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Sporting personalities, celebrities gather to bid farewell to legendary cricketer

Legendary Australian cricketer Shane Warne's family and friends paid a tearful, heartwarming farewell to the 52-year-old on Sunday (March 20).


Warne, 52, left the entire world in shock on the evening of March 04 when news surfaced that the ultimate showman of cricket has passed away due to a suspected heart attack.


Warne had gone to Thailand with his mates as part of his planned three-month holiday following a gruelling home summer where he commented for Fox Cricket.


The champion cricketer was found unconscious in his villa by one of his mates, who tried to revive him via CPR. However, the Victorian cricketer was soon declared dead.


On Sunday, emotional scenes were captured as Warne's family and friends watched a procession of his mortal remains at St. Kilda Football ground in his home city, Melbourne.

Warne is survived by his ex-wife Simone Callahan, who was married to the cricketer between 1995-2005, and three kids– 23-year-old son Jackson and daughters Brooke, 24 and Summer, 20.


His eldest son Jackson was seen emotionally kissing the coffin draped in a St. Kilda Saints scarf. Shane's brother Jason and others carried the casket during the services.


His former teammates and friends like Michael Clarke and Merve Hughes were among the whole host of celebrities who attended the services and the entire cricket family.


Warne's ex-fiance Elizabeth Hurley was not a part of the program. Hurley had already taken to her Instagram account to reveal the reasons behind her unavailability besides sharing pictures with her former boyfriend.


"My heart aches that I can’t be in Australia tomorrow for Shane’s funeral," wrote Hurley.


"I was filming last night and, with the time jump, physically can’t get there. These pictures were taken in Sri Lanka to celebrate our engagement- we had all our children with us and it was the happiest time," she wrote.


"It still hasn’t really sunk in that he’s gone. It seems too cruel that all the people who loved him will never have another Lion hug, but our memories will live forever,"


Warne, who represented Australia in 145 Tests and 194 ODIs between 1992-2007, claimed a total of 1001 wickets including 708 in the longest format of the game.

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SA vs BAN | 2nd ODI | Exciting final on cards as Proteas draw level with strong performance

Lightning does not strike twice at the same place. Bangladesh, after their historic first win against South Africa in the first match of the ODI series, submitted meekly at the Wanderers stadium in Johannesburg on Sunday, 20 March. South Africa barely broke any sweat on a fiesty track in the early hours of Sunday morning, putting up an exceptional display of pace bowling. Out of the nine wickets that fell in the Bangladesh innings, seven came off the pacers who terrorised the visitors’ top order with pace and bounce. Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi extracted seam and bounce in their initial spell, course-correcting from their poor outing in the last game. Once Ngidi and Rabada were done with their early assault, Wayne Parnell picked up the prized wicket of Mushfiqur Rahim that had Bangladesh reeling at 34/4 in the 13th over. Bangladesh lost two more wickets failing to negotiate Rabada in his second spell and making bad choices of shots against Tabraiz Shamsi. It took a big revival act by youngsters Afif Hossain (72 off 107) and Mehidy Hasan Miraz (38 off 49) to make sure Bangladesh at least had something on board. 180/6 in the 46th over, Kagiso Rabada’s intelligence took over once again, and the star pacer got two back to back wickets of set Hossain and Miraz with slower deliveries. Things could have been wrapped up earlier if catches would have stuck for SA, but they did fine, since Bangladesh were not able to cut loose, even against part-timer Temba Bavuma, who was forced to bowl six overs in the absence of an injured Wayne Parnell. Chasing 195, it was never going to be a problem for the hosts, but Bangladesh did not quite expect the assault that was coming at them. Quinton de Kock went on a crazy assault, completing his half century in just 26 balls, alongside a patient Janneman Malan who was still finding his feet in this series. De Kock’s innings, studded with 9 fours and 2 sixes took the game away from Bangladesh in the first 15 overs as the batters put on 86 runs in their first wicket partnership. Bangladesh thought that they found a way into the game after two quick wickets of Malan (26 off 40) and de Kock (62 off 41), but an 82 run partnership from captain Temba Bavuma (37 off 52) and Kyle Verreynne made sure that SA did not slump. Both batsmen were steady in their approach, but found their range against short balls aimed at them. While Bavuma was caught in the deep trying to slog sweep, young Verreynne stayed on to finish the game at 58* off 77 balls, chasing the target down in 37.2 overs, with seven wickets remaining. This was a must win game for South Africa given the situation of the series, and they came up trumps firing in all departments. However, it is not all great going forward in the series, as they will have question marks over the fitness of three players. Wayne Parnell has picked up a hamstring injury, which should put him out the contention for the next game and the verdict is still out on Lungi Ngidi, who bowled through pain for the most part of the innings, after damaging his knee and his ankle in the early overs of the game. Temba Bavuma also had his fingers tightly plastered up, but looked good for his 37 off 52, managing to go aerial and put power behind his shots. SA would hope that they continue their good work going into the final game of the series, while Bangladesh would hope that this was just a blip in their usual performance. The visiting team would be hoping for a weakened SA side which they can dominate with their attacking batters in the line up. The final game would be played in their favoured ground in SuperSport Park in Centurion, which should not have the extra bounce or pace that Wanderers offered.

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Not a big deal: Pat Cummins on permanent saliva ban

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