Mohali: Dwayne Smith struck a whirlwind 74 as Gujarat Lions defeated Kings XI Punjab by six wickets in an Indian Premier League game, here Sunday.

Sent into bat, Hashim Amla played a brilliant knock to notch up his second century of the ongoing IPL and power Kings XI Punjab to a challenging 189 for three.

Amla, thus, became the second batsman after Virat Kohli to register two centuries in a single IPL season.

Amla made 104 off just 60 balls with the help of eight fours and five huge hits over the fence to take Kings XI forward.

He was ably supported by Shaun Marsh (58 off 43 balls) as the duo shared 125 runs for the second wicket to set the platform for the total.

Later, Smith turned out to be the architect of the victory for Gujarat with a whirlwind 74 off just 39 deliveries to get Gujarat off to a flier while chasing a challenging 190 for win.

Smith struck eight boundaries and four huge hits over the fence during his explosive knock.

Chasing the target, Gujarat rode on Smith’s brisk batting to race to 91 for no loss inside 10 overs.

Smith was at his attacking best as he dealt mostly in boundaries and sixes.

Together with Ishan Kishan (29 off 24 balls), Smith shared 91 runs for the opening partnership to lay the foundation for the chase.

Dinesh Karthik (35 not out off 23 balls) played a short cameo towards the end as Gujarat Lions reached 192 for four in 19.4 over in their pursuit of 190.

(PTI)

The Indian football team has made it into the top 100 of the FIFA world rankings for the first time in 21 years.

As per the updated rankings, released on Thursday, the Stephen Constantine-coached side has climbed a rung and is now placed at the 100th spot along with Nicaragua, Lithuania and Estonia.

The last time India were in the top 100 of the rankings was in 1996, with the 94th spot in February 1996 being the country’s best ever FIFA ranking.

India’s rise in the rankings has been due to triumphs over Cambodia and Myanmar, both away wins.

India will next face Lebanon in an international friendly on June 7, ahead of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualifying clash against Kyrgyzstan on June 13.

(IANS)

Delhi Daredevils kept their chances of qualifying for the Indian Premier League (IPL) play-offs alive after beating Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets at the Ferozeshah Kotla here on Tuesday.

On paper, it was a mismatch between Daredevils and Sunrisers but the hosts put on a collective batting effort to register a win with five balls to spare.

With their third win in the tournament, Delhi moved up to the sixth spot with six points while Hyderabad are still at the third spot with 13 points after their fourth away loss in the tournament.

All-rounders Corey Anderson’s quick-fire 24-ball unbeaten 41 and Chris Morris’ 7-ball 15 helped Delhi raise an unbeaten 41-run fifth wicket stand to register the much-needed win.

Chasing a mammoth 186, Delhi were off to a decent start with Sanju Samson (24 off 19 balls) and skipper Karun Nair (39 off 20) putting on 40 runs before medium pacer Mohammed Siraj packed back Samson.

Samson, who had faced 19 balls by now and struck two boundaries and a six off Siraj’s first delivery of the match, was undone by a slower one in the bowler’s second over which Shikhar Dhawan latched on comfortably at cover point.

Nair looked in good touch during his brief stay, which saw the ball crossing the boundary on five occasions besides twice over it.

The right-hander could add 32 runs for the second wicket with wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant (34 off 20) before the first strategic time-out once again saw the dismissal of a batsman, this time in the form of Nair.

Medium pacer Siddharth Kaul, who was clobbered for a six and a four in his very first over by Nair, got his knuckleball to send the right-hander back caught by Bhuvneshwar Kumar at long-off.

With both the openers back in the dug out, the onus was on Pant and new man Shreyas Iyer (33 off 25) but Siraj, after getting clobbered for a six in the previous ball got a toe crusher to cannon into the southpaw’s stumps. The right-handed duo batted well to put 37 runs for the third wicket before being separated by Siraj.

Pant’s dismissal brought together all-rounder Corey Anderson and Iyer, who was at his destructive best, clobbering two consecutive sixes off Yuvraj Singh, before Purple Cap holder Bhuvneshwar Kumar packed Iyer back with a slower bouncer.

Anderson then took on the responsibility and with new man Morris, wasted no time in using the long handle. With 24 needed off the last three overs, Anderson clobbered Bhuvneshwar for a six and a four off back to back balls before Morris sent Kaul outside the park to take Delhi within sniffing distance of the win.

Earlier, Yuvraj Singh (70 not out from 41 balls) made the most of the life he got on 29 when he was dropped bySamson at deep square, to propel Sunrisers to 185/3 after being sent to bat.

The Punjab batsman, who initially struggled to put bat to ball opened up with two glorious straight drives before bringing up his fifty in 34 balls, and help the visitors accumulate 71 runs in the last five overs.

