Apple likely to launch smartwatch this Quarter

This is Concept Watch, may be not

Apple intensified speculation this month when it said the upcoming version of its mobile operating system, iOS 8, will include tools for managing health data.

Apple is likely to launch a computerized wristwatch this fall that includes more than 10 sensors to take health measurements and other data, according to a published report.

The Wall Street Journal also said Friday that Apple Inc. is planning multiple screen sizes for the device, which some people have dubbed the iWatch.

Samsung, Sony, Qualcomm and others have already released smartwatches, but the gadgets have mostly functioned as companions to smartphones, offering email notifications, clock functions and the like. Samsung’s Gear 2 line, released this year, added fitness—related apps and has a heart rate sensor.

There’s been longstanding speculation that Apple has been working on a smartwatch. The main question has been when it would come out.

Apple intensified speculation this month when it said the upcoming version of its mobile operating system, iOS 8, will include tools for managing health data. The software is expected in September, along with new iPhones.

Apple has been under pressure to release new products, as investors question whether the company that popularized the smartphone and the tablet computer is still able to innovate following the death of co—founder Steve Jobs. CEO Tim Cook has hinted at new products coming this year, but the company hasn’t provided details.

Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, the Journal said production of the smartwatch is expected to begin in two or three months at Quanta Computer Inc., a Taiwanese company that has worked on Apple’s Mac computers. Sales of the device could begin as early as October.

Apple declined comment in line with its policy of not discussing future products.

Nico Rosberg won Austrian GP 2014

Nico Rosberg held off a challenge from teammate Lewis Hamilton to win the Austrian GP on Sunday for the sixth one-two finish by Mercedes this season.

It was Rosberg's third win of the year and sixth overall as he extended his lead in the drivers' championship over Hamilton to 29 points.

Valtteri Bottas came third for his first career Formula One podium while Williams teammate Felipe Massa, who started from pole Position, took fourth.

Four-time Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel had an engine problem in the second lap and was doubled by the field before quitting the race in the 36th on Red Bull's home circuit.

Hamilton, who was ninth after qualifying, used a blistering start and earned four places from the start and won another place to work his way up to fourth in the opening lap.

Rosberg immediately overtook Bottas but lost that position again shortly after the first turn.

Massa dropped from pole to fourth after the top-four had their first pit stops.

Sergio Perez remained in the lead until the 27th, overtaken by Rosberg who accelerated for the fastest lap so far to create distance to Hamilton, who got stuck behind Perez.

From lap 30 on, the four leaders battled it out with clear advantages for both Mercedes drivers.

Rosberg remained in the lead for the rest of the race, not allowing a pushing Hamilton a chance to overtake him.

The race once more confirmed Mercedes has best adapted to the introduction this season of the 1.6-liter turbocharged V6 engines with build-in energy recovery system.

Hamilton won four races in a row while Rosberg never finished worse than second.

Mercedes' stranglehold on victories was broken two weeks ago in Montreal by Daniel Ricciardo's maiden win, though Red Bull failed to threaten Mercedes again on its home circuit in Austria.

Mercedes dominated practice Friday with Rosberg and Hamilton posting the fastest times, but Williams hit back the next day when Bottas led the final practice before Massa grabbed pole position -- his first in six years.

Amazon enters smartphone market with Fire

Amazon has introduced a new smartphone with audio and object recognition technology that seeks to make it easier for consumers to locate and purchase products and services from the nation’s largest e-commerce company.

The new Fire phone also adds such features as the ability to render images in 3-D.

The Fire phone doesn’t differ much from other smartphones on the market and shares many characteristics found in other Amazon devices. For instance, the phone will have X-Ray for supplemental content about movies and TV shows and Mayday for live tech support.

Amazon’s new Firefly feature allows users to take a photo of an object, such as a toaster or a soup can, and get more information about it, including a way to purchase it through Amazon. Many of the new features have been available elsewhere as separate apps. Sony, for instance, has a tool for getting information over the Internet by snapping a bar code or a landmark. Firefly goes further, though, by incorporating audio recognition.

“It goes back to the mission of Amazon, which is to sell you stuff,” said Ramon Llamas of the research firm IDC. “It reduces the number of steps it takes to buy things on the phone.”

