Kings XI Punjab stun Mumbai Indians by 3 runs

DURBAN: Yusuf Abdulla versus Jean Paul Duminy -- a packed house at the Kingsmead couldn’t have asked for better drama in the last over. Duminy cracked, with eight to get off three balls, local boy Yusuf celebrated, and so did the 17,000 odd in the stadium.

It was super drama, and at the end of it all, Kings XI were over the moon. They had snatched a superb three-run victory which has brought them well in contention for a semis berth.

Blog: Why KKR coach John Boka-known must go

A target of 120 never looked menacing, but Yuvraj’s boys were just not ready to give up. They removed Sanath Jayasuriya and Sachin Tendulkar early, and thereafter, it was a fight to the finish. Duminy fought on with wickets falling at the other end, but the Kings men never lost hope.

With 17 to get off the last two, Abdulla was about to bowl the penultimate over, when the message came from the bench to hold him back. Piyush Chawla bowled the over, got Harbhajan Singh’s wicket, and Kings XI looked favourites yet again.

Still Duminy was there, standing tall at the other end, but Abdulla showed why he is rated so highly in South Africa. The local boy mostly pitched up in the last over, and even Duminy couldn’t find the necessary elevation, and the game was Kings’.

Earlier, Kings XI innings never really took off on the slow pitch with Harbhajan striking early. And when Duminy had the wicket of Yuvraj Singh (10), Mohali were firmly on the back foot.

Wickets kept falling, but Kumar Sangakkara (45 not out off 44 balls) realised pretty early that there was no point going for big shots and giving the wicket away.

He buckled down, played the ball on merit, and looked to take the singles so that Kings XI Punjab at least stay in the hunt.

If the pitch was one of the reasons behind Mumbai Indian’s slow progress, the other surely was Lasith Malinga (2-10). The Kings XI top-order looked to play him out, but once he came back for the second spell, he was virtually unplayable.

The yorkers zoomed in one after the other and the Kings XI batsmen had no idea how to save their toes, let alone scoring runs.

It was only due to Sangakkara’s efforts that Mohali managed to set a target of 120 and at the end of it all, that proved enough.


Source:http://ipl.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Yusuf blitz ends Daredevils' winning streak

Centurion, April 29 (IANS) Yusuf Pathan struck a blazing unbeaten half-century as defending champions Rajasthan Royals snapped Delhi Daredevils' winning streak with a five-wicket victory in the Indian Premier League (IPL) at SuperSport Park here Tuesday.

Rajasthan Royals' bowlers managed well to restrict the powerful batting line-up of Delhi Daredevils to 147 with A B de Villiers top-scoring with 50.

The shuffling of the batting order worked wonders for Royals as Pathan, coming down the order, smacked 61 of just 30 balls while Graeme Smith scored an unbeaten 44 to see the team through with nine balls to spare.

After three straight wins, Dardevils slumped to their first loss, even as Rajasthan Royals continue to impress with their depleted side, registering their second win in five matches.

Master strategist Shane Warne again came up trumps with his plans as his changes in the batting order and clever shuffling of the bowlers caught the Daredevils unaware.

In-form Pathan, who helped Royals clinch a cliff-hanger against Kolkata Knight Riders through the Super Over, came at seventh down and was at his belligerent best, hitting six sixes and three boundaries to end the match in a jiffy.

Pathan, though, lived dangerously as was dropped by Pradeep Sangwan once while mistiming some of his shots in vacant areas.

Rajastahn Royals lost their first three wickets for 34 runs before Smith and Ravindra Jadeja added 29 runs. Jadeja and Warne fell in the same over of Amit Mishra (3-34) and Royals were staring down the barrel at 64 for five in 11 overs.

The game looked to be slipping away from Royals but Pathan's telling blows dramatically changed the equation. Smith anchored the innings at the other end with Pathan ripping apart the bowlers.

He cut loose against Daniel Vettori, hitting him for two sixes and a four in the 13th over and kept up the pressure on the bowlers from there on.

Earlier, Warne kept shuffling his bolwers, never allowing the Daredevils' batsmen to settle down.

It seemed as if Daredevils were in for a run-feast as Virender Sehwag disdainful flicked Dmitri Mascarenhas (2-28) to the fine-leg boundary for a six in the first over. But Mascarenhas struck twice in the next over, dismissing the dangerous opening duo of Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir.

Warne (2-32) held on to a blinder at slip to get rid of Gambhir while Sehwag mistimed his shot and was safely pouched by Kamran Khan. They were soon reduced to four for 49.

