Tendulkar will mentor 11 emerging players, including Rasool and Unmukt

New Delhi: Indian cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar will mentor eleven emerging players, including Parveez Rasool and Unmukt Chand, as part of an initiative by sports apparel giant Adidas.

Adidas, which has already signed up Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina added some more names to its roster.

Tendulkar welcomed the newest members of team adidas -- Unmukt Chand, Parveez Rasool, Vijay Zol, Manan Vohra, Manpreet Juneja, Rush Kalaria, Chirag Khurana, Akshdeep Nath, Vikas Mishra, Sarfaraz Khan and Aparajith Baba.

"This is a great initiative from adidas to support the future of this sport, which encourages aspiring athletes to follow their passion and be part of an extraordinary league.

Mentoring these talented young cricketers will let me be close to what I love and give back to the sport," Tendulkar, who retired from international cricket last year, said at the event.

The 21-year-old Unmukt, is former Captain of the 2012 Under-19 World Cup champion team and played for the Delhi Daredevils in IPL this year.

Rasool, 25, is the first Jammu and Kashmir cricketer to represent the Indian senior team. He captained his state team to the Ranji trophy knock-out phase this year.

Ranji Trophy: Maharashtra crush Bengal to enter final

Wriddhiman Saha’s gutsy century went in vain as Maharashtra crushed Bengal by 10 wickets to enter the final of the Ranji Trophy after a gap of two decades.
Maharashtra will take on the winner of the other ongoing semi-final between Karnataka and Punjab. Maharashtra last played in the Ranji Trophy final in the 1992-93 season where they lost to Punjab.
After a batting collapse in the first innings, Bengal put up a relatively better show in the second essay courtesy Wriddhiman’s unbeaten 108 as they scored 348 managing to avert the ignominy of innings defeat.
Harshad Khadiwale knocked off the required eight runs in two overs on the third day as Maharashtra continued their dream run in the national championship entering the summit clash from Group C.
Still it was a dominant performance by the Surendra Bhave coached side that finished the game inside three days having beaten heavyweights Mumbai well inside four days.
Left-arm seamer Samad Fallah (3/110) claimed three in the second innings to complete a match-haul of 10 wickets, while Dominic Joseph (3/80) and Anupam Sanklecha (3/84) also shared the spoils.
On the third day, the question was how long Maharashtra will take to dismiss Bengal for the second time rather than any imminent chance of a miracle.
The match went along the expected lined despite Saha’s impressive effort that came off 146 balls. Saha hit 15 fours and a couple of sixes off left-arm spinner Akshay Darekar as he completed his eighth first-class century with a picture perfect straight drive off Joseph.
Saha was able to complete his century with some good effort from the tail-enders Sourav Sarkar (35), Ashoke Dinda (25) and Shib Shankar Paul (13). The eighth, ninth and 10th wicket partnerships yielded 45, 62 and 53 runs, respectively.
Although he is not expected to play any part in the New Zealand Test series, the century would definitely keep him in high spirits as he leaves for New Zealand with the other Test specialists like Cheteshwar Pujara and Zaheer Khan in a week’s time.
However, it was the same old story from the other end as none of the batsmen save left-hander Sudip Chatterjee (49, 92 balls, 9×4) contributed enough.
Likes of Arindam Das (34), Abhimanyu Easwaran (6) and Sandipan Das (12) failed consistently in the past few games as Bengal managed to cross 400-run mark only once this season.
It was due to herculean effort from skipper LR Shukla (608 runs and 12 wickets) and wickets on ‘green-tops’ from Dinda (40 wickets) that helped Bengal reach this far. Others have had minuscule contribution in the team’s journey so far.
On the other hand, Maharashtra have put up a stunning performance since Bhave took over from Englishman Dermot Reeve under whom the team had got relegated to the group C in the last season.
With the likes of Kedar Jadhav, Harshad Khadiwale, Vijay Zol, Ankit Bawne and Sangram Atitkar scoring tons of runs, it became easier for the likes of Fallah, Sanklecha and Shrikant Mundhe (injured in this game) to attack the opposition with runs on board.
Their best win will certainly be against Mumbai, whom they defeated by eight wickets chasing a 250-plus score after conceding a first innings lead in excess of 120.