The phone will have a screen measuring 4.7 inches diagonally. That’s smaller than leading Android phone, but larger than Apple’s iPhone. CEO Jeff Bezos calls the Fire’s size ideal for one-handed use.

The phone will be available July 25 in the U.S. exclusively through AT&T. People can start ordering it Wednesday. Prices are comparable to other leading high-end phones, but the Fire will have double the storage. It will cost $200 for a base model with 32 gigabytes and $300 for 64 gigabytes. Both require two-year service contracts. Without contracts, they will cost $650 and $750.

The phone will come with 12 months of Prime membership, which is normally $99 a year. Existing Prime members will get their term extended.

Competing won’t be easy, though, particularly because Fire’s prices aren’t lower, Llamas said. With tablets, Amazon has been able to beat Apple and its iPads on price. Amazon makes up for that by selling more content.

Amazon is also arriving late to a tightly contested marketplace. Samsung and Apple dominate worldwide smartphone sales with a combined 46 percent share, according to IDC. And in the U.S., Apple leads with more than 37 percent, with Samsung at nearly 29 percent.

As the phone was announced in Seattle, Amazon’s stock rose $8.82, or 3 percent, to $334.44 in afternoon trading.

Firefly is the centerpiece of the new phone. Snap a photo of a book, and it’ll help you buy it, either as an e-book or a physical copy. Listen to a song playing in the background, and it’ll direct you to that tune on Amazon.

It can even direct you to facts and data, by showing a Wikipedia entry with information about a painting you snapped.

The feature will also let you snap bar codes, phone numbers and more.

Another distinctive feature is 3-D images. You can rotate the phone and get a different view depending on your angle of vision. CEO Jeff Bezos calls this “dynamic perspective” and said the phone is basically redrawing the image 60 times per second.

To make that happen, the phone has four front-facing infrared cameras to tell where your head is, even if your fingers happen to cover two of them.

That is on top of the regular 2 megapixel front camera for selfies, plus the 13 megapixel one on the rear for regular shots. The rear camera will have image stabilization to counteract shaking as people take shots, something available in other phones as well.

Amazon is offering unlimited free storage of photos on its Cloud Drive service.

The phone will also come with earbuds that have flat cords and magnets to clasp them together, so tangled cords will be history.

And it will have an auto-scroll feature that lets you scroll down website articles or books by tilting the phone. Samsung’s Galaxy phones have that, too.

The decision to make AT&T the exclusive carrier is similar to the approach Apple took when it unveiled its first iPhone in 2007. AT&T had exclusive rights to the iPhone in the U.S. until 2011, when Verizon and eventually others got it, too.

Amazon’s first gadget was a Kindle e-reader, released in 2007. Although there are plenty of devices that do more, many people still prefer stand-alone e-book readers because they typically have better screens for reading in direct sunlight and don’t have distractions such as Facebook and email.

The company started making Kindle Fire tablets in 2011. The latest models, HDX, are notable for a Mayday help button that accesses live tech support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

With Mayday, which the Fire phone will also have, you see the customer assistance representatives in a video box, but they can only hear you and see what’s on your screen. They can also help guide you by placing orange markers on your screen or taking control of your device completely.

In April, Amazon released its Fire TV streaming devices. What sets it apart from rival gadgets is a voice search feature that lets you speak the title, actor, director or genre into your remote to get matching content on the TV. On Wednesday, AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vegas said his Spanish accent wasn’t able to throw it off.

Federer wins seventh Gerry Weber Open title

Second seed Roger Federer picked up his 14th grass-court title with a 7-6(2), 7-6(3) victory over Alejandro Falla in the final of the Gerry Weber Open on Sunday.

This was Federer’s seventh title at Halle, where he now has a 46-5 record.

Federer had an opportunity to serve for the first set at 5-3 after breaking Falla in the eighth game. But Falla broke right back, and both held serve after that to force the tiebreak. From 2-2, Federer reeled off five straight points to wrap up the set. Federer broke Falla in the first game of the second set, but once again Falla responded by breaking back immediately. With no further breaks, Federer took a 3-0 lead in the tie-break, and rode that out to clinch the match.

“I’ve left a little bit of my heart there,” Federer said after his ninth Halle final. “My big goal for the week was to collect the title, play good tennis and have fun. I’ve done that.”

Over at the Queens Club in London, Grigor Dimitrov won the Aegon Championship with a 6-7(8), 7-6(1), 7-6(6) win over Feliciano Lopez.

