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A preview of the match between Pune Warriors and Royal Challengers Bangalore

The Preview by Rachna Shetty01-May-2013Match factsMay 2, 2013
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Big pictureGiven their current form, Pune Warriors will be desperately hoping their match against Royal Challengers Bangalore isn’t a repeat of the carnage that took place in Bangalore a little over a week ago.Since that match, Royal Challengers have lost consecutive away games but still are favourites going into this encounter. While it’s easy to pin the losses on Chris Gayle’s poor scores, the other batsmen haven’t really had a substantial stay at the crease. They need this win to correct their dismal away record this season (four losses in four games) and get closer to sealing their playoff spot. Royal Challengers will need to be wary of Warriors, given that the tournament is almost over for the hosts and they will be looking to upset the chances of the bigger teams.Inconsistent batting has dragged Warriors down this season and they seem like a team pulling in different directions. The failure of Indian batsmen, especially Robin Uthappa and Yuvraj Singh, has been damaging for them. Death bowling is another area where Warriors have suffered – in their last two matches, against Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Daredevils, Warriors conceded 62 and 63 runs respectively in the last five.Yuvraj Singh’s struggle with fitness and his lack of form have hampered Pune Warriors•BCCIForm guidePune Warriors LLLLL (Most recent first)
Royal Challengers Bangalore LLWWWWatch out for..After having spent most of the season on the bench and an insipid first game against Daredevils, Kane Richardson got a chance to showcase the skills that earned him $700,000 at the auction earlier this year. He took the big wicket of Michael Hussey with one that left the batsman after pitching, and also generated pace. He contributed with the bat, helping Warriors to a face-saving total after their line-up imploded.After a string of good scores early on, Virat Kohli has suffered a slight dip in form. His last four innings have produced 45 runs. The focus in the last few days has remained on the Wankhede crowd controversy and the four away losses, but this match is a chance for the captain to get the team back on track.Stats and trivia Royal Challengers have an away win-loss ratio of 0.83 (15 victories in 34 games), which is fifth among all teams. Mumbai Indians are on the top with a win-loss ratio of 1.43 (23 victories in 40 games). Rahul Sharma’s duck – his eighth – in the last match has put him level with three other batsmen in the list of most ducks in the IPL. Virat Kohli needs 10 fours to become the eighth batsman to score 200 fours in the IPL.Quotes”The boys are a good bunch and keep motivating themselves. But then I think we are not clicking together.”

After a defeat as dramatic as the one South Africa suffered, identifying positives is like looking for stars in a murky sky shrouded by clouds. It’s not a fruitless endeavour because if you spot one it may lighten more than just the velvet overhead, but it is a tough one because there are so few.Faf du Plessis found one. “Probably the only thing was AB [de Villiers],” he said. “We would expect AB to work anywhere in a line-up because he has got the skill to attack the bowlers but it was good to see him for well in the opening position. That was the one thing that worked for us today.”Having found the one bright spot, which he was asked to do early in his press engagement, du Plessis was more than ready to front up to South Africa’s failings. To blanket them as everything other than de Villiers’ 36 would be too simplistic.It was a combination of being outplayed by two individuals, inexperience, poor bowling and panicking with bat in hand that conspired to bring South Africa down. The last of those is something they have been through before and even though this time they were skittled out for their lowest T20 total, it was the area du Plessis gave the least attention to.”We know that the shorter the version of the game, the more one individual can win it,” he said. “With Umar Gul, it was just a case of us trying to win the game and going hard at the run rate upfront. I think it was definitely [Mohammad] Hafeez’s 86 that changed the game for them.”When a team posts close to 200, you know it is going to take something very special from your batsmen. One guy is going to have to score close to 100 for you to be in contention to win.” Collectively, South Africa only managed that. Their last nine wickets managed about half of it.Before the Powerplay had ended, South Africa knew they had lost the match. Focusing on that would not give proper attention to where they were actually defeated and du Plessis believed that was on the field. “There was a time when I thought we were giving Hafeez too many options and he was scoring on both sides of the wicket.”He was also finding space easily with South Africa’s fielders unable to cover enough ground and the bowlers offering lengths that allowed Hafeez to pick his spot.Bar Lonwabo Tsotsobe’s first two overs and the occasional good ball from Rory Kleinveldt, the seamers lacked variety and used the slower ball too infrequently, instead hoping their usual approach would work. Du Plessis hopes they have realised it does not. “The bowlers need to practice different varieties. The days of bowling back of a length to a team in South Africa are gone now,” he said.With a pitch du Plessis said was “basically a road,” the gap between the teams was narrowed. The conclusion he made was that, in neutral conditions and in the shorter format, “Pakistan’s skill is better than ours.”He has with him a young squad who do not often play as a unit. They lack cohesion and the spunk to make up for it. Du Plessis believes the only way it will change is by playing more and being open-minded. “We would like to play more T20 cricket to learn and improve, especially improving our skills. Batsman need to have more variety in shots, bowlers need to bowl more slower balls.”The main focus is on the World T20 in Bangladesh in 2014 and those tactics will be needed there. South Africa will also need a strong spin contingent, something they obviously lacked today. Robin Peterson and Justin Ontong gave away 58 runs in their overs to negate themselves as viable options for du Plessis to turn to. “Our spin department will admit their four overs were not good. There were too many bad balls,” he said.With neither the seamers nor the slower bowlers able to tie things up, du Plessis found it a difficult day to be a leader. “The pressure of T20 cricket is more than any other cricket because things happen so fast,” he said. “I just tried to keep everybody calm.”South Africa’s next T20 match is in July when they tour Sri Lanka for a limited-overs visit. The sporadic nature of fixtures makes it difficult for du Plessis to have as much time with his team as he would like.He can only hope experiences in the domestic competition, which is on-going, and at leagues like the IPL will help their development before they reconvene. “My game improved hugely after the IPL just because I was playing more cricket. The more you play, the better you get,” he said. It’s a thought that may lessen the acidity of a loss that left South Africa’s limited-overs approach exposed, again.

