Kings XI Punjab defeated Chennai Super Kings by four runs here on Sunday to end southern outfit’s winning run in the Indian Premier League (IPL)

Put in to bat, Punjab wasted their solid start but managed to post a challenging total of 197/7. In reply, Chennai batters failed.

Apart from Ambati Rayudu (49) and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (79 not out), no other batsmen seemed comfortable in-front of Punjab’s bowlers and went cheaply to lose the game.

Big names like Shane Watson (11), Murali Vijay (12), Sam Billings (9) and Ravindra Jadeja (19) failed to score handsomely in a big run chase. Towards the end, Dhoni tried to pull off the things single-handedly but failed and his 44-ball unbeaten innings went in vain.

For Punjab, Andrew Tye scalped two wickets.

Earlier, Kings XI Punjab failed to make the most of the flying start given by openers Chris Gayle and Lokesh Rahul and settled for 197/7.

Rahul (37 runs in 22 balls) and Gayle (63 runs in 33 balls) gave the hosts a rousing start, slamming 96 runs in eight overs. But after their wickets, no other batsman took advantage of it and failed to score runs, thanks to the Chennai bowlers’ disciplined bowling.

Rahul fell in the eighth over when the scoreboard was reading 96. After adding a few more runs, Gayle also departed, courtesy pacer Shane Watson, in the 12th over. The West Indian batsman slammed seven boundaries and four sixes.

Mayank Agarwal (30) and Yuvraj Singh (20), then tried to maintain the pace set by the openers but in the process both departed after a good start.

Aaron Finch was out on a golden duck.

Karun Nair (29) and skipper Ravichandran Ashwin (14) tried to stretch their team’s total to the 200-run mark but failed and departed one after the other.

For Chennai, Shardul Thakur and Imran Tahir scalped two wickets each.

Brief scores: Kings XI Punjab 197/7 (Chris Gayle 63; Imran Tahir 2/34) against Chennai Super Kings: 193/5 (Mahendra Singh Dhoni 79; Andrew Tye 2/47)

(IANS)

Director Omung Kumar, who helmed a Bollywood biopic on star Indian boxer M.C. Mary Kom, is proud of her gold medal win in the women’s 48 kg category at the 21st Commonwealth Games (CWG) in Gold Coast.

The boxer won on Saturday.
Mary Kom was closely associated with Kumar’s film, which saw Priyanka Chopra play the boxer on reel, and won a National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment.

“It is unbelievable that each time you see Mary Kom in a different phase of life, you know that she is going to do it. I know her for a long time now because of the biopic I made on her,” Kumar said in a statement.

He calls her a “young girl”.

“We call her a girl since she’s so petite but the power that she possesses is simply mind-blowing. When she goes into the ring, she is a tigress. We are so proud of her.”

In Indian Premier League (IPL) Cricket, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will lock horns with Delhi Daredevils at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Monday (April 16). The match will begin at 8 PM.

Both sides are currently in the bottom half of the 8-team points table with just 1 win from 3 games. Kolkata is fifth, while Delhi is seventh. Defending champions Mumbai Indians are at the bottom.

Sunrisers Hyderabad are at the top, with Kings Eleven Punjab second and Chennai Super Kings third.

Hindusthan Samachar/Shri Ram Shaw

Commonwealth rich nations are contributing less towards the global effort to tackle climate change, while poorer nations are over-achieving on pledges, a British charity said on Monday.

The richer nations include Britain, Australia, Singapore and Canada.

The report revealed these nations are shirking their responsibilities, while the poorer members are picking up the slack.

The launch of the report coincided with the onset of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London.

The study, Climate inequality in the Commonwealth, by Christian Aid assesses the pledges to the 2015 Paris Agreement of each Commonwealth country and measures them against national capacity and historic emissions, since 1990, to calculate their fair proportion of the effort to address climate change.

The results show that Britain, Canada, and Australia are in the red, whilst poorer countries like Bangladesh, Kenya and Zambia are in credit.

