Bangalore beat Delhi by 7 wickets, keep semifinal hopes alive

Jacques Kallis delivered when it mattered most as the South African cracked an unbeaten half century to guide Royal Challengers Bangalore to a thumping seven-wicket victory over Delhi Daredevils and keep their semifinal hopes alive in the Indian Premier League here today.

Kallis (58 not out) carried his bat through the innings hitting two fours and two sixes from 56 balls to steer Bangalore to their seventh win from 13 matches after Delhi elected to bat and posted 134 for seven.

Kallis first shared a 70-run stand from 69 balls for the second wicket with Rahul Dravid (34-ball 38) and then combined with Ross Taylor (12-ball 25) for 29 runs from just 14 balls for the third wicket to take Bangalore home with one over to spare.

Bangalore, now at fourth place in IPL table with 14 points to their kitty, will though need to win their last match against Deccan Chargers at Centurion on May 21 to make sure that they make it to the semifinals.

Chasing 135 for a win on a slow Wanderers pitch, Bangalore batsmen, except for Taylor, grafted for runs for most part of the match.

Robin Uthappa (1) continued his poor form but the other opener Kallis and one down Dravid stabilised the Bangalore innings.

Ponting support Symonds to make Ashes cuts

Australia captain Ricky Ponting today voiced his support for controversial all-rounder Andrew Symonds' return to the Test side for the Ashes series.

Symonds has battled controversies both on and off the field and despite not being among the best of shape, was allowed to play for the country in the one-day series against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi and Dubai recently.

However, the all-rounder seems to be finding his rhythm in the Indian Premier League where he has so far scored 174 runs in five matches for the Deccan Chargers, leading his coach Darren Lehman demanding his inclusion in the Ashes series.

Ponting too backed Lehmann's views and felt it would be a tough job for selectors to keep out the 33-year-old all-rounder when they meet on Wednesday to pick the 16-member squad for the Ashes.

Ponting said he would not be surprised if Symonds gets the nod.

"I wouldn't be surprised, he has had his share of battles over the last 12 months, obviously the well documented stuff off the field,"he added.

Remove ban on Azharuddin

In the year 2000 the BCCI appointee three-member disciplinary committee comprising of president (Dr. A. C. Muthiah) and two vice presidents (Kamal Morarka and K. M. Ram Prasad) didn't come to equal terms and 2:1 majority saw former India skipper Mohammad Azharuddin being life-banned.

"Now Azharuddin is a Member of Parliament (MP), the life ban should not have been imposed at first place. "I was deadly against the move. I had expressed my opinion in the form of a letter", Kamal Morarka said. The copy of the said letter is with Mohd. Azharuddin also. While defending his case, he had produced the same in court, it is learnt.

"I could not attend the meeting on that particular day and requested the meeting be held on some other day. They didn't listen to it and went on with the verdict. But even if I had attendend the meeting, it would not have made much of a difference as two other members wanted ban on Azharuddin", he said. There was no evidence suggesting Azhar's role in match-fixing. I would have suggested the lighter punishment (in the form of fine etc.) for him", Kamal Morarka added.

K. M. Ram Prasad, now recovering from the illness, said from Bangalore's Ramaiyya Hospital bed, "looking at the improved behaviour of the former captain, I believe the life ban should be removed". "The Indian cricket board can certainly do it". "The people from his (Mooradabad) consituency have pardoned him and sent him to the Parliament and this life-ban on him should be removed".

Kings XI Punjab beat Deccan Chargers by one run

Kings XI Punjab skipper Yuvraj Singh's took his second hat-trick, as his team beat Deccan Chargers by one run.Deccan Chargers skipper Adam Gilchrist won the toss and elected to field first.

Punjab lost its first wicket when opener Sunny Sohal attempted a cheeky flick shot to Rohit Sharma over short fine leg. Herschelle Gibbs and wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist then combined to run out Luke Pomersbach on 1. Just 11 runs later Simon Katich hit straight to Pragyan Ojha at mid on, off an Andrew Symonds ball full of a length, to leave Punjab on 26-3.

Captain Yuvraj Singh added 20 runs from 18 balls before being deceived by Venugopal Rao's change of pace to be bowled. Mota's cameo innings ended when his sweep shot failed to clean long on for Harris to take the catch diving forward.

Singh bowled to a good length at the death, taking the last wicket when Irfan Pathan failed to get hold of another fuller ball to give Gibbs a routine catch.Kings XI wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara was the only batsman who played some good shots in his inning of 56 runs off 43 balls with four fours and a huge six.Kings XI finally scored 134 runs for the loss of seven wickets in 20 overs.For Deccan Chargers, R. P. Singh was most successful bowler with three wickets.