 

1st ODI: Kohli ton goes in vain as New Zealand beat India by 24 runs.

NAPIER: Virat Kohli's exhilarating hundred went in vain as New Zealand staged a dramatic turnaround to pull off a thrilling 24-run win in the first one-dayer against India to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series on Sunday.

 

Set a formidable target of 293, India seemed on track for a facile win with Kohli (123 off 110 balls) anchoring the chase with his 18th ODI century before pacer Mitchell McClenaghan's three-wicket burst 11 balls changed the complexion of the game completely .From a comfortable 224 for five, the Indians were all out for 268 in 48.4 overs with McClenaghan being the wrecker-in-chief with a match haul of 4/68.

Earlier, electing to bowl after winning the toss, India's inconsistent bowling effort helped New Zealand pile up 292 for seven.

For the Kiwis, apart McClenaghan, Corey Anderson shone bright with an all-round effort, scoring 68 runs off 40 deliveries before knocking off two wickets in his 10 overs of medium pace bowling.

Tim Southee (1-43 in 9.4 overs) and Adam Milne (1-40 in 7.3 overs) gave Anderson good support, even as the latter walked off mid-way in the 41st over with a side-strain.

After being put in to bat, half-centuries from Anderson, Kane Williamson (71) and Ross Taylor (55) helped the hosts reach 292/7 in their allotted 50 overs.

However, the brightest star of the match ended up in the losing side.

Kohli, who scored his a first hundred in a losing cause while chasing, found no support from otherbatsmen, none of who managed to reach even the 50-run mark.

Openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan started with great caution. Southee bowled two maiden overs first up as the batsmen took time settling down.

In fact, the first wicket came before the first boundary in this innings, as Rohit failed to rotate strike and came under pressure to score, holing out to Southee off a short ball from McClenaghan in the sixth over. He scored only 3 runs off 23 balls.

Kohli came to the crease and got off the mark with a signature cover drive, the first four for India on the 29th ball of the innings.

Along with Dhawan, he put on 58 runs for the second wicket as the two batsmen tried to build a platform from which to launch the chase.

The runs were coming in a trickle and the first 10 overs yielded only 43. India's 50 came up in the 12th over, while their 50-partnership came four overs later.

Dhawan tried to be the more aggressive of the two, but his timing was off as he could only muster a strike-rate of 69.56. His dismissal in the 19th over reflected as much, a mistimed pull off a short ball from Anderson. It was a huge blow for the team as the partnership was developing well at that time.

On 15 not out, Dhawan had been given a life in the ninth over, when Anderson, at square leg, managed to only get a hand on a high pull shot.

But the Indian failed to capitalise and was finally out for 32 runs off 46 balls. He hit three fours. It resulted in two more quick wickets with Ajinkya Rahane and Suresh Raina back in the hut within ten overs. Rahane (7) was out to a superb one-handed catch by Nathan McCullum. The ball, played towards mid-off, seemed to dip before the off-spinner caught it, leaving the batsman shocked.

Raina added 45 runs with Kohli for the fourth wicket and their runs came in good time at a runrate of 6.14. But even so, the asking run-rate was always climbing higher and trouble resurfaced when Raina was out, attempting a loose pull-shot like Dhawan, off Milne. He scored 18 runs off 22balls, with two fours.

At the other end, however, Kohli continued unfazed. He had come to the crease to pull off this chase and he went about the job not caring about the dismissals too much.

In Raina's company, in the 26th over, he had brought up his half-century off 58 balls, hitting four fours and one six. But after the double blows in the middle overs, he settled down with skipper Dhoni to try and dig India out of the hole.

The Indian captain scored 40 runs off only 46 balls, with two fours and two sixes. More importantly, he rotated the strike well with Kohli as the two put up 95 runs for the fifth wicket in just 85 balls.

In the 38th over, Kohli reached his 18th ODI hundred, off 94 balls with 10 fours and a six. He celebrated with joy as the chase looked set. They accelerated with a plan in mind as 51 runs came off the second powerplay without any loss of wickets.

But the turning point came when Dhoni was out caught behind in the 43rd over, off McClenaghan.