The Rajasthan bowlers gave nothing away and AB De Villiers took his time to score 50 off 40 balls with five fours and one six. Vettori scored 29 while Mithun Manhas hit an unbeaten 23.

Munaf Patel was the pick of the bowlers, giving away only 14 runs for two wickets in four overs



Source:http://cricket.yahoo.com/

Lice can be nice too, for our immune system

Wild mice have given experts some clues into why some parasites like lice are important for the conditioning of our 'natural' immune system.

Jan Bradley, University of Nottingham parasitologist, said: "Our understanding of mammalian immunology is largely based on rodents reared under highly unnatural pathogen and stress-free
conditions."

"Analysing the immune response in wild populations can give crucial insights into how the (human) immune system functions in its natural context," he said.

Many health problems in humans are caused by over-active immune responses. The immune system should be able to tell the difference between invaders and its own body cells.

But sometimes it can mistake own proteins for alien proteins, triggering an attack on its own
body and causing an auto-immune disease like arthritis, asthma, diabetes or multiple sclerosis. Or the body can mistake a harmless substance as a threat causing an allergic response.

The authors say some parasites may exert a moderating effect on the function of a key component of the immune system, which could help reduce overall immune reactivity and the risk of developing immune dysfunctions.

Their research links the louse polyplax serrata to a strong dampening of certain immune responses in wild mice.

The researchers speculate that the louse is able to exert some kind of immuno-suppressive effect, possibly by directly secreting some substance into the mice from its saliva, or indirectly by transmitting bacteria or other pathogens, said a Nottingham release.

These findings were published in the open access journal BMC Biology.

Source:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Rain wash away Mumbai-Rajasthan match

Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians split points after their Indian Premier League match was called off due to persistent rain at the Kingsmead ground in Durban on Tuesday.

Not even a single ball could be played due to the steady drizzle.

The Mumbai team, after gaining one point from the washed out tie, have moved to the top of the table with three points in their kitty.

The Sachin Tendulkar-led side had defeated last year's runners-up Chennai Super Kings in their opening match on Saturday.

Defending champions Rajasthan, who began their campaign with a crushing defeat at the hands of the Bangalore Royal Challengers, opened their account and stand at number seven in the table.


Source:http://cricket.rediff.com/

Abhi-Ash celebrate 2nd wedding anniversary

Today, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Bachchan are celebrating their 2nd wedding anniversary and if our sources are to be believed, they won't be in town for the celebrations just like last year.

Last year the couple was in Miami, USA, where Abhishek was shooting for Tarun Mansukhani's Dostana and Aishwarya had joined him. The couple had in fact interacted with the media via video conferencing for the Sarkar Raj press meet.

Sources claim, "The couple is planning a European destination this time. For the past few months the couple has been working very hard in challenging climatic conditions for Mani Ratnam's Raavan and deserve a cooler break so that is why they must have chosen an European destination. The shooting for Raavan has been postponed because of Mani Ratnam's hospitalisation following a heart attack."
Source:http://entertainment.oneindia.in/bollywood

Watch IPL Live on Mobiles Soon

With the start of the season's biggest sports action - DLF Indian Premier League Season 2 2009 - cricket buffs as usual would be glued to websites, SMS updates, widgets or radio for the latest score updates.


The official IPL site - www.iplt20.com also offers live telecast (not actually live) at http://live.iplt20.com, but works only on Internet Explorer with Silverlight 2 installed. But for those who're on the go, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the availability of IPL Live on mobile phones!


Zenga Entertainment has bagged exclusive rights from TMT Investment Pvt Ltd. for monetizing mobile content of IPL till 2013. So now Zenga will now stream the ball-by-ball coverage of DLF IPL 2009 directly to mobile handsets with help of ZengaTV. For the official mobile scoreboard, Zenga offers CricZenga application that is available for free to download and use on mobile phones. Note that GPRS charges would be applicable as per the user's data plan.

Now the first question that may come to mind is will Zenga be able to stream ball-by-ball telecast live on all handsets? Even if it does, the premise of handset compatibility should be considered. The claim that mobile TV viewing on 2G over high majority of handsets while 3G still struggles for nationwide availability sounds too good to be true.

Eventually, only mid-level and high-end mobile handsets will be able to handle the live mobile TV streams from the service providers. It would be interesting to see which mobile TV format technology is used for broadcasting multimedia content to the users handsets. Needless to say that watching video over GPRS connection can be costly.

