Dhoni Bat For UNICEF Project

Indian captain MS Dhoni and his Sri Lankan, Pakistani and Bangladesh counterparts batted for the United Nation Children's Fund's healthy hat-trick scheme.
Gathered here for the ongoing Asia Cup cricket tournament, Dhoni, Kumar Sangakkara, Shahid Afridi and Shakib Al Hasan expressed their views on the grim situation and wanted everyone to rally around the project.

In his remarks, Dhoni thanked his parents for administering polio drops to him when he was a child.

"My parents took good care of me, administered polio drops and I am here. Children are the future and we need to ensure that they and their mothers remain healthy," he said.

"More than being just cricketers, we are husbands, sons and brothers and we have an obligation towards our community.

It is important that governments ensure that there is proper access to toilets, wider administration of polio drops and that the girl child goes to school," Sangakkara said.

Talking about the situation in Pakistan, Afridi said, "In Pakistan, we need to ensure that girls to go to school and polio too is a big problem."

Shakib lamented the slow progress in Bangladesh.

"We have come a long way from the 1970s when children used to die because of water contamination but more needs to be done," said Shakib said.

According to UNICEF, 45 per cent of the population in South Asia lack access to sanitation and 41 per cent of children suffer from malnutrition leading to three million infant deaths.

Raina Disappointed and looking forward to next match

It was a dismal performance by Chennai super kings batsmen.They didn't have any answer for the questions asked by Bangalore bowlers.Not even one strong innings came from Chennai batsmen and they didn't put up a good fight.Barely able to contain his disappointment, Chennai Super Kings’ stand-in skipper Suresh Raina pointed out that the two dropped catches off Robin Uthappa proved decisive in his team’s defeat to the Royal Challengers Bangalore here on Tuesday night.

“We dropped two catches and also didn’t bat well. I think, we have to relook at our batting line-up,” said Raia who is deputizing for an injured Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

The Super Kings have lost three of their five matches and remain on four points, but more significantly, with a negative Net Run Rate that could come into play in the event of a tie for positions on conclusion of the league phase.

With nine more matches to be played, five of them at home where the Super Kings do not enjoy a good track record, having lost both the games at Chapauk, the road to the knock-out phase is getting steeper for a team that was a finalist in 2008 and semi-finalist last year.

Obviously, Dhoni’s forced absence in view of the elbow injury is hurting the Super Kings far more than they care to admit, especially in the middle-order that has proved to be a let-down.

“Hopefully, Dhoni should be with us in Mumbai for the next game. He is recovering well,” said Raina while adding that his team had not chased well in the last two games.

However, he chose to put on a brave front saying the players are looking forward to the next game in Mumbai later this week. “We have to back ourselves and do well in our next match,” he asserted.

The two dropped catches when he was on five and 25 allowed Uthappa to prosper to an extent that he simply annihilated the Super Kings bowling that conceded 67 runs in the last five overs to move from 104 for three to the eventual 171 for five.

Uthappa remained not out on 68 that came off 38 deliveries and includes six sixes (all of them in the last four overs) and three boundaries.

Raina said the team will be practicing harder for the games ahead and was hopeful of better performances in their bid to get back to winning ways.