Sport
IPL: Salt powers Delhi Capitals to thumping 7 wicket win against RCB
England’s Phil Salt hit a blazing 87 (45) to power Delhi Capitals to a thumping seven-wicket victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League on Saturday and ruin superstar Virat Kohli’s return to his home city.
Salt struck his second half-century in his debut IPL season to steer Delhi’s chase of 182 as the home team won with 20 balls to spare at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground.
The wicketkeeper began with a 60-run opening stand alongside skipper David Warner, who hit 22 (14), and then put together 59 runs with Mitchell Marsh, who smashed 26 (17).
Australian seamer Josh Hazlewood claimed 1-29 from his three overs, including the dismissal of Warner in the Powerplay, AFP reported.
“It’s the first time a lot of people would have seen me bat. Lot of Indian fans probably watching me for the first time if they don’t watch other competitions,” Salt, who has represented England in 30 white-ball matches since 2021, told reporters after his player of the match performance.
“I feel like my goal ever since the auction was come here and win games, challenge myself among the best in the world, because realistically we know this is the best domestic league in the world.”
Salt and Warner got into a mid-pitch exchange with opposition pace bowler Mohammed Siraj, but the verbal duel only spurred Salt to finish with six sixes.
The batting effort trumped Virat Kohli’s 55 (46) and an unbeaten 54 (29) by Mahipal Lomror which helped Bangalore to 4-181 after electing to bat first.
“Satisfied with the knock. Obviously there was a little bit of needle,” Salt said on his exchange with Siraj.
“Their boys were up when we were in Bangalore for the last game, so a lot of the pre-match chat was getting our chests out and crossing the line and ready to take it to them.”
Leg-spinner Karn Sharma bowled Salt before Rilee Rossouw hit an unbeaten 35 (22) and sealed the match with a six.
Delhi, who started the season with five losses, moved up from the bottom to ninth in the IPL table with slim chances of making the top four for a place in the play-offs.
Delhi’s South African import Anrich Nortje missed the match after he flew back home late Friday due to a “personal emergency”.
The spotlight remained on the Delhi-born Kohli as the former captain set foot on the ground in front of a capacity crowd, mostly wearing the star’s Bangalore jersey.
His every run was cheered and the superstar, who was playing his first game after an ugly spat with Lucknow mentor Gautam Gambhir, obliged the fans with his fifth half-century of the season.
In-form skipper Faf du Plessis, who consolidated his top spot in the batting chart with 511 runs, put on an 82-run opening stand with Kohli.
But it was Lomror who set the Bangalore innings on fire with his blitz after Marsh sent back du Plessis, for 45, and Glenn Maxwell, for a first-ball duck.
Competing in their first AFC Futsal Asian Cup, Afghanistan have concluded a fairy tale tournament by edging the Kyrgyz Republic to reach the FIFA Futsal World Cup.
Four second-half goals guided Afghanistan to a 5-3 win and the final 24-strong field for Uzbekistan 2024 is now set.
Unknown at continental level at the start of the month, Afghanistan have scripted one of the great futsal fairy tales by reaching the global showpiece for the very first time.
After raising eyebrows by pushing powerhouse Iran in their opening match and then progressing from the group, the Afghans were involved in a triple Central Asian tangle that ultimately saw them reach the FIFA Futsal World Cup.
Defeat at the hands of Tajikistan in the first of the quarter-finals looked to have marked the end for the daring debutantes only for World Cup hosts Uzbekistan to see off Vietnam in the last of the final eight match-ups to necessitate a play-off to determine the final slot at the sport’s showpiece event.
A 5-3 win against Iraq in the first round of the play-offs set up this winner-takes-all affair with a Kyrgyz Republic outfit also eyeing a maiden World Cup berth.
Settling the better of the two teams, it was a ninth-minute Omid Qanbari effort that sent Afghanistan to the break with a narrow lead; one that they would double nine minutes after the restart as an own goal from Mukhamed Askarbekov made it 2-0.
A frantic ten-minute period then produced six goals but with the Kyrgyz Republic always chasing the match, the Afghans never looked too troubled, with two late, long-range, goals from captain Mahdi Norowzi and Mehran Gholami capping off the impressive 5-3 win.
The FIFA Futsal World Cup is an international futsal competition contested by the senior men’s national teams of the member associations of FIFA, the sport’s global governing body.
Since the first edition that took place in 1989 in the Netherlands, the tournament has been held every four years since 1992.
The current champions are Portugal, who won their first world title after beating the 2016 defending champions Argentina in the final of the 2021 tournament in Lithuania.
Afghanistan qualified for the 2024 Futsal World Cup after 5-3 victory against Kyrgyzstan in the Playoff 3 of AFC Futsal Asian Cup in Bangkok on Sunday.
This is the first time that Afghanistan qualifies for the Futsal World Cup.
The tenth edition of Futsal World Cup is scheduled to start on September 14, 2024 in Uzbekistan.
Twenty-four teams will participate in the tournament.
Afghanistan, France, New Zealand and Tajikistan will make their debuts.
Mawj Sahil defeated Sarsabz Yashlar 2-1 in the 15th match of Afghanistan Champions League in Kabul on Saturday, while Sorkh Poshan hammered Maiwand 6-0 in the 16th match of the tournament on the same day.
Sanan Rahimi and Esmatullah Hadafmand scored the two goals for Mawj Sahil.
Yashlar’s only goal was scored by Mohammad Nasir Niazi.
Sorkh Poshan’s six goals against Maiwand were scored by Habibullah Hotak (1), Samir Mirzai (1), Hamir Amiri (1), Omid Rajabi (2) and captain Farhad Alizada (1).
Sunday’s matches will see Istiqlal Kabul take on Adalat Farah at 1:00 PM, and Khadim face Jawanan Wahedi at 3:30 PM.
The matches are broadcast live on Ariana Television.
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