Many have noted that the live coverage from http://live.iplt20.com suffered from infrequent downtimes since the series started. The live coverage is viewable on Firefox browser by installing Moonlight, an Open Source alternative of Silverlight (Thanks to "http://twitter.com/ghoseb" B. Ghose for tip).

The Silverlight works fine on Internet Explorer and Chrome browser. However, the continuous downtime of the DLF IPL Live stream has been kind of disheartening for users who feel promises were not fulfilled. Hopefully, mobile users aren't charged heftily for watching live updates on their mobile by mobile service operators.


Source:http://www.techtree.com/

Sehwag shines for Delhi

Indian Premier League Cape Town
Kings XI Punjab 104-7 v Delhi Daredevils 58-0
Delhi Daredevils beat Kings XI Punjab by 10 wkts (D/L Method)

Virender Sehwag helped the Delhi Daredevils kick off their Indian Premier League campaign with a 10-wicket win over the Kings XI Punjab.The opener blasted 38 from just 16 balls to steer his side to a target of 54 from just six overs in a game badly hit by rain.

The right-hander hammered four fours and three sixes in his whirlwind innings that helped Delhi get over the finishing line with seven balls to spare.



Punishment
Yusuf Abdulla, a late recruit by the Kings XI, came in for some harsh punishment, the South African seamer leaking 19 from his solitary over.Gautam Gambhir was unbeaten at the other end on 15 not out - the left-hander happy to play second fiddle to his international team-mate.

It had appeared the weather would win the day, persistent drizzle around Newlands forcing the match officials to reduce the contest to 12 overs each.Sehwag won the toss and opted to stick the Kings XI into bat, though further delays meant it took some time for the match to get underway.England all-rounder Ravi Bopara helped put 67 in six overs with opening partner Karan Goel, who eventually became the first wicket to fall having made a rapid 38.

Strategy break
Bopara fell to the very next ball for 22 after the newly-introduced strategy break, trapped leg before by New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori (3-15).Yuvraj Singh was the only other batsman to reach double figures, his knock of 16 including two big sixes before he was run out in the penultimate over.

Mahela Jayawardene (six) perished soon after to spinner Vettori before Piyush Chawla was run out before getting off the mark, meaning three wickets had fallen in the space of three balls without the addition of a single run.Aavishkar Salvi then bowled a miserly final over, conceding just six runs and also picking up the scalp of Irfan Pathan (six) as Punjab finished on 104-7.


Source:http://www.skysports.com

Nayar launches Mumbai Indians

I want to do well in this tournament, enjoy my time in South Africa and make sure Mumbai Indians win the IPL.' That was Abhishek Nayar speaking to rediff.com before leaving for South Africa.

On the opening day of the second edition of the Indian Premier League the 25-year-old provided an indication that he could relish his time in South Africa with a masterful 35 off 14 deliveries that was instrumental in Mumbai Indian beating Chennai Super Kings by 19 runs.

Coming in at the fall of the fourth wicket -- Dwayne Bravo -- when Mumbai Indians were in a spot at 102-4 in the 14th over, Nayar, who in 14 matches in the inaugural IPL last year scored 206 runs @25.75, with an impressive strike rate of 149.28, provided the thrust Sachin Tendulkar's side was looking for by slamming two fours and three sixes.

He was particularly severe on Andrew Flintoff , the most expensive player of the second edition of the IPL, blasting him for 22 runs, including those three sixes, in one over. It was mainly due to his stunning assault that Mumbai Indians could surpass the 150-run mark

Nayar had played a leading hand in Mumbai's title run in the Ranji Trophy this season. Besides finishing among the top run scorers for his side, with 233 runs from four matches (@ 58.25), he also snapped up 10 wickets (@ 18. 60). His 99 in the final against Uttar Pradesh was a crucial innings.

Thus, it was not surprising that he was rewarded with an upgrade of his IPL contract for Mumbai Indians and a place among the 30 probables in India's preliminary squad for the Twenty20 World Cup in England in June.

Nayar has shown that last month's trip some Mumbai Indians players made to Durban, where they trained under Shaun Pollock and Jonty Rhodes , was certainly worth the while. After this good start, Nita Ambani's side will be counting on the youngster for a better finish than the fifth place they ended up at last year.


Source:http://cricket.rediff.com

90 per cent IPL tickets sold: Modi

Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi claims 90 per cent of the tickets for the cash-rich Twenty20 event starting on April 18 have been sold at the eight venues.

"The ticket prices had been aimed at filling the stadiums," Modi said at a press conference ahead of the event which will start with Chennai Super Kings taking on Mumbai Indians.

