Mahendra Singh Dhoni smashed his third Test century after Virender Sehwag missed a world record third triple century to boost India to a record total on day three of the third and final Test at the Brabourne stadium, in Mumbai , on Friday.

With wickets falling at the other end, Dhoni took the attacking route and went after the Sri Lankan bowlers to complete his century off 154 deliveries with a huge six that disappeared out of the ground.

Dhoni finished unbeaten on 100, hitting six sixes and three boundaries in his 154-ball knock as India declared their first innings on 726 for nine in 163.3 overs to take a huge lead of 333 runs. This is India’s highest total in Test cricket beating the 705 for seven declared they made against Australia at Sydney in January 2004.

Pragyan Ojha was not out on five from 14 deliveries as the two batsmen were involved in an unbroken stand of 56 runs in 72 deliveries for the last wicket.

Morning session: (29 overs, 93 runs, 2 wickets)

Sri Lanka did not take the second new ball after 80 overs and continued with spin from both ends.

Dravid, on 62, was lucky to survive. He got an edge and was caught by the wicketkeeper off Rangana Herath in the third over of the day, but the umpire turned down the huge appeal. Two deliveries later he stepped down the wicket and lofted Herath for a huge straight six.

There was tragedy to follow in the next over when Sehwag was dismissed caught and bowled by Muralitharan after a cracking innings of 293. The opener, who hit 40 boundaries and seven sixes in his 254-ball knock, was beaten in the flight by Muralitharan, bowling round the wicket, and ended up scooping the ball back to the bowler, who fumbled before completing the catch. (458-2, 82.2)

Post-lunch session: (27 overs, 93 runs, 4 wickets)

Tendulkar completed his half-century, his 54th in Tests, with a single on the leg side against Kulasekara in the first over of the session.

Both pacers, Kulasekara and Welegedara, kept things tight after lunch with the Indian batsmen looking to get their eye in. Laxman broke the shackles when he hit Welegedara for consecutive boundaries through the leg side in the 114th over.

Just when the Mumbai crowd was coming back to life, they were stunned into silence when Kulasekara claimed the wicket of Tendulkar for 53. The right-hander hit six boundaries in his 103-ball knock before he was beaten by the incoming delivery from Kulasekara and inside edged it back on to his stumps. (558-4, 114.2)

After Sehwag’s vintage display on the second day, Sri Lanka managed to restore sanity as Tendulkar and Laxman took 147 deliveries to add 71 runs for the fourth wicket.

source: rediff

NEW DELHI: After completing 17,000 runs in the 50-over format of the game, Sachin Tendulkar achieved another milestone by completing 30,000 runs in his international career during the first Test against Sri Lanka at Sardar Patel stadium in Ahmedabad.

Master Blaster Sachin became the first batsman to complete 30,000 international runs when he scored his 35th run in the second innings against Sri Lanka on the fifth and final day of the first Test.

He has so far played 160 Tests, 436 ODIs and a lone Twenty20 scoring 87 international hundreds and 145 fifties in all.

Tendulkar touched the magical 17,000-run mark in One-Day International cricket earlier in this month. Sanath Jayasuriya is second on the list with 13,377 runs followed by Aussie captain Ricky Ponting who has a lot of catching up to do.

source: indiatimes

BANGALORE: A silent “green revolution” is in the making in India’s tech hub Bangalore as citizens come together to sponsor trees to save the city’s “green heritage” which has of late come under threat owing to development activities.

The unique programme christened “I Own a Tree”, started by Bangalore-based environment group Eco Club, allows a person to sponsor and own a tree for two years.

So far 300 Bangaloreans and a few corporate houses, including Nokia, have come together to plant around 4,000 trees in various parts of the city — such as Bangalore University (BU) Jnanabharati campus, Bannerghata Road, and the Kanakpura area. The plantation drive was started six months ago.

Chiddalinga Prasad, one of the founder members of Eco Club, told IANS: “The concept of sponsoring of trees by Bangaloreans is to connect people with the trees by establishing a special emotional bond through ownership.”

The programme allows a person to sponsor and own a tree for two years by paying Rs.365.