Also triumphing was Ana Ivanovic, who captured her first ever grass-court title beating Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova 6-3, 6-2 in the final of the Aegon Classic in Birmingham.

Ivanovic will move up to World No.11, well positioned to make another move during Wimbledon, which would lift her back into the top ten for the first time in five years.

Dusseldorf became the first German to win the U.S. Open

Germany’s Martin Kaymer, ice-cool in hot conditions, confirmed his status as one of the game’s very best by coasting to his second major victory by eight shots in Sunday’s final round at the U.S. Open.

Five ahead at the start of another humid day at Pinehurst Resort, the 29-year-old from Dusseldorf left his closest pursuers trailing in his wake as he closed with a one-under-par 69 on the challenging No. 2 Course.

Kaymer, whose first major win came at the 2010 PGA Championship, mixed two birdies with one bogey in the last six holes on a layout where danger lurked at every corner to post a nine-under total of 271, the second lowest ever at the event.

The former world number one, who had struggled for much of 2012 while working on his swing to develop a draw, became the first German to win the U.S. Open and the seventh player to complete a wire-to-wire victory at the year’s second major.

After soaking up a standing ovation as he walked along the 18th fairway and on to the green, Kaymer sank a 15-foot putt for par, dropping his putter in delight a few seconds before the ball disappeared into the cup.

“To win one major is already very nice in your career, but to win two, it means a lot more,” Kaymer, who took a stranglehold on the championship by firing successive 65s in the first two rounds to lead by six shots, told reporters.

“Even though I don’t feel like I need to prove anything to a lot of people, somehow it’s quite satisfying to have two under your belt. I played really, really well on Thursday and Friday and that gave me a really nice cushion.

“But I would say it was probably the toughest day that I have played golf today …. especially the first nine. If you have two or three Americans chasing you, playing in America, it’s never easy being a foreigner.”

Micromax launches its first Microsoft Windows Phone devices

Micromax on Monday launched its first phones powered by Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system. The 5-inch Micromax Canvas Win has been priced at Rs 9,500 and the 4-inch device will be priced at Rs 6,500 making this the most affordable Windows Phone device in the market.

Micromax, now the 10th largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, could give Microsoft the kind of volumes that Lumia devices have not be able to achieve despite its popularity. Sanjay Kapoor, executive chairman of Micromax, said they are a company that understands the market better and can translate that to their products. “It is time we offered a new operating system and we are the first Indian brand to offer a product running on the new Windows Phone 8.1 OS,” he said, calling it the next phase of their journey.

Microsoft India chairman Bhaskar Pramanik said he is convinced of the partnership as Micromax will leverage the Qualcomm reference designs to bring products at the best price points. “We believe this ushers in a new world of choice for Indian consumers,” he added.

Dr Avneesh Agrawal, president of Qualcomm India, said he is confident this partnership will help make Windows Phone a big success in India.

Canvas Win W121 specs: Windows Phone 8.1 OS, Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor with 1.2 GHz Quad Core CPU, 5-inch HD IPS display, 2000 mAh battery, 8MP rear camera with flash; 2MP front camera

Dual-SIM, 1GB RAM; 8GB ROM, Up to 32GB expandable memory

Proximity Sensor, Gravity Sensor, Light Sensor and Accelerometer

San Antonio Spurs beats Miami Heat on Match 5 and win the NBA Finals four games to one.

The San Antonio Spurs delivered a decisive end to LeBron James’ two-year reign atop the basketball world by routing the Miami Heat 104-87 on Sunday to win the NBA Finals four games to one.

San Antonio, which outscored the Heat 55-29 over the decisive second and third quarters, was paced in scoring by finals most valuable player Kawhi Leonard who had 22 points, while Argentina’s Manu Ginobili added 19.

James, the four-time NBA MVP who led the Heat to titles the past two seasons, scored 31 points but was largely ineffective after the first quarter when he had 17 points.

The Spurs hit just one of their first 12 shots and trailed by 16 points early in the first quarter but outscored the Heat 25-11 in the decisive second quarter and led 47-40 at the half.

San Antonio, who lost to the Heat in the finals a year ago, opened the second half on a 18-4 run to seize a 65-44 lead, igniting the crowd hungry for the Spurs’ first title since 2007 and their fifth overall.

