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Ruturaj and Deshpande star as Chennai Super Kings hand Sunrisers Hyderabad a thumping
Call them conservative, but Chennai Super Kings successfully backed their method despite not being able to defend 210 in their previous home match against Lucknow Super Giants. The power-packed Sunrisers Hyderabad’s drought in Chennai – they have never beaten CSK at Chepauk – continued as they fell short comprehensively despite batting in dewy conditions.
The slowest team in the first two overs and the third-slowest in the powerplay, CSK looked like they were playing the same game again: lose the toss (their eighth lost toss in nine matches), lay a cautious platform, captain Ruturaj Gaikwad scoring around about a hundred, Shivam Dube pushing them over 200… But then it changed in the second innings. CSK must have figured they had got done in by excessive dew, a special innings from Marcus Stoinis and some ordinary fielding from themselves the other night, a combination of events that won’t be repeated every night.
On Sunday, it wasn’t repeated, after Tushar Deshpande rocked SRH with three wickets in the powerplay. Both Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma found the sweeper on the off side. The big win took CSK from sixth to third on the points table, tied on points with SRH and LSG. SRH were left with questions around their chasing methods: they have lost only one when defending but won only one when chasing. Their run rate when chasing falls three points from their 11.74 in the first innings, and the average comes down from nearly 40 to 23.
Conservative Super Kings
The CSK openers made only one boundary attempt in the first two overs, and then gradually pushed up, largely thanks to expert gap-finding by Gaikwad. The first eight overs brought CSK just 67 runs, out of which Gaikwad scored 44 off 25 with seven fours.
The middle-overs press
CSK went the first 10 overs of the last match without a six. Here, they hit the first at the start of the ninth over when Daryl Mitchell welcomed Pat Cummins to the bowling crease by off-driving a slower ball over mid-off. In the same over, Gaikwad repeated the dose to get to 51 off 27. CSK’s other end, including extras, had got just 31 off 27 till that point.
However, Mitchell joined the party now, and played a part in keeping CSK going even as Gaikwad managed just 10 off the next 10. In that period, Mitchell made his way to fifty off 29 before holing out to leave CSK at 126 for 3 in 13.3 overs.
The finish
Shivam Dube continued his exceptional season despite good defensive bowling from SRH. He ended up with 39 off 20, hitting four sixes and a four. Gaikwad found a second wind, taking 29 in 10 balls immediately after Mitchell’s dismissal. Towards the end, though, he was gassed and kept mis-hitting everything. The mis-hits kept falling safe, bringing down his strike rate. The 19th over, bowled by Jaydev Unadkat, brought no boundary.
MS Dhoni came out for a customary 5 off 2, and Dube ended with a huge six, but the question remained: had CSK done the right thing by playing in identical fashion to the other night?
The Deshpande blitz
Unlike CSK, Travis Head began with a boundary first ball and a six off the first ball of the next over. Abhishek Sharma matched him with a six off his own. Deshpande, though, came back with a wide slower ball, which Head could send only as far as the sweeper on the off side. Impact Player Anmolpreet Singh fell first ball with a leading edge to one that shaped away.
In his next over, Deshpande had Abhishek caught by the sweeper on the off side again. Abhishek and Head have not put up unbelievable numbers without taking fielders on, but they will be slightly disappointed they both found one of the only two men out.
The middle-overs squeeze
This is where CSK changed their fortunes as compared to the last match. LSG didn’t let the CSK spinners bowl in the last match, especially with the dew. Here Ravindra Jadeja got into his work. He conceded just one boundary in his four overs, bowled on the trot. He and Mustafizur Rahman managed to find just enough grip from the surface. A frustrated Nitish Reddy top-edged a short ball from Jadeja before Matheesha Pathirana broke the stump camera with a laser-guided middle-stump yorker to Aiden Markram.
CSK were right. There wasn’t to be a repeat of a special chase as they closed out efficiently for a 78-run win.
Brief scores:
Chennai Super Kings 212/3 in 20 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 98, Daryl Mitchell 52, Shivam Dube 39*; Bhuveneshwar Kumar 1-38, T Natarajan 1-43, Jaydev Unadkat 1-38) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 134 in 18.5 overs (Aiden Markram 32, Heinrich Klassen 20; Tushar Deshpande 4-27, Mustafizur Rahman 2-19, Ravindra Jadeja 1-22, Shardul Thakur 1-27, Matheesha Pathirana 2-17) by 78 runs.
