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GUYANA CHRONICLE Saturday, May 28, 2016
Majestic Warner slams Sunrisers into IPL final
NEW DELHI, India: Skipper David Warner produced a majestic 93 as he single-handedly led Sunrisers Hyderabad into the IPL final, after securing a four-wicket win over Gujarat Lions in the Qualifier 2, yesterday. Chasing a tricky 163, Sunrisers overhauled the target with four balls to spare as Warner anchored the chase with his responsible 58-ball knock, embellished with 11 fours and three sixes. Sunrisers Hyderabad will now challenge Royal Challengers Bangalore tomorrow, as the two teams will compete for their first-ever IPL title. While maximum Sunrisers batsmen cut a sorry figure, Warner showed his class and super cool temperament as he never let the innings fall apart. Wickets kept tumbling but Warner had dug his heels and found amazing support in Bipul Sharma, who came up with a sizzling unbeaten 27-run knock under pressure. Bipul, who had also troubled rival batsmen when Lions batted, took pressure off his captain with his timely big shots. His sixes off Praveen Kumar and Dhawal Kulkarni played a crucial role in turning the tide in Sunrisers' favour. Bipul, who played for
India A in 2010, always had batting credentials but yesterday it was the time to show his worth as he added 33 runs with Warner in their unfinished partnership for the seventh wicket. Needing five runs off the last over, Warner blasted a four on the first ball off Praveen Kumar to level the scores and then took a single to finish the match comfortably. Earlier, Aaron Finch (50) rescued his side with a fighting half-century, leading Gujarat to a competitive 162 for seven with useful contributions from Brendon McCullum (32), Dinesh Karthik (26) and Dwayne Bravo (20). Losing Shikhar Dhawan (0) and Moises Henriques (11) early was not the ideal start for the Sunrisers. Dhawan was run-out while Henriques hit straight to Eklavya Dwivedi in the covers off Dwayne Smith. Warner was still there and giving him company was a confident-looking Yuvraj Singh as the Sunrisers managed 46 for 2 in Powerplay overs. Sensing that spinners would do well, Lions skipper Suresh Raina introduced himself early into the attack and also handed the ball to young Shivil Kaushik. Warner hammered Raina
David Warner slams his eighth fifty of the season to guide Sunrisers Hyderabad to their maiden IPL final. for a straight six that broke In a team score of 82 in 12 the glass facade on the first overs, Warner had contributtier, to bring up the team's fif- ed 50. Kaushik came back to ty and found another bound- complete his four-over spell ary off a mis-field from the and saw the back of Ben substitute fielder Andrew Cutting (8), leaving Sunrisers Tye. reeling at 84-5. After giving away only The Australian souththree runs in his first over, paw hit Smith for a six and Kaushik sent back Yuvraj a four and Naman Ojha too in his second over and gave smashed one shot over the away only one run. ropes as Sunrisers amassed The young spinner with 19 runs in the 15th over. his bizarre action kept trouFrom thereon, it was Bibling the Sunrisers batsmen, pul's show as he gelled with hardly giving a loose ball his captain to eke out a memas he kept hitting the right orable win. length. He gave away only 13 Earlier, Finch added 51 runs in his three overs. runs in just 4.5 overs with Warner reached his fifty Ravindra Jadeja (19 not out) with an edge off Kaushik. when Lions were gasping at
Nadal pull-out stuns French Open but show goes on By Martyn Herman PARIS, France (Reuters) - Rafael Nadal went down fighting on his favourite battleground a year ago but this time his quest for an unprecedented 10th French Open title ended sitting glumly in front of a microphone. With third-round action in full swing out on the Roland Garros claycourts, Nadal dropped a bombshell midway through a sunny afternoon when he announced he was withdrawing because of an injury to his left wrist. For one of the game's fiercest fighters, it was a lame way to go -- especially after he had dropped only nine games in reaching the third round where he had been due to play compatriot Marcel Granollers today The Spaniard's hastily convened news conference which caught everyone on the hop cast a pall over the tournament, especially after 17-time grand slam champion and 2009 French winner Roger Federer withdrew last week due to a back injury. There was still some notable action yesterday, however, as seeded players began
colliding. Men's defending champion Stan Wawrinka eased into the last 16, by beating Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-3, 7-5, second seed Andy Murray defused Ivo Karlovic's rocket serve and home favourite Richard Gasquet had fans on Philippe Chatrier Court drooling as he took out Australian maverick Nick Kyrgios. Agnieszka Radwanska, the women's second seed, and Spain's fourth seed Garbine Muguruza also advanced in the sunshine, as did Australian Sam Stosur who beat 2015 runner-up Lucie Safarova to set up a match with another former finalist Simona Halep. Ordinarily, 10th seed and twice Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova's shock 6-0, 6-7(3), 6-0 defeat by 108thranked American Shelby Rogers would have reverberated. But everything was overshadowed by Nadal's wrist. Explaining the problem, he said an injury that first flared up in Madrid a few weeks ago had returned with a vengeance and that soldiering on could risk snapping a tendon.
