Wriddhiman Saha and Manan Vohra got Kings XI Punjab back on track after they lost early wickets, and got the team to 111/2 in 14 overs against Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL 7 final at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Sunday.

Virender Sehwag (7) was the first to fall when he tried to pull an Umesh Yadav delivery that was not short enough. He got a thick edge which was easily take by Gautam Gambhir at mid-off.

One over later, George Bailey (1) departed when Gambhir brought on Sunil Naraine. Naraine struck with his first ball, when Bailey (1) missed a straight ball and got bowled behind his leg.

Since then, Manan Vohra (50*) and Wriddhiman Saha (52*) have been at the crease. They have scored 81 runs off 53 balls so far and have been looking good. They have hit big shots and followed them up with cheeky singles.

Kolkata captain Gautam Gambhir said it was a good pitch and would be good to chase on. His opposite number George Bailey said it was a good toss to lose as he was in two minds.

Kolkata named an unchanged side while Lakshmipathy Balaji came in for Sandeep Sharma for Punjab.

 Rajasthan Congress MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma, who had blamed party vice-president Rahul Gandhi and his advisors for 2014 poll debacle has been suspended.

“Rajasthan Congress MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma suspended from party for attack on Rahul Gandhi,” PCC spokesperson Archana Sharma said on Sunday.

Terming Rahul as 'MD of a team of jokers' Sharma had critisised him saying that he has neither direction nor any policy.

Adding that the party was in its worst days because of Rahul, Sharma had suggested that party president Sonia Gandhi should focus on strengthening the grand old party instead of having affection for her son.
"Rahul Gandhi is directionless and has no policy. He and his advisors are responsible for the party's embarrassment and defeat in elections as there is no huge mass support for him," Sharma has said to the reporters.

Further hinting towards a leadership change in Congress after a drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections, Sharma had said that the time has come for the party to think beyond Rahul and Priyanka Vadra.

Hitting out at Rahul in strongest words, Sharma had said that Rahul was enjoying authority as he belonged to the Gandhi family and he did not enter the party through a democratic process.

 BSP chief Mayawati on Sunday stepped up her attack on the SP government in Uttar Pradesh alleging it was perpetrating “jungle raj” and there was attempt to put the Badaun gangrape case on the back burner.

Ms. Mayawati’s remarks were made at Katra Shahadatganj, the village where two dalit girls were brutally gangraped and murdered.

A day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi met the victims’ family, local SP MP Dharmendra Yadav also reached Katra Shahadatganj where he faced the anger of the inconsolable parents who have alleged that the police did not take prompt action in the case because of their caste.

Ms. Mayawati, who met the family of the cousins whose bodies were found hanging on a tree on May 28, 2014, announced Rs. 5 lakh each to the victims’ kin from her party fund, claiming that though they have refused the government compensation, they would accept her assistance.

“The family members told me that the local MP came this morning and offered compensation and all help, but they refused. They told that whatever I will give them, they will accept gladly,” she said after meeting the family.

“They (family) said police had all plans to save the accused which I strongly condemn,” she said .

“There was an attempt to put the case on the back burner and when I came to know this, I immediately decided to come to Badaun,” she said.

“After I got to know that the state government was delaying action, I sent my party’s national general secretary Naseemuddin Siddiqui to the village and held a press conference.”

“The outcome of my decision was that the state government decided for a CBI inquiry into the matter,” she added.

Ms. Mayawati alleged that there was complete “jungle raj” in the State and Badaun was the most affected.

She threatened that if “atrocities” were committed on the people here in the future, she would stage a sit-in in protest.

Ms. Mayawati stayed at the victims’ house for around 20 minutes and said the financial assistance would reach them by Tuesday.

 A 19-year-old girl was allegedly set on fire in Uttar Pradesh's Kaptanganj district on Saturday following a brawl between her father and some men over a  land dispute.

Police said the teenager was set afire when she attempted to rescue her father from the fight.

The teenager was finally rescued by her mother and admitted to a district hospital with 45 per cent burn injuries. Doctors said she is out of danger.

A First Information Report or FIR was filed against eight people under Section 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) of the Indian Penal Code on a complaint by the girl's father.

Police officials said that out of the eight, three accused - Umesh Chandra Shukla, Suresh and Virendra - have been arrested. Deputy Superintendent of Police Kalwari Singh assured that the remaining men would be arrested within 24 hours.

The incident comes just days after two girls, 15 and 14 year old cousins, were gang-raped and found hanging from a tree in the Badaun district. In the last 10 days, three cases of rape have been reported from Uttar Pradesh.