Modi said although the IPL would be returning to India next year, the long-term vision was to turn it into a global brand, much the same way as the English Football Premier League.

"Spectators will see the world's best players playing competitive cricket and it is made more compelling because of the competitive instincts of the players," he said.

The IPL chief said an important aspect of the marketing of the competition was advertising and Rand 120 million (USD 10 million) have been earmarked to attract spectators to the games.

The organisers are also spending time on local radio stations, introducing the players in the eight teams.



Source:http://cricket.ndtv.com/cricket/ndtvcricket

Cricket's IPL set to miss top players

NEW DELHI (AFP) — The Indian Premier League may bring unforseen riches to the world's top cricketers, but not everyone has fallen for the lure of the lucre.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting and senior pro Michael Hussey opted out of the IPL's second season starting in South Africa on Saturday to rest tired limbs after a back-breaking schedule.

Having played non-stop cricket since September, both players preferred to take a breather before a tour of England which features the World Twenty20 championships in June followed by the Ashes.

The IPL may not have been an attractive proposition for them anyway. Ponting, one of the modern greats, was sold for a surprisingly low 400,000 dollars to the Kolkata Knight Riders at last year's auction.

Hussey, a prolific left-hander, was also picked up cheap by the Chennai Super Kings at 350,000 dollars.

Two other Australians, Michael Clarke and Mitchell Johnson, did not even put themselves up for auction, saying they wanted to concentrate on their international careers.

Expensive players are not guaranteed their entire riches as the England duo of Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff have found out.

Both went for record sums of 1.55 million dollars each at this year's auction, but England's home series against the West Indies in May has shortened their IPL participation to the first two weeks.

Players are paid on a pro-rata basis and two other England stars, Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah, will also be similarly affected.

Collingwood and Shah were picked up by the Delhi Daredevils team for identical amounts of 275,000 dollars each.

The International Cricket Council's decision not to set aside a window for what is an essentially Indian domestic tournament is hurting other players also.

West Indian captain Chris Gayle, who commands 800,000 dollars from the Kolkata Knight Riders, and team-mate Fidel Edwards, a new signee with the Deccan Chargers for 150,000 dollars, will also be available for two weeks.

Australian paceman Brett Lee and controversial all-rounder Andrew Symonds were set for the entire five-week IPL season since neither was part of the national squad in South Africa.

However, both earned call-ups for Australia's one-day series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates from April 22 to May 7, and left them facing a huge financial setback.

Symonds, bought by the Deccan Chargers for 1.35 million last year, will now be available for only the last two weeks of the IPL.

Lee, a 900,000-dollar signee with Kings XI Punjab, may not even play at all as the Australian medical staff monitors his recovery from ankle and foot injury ahead of the Ashes.

Australian Shane Watson, who was the IPL's player of the tournament last year, is also out till May 7 due to his inclusion for the Pakistan series.

"I think Shane will miss the first nine games and be available for the last five and hopefully the finals," said Shane Warne, his Rajasthan Royals captain. "He is a big loss."

The biggest losers are the Pakistani cricketers who were thrown out of the IPL this year after Islamabad denied them permission to travel to India for the tournament following growing tensions between the two countries.

The players' appeal to allow them to return to the IPL since the tournament had been shifted to South Africa was rejected by tournament organisers.

It deprives Warne's champion team of the services of left-arm seamer Sohail Tanvir, the highest wicket-taker last year with 22 wickets.

Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/

Government dithers on implementing health warnings on tobacco products

The Supreme Court has severely indicted the government for not implementing the pictorial signs and health warnings on cigarette packets, saying, "Is the government doing this to control (the) rapidly increasing population?"

After repeated delays, additional solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam assured the court that the government would introduce displaying of statutory pictorial and health warnings on tobacco products by 31 May.

After the government failed in implementing the tobacco health warnings, NGO Health for Millions filed a case in the Supreme Court where its counsel Indira Jaisingh said that government had scaled down the pictorial warnings from the original warnings on tobacco products.

Jaisingh said that the government had originally wanted to display a skull-and-crossbone image on all tobacco products as well as the warning that tobacco smoke can even harm a baby while still in mother's womb.

But the government has now diluted the image by using X-ray images of lungs on the label of tobacco products and instead of displaying the skull-and-crossbone image, now the image of a scorpion is expected to be shown.

Jaisingh argued that the skull-and-crossbone image is used globally as a symbol of health warning and the image of a scorpion would have no health recall image for Indian masses

Pictorial warnings of the skull-and-crossbone image on tobacco products are intended to enlighten the smoker of the harmful effects of tobacco and with India having so many languages, this image breaks all linguistic barriers.

