MS Dhoni after loss to Pune

At the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, Pune Warriors shocked the Super Kings by 24 runs. Chasing 160 to win, Chennai faltered in their batting, leaving their skipper MS Dhoni an unhappy man.
"This defeat has shocked us a little bit. We should have batted better, especially at the start of the chase. The wicket in Chennai slows down so we need to start well.
"Maybe this defeat is a blessing in disguise… it's a good wake-up call early in the tournament," said Dhoni at the post-match presentation. (Also see: Match in pics)
Pune stand-in skipper Ross Taylor said that while the defeat was good, there is still a long way to go for his side. "It was a good overall performance by the boys. Our intensity in the field was excellent and hopefully we can carry this momentum forward.
"But it's a long tournament. We should have Yuvraj Singh and Angelo Mathews back for the next game and that's a positive for us," said Taylor after the game.
Steven Smith was voted Man of the Match for a blistering 16-ball 39 that added a late boost to the Pune innings and he took three catches as well.
"Look, I have been sitting on the sidelines for the first few games so I was very fresh heading in to this match. It was a great team effort and we were particularly good with the bat."
Pune spinner Rahul Sharma, who finished with figures of 1/24, was elated after the win. "CSK is the best team around so this is a fantastic win for us. Coach Allan Donald kept advising me during the game and I stuck to my game plan of bowling wicket-to-wicket."

Boston Marathon blasts

Boston: Roupen Bastajian, a state trooper from Rhode Island, was receiving his finisher's medal after the completing the Boston Marat
"I ran over there and there were at least 40 people that I saw on the ground, some without legs," said Bastajian, 35. "It's bad, it's bad."
"These runners just finished and they don't have legs now," he said. "So many of them. There are so many people without legs. It's all blood. There's blood everywhere. You got bones, fragments. It's disgusting. It's like a war zone."
Bastajian, who was a sergeant in the Marines for four years, had finished in 4 hours 2 minutes 42 seconds at 2:43 p.m., about 7 minutes before the first blast. If he had been a few strides slower, he might have been among the dozens of victims Monday when bombs exploded at the marathon. Instead, he was among the runners treating other runners, a makeshift emergency medical service of exhausted athletes.
"We put tourniquets on," Bastajian said. "I tied at least five, six legs with tourniquets. It's horrible."
Bruce Mendelsohn, a public relations professional, was at a celebration on a third-floor office above where the explosion took place. His brother, Aaron, had finished the race earlier.
"There was a very loud boom, and three to five second later, there was another one," said Mendelsohn, 44, an Army veteran, who immediately recognized the noise because of his training. "I ran outside. There was blood smeared in the streets and on the sidewalk."
He said that on first glance, there appeared to be 10 to 12 fatalities, including"women, children, finishers," but that he could not be sure. The wounds, he said, appeared to be "lower torso."
"The type of stuff," he said, "you see from someone exploding out."
Mendelsohn, who went to try to help members of law enforcement cordon off the area, said it appeared that the explosion came from a cafe near 667 Boylston St., near the finish line.
"This appeared to be deliberately at a time when people were finishing," said Mendelsohn, who said he served in South Korea and Germany.
People immediately tried to evacuate the area. "Everyone is heading over the Mass Ave bridge," he said, calling it a "mass exodus."
Like many of the people in and around Boston, Mendelsohn snapped photos from above the explosion and shared them on Twitter. One photo he posted showed what appeared to be blood on the streets.
Ricky Simms, the agent for Micah Kogo, who finished second among elite men, said the elite runners had all sat down for a meal when they heard the noise.
"We were in the dining room," Simms said. "We just heard two noises and people were saying: 'Oh, is it thunder? Was it some accident? Did a window fall out of a building?' Nobody thought it could be an explosion."
Dave Watt, executive director of the American Running Association, said he was standing in the middle of the street, facing the finish line from beyond it, taking photos of runners when the first blast went off. A medical tent was nearby.
Within 30 seconds of the explosion, doctors and assistants were running toward the scene, he said.
"Thank God this medical tent is here where this happened," Watt said. "It could have been much worse. Because you had doctors racing down there, putting people in wheelchairs and bringing them back, within two or three minutes of the explosion."

