Clippers eke out win against Utah
Hanuma Vihari’s heroics that led to a test match against Australia ending in a draw, won him huge praise, but no takers for IPL, the cash rich tournament which is every player’s dream to be a part of
Los Angeles, 20: Kawhi Leonard returned from a leg injury to score
29 points as the revitalised Los Angeles Clippers beat the NBA-leading Utah Jazz in the second of a twogame set on Friday in Los Angeles.
With both Leonard and Paul George back in the lineup after sitting out with injuries, the Clippers held on to beat the Utah Jazz 116-112 to snap the team’s nine-game winning streak.
Leonard returned after a three-game absence due to a bruised leg, George missed seven-games with a sore toe. Both couldn’t play in the Clippers’ 114-96 home loss on Wednesday to the red-hot Jazz.
The Jazz’s trademark during their win streak has been finding different ways to get the job done, but that didn’t matter on Friday as they were outrebounded by the Clippers
45-38.
The Clippers had five players in double figures, including both Leonard and George, who scored 15 as they beat the Jazz for the first time this season. Lou Williams added 19 points, Patrick Beverley had 17 and Marcus Morris chipped in 17 off the bench for the Clippers.
Donovan Mitchell scored
35 points, Bojan
Bogdanovic added 23 points, and reserve Jordan Clarkson contributed 19. Mike Conley scored 16 points for Utah, who lost for just the second time in
22 contests.
In other games on Friday, Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid and Denver’s Jamal Murray each scored a career high 50 points, with Murray becoming the first ever to reach the mark without attempting a free throw and Embiid also grabbing a whopping 17 rebounds.
All-Star Embiid led the
76ers to a 112-105 victory over the Chicago Bulls. He added 17 rebounds, five assists, four blocks and two steals in a dynamic game in Philadelphia.
Embiid was 17 of 26 from the field and 15 of 17 from the free-throw line as he eclipsed the 49 points he scored against the Atlanta Hawks one year ago.
“My teammates me. I am pretty about what we
Embiid said.
“I have got to get the job done. That’s my job, that’s why they pay me,” he added.
Tobias Harris contributed 22 points, 12 rebounds in the win. Danny Green scored 13 points and reserve Dwight Howard had 10 rebounds.
— found happy
did,”
The lefties got it right. Consistent performer Thakur Tilak Varma smashed another century while seamer C. V. Milind scalped five wickets as Hyderabad made a winning start to their campaign in the Vijay Hazare Trophy by beating Tripura in Surat, Gujarat, on Saturday.
Opener Tilak thumped 10 fours and five sixes in his
156 that came off 145 balls to bolster the side’s total to
349 for 5 in 50 overs after being put in to bat. Captain Tanmay Agarwal (86), B. Sandeep (41) and Himalay Agarwal (38) played supporting roles.
Tripura found the total too steep, especially up against Milind’s deliveries and were all out for 236 in
42 overs. Milind returned with fine figures of 5 for 43 as Hyderabad collected four points.
RINKU IS THE STAR AS UP STUN KARNATAKA
Meanwhile in Bengaluru, Rinku Singh smashed an unbeaten 62 as Uttar Pradesh stunned defending champions Karnataka by nine runs via the VJD Method in their rain-truncated Group ‘C’ opener.
Chasing 247 in the stipulated 50 overs, Uttar Pradesh had a slow start
and were 150/4 in 32 overs, but then, the Kolkata Knight Riders left-hander took charge of the proceedings, hitting seven boundaries and one six in his 61ball knock.
Rain halted play at 45.2 overs with UP placed at
215/4, which was nine runs more than the par score of
207.
UP’s opening duo of Abhishek Goswami (54 off
67 balls) and Karan Sharma (40 off 74 balls) initially struggled to get going against the Karnataka new ball bowlers, Abhimanyu Mithun and Prasidh Krishna, managing only nine runs in the first five overs.
Vihari performed well in the T-20’s, and has been consistently scoring runs in Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy and Vijay Hazare trophy. His performance in the recent Sydney Test is only a testimony to his ability. His biggest strength is his ability to adapt to all the three formats (Test, ODI and T-20) of the game. Even Tilak Varma should have been picked for the IPL, but it’s unfortunate — JOHN MANOJ, coach and Vihari’s mentor
SASHIDHAR ADIVI
Cricketer Hanuma Vihari remained unsold in the 2021 IPL mini auction — his base price was `1 crore. He too must have been taken aback as his sarcastic tweet, “LOL”, accompanied by a laughing emoji said it all.
The tweet has now gone viral and his fans are very annoyed at the snub.
Experts say IPL is business, not just a game. The franchises invest big money on their team and look for players who are worth their investment. Players should understand the business logic and not think emotionally.
One has seen big players like Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and many more being snubbed by their respective franchisees when they underperformed. They weren’t retained.
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"We tried to make the conversation
about same-sex relationships in India mainstream through Shubh Mangal Zyada
Saavdhan.” -Ayushmann Khurrana, actor
“Everyone told me that no one would accept this kind of cinema. Instead, I was humbled with the appreciation [that came]. The success of this film is in how it was accepted as a commercial film and how it did its job to pave a path for many other films on such subjects to be made.”
— AYUSHMANN KHURRANA, actor
And yet, here the actor is, having delivered eight back-to-back hits, with stories otherwise considered ‘too risky’.
Through his unique, quirky, stereotype-breaking films, Bollywood actor Ayushmann Khurrana has carved his name in the history of cinema as a risk-taking hero who is constantly trying his best to normalise taboo topics.
On the first anniversary of the actor’s sleeper hit Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, a movie on the stereotypes surrounding same-sex relationships in India, Ayushmann speaks about why the industry needs to produce such eye-opening films. “Taboo topics need to be constantly addressed through cinema because it can alter the mind-set of the people,” says Ayushmann, who became the first mainstream hero to deliver a hit film on same-sex relationships. “It takes a lot of time and effort to normalize taboo subjects. We tried to contribute towards making the conversation about same-sex relationships in India mainstream through the film.”
He says, “Everyone told me that no one would accept this kind of cinema. Instead, I was humbled with the appreciation [that came]. The success of this film is in how it was accepted as a commercial film and did its job to pave a path for many other films on such subjects to be made.” Talking about how it has always been his endeavour to do his bit towards creating a forward-thinking society, Ayushmann says he’s always wanted to reach out and have a conversation with people about the subjects that he’s addressed through his movies. “Rest assured that I will continue doing that because it satiates me as an artist and motivates me to discover more subjects like these,” he says as he signs off.