England batting star Kevin Pietersen flew home yesterday after a highly successful stint in the Indian Premier League, as Australia captain Michael Clarke made his debut in the Twenty20 tournament.
Pietersen, who left midway through the league to prepare for England’s home Test series against the West Indies, scored 305 runs at an average of 61 in his first season with the Delhi Daredevils.
He played eight matches for the top-of-the table side, featuring a brilliant innings of 103 not out off 64 balls against the Deccan Chargers on April 19.
Photo: AFP
Pietersen, who had in the past played for Royal Challengers Bangalore, will miss the last six league matches.
“Sad day leaving India today,” the England star tweeted.
“Will be back soon. Special thanks to Delhi Daredevils. And another thank you to the people of India,” he added.
Clarke, who had shunned the four previous editions of the cash-rich tournament, signed up with the Pune Warriors this year for an undisclosed amount to play after Australia’s recent tour of the West Indies.
The Australian skipper shrugged off jetlag after the long journey from the Caribbean to strike 41 off 31 balls on Tuesday night, but he could not prevent Pune from suffering a 13-run loss at the hands of bottom-placed Deccan Chargers in Cuttack.
Clarke has six more league games to help Pune, led by former India captain Sourav Ganguly, finish among the top four in the nine-team competition and qualify for the playoffs.
Pune, owned by the Sahara Group, are currently lying seventh in the table with four wins and six defeats.
“Clarke is a class act and it’s great to have him with us,” said Ganguly, whose international career featured many fierce, competitive clashes with Australia.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but