Rohit scripts big Mumbai win

19Greater Kashmir SRINAGAR | April 14, 2013, SundaySPORTS

PCB bans umpire Nadeem Ghauri over spot-fixing

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Islamabad, Apr 13: The Pak-istan Cricket Board has sus-pended international umpire Nadeem Ghauri for four years for agreeing to "extend undue favors for material gain" during a sting operation car-ried out by a Indian television channel last year.

The PCB said on Saturday in a statement that Ghauri will not be considered for any appointment during the length of his ban. Ghauri has officiated in five Tests, 43 One-Day Internationals and four Twenty20 matches.

Domestic umpire Anis Sid-dique was banned for three years. The committee felt he initially resisted the offers during the same sting opera-tion "but finally conceded to them on their persistence."

GK NEWS NETWORK

Srinagar, Apr 13: In yet another contest Greater Kashmir Lions Saturday defeated Greater Kashmir Warriors by 40 runs.

Winning the toss and electing to bat first, GK Lions scored 179 in 20 allotted overs in the Islamia College ground here.

Shafaqat Ahmad, who was adjudged Man of the Match, scored blistering 53 runs while Parvez contributed with 26 runs. Lions captain Hameed Makhdoomi played a responsible knock of 24 runs, holding one end. From GK Warriors Suhail Ahmad took three wickets.

Chasing the target, GK Warriors were bundled out at 139 runs. At one point War-riors were cruising along but a double blow by Bilal Rather in one over swung the game in favor of Lions.

Bilal first took the wicket of Nissar Shah who was batting on 24, looking dangerous, and then he removed Yasir Hafiz. In total Bilal Rather took three wickets.

Nissar and Javed Reshi scored 24 runs each from Warriors side.

Both the teams thanked Physical Educa-tion Department of Islamia College for their support.

New Delhi, Apr 13: Sunrisers pace spearhead Dale Steyn wants to pick the brains of former Paki-stan skipper Waqar Younis, who is a bowling consultant with the Hyderabad fran-chise.

The top-rated fast bowler said Waqar’s presence is a big boon for Sunrisers and the youngsters will benefit a lot from the Pakistani. Waqar, known for his reverse swing and toe crushers, has 789 inter-national wickets during an international career

that spanned over 14 years. “He (Waqar) is a fantastic bowler. I

am looking forward to actual-ly spending a bit of time with him. He hasn’t been with us for the last couple of days but certainly throughout

the IPL I will pick his brain and see what I can get off

from him. I know that the youngsters in the

side will definitely benefit from him and so will I,” Steyn was quoted as saying by IPLT20.com. IANS

GK Lions trample Warriors AGENCIES

New Delhi, Apr 13: The right-hander was slow to start with, but picked up momentum later on. After observing Dinesh Karthik go berzerk from the other hand, Sharma accelerated and produced a flurry boundaries.

The Pune Warriors needed a special effort to chase down Mumbai Indians total. The work was cut out for the openers and a repeat of the last game was needed to register a win in this fixture.

Skipper Ricky Ponting opened the bowling with former Aussie teammate Mitchell Johnson, who lived up to his skip-pers' expectations. The seamer castled dangerous Aaron Finch in the very first ball and produced another strike in the third over to put his team right on top.

The visitors were reduced to 13/3, and it needed a miracle to turn tables at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sat-urday.

Wickets kept tumbling and there were no signs of Pune crossing the line. The attacking Yuvraj Singh was looking good but even he couldn't last long.

There was some late onslaught by the Pune lower-middle order, but it was not enough on this day.

Earlier, it was an explosive start for the home side with Sachin Tendulkar deal-ing in boundaries from outset. The little master was all at ease and the Mumbai Indians got off the best start in the tour-nament so far.

Things were going along nicely before the golden arm of Yuvraj Singh did the trick for Pune. Yuvraj removed the Mumbai skipper to give his side a much needed breakthrough.

Tendulkar, too, couldn't convert the

start into a big one and fell after a quick-fire 44. The knock, laced by seven boundaries and one six, reminded the Tendulkar of the old and set the tone for the rest of the

innings.Last match heroes -- Dinesh

Karthik and Rohit Sharma -- took some time to get their eye in but stroked the ball beautifully after that. Dinesh Karthik continued from where he left and dominated the stand early on. The right-hander was timing the ball sweetly before a Mitchell Marsh in-dipper trapped

him in front.Karthik's wicket triggered Rohit, who

launched a brutal assault after Kartik's wicket. The right-hander cleared the ropes with utmost ease and did majority of the run-scoring.

It wasn't a good day at the office for the Pune bowlers as the home side punished them with disdain. Ashoke Dinda was

on the receiving end of most of the damage as the seamer went for 63 in

his four overs.Skipper Angelo Mathews' deci-

sion to give Yuvraj only two overs, especially after he picked Pon-ting in his first over, was shock-ing. It would have been ideal to slow down proceedings with Yuvraj, but that didn't happen. Leggie Rahul Sharma bowled well and contained the flow of runs to a certain extent, but bowlers leaked runs from the other end.

This win takes Mumbai Indians to top of the group, and the team would want to be there for as long as possible.

Nas

ir Kh

an /

GK

Srinagar, Apr 13: In the recently-held Junior National Skiing Championship at Gulmarg, a 9th standard student of Delhi Public School bagged two awards.

Mohammad Ibraheem Mehraj of Srinagar bagged 3rd and 2nd position in giant slalom and slalom respectively.

M u m b a i I n d i a n s v P u n e Wa r r i o r s

Jr. Nt'l Skiing Championship

Ibraheem, 14, bags two awards Will try to pick Waqar's

brains: SteynKolkata, Apr 13: Mohun Bagan contin-ued their dream I-League run, taking their winning streak to four matches when they overcame a stiff resistance from Air India for a hard-fought 3-2 vic-tory at Kalyani Stadium, here today.

Both the teams were reduced to 10-man in an action-packed second-half but Mohun Bagan ensured a fourth suc-cessive win riding on a Denson Devadas strike in the dying minuets (90+4th).

Air India goalkeeper Bubai Singh was sent off following a tackle outside the box in the 68th minute but the Mumbai outfit did well to kept up the pressure.

The fiery combination of Odafa Oko-lie-Tolgay Ozbey ensured Mohun Bagan a 2-0 lead early into the first-half. Odafa gave Mohun Bagan an 11th minute lead from a spotkick after they got the pen-alty following Prem Kumar's bad tackle of Ozbey inside the box.

The Aussie doubled the lead with a spectacular finish in the 28th minute as Mohun Bagan looked unstoppable.

The relegation-wary Air India how-ever did not give up as they pulled one back when Henry Ezeh struck in the 38th minute as they kept raiding Mohun Bagan.

Odafa was not in his best missing a

one-on-one after the changeover. Air India were reduced to 10 players

when Bubai handed the ball and tried to stop Ozbey outside the box.

Mohun Bagan also got a jolt when Echezona Anyichie was sent off follow-ing a second yellow in the 85th minute as Air India brought on the equaliser through Branco Cardozo (90+1st).

But there was more action in store when Devadas headed the winner three minutes later.

Mohun Bagan climbed to 11th place with 22 points from 21 matches, while Air India remained in the relegation zone with 19 from 22. PTI

Mohun Bagan beat Air India