The left-hander made the most of South African Kagiso Rabada’s poor line and length, clobbering him for a four and six off consecutive balls in the 18th over.

All-rounder Moises Henriques (25 not out) played the perfect second fiddle to Yuvraj as the left-right combo added an unbeaten stand of 93 runs for the fourth wicket from 51 deliveries.

Skipper David Warner (30 from 21) and Dhawan (28 from 17) gave the visitors a flying start, putting on 53 runs before pacer Mohammed Shami in his very second delivery cleaned up the Aussie, who struck four boundaries and a six over backward point.

New Zealander Kane Williamson (24 from 24) along with Dhawan added 22 runs before the first strategic time-out did the trick for Delhi, in the form of the southpaw’s wicket.

(IANS)

Ipoh: Mandeep Singh struck a hat-trick as India staged a strong comeback to beat Japan 4-3 in a league match of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup Hockey Tournament here on Wednesday.

Mandeep Singh struck in the 43th, 50th and 58th minutes after Rupinder Pal Singh (8th minute) powered home a penalty corner to hand India an early lead.

Japan fought back through Kuzama Murata (13th minute), Heita Yoshihara (42nd minute) and Genki Mitani (44th minute).

India now have seven points from four matches. They had started their campaign with a 2-2 draw with title contenders Britain in the opening match of the tournament.

They had then defeated New Zealand 3-1 before going down by a similar margin to favourites Australia on Tuesday.

(IANS)

Ipoh: India’s hockey team was overpowered by reigning world champions Australia 1-3 despite starting strongly and suffered the first loss in three matches of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup here on Tuesday.

In the match pitting last edition’s finalists, India kept the Australian attackers at bay before taking the lead through Harmanpreet Singh, who drove from the right — a rare field goal for a defender cum set-piece specialist in the 26th minute.

Australia’s equaliser came four minutes later when Eddie Ockenden dived near the right post to put the ball in as both the teams went into the half-time 1-1.

After the break, Australia continued their attacking game, earning as many as three penalty corners in the first four minutes. The third one saw Matthew Swann mistrapping but Tom Craig capitalised on it and banged one into the near post, stunning goalkeeper Akash Chikte.

The goal further boosted the Australians’ confidence, and they controlled the midfield which forced India on to the backfoot. Jake Whetton came close to double Australia’s advantage as he fired from the top of the ‘D’, but the ball missed the mark by a whisker in the 48th minute.

Then came a moment of solo brilliant effort from Tom Wickham, who dodged past three Indian defenders from the right to arrive at the centre of the circle before employing an emphatic backhander to beat Chikte.

Despite the two-goal advantage, Australia didn’t relent and kept attacking. India put out their goalkeeper to put one more outfield player. They did get a couple of opportunities to counter-attack but none of these came close to reducing the goal difference, as Australia, the tournament’s record champions, delivered a clinical second-half performance.

This was India’s first loss of the tournament, having earlier defeated England and New Zealand. They face Japan on Wednesday before meeting hosts Malaysia in their final round-robin match on Thursday.

(IANS)

Ipoh (Malaysia): Defender Harmanpreet Singh converted two penalty corners as India stamped their authority over New Zealand with an assertive 3-0 victory in the 26th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament here today.

Following a 2-2 draw against Great Britain in the opening game yesterday, India now have four points from two outings.

Mandeep Singh opened the Indian account with a fine deflection in the 23rd minute before Harmanpreet produced two fine drag-flicks to penetrate the Black Sticks defence.

After allowing the experimental New Zealand team to have three shots at the goal in the first quarter, the Indian team settled down to dominate the match thereafter.

The Indian game today was not disturbed by the afternoon showers and lightening, which have been a feature of the tropical weather this season.

India’s tournament-opener yesterday started two hours late due to lightening, pushing the day’s entire schedule back.

Today, the first signs of match-disrupting lightening occurred soon after the Indian players went off the pitch on completion of their game.

It was New Zealand, who earned the first penalty corner in the sixth minute, but it could not pose any danger as the low shot went straight to goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh, who kicked it out of the circle.

As the Indian defence took time to settle down, New Zealand had two early shots at the citadel before Akashdeep Singh took an ambitions try from the top of the circle in the 10th minute, only to see his reverse drive soar high over the cross-bar.

Two minutes later, Manpreet Singh sent a diagonal ball into the circle to S V Sunil, who shot wide with only goalkeeper Devon Manchester to beat.

India broke the deadlock in the 23rd minute when Chinglensana Singh sent a reverse shot from top of the box into the goalmouth, where Mandeep did exceptionally well to deflect the shoulder high ball past the goalkeeper.

Harmanpreet then came into the picture with a drag-flick off the first penalty corner. The stinging shot went into the left corner of the board to make it 2-0 in the 27th minute.

India forced two penalty corners in as many minutes just before half-time, but were stopped on both occasions.

