NEW DELHI — West Indies fast bowler Jerome Taylor Wednesday signed for the Mumbai Indians, replacing Lasith Malinga who was ruled out of this season's Indian Premier League (IPL) with a knee injury.
The 31-year-old Taylor will join the Ricky Ponting-coached side for the rest of the Twenty20 tournament after the required paperwork was completed, India's cricket board said in a statement.
The Jamaican played just one match for the West Indies, in the group stages, during the World Twenty20 earlier this month when the Caribbean side clinched the title for the second time, defeating England in the final.
Taylor has played in previous IPL editions, representing the Kings XI Punjab and the former Pune Warriors franchises.
Sri Lankan veteran Malinga returned to Colombo after the first three IPL matches without having played in the tournament to recover from the lingering injury that also kept him out of the World T20 held in India.
Jordan cleared for IPL
England chiefs have given Chris Jordan the go-ahead to play in the IPL even though it means the all-rounder may not be available for Test duty.
Sussex paceman Jordan is set to fly out to India later this week after being called up as the Royal Challengers Bangalore's replacement overseas player, with former Australia fast bowler Mitchell Johnson yet to recover from a foot injury.
Jordan enhanced his reputation as a white-ball 'death' bowler during England's recent run to the World Twenty20 final at Kolkata's Eden Gardens ground, taking six wickets in a tournament where his side finished runner-up to the West Indies.
It is nearly a year since Jordan, 27, made the last of his eight Test appearances but fellow seamer Mark Wood's ankle operation last week might have taken him closer to a recall in the five-day format.
However, the IPL will still be in progress when England begins its home Test season against Sri Lanka at Headingley next month.
Until recently, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) barred players from appearing in the IPL if that meant they were unavailable for Test selection and this was one of many sources of tension between officials and former star batsman Kevin Pietersen.
Pune beat Hyderabad
In Hyderabad, Pune Supergiants beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 34 runs via Duckworth/Lewis method in a rain-hit IPL encounter Tuesday.
Courtesy Ashok Dinda's three for 32, Supergiants restricted Sunrisers to 118-8 in 20 overs. Chasing a paltry target, Supergiants were cruising along at 94 for 3 in 11 overs when a steady downpour forced the proceedings to be called off. At that time, D/L par score was 60 and the Supergiants were comfortably home.
Exploiting favorable conditions, Pune restricted Hyderabad to a modest 118 for eight, earning a brilliant opportunity to bring its floundering IPL campaign back on track in a rain-hit match.
Pune reveled under the conditions with pace duo of Ashok Dinda (3-23) and Mitchell Marsh (2-14) rattling the Hyderabad top-order.
Brief scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 118 for 8 (Dhawan 56*; Dinda 3-23) lost to Rising Pune Supergiants 94 for 3 (Smith 46*; du Plessis 30) on D/L method.
Lions beat Delhi in thriller
In New Delhi, Chris Morris' unbeaten knock of 82 went in vain as Gujarat Lions held their nerves to pull off a thrilling one-run win over Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Wednesday.
Coming out to bat at a difficult time when the Daredevils were tottering at 57 for four in 10.4 overs while chasing a challenging 173, Morris played a sensational knock and struck sixes at will to notch up his 50 in just 17 balls, the fastest half century of the season.
Morris (82 not out off 32 balls) shared 87 runs for the fifth wicket with his compatriot JP Duminy (48 off 43 balls) to take Daredevils to the brink of a win before experienced Praveen Kumar and Dwayne Bravo produced brilliant final two overs to restrict Daredevils to 171 for five.
With Daredevils needing 18 runs off the last two overs, Praveen gave away four runs in the penultimate over before Bravo held his nerves with a fine final over to seal the win for Gujarat Lions and propel the debutant to the top of the standings with 10 points from six games.
Brief scores: Gujarat Lions 172 for 6 in 20 overs (Brendon McCullum 60, Dwayne Smith 53; Imran Tahir 3-24, Chris Morris 2-35) beat Delhi Daredevils 171 for 5 in 20 overs (Chris Morris 82 n.o., JP Duminy 48; Dhawal Kulkarni 3-19). — Agencies
