TUESDAY, MAY 31, 2016 SPORTS Five things we learned from the IPL BANGALORE: Five things we learned ninth edition of the IPL provided it. from the ninth edition of the Indian Records tumbled and sixes rained. Virat Premier League, after Sunrisers Kohli smashed the record for the most Hyderabad beat Royal Challengers runs in a single season by more than Bangalore in Sunday’s final: 200, finishing on 973, while David Warner blitzed 848. With four centuries Warner comes of age and seven fifties, Kohli also became the Australia’s David Warner showed a all-time leading run-scorer in IPL. Kohli maturity belying his controversy-fuelled also topped the all-time sixes chart in a past to captain Sunrisers Hyderabad to single season with 38 hits over the fence. their maiden IPL title, suggesting he is He and AB de Villiers recorded the high- coming of age as a cricketer. Off-field est ever T20 partnership with 229. exploits, including a bar-room punch on England’s Joe Root in 2013, have often Never write off Gayle captured the headlines but Warner took The big-hitting West Indian bounced this season’s IPL by storm with 848 runs. back from being dropped and yet anoth- The 29-year-old opener’s leadership er sexism controversy to prove that he’s skills were praised by Virat Kohli, the still one of short-form cricket’s most captain of losing finalists Royal destructive batsmen. Gayle warmed the Challengers Bangalore, who said Warner Royal Bangalore Challengers bench for a “has come a long way as a leader in this couple of fixtures after scores of one, tournament”. nought and seven. He was dropped a second time after scoring only five, and Kohli ready to step up was embroiled in controversy when he Indian Test captain Virat Kohli proved told a female journalist he had “a very, he’s also ready to add the job of limited- very big bat”. He came good at the busi- overs skipper to his international respon- ness end of the season though, notching sibilities. The Royal Challengers two half-centuries including a blazing 76 Bangalore captain rewrote the record in the final. books, scoring 973 runs in 16 matches, as he guided his side to the IPL final. ‘The Fizz’ bubbles to the top Kohli, 27, relishes the added pressure Bangladesh’s left-arm pacer that comes with being captain, stirring Mustafizur Rahman is tipped to be the speculation about when he might suc- next big thing in world cricket. Hailing CHESTER LE STREET: England’s Alastair Cook stands in middle after reaching 10,000 test runs during the match against Sri Lanka on day four ceed Mahendra Singh Dhoni as India’s from a small village, the 20-year-old of the second cricket Test match at the Emirates Riverside. — AFP T20 and ODI skipper. Dhoni’s leadership sealed a lucrative IPL contract with skills also appear to be on the wane-his Sunrisers Hyderabad. Nicknamed “The Rising Pune Supergiants side finished Fizz”, Mustafizur grabbed the opportuni- second bottom of the IPL table. ty with both hands to be declared the Record-breaker Cook leads emerging player of the tournament with It’s still a batsman’s game 17 scalps for his title-winning side. Few If more proof was needed that T20 expect this young star to go flat in com- cricket was a batsman’s game then the ing years. —AFP England to series victory CHESTER-LE-STREET: Alastair Cook became the was his sixth hundred in 27 Tests but first out- third man saw the 26-year-old Chandimal to a first England batsman to score 10,000 Test runs side Asia. He received excellent support from 172-ball hundred including 11 fours. Warner lauds Hyderabad as his side sealed a series win over Sri Lanka at Rangana Herath (61) in seventh-wicket stand of Chandimal ended the session in style by cov- the Riverside yesterday. England won the sec- 116. Sri Lanka resumed on 309 for five, 88 runs er-driving Woakes for four off the last ball after maiden IPL victory ond Test by nine wickets with more than a day adrift of England’s 498 for nine declared built before lunch. Herath, dropped in the deep by to spare to go an unassailable 2-0 up in the around Moeen Ali’s Test-best 155 not out. James Vince off Anderson on 46, completed an BANGALORE: Captain David Warner hailed Cutting finishing with 2-35. three-match series. Chandimal was 54 not out overnight and 87-ball fifty with six fours. The 38-year-old, who Sunrisers Hyderabad for staying cool in the Earlier Warner’s 38-ball 69, which was Set 79 for victory after making Sri Lanka fol- Milinda Siriwardana unbeaten on 