The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have done it yet again! They have qualified for the fourth IPL final in five years. The CSK will play the Indian Premier League 2012 final against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), who won the first qualifier after defeating the Delhi Daredevils.

The venue for the final is MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Chennai has been selected to host the final because the home team, CSK is also the defending champion. The csk vs kkr final is scheduled to be played on May 27.

The match will start at 20:00 local, 14:30 GMT. The live scorecard can be seen here from 14:30 GMT.

You can also watch live streaming of the match here. 

Chennai Super Kings will be trying for a hatrick of IPL titles and that too, at their home. They are the winners from 2010 and 2011. After faltering through the league stage, they somehow made it to the playoffs. Three matches had to go a certain way for this to happen. Among the wanted results was, bottom-placed, Deccan Chargers beating RCB. So, there is no other way but to call their entry into playoffs lucky.

But since then, they have played like champions. Two stunning performances in knockout games is enough evidence of their big match temperament. CSK thrashed both MI and DD in their playoff games.

KKR, on the other hand has been the most consistent side so far. They did not let luck factor in. They qualified for the playoffs with one game in hand. Then, they beat the Daredevils to qualify for the finals. KKR has just lost two of the last eleven games they have played. This says much about their form this season. It is this consistency which makes them the favorites this year.

Both teams have different strengths. KKR’s strength is their top order batting, that includes Gautam Gambhir, Jacques Kallis and Brendon McCullum, and their spin attack. KKR has by far the best spinner attack, which includes probably the best spinner in IPL this season: Sunil Narine. Narine has the best average and economy rate. He has taken 24 wickets, just one less than the purple cap holder Morne Morkel. On the other hand, CSK neither have a strong top order nor as clinical a spin attack. Their strength lies in their strong middle order including Dhoni, Badrinath, Bravo and Morkel.

CSK is expected to play the same team that won the last two playoff games. KKR might have a problem with Balaji getting injured during their game against the Daredevils. Balaji was their best seamer. If they lose him, they will have to change the composition of the team that already has 4 spinners.

Highlights videos can be watched here after the match is over.

The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have earned another chance to qualify for the finals after defeating the Mumbai Indians in the elimination match. CSK is now one step away from yet another IPL final. The third and last Playoff match of the Indian Premier League 2012 will be be played between CSK and the losers of the first qualifier, Delhi Daredevils (DD).

MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai is going to be the venue for this game, which is to be played on May 25. This is the last match preceding the final. In other words, the winner of this clash will play the KKR in the final. Thus, the match is appropriately labeled as the second qualifier.

The match will start at 20:00 local, 14:30 GMT. The live scorecard can be seen here from 14:30 GMT.

You can also watch live streaming of the match here. 

Both the teams are in positions where they have already been in previous IPL seasons. The Daredevils, who have yet to qualify for an IPL final, have dominated the league stage like they did in 2009. And just like 2009, where they lost the semifinal, the Daredevils were outdone in the first qualifier by KKR, a few days back. However, the new playoff system this time has given them another chance owing to their top league position.

The CSK however, have an exactly opposite record. They seem to fire in the last stages of the tournament after mediocre performances in the league matches. Once again, they have come back from a position where most thought they would not qualify for the playoffs. Their qualification relied on the bottom placed Deccan Chargers beating a strong RCB side. Other than this, even Punjab or Rajasthan Royals could have made it through but they threw away their chances.

Once they came into the playoffs, they thrashed the Mumbai side and scored 187 against bowlers like Lasith Malinga. CSK batting depth has proven itself again. Despite early dismissals of Vijay and Raina, the team managed a huge total.

Mahela Jayawerdene will be the player to watch for the Daredevils. Mahela has been unable to win a playoff match as yet. For CSK, it has to be Ben Hilfenhaus, who dismissed Sehwag and Warner in the last encounter between the two teams.

Highlights videos can be watched here after the match is over.

The second match of the three match test series between England and West Indies will be played at Trent Bridge. First day’s play is scheduled for May 25.

The eng vs wi match will start at 11:00 local, 10:00 GMT. The live scorecard and commentary can be seen here from 10:00 GMT.

After the win against West Indies in the first test, England would be much confident to bag the series 3-0. Although West Indies were not a walkover and exhibited good spells of cricket, they could not keep England from winning due to England’s batting depth.

The fourth day with the bat and the end of fourth plus the start of fifth day with the bowl, West Indies posed some trouble for England. In their second innings, West Indies were 67 runs ahead at a stage, after having covered England’s first innings lead. They still had 6 wickets in hand and both Samuels and Chanderpaul were going smoothly. But that couldn’t be sustained for long.