© 2013, The New York Times News Service

Rajasthan Royals beat Kings XI Punjab by 6 wickets

It was a low-scoring match that never quite reached great heights at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Sunday (April 14) evening. Rajasthan Royals hosted Kings XI Punjab, chose to field after winning the toss, and restricted Punjab to 124. But it took until the last over for Rajasthan to go past the target, the win taking them from sixth place to third in the Indian Premier League 2013 points table.

By the fourth over, Punjab were stuttering at 10 for 3. Superbly as S Sreesanth and Ajit Chandila bowled, it has to be said that both Adam Gilchrist and Mandeep Singh, the opening batsmen, got out to injudicious strokes and Manan Vohra tried to sneak in a run that wasn't there. Read Match stats.

It's not often that a team can recover from such a poor start but David Hussey was on song. If it hadn't been for Hussey's enterprise, things would have gone completely pear shaped for Punjab. Hussey hit four fours and a six in his 31-ball 41 even as Gurkeerat Singh Mann and R Sathish became wickets four and five for Rajasthan. Read Gilchrist not happy with his batsmen.

Once Hussey was dismissed, caught by Rahul Dravid on the second attempt off Siddharth Trivedi, it was over to Azhar Mahmood to take the score towards respectability. Mahmood played his part with a 20-ball 23, but the late impetus was provided by Praveen Kumar, who hit two fours and a six in his 15 from seven balls.

A quick mention must be made of Sanju Samson, the young Kerala wicketkeeper who, apart from a couple of straightforward catches, pulled off a stunner, diving to where first slip would have been, to send back Sathish off Faulkner and, later, kept his cool to run Praveen out with a direct hit to begin his IPL career on a high note.

A pitch with bounce so true and a lightning quick outfield should have meant a relatively easy time for the Rajasthan batsmen, and while Shane Watson was out there, it was a no-contest. Watson hit seven boundaries - to most parts of the ground - in his 19-ball 32, before being caught by Mandeep at mid-on off Parvinder Awana in the fifth over with the total on 43.

But, with the match getting away from his team, Gilchrist chose to bowl out Praveen, who had bowled his first three overs for just ten runs, and what an over it was. Gilchrist rolled back the years to pull off two almost identical one-handed catches to his right as Dravid first and then Stuart Binny

Ryan Harris and Awana were expensive, but Mahmood kept things tight in the middle overs and with Piyush Chawla sending back Brad Hodge, things did start getting tight.

Ajinkya Rahane, however, was still there after having opened the innings, playing a sedate, unhurried knock, and in collaboration with Samson, who was dropped by Harris at first slip when on four, ticked off the runs. Rahane ended not out on 34 from 42 balls while Samson, playing a little gem, hit a boundary to seal the win, remaining unbeaten on 27 from 23 balls.

chased outswingers to get healthy edges, and Praveen ended his spell with 2 for 10.

Punjab Chief Minister and his son to meet PM today

New Delhi: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is his deputy, will meet the Prime Minister today to discuss the fallout of the Supreme Court judgment rejecting militant Devender Pal Singh Bhullar's petition that his death sentence be commuted to life.
The Shiromani Akali Dal-led government in Punjab has said that it fears a law and order situation in the state if Bhullar is executed.
Bhullar has been sentenced to death for killing nine people with a car bomb in 2009 in Delhi.
In a landmark judgment that will affect not just Bhullar but 16 other prisoners on death row, the Supreme Court ruled last week that a delay in decision on his mercy petition does not mean that the death sentence awarded to Bhullar will be changed to life imprisonment.
Bhullar's lawyer H S Phoolka is expected to file a petition in the Supreme Court this week to seek mercy for the militant.(NDtv India)

Marines won't return

New Delhi:  The Ministry of External Affairs will lodge a strong protest with the Italian ambassador in New Delhi over the refusal of his country to send back two marines charged with killing two Kerala fishermen at sea last year, sources have told NDTV. The envoy had given a commitment to the Supreme Court in February that the two men would come back; he will be told that the two marines must return. The marines, who were in Delhi, were permitted by the court to spend four weeks at home to vote in national elections.

