RCB WIN OVER RAJASTHAN

Royal Challengers Bangalore win over Rajasthan Royals with a four wicket drag by

Left arm spinner KP Appanna and half- centuries from Tilakaratne Dilshan and

AB de Villiers. But Bangalore, who were 62 for 2 at the end of 10 overs, have to mostly thank de Villiers  and Dilshan to put up an intimidating 189 for 3 on the board. However, nothing can be taken away from Appanna who was bowling to tournament’s in-form batting line-up that included Ajinkya Rahane and OwaisShah. Rajasthan’s run-chase kicked off on a bright note, with Rahane and Rahul Dravid putting up a 56-run stand. But Rahane failed to clear the boundary.

While Dravid continued to find the boundary, Owais Shah  and Shreevats Goswami became the next victims of Appanna’s craftiness to turn a good start into a unsteady one at 87 for 3 in the 12th over. And when Appanna had  Dravid caught for 58, Rajasthan were left to fight a lost battle, with the required run-rate high past 13.

Brad Hodge , the hosts’ last hope but he too submit to the pressure of chasing a big total. Other than Appanna, Harshal Patel and Zaheer Khan  were the wicket-takers for Bangalore.

But the day belonged to the 122-run shared by de Villiers and Dilshan after Virat Kohli came in to open with Dilshan. Gayle who didn’t open because of sickeness  came in at No. 4 after Kohli’s bad patch was extended by Pankaj Singh he made just 16. Mayank Aggarwal hung around for a while but was netted by Brad Hogg in attempts to break the shackles. And when a less than 100 percent Gayle was caught in front by Hogg for 10, the scoreboard showed Bangalore in a bother and Rajasthan in control at 67 for 3.

However, that’s when Rajasthan started losing their grip over the RCB innings. It didn’t take long for Dilshan and de Villiers to bring out their unusual strokeplay and the counter-attack mainly of Siddharth Trivedi .

While de Villiers hit three fours and five sixes in his blazing knock, Dilshan was not to be left behind, stroking 10 fours and one six.

Celtics fire Heat

Paul Pierce scored 27 points, Kevin Garnett added 24 points and nine rebounds, and the Celtics made their first eight shots of the fourth quarter to hold off the Heat 115-107.

Rajon Rondo posted double-digit assists for the 18th straight game, extending the NBA's longest such streak in 20 years with an 18-point, 15-assist effort. Brandon Bass added 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Avery Bradley scored 11 for the Celtics, who shot a season-high 61 percent and survived two possessions where Miami could have tied the score in the final quarter. LeBron James finished with 36 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for Miami, which got 20 from Dwyane Wade and 18 from Mario Chalmers. Chris Bosh finished with 13 on 5-for-13 shooting for Miami, which has gone 5-5 in its last 10 games.

Miami had two shots to tie early in the fourth after being down by as many as 18 earlier, before Garnett made jump shots on four straight possessions, the average length of those makes being 19 feet.

A 10-0 run early in the first quarter gave Boston a quick lead - and that wasn't even the Celtics' best run of the opening period. Boston scored the last 11 of the first, the run actually becoming 13-0 when Garnett scored to open the second quarter, and Boston's lead was 35-22.

Everything the Celtics wanted, they got. Boston shot 61 percent in the first quarter, 62 percent in the second. Rivers used eight players, all of them making multiple shots by halftime. Of them, the only one who failed to make at least half his shots was Bass, who more than made up for that with six first-half rebounds.

Here's how well the Celtics were shooting: Miami went into the break shooting 51 percent from the field, 60 percent from 3-point range and 78 percent from the foul line - and Boston was at least 10 percentage points better in every department.

Down by 18 in the first half, Miami cut the deficit to 65-57 at halftime. James closed it with a 3, punching the air as the shot dropped.

Even with that, every moment of the second half was an mounting combat

And the Celtics weren't being caught.

Miami got within five twice in the third, with Rondo answering both times to make it a three-possession game again. The Celtics held the Heat to 36 percent shooting in the quarter, keeping the eight-point lead entering the fourth at 89-81.

