Category: SPORTS

Their house in complete disorder after seven defeats from eight outings, the Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore will be desperate for a win to stay afloat in the IPL when they take on Kolkata Knight Riders here on Friday.It would be a great opportunity for the Bangalore outfit to post a win against an opponent who are low on confidence having slipped from second to sixth position in the points table after suffering three straight defeats. In fact, to make matters worse, Kolkata’s dangerman Andre Russell has suffered an injury scare…

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Young wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant and veteran batsman Ambati Rayudu were Wednesday named among the standbys for India’s World Cup squad, reigniting their dashed hopes of making the trip to the UK in case an injury setback hits the side.Speedster Navdeep Saini also found a place in the list of three back-ups for the mega-event starting on May 30.Pant and Rayudu’s exclusion from the squad of 15 had created quite a stir on Monday. While Sunil Gavaskar called Pant’s omission surprising, the snub to Rayudu was questioned by Gautam Gambhir.With the…

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Wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik Tuesday said he remained confident about his selection in India’s World Cup squad despite being dropped for the ODIs against Australia, attributing his inclusion to consistent performances over the past two years.In an otherwise predictable squad, Karthik’s selection over the young Rishabh Pant became the talking point after the team was announced on Monday. Chief selector MSK Prasad said the more experienced Karthik was preferred over Pant because of his better wicket-keeping skills.Now that the squad selection is over and done with, Karthik is a happy man…

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Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Dinesh Karthik rued that his side fell short by 10-20 runs and also failed to bowl well after they slumped to a seven-wicket loss to Delhi Capitals in an IPL match here.KKR faced their second successive defeat against Delhi Capitals despite Andre Russell’s explosive innings of 21-ball 45 here on Friday night. Delhi did well to remove the Windies powerhitter in the penultimate over and KKR set a 179-run target.”We knew that we needed to get a big total but we ended up getting probably 10-15…

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Former South African captain Graeme Smith has some advice for Australia coach Justin Langer — make sure David Warner’s ego is managed if he starts to “get bigger than everybody else”.The polarising opener, on the comeback trail after a one-year ban for ball-tampering, has been in red-hot form in the Indian Premier League ahead of his expected recall to the national side for the World Cup in England and Wales.But some commentators believe Warner’s return could be disruptive to the team, which is now resurgent after a run of poor…

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The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president and Delhi Capitals advisor Sourav Ganguly has replied to BCCI ombudsman and ethics officer DK Jain clarifying that there is no “conflict of interest” in his dual role as alleged by three cricket fans.The Ombudsman had asked Ganguly to clear his stand on allegations of conflict of interest in his role as IPL franchise Delhi Capitals advisor while serving as the president of CAB. Ganguly told PTI that he had sent his reply to Justice Jain on the April 6th, making his position clear.…

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Traditionally a slow starter, Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma says he wants his team to win most of its initial matches this IPL season, as some of his players will leave for World Cup preparations at the back-end. “We want to win as many games as possible at the start because we know how hectic it gets in the end. A few of the guys leaving for the World Cup doesn’t help either,” Rohit said after his team’s victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad Saturday night.”We don’t want to be a team…

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It will be a battle of leadership styles of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ravichandran Ashwin when Chennai Super Kings clash with Kings XI Punjab an IPL match here on Saturday.Dhoni’s ability to stay calm and keep his cool even in the trickiest of situations versus Ashwin’s aggressive approach and out-of-the-box decisions would certainly make for an interesting contest. The two teams have three wins each and both will try to outdo each other to take the upper hand. Defending champions CSK suffered their first defeat at the hands of Mumbai Indians in…

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Ravichandran Ashwin has absolutely “no regrets” having ‘Mankaded’ Jos Buttler in an IPL game and he will certainly not be surprised if he finds England pacer Jimmy Anderson, who ‘virtually’ ripped him to shreds, doing the same in near future.Recently a crass video of Jimmy Anderson ripping Ashwin’s picture into shreds went viral and many felt that it was done in bad taste.”Today Jimmy Anderson might feel that whatever I did was wrong. Maybe, tomorrow he might end up doing (Mankading) it. Who knows, it is all a question of…

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The youngest to notch up an IPL hat-trick, England and Kings XI Punjab all-rounder Sam Curran said he had “absolutely no idea” that he had taken one during the game against Delhi Capitals here.The left-arm medium pacer’s hat-trick, which was the first of this edition of the IPL, helped Kings XI Punjab script an exciting 14-run win over Delhi Capitals on Monday night.The 20-year-old from Northampton, KXIP’s costliest buy this year with a price tag of Rs 7.20 crore, surpassed Rohit Sharma in becoming the youngest to take an IPL…

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