He has batted in 191 innings for Royal Challengers Bangalore, scoring 6076 runs at an average of 37.97 and strike rate of 130.41

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Sep-20215:06

Steyn: Maybe Kohli wants to focus more on his batting

Virat Kohli, the Royal Challengers Bangalore batter and current captain, is set to become the first player in IPL history to feature in 200 matches for a single franchise, when his team takes on Kolkata Knight Riders in Abu Dhabi on Monday night.Kohli, who has been with Royal Challengers ever since the inception of the tournament in 2008, has batted in 191 innings, scoring 6076 runs at an average of 37.97 and strike rate of 130.41. He has struck five centuries and 40 fifties during that time, helping Royal Challengers reach the IPL finals in 2009, 2011 and 2016.Kohli is set to reach the 200-match landmark a day after he announced that he would be stepping down as Royal Challengers’ captain at the end of the season, though he pledged to be with the franchise “until my retirement from the game of cricket”.Related

• Kohli to step down as RCB captain after IPL 2021

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Kohli is ahead by a decent distance for most matches played at a single franchise; MS Dhoni is second on the list with 182 matches for the Chennai Super Kings, while his team-mate Suresh Raina is third, having played 172 matches. Overall, Kohli, at 199, is fifth on the list of most IPL matches played, behind Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, and Raina.Kohli first led the side in 2011, during a league match against the Rajasthan Royals, but became the team’s full-time captain only in 2013.His standout season came in 2016, as Kohli ended as the league’s top run-getter, scoring 973 runs from 16 matches, including four tons and seven half-centuries.”Congratulations, Virat . Reaching 200 matches is an outstanding achievement, and shows loyalty and commitment,” Mike Hesson, Royal Challengers’ head coach, said in a message to Kohli posted by the team’s social media on Twitter. “I’m immensely proud. You always play for the team, and are selfless in the way you operate. You are always encouraging and have created a great atmosphere. I love your enthusiasm and willingness to compete and win games for us.”Sanjay Bangar, Royal Challengers’ batting consultant, also praised Kohli for sticking with the franchise throughout the IPL, when he could have easily been tempted to move to another team.”More than the number of games, he has shown various qualities by being with Royal Challengers,” Bangar said. “As he continued to conquer various frontiers across the globe, he might have had opportunities to move to other franchises. But he stuck with us. In today’s fast-food generation, he set out to give a lesson for the youngsters who want to change teams very quickly. I’m so glad that he continues to play with the same zeal and enthusiasm that he had as a youngster, even today. We hope to see him continue playing for Royal Challengers for at least 350-400 games.”

