Dhoni apologises to Indian fans, promises to fire again

Indian captain MS Dhoni apologised to Indian cricket fans after crashing out of the ICC Twenty20 championship on Sunday but rejected suggestions that exhaustion from playing too many games caused the failure of his top batsmen.

“We are sorry for what happened but we can say we gave our best,” Dhoni told a news conference after losing to England by three wickets before thousands of Indian supporters at Lord’s cricket ground in London.

“We had experienced guys who can handle the pressure. It was a day when nothing much worked for us.”

“India is an emotional country,” Dhoni said, adding: “We are more disappointed than them (Indian fans).”

But Dhoni denied repeated suggestions at the press conference that Indian players were exhausted from playing too many matches in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

“You can’t blame it on tiredness. It’s not an excuse,” the Indian skipper said, adding playing more matches was better for players.

“It is a demanding format because you play at different venues. It’s not like you play three or four games at the same point,” he said.

“If you see me and say he’s not giving his hundred per cent then hold me responsible. Performance is a different matter.”

“We didn’t really perform well as a team.”

Dhoni, however, admitted that he was failing to fire his guns while batting, having scored only three boundaries and not a single six in a knock of 30 on Sunday that was relatively sedate by his explosive standards.

“I’m not comfortably clearing the park – that’s for sure. I’m working hard on it, and hopefully I’ll be back with hitting sixes.”

Dhoni said he elected to field after winning the toss because the wicket plays “a bit better” under the lights.

He gave credit to England’s battery of pace bowlers, who fired a steady stream of short-pitched shoulder-high balls at the Indian batsmen, working to a game plan.

“Their bowlers started well. They were aggressive and used the bouncer and the short ball well,” Dhoni said.

“They bowled the bouncer really well. They used the short balls and mixed them with slower bouncers. There are quite a few lessons to be learnt from this, hopefully during the time we have off from here, we can really look to work on this area.”

“The run rate climbed and the timing of the wickets was crucial. We failed with the bat. There is no excuse.”

He said the decision to promote Ravindra Jadeja in the batting order was taken to help stabilisze the Indian innings.

“Yuvraj could have gone in higher but we expected Jadeja to play for a few overs and stabilize the innings for us.

“It was unfortunate that Yuvraj was out that way (by stumping). It was one of those days.”

“We lost wickets at unfortunate times. If the opposition score 153 runs and you are not able to score them there is no excuse.

“If the run-rate was close to nine or 10 an over I thought we could achieve that but the timing of wickets was crucial and the run-rate really climbed on us.”

However, Dhoni promised India will bounce back at the next Twenty20 World Cup in the Caribbean.

“We lost in the 2007 World Cup and we lost in 50 overs, that was the worst part of my career. This loss is disappointing but still I don’t think it comes near to the loss we had in the 50-over World Cup.

“We were never really up to the mark but in nine months’ time there will be another World Cup and that is the only good thing we can say now.

“We’ll try to do well.”

“Cricket never tests your character when you are doing really well. It tests you when you are not doing well. I think this is a testing time for us but it’s not the end of the road.”

Asked if injured opener Virender Sehwag’s absence had an impact on India’s performance, Dhoni said: “He is the sort of player you can’t really replace – we missed him. When he starts off the bowler is under pressure. He’s a great player to have in your side.”

He said Sehwag’s replacement Rohit Sharma “did the job in percentage terms”.

Tendulkar is the only Asian Bradman: Salahuddin

Former Pakistan Test player and chief selector, Salahuddin Ahmed said Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar only deserves the title of Asian ‘Bradman’ and no one else can match up to his charisma.

“People talk about so and so is or was the Asian Bradman but to my mind there is no doubt this title only belongs to Sachin Tendulkar. The rest are like made in Taiwan,” Salahuddin told PTI.

Pakistan’s former captain and batsman, Zaheer Abbas has been given the sobriquet of Asian Bradman a number of times but Salahuddin feels nobody can measure up to the feats of the little master.

“I don’t think anyone can match his (Tendulkar) feats. He has just matured and mellowed over the years and become stronger and better,” he said.

Salahuddin also heaped praise on Yuvraj Singh and compared the Indian left-hander with legendary Sir Gary Sobers for his brilliant display in the ongoing Twenty20 World Cup in England.

Salahuddin who has remained on the national selection committee for a record 12 times, twice as chief selector before he resigned last year, said he was highly impressed with Yuvraj’s batting pyrotechnics.

Kamran Khan reported for suspect action in IPL

Kamran Khan is playing for Rajasthan Royals of IPL, has been reported for suspect bowling action on Friday.

After the RR Vs CSK on Thursday, on-field umpires Rudi Koertzen and Gary Baxter felt Kamran had a suspect illegal bowling action on certain deliveries. Matter has now been referred to the team management of the RR and the IPL’s technical committee.

“I have officially received a copy of the match umpires report duly signed by all the three umpires and the video footage for the game at the Centurion,” IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi said.

I now await the report from the Technical Committee and will then decide on the future course of action,” Modi added.