"I'm here to announce that I have to retire from the tournament because I have a problem in my wrist that I have had a couple of weeks," Nadal, 30 next week, told a room packed with nonplussed reporters. "Yesterday evening I started to feel more and more pain and today I felt I could
Rafael Nadal not move my wrist. "To win the title I need five more matches. The doctor says that's 100 percent impossible." FORM STRUGGLE Fourth seed Nadal, beaten only twice in 74 matches at the French Open since taking the place by storm in 2005, had looked primed to
reclaim his throne after losing to Djokovic in last year's quarter-finals when he was struggling for form. That his attempt failed because of injury made it all the more disappointing. "Nine times in my career I have been able to be healthy here and to win this tournament, now is a tough moment, but is not the end," said Nadal, who pulled out of Wimbledon in 2009 and the London 2012 Olympics with well-chronicled knee injuries. "Life goes on. The world isn't going to stop," he added. Tournament director Guy Forget expressed his sadness at Nadal's misfortune. "It's his favourite tournament and the most important one, and for him to actually withdraw, we know it's a very painful decision," Forget told reporters. "He was going to play probably Novak (Djokovic) in the semi-finals, so one of those two was going to be in the finals. It opens up the draw for some players." After the initial bad weather in Paris, lack-lustre exits by women's seeds and the absence of marquee players, things are beginning to hot up.
83 for five after being invited to bat on a decent batting track at Feroze Shah Kotla ground. Finch scored runs when Lions found the going tough, with Sunrisers bowlers taking wickets intermittently, never allowing Gujarat to get the momentum. Finch, who enjoyed one life, took 32 balls for his 50-run knock that had seven fours and two sixes. Brendon McCullum contributed a 29ball 32 while Dwayne Bravo played a useful 20-run cameo towards the end. Sunrisers bowlers did a superb job but they missed Mustafizur Rahman, who sat out due to a niggle, in the death overs. His replacement Trent Boult was clearly rusty, bowling a lot of full tosses. The Kiwi conceded 39 runs in his four overs. Warner smartly used his bowlers, who had control over the proceedings for the most part of the contest. Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave away 27 runs in four overs and took two wickets while Ben Cutting also scalped two batsmen for 20 runs. Eklavya Dwivedi (5), who had hit some lusty blows in Qualifier 1 while batting down the order, was promoted to open today but he could not do much, getting dismissed in the first over off Bhuvneshwar. Boult, who played in place of Rahman, soon made his presence felt by trapping rival captain Suresh Raina, who played across and was caught in front of the wicket. As expected, the Sunrisers pacers had made an impact in
the Powerplay overs, conceding only 38 runs but the good thing for the Lions was that McCullum was still there. The Kiwi batsman looked in good touch and easily dispatched a few bad balls to the boundary ropes. Dinesh Karthik (26) also looked solid and managed to stabilise the innings. They did not dominate the bowling but ensured that Lions had a platform where they could go for the kill. Bipul Sharma created a chance to break the partnership but Cutting mis-timed the jump to take the catch offered by Karthik. Worse, the ball went for a six after slipping through the hands of the fielder. However, Karthik could not cash on the life and was run-out needlessly after a miscommunication with McCullum. Finch pressed the accelerator pedal straightaway, hitting Barinder Sran for a four and a six after his side was 67 for three at the halfway mark. Bipul created another chance off his bowling but this time Sran dropped Finch. However, the left-arm spinner finally got the wicket when McCullum hit one straight to Bhuvneshwar two balls later. Cutting added to the Lions’ misery by removing Smith who cut straight to Shikhar Dhawan. The Lions were at this point reeling at 83 for five in 13 overs. Lions never found the scoring easy but thanks to Finch, Jadeja and Bravo they had something to fight for. (Press Trust of India)
GCB regrets the passing of Umpire Sukhdeo THE executives and staff of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) have learnt with great sadness of the passing of Guyana and regional umpire Gayananad Sukhdeo on Tuesday. The GCB in a release yesterday said the Board extends condolences to his family, friends, umpires and the entire cricket fraternity. According to the GCB, the late Sookram was always a pleasant individual, ready to assist anyone in whatever way he can. His demise is a great loss to the members of the sub-associations across Guyana, the players and officials. Sukhdeo has given loyal service to the game of cricket and through his quality of his work, earned the respect of players and spectators at the local, national, and regional levels. He was part of the junior panel of umpires for the WICB since 2011 and did duties for the Under-15, Under-17 and Under-19 tournaments. He was also a standby umpire in the WICB PCL 4-Day competition. Losing a loved one is never easy; our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time. We share their pain and grief. May his soul rest in peace!