The '57 Chevy was still a year away when the launch of the interstate highway system kicked U.S. car culture into high gear. But six decades later, changing habits and attitudes suggest America's romance with the road may be fading.

After rising almost continuously since World War II, driving by U.S. households has declined nearly 10 percent since 2004, with a start before the Great Recession suggesting economics is not the only cause. "There's something more fundamental going on," says Michael Sivak of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.

The average American household now owns fewer than two cars, returning to the levels of the early 1990s.

More teens and 20-somethings are waiting to get a license. Less than 70 percent of 19-year-olds now have one, down from 87 percent two decades ago.

"I wonder if they've decided that there's another, better way to be free and to be mobile," says Cotten Seiler, author of "Republic of Drivers: A Cultural History of Automobility in America."

Those changes — whether its car trips replaced by shopping online or traffic jams that have turned drives into a chore — pose complicated questions and choices.

TRYING ALTERNATIVES: Each day, about 3,500 people bike the Midtown Greenway, a freight rail bed converted to cycle highway in Minneapolis, where two-wheel commuting has doubled since 2000. It's still a small percentage, but more residents are testing the idea of leaving cars behind.

A second light rail line opens in June. Street corners sprout racks of blue-and-green shared bikes. About 45 percent of those who work downtown commute by means other than a car, mostly by express bus. That syncs with figures showing Americans took a record 10.7 billion trips on mass transit last year, up 37 percent since 1995.

It's been nearly 28 years since the Marvel Comics-inspired "Howard the Duck" hit theaters, and since then the much-maligned film has developed a bit of a cult following that even includes big Hollywood stars. But parts of the production still haunt Lea Thompson, who played Howard's companion Beverly Switzler in the film.

During a conversation about Thompson's new film "Ping Pong Summer," HuffPost Live's Ricky Camilleri asked about the first thing that comes to her mind when she thinks back on "Howard the Duck." Thompson's answer? "Pain."

See Thompson share her memories from the production in the clip above, and click here to watch the full HuffPost Live conversation with the cast of "Ping Pong Summer."

Sizzling beauty Mallika Sherawat has once again sparked a controversy by sporting a tricolour in the first poster of her upcoming film `Dirty Politics`. The first look of the movie was released recently in Mumbai.

In the poster Mallika Sherawat, who plays the lead role in the film, is seen sitting on an old ambassador car draped in a long tricolour cloth. Not only this, but the poster also shows the Rajasthan Assembly building in the background.

According to reports, the director of the film KC Bokadia is surrounded by political pressure from all quarters to change the poster to a more acceptable form, especially since the using the tricolor has offended many.

The film which is slated to release later this year is reportedly based on the infamous Bhanwri Devi case. Big names like- Om Puri, Anupam Kher, Naseeruddin Shah, Jackie Shroff and Rampal Yadav will also be seen in the movie.

This is not the first time Sherawat has been seen sporting a flag in a raunchy pose. The poster of Mallika Sherawat`s 2011 film `Politics of Love` which saw the actress lying on a bed with Brian White, draped in an American flag had also sparked a controversy.

The background of the poster features the State Legislative Assembly of Rajasthan. Mallika Sherawat is shown flaunting her toned legs with a CD in her hand.
 
However, as expected the poster has given rise to a huge outcry from people all over the country especially from the state of Rajasthan.

Directed by K.C. Bokadia, ‘Dirty Politics’ also stars Jackie Shroff, Anupam Kher, Om Puri and Atul Kulkarni.

Last year, the actress promoted ‘Dirty Politics’ at the Cannes Film Festival.

Talking about the film, in her heavy American accent, the actress had said, “It’s about a woman who gets involved with a politician, who was a nurse (sic),” she said as she kept shuffling between ‘hurr’ American and Indian accent, “And how she gets murrderred in the end… here was this woman who actually had the ‘currrage’ to stand up to this politician who kind of raped her, molested her, abused her and record his misgivings and everything (sic), and release it to the press.”

At a time when new players in the Indian smartphone market are opting for and finding success in the e-commerce route, Obi Mobile, which will launch its first devices in the country this June, has decided to take a multi-channel approach.

Ajay Sharma, CEO of the company which came into limelight for being promoted by former Apple CEO John Sculley’s Inflexionpoint, told indianexpress.com that they would go across channels to sell the new range of phones.

“We are talking about pop and mom stores, mobile stores, regional stores and online. We plan to have a larger width of channel and touch all the distribution points available,” he said. The strategy is in complete contrast to new players like Motorola and Alcatel which are selling only through e-tailers like Flipkart. “We can’t afford to pick just one channel. Some specific models could be launched through individual channels later, but not now.”