The Heat had two chances to tie early in the fourth, after starting the period on a 7-0 run. The first of those slipped away when Bosh failed to finish off a three-point play opportunity by missing from the line. The next came when Udonis Haslem missed from the left baseline with 9:17 left, and Boston's answer that time was absolute.

Allen made a catch-and-shoot 3 for a 94-89 lead, and then Garnett just took over.

 

DLF IPL

Delhi DareDevils beat Kolkata Knight Ridersin the IPL  by eight wickets .As the overs

Were curtailed due to rain on Thursday.The match was reduced to 12 - Overs .

Chasing 98 to win, Sehwag  and Aaron Finch  raced to a 49-run start, laying a solid foundation for Pathan and Glenn Maxwell to score the remaining runs after the openers left in quick succession. Pathan hit three sixes and two fours in his match-winning knock.

After electing to bowl first, Delhi bowlers Morne Morkel , Umesh Yadav  and Roelof van der Merwe  didn't disappoint their skipper as the visitors restricted the hosts to 97 for 9. Allrounder Laxmi Ratan Shukla was the top-scorer for Kolkata.

Earlier, Morkel rocked Kolkata's top order with back-to-back wickets. He first bowled Jacques Kallis  and Manoj Tiwary in successive deliveries and then followed it up with the wicket of Kolkata's skipper Gautam Gambhir, who played a short ball by the tall South African pacer onto his stumps. And the home side was in a real spot of bother when Yusuf Pathan was caught behind off Yadav.

But young Bengal batsman Debabrata Das took the attack to the opposition with two lusty sixes, though his innings was cut short when he got run out after a terrible mix-up with Rajat Bhatia. A Shukla cameo late in the innings took Kolkata to a decent total; however, it was not enough in the end.

In reply, Delhi raced to 48 for no loss in six overs, with Finch and Sehwag swatting the ball hard. But the wickets of Finch, who was clean-bowled by Kallis, and Sehwag, who was caught brilliantly at the long-on fence by Iqbal Abdulla off Bhatia, in quick succession put the match in balance until Pathan's blitz blew away the opposition.

Grizzlies top Warriors Got 3rd straight win

Grizzlies defeated the Golden State Warriors 98 -94 last night.

O.J. Mayo had 19 points to lead Memphis scorers, DanteCunningham scored 13 points, hitting all six of his shots for Memphis, which played with little drive for most of the game but acieved a  third straight win.

Marc Gasol added 12, Rudy Gay finished with 11 points, in spite of going 3 of 13 from the field, and Gilbert Arenas scored 10 points, hitting all four of his shots.

David Lee scored 22 points and had 13 bounce backs to lead the Warriors, who lost their sixth straight. Nate Robinson scored 18, and BrandonRush added 13 on 4 of 7 from the field.

The Grizzlies won the game by outscoring Golden State 28-15 in the final period, shooting 70.5 For the first three quarters, the Warriors appeared to be the ones in line for the playoffs, instead of hoping for good draft position.

The game started pretty ugly. The Warriors missed nine of their first 10 shots, and both teams ended the first quarter hitting 9 of 24 from the field.

The offense picked up in the second as Lee was effective for the Warriors, while Memphis was relying on balanced scoring.

Golden State, which started three rookies - Klay Thompson, Jeremy Tyler and Charles Jenkins - went to their veterans to take a second-quarter lead.

Lee's basket with 2.4 seconds left in the half gave him 14 points and tied the game at 50 at the break.

Conley, who hit 5 of 7 shots including 2 of 3 outside, had 12 for Memphis. The Warriors complete the lead to nine in the middle stages of the third as the Grizzlies continued to look exhausted Mayo hit back-to-back 3-pointers to pull Memphis close, but Robinson answered with consecutive long-range jumpers to provide the Warriors a buffer.

That helped Golden State carry a 79-70 lead into the final quarter, and a 3-pointer by Rush on the Warriors' early possession of the fourth gave them the first double-digit lead of the game.