A three-point shot by Australian Patty Mills and a jumper by Duncan hiked the Spurs’ lead to 75-53 late in the third quarter and the rout was on.

Australia crushes Netherlands to win hockey World Cup

Australia retained the men’s hockey World Cup title by outplaying Olympic silver medallist The Netherlands 6-1 in the final at the Kyocera Stadium here on Sunday.

Chris Ciriello’s three penalty corner conversions was the feature of the contest that saw the Kookaburras retain the trophy it had won in New Delhi in 2010. The successive title wins was a present the Australian team had promised to its coach Ric Charlesworth, who had won it as a player in 1986 and as a coach four years ago.

The Netherlands opened the scoring in the 14th minute through Jeroen Hartzberger but the Australians came back strongly to slam six goals to make it the most one-sided World Cup final ever.

Australia, which equalised in the 19th minute through Cirello’s first penalty corner conversion, gained ascendancy with a 24th minute field goal through Kieran Govers’s reverse hit from top of the circle to go into halftime with a 2-1 lead.

Glenn Turner beat goalkeeper Jaap Stockmann with a flick from close three minutes into the second half before Cirielo scored with successive penalty corners in the 46th and 53rd minutes.

Jamie Dwyer rounded off the scoring in the 64th minute when he picked up a through ball on the left flank and darted into the circle to shoot home.

Bronze for Argentina

Earlier, Argentina took the bronze medal, defeating England 2-0, while Belgium defeated Germany 4-2 to take fifth place.

New Zealand beat Spain 4-1 in a penalty shoot-out to take seventh place after the regulation time ended 1-1.

The results:

Final: Australia 6 (Ciriello 20, 47, 53; Govers 24; Turner 37; Dwyer 64) bt The Netherlands 1 (Hertzberger 14).

Third place: Argentina 2 (Paredes 55, 56) bt England 0.

Fifth place: Belgium 4 (Boon 25, Cosyns 40, van Aubel 59, Dockler 65) bt Germany 2 (Zeller 18, Fuchs 56).

Seventh place: Spain 1 (Lleonart 54) drew with New Zealand 1 (Russell 30). New Zealand 4-1 in shoot-out.

Rafael Nadal won French Open for 9th time

Rafael Nadal will carry on as normal after making history with a ninth French Open title at the weekend, with the Spaniard set to make the abrupt switch from clay to grass as the Wimbledon countdown gains pace.

Nadal put his season right as he defeated Novak Djokovic in four sets in the final to end a four—match losing streak to the Serb and hang on to the world number one ranking.

The victory in three and a half hours was clearly emotional for Nadal, who held back his tears of joy.

But the steely Spaniard, who turned 28 last week, is already pointing his attention towards Wimbledon, which begins in a fortnight.

Nadal admitted that the Roland Garros effort used every reserve he had.

“Physically I felt I was totally empty, drained, exhausted,” said the king of clay. “I don’t know if could have played a five set match. I was not feeling well at all, physically speaking.

“But the motivation and also the hope that I could perhaps win this match, win the tournament, the appetite I had, well, these are the reasons why I managed to stick to it to the very end.” Djokovic was also feeling poorly, telling Serbian media that he had vomited several times in recent days.

Nadal’s ninth Paris honour puts his career total of grand slam singles crowns at 14, three less than the all—time best of 17 held by Roger Federer. But Nadal insists he’s not thinking of that particular record.

“He has 17 and I have 14, that’s true. But I’m not really worried. It’s not a source of motivation for me. I’ll follow my own path, then when my career is over, we’ll count.

“I don’t really care that much about the records. I’ll still play with a lot of intensity, I’ll still be motivated. Time will tell if I can have another record or not. For the time being, I’m so happy to have reached 14.” Nadal cannot help but be somewhat impressed by his career Paris record. “The fact that I won my ninth Roland Garros in a row is a very good thing. Mentally it really shows that I can play in a very consistent way for many months.

“It’s not just a one-week preparation. You have to work hard and practise for days and weeks and months. To me, winning is the result, the equivalent of lots of effort; therefore, I feel more serene and personally I’m very satisfied.” Nadal insists that he will got to the grass in Halle, Germany, to start his Wimbledon preparation at a tournament featuring Federer.