She also accused the government of falling prey to the tobacco lobby in delaying the implementation and diluting the warnings as many ministers and MP's own tobacco plantations, who are behind in repeatedly delaying the implementation.

Ironically, the Indian government was one of the main supporters of introducing health warnings on cigarette packs for the global community at the third Conference of Parties (COP-3) held in South Africa in November 2008.

But now, it is the same government that is dithering on implementing this ruling at home on various pretexts due to the pressure from tobacco growers' lobby.

In September, the Supreme Court refused to stay the implementation of the 2008 rules banning smoking in public places across India. The Supreme Court has further gone ahead and stated that no other court in the country could pass any order against these

After hearing Jaisingh's arguments, the bench asked Gopal Subramaniam as to whether the government wants to control the population by diluting the health warning pictorial image.

After hearing both sides, the court has kept 30 April as the final date to dispose of the complaint.

Smoke from a single cigarette contains more than 4,000 chemicals whose content and concentration can vary widely from one brand or type of cigarette to the other.
Some of the chemicals from the smoke of a cigarette:

* Acetone cyanide
* Aluminum DDT / dieldrin
* Ammonia ethenol
* Arsenic formaldehyde
* Benzene hydrogen cyanide
* Butane lead
* Cadmium methanol
* Carbon monoxide nicotine
* Carbon dioxide tar
* Chloroform vinyl chloride


Source: http://www.domain-b.com/industry/

India beat Malaysia to lift Azlan Shah Trophy

Kuala Lumpur, April 12: India beat hosts Malaysia 3-1 in the finals to lift the 18th Sultan Azlan Shah Trophy after a gap of 13 years.
India last won the title way back in 1995.

Arjun Halappa shot India into lead in the 8th minute of the game before Malaysia equalized through Azlon Mizron three minutes later.

However, the Indian team undeterred, carried on in their attacking vein he and deservedly went 2-1 ahead when Prabhjot Singh who sounded the board in the 20th minute.

With the formidable Indian defence holding tight inside the striking circle, the home team’s forwards were strangled for the want of space.

India led 2-1 at half-time.

In the second half too, India’s attacking ploy kept them in good stead as they soon consolidated their lead after Shivender Singh slotted team's third goal.

This was India’s fifth final appearance at Sultan Azlan Shah Cup.

The Indians were champions in 1985, 1991 and 1995 while their other final appearances were in 2006 and 2008, when they had ended runner-up.

Source:http://www.zeenews.com/sports

8 killed in Assam blasts

Guwahati: On the eve of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Assam, suspected militants of the United Liberation Front of Assam on Monday set off three blasts and mounted a grenade attack within five hours. Eight persons and over 62 were injured in the terror attacks.

Assam DGP G.M. Srivastav said seven people were killed and 56 injured in a powerful blast in a crowded market in Guwahati’s Maligaon around 2 p.m.

The explosion sparked a fire that set ablaze two cars and 20 motorcycles and spread to a three-storey building housing the area police station.

Six were killed at the blast site. One died of injuries after jumping from an adjacent building which had caught fire. The bomb is suspected to have been hidden in a car or a motorcycle parked adjacent to the North-East Frontier Railway headquarters.

“This is the handiwork of ULFA boys ahead of the outfit’s Raising Day” Mr. Srivastav said, adding the militants used hi-tech explosives.

A bomb was set off by unidentified persons in Santipur near Bokajan earlier in the day.

Suspected ULFA militants also set off a bicycle bomb explosion in Dhekiajuli in Sonitpur district later. Four people were injured, one of them seriously, in this incident. According to an unconfirmed report, he later died of his injuries.

An unidentified youth lobbed a hand grenade at Mankachar police station in Dhubri district, killing a police driver and injuring another.

In the Guwahati blast, four of the dead, including a minor girl, have been identified.

The Foundation Day of ULFA is observed on April 7 every year, marking the founding of the organisation on this day in 1979.

Congress sources said there will be no change in the Prime Minister’s programme. He is to address an election rally in Dibrugarh.

Dr. Singh represents Assam in the Rajya Sabha and the rally marks his entry into the poll campaign trail.

The explosions have taken place amidst reports that two top bombing experts of the ULFA, identified by the police as Monohari Rajbongshi and Pradip Kalita, recently arrived in the city to carry out such attacks.

Police released their photographs on Friday.

Source:http://www.hindu.com/2009/04/07/stories