Chris Morris returns a four-wicket haul as Rajasthan Royals restrict KKR to 133/9
Mumbai, Apr 24: Chris Morris was effective at the death yet again as Rajasthan Royals pacers combined accuracy and guile to restrict Kolkata Knight Riders to 133 for nine in the IPL here on Saturday.
Royals pacers, who were smart with change of pace pace, stifled the KKR batsmen who could not find a way to deal with it after being put in to bat.
Chris Morris, the most expensive player in the IPL auction history, proved his worth with a four-wicket haul.
The other pacers, Jaydev Unadkat (1/25), Chetan Sakariya (1/31) and Mustafizur Rahman (1/22), were also impressive.
KKR were not able to find rhythm in their underwhelming innings.
The highly rated Shubman Gill (11) disappointed yet again. He was dropped before his uncomfortable stay in the middle finally ended with a run out off a brilliant direct hit from Jos Buttler.
The Royals pacers were impressive with their variations and did not offer the batsmen any freebies in the powerplay as KKR laboured to 25 for one in six overs.
It became 45 for two in the eighth over when Gill's opening partner Nitish Rana (22) made room to cut a wide ball off Sakariya but the extra bounce led to his downfall as he ended up edging it to the wicketkeeper.
Skipper Eoin Morgan sent Sunil Narine ahead of himself to give the innings a much needed boost but it did not work with the West Indian departing after hitting one boundary, leaving KKR at 55 for three in 10 overs.
KKR's troubles worsened after Morgan got run out without facing a ball following a bad mix-up with Rahul Tripathi (36 off 26).
Their most destructive batsman Andre Russell had to wait till the 16th over to get into the middle with the innings not going anywhere at 94 for five.
Dinesh Karthik (25) came up with some badly needed boundaries in his bid to improve the scoring rate.
Russell smashed a straight six off Morris in the fifth ball he faced but that remained his only big hit of the night.
Morris removed both Russell and Karthik in the same over which allowed Royals to limit KKR to under 140.
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Melinda French Gates resigns as Gates Foundation co-chair, 3 years after her divorce from Bill Gates
New York, May 13: Melinda French Gates will step down as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the nonprofit she and her ex-husband Bill Gates founded and built into one of the world's largest philanthropic organisations over the past 20 years.
“This is not a decision I came to lightly,” French Gates posted on the X platform on Monday. “I am immensely proud of the foundation that Bill and I built together and of the extraordinary work it is doing to address inequities around the world.”
She praised the foundation's CEO, Mark Suzman, and the foundation's board of trustees, which was significantly expanded after the couple announced their divorce in May 2021.
“The time is right for me to move forward into the next chapter of my philanthropy,” French Gates wrote in her statement. She organises some of her investments and philanthropic gifts through her organisation, Pivotal Ventures, which is not a nonprofit.
Bill Gates thanked French Gates for her “critical” contributions to the foundations in a statement, saying, “I am sorry to see her leave, but I am sure she will have a huge impact in her future philanthropic work.”
French Gates will receive $12.5 billion as part of her agreement with Gates, which she said would commit to future work focused on women and families.
The Gates Foundation did not immediately return a request for comment about whether those assets would come from the foundation itself. In an emailed statement, the foundation said that Suzman announced the decision to employees on Monday.
“After a difficult few years watching women's rights rolled back in the US and around the world, she wants to use this next chapter to focus specifically on altering that trajectory,” Suzman said of French Gates.
Suzman said he knew many had joined the foundation in part because of their admiration for her advocacy, especially around gender equity.
“I know how beloved Melinda is here,” Suzman wrote.
The Gates Foundation holds $75.2 billion in its endowment as of December 2023, and announced in January, it planned to spend $8.6 billion through the course of its work in 2024.
The Associated Press receives financial support for news coverage in Africa from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and for news coverage of women in the workforce from Pivotal Ventures.