MI beat KKR by 9 runs

Jean Paul Duminy is The Man of the Match for his unbeaten 52.

Mumbai Indians beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 9 runs. Chasing a victory target of 149 runs, Kolkata managed 139/6 in their 20 overs, as Zaheer finished with 3/31.

Brad Hodge top scored for Kolkata with a magnificent 60-ball 73 Runs. Hodge was run out by a good throw from the deep by Duminy. Ganguly registered a golden duck.

This was the last match in this IPL for Gayle. After this he will be heading to England for a Test series.

Harbhajan Singh was sent in at number three, but Murali Kartik struck in his first over as he had Harbhajan(6) caught at deep mid-wicket by Dinda.

Mumabi have rested Dwayne Bravo and in comes Graham Napier and Shikhar Dhawan has been dropped for Ajinkya Rahane. Kolkata have not changed their playing XI from the last match.

Teams:

Mumbai Indians: Sachin Tendulkar (Capt.), Sanath Jayasuriya, Jean Paul Duminy, Abhishek Nayar, Ajinkya Rahane, Saurabh Tiwary, Pinal Shah, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Lasith Malinga, Graham Napier.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Brendon McCullum (Capt.), Chris Gayle, Sourav Ganguly, Brad Hodge, Morne van Wyk, Wriddhiman Saha, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Ajit Agarkar, Murali Kartik, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda.

Bangalore beat Punjab to win a thriller

DURBAN: The darling of Durban struck with the ball on Friday but in dramatic T20 fashion, there was to be a twist in the tale.

Yuvraj Singh may not have repeated his six-sixes feat here but he rolled his arm over to take a hat-trick, the first of IPL2, appearing to put Kings XI Punjab firmly in the driver’s seat against the Royal Challengers.

But he hadn’t accounted for wily veteran and new Royal Challengers skipper Anil Kumble, who took two for 25 to helped Vijay Mallya’s boys clinch a thrilling eight-run victory.

Kings XI needed 17 off the last two overs but Kumble, bowling the 19th, varied his pace beautifully to take the wicket of Kumar Sangakkara, who was threatening to win it for Preity Zinta’s team. He gave away only four runs and Praveen Kumar admirably rose to the occasion in the final over to help Royal Challengers post a much-needed win.

Kumble was brilliant in the way he led the team. He made the right bowling changes and was at the top of his own game. His opposite number, Yuvraj (50 off 34 balls), opening the batting, was also looking in fantastic touch but Kumble, after being hit for two sixes, removed the left-hander to bring the Royal Challengers back into the game.

Wickets then fell at regular intervals and once Praveen Kumar removed Irfan Pathan in the final over, it was all over for Kings XI.

Earlier, it was all going well for the Royal Challengers when Yuvraj turned it around in the last two balls of the 11th and the first ball of the 12th over as Royal Challengers struggled to 145. Uthappa tried to heave Yuvi to give a catch at the deep, Kallis couldn’t read the one that came in with the arm Boucher played for the turn to be caught in front.

Lalit Modi bats for IPL awards now

If one thought the Indian Premier League (IPL) was the only ace up Lalit Modi’s sleeve, you might have to think again. For, the man who’s

made Twenty20 a million-dollar enterprise is now planning dedicated IPL cricket awards on the lines of the ICC awards.

The proposed awards will be unveiled before the tournament gets underway in South Africa and will be held after the event.

It is reliably learnt that the proposed venue for the awards will be in London as celebrity owners think the destination offers a good marketing proposition as compared to any other location.

If things work according to plan, one could see Brendon McCullum shaking a leg with Shahrukh Khan, or Yuvraj doing the bhangra with Preity Zinta, on stage as cricket and Bollywood would come together to offer a new dose of masala entertainment.

The league, it is learnt, will be selling the media rights for this event separately. The broadcasting rights for the IPL are currently with Multi Screen Media (MSM), formerly Sony Entertainment Television.

When contacted, IPL chief executive Sundar Raman told ET that many ideas were being discussed. “Nothing has been frozen as the awards are just one of the ideas on the cards,” he said. On whether the event will be held in London, Mr Raman said: “We will reach that stage if we decide to do the awards.”

The rationale for London is that the city has a huge Indian diaspora. The awards are expected to have 40 categories that will include the best bowler, batsman and fielder.

It is believed that celebrity owners want the event to be held in London. “The owners want to make the awards an event that will have performances by cricketers as well as Bollywood stars. And given the huge Indian diaspora there, they think London is a good marketing proposition,” sources said.

Even as the blueprint for the awards is being outlined, sources familiar with the development said IPL is looking at separate sponsors for the event. The media rights of the event will not go to MSM. “They are keeping quiet about it now and the management has not gone out to find sponsors,” sources said.

The reason for this is believed to be on the lines of waiting till the venue is finalised and getting commitments from cricketers to attend the event. “The event will have the star cricketers attending it. Also, the T20 world cup begins after the IPL and the players will be needed for national duty. So, the management and the respective team owners are trying to get a commitment from them.”