In the 30th minute, on India’s fourth penalty corner, New Zealand defended stoutly as Sardar Singh picked up the ball behind Harmanpreet and tried to keep up the pressure by flicking the ball into the scoring zone.

Playing in his 200th international today, Sunil had a chance to make an entry on the scoresheet five minutes after half-time when he was again in a one-on-one position with the goalkeeper, but ended up flicking wide of the mark.

Akashdeep took a try from a very narrow angle in the 39th minute, but the shot went over the bar.
Harmanpreet came back to round off the Indian scoring with another penalty corner conversion, this time sending a soaring drag-flick into the top corner of the net in the 47th minute.

With Harmanpreet in fine nick, he was allowed to take the shot on six of India’s seven penalty corners, although the push could not be stopped on two occasions.

Rupinderpal Singh only took the last of India’s penalty corners and his shot was blocked by the Black Sticks goalkeeper.

(Agencies)

Indore: Mumbai Indians rode on destructive half centuries from Englishman Jos Buttler and young Nitish Rana to thrash Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) by eight wickets in an Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 encounter at the Holkar Cricket Stadium here on Thursday.

Buttler’s 37-ball 77, laced with seven fours and five huge sixes and Rana’s unbeaten 31-ball 54, comprising seven mammoth punches over the rope, outshone South African star Hashim Amla’s maiden T20 century for Kings XI, as the visitors overhauled the massive target of 199, with more than four overs to spare.

Chasing a mammoth 199, the opening duo of Parthiv Patel (37) and Buttler dealt mostly in boundaries to raise Mumbai’s highest first wicket stand of all IPL seasons of 81 runs, as the Punjab bowlers had little to counter the left-right pair.

Buttler started the onslaught from the very first over dispatching medium pacer Sandeep Sharma for a six before lofting him for another in his next over as Mumbai raced to 50 in just four overs.

Medium pacer Mohit Sharma was at the receiving end in his very first over, when Buttler milked him for three consecutive boundaries after Parthiv got one off the first ball.

The diminutive Patel was not too far behind and joined the party by cracking Ishant Sharma for a four and then a huge six off the legs before welcoming Marcus Stoinis with another huge six over deep midwicket.

Stonis, however got the better of the southpaw off a slower ball when Parthiv, who faced 18 balls and struck four boundaries and two sixes, failed to time it properly and ended in the hands of Glenn Maxwell at mid off.

Such was the carnage from the Mumbai duo that there were only five dots in the powerplay, including the wicket ball of Parthiv and more importantly included 14 boundaries.

Buttler, who had faced 23 balls by now, got to his fifty with a single to the right of long-on as Rana took the onus of getting the big shots.

The fall of the Gujarat wicketkeeper-batsman did not deter the visitors from scoring freely and No.3 Nitish Rana continued his great run with the willow to get his fourth half century of the season off 29 balls.

Rana started by launching Stoinis for a maximum before taking the likes of Ishant, Axar Patel and Swapnil Singh to the cleaners to take Mumbai to 123/1 midway into their innings.

Rana dominated the 85-run second wicket stand with Buttler, who was undone by Mohit’s slower delivery with Mumbai within sniffing distance of victory.

Thereafter, Hardik Pandya struck a four and a six in his 4-ball 15 before Rana pulled Mohit over the long leg boundary for a six to seal the deal in the visitors’ favour.

Kings XI bowlers could only blame themselves for letting the opportunity slip as none of the them had an economy rate of less than 10 runs an over.

Earlier, the hosts were off to a steady start with Amla (104 not out) and Shaun Marsh (26) putting on 46 runs before Maxwell took just one over from pacer Mitchell McClenaghan, milking 28 runs, to change the complexion of their innings.

McClenaghan’s over, the 15th of the innings, was incidentally the second-most expensive over of this IPL season.

Amla, on the other hand, took full advantage of the life he got on 3, when he was dropped off a difficult chance by Rana, to first get to a superb half century in just 34 balls.

Punjab needed their captain Glenn Maxwell to step up the gas and the Australian wasted no time to settle down. He started off with two consecutive boundaries off medium pacer Jasprit Bumrah before smoking McClenaghan for two back to back sixes and then two fours to finish off the over.

Amla meted out special treatment to Sri Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga, dispatching him for two consecutive sixes twice in two overs to help himself reach the three-figure mark and the team to a mammoth score.

(IANS)

Hyderabad: Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) dominated with both bat and ball to beat Delhi Daredevils by 15 runs in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Wednesday.

Electing to bat first on winning the toss, SRH posted a challenging total of 191/4 in their allotted 20 overs with quickfire half-centuries from Kane Williamson and Shikhar Dhawan.

Williamson scored 89 runs off 51 balls with six boundaries and five sixes while Dhawan posted 50 runs, studding his 50-ball stint with seven boundaries and a six.