Then at the start of England’s second innings, West Indies was able to pick up 4 wickets for 57, when England were chasing 192. However, Cook and Bell steered England home easily.

Trent Bridge is one of the favorite venues for English team because of its extra support to swing bowling. This would add pressure on the weak top order West Indian batting and some confidence to English pacers.

England is expected to keep the same side as the first test. The only debate is between Bresnan and Finn. Bresnan has had 12 wins in 12 matches now and the last time he played at Trent Bridge, he scored 90 and took 4 wickets. So, there is a great chance that England will continue with its winning combination.

For West Indies, Gabriel is out for the series. Tino Best flew over from the Caribbean as a replacement but there is a greater likelihood of Ravi Rampaul’s inclusion because of his experience. Shillingford might be included as a spinning option instead of Fidel Edwards. Spinners have caused more problems to English batsmen than any other type of bowlers. But this observation is only based on away matches.

The CBSE 10th class exam results 2012 of all the regions will be published on May 24, 2012 at 4:00 p.m. India time. To help the CBSE students after the results, the Central Board of Secondary Education  has started a 15-day helpline.

Check results at http://cbseresults.nic.in/.

The helpline number – 1800 180 3456 – is toll free; and students can dial the number from any part of the country and get the solution of general queries.

The CBSE class 10 results of the Chennai region were published on Monday with an overall 99.66 pass percentage.

Due to all the students from across India will be checking the results, there is a chance of the websites crashing or not responding.

In that case, here are a few more websites where you can get your results. Not only you can get your results on http://www.cbseguess.com/results/ and http://cbse.examresults.net/, you can even have the results delivered to your e-mail inbox as soon as they are out.

This year, the board is expected to announce only grades without naming any toppers.

We wish the CBSE 10th class students all the best.

The second Playoff match of the Indian Premier League 2012 is going to be played between the third and fourth league teams. The Mumbai Indians (MI) will play the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on May23.

This is going to be the eliminator; the team that loses will be eliminated from the tournament. The winners will have to play the second qualifier against the losers of qualifier number one, Delhi Daredevils. The winner of the second qualifier will then play the final against KKR.

The match will start at 20:00 local, 14:30 GMT. The live scorecard can be seen here from 14:30 GMT.

You can also watch live streaming of the match here. 

The Super Kings have a history of making a strong comeback after mediocre performances in the league matches. They are going according to the script so far by losing seven and winning eight during the league. Now it is to be seen if they can continue to perform in crunch games like this one.

The Mumbai Indians have also been unable to play to their potential. Although they have comfortably qualified for the playoffs, they were never able to dominate in a way they should have.

Suresh Raina is the highest IPL scorer. However, he has just managed to score 341 runs this season at a strike rate of 126 which is much lower than his T20 career strike rate of 140. Suresh Raina has always played a crucial part in CSK’s IPL campaigns since five years. This can be his stage to impress again.

In the bowling department, it has to be Ben Hilfenhaus, who dismissed both Sehwag and Warner in an over in the csk vs dd game. Mr. Cricket, Mike Hussey has opined that new ball is going to be crucial in this match. In that case, Hilfenhaus will have an increased responsibility.

For the Mumbai Indians strong batting lineup including Tendulkar, Sharma, Smith, Rayudu and Pollard among others, the Bangalore pitch will have much to offer. It has been the most scoring venue of the tournament. If the pitch continues to play that way, the Mumbai Indians will have an advantage.

Highlights videos can be watched here after the match is over.

The exam results of PUC of Karnataka will be announced by the Karnataka Education Board on Wednesday, May 23, 2011 at 1:00 p.m. at its official website.

Students can check the results at http://karresults.nic.in/.

The results will be published on the notice boards of all respective colleges in the Southern Indian State of Karnataka on May 24, 2011.

Around six lakh students had appeared for the Second PUC Examinations 2012.

The Department of Pre-University Education deals with 1st and 2nd year Pre-University standards. This is the distinctive feature of the State.  All the colleges offering PUC courses come under the control of Department of Pre-University Education.

The exams of  PUC 2nd Year were held in the month of March 2012. The results can also be checked at the below mentioned sites.

http://www.examresults.net/
http://www.karnatakaeducation.net/
http://results.karnatakaeducation.net/.

Students can also access their results via SMS. The procedure is as below:

Sms “KAR12” “REGISTRATION NUMBER” to 56263

Example: SMS KAR12 453236 to 56263

Students who wish to study professional courses in Karnataka have to pass this exam in science stream and also pass in the Common Entrance Test conducted by CET cell of govt of Karnataka.