“During the first two years of the sapling’s life, Eco Club will take care of the sponsored tree. The sponsor can come and visit the tree whenever he wishes. One can also volunteer and help in planting saplings,” informed Prasad.

source: indiatimes

A first innings lead in the vicinity of 150 runs would put Sri Lanka in firm control of the first Test against India, reckons explosive Lankan opener Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Dilshan’s fluent 112 was the cornerstone of Sri Lanka’s reply to India’s first innings total of 426 and the visitors finished day two at a strong 275 for three.

At stumps, Mahela Jayawardene was batting on 36 in company of Thilan Samaraweera (45).

Dilshan said the immediate target now was to reach the 400-mark and then press for a lead of around 150 runs, which would put them in the driver’s seat.

“Mahela and Thilan need to bat out the first session and the ball will start turning towards the end and a lead of around 150 will give us an edge,” he said.

“The main target we have is to bat longer and get closer to 400 and see how it goes from there. We have to good spinners and if we get that lead we can control things,” Dilshan said.

On his own game, the right-hander said moving up to the opener’s slot had done a world of good to him.

source: indiatoday

Ahmedabad: India were bowled out for 426 runs in their first innings against Sri Lanka on Day 2 of the first Test here at Sardar Patel Stadium.

India today played just 14.5 overs and added 41 runs in the total. Rahul Dravid was the first man who got out today without adding any run to his total.

Dravid was bowled out for 177 runs by left hand pacer Welegedara. Harbhajan and Zaheer played some good shot and took India past 400 hundred. Zaheer was adjudged LBW on a delivery that was missing leg stump. He made 12 valuable runs for the side.

Harbhajan made 22 runs. He was bowled by Murlitharan. Ishant was the last man to depart. He was stumped by wicketkeeper P Jayawardene.

Welegedara claimed four wickets while Murli took three for 97. Dhammika Prasad managed two wickets. Left arm spinner Herath took one wicket.

source: indiatimes

The first One-Day International to be held on October 25 at Vadodara for seven-match ODI series in against India. Australia had recently lifted the Champions Trophy in South Africa and they are confident to put good show here too.

According to BCCI, Aussies will play two warm-up matches in Mumbai on October 21 and 22. Later team will leave for Vadodara.

United States’ car maker General Motors announced the launch of its luxury Sedan Chevrolet Cruze in India. The car would be available in two manual diesel variants priced at Rs 10.99 lakh and Rs 12.45 lakh ex-showroom, Delhi. The company is also planning to launch the petrol and automatic variants of the model by early next year. The company also has its mini car plans on track. Named and developed on ‘beat’ platform, the car would be launched by the end of this year and company is hopeful of exporting this small car. Cruze meanwhile, will not be exported from India. The company is hopeful of selling 600-800 units a month of Cruze and is happy with the initial response.

Mumbai: The festival of Diwali is just knocking at our door. People are eagerly waiting for celebration that merely a week away.

Diwali is celebrated in almost every part of the world and its significance along with the exuberant celebration that takes place, is undoubtedly a remarkable one.

Exchange of wishes, gifts, and sweets form the part of this grand festival is definitely heart- touching which completely illuminates the celebration of Diwali.

On such a pious occasion, wishes and gifts become the most authentic medium of expressing your love to the near and the dear ones.

Especially, for those people who reside outside India, wishes can be the best avenue of getting connected to the family and relatives.

A small heart-touching wish on such an auspicious occasion, will make your dear ones feel even more special and surely shall make the celebration much more special sending a pack full best wishes to them.

Aspirations 2020 is a unique platform introduced by Infosys as part of its Campus Connect initiative to bring the best of engineering talent from across India together to interact.

Engineering students from 156 Campus Connect colleges across 14 different Zones will take up the Aspirations2020 challenge with great zeal.

KERALA, ORISSA, WEST BENGAL, JHARKHAND, SIKKIM CHANDIGARH, PUNJAB, RAJASTHAN, UTTAR PRADESH MAHARASHTRA, GUJARAT, MADHYA PRADESH forms the different zones of
Aspirations 2020

New Delhi: Reliance communication has come up with a new plan in the Indian market which would be recognized as a Simply Reliance Plan for its CDMA and GSM networks both prepaid and postpaid customers.

As per this plan the users would only have to pay 50 paise per min call rate across India.

This single reliance plan would be useful on local calls, STD calls, any mobile calling either GSM or CDMA, landlines, all local and STD Sms, no monthly recharge.
This service can easily be started on the prepaid connections via one time tariff of Rs 48 while the postpaid users will pay about Rs 99.