Chennai scupper Mumbai's title defence - Sports

Chennai scupper Mumbai's title defence - Sports

   May 28, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Chennai Super Kings rode on Suresh Raina's half-century to dump defending champions Mumbai Indians from IPL-7.

MUMBAI: Trust Chennai Super Kings to turn it on when they have to. Faced with elimination in the, well, ‘Eliminator’, MS Dhoni’s team cruised past defending champions Mumbai Indians without so much as a rivulet of sweat staining their yellow jerseys. Well not quite, as is to be expected in humid Mumbai, but Chennai drew on their reputation of a big-match team on Wednesday night to romp into 'Qualifier 2', in which they will play Kings XI Punjab for the right to meet Kolkata Knight Riders in the June 1 final of IPL-7.

After restricting Mumbai to a below-par 173 at Brabourne Stadium, Chennai looked to the one who has played in every single match for the franchise to mastermind the chase. Suresh Raina, named captain of India for the ODI tour of Bangladesh, celebrated the new role by hammering yet another IPL fifty, a 33-ball 54. It was a knock that minded a tricky chase that could have gone wrong at any point in the first ten overs, especially during a critical phase during which spinners Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha threatened to rip through on a pitch offering assistance. 

Dhoni’s choice to field did not seem to be a wise one after Mumbai openers Michael Hussey and Lendl Simmons had put on 54 in the Powerplay. Not that Chennai batting first would have ensured victory – far from it – but still the value of runs on the board in a knock out game cannot be overstated. Mumbai’s total (173) was a reasonable one - KKR had comfortably defended ten fewer at Eden Gardens against a marauding Kings XI in the afternoon – and although Chennai bore the reputation of being supreme finishers, it was not going to be an easy chase.

MISSED CHANCES

Faf du Plessis (35) and Dwayne Smith (24) made the most of their chances to lay a foundation and took Super Kings to 60 without loss in 6 overs. An umpiring howler denied Praveen Kumar’s gorgeous in-swinger the wicket of Smith. Harbhajan and Ambati Rayudu then made an absolute mess of a du Plessis top-edge over square leg. But if the off-spinner was half responsible for the gaffe he can claim full responsibility for redeeming the situation. Immediately after the Powerplay, Bhajji removed both the openers. 

Brendon McCullum, just returned from paternal duties in New Zealand, was dropped at long-on only to be stumped off Ojha's next delivery. David Hussey struggled to counter the spinners. He scratched around for five off ten balls, but when medium pace was reintroduced in the form of Bumrah, Hussey cut authoritatively for his first boundary. A spate of sixes in Ojha's last over followed and Hussey finished with a 29-ball 40, having featured in a game-changing partnership of 89 in 9.1 overs with Raina. The end came when Raina, fittingly, flicked the fourth ball of the 18th over to the fence for the winning runs.

REINED IN AT THE DEATH

Mumbai were 143/2 in the 17th over with Simmons (67) having hit top-gear soon after reaching a half-century, but gathered just 30 from the remaining 20 balls amid a torrent of wickets. Their chain of heavy hitters - Corey Anderson, Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu and Aditya Tare - were all out forcing the pace. But none of them wasted time as they contributed a total of 56 in 38 balls. The final push however never arrived and the innings rode almost entirely on the momentum of the 76-run opening stand between Michael Hussey and Simmons.

Sent in by MSD, the vengeful Michael took on his former franchise, which now included his brother David, by wading into seamer Mohit Sharma and slapping offie R Ashwin for six. An equally belligerent Simmons was not to be outdone. The West Indian punished Ishwar Pandey’s frequent errors and omissions in length and stunned Mohit with a searing six over square-leg.  On a day on which both medium pacers made the India squads to England and Bangladesh, Mohit and Pandey had little else to celebrate. 

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Dwayne Mohit help CSK beat SHyderabad

Dwayne Mohit help CSK beat SHyderabad

   April 28, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Chasing 146, Chennai Super Kings rode Dwayne Smith's 66 to beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets and register their fourth win. Earlier, Mohit Sharma and Ben Hilfenhaus bagged two wickets each.

Sharjah: Chennai Super Kings overcame some anxious moments before huffing and puffing to a five-wicket win over a fighting Sunrisers Hyderabad in a thrilling Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket match, here on Sunday. Chasing 146 for their fourth win in a row, Chennai achieved the target with three balls to spare as openers Dwayne Smith (66) and Brendon McCullum (40) laid a solid foundation with their 85-run partnership in 10.5 overs.

Smith and McCullum made batting look easy as they struck the ball effortlessly even as all other batsmen struggled on a difficult wicket.

Chennai were cruising at one stage, needing just 22 runs from the last five overs with eight wickets in hand but young Indian paceman Bhuvaneshwar Kumar changed the complexion of the game by dismissing Smith and Faf du Plessis (0) in consecutive deliveries in the 16th over.

Ishant Sharma got rid of Ravindra Jadeja in the 19th over to cause ripples in the Chennai camp.

CSK needed six runs off the last over, bowled by Amit Mishra, and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni finished it off in style, dismissing a full toss to square leg boundary.

Smith anchored the CSK chase with his 46-ball knock that was embellished with five sixes and four shots to the fence.