We wish the Karnataka PUC students All the best.

The Indian Premier League Playoffs are finally under way. First up is one of the two qualifiers that will decide the two teams for the final. Qualifier number one will be played between the league leaders, Delhi Daredevils (DD) and the number two team, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

The winner will directly qualify for the finals and the losers will have another chance at progressing to the final by winning qualifier number two. The dd vs kkr game will be played at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune on May 22.

The match will start at 20:00 local, 14:30 GMT. The live scorecard can be seen here from 14:30 GMT.

You can also watch live streaming of the match here. 

Both the teams have dominated the league this year like no other team. It is very interesting to note that neither of the teams has ever made it to the IPL final. It will change tomorrow as one of the two will qualify for the final.

For Daredevils, this season has been a total turnaround from last year, when the team were last in the league because of extreme dependence on Sehwag. The inclusion of Pietersen, Jayawardene, Taylor and later Warner in the squad has helped in that regard but Sehwag still turns out to be their highest scorer.

The Knight Riders have anchored their tournament on bowling. Sunil Narine has been the pick of the bowlers this year. He took 22 wickets an unbelievable economy rate of 5.14 runs per over. Largely due to his performance, Kolkata has been the team conceding the least overall runrate of 6.99, next to Mumbai with 7.54.

Pune’s pitch has been hard to score at. Kolkata easily defended a score of 136 at this wicket. The overall run rate of this pitch has been 7.34 runs per over. However, Sehwag managed to score 87 off 48 balls at the same pitch.

It will be interesting to watch Sehwag play Narine and Gambhir play Morkel. The top two ILP 2012 bowlers bowling to the top two runs scorers from the playoff teams. However, things are not going to be as simple. There will be many smaller battles within this bigger one.

Highlights videos can be watched here after the match is over.

How to Perform Mantra Meditation

“Mantra Meditation” consists of two parts: mantra and meditation itself. Mantra means pure God’s consciousness and meditation means giving due respect to the God. The technique taught here is that of the Vaishnava tradition of Bengal, India.

Steps

1. Take good rest before sleep. This is needed for sound sleep and to wake up fresh.
2. Don’t sleep too much or too little. The people who always go to sleep with sunset and get up with the sunrise have an easier time meditating. Ideally sleep must become meditation but never opposite.
3. Get up in brahma-muhurta. This period starts before sunrise. This is time of predominant sattva (goodness) which is roughly from 2am to 6 am. This helps to go even further and touch with transcendental world full of bliss, knowledge and eternity, which, is still not formless.
4. Set God (Krishna) as your object of meditation. Our eternal position is a servant of God. Thus meditation 24 hours a day is best. If person meets death in meditation he has more chances to get out of circle of birth and death. Still, even if one is doing meditation nonstop, but knots within his heart are still not eliminated, he is probable to fall down and get low birth like animal in next life. Thus one must be very sincere and serious. God is your best friend and well-wisher.
5. Take bath in holy river. If you live in city without holy river, go outside to closest water-source for pure water. Never use water from water tap as it brings dangerous karma related with animal-slaughter.
6. Go to the holy place of God and saints past times. If you live in place which is not figuring in list of Holy places, go to the best temple around. Alternatively you must have God’s room with altar at home and do your mantra meditation only there – it helps in concentration on eternal purpose on precious human life. Never chant mantra in your bedroom or at least make wet wash in your bedroom after sleep.
7. Be ready to do yama/niyama/hatha-yoga/pranayama/pratyahara. You must follow non-violence, perfect behaviour, keep your body flexible, have a clear breathing and control your body from wanting to do something different from meditation. Only then you concentrate and meditate – dharana and dyana stages. Result would be samadhi – coming back home to Godhead in the spiritual world.
8. Utilize music instruments and singing. Senses are always distracted from service to God. Thus the only way is to utilize them all in service – nice dress, nice music, nice songs. God is not satisfied if you are afraid of His power – He is your best friend and well-wisher. ma sucah – don’t be afraid. yoga-kṣemaḿ vahāmy aham – God would preserve whatever you have and would give whatever you lack. Still, if you don’t have all these, you can simply chant or sing the mantras even if you don’t have anything. But slowly God would support. śaśvac-chāntiḿ nigacchati – You would attain supreme happiness without doubt!
9. Use clean chanting beads (a.k.a., japa-mala). In Bengali Vaishnavism, Tulsi (a.k.a., Tulasi) beads are preferable, due to their connection with Krishna. If these are not preferred, other beads, such as Buddhist beads, Rosaries, Rudraksha beads, or even the crease-lines and finger tips of your hands (counting them with the tips of your thumbs, you can chant 16 mantras on one hand, and count sets of 16 by engaging the other hand) can be used. If you wish to make your own beads, the traditional method is to use 109 beads, including one larger bead (the head bead, which marks the ’rounds’ or full sets). Further, it is good to make a knot between each bead to hold them in place, so that if a bead breaks off, it will be detected as missing. The head bead lets you know how many mantras you have chanted. Bengali Vaishnavas generally chant between 16 and 64 rounds a day. This can take from 1 1/2 hours to 8 hours! But whatever your level, try to keep to a minimum, even if it is only one or two rounds a day. You can always increase later as you feel necessary or ready.
10. Count from the first bead 108 mantras. Listen attentively. A.C. Bhaktivedanta, one of the world’s leading exponents of mantra meditation, says, “chanting is thinking”. Hearing the sound with submissive aural reception will produce the desired effect.
11. Gently bring your mind back to the sound of the mantra.. Do not be surprised or discouraged if your mind wanders. Training the mind is hard work, but will deliver palpable results if you possess determination, enthusiasm, and patience.
12. Have a wonderful day. Performing this early meditation helps set one’s mind and focus, and can enable one to achieve more in six hours than most people achieve in twelve hours.
13. Repeat. The very best meditators are steady in their practice, and do it every day without exception. Consider yourself in training for the mental olympics. If you manage to do this every day for three months, you will already be on the track to a steady, focused life of increased possibilities.
14. Seek out peers and mentors in the process. Regular mantra meditation becomes much easier when you are engaging in the process in a socially reinforced environment.

