India surrenders No 1 ODI rank

Hamilton: India were today dethroned as the number one ODI team after they suffered an agonising 15-run defeat in a rain-truncated second cricket one-dayer against New Zealand, who have now taken a 2-0 lead in the five-match series here.

India, who desperately needed a win to retain their top spot, made a valiant effort to overhaul the revised target of 297 in 42 overs but failed to cross the finishing line scoring 277 for nine in 41.3 overs, giving Australia pole position in the ICC ODI rankings. The Duckworth-Lewis par score in 41.3 overs was 293.

Put into bat, the Kiwis rattled up 271 for seven riding on Kane Williamson's 76 and all-rounder Corey Anderson's rampaging 17-ball-44 that included five huge sixes as the hosts amassed a whopping 101 runs in 8.4 overs after rain interruption.

India were left with a daunting task of chasing a revised target of 297 as per the D/L method and were again done in by a shaky start and lack of big partnerships which has been their bane of late.

Virat Kohli, who hit a century in the first ODI, again top-scored with a sparkling 78 while skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (56), Suresh Raina (35), Ajinkya Rahane (36) got the starts but could not translate them into match-winning knocks.

Tim Southee (4/72) was pick of the New Zealand bowlers while Anderson again displayed his all-round prowess picking up three for 67 with wickets of Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Shikhar Dhawan (12, 22 balls) and Rohit Sharma (20, 34 balls) wasted a lot of deliveries upfront as India couldn't take advantage of the bowling Powerplay.

Sunanda died of poisoning, SDM asks police to probe murder, suicide angles

New Delhi: The Sub-Divisional Magistrate, probing the death of Sunanda Pushkar, on Tuesday directed the police to investigate the case thoroughly including the murder and suicide angles after he categorically pin-pointed 'poisoning' as the reason behind the sensational demise. Significantly, Alok Sharma, the SDM in his report, said no family member of Sunanda doubted any foul play in her death, the sources said.

Doctors at AIIMS who conducted autopsy on Sunanda had said her death was 'sudden and unnatural' and it was caused by 'drug overdose' which in other words could be called drug poisoning. 52-year-old Sunanda was found dead in a 5-star hotel in South Delhi on Friday night, a day after her twitter spat with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar over an alleged affair with Tharoor.

AIIMS sources said the autopsy report submitted to the SDM mentioned about over a dozen injury marks on both hands of Sunanda and a minor bruise on her left cheek which could be due to use of 'blunt force'. The report, however, ruled out death due to the injuries.

The autopsy report also said no food samples were found in Sunanda's stomach which according to doctors suggested that "she had not been eating".

Police sources said two strips of anti-depressant drug alprazolam, commonly known as alprax, were found in the hotel suite where she was found dead.