in his last three innings before this.

Coming to the hosts, Dinesh Karthik and Co. bounced back in style after succumbing to a 102-run defeat at the hands of Mumbai Indians.

They defeated Kings XI Punjab by 31 runs by piling up the season’s highest total of 245/6, fourth highest in IPL history. Punjab fought hard riding K.L. Rahul’s 66 but in the end it was too tall a mountain to climb.

There were many positives for KKR from that game. Karthik continued to lead from the front with a belligerent 23-ball 50 while Sunil Narine smashed a 36-ball 75.

There were important contributions from Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa and Andre Russell as well, and end-overs cameos from Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill.

Russell was excellent with the ball too and so was M. Prasidh Krishna who grabbed two wickets.

In the head-to-head tally, each team has seen the other off seven times in 16 meetings with two tied games.

KKR: Dinesh Karthik (captain), Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, Kuldeep Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Shivam Mavi, Mitchell Johnson, Shubman Gill, R. Vinay Kumar, Rinku Singh, Cameron Delport, Javon Searless, Apoorv Wankhade, Ishank Jaggi, Tom Curran.

RR: Heinrich Klassen, Benjamin Stokes, Jaydev Unadkat, Sanju Samson, Jofra Archer, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jos Buttler, Ajinkya Rahane (captain), D’Arcy Short, Rahul Tripathi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Zahir Khan Pakteen, Ben Laughlin, Stuart Binny, Dushmantha Chameera, Anureet Singh, Aryaman Vikram Birla, Midhun S, Shreyas Gopal, Prashant Chopra, Jatin Saxena, Ankit Sharma, Mahipal Lomror

The Indian eves will face China in the 5th Women’s Asian Hockey Champions Trophy on Wednesday (May 16).

Besides India, Japan, China and hosts South Korea, Malaysia is the other team taking part in the tournament.

India began their title defence of the Asian Champions Trophy with a 4-1 win over Japan at Donghae in South Korea on Sunday (May 13).

Navneet Kaur scored a hat-trick for the defending champions, with Anupa Barla being the other goal scorer in the rain-hit match. Aki Yamada scored Japan’s only goal.

Hindusthan Samachar/Shri Ram Shaw

 On a two-day visit to Rajasthan, President Ram Nath Kovind will leave for Ajmer this morning (Monday, May 14).

He will visit Pushkar Sarovar and Brahma Temple at Pushkar. The President will also visit Dargah of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti at Ajmer.

Thereafter, he will depart for Mumbai in Maharashtra. On May 15, the President will grace the inauguration of the 4th Global Exhibition on Services and launch of the “12 Champion Services” initiative in Mumbai.

On the same day, he will visit the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, be introduced to an exhibition on Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) technologies and inaugurate DAE facilities in Trombay, Mumbai.

However, on Sunday (May 13), the President attended a civic reception hosted by the Government of Rajasthan in Jaipur.

At the civic reception, he interacted with select beneficiaries of the Sundar Singh Bhandari EBC Self Employment Scheme; the Bhairon Singh Shekhawat Antyodaya Self Employment Scheme; and the scheme to waive off loans and interest payable by members of the SC/ST, Divyang and other deprived communities.

Governor Kalyan Singh and Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje welcomed him at the Jaipur airport. Kovind was given Guard of Honour by the Army at the Airport.

This is the first visit of the President to Rajasthan. He participated in a high tea programme with Judges of High Court at Rajbhawan on Sunday evening.

Later, Kovind attended a function at the Birla auditorium, where he was felicitated by Nagar Nigam Jaipur. The President launched two schemes.

One in the memory of former vice president Bharon Singh Shekhawat and the other on the founder Member of Jansangh Sunder Singh Bhandari.

Hindusthan Samachar/Shri Ram Shaw

 In IPL Cricket, Kings XI Punjab will take on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at Indore on Monday (May 14) @ 8 PM.

On Sunday night, Rajasthan Royals registered a superb 7-wicket win over Mumbai Indians at Mumbai to stay alive in the play-offs race.

Put in to bat, Mumbai posted 168 for 6, with West Indian opener Evin Lewis top scoring with a 42-ball 60.

In reply, England’s Jos Buttler led from the front as Rajasthan overhauled the target with 2 overs to spare. Buttler made an unbeaten 94 off just 53 balls and was adjudged man of the match.

Rajasthan are now fifth in the table with 12 points. Third placed Kings Eleven Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders, who are fourth, also have the same number of points.

Mumbai, the defending champions, are sixth ahead of Royal Challengers Bangalore and bottom dwellers Delhi Daredevils.

Sunrisers Hyderabad, who lost to Chennai Super Kings in the other match on Sunday, continue to be the table toppers. Chennai are second.

Hindusthan Samachar/Shri Ram Shaw

Mumbai Indians will face Rajasthan Royals in Mumbai @ 8 PM

In IPL cricket, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will take on table- toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad in Pune on Sunday (May 13) at 4 PM, while Mumbai Indians will face Rajasthan Royals in Mumbai at 8 PM today.

On Saturday night Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Delhi Daredevils by five wickets. Star duo of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers shared a scintillating 118- run stand off 64 balls to script a victory.

Riding on Kohli’s 70 runs off 40 balls and de Villiers 72 not out off 37, Bangalore chased the target in 19 overs.Earlier, sent into bat, Delhi Daredevils scored 181 for four.

In another match, Kolkata Knight Riders comfortably beat Kings XI Punjab by 31 runs to stay in contention for a play-off berth.

Hindusthan Samachar/Shri Ram Shaw

India’s Under-16 national football team will face hosts Serbia on Saturday (May 12).

India started the four-nation international tournament in Serbia on Wednesday, with a 2-1 victory over Jordan.

After conceding in the second minute of the match, India made a strong comeback in the 17th minute, thanks to a terrific finish by Ridge.

Rohit Danu scored India’s second goal nine minutes later which eventually proved to be the difference between the two teams.

Hindusthan Samachar/Shri Ram Shaw