The Spaniard played there in 2005 and reached 2012 quarterfinal but cited exhaustion for a 2013 pullout.

“I want to try to play well again in Wimbledon. I’m healthy, that’s the most important thing, I feel. I hope my knee will have the positive feeling on grass, because I feel my knee better than last year on the other surfaces.”

Daniel Ricciardo wins Canadian Grand Prix

Daniel Ricciardo won the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, breaking the Mercedes stranglehold on the Formula One circuit.

The Red Bull driver earned his first Formula One victory and the first win this year for any driver other than Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton. Ricciardo passed Rosberg, the points leader and pole-sitter, with two laps to go. Hamilton went out in the 48th lap with a brake problem.

Rosberg finished second, easily protecting his lead in the championship standings. The German has 140 of a possible 175 points through seven races, with two victories and five second-place finishes. Hamilton remains second in the standings with 118 points.

Ricciardo moved up to third with 79 points, passing Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who was sixth and has 69 points.

Ricciardo may finally be coming out of the shadow of his more celebrated Red Bull teammate, the four-time defending Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel. The 24-year-old Australian now has two fourth places, two thirds and a victory in his last five races.

Drivers had to contend with track temperatures of 48 C at the start, on a sun-drenched day on the Ile de Notre Dame in the St. Lawrence River off downtown Montreal. The track, home to the Canadian Grand Prix since 1978, will get a face lift as part of a ten-year extension announced on Saturday to keep the race in town through 2024.

Mercedes has been dominating Formula One this season, winning the first six races and sweeping the top two in five of them to put Rosberg and Hamilton 1—2 atop the championship standings with nearly twice as many points as third-place Fernando Alonso.

The streak ended on Sunday when the two came tire-to-tire at Turn 7 and Hamilton was forced onto the grass to cut the corner of the chicane. But his car was smoking and within a lap the 2008 world champion a three-time winner in Montreal was out of the race.

At just the fourth turn on the 70-lap race, Max Chilton and Jules Bianchi collided, destroying Bianchi’s car and knocking them both out of the competition. Another crash marred the finish, when Felipe Massa drove right into the rear of Sergio Perez and sent the Mexican slamming into the wall.

Sharapova wins French Open 2014 for 2nd time

She beat Simona Halep 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4 in the final

Sharapova won her second title at Roland Garros in the last three years, overcoming 12 double-faults Saturday to beat fourth-seeded Simona Halep 6—4, 6—7 (5), 6—4 in the final.

“This is the toughest Grand Slam final I’ve ever played,” Sharapova said on court. “Really, this tournament means so much to me. It’s a tournament, when I was young and growing up, I wanted to win.

“To think that I’ve won it two times is, I don’t know. So emotional right now, I can’t even talk.”

Sharapova has struggled with her serve this week and was broken seven times in the final on Court Philippe Chatrier. But she was able to hold off Halep, and hold her serve in the final game, with steady groundstrokes that kept the Romanian on the run.

After Sharapova’s final forehand forced an error from Halep’s backhand, the Russian dropped to her knees and buried her face in her hands. She then looked to her team in the stands before shaking hands with Halep at the net.

Once the formalities were done, she climbed into the stands for some hugs and kisses.

Sharapova also won the title at Roland Garros in 2012, completing a career Grand Slam. She lost in last year’s final to Serena Williams.

“It’s my first Grand Slam speech, so emotionally it’s really difficult for me,” Halep said, addressing the crowd after the match. “But I wish to have many more. But of course this one will be very special for me all my life.”

The men’s final is on Sunday. Rafael Nadal will go for his ninth French Open title against Novak Djokovic.

Neither Sharapova nor Halep was able to hold serve consistently, with 16 combined breaks of serve in the match.

In the 10 games of the final set, there were five breaks. And at one point, the pair went on a run of six straight breaks of serve, starting with the final four games of the second set and ending after the first two of the third.

Sharapova often looked to be in control, even in the tiebreaker. She led 5—3, two points from victory, but then lost the next four points to even the score at one set apiece.

The match lasted 3 hours, 2 minutes, the longest French Open women’s final since 1996 when Steffi Graf beat Arantxa Sanchez 10—8 in the third. It was also the first women’s final in Paris to go three sets since Jennifer Capriati beat Kim Clijsters 12—10 in the third in 2001.