Sandeep Patil’s selection panel is set to reveal their plans for India’s revival in Test cricket when they pick the team for the first of the four Tests against England

Amol Karhadkar04-Nov-2012

Sandeep Patil’s selection panel is set to reveal their plans for reviving India’s Test fortunes on Monday when they pick the team for the first of the four Tests against England, starting in Ahmedabad on November 15.Though the five new selectors met in Chennai on October 24 to pick the India A squad for last week’s tour opener in what was their first formal selection meet, this will be the first time they will announce a Test squad after taking over from Kris Srikkanth’s panel at the beginning of last month.Despite Patil’s belligerence on the field during his playing days, he is unlikely to make any drastic changes to the squad that featured in the two-Test series against New Zealand in August-September. The selectors are likely to first get their eye in before starting to play the big shots, especially if there are no fitness worries with the squad.As of now, there were minor concerns over two first-choice players. Virender Sehwag had a cut on his right index finger, which prompted him to move down to No. 6 for Delhi in their Ranji match against Uttar Pradesh, though he batted for an hour till stumps. The other worry is Zaheer Khan, who walked off mid-over in the final session of Mumbai’s match against Railways after seemingly indicating a problem with his groin.One big change from the squad for the New Zealand series is likely to be the widely expected recall of Yuvraj Singh after being on the sidelines for almost a year. He was diagnosed with a germ-cell cancer soon after he was dropped for the third Test against the West Indies in Mumbai in November last year. Since making his return to international cricket during the Twenty20 international against New Zealand and the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, Yuvraj has continued to take rapid strides towards a Test spot. His 208 for North Zone against Central Zone in the Duleep Trophy on his return to first-class cricket last month was followed up with a 59 and a five-for against England for India A at the Brabourne Stadium last week.As a result, one of the two reserve batsmen during the New Zealand Test series – Ajinkya Rahane and S Badrinath – is set to make way for Yuvraj from the squad that featured against New Zealand. With Rahane making a statement with a second-innings fifty against England and a big hundred against Railways in the Ranji opener, it could be the unlucky Badrinath who is excluded from the squad yet again.The other change will be in the spin department. Piyush Chawla, the Uttar Pradesh legspinner who was surprisingly brought in as the reserve spinner against New Zealand, is yet to recover from a thumb injury. As a result, don’t be surprised if Harbhajan Singh, who was recalled for the T20s against Kiwis without having done anything remarkable during his year-long hiatus from the national team, returns to the Test squad. Despite Harbhajan having gone wicketless in his 21 overs for Punjab against Hyderabad in Mohali, the selectors don’t have many options to look at as the third spinner, especially as Amit Mishra is far from his best at the start of the domestic season.

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O Corinthians vai ganhando cara para o confronto do próximo domingo contra o Internacional na Arena, válido pela 26ª rodada do Campeonato Brasileiro. Nesta quinta-feira, o técnico Jair Ventura repetiu a formação que já havia utilizado no treino de quarta, sem a presença de um centroavante. Assim deve entrar em campo contra os gaúchos.

Em treino tático no CT Joaquim Grava, Jair formou o Corinthians com a seguinte escalação: Cássio, Fagner, Léo Santos, Henrique e Danilo Avelar; Gabriel e Douglas; Romero, Mateus Vital, Clayson e Jadson.

Com relação ao time que venceu o Sport no domingo são três mudanças. Recuperado de lesão na coxa esquerda, Fagner volta a ser titular, na vaga que foi ocupada pelo volante Paulo Roberto. No meio, Gabriel entra na vaga de Ralf, suspenso, e Mateus Vital desbanca Roger. O meia tem atuado pelas beiradas, enquanto Jadson está mais centralizado à frente, com menos obrigação de marcar.

Jair Ventura ainda tem mais dois dias para armar o Corinthians, com treinos nesta sexta e sábado pela manhã. No entanto, a escalação está se desenhando. O Corinthians ocupa a 8ª colocação do Campeonato Brasileiro com 33 pontos, nove a menos do que o Atlético-MG, primeiro da zona de classificação para a Libertadores.

continua após a publicidadeRelacionadasCorinthiansLoss ficará afastado do Corinthians para realizar curso na EuropaCorinthians18/09/2018CorinthiansCorinthians fará treino aberto antes de semifinal da Copa do BrasilCorinthians18/09/2018CorinthiansApós polêmicas, Corinthians não veta política a atletas, mas faz ressalvaCorinthians20/09/2018

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CorinthiansJair Ventura

MatériaMais Notícias

MatériaMais Notícias

Na tarde deste domingo, o Flamengo goleou o Sport no Maracanã por 4 a 1 e seguiu como líder do Brasileirão. Feliz com a bela exibição da equipe, Mauricio Barbieri disse que a conversa no intervalo foi tranquila e aproveitou para falar sobre as próximas partidas:

– A conversa no intervalo foi tranquila, tínhamos feito um bom primeiro tempo. A conversa foi pra manter a serenidade e continuar trabalhando.Estamos nos preparando para essa maratona de agosto, sabemos da dificuldade. As mudanças ocorrem naturalmente, vamos vendo jogo a jogo, não temos nenhuma mudança programada pra quarta, vamos analisar a questão física dos atletas no meio da semana. – explicou o treinador.

