A steadily improving Delhi Daredevils look all set to challenge the might of title contenders Kolkata Knight Riders when the two teams clash for the second time in the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket match, in New Delhi on Saturday.
The odds are in favour of table toppers Kolkata Knight Riders as they square off against defending champions Mumbai Indians, experiencing a campaign that is oscillating between high and low, in a potentially exciting Indian Premier League contest in Mumbai, on Thursday.
In-form skipper Virat Kohli (64) and teenage prodigy Prithvi Shaw (66) were among the five Indian batsmen who struck fifties before the visitors were bowled out for 358 on the second day of the rain-hit practice game against Cricket Australia XI in Sydney.
Their fate hanging in balance, a loss in the penultimate league round match may virtually sound the death knell for one of the two teams.
Rajasthan made a promising start by scoring 266 for four against Karnataka on the opening day of the Elite Group 'A' Ranji Trophy match in Mysore on Saturday.
The first One-Day International between India and Sri Lanka witnessed important milestones being set and new records being made.
Senior cricketers Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina will lead India Red, India Blue and India Green teams respectively in the Duleep Trophy to be played at Greater Noida International Cricket Stadium from August 23 to September 14. The four-day tournament will be played for the first time with pink ball and under lights.
Players like Rohit Sharma or Dinesh Karthik who could never command more than Rs 10 to Rs 15 lakh can now hope to hit Rs 30 lakh for new deals. Bowler Sreesanth's endorsement tag has shot up from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 40 lakh.
India rested key players Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Zaheer Khan besides leaving out Rohit Sharma.
Riding on the century stand by openers RF Morris and DS Jadav, Mumbai Champs romped home to a four-wicket win over Chandigarh Lions in the round robin league one-day encounter of the Indian Cricket League's domestic tournament in Chennai on Thursday.
Sonchiriya is an entire mood within a movie, feels Sukanya Verma.
It was an inauspicious start to the inaugural Day/Night Duleep Trophy match with a major floodlight malfunction grabbing more attention than Pink ball making its first class debut in India. A power failure saw two stoppages in play with the second one leading to lights going off completely in a couple of floodlight towers. There was a total 78 minutes of interruption due to power tripping in two towers in two separate phases.
Kings XI Punjab face the uphill task of not only pulling the rug from under the feet of formidable Chennai Super Kings but also boosting their net run-rate in the last IPL round-robin match to salvage hopes of sneaking into the play-offs.
Skipper Gautam Gambhir led from the front with two half-centuries in the initial phase and when he failed to contribute, Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey have stepped up to do the bulk of scoring.
Robin Uthappa's innings of 70 runs off 41 balls (SR-170.73) is the third best by any batsman scoring at least a fifty against West Indies
Andre Russell returned with a four-wicket haul to guide Kolkata Knight Riders to a seven-run win over Kings XI Punjab and go atop the points table in their return to home in the Indian Premier League.
While Kane Williamson's side will probably be relieved at having avoided pre-tournament favourites and hosts England, the 2015 finalists face a no less formidable opponent in India.
Robin Uthappa smashed his way to a quickfire half-century as Kolkata Knight Riders notched up a comfortable six-wicket victory over Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League in Mohali, on Tuesday.
Rohit Sharma may have been in and out of the team often during his seven-year career, but India skipper Virat Kohli is of the view that the talented Mumbai batsman could be the X-factor at the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
India made five changes to the team that won in Cuttack for the third ODI.
An unfinished of 119 between keeper Tilak Naidu (84) and Sunil Joshi (36) helped Karnataka reach 301 for 6 against Haryana on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'A' match.
A measured half century from opener Chamu Chibhabha propelled Zimbabwe to their first ever Twenty20 victory over former World champions India by 10 runs, in Harare, on Sunday.
Two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders would look to assert their supremacy, while Sunrisers Hyderabad will have revenge on mind when the two teams clash in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Eliminator in New Delhi on Wednesday. Both Sunrisers and KKR finished their league engagements on 16 points each but the Gautam Gambhir-led side ended fourth behind Sunrisers due to inferior net run rate. But going into the do-or-die game, KKR have psychological advantage over the Sunrisers having beaten them on both the occasions during the league stage. KKR thrashed Sunrisres by eight wickets in their first meeting this season and came out victorious by 22 runs in a must-win match last Sunday to qualify for the play-offs.
Daredevils can be the banana peel and Mumbai Indians will be wary after Chennai Super Kings slipped in their penultimate game. The last time the two teams faced off, the Daredevils won by seven wickets in a last-over thriller.
Table-toppers Chennai Super Kings will look to complete the double against Kolkata Knight Riders, just like Delhi Capitals did, when the teams clash in Sunday's IPL match in Kolkata. The home side's consistency has suddenly taken a beating after two defeats on the trot, first in Chennai and then against Delhi Capitals on Friday night. Thus, the Knight Riders will be under immense pressure to arrest the slide when they face mighty Chennai.
This was the first time that ATK drew their first away match in an ISL match, having won in the earlier three occasions.
The fact that some of the records in the ongoing IPL are held by KKR players reflects the red-hot form of the team.
A round-up of Ranji matches played on Saturday
With 10 points from 11 games, it is a must-win encounter for Dinesh Karthik and his men if they want to keep their play-off chances alive.
Devdutt Padikkal continued his terrific form ahead of the IPL with a third successive century as the defending champions stormed into the Vijay Hazare Trophy quarterfinals
'Unmatchable' duo of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli could help India lift their third World Cup
Ravindra Jadeja, who is still recovering from a shoulder injury, was included as the selectors felt that he would recover in time for the 2015 ICC World Cup.
India's bench strength will be tested when a second string team takes on Zimbabwe.
If Irrfan could have been our finest professor of empirical philosophy, and Nawaz is our foremost poet of that space halfway between the gutter and the stars, then Jaideep Ahlawat has to be our greatest artist-scientist, asserts Sreehari Nair.
Sonchiriya is that rare Bollywood film, one that soars wildly above others in its genre, notes Ritwik Sharma.
Kolkata Knight Riders bounced back in the home leg in style by notching up a comprehensive 35-run victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League match, at the Eden Gardens, in Kolkata, on Monday.
Millions of Indian children lack access to online education as they do not have smartphones, computers or an Internet connection.
A talented Central Zone team led by Piyush Chawla is aiming to come out firing all cylinders when it squares off with an equally combative South Zone side in the final of the Duleep Trophy, starting in New Delhi, on Wednesday.
Delhi Capitals advisor Sourav Ganguly described Shikhar Dhawan as one of the best opening batsmen in the world while revealing that his franchise was "desperate" to rope in the left-hander after he left Sunrisers Hyderabad.
'In a complex conflict like Kashmir, you can't just ignore the militants when you talk of a permanent solution.'