Sharapova’s game on clay has improved immensely over recent seasons, but her serve is still giving her problems. She lost the first set in each of three previous matches at Roland Garros, with nine double-faults in the semifinal win over Eugenie Bouchard. She had eight doubles in the quarterfinals.

Part of the reason for her inconsistency comes from having surgery on her right shoulder in 2008. Before that, the 27-year-old Russian had won Wimbledon in 2004, the U.S. Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2008. Since then, she has won the French Open twice.

But while Sharapova has been a star on the tour for a decade now, 22-year-old Halep has only recently risen up the rankings and will move to No. 3 on Monday.

And she had an excellent run at Roland Garros.

Playing in the main draw at the clay-court major for only the fifth time, the 2008 French Open girls’ champion reached the final without dropping a set.

Until she faced Sharapova.

“I had two incredible weeks here. It was an amazing tournament for me,” Halep said. “I played my best. And I’m really happy that you guys came every match to support me and today also you were amazing.”

Peng, Hsieh win French Open women's doubles

Top-seeded Peng Shuai of China and Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan won their second Grand Slam title together by defeating Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci of Italy 6-4, 6-1 in the final of the French Open women’s doubles on Sunday.

Peng and Shuai also won the women’s doubles title at Wimbledon and the WTA Championships in 2013.

Peng became the first Chinese player to hold the top spot in the rankings.

The Italian team blew a 3-1 lead in the first set as Errani dropped serve three times.

Peng and Hsieh won six straight games in the second set and clinched the victory when Errani sent a forehand return wide.

Smartphone battery that gets charged in 30 secs

While experts the world over are looking for ways to stop smartphone batteries from dying within a few hours of charging, a Tel Aviv-based start-up StoreDot is developing a battery that would get fully charged in 30 seconds.

Based on nanodots, the new battery is capable of moving electric current at the speed of lightning.
This is way faster compared to batteries that we currently have.

“At the moment, the battery design is only in the prototype stage. In about two years, these magic batteries will be hitting the stores,” Doron Myersdorf, CEO of StoreDot, was quoted as saying in media reports.

Self-assembly

To make nanodots, the researchers used tiny organic crystals that were only two nanometres long.
Through a self-assembly process, these crystals were able to form nanodots.

“They possess a natural glow, something that could be used to illuminate the display of the handsets. This will be equivalent to the kinds of displays that are currently in use,” Myersdorf added.

The progress of the battery was demonstrated recently at the ‘Think Next’ symposium in Tel Aviv, where the battery charged a Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone in just 26 seconds, reports added.

Samsung set to sell first Tizen OS phone in 3Q this year

Samsung Electronics Co. said on Monday it will begin selling a smartphone using its Tizen operating system in the third quarter of this year, advancing the company’s plans to reduce dependence on Google’s Android software.

Samsung, the world’s top smartphone maker by sales volume, said in a statement that the smartphone called Samsung Z will go on sale in Russia first. It said there are plans to sell the phone in other countries but didn’t name them.

Unlike Apple Inc. with its own operating system, Samsung’s popular Galaxy smartphones and tablets use Google’s open source Android platform, a reliance that prevents Samsung from challenging the dominance of Apple’s App Store and Google Play in the lucrative market for smartphone apps.

The Tizen phone will have preinstalled apps and users will have access to additional apps through Tizen Store.

Samsung has been encouraging the development of Tizen apps but the numbers available are likely to be small in comparison to the App Store and Google Play.

The South Korean company said the Tizen smartphone has a 4.8-inch high definition display, a fingerprint sensor for security and a “slim, angular” design.

It said the operating system will allow users to browse the Internet faster and utilize applications more effectively.

Superficially, users may not perceive much difference from the Android operating system because it and Tizen share Linux as the underlying framework.

The Samsung Z will be shown at a Tizen developer conference in San Francisco this week.

Kolkata Knight Riders won in IPL finals for second time

K.C. VIJAYA KUMAR

A final of innumerable twists and turns, gifted Kolkata Knight Riders a Sunday night to remember while Kings XI Punjab suffered a heart-break.

Fittingly, KKR won the IPL’s seventh edition at a packed Chinnaswamy Stadium. KKR’s second title triumph — a three-wicket victory — was all about Bangalore lad Manish Pandey anchoring the chase and the tail holding its nerve. Chasing Kings XI’s 199 for four, KKR scored 200 for seven in 19.3 overs.