(Cricinfo)
Ireland Women 118/9 in 20 overs (Alana Dalzelle 14, Orla Prendergast 26, Leah Paul 10, Alice Tector 10, Louise Little 26*; Lauren Bell 1-39, Linsey Smith 1-20, Sophie Ecclestone 3-22, Charlie Dean 2-11, Dani Gibson 2-10) lost to England Women 119/6 in 17.3 overs (Dani Wyatt Hodge 16, Nat Sciver-Brunt 48, Heather Knight 26; Aimee Maguire 2-23, Orla Prendergast 2-17) by 4 wickets
Lionel Messi marked his record sixth World Cup appearance with his first hat-trick at a FIFA tournament as Argentina beat Algeria 3-0 to open the defence of their global crown, he also became the joint highest scorer at World Cups with the feat.
The former 38-year-old forward thought he had opened the scoring in the eighth minute in Kansas City on Tuesday when he slotted home from close range, but the offside flag was raised.
The dream start to his record-setting appearance, which will be matched by Cristiano Ronaldo for Portugal against DR Congo on Wednesday, was not to be denied for long though.
A trademark, mazy run was capped by a drive on the edge of the box from that famed left foot. The power too much for Algeria keeper Luca Zidane, son of World Cup winner with France, Zinidine.
Messi doubled his tally on the hour mark with a simple tap in from a rebound off the keeper following a drive from Alexis Mac Allister.
The moment that even a player as decorated as Messi came in the 76th minute when he drilled low past the keeper from just outside the box.
The strike took Messi level with former Germany striker Miroslav Klose on 16 World Cup goals.
His substitution came just three minutes later to a standard ovation, even old maestro seemed disappointed to be removed – and most likely rested for Argentina’s tilt at becoming only the third side to defend a World Cup title.
Algeria – the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations winners – offered little, but were themselves denied an early goal when Fares Chaibi’s ninth minute strike was ruled out for offside.
Messi saw to it that there was no opening game upset to be had tat this edition, having lost their opening game at Qatar 2022 to Saudi Arabia.
Messi, who spent the majority of his club career in Spain with Barcelona before moving to French giants Paris-Saint Germain, plys his trade in US football’s Major League Soccer with Inter Miami.
Jordan and Austria open their account in the group later on Tuesday in San Francisco.
[Aljazeera]
United States sprinter Noah Lyles has set the world’s best-ever time over the rarely-run 150 metres race, clocking 14.67 seconds at the Golden Spike meet in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava.
The 28-year-old Lyles on Tuesday beat the previous best of 14.72 set by Kishane Thompson of Jamaica in Florida in April.
At Ostrava, Lyles beat Sinesipho Dambile of South Africa with 14.78, while Australian teenager Gout Gout finished third in 14.96.
“Was there ever any doubt? Was there ever any doubt? We came for a show,” an elated Lyles told Czech TV.
Earlier this month, Lyles took a comfortable win at the Wanda Diamond League meet in Rome with a 9.88 in the 100m, his fastest since clinching gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The high-energy, anime-loving showman has had strong indoor and outdoor performances throughout the year so far, and was named on this year’s Time100 list of the most influential people.
Dutch star Femke Broeders-Bol had to bow to in-form Swiss Audrey Werro in her outdoor debut in the 800m.
The 26-year-old Broeders-Bol has switched from 400m hurdles, in which she had won two world gold medals, and clocked an impressive 1 minute 57.13 seconds for second place.
“It was so cool, I love racing in Ostrava. It was tough, but I enjoyed it,” she said.
Broeders-Bol has also claimed multiple medals as the anchor leg in 4x400m relay teams, notably a gold in the mixed event in the Paris Olympics.
She ran her first 800m since 2017 in February, clocking a national record of 1 minute 59.07 seconds before withdrawing from the rest of the indoor season to nurse a foot injury.
The 22-year-old Werro won in 1 minute 54.45 seconds, half a second behind her personal best from March, after shedding Broeders-Bol with 200 metres to run.
“It was a really crazy run, but the time is very good, so I’m really happy,” Werro said.
Having set the eighth best time ever, she stayed over a second behind the oldest world record in athletics of 1:53.28 set in 1983 by Jarmila Kratochvilova of then-Czechoslovakia, who watched the race from the stands.
South Africa’s 20-year-old Bayanda Walaza won the men’s 100m as he equalled his personal best of 9.94 seconds, beating Emmanuel Eseme of Cameroon with 9.99 seconds.
US favourites Ronnie Baker and Jordan Anthony were demoted to the fourth and fifth spots, respectively, with times well over 10 seconds.
[Aljazeera]
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