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Rajasthan Royals beat Knight Riders to enter IPL play-offs
Mumbai: A blistering century by opener Shane Watson and some quality bowling helped Rajasthan Royals secure a place in the Indian Premier league play-offs with a nine-run victory here on Saturday over defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders whose chances now seem very slim.
Watson rose up to the occasion in the Royals’ must-win match to remain unbeaten at 104 off 59 balls, plundering nine fours and five sixes to help the home side post a challenging 199/6. In reply, Kolkata fought till the end but fell short of the target, managing 190/9 in 20 overs.
With the win, Rajasthan entered the IPL 2015 play-offs climbing from the sixth to the second spot with 16 points from 14 games.
Kolkata’s chances of making it to the play-offs look very tough as they have secured 15 points from 14 games. They are now placed fourth, but would be overtaken by the winner of the Sunrisers Hyderabad versus Mumbai Indians match. However, Knights could be in with a chance if the Hyderabad-Mumbai match is washed out. Another arithmatical possibility favouring the Knights could be if in the other Sunday outing, Delhi Daredevils inflict a very huge defeat on Royal Challenger Bangalore.
For Rajasthan, Chris Morris (4/23), Dhawal Kulkarni (2/36) and Watson (2/38) was the pick of bowlers.
Chasing 200 to win, Kolkata got off to a worst possible start losing both the openers skipper Gautam Gambhir (1) and Robin Uthappa (14) within three overs.
But Manish Pandey and Yusuf Pathan didn’t let the asking rate go up, as they struck couple of boundaries and sneaked in with quick singles and twos to help the visitors reach 50 in the sixth over.
Pandey (21), looking to up the scoring rate, fell on the first ball of the 9th over, but Pathan and Andre Russell ensured Knights were on course to chase down the target.
The duo, with some explosive shots, brought team’s 100 in 10.3 overs.
But bowling change by Royals worked wonders in the 14th over. Pacer Chris Morris got the better of hard-hiting Russell (37; 20b, 4×4, 2×6), and then saw the back of Suryakumar Yadav (0).
Kolkata were 133/5 in 13.4 overs then.
Pathan (44; 35b, 5×4, 1×6) who was striking it well also departed trying to up the scoring rate in the 16th over.
With his departure wickets fell at regular intervals thus making it difficult to chase.
Earlier, opting to bat first, Royals got off to a flying start with openers Ajinkya Rahane and Watson striking the ball at ease to all parts of the park to score 66 in the first six overs.
As Royals were merrily scoring runs, the seventh over saw Rahane (37; 22b, 3×4, 2×6) running himself out after a mix-up with his partner.
But the wicket didn’t put the brakes on the scoring for Rajasthan as Watson kept on timing the ball sweetly to bring up his half-century in just 31 balls.
The Knights after getting hammered in the first 10 overs found luck when they got rid of Steve Smith (14), Sanju Samson (8) and James Faulkner (6) in quick succession in the space of four overs. Rajasthan were then 140/4 in 14.3 overs.
Karun Nair gave good support to Watson smacking three fours in his short innings of 16 off 9 balls till he departed in the 18th over.
For Kolkata, Andre Russell (3/32) was the pick of the bowlers.
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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