Chasing a victory target of 135, Deccan Chargers got to a good start and openers Adam Gilchrist and Herschelle Gibbs scored 34 runs for the first wicket. Gilchrist scored 23 runs in 13 balls with four fours and one six.Once, Chargers were standing tall at a score of 79 runs with seven wickets in hand, but Yuvraj Singh's second hat-trick put Chargers in trouble.

Yuvraj dismissed Herschelle Gibbs (26), Andrew Symonds (25) and Venugopal Rao (0), spread over two overs, to bring back Punjab in hunt.Rohit Sharma was the highest scorer with 42 runs in 26 balls with three fours and two sixes.

Yuvraj Singh was declared 'Man of the Match' for his brilliant hat-trick.

Future of Test in hands of grounds men: Pietersen

England's star batsman Kevin Pietersen has insisted that the five-day version of the game needs to be spiced up, pleading with grounds men that the future of the game is in their hands.The huge popularity of the shorter Twenty20 format and the mega cash on offer for players in the lucrative Indian Premier League have cast a dark cloud over Test cricket.Pietersen warned the only way Test cricket can survive is for pitches to be prepared in a way that will produce a result - rather than the usual boring draws, The Sun reports.

Pietersen declared: "I've talked to players all over the world about this and for the future of Test cricket grounds men must start producing result wickets. What needs to happen for Test cricket to stay at the top is grounds men need to prepare wickets which encourage a contest between bat and ball.

"Test matches need to be exciting and too many in recent months have not been. In the Pakistan versus South Africa series both sides were scoring six or seven hundred runs. That's crazy," he said.

"Then in the Caribbean when we were out there this winter it was more of the same. No one wants to watch that and it's not much fun to play in either".

"Some of the wickets we have played on recently have been too flat and very batsman friendly. I'm a batsman so I don't mind but that means long, hard spells for bowlers to bowl and field," Pietersen added.

Kolkata Knight Riders lose again

Deccan Chargers took a stride towards reserving their semi-final berth as they pipped Kolkata Knight Riders by six wickets in a last-ball thriller.

Put into bat first, Kolkata scored a competitive 160 for five, built largely around 17-ball 43 by David Hussey and Brad Hodge's sedate 41-ball 48, but Deccan Chargers overwhelmed the target in the last ball.

Adam Gilchrist's 31-ball 43 gave the Deccans good start, but the Hyderabad side suffered some mid-innings slump before Rohit Sharma's 13-ball 32 guided them to the win.With 14 runs needed from last four balls, Sharma hit a four off Mortaza and then hit another for maximum to wrap up the issue as they reached 166 in 20 overs.

Earlier, Kolkata openers Brenden McCullum and Sourav Ganguly were never at ease as the Deccan's new-ball pair of Australian Ryan Harris and RP Singh extracted sharp bounce from the pitch that was otherwise looking a good batting track.

Harris inflicted first blow to Kolkata side as skipper McCullum (20), who was earlier dropped by Herchelle Gibbs, failed to negotiate a rising delivery as Tirumalsetti Suman ran backward to pouch a well-judged catch.

Chennai Super Kings beat Mumbai Indians by 7 wickets

Riding on yet another superb innings by Matthew Hayden (60), Chennai Super Kings assured themselves of a semifinal berth while ending Mumbai Indians' hopes with a seven-wicket triumph.

Set a target of 148 by Mumbai built largely on JP Duminy's knock of 62, Chennai once again relied heavily on Hayden to romp home with five balls to spare.Hayden was not his usual explosive self to start with but soon cut loose to help Chennai recover from a rather wobbly start.

The Australian opener, who is currently the leading run-scorer of the tournament, hit his fifth fifty of the event in the process. Hayden also shared a match-winning 87-run partnership with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (23).

The burly left-hander hit Harbhajan Singh for a massive six in the 17th over to complete his fifty. In fact, that one Harbhajan over turned the match in Chennai's favour as the temperamental off-spinner conceded 17 runs in it.After their bowlers did a fine job to restrict Mumbai to 147 for five, Chennai's chase didn't get off to a very good start as Parthiv Patel was dismissed off the very first ball by Lasith Malinga, who trapped the Indian leg-before.

Suresh Raina did not last long either and was brilliantly caught and bowled by Dwayne Bravo after a quickfire 20 off 12 balls that included two fours and an equal number of sixes. Earlier, electing to bat after winning the toss, Mumbai was dealt an early blow when Dwayne Bravo's (5) stumps were knocked off by Albie Morkel in the second over.