Small island states vulnerable to sea level rise like Kiribati, Vanuatu, and Tuvalu are also more than doing their fair share.

It’s also striking that the top five most impacted countries in Germanwatch’s latest Climate Risk Index 2017 are all Commonwealth nations — Mozambique, Dominica, Malawi, India and Vanuatu.

The study exposed the hypocrisy behind many of the warm words put out by the British government, report co-author Mohamed Adow, who is Christian Aid’s International Climate Lead, said in a statement.

The report called on the Commonwealth and its members to demonstrate their goal of delivering a more sustainable future by triggering more ambitious climate goals and accelerated action by member countries.

(IANS)

Gold Coast (Australia), April 14 (IANS) India’s Vinesh Phogat won gold in the women’s 50 kilogram wrestling competition at the 21st Commonwealth Games (CWG) here on Saturday.

She ended at the top of the standings at the end of the Nordic (round robin) format.

Vinesh defeated Miesinnei Genesis of Nigeria, Rupinder Kaur of Australia and Canada’s Jessica MacDonald.

Sakshi Malik took the bronze medal in the women’s 62kg category.

She defeated Cameroon’s Berthe Emillene in her first match before losing to Michelle Fazzari of Canada.

Another loss to Aminat Adeniyi of Nigeria ended her chances of winning the gold medal.

A hard earned 6-5 win over New Zealand’s Tayla Ford saw her finish with the bronze

Chennai Super Kings will look to continue their winning streak when they lock horns with Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League (IPL) here tomorrow.

It will be the third game for both teams.

After opening their campaign with a stunning win over Mumbai Indians in the tournament opener, Chennai Super Kings pulled off yet another thrilling chase to beat Kolkata Knight Riders.

The likes of Dwayne Bravo and Sam Billings are in red-hot form for the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led team.

CSK have enough depth in their batting line-up with the likes of Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Faf du Plessis, Shane Watson, Kedar Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu, Billings and Bravo.

The spin trio of Harbhajan Singh, Jadeja and Imran Tahir can be a potent force as they are complemented by Deepak Chahar, Watson and Shardul Thakur.

On the other hand, Kings XI Punjab are coming into the match after yesterday’s loss against Royal Challengers Bangalore.

The KXIP started the season on a resounding note, beating Delhi Daredevils by six wickets.

Local player KL Rahul, who fashioned the victory with the fastest-ever fifty in IPL, justified why the franchise spent Rs 11 crore for him.

Rahul smashed a 30-ball 47 against RCB and had Punjab not lost wickets in quick succession, they could have notched up a bigger total than the 155 they managed while batting first.

A cause of concern for KXIP is the form of their top batsman Yuvraj Singh, who has made 12 and 4 in the two games while in the bowling department, Mohit Sharma looked off colour against RCB.

Ashwin has been in good form with his bowling and has contributed with the bat as well.

Playing his maiden innings as a captain, Ashwin has also been marshalling his men nicely.

In the batting department, there are high expectations from Aaron Finch, who was unavailable for the opening match, but failed with the bat against RCB.

Punjab’s bowlers are doing a fine job with 17-year-old spinner Mujeeb-ur-Rahman surprising the batsmen with his unconventional deliveries. He was even rewarded with the prize wicket of RCB skipper Virat Kohli.

Apart from Ashwin, Mohit Sharma, Mujeeb, Axar Patel and Andrew Tye add depth to Punjab’s bowling attack.

Teams (from):

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (capt), Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Faf du Plessis, Harbhajan Singh, Dwayne Bravo, Shane Watson, Kedar Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif, Kanishk Seth, Lungi Ngidi, Dhruv Shorey, Murali Vijay, Sam Billings, Mark Wood, Kshitiz Sharma, Monu Kumar, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Imran Tahir, Karn Sharma, Shardul Thakur, N Jagadeesan

Kings XI Punjab: KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Aaron Finch, Yuvraj Singh, Karun Nair, David Miller, Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin (captain), AJ Tye, Mohit Sharma, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Chris Gayle.