Na partida desta tarde, Mauricio voltou com Marlos Moreno no time titular, como já era previsto, mas surpreendeu a todos quando optou por começar com Fernando Uribe no ataque no lugar de Paolo Guerrero. Perguntado sobre a situação do peruano, Barbieri disse que a opção foi por questão física e que o atleta segue focado no Flamengo:

– A questão de Guerrero no banco foi para preservá-lo, vinha de três jogos consecutivos, ele quer contribuir mais, fazer gols, está incomodado com isso. A questão da renovação está sendo tratada diretamente com a diretoria, mas para o time ele tem se doado bastante, quer sempre ajudar – finalizou o comandante do Flamengo.

RelacionadasFlamengoATUAÇÕES: Trio se destaca no Fla em goleada contra o SportFlamengo29/07/2018BrasileirãoNúmeros da Bola: Estatísticas de Flamengo 4×1 SportBrasileirão29/07/2018Flamengo#SonhodeMoleque: Vitinho vai ao Maracanã e é apresentado à NaçãoFlamengo29/07/2018

تحدث أسامة نبيه مدرب فريق الكرة الأول بنادي الزمالك، عن الهزيمة التي تعرض لها فريقه على يد فاركو في خضم منافسات الدوري المصري الممتاز بثلاثية دون رد.

وقال نبيه في المؤتمر الصحفي الذي عقد عقب المباراة: “هذه هي كرة القدم وهذه ظروفها، 3 أخطاء بثلاثة أهداف”.

فيديو | فاركو يقسو على الزمالك بثلاثية نظيفة في الدوري المصري

وأضاف: “بعد المباراة الماضية قلت إن الزمالك سيعاني في الفترة المقبلة، لأننا سنلعب كل 3 أيام مباراة، وسنواجه شباب بلوزداد بعد ذلك بيومين وسنواجه سموحة، ثم سنواجه المريخ”.

وتساءل: “لمصلحة من يتم التضييق علينا وعدم قيد اللاعبين الجدد؟، هناك ضغط نفسي على لاعبي الزمالك والإدارة، أرى أن هناك شيء يسير في إتجاه معين ضد الزمالك، وبهذه الطريقة الزمالك لن يستطع أن يستمر في الدوري بشكل تنافسي”.

وأردف: “في دوري الموسم الماضي كانت الأمور تسير بشكل جيد، لكن هذا الموسم هناك تعنت غريب ضد الزمالك، وأسبابًا ستجعل النادي يُعاني هذا الموسم على المستوى المحلي والإفريقي، لمصلحة من كل هذا؟”.

وتابع: “أنا أمثل البلد لأنني بطل الدوري، ويجب أن أمثل البلد بشكل جيد، وهذا لن يتحقق إلا بتدعيم الفريق وإلا فلن نلعب الدوري”.

مرتضى منصور يهدد بانسحاب الزمالك من الدوري المصري بعد الخسارة أمام فاركو

وواصل: “لابد أن يكون هناك وقفة ونعرف هل اللاعبين الجدد سيتم قيدهم أم لا؟، لأنهم إذا لم يتم قيدهم لن ننظر لبطولة الدوري”.

وأتم: “دكة البدلاء لا يوجد بها لاعبين.. وقوام الفريق لا يسمح بالمنافسة على شيء”.

