YUVRAJ, KAPIL TO ATTEND LAUREUS AWARDS FUNCTION
MONACO : A galaxy of sporting stars from across the world, including cricketers Kapil Dev and Yuvraj Singh descended on the sovereign city state along the French Riviera for the 18th Laureus World Sports Awards, to be held on February 27. While Kapil is an academy member of the Laureus World Sports Awards along with Steve Waugh, Yuvraj has come here as an ambassador. Besides, the who’s who of the sporting world will be here to attend the awards, considered as the Oscar of sports. Some of the big names who will be attending the gala night on Tuesday are Boris Becker, Martina Navratilova, Monica Seles, Sergei Bubka, Nadia Comaneci, Michael Johnson, Mark Spitz and Missy Franklin. The awards to be presented include best sportsman, sportswoman, team, breakthrough, comeback, disabled sportsperson, action sportsperson, plus lifetime achievement and spirit of sport awards, both of which are at the discretion of Laureus Academy. CAPETOWN: India’s performance in the limited-overs format, especially in T20s, made one thing clear --- they dominated the powerplay overs. It wasn’t just t he men’s team, t he women’s performance too in the first six overs made the difference.
While Bhuvneshwar Kumar & Co restricted SA to 25/1 in the first six overs, India were allowed to cruise to 57/1. In the women’s match, India were 39/1 as compared to South Africa’s 22/3.
Bhuvneshwar, who won Man of the Series, attributed the performance to IPL.
“Thanks to IPL, it has made an Indian bowler a thinking bowler. It is important not to give too many runs in the first six overs. I always try to keep it simple,” he said after the match.
“T20 cricket is all about using variations and the timing has to be perfect. Whatever knuckle ball I have bowled, I have wanted the batsmen to go after that. That way you can get wickets and that’s one of the main reasons why I have been successful in the powerplays.”
TOO EXPERIENCED
South Africa coach Ottis Gibson W Hammond (Eng) M Taylor (Aus) Aus in 1928-29 Eng in 1989 felt the Indian bowlers were far too experienced in this format and partly credited IPL for their development.
“India have got (Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar, two very experienced players. We’ve had (Chris) Morris and debutant Junior Dala. The experience the Indians have of playing not just for India but also playing 3-4 years of IPL cricket has paid off.”
To compare the numbers in other games, SA were 41/2 in six overs in first T20 as against India’s 78/2. India won that by 28 runs. In the second T20, which the Proteas won, they were marginally better than India – getting 50/2 to India’s 45/3. It could be said that it probably made the difference, although Bhuvneshwar felt the overs that follow are as important. South Africa proved that on Saturday, almost coming close to India’s total.
India’s top-order batting continued to blossom like it did in the ODIS. They didn’t lose too many wickets. Despite Rohit Sharma flopping mostly in ODIS and flattering to deceive in T20s, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan and Suresh Raina have ensured South Africa South Africa South Africa