Three balls later, he removed Ravindra Jadeja (0), also caught behind fending a rising delivery. Kohli still didn't give up, hitting boundaries at will, but he was finally out in the 45th over, caught sharply by Jesse Ryder, who had earlier misjudged a skier from Kohli when he was on 95, at cover.In the next over, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was run-out for 6 runs. R Ashwin (12 runs) was out to Kane Williamson, who completed Milne's 41st over after he had walked off with a side strain.

The Indian innings came to an end when Southee bowled Ishant Sharma (5). Mohammed Shami was unbeaten on 7 runs.

Earlier in the day, Corey Anderson hit 68 off 40 balls, his first ODI half-century, to take New Zealand to 292/7 in their allotted fifty overs. This was after Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor put on 121 runs for the third wicket.

Mohammed Shami was the most successful bowler for the visitors, finishing with 4-55 from nine overs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1-38), Ishant Sharma (1-72) and Ravindra Jadeja (1-61) were the other wicket-takers, while R Ashwin (0-52) and Virat Kohli (0-13) finished wicket-less. Taylor and Williamson together flayed the Indian bowling in the middle overs. The two batsmen put on a hundred-plus stand for the third wicket during which they amply punished the two spinners, Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.

Taylor completed 4000 ODI runs in 121 innings, at the personal score of 15 not out, becoming thesecond-quickest Kiwi batsman after Nathan Astle (120 innings) to do so. In the 23rd over of the innings, Williamson brought up his seventh ODI half-century, off 66 balls and hitting five fours.

Eventually Taylor edged to Dhoni in the 37th over off Shami, becoming the Indian skipper's 300^th ODI victim. Dhoni is the first Indian wicket-keeper to breach this mark, in 239 matches, and the fourth overall after Australia's Adam Gilchrist (472 dismissals in 287 matches), Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara (424 dismissals in 362 matches) and South Africa's Mark Boucher (424 dismissals in 295 matches). Taylor was the only batsman to fall in the second powerplay as Brendon McCullum and Corey.Anderson took 41 runs off those five overs.

 

Sunanda Tharoor cremated; doctors say she died a 'sudden, unnatural death'

New Delhi: The mortal remains of Sunanda Pushkar, who was found dead in mysterious circumstances at a luxury hotel last night, were consigned to flames today in presence of her family members.

Sunanda's 21-year-old son Shiv Menon lit the pyre. Pushkar's husband Union minister Shashi Tharoor, her father and brother were among the family members present at the Lodhi Road crematorium.

Earlier, her body was taken from AIIMS to Tharoor's residence at Lodhi Estate where a number of prominent political leaders including Defence Minister A K Antony, Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi and former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit paid tributes to her.

Menon, who performed the last rites, is Sunanda's son from previous marriage.

A three-member panel of doctors headed by Dr Sudhir K Gupta had conducted an autopsy on Sunanda's body in AIIMS and stated that she died a "sudden unnatural death" with her body bearing several injury marks.

52-year-old Sunanda was found dead in a 5-star hotel in South Delhi last night, a day after her twitter spat with a Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar over an alleged affair with Tharoor. However, Sunanda and Tharoor had issued a joint statement declaring they were happily married.

The three member team of doctors conducted a post-mortem on the body this afternoon in the presence of a magistrate after which head of the panel, Dr Sudhir Gupta, who is the chief of the Forensic Sciences Department at at AIIMS, said it was a case of "sudden, unnatural death".

Dr Adarsh Kumar, Additional Professor Forensic Medicines and one of the doctors who conducted the post-mortem, was asked if poisoning has not been ruled out as cause of the death. "Of course", he replied, indicating that poisoning had not been ruled out.

"If any person is suffering from disease, the terminal event may be something else. It does not matter. Let the investigation be over," he said.

According to a source, Sunanda's body bore injuries in her hand and face but they appear unlikely to be the cause of her death. She appears to have died between 1PM and 7PM yesterday.

Sunanda was known to be suffering from stomach tuberculosis and Lupus, an auto-immune disorder which can lead to rashes or marks.

Dr Kumar confirmed that Sunanda was suffering from these health problems and said that details of her treatment had been sought.