The legend of M C Mary Kom (48kg) grew larger as she became the first Indian woman boxer to claim a Commonwealth Games gold, joined by Gaurav Solanki (52kg) in the top-finishers’ group after the first set of finals here today.

Settling for silver medals were Amit Panghal (49kg) and Manish Kaushik (60kg) after losing closely-contested bouts here.

The star of the day was without a shred of doubt Mary Kom — a 35-year-old five-time world champion and Olympic bronze-medallist.

She was competing in her debut Commonwealth Games, also perhaps her last, and made it a memorable one with yet another dominating performance to claim an unanimous verdict of 5-0 over Northern Ireland’s Kristina O’Hara in the final.

“I am so glad to have made history again, it is a special feeling to win something that is a milestone medal. I am just so glad,” a beaming Mary Kom said after the victory.

“This medal and each one of my medals is special to me because I have worked equally hard for them. And I will continue to do so till the time my body is fit,” she added.

The 22-year-old O’Hara, who works as a carer at a nursing home when she is not trading punches in the ring, lacked the finesse to counter the experienced Indian and failed to take advantage of her longer reach.

Mary Kom struck her at will, her right hooks being especially telling. By the second round, Mary Kom seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself in the ring against her timid rival.

In the men’s competition, Solanki provided the golden touch, pulling it off 4-1 over Northern Ireland’s Brendan Irvine. The Indian lost the third round but did just enough in the first two to walk away with a gold medal on debut at the Games.

“Today I’m dedicating my medal to my mum, but I want to represent India at the (Tokyo) 2020 Olympics and to be there when they raise the Indian flag,” the 22-year-old said looking ahead.

However, luck was not on side of either Amit or Manish, both of whom went down in split verdicts.

Amit, who was chasing his third successive international gold, was beaten by England’s European silver-medallist Galal Yafai.

“I am disappointed with the result. I thought it was 50-50 bout,” Amit said after his loss.

Manish, on the other hand, lost 2-3 to local favourite Harry Garside, again on a split decision. Both the boxers gave their all in the bouts but could not get the judges’ nod

India’s Neeraj Chopra won the men’s Javelin title at the 21st Commonwealth Games (CWG) here on Saturday.

Neeraj registered his season’s best performance of 86.47 metres in the final.

Hamish Peacock took the silver medal for Australia with 82.59m while Grenada’s Anderson Peters hurled the javelin a distance of 82.20m for the bronze.

Bangalore’s Bowling Conundrum: Assisted by India’s 2011 World Cup winning duo of Gary Kirsten and Ashish Nehra as batting and bowling coaches, Kohli could also think of letting Corey Anderson have bowl, given the small size of the Chinnaswamy stadium. Umesh Yadav and Woakes shared five wickets between them on Sunday, and would like to continue their form. Much was expected from the spin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar, but they couldn’t weave their magic, claiming just one wicket for 77 runs in 56 balls. In-form New Zealand pacer Tim Southee may also get a chance to swing his arms, considering his reputation as one of the best new-ball bowlers in international cricket today.

Indian paddlers Manika Batra and Mouma Das clinched the silver medal in women’s doubles category at the 21st Commonwealth Games here on Friday.

The Indian duo was outplayed 0-3 (5-11, 4-11, 5-11) by Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu of Singapore in the gold medal clash. Unforced errors and some aggressive game from Singapore kept India on the back foot throughout the match.

Right from the start, Indian paddlers never looked in the contention as Manika and Mouma failed to match the skill and tenacity of the their opponents.

In all the three games, Mouma and Manika were outclassed in every department.

In the other match, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Pooja Saharabudhe lost the bronze medal match 1-3 (13-15, 7-11, 11-8, 7-11) to Ho Ying and Lyne Karen of Malaysia.

The Indian duo, however, put up a fight but failed to match the pace of their opponents.