Kolkata: Mumbai Indians set their date with Chennai Super Kings on Sunday's IPL 6 final after beating Rajasthan Royals by four wickets in the second Qualifier at the Eden Gardens on Friday. Following a stellar performance in the field by Harbhajan Singh (3 for 23), Mumbai were steered towards victory by Dwayne Smith before a collapse of 4 for 16 changed the tone of the chase. In the end, Mumbai held their nerve to win with one delivery emaining, leaving Rajasthan to rue a very poor fielding effort.
After unseasonal showers in Kolkata delayed the start of the match by an hour, Rahul Dravid opted to bat and played a role in giving Rajasthan a start. Dravid packed punch into his crisply-timed strokes, especially to the leg side, and even engaged in a verbal joust with Mitchell Johnson who he drove past mid-off and clipped off the pads effortlessly. Rahane too played a couple lovely shots during his 21, the pick of the lot being a perfect cut for four off Johnson.
An opening stand of 44 ended in Harbhajan's first over - the seventh - when Rahane missed a sweep and was bowled around the legs. In his second over, Harbhajan had Shane Watson (6) caught at midwicket as a top-edged sweep failed to find distance. From 60 for 1 Rajasthan slipped to 108 for 6 as Mumbai applied the brakes. Sanju Samson (0) mistimed an on-side shot off Lasith Malinga and was taken by
12:45 AM, May 25, 2013
Dharamsala: We had often seen Adam Gilchrist massacring the opposition bowlers and taking some stunning catches behind the wickets, but on Saturday we saw him in a different 'Avatar'. Playing his last IPL match, Gilchrist not only bowled for only the second time in his 17-year long career, but also picked up his only wicket off the first ball. And the reaction after the dismissal said it all, with Gilchrist...
08:17 PM, May 18, 2013
New Delhi: Father of Rajasthan Royals' fast bowler S Sreesanth has pointed finger at India captain MS Dhoni and offspinner Harbhajan Singh for having plotted his son's arrest in the spot-fixing scandal that was unearthed by Delhi Police earlier on Thursday. Sreesanth, along with his two Rajasthan team-mates Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila, has been arrested on charges of spot-fixing in the ongoing edition of IPL 6 and have been...
01:01 PM, May 16, 2013
Mumbai: Chasing an uphill target of 171, Kolkata Knight Riders surrendered meekly to Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede stadium on Tuesday losing the tie by 65 runs to bow out of IPL 6 play-off race, effectively ending their title defence. With the tournament fast approaching its business end, it was must win match for Kolkata, but an opening stand of 93 runs between Sachin Tendulkar (48) and Dwayne Smith (47)...
11:39 PM, May 07, 2013
Mumbai: In was always going to need something dramatic to stop Chennai Super Kings' seven-match winning streak (the joint-best in the history of IPL) and Mumbai Indians benefited from an absolutely shambolic batting effort from the visitors to win by a humungous 60 runs at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. Victory ensured Mumbai remained in touch of the IPL 6 play-offs with the other three contenders, while CSK have two...
07:18 PM, May 05, 2013
In cricket it rarely happens that a player loved by public for playing for his country is booed when he represents a different franchise in a Twenty20 game. But Virat Kohli, who is the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore, was booed and called a 'cheater' after his side went down to Mumbai Indians on Saturday. Kohli, who was clearly flustered by the crowd's reaction, didn't like it a bit and...
09:07 AM, Apr 28, 2013
New Delhi: Mumbai Indians off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has said that the toughest challenge for him is to bowl to an unknown batsmen in Twenty20 cricket as not many are aware about their nature of play. "It is the toughest to bowl against batsmen who you do not have an idea about. You do not know their style of play and what kind of strokes they play to score their runs,...
02:23 PM, Apr 18, 2013
New Delhi:Paceman S Sreesanth has been warned by the BCCI for raking up the 2008 'Slapgate' issue through a social networking website. The Rajasthan Royals paceman has been told that if he repeats it again, he will be issued a show cause notice, according to an IPL source. Sreesanth made revelation through his tweets that Harbhajan Singh was a backstabber and that the spinner had not slapped him as had...
05:18 PM, Apr 14, 2013
New Delhi: Claiming that he has got the only copy of 'slapgate' video, former IPL Chairman Lalit Modi on Friday claimed that the BCCI had not made the footage of the incident public on the suggestion of vice-president Arun Jaitley and said he would now consider releasing it. "The idea of not releasing the vid in public was Arun Jaitley's at that time. We accepted wht he said. But let...
10:36 PM, Apr 12, 2013
New Delhi: Justice (retd) Sudhir Nanavati, who headed the slapgate inquiry between Harbhajan Singh and S Sreesanth during one of the games of the inaugural edition of the IPL, on Friday said that there was no provocation from Sreesanth's part and the Kerala pacer was indeed slapped by Harbhajan. In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN, Nanavati said that Harbhajan did slap Sreesanth and the security prevented him repeating that for...
02:49 PM, Apr 12, 2013
Kolkata: Former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly on Saturday hoped that Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan would be able to make a comeback to the Indian team in future despite being left out of the list of probables for upcoming ICC Champions Trophy. "We have to wait and see, that doesn't stop them from coming back. Lets not jump the gun, they are good players and good things...
10:26 PM, Apr 06, 2013
Ricky Ponting says that he's very keen to put his best foot forward both as skipper and player for Mumbai Indians in the IPL 6. ...
06:30 PM, Mar 31, 2013
This is how Harbhajan Singh looks in his film 'Bha Ji In Problem'. ...
03:11 PM, Mar 16, 2013
Sehwag has been dropped after scoring 27 runs in three innings against Australia, paving the way for one of Shikhar Dhawan or Ajinkya Rahane in the remaining two Tests. ...
12:44 PM, Mar 07, 2013
Former national selector Raja Venkat feels the squad for the last two Tests against Australia should be picked keeping the South Africa tour in mind. ...
10:47 AM, Mar 07, 2013
Following the success of Ashwin and Jadeja in consecutive Tests, and India's apparent faith in Harbhajan, the left-arm spinner's future looks uncertain. ...
08:09 AM, Mar 06, 2013
But the leader of India's spin attack went into defensive when asked about the possible bowling combination for the second Test. ...
02:46 PM, Mar 01, 2013
India may toy with the idea of replacing Bhuvneshwar Kumar with Pragyan Ojha and go with the four spinners in the second Test in Hyderabad. ...
12:08 PM, Mar 01, 2013
The hindsight to India's comprehensive win in the Chennai Test last week is that just one bowler and two batsmen touched the international performance bar, and had R Ashwin not recorded his career best match haul of 12 wickets, India could have struggled to bowl out Australia twice. ...
10:12 AM, Feb 28, 2013
The difference between the two offspinners' success with the ball in the recent Chennai Test owed to a divergence in approach, feels the former India opener. ...
02:34 PM, Feb 27, 2013