Sanath Jayasuriya then played out a blistering 30-run knock that came off just 17 balls. Sri Lanka's ageless warrior, who had been slightly off-colour with the bat, smashed three fours and a couple of sixes before top-edging a Sudeep Tyagi delivery to Suresh Raina at cover. Jayasuriya's dismissal slowed down Mumbai's scoring rate and the team went into the strategy break with 72 runs in their first 10 overs.

Mumbai suffered another setback after the break when skipper Sachin Tendulkar (11) holed out to Lakshmipathy Balaji at deep midwicket off a Raina delivery.It was left to J P Duminy, yet again, to steer the innings and he lived upto the task with a 54-ball 62.Of the bowlers, Muttiah Muralidaran was not among the wickets but bowled a miserly spell, giving away just 19 runs in his four overs.

Flintoff may miss World Twenty20 tournament

England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff is unlikely to be fit for next month's World Twenty20 due to the slow response of his right knee to an operation performed last month. Flintoff, had keyhole surgery on April 28 after damaging his knee playing for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League.

At the time, the England and Wales Cricket Board issued a bullish statement saying they expected him to return for the World Twenty20, which begins on June 5. Yet Flintoff, in an interview with Sky Sports due to be shown on Saturday, has cast doubt on that prognosis.

"I'm making progress, and I've been on the bike for 45 minutes. But I'm still a while away from running - maybe a week and a half or so. One of the things we've got to be careful about is swelling, which is why we're constantly icing and monitoring it after one session before I can do the next one," he told.

England's opening game in the World Twenty20 is against Holland at Lord's in 19 days' time, but Flintoff's presence there always looked far from optimistic despite his selection in the 15-man squad.

Bangalore Royal Challengers beat Chennai Super Kings by two wickets

Bangalore Royal Challengers beat Chennai Super Kings by two wickets in their IPL match here on Thursday.

Chennai Super Kings skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first. Chennai got to a good start after openers Matthew Hayden and Murali Vijay added 32 runs for the first wicket.Hayden once again played a fine knock and scored 60 runs off 38 balls with four fours and three sixes.

Apart from Hayden's inning, no other player could bat for a long time at the crease.
The only partnership of substance for Chennai was of 45 runs that came between Hayden and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the third wicket.Dhoni scored 18 runs off 20 balls with one four hit to the fence.Chennai Super Kings scored 129 runs for the loss of seven wickets in 20 overs.

For Royal Challengers, skipper Anil Kumble, R. Vinay Kumar and Jacques Kallis took two wickets each.Chasing a victory target of 130, Bangalore Royal Challengers got off to a poor start when opener Jacques Kallis was adjudged leg before wicket off Albie Morkel.Royal Challengers had lost three wickets at a total of 30 runs, but Virat Kohli and Ross Taylor took their team to a total of 86 runs. Kohli and Taylor added 56 runs for the fourth wicket.

Kohli scored 38 runs off 35 balls with four fours and two sixes. After Kohli's dismissal, Royal Challengers lost wickets on quick succession.R. Vinay Kumar took two runs on the third ball and hit the fourth delivery of the last over for four to register a thrilling victory.

I never sledged Hayden: Sreesanth

Sreesanth said he considers Matthew Hayden a genius and does not know what prompted the Australian to call him an 'over-rated bowler'.

During the May 7 Indian Premier League match between Hayden's Chennai Super Kings and Sreesanth's Kings XI Punjab at Pretoria, the Australian spanked the Indian pacer for two sixes before falling to him in the same over.

In the subsequent press conference, Hayden alleged Sreesanth had sledged him and said the Kerala pacer was an "overrated bowler".

Sreesanth denied sledging the Australian and was clueless what prompted Hayden to say so.

"I came to know from my friends in Bangalore (that) I have been called an over-rated bowler by Matthew Hayden. I don't even know why he said that," Sreesanth said.

"Even my friends were asking me what I said about it. So I said I don't have anything to say. He is a genius, genuine great batsman, the greatest batsman in the world. I have nothing to say on that," he said.

Denying the sledging allegation, the Sreesanth said, "I never sledged. I would love to ask him in the next match when I am playing with the ball, not with the mouth.

"He's a huge personality off the field. I don't want to get into conversation with somebody who just talks. He's a legend at the end of the day. All I can say is that I will try my level best to get him out with my ability.

"Over-rated or not, I don't really care about my ratings because at the end of the day I will be playing with God's grace. All I can tell Hayden is 'All the best for the next game'. That's the only way I can answer him," Sreesanth said.

Tired of being in the news for the wrong reasons, Sreesanth requested the media to leave him alone.

"The other day my friends were saying I was already making news. That I had a fight with Yuvraj Singh in the dug-out. I was like 'When did that happen?' "Sreesanth has already got a bad image, please don't mess it up further. I have not done anything. I have done my very best in the last six or seven months to stay away from all the controversies," he said.