Dr Gupta said Sunanda's body had "certain injuries" butrefused to give details. "I cannot reveal the details of the injuries. Basically, in medico-legal cases, the number of injuries does not matter. Whether these injuries relate to fatality or not matters."

A doctor said that there are cases in which a person may consume excessive alcohol and pass-out thereby losing control over their airways which get blocked leading to gastric aspiration which, in turn, causes acute pneumonia or even death.

However, doctors concerned with the case refused to speculate on the cause of the death in the absence of a complete post-mortem report.

The doctors described these as initial findings and said a clear picture would emerge after couple of days after they receive toxicological analysis and complete a visco- pathological examination. The post-mortem has been videographed.

Suchitra Sen passes away

Kolkata:Legendary actress Suchitra Sen, who was known as the Greta Garbo of Bengali

cinema and had 60 films to her credit including the memorable 'Aandhi' and' Deep Jwele Jai', today died of a heart attack at a super-speciality hospital here today.

The condition of the 82-year-old screen goddess had eteriorated last evening after which she suffered a massive cardiac arrest leading to her death at 8:25 AM, family sources said.

Sen was admitted to Belle Vue Clinic on December 23 following a respiratory tract infection.

Later she was treated in a private Intensive Treatment Unit for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Sen, who has been living the life of a recluse in a south Kolkata apartment, has starred in

memorable Hindi films like 'Devdas', and 'Aandhi' and 'Saat Paake Bandha', 'Agnipariksha',
'Saptapadi' and 'Deep Jwele Jai' in Bengali.

The screen goddess of yesteryears, who had been living a life of a recluse, was often

compared to Hollywood actress Greta Garbo.

Emraan Hashmi’s son diagnosed with cancer, undergoes surgery

MUMBAI:Actor Emraan Hashmi’s 4-year-old son Ayan underwent a surgery last night who was diagnosed with first-stage cancer.
 

 

Bollywood actor who is known as ‘serial kisser’ is going through a tough time as his son had a malignant tumor in kidney.

Film-maker and Emraan’s uncle Mahesh Bhatt spoke to media about it.

Bhatt said, Ayan is recovering soon, after the tumor was removed.

According to a report in a news portal, the film-maker said, “On Tuesday, the child underwent an operation at the Hinduja hospital in Mumbai and the tumour has been removed. It was like a time-bomb ticking in his body; and it’s out now.”

Bhatt added, “Things are looking better now, but the child is still in the ICU and further medical investigations will determine the future treatment, and that could probably mean

chemotherapy.”

According to reports, the child will be under doctor’s care for next few days.

NZ include fast bowler Milne for India series

Auckland: New Zealand picked a settled line-up, the only change being the inclusion of fast bowler Adam Milne, for the five-match ODI series against World No.1 India starting at Napier on Sunday.

The 13-man-squad is identical to the one which drew the recent ODI series against the West Indies, with the exception of Auckland batsman Colin Munro who will return to play for his province.

General Manager National Selection Bruce Edgar said the players had been rewarded for a number of strong performances against the West Indies.

“It was pleasing to see every player stand up at some stage of that series and there were some simply outstanding efforts headlined by Corey Anderson’s world record one day ton,” he said.

Edgar says the New Zealand now face one of their toughest challenges at home against a side ranked at the top in the 50 over game and No.2 in Tests.

“We know we’ll have to play out of our skins, and out match them player for player to be competitive against such a powerful side. But we showed against the West Indies that we can play extremely well on our day and are capable of beating any side,” he said.

Head Coach Mike Hesson says the team is fully aware of the challenges that lie ahead.

“Matching yourself against the best in the world is what you play international cricket for and I know the guys are buzzing about this opportunity. It’s also an important part of our build-up for next year’s World Cup where India are the defending champions,” he said.

The ODIs are slated for Napier (Jan 19), Hamilton (Jan 22), Auckland (Jan 25), Hamilton (Jany 28) and Wellington (Jan 31). The two Tests will be played in Auckland and Wellington and the squad will be announced after the ODI series.

The ODI squad: Brendon McCullum (captain), Martin Guptill, Jesse Ryder, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Corey Anderson, Luke Ronchi, Jimmy Neesham, Nathan McCullum, Tim Southee, Kyle Mills, Mitchell McClenaghan, Adam Milne