KKR’s pursuit needed an adrenalin shot right up the order but Robin Uthappa failed to extend his prolific run into the summit clash though he did emphatically drive Mitchell Johnson’s first ball for four. The speedster had his revenge soon and while skipper Gautam Gambhir picked his spots on the cover picket, he could not stretch his tenure.

At the other end, Pandey (94, 50b, 7x4, 6x6), eased the pressure with fours off Parvinder Awana and L. Balaji. The match was interestingly poised as Yusuf Pathan caned Karanveer Singh for two successive sixes and KKR hovered close to the required rate and was placed at 89 for two after 10 overs.

Grabbing the chance

Pandey reached his fifty with a six off Awana and was equally adept at digging out the seamer’s riposte — a yorker.

One more big hit was essayed and on 60, Pandey watched Kings XI skipper George Bailey drop a tough catch.

If that was a premonition of better tidings, KKR grabbed that with both hands. Pathan dealt his usual blows as two massive sixes off Balaji, ensured that the hunt was on. However Pathan failed to get past Glenn Maxwell while wading into Karanveer.

Pandey though continued unabated despite his partners deserting him. Unfortunately, just as he was set to anchor his team towards the winning post, an aching leg and a tired shot undid him. Yet, the tail lasted, as evident in Piyush Chawla’s six off Johnson in the penultimate over. And it was a matter of minutes before the KKR dugout erupted in unbridled joy.

Great stand

Earlier, Kings XI found its saviours in two unheralded cricketers as Wriddhiman Saha (115 n.o., 55b, 10x4, 8x6) and Manan Vohra’s 129-runthird-wicket partnership off 73 deliveries, masked the failures of the blue-chip core: Virender Sehwag, Bailey and Maxwell.

Saha, the first century-maker in an IPL final, initially favoured the on-side but as his vigil at the crease lengthened, equally, his repertoire widened. But before Saha and Vohra could hurt KKR, Kings XI suffered a poor start and stuttered at 30 for two in 5.1 overs.

Immediately, opener Vohra (67) and Saha, buckled down before slog-sweeping sixes — one each off Chawla and Shakib Al Hasan. Later, Saha hoisted Chawla twice over the off-side as Kings XI made up for the lethargy of the first 10 overs (58 runs).

Saha then carted Sunil Narine and Vohra aggravated the spinner’s agony. The third-wicket partnership also had its share of luck when in the 16th over, Narine grassed Saha (on 60) after twisting from his follow-through and running towards the skier.

Narine then outfoxed Vohra but wicket-keeper Uthappa gathered the ball in front of the stumps and negated the stumping. Soon Chawla nailed Vohra and Maxwell but Kings XI prospered upon Saha’s fiery effort. The tale then inexorably changed during a tense night.

Scoreboard

Kings XI Punjab: Virender Sehwag c Gambhir b U Yadav 7; Manan Vohra c & b Chawla 67; George Bailey b Narine 1; Wriddhiman Saha not out 115; Glenn Maxwell c Morkel b Chawla 0; David Miller not out 1; Extras: (LB-4, W-3, NB-1) 8

Total: (for 4 wickets in 20 overs) 199

Fall of wickets: 1—23, 2—30, 3—159, 4—170

Bowling: Morkel 4—0—40—0, Umesh Yadav 4—0—39—1, Narine 4—0—46—1, Shakib 4—0—26—0, Chawla 4—0—44—2

Kolkata Knight Riders: R Uthappa c Patel b Johnson 5; G Gambhir c Miller b Karanveer 23; M Pandey c Bailey b Karanveer 94; Y Pathan c Maxwell b Karanveer 36; Shakib run out (Bailey) 12; RN ten Doeschate c Miller b Karanveer 4; S Yadav c Vohra b Johnson 5; P Chawla not out 13; SP Narine not out 2; Extras (w—6) 6

Total (For 7 wickets; 19.3 overs) 200

Fall of wickets: 1—6, 2—59, 3—130, 4—156, 5—168, 6—179, 7—187

Bowling: Johnson 4—0—41—2, Balaji 4—0—41—0, Awana 3.3—0—43—0, Karanveer 4—0—54—4, Patel 4—0—21—0.

Man-of-the-match: Manish Pandey