In reply, Delhi could only manage 176/5. Shreyas Iyer was their highest scorer, remaining unbeaten on 50 runs which came off 31 balls with five hits to the fence and two sixes.

Mohammed Siraj was the most successful among the SRH bowlers with figures of 2/39.

Delhi suffered an early blow when opener Sam Bilings flicked a Siraj ball straight into the hands of Deepak Hooda at midwicket.

Sanju Samson and Karun Nair then joined hands to post a 71-run stand in 45 balls.

The visitors seemed to be coasting along nicely at that point, but the loss of two wickets in the space of just three balls completely changed the situation.

Nair was run out while attempting a run off Yuvraj Singh thanks to an accurate throw by substitute fielder V. Shankar.

Rishabh Pant, the next man in, registered a first ball duck when he tried to hit the ball outside the park but could only manage to find David Warner at long on.

Samson was the next to go, holing out in the deep while attempting to smash a slowish delivery from Siraj which was pitched at a full length just outside the off stump.

Samson was in good form, scoring 42 runs off 33 deliveries with three boundaries and a six.

Iyer and Angelo Matthews added 70 runs off 40 deliveries between them, but it was never going to be enough.

Earlier, brilliant batting from Dhawan and Williamson helped Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) post a challenging 191/4.

After losing skipper David Warner in the second over, Dhawan and Williamson thrashed Delhi bowlers all around the park as they together slammed 11 boundaries and five sixes to put Hyderabad in a comfortable position.

Hyderabad started of on a steady note but in the second over, Warner was dismissed by pacer Chris Morris.

Morris’s back of a length delivery outside the off-stump took the leading edge and Amit Mishra ran from fine leg to take a superb catch.

With the scoreboard reading 12/1, Williamson joined Dhawan and both forged a 136-run partnership for the second wicket in 14.2 overs before the former was sent packing in the 17th over by Morris.

The Kiwi skipper, who blasted six boundaries and five sixes in his 51-ball knock, tried to flick a full length delivery but got a top-edge to the deep mid-wicket and Iyer then completed a diving catch to dismiss Williamson.

With three overs remaining and new batsman Yuvraj Singh (3) at the crease, Dhawan, who was playing as support for Williamson, shifted gears and started attacking Delhi bowlers.

After slamming a couple of boundaries, Dhawan was also dismissed by Morris in the 19th over.

Yuvraj, who was dismissed on a golden duck in the last match, once again disappointed as he was bowled by Morris in the next delivery.

Moises Henriques (12) and Hooda (9) then completed the proceedings for Hyderabad with both players adding 21 runs in 1.4 overs to set a challenging target.

(IANS)

Rajkot: Swashbuckling West Indies opener Chris Gayle returned to form with a blistering 38-ball 77-run innings to power Royal Challengers Bangalore to a massive 213 -2 against Gujarat Lions in their IPL match here on Tuesday.

Invited to bat, Gayle and skipper Kohli gave Bangalore a blistering start as they amassed 45 in the first six overs and then went on to forge a 122-run opening partnership off 76 balls at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium.

Gayle’s innings was studded with five boundaries and seven massive sixes, while Kohli blasted seven fours and one six in his 50-ball innings.

Kohli took the early initiative as he picked up a boundary each in the first two overs before picking Dhawal Kulkarni for a special treatment, blasting three fours of the third over.

Gayle, who has been out of form, meanwhile completed his 10,000 runs in twenty20 cricket with a single off Basil Thampi in the fourth over.

The West Indies batsman then blasted one over mid-off to score his first six of the innings. He then sent young mystery spinner Shivil Kaushik for another maximum over long-off in the seventh over.

Gayle then exploded with successive fours and a six off left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja. He also blasted the last delivery of the over for a maximum but he was brilliantly caught by Brendon McCullum at the long-off boundary.

But the West Indies batsman survived after replays showed that McCullum’s hat had touched the boundary line.

Gayle made Lions pay as he brought up his fifty with a massive six over long on into the top-tier off Kaushik in the 10th over and then clobbered Dwayne Smith for another six as RCB reached the 100-mark.

The dashing opener sent Smith out of the park again for another six in the fourth ball over long-on as RCB picked 17 runs off the over.

In the 13th over, Basil Thampi finally dismissed Gayle when he trapped him leg before to break the partnership.

Kohli, however, continued to score runs and reached his 28th IPL fifty in the 15th over with a couple of runs off Kaushik. He then blasted a towering six over wide of long-on in the 4th ball.

Newman Travis Head (30) then sent the last ball for another maximum over deep midwicket.

In the next over, Kulkarni returned to dismiss Kohli, who holed out to deep midwicket with Smith taking the catch at the boundary line.

Head and Kedar Jadhav (38) then provided the late charge to take RCB across the 200-mark. While Jadhav cracked five fours and two sixes, Head hit two fours and a six in his innings.

(Agencies)