Delhi win by 12 runs

Brilliant bowling by Rajat Bhatia towards the end helped Delhi Daredevils snatch a 12-run victory against Deccan Chargers in the Indian Premier League here today.

Bhatia's (4/15) medium pace first bowled Andrew Symonds (41), who was going great guns, and then knocked Dwayne Smith's stumps (1) to bring Delhi back into the game after they looked down and out following Adam Gilchrist's hurricane 33-ball 64.

It was a match that swung one way to the other after Delhi posted a competitive 173 for four following wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik's breezy 44 and excellent batting by Tillakaratne Dilshan (37) and AB de Villiers (44).

In reply, Gilchrist made the most of two dropped chances to play a captain's knock that saw balls flying over the ropes at regular intervals.

Gilchrist, who was dropped by Amit Mishra and then AB de Villiers on 28, cut, drove and punched his way to 50 in just 24 balls.

However, just as in other matches in the tournament, the strategy break proved to be the Chargers' undoing.

Left-arm pacer Pradeep Sangwan (3/18), who had earlier accounted for Tirumalsetti Suman (3) and Rohit Sharma (6), came back to dislodge Gilchrist's stumps.

We committed cricket suicide: Gilchrist

Deccan Chargers captain Adam Gilchrist blamed the team's fielding and lower-order batting after losing to Delhi Daredevils by 12 runs in the Indian Premier League.
After the post-match ceremony, Gilchrist said "We committed cricket suicide with our lower-order batting and fielding, and We gifted the game away. Level of catching in this tournament hasn't been high. We are pretty disappointed. Would have been nice to get the two points."

Injured Flintoff dreaming of playing the Ashes

England's all-rounder, Andrew Flintoff, is recovering from knee surgery, and despite his latest setback, he insists that he is working towards participating in this year's Ashes against the Australians.

"When you've had the problems I've had, with the ankle operations and now my knee, then it's the dream of playing Ashes cricket and beating Australia that keeps you going," he told.

"That's the motivation during rehab, but when the time comes around I have to make sure I'm on top of my game, too. It is the series you want to play in. People ask if the 5-0 whitewash in 2006-07 motivates me for revenge. But, to be honest, I don't need any more motivation than just to play in The Ashes again," he added.

"My injury was building up, and while it's frustrating, at least it happened now. There was always going to be people commenting about it. But it wasn't one incident that did it, it was a gradual thing that had built up over time.

I would have been playing for Lancashire had it not been Chennai in the IPL, so this would have happened. And their medical staff were excellent. I have no regrets, none whatsoever," Flintoff said.

He added: "I cannot wait to get back into the side - provided I'm performing.

Botha can play, but cannot bowl his `Doosra'

South African off-spinner Johan Botha has received the green light to play again, but has not been given permission to bowl his variety of "Doosra".

Botha was recently cited for his bowling action, but tests in Australia found that, with one exception, there is no problem. The exception is Botha's doosra, the delivery that turns away from the right-hand batsmen. He has been banned from bowling this delivery.

Botha was cited in the recent one-day series against Australia and he underwent the tests at the University of Western Australia in Perth. Had he been found guilty of chucking, he would have been suspended for a year.

Bangalore Royal Challengers beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 6 wickets

Bangalore Royal Challengers won the toss choose to Field first.Brendon McCullum and Saurav Ganguly opened the batting for Knight Riders. McCullum smashed the Bangalore bowlers. But Ganguly out for four runs. Next batsman Arindam Ghosh also out for seven runs. Australian all-rounder David Hussey joined with McCullum. Both batsman were played aggressively. So the scorecard increased quickly. David Hussey's 27 ball 43 runs ended 14th over. But McCullum continued his aggressive batting. He scored his fifty.Finally Knight Riders scored 173/4 in 20 overs. McCullum scored 84 runs in 64 balls and remained not out.

Jesse Ryder and Jacques Kallis opened the innings for Royal Challengers. Both were played a brilliant 58 runs partnership in 8.2 overs. Kallis,Ryder,Robin Uthappa and Rahul Dravid were out in a quick session. But Taylr hitted a ball very hard. Last 26 balls Royal Challengers needed 51 runs. Mark Boucher joined with Taylor. Taylor scored a fifty. He scored 81 runs(33 ball).In the last overBangalore Royal Challengers beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 6 wickets.

No pressure on me to quit: Buchanan

Kolkata Knight Riders at the bottom of the IPL season II table and Coach John Buchanan has faced severe crictisim about his multiple captain theory and for his handling of the team and there were reports that he may face the axe. But Buchanan says no pressure on me to quit.