Tips

• Remember, meditation is never a wasted endeavor. Even if you cannot practice according to the ideal conditions, the endeavor itself will help you to refine your life-style in favorable ways. Eventually, you will find a completely favorable situation if you just keep at it without losing hope.
• Practice, Practice, Practice.
• There are a multitude of good mantras to chant. Some of the most effective:
  • “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”. Sometimes referred to as the “Hare-Krishna Maha-mantra”, this is considered by Bengali Vaishavas, to be the supreme mantra of all mantras. This is spoken in the Vocative, so one is calling out to the names of Vishnu or Radha-Krishna (the all-attractive Supreme Divine Couple) Hare is the vocative of Haraa, the feminine divine or supreme energy/possibilities, whilst “Krishna” and “Rama” are vocative of the masculine divine or the very form of supreme existence, wisdom, and bliss. A web image search for images of Radha-Krishna, or Rama, turns up many blissful, divine icons to help in meditation, though in mantra meditation, it is generally considered best to just listen rather than look.
  • “Haum Mani-Padme Om” This is a popular Buddhist mantra. It can be taken as asking the Buddha (the divine) for favorable life conditions or enlightenment, i.e., the extirpation of material desires.
  • “Jay Shree Krishna Chaitanya, Prabhu Nityaananda, Shree Adwaita, Gadaadhar, Shreevasaadi Gaura-bhakta-vrinda”: This mantra invokes the compassion of God in five forms, and is good for developing a devotional attitude toward the personalities of Godhead. In Bengali Vaishnavism, this is chanted once at the beginning of each 108 mantras (and does not count toward the total number of mantras chanted) in order to evoke auspicious conditions for the mantra chanting. It is like chanting for the sake of good chanting.
  • “Kyrie Eleison”. This is a popular Russian Orthodox mantra, also used by Catholic monks. It means “Lord Have Mercy”, and can be quite a purifying chant.
• Pay submissive attention to the sounds. Proper submissive reception to the sounds will cause rapid revelation of their transcendental character. Be patient if it doesn’t happen right away. Break the mind of its learned habits of wandering, and teach it to focus. If you are determined, enthusiastic, and patient, results will almost automatically follow.

Warnings

• Do not expect, be attached to, or even contemplate immediate results. Doing so will likely lead to frustration and loss of determination. The desired results come as a product of proper exectution of the method, and this most often takes practice. Meditation of any kind is a long-term process. It can take from years to decades to refine. Anything worth having is worth making an investment in. Nonetheless, if one is engaging in the method correctly, there will be some sense of progress, even short-term. If one is not experiencing this, go back over this how to. Try and see if there is some facet of the process you could improve on.

Things You’ll Need

• Chanting beads
• A quiet, dimly-lit area.
• A good mantra or instruction