“We were first planning to bring in just three devices, but as our launch has got delayed we should be coming in with about 5-6 devices in the R5,000 to R15,000 price bracket. Most of the devices will be priced under R10,000, that is the sweet spot,” he said.

Sharma said they are looking at a 360-degree campaign on TV, online and print to make people aware of the brand. “We also plan to give the customer an experience at the store level to convert the enquiries into sales,” he said, adding that Obi Mobile will, however, have a pan India strategy covering 50 cities initially. The company already has a headstart with distribution as Iris Computers, also owned by Inflexionpoint, has warehouses and offices in 23 Indian cities.

“We will not compete on price. What we will offer the customer is a unique looking device with differentiation and we are working with many design houses on the same,” he said, adding that user experience will also different.

The company plans to offer stock Android at the entry level, some user interface differentiation at the middle range and a completely different UI at the high end. “We are working with companies to offer content on our phones to add value to the user... We really need to help customers access content,” added Sharma, who has worked with companies like HTC and Micromax before.

The Superfight: it’s a term used so often these days that it’s become a novelty.

In theory, it identifies a bout that is designed to bring two fantastic fighters together in a clash that speaks to the best aspects of their relative skills and styles.

In boxing, it has often been used to identify bouts that could never happen: Muhammad Ali versus Mike Tyson, Sugar Ray Robinson versus Floyd Mayweather Jr., Roberto Duran versus Manny Pacquiao.

But in the sport of MMA, it is used to describe the dreamlike quality of fights that, while perhaps improbable, are not impossible: Jose Aldo versus Anthony Pettis, for instance.

Or the previously ballyhooed Georges St. Pierre versus Anderson Silva.                     

It’s the proverbial “White whale” of the sport, and no matter how many times such bouts are rumored, only to fail to be actualized, the term endures because there are always new fighters rising to the top; new fights that could answer the question: “Who would win if…”

As fighters fight to answer that question, fans and pundits ponder and posit in the absence of these rarest of occurrences. We question and debate who would win in a bout between two fighters that are so good that they remain nearly untouchable by anyone save perhaps another of their untouchable ilk.

No matter what criteria you favor, you know the fights in question, as we all do. While Anderson Silva may no longer have the title, much of the Superfight debate has been built upon his name and that honestly has not changed.

Even though he lost two in a row to Chris Weidman, he is still thought to be the best because great fighters are not the sum total of their defeats. Muhammad Ali lost to Leon Spinks, when the latter had just eight professional fights, yet even after their bout, no one doubted Ali would be remembered as the greater fighter.

So, we ponder the obvious inclusions, as we always have; this time, we include them all, in one place and at one time. In fact, we will also include one boxing bout—Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao—simply because it has been debated at length in many MMA discussions, which is of no surprise; it is the gold standard for incredible fights that should have been made yet never were.

Last week, I followed TJ Dillashaw as he prepared for his UFC 173 bout against Renan Barao. He was one of the biggest underdogs ever to participate in a championship bout, and few gave him a chance of making it out of the first round, much less pulling off the historic upset.

In my time spent with Dillashaw, I saw a man completely unfazed by the task ahead of him, as though he had no idea what the fans and oddsmakers were saying.

He was relaxed, loose and absolutely confident that he’d be taking the title back to Sacramento. He spoke of all the things he’d need to get used to as bantamweight champion, such as spending fight weeks in the nicest hotel suites available instead of standard rooms.

Where did his confidence come from? How was he able to overlook the long odds he faced?

“Duane (Ludwig) always said he had the utmost confidence in me beating Barao. He isn’t going to blow smoke up my butt when he tells me what he believes. The way he went about it made me super confident getting in there,” Dillashaw says. “And then the rest of my team, Urijah, Joseph, Chad, they all tell me how good I am. Urijah really believed that I could beat Barao.



Dillashaw was on to something. He went in the Octagon and beat Barao from pillar to post before finishing him in the fifth round to become the new bantamweight champion.

He knocked Barao down in the first round, then used the same tactics to befuddle the champion and keep him off balance in the second. He knew then that he had a chance to win. After a dominant third, he realized he’d won the first three rounds going away. Barao had nothing to offer him.

“After that, I was like ‘I’ve got this guy’s number. I can put it on him,’ Dillashaw says. “After the third, I knew I had him.”

The historic underdog hadn’t just defied the odds; he’d trampled all over them and then kicked them out the door. He’d dominated one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world and turned in one of the single best performances in UFC history.