35 after Sri earlier in this match took his 300th Test wicket, heat of an Indian Premier League final to laced with eight fours and three sixes, laid a low-on, England finished on 80 for one. Left- Lanka captain Angelo Mathews (80) and eventually fell when Anderson, taking the field- claim their maiden title at the home of solid foundation for Hyderabad before handed opener Cook was 47 not out and Nick Kaushal Silva (60) initially kept England at bay. ers out of the equation, had him lbw from opponents Royal Challengers Bangalore. Cutting swelled the total with an unbeaten Compton, who hit the winning runs 22 not out. Play began yesterday under a heavily grey sky. round the wicket to claim his 450th scalp in the Hyderabad, defending 208 to win at M 39 off 15 balls. The left-handed Warner, His innings saw Cook score the five he needed The cloud cover promised ideal conditions for five-day game. Chinnaswamy stadium, survived a deadly who accumulated 848 runs in 17 matches, to become just the 12th player of all time to England pacemen James Anderson and Stuart Anderson, already England’s all-time leading opening blitz from big-hitting West Indian was the driving force behind Hyderabad’s make 10,000 Test runs. Broad, who were just four overs into a spell with Test wicket-taker, then bowled Shaminda Chris Gayle to eke out an eight-run victory title-winning season but he singled out a Fellow opener Alex Hales was 10 not out. the new ball. Eranga. His return of five for 58 was the 21st late on Sunday. number of his team-mates for praise. Cook reached the landmark when he clipped Siriwardana had not added a run to his time Anderson had taken five or more wickets Australian Warner led by example after Nuwan Pradeep for four through mid-wicket, overnight score when he edged Anderson in an innings his 115 Test-career. Chandimal’s winning the toss and electing to bat, hit- ‘Phenomenal’ Kohli having got off the mark with an edged single straight to Alex Hales at gully to end a stand more than five-hour innings ended when he ting a sparkling half-century-his ninth of “It takes a team to win a tournament,” he against left-arm spinner Rangana Herath. At 31 worth 92. Chandimal, however, cover-drove was bowled driving at Stuart Broad. But Sri the IPL season-as Hyderabad posted a mas- said. “The plus that I had was I had two years and 157 days he was the youngest player Broad for four and late-cut Anderson behind Lanka’s batsmen had at least restored some sive 208. But Gayle came out with all guns international captains (Kane Williamson ever to achieve the feat, beating the previous point for another boundary. But he was lucky pride. Their first innings 101 all out meant they blazing, hitting four fours and eight sixes in and Eoin Morgan) with me. “I would also record of India great Sachin Tendulkar (31 years on 69 when he got an inside edge off became the first side since New Zealand in a 38-ball 76. He put together a 114-run credit Bhuvneshwar Kumar and rising and 326 days). Anderson only for diving wicket-keeper Jonny England back in 1958 to be bowled out for opening stand with Virat Kohli (54) to give Bangladesh star Mustafizur Rahman for Bairstow to spill the catch despite getting under 120 in three successive Test innings. Sri Bangalore hope, but Hyderabad’s bowlers their contributions,” the skipper added. Chandimal century both gloves to the ball. Lanka managed meager totals of 91 and 119 stayed focused. Kumar finished as the tournament’s Earlier, Dinesh Chandimal’s excellent hun- Chandimal went into the 90s when he during an innings and 88-run defeat in the “A guy like Chris Gayle, he is always leading wicket-taker with 23, while dred kept England waiting as Sri Lanka made hooked fast bowler Steven Finn to the fine leg series opener at Headingley. The third and final going to keep going. The hardest thing is to Rahman grabbed 17. Bangalore coach 475 in their second innings. Chandimal’s 126 boundary. An edged boundary off Woakes to Test starts at Lord’s on June 9. —AFP try and maintain our composure while he is Daniel Vettori heaped praise on Indian star going and playing like this,” Warner told Kohli, who re-wrote the record books this reporters. “So for us it was about staying IPL season but still ended up on the losing composed and having belief and that’s side. Kohli surpassed Gujarat Lions captain A look at Justin Gatlin’s what the players showed when we were Suresh Raina to become the all-time lead- out there,” he added.