White at his Best as Deccan Post First win in IPL V

Deccan Chargers tasted their first win of the fifth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as they beat Pune Warriors by 19 runs at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium here Thursday.It took an all-round effort by Deccan Chargers for their first win, having suffered five consecutive losses.   Deccan Chargers, however, are still languishing at the bottom of the league with six points from three matches. Pune Warriors, who were cheered by former skipper Yuvraj Singh from the dug out, suffered their second consecutive loss in the IPL and are now sixth with eight points from nine matches. Opting to bat first, Deccan Chargers first put a challenging total of 177 for four in 20 overs after Cameron White top scored with 78 off 46 balls. White smashed five sixes and six fours and added impressive 75 runs for the fourth wicket with Jean Paul Duminy (26 not out) to take Chargers to lead the Deccan's innings. Deccan Chargers bowlers then churned out their most disciplined performance restricting Pune Warriors to 159 for seven in 20 overs.Debutant pacer Ashish Reddy was the pick of the bowlers bagging two for 32 while South Africa Juan Theron also bagged two for 37. Pune Warriors never got their chase on track as they lost wickets at regular intervals. Robin Uthappa was the top scorer with 29 while Australian all-rounder Steven Smith made 26. Pune Warriors batsmen had to blame themselves for the loss as their batsmen got starts but could not convert them into big scores. Skipper Sourav Ganguly (23) failed to make the most of the life he got on 22 when Jean Paul Duminy dropped a sitter at the point. Ganguly survived three more balls before falling to pacer Manpreet Gony.

AP Congress Faces Dearth of Contestants For Bypolls

Like never before, the Congress party in Andhra Pradesh is facing dearth of contestants for the upcoming bypolls for 18 assembly seats in the state. The PCC chief has listed out 14 probabale candidates and 8 of them have backed out citing various reasons. This has never happened in Congress history, not even at the time of 1994 debacle, in which the party had won a meagre 26 assembly seats. PCC chief Botsa Satyanarayana had prepared a list of 14 names as candidates for the bypolls last week. However, Congress sources said many of them were mere probables who are now conveying to the state party bosses that they would prefer not to contest. "Publicly, the leaders are saying that they are backing out because they do not have the Rs 6-7 crore needed for bypoll expenditure. However, the reality is that the candidates think they don't stand a chance as the YSR candidates are very strong," said party sources. The main reason for the paucity of candidates for the Congress is said to be former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's policy of grooming his protege as the sole leader in each assembly segment. As a result, with the sitting Congress legislators jumping into the Jagan bandwagon, the Congress now has no leader of stature left in the 18 constituencies. A desperate Congress high command is now sending AICC leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Vayalar Ravi to Hyderabad this weekend to persuade Congress leaders to take on YSR Congress in the bypolls being dubbed as mini-assembly elections.