Chennai had control over the contest for the most part but for the last two overs of the Hyderabad innings when their bowlers took a beating to concede 32 runs and later in the final overs of their own innings.

It was Australian batsman Aaron Finch's fighting 44-run knock and a splendid rearguard action that propelled Hyderbad to a competitive 145 for five.

The Australian batsman held the one end when wickets fell consistently from the other before departing in the fag end.

Finch added 52 runs for the third wicket with Lokesh Rahul (25) and had it not been for some lusty hits by Darren Sammy (23 not out) and Karan Sharma (17 not out) towards the end, Hyderabad would not have posted a decent total.

Sharma hammered paceman Ben Hilfenhaus for two sixes in the penultimate over and Sammy also succeeded in hitting a maximum off Mohit Sharma in the final over.

Explosive New Zealand batsman McCullum, who had hit a fiery half-century in the last match, yet again provided a fantastic start to CSK, hitting some exquisite boundaries before being castled by spinner Karan Sharma.

McCullum entertained the crowd with three shots to the fence and two over the boundary ropes in his 33-ball knock.

Despite losing his partner, Smith went about his business calmly and completed his third half-century of this season with a single off paceman Ishant Sharma. The burly West Indian then clobbered Amit Mishra for a six to raise 100 of the CSK innings.

Suresh Raina hit a sweetly-timed six off Ishant Sharma but the paceman got his revenge by having the left-hander caught in the last ball of that over.

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Microsoft Acquisition Of Nokia Devices Business Complete

Microsoft Acquisition Of Nokia Devices Business Complete

   April 28, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Microsoft’s $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia’s devices and services business has been completed. Nokia confirmed the completed transaction in a press release, noting that it has “completed the sale of substantially all of its Devices & Services business to Microsoft” (using the same phrasing it has deployed throughout the process).

Nokia said it expects the final price-tag to be “slightly higher” than the original figure of €5.44 billion given when the deal was announced last September due to the transaction being “subject to potential purchase price adjustments”:

The estimate of the adjustments made for net working capital and cash earnings was slightly positive for Nokia, and we currently expect the total transaction price to be slightly higher than the earlier-announced transaction price of EUR 5.44 billion after the final adjustments are made based on the verified closing balance sheet.

Another adjustment is to the terms, with Nokia’s manufacturing facilities in Chennai in India and Masan in Korea not transferring to Microsoft. Nokia has been facing ongoing tax proceedings in India which was presumably holding up the deal — hence the workaround, with Nokia noting that it has entered into a service agreement with Microsoft to produce mobile devices for Microsoft. (Some small irony there then, that Nokia is not technically getting out of mobile-making altogether.)

The release notes that the Korean facility will be closed by Nokia, with the loss of 200 jobs. But Nokia said it plans to extend “elements” of its Bridge Program — which elsewhere gives support to employees who leave the company to set up their own businesses — to staff in Chennai and Masan.

Amid the uncertainty for our employees in Chennai and because of the planned closure of our facility in Masan, Nokia plans to offer a program of support, including financial assistance which would give our employees the chance to explore opportunities outside Nokia starting from a sound financial base. The company plans to bring to Chennai and Masan elements of its Bridge program, which we have made available for employees affected by company changes in other sites.

The transaction’s closing had been delayed slightly by regulatory hold ups (and presumably also the ongoing Indian factory-related tax affair). The two companies had originally said they expected the deal to close in Q1– but last month bumped that time-frame up to April, saying they were still pending approvals in certain markets.

The deal got the green light in China earlier this month, although the Chinese Ministry of Commerce did have some concerns about how Microsoft’s patent licensing practices might change post-acquisition. And required the company to agree to a list of patent-related commitments to grant approval.

Commenting on the completion of the transaction in a statement today Tom Gibbons, Microsoft corporate vice president who is responsible for the Nokia integration, said the advantages it will bring are greater intimacy between the two entities — which have of course been publicly working together on Windows Phones since their 2011 ‘strategic partnership’ announcement — and greater efficiency.

“Customers should see a bunch of great end-to-end experiences that really empower them to have very enjoyable, very comprehensive solutions to things that they want to get done, whether you’re talking about smartphones or feature phones,” Gibbons added. “The feature phone product family coming to Microsoft will start to have more of the Microsoft services shipped on those phones right out of the gate.”

Natasha Lomas 

With the deal closed, Microsoft acquires Nokia’s smartphone and mobile phone businesses, its design team, most of its manufacturing and assembly facilities and operations, and sales and marketing support…The acquisition also brings key capabilities around supply chain, distribution, operational processes and systems and skill in managing hardware margins to Microsoft. The unified company will benefit from speedier execution and best-in-class business operations.

It will be interesting to see what Microsoft does with the Nokia X family of smartphones, which are built atop the Android Open Source Project — and sit between Nokia’s feature phones and the full-fat Windows Phone Lumia devices.

Gibbons’ comments about pushing Microsoft services on “feature phones” is opaque on the question of what Microsoft does with Nokia X devices — and whether new CEO, Satya Nadella (pictured below with former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, who’s now been brought back into the Redmond fold), is willing to give Nokia’s “Lumia feeder” strategy some breathing room (or not).

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