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly has slammed the team’s preparations for the high-profile England tour, saying the amount of cricket being played cannot be used as an excuse for their poor show in the first two Tests. His comments came shortly after MS Dhoni had suggested that the start of the tour less than a week after three back-to-back Tests in the Caribbean had affected India’s performance.”I’m too fed up hearing this “time to recover” [excuse] – don’t play for India then, you know this is what it is, you have to come back and play a Test series,” Ganguly told Indian news channel . “And it was an important Test series, it was a marquee Test series to decide who was the No. 1 Test side in the world and you cannot say that. Okay you’ve lost and you haven’t played well, the matter ends there, just accept that and move on.”India’s No. 1 ranking is now in jeopardy after two thumping defeats to England, who now only need to draw the remaining Tests to take the top spot. Ganguly urged the Indian players to move on from the demoralising two weeks.”You have to put it behind … You are 28, 29, 30, you won’t get to play for India all your life. Make the most when you get it, once it goes, you won’t get it back, even how much you want it.”Ganguly also lashed out at India’s “soft cricket” and the long-standing failings against the bouncer, singling out the younger batsmen who are yet to cement their place. “The number of batsmen who got out to the short deliveries today was appalling,” he said. “Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Abhinav Mukund – it was an opportunity for them to establish themselves, Raina and Yuvraj are fighting for a place in the Test squad to get that No. 6 slot which is still vacant for a long long time now.”At Trent Bridge, Gautam Gambhir’s absence due to injury disrupted India’s batting order, pushing Rahul Dravid to the opening spot and VVS Laxman to No. 3 – a position Ganguly felt Laxman was unsuited for in seaming conditions. “Laxman is comfortable against the bouncing ball because that’s his technique, he hangs back. But the moment the ball starts swinging, he doesn’t get on the front foot. He should be batting five or six.”He also questioned the absence of a back-up opener in the squad, especially after Virender Sehwag was ruled out of the first two Tests. “You must remember – every time you travel abroad, you have to carry three openers. They knew Sehwag was injured, and you needed to carry some, what’s wrong with Wasim Jaffer? What wrong has that kid done?”Another source of disappointment for Ganguly was the batting of the Indian tail-enders. While India’s final four wickets contributed only 118 runs in the two innings at Trent Bridge – most of those runs coming too late to impact the course of the game – England’s tail put on 338. “You look at [Stuart] Broad, [Tim] Bresnan, [Graeme] Swann they had put a price on their wicket; but that was not the case with Praveen Kumar, Sreesanth, even Harbhajan Singh until he did in the second innings,” he said. “Rahul Dravid was stuck with them in the first innings and they kept falling like nine pins. In the second innings, we saw today Sachin Tendulkar was batting and they kept getting out.”The series and the No. 1 ranking are still not lost for India, and they will be boosted by the return of Gambhir for the third Test, and two other key players – Sehwag and Zaheer Khan – could also be back. “India need to quickly recover from this; they have a Test match in Birmingham in a week’s time, and have a lot of issues to settle.”

The short boundaries in Indore proved to be bad masters for Rajasthan Royals

The Bulletin by Sidharth Monga15-May-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Shane Warne is bowled by fellow Victorian Brad Hodge•AFP

The short boundaries in Indore proved to be bad masters for Rajasthan Royals. The small playing field seemed to be playing on their minds as batsman after batsman in the middle order perished to reckless strokes. Brad Hodge was at the receiving end of those gifts, ending up with a career-best 4 for 13, but it was perhaps a tight first spell from Sreesanth – three overs for 15 runs and the wickets of Rahul Dravid and Ajinkya Rahane – that set the desperation in. Kochi chased the paltry 98 in style, giving their net run-rate a boost too.Coming into the game, both the teams had an outside chance of making it to the play-offs, but Rajasthan didn’t seem too optimistic on that front. They knew the remoteness of the outside chance, and took the opportunity to make six changes to their side. Rajasthan now stand knocked out, and Kochi, with 12 points from 13 games, need to win their last game and need Kolkata and Punjab to lose theirs.None of Rajasthan’s experiments worked. RP Singh and Sreesanth offered no freebies. Faiz Fazal was caught plumb in front by a full toss before Sreesanth got Dravid with a nice outswinger. Rahane followed up a flick from wide outside off to mid-on with a shuffle too far across, making it 26 for 3 in 5.2 overs.Rajasthan didn’t look to rebuild; they knew they would need a substantial total here. Ashok Menaria began with a six off Sreesanth, Shane Watson with three off debutant left-arm spinner P Prashanth. At 56 for 3 after eight, it seemed like Rajasthan were on their way back, but Watson played all around a full delivery from Prasanth Parameswaran.Now began the Hodge show. He kept tossing the ball up, the Rajasthan batsmen kept trying to hit the ball into the jungles of Madhya Pradesh. All of Hodge’s four victims thought they could hit him for sixes; they could not have been more wrong. Pinal Shah managed to go as far as long-on, Jacob Oram failed to even get a touch, Shane Warne dragged one slog-sweep on, and Menaria found long-off. When Menaria fell, Rajasthan had slumped to 89 for 9 in the 16th over, and they were not going to get many more.Brendon McCullum came out obsessed with improving his team’s net run-rate, charging at Shaun Tait first ball. Tait didn’t do himself any favours, bowling two no-balls in the first over. One of them – when he cut the side crease – had bowled McCullum. After hitting Tait for a four and six in the first over, McCullum proceeded to treat Oram as a club bowler, nonchalantly flicking him for three straight sixes. When MCullum fell for a 12-ball 29, it was important for Kochi to keep scoring fast. Hodge and Parthiv Patel didn’t disappoint, ending the chase in 7.2 overs. It was the second-biggest win in terms of balls remaining in IPLs and the fourth-biggest in all Twenty20 matches.