JAMIA IN FINAL OF UCC

One of the most enthusiastic teams of the Toyota University Cricket Championship simply failed to live up to its reputation. Western Wizards Jiwaji University, Gwalior lost their semifinal clash against hosts Kent Northern Stars Jamia Millia Islamia on Thursday evening by 10 wickets. Jamia needed all of 51 balls to race to an emphatic victory after Jiwaji were all out for 61 runs in 18.1 overs. This was the lowest team score of the championship. 

A team that has always defended low totals, Jiwaji did not have enough on the board. The Jamia openers were under no pressure and backed by a packed home crowd, Amit Verma and Shivam Sharma milked the Gwalior attack and scored the required runs with ease. Shivam was in punishing mood. He struck five fours and a six in a 36-ball 43 that ended the match as a contest. He got the best batsman's award. 

As has been his wont, Jiwaji skipper Sohraab Dhaliwal tried every trick in his book and could even have caught and bowled Shivam when he was on 7. But it was not Gwalior's evening. Earlier, Jiwaji's batting performance definitely came as a big surprise.

The semifinal turned out to be an anti-climax of sorts as the Gwalior boys went down like a pack of cards, with the highest partnership worth only a 19 runs. The slide started early with Jamia's main seamers Abhay Negi and Aashish Chopra removing both the in-form openers with just two runs on the board. The movement and pace on a hard wicket caught the Gwalior boys by surprise as Jamia's fielding backed the bowlers to the hilt. Shivam took two wonderful catches at slips.

The departure of the tournament's best all-rounders, Prashant Mavai and skipper Dhaliwal, only added to Jiwaji's problems. In all three matches leading up to the semifinals, Mavai and Dhaliwal played key roles, but on Thursday night, they both failed to come good. Poor choice of strokes and stage fright got the better of most Jiwaji batsmen as Mavai was leg before wicket to left-arm spinner and Man of the Match Deepak Sharma for 5. Dhaliwal suffered the same fate against Jamia's second left-arm spinner Anuj Chaudhary for 12.

Ashish Savita was Gwalior's top scorer with 21. He hit the first four of the innings in the 26th ball and smashed the first six of the Jiwaji innings. But that enterprise was short-lived as Savita became one Sharma's four victims. Sharma was also the Bowler of the Match for his 4 for 16.

Women protesters demand in Kerela

Mostly frail women, old and young, stood up to the blows that the police rained on them with canes, some of them stripping partially in protest. Several of them were injured in the lathicharge but the undeterred women of Odisha's Govindpur and Dhinkia villages have threatened to strip en masse if the police is not withdrawn from their area immediately.  

As the world celebrates Women's Day, these village women are engaged in a bitter tussle with the administration to stop land acquisition for the Posco steel project. They also want the five platoons of police still deployed at the site of the proposed mega project in Jagatsinghpur district withdrawn. 

The state government had resumed land acquisition, which involves clearing betel plantations in the villages, four days ago. The drive began only hours after three anti-Posco protesters were killed in a bomb attack. The activists allege that supporters of the Posco plant were behind the attack. The women who clashed with the police on Thursday  belong to the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti ( PPSS ), which has spearheaded the anti-Posco agitation for the last eight years. They said hundreds of them would strip if their demands are not met.

Posco is a South Korean company that proposes to set up a 12-million-tonne-per-annum steel plant near the port town of Paradip in Odisha. It is the largest foreign investment in India.  

The government says it has acquired about 2,000 acres of land in the region in 2011 and needs to acquire another 700 acres, mostly in Govindpur area, for the project. It says the villagers have agreed to the land acquisition. But the villagers deny this and the stand-off has continued for some time now, with the administration being forced to abandon land acquisition activities every now and then. 

It had stopped clearing plantations on February 6 in the face of a stepped-up agitation. During their protests, the villagers have also fronted children.