Raina-Dhoni show scripts CSK win over Sunrisers

Ranchi boy MS Dhoni gave full value to the paid spectators with a brutal knock of 63 from 19 balls with a four and 8 sixes! Even before Dhoni had freed his arms, it was Suresh Raina, who provided all the impetus and took the CSK innings forward with an excellently paced knock of 84 from 57 balls with 9 fours and a six.

pectacular T20 knocks from Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni blasted Chennai Super Kings to a 12-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in a high-scoring contest at Ranchi. Sunrisers Hyderabad gave stiff fight to CSK despite chasing a tall target of 203. It was an evening where it rained sixes all parts of the ground. The spectators had the luck of witnessing as many as 16 sixes and 28 boundaries.
Chasing an improbable target of 203 in 20 overs, Sunrisers surprisingly got off to a dream start of 88 for 1 in 9.2 overs. Skipper Shikhar Dhawan looked awesome before he got out on 48 (from 34 balls) to Ashwin. The match was certainly over when Thisara Perera got out at 106 for 4 in 13.1 overs. Darren Sammy ensured that the match wasn’t going to finish on a dull note. The former West Indies Captain came up with some massive hits to score 50 from 25 balls which included 5 sixes.
Toss and Teams: Sunrisers Hyderabad have won the toss and asked Chennai Super Kings to bat first at Ranchi. Both the teams are unchanged and go into this game with a win in their first match. Although the pitch is prepared to be batsmen-friendly, the rain that has been around Ranchi could have dampened it to help the seam bowlers.
Chennai Super Kings: Michael Hussey, Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina, S Badrinath, Dwayne Bravo, MS Dhoni (C&WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Albie Morkel, Jason Holder, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohit Sharma
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Parthiv Patel (WK), Shikhar Dhawan (C), Jean-Paul Duminy, Hanuma Vihari, Thisara Perera, Darren Sammy, Ashish Reddy, Karan Sharma, Amit Mishra, Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharma

IPL spot-fixing: BCCI imposes life ban on S Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan

New Delhi: Tainted Rajasthan Royals cricketers S Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan were handed life bans by BCCI on Friday for their role in the IPL spot-fixing scandal.

Other Rajasthan cricketers Amit Singh and Siddharth Trivedi were handed a ban for five years and one year respectively. While young left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh was let off with a warning, another spinner Ajit Chandila’s case will be taken up later.

The two-member disciplinary committee of the BCCI met in the national capital earlier in the day to decide the fate of the Rajasthan Royals cricketers implicated in the IPL spot-fixing scandal to deliberate on Anti-Corruption Unit chief Ravi Sawani`s report on the scam that shamed the Twenty20 league.

The players, who also served jail time after being arrested by the Delhi Police, are Test pacer S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan. The trio played for the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL but their contracts were terminated by the franchise after the scandal broke out.

Strauss backs Pietersen as England `mentor`

Pietersin

Birmingham: Andrew Strauss believes Kevin Pietersen can act as a "mentor" to an inexperienced England one-day side despite his own sometimes difficult relationship with the star batsman.

Pietersen was briefly cast into the international wilderness last year after being accused of sending derogatory text messages about then England captain Strauss to South Africa players.

England lost that Test series to the Proteas and Strauss, who`d been struggling for runs, promptly retired from all senior cricket -- a decision he insisted had nothing to do with the fall-out from the controversy sparked by Pietersen, the man he succeeded as England skipper.

Pietersen, however, was soon back in the England fold and now finds himself the senior player in a one-day squad where his fellow recent Ashes-winners Alastair Cook, now the regular captain, Ian Bell, James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann have all been rested ahead of the return Test series in Australia starting in November.

England are 1-0 down in a five-match series, with their convincing 88-run loss at Old Trafford separating rain-ruined no results at Headingley and again at Edgbaston on Wednesday.

But whatever the outcome of the series, which continues in Cardiff on Saturday, Strauss believes the experience of playing alongside Pietersen, whose 2013 has been blighted by injuries, can only benefit the likes of 22-year-old all-rounder Ben Stokes.

"He can be really good with young players, actually," Strauss told reporters at Edgbaston on Thursday when asked about the 33-year-old Pietersen.

"I think it`s good that he`s playing this one-day series, and him opening the batting in one-day cricket is an interesting and potentially quite explosive option for England to use.

"Given that he`s had injuries, and whatever, it`s quite nice for him to have a good run of cricket.

"I hope he is playing that mentoring role and playing it well."

Strauss added: "I suppose Kevin is a complicated character. But he can be fantastic, really good and engaged in the dressing room and really go out of his way to help other people at times.

"You want to see him do that, because he`s at the stage of his career now where he`s got a lot to offer those young players coming through -- and they all look up to him as well.
"So it`s good to hear that he`s doing that."

Only slightly more than 15 overs were possible at Edgbaston on Wednesday, but that was enough time for often erratic Australia fast bowler Mitchell Johnson to bounce out Pietersen, having dismissed Jonathan Trott for a duck in Manchester.