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At last Kolkata Knight Riders have registered a victory. If you look at the points table you may notice that they have won two games however the first one which they won was through D/L method thus it was not given due credit since they have lost all their matches except the one which they played today. It was a great batting performance showcased by skipper Brendon McCullum and Brad Hodge. Both ensured their team registers a 7 wicket victory. All they had to chase was the second highest total of the tournament. And with the kind of game they have played in the past games everyone would have thought that once again they will off the field empty handed. But today they came in the field with a different mindset. Batting performance of the players of KKR has changed the face of the coin. Though this was also a match which lasted till the last ball was bowled and thus it gave a great pleasure to the true fans of the game of cricket.

Games played yesterday and day before as well were of the same nature. In the first game Kings XI Punjab clinched the game from the hands of Deccan Chargers in the last over on the last ball. In that game as well it appeared that the kind of total KXIP has posed in front of the Chargers and looking at the past performance of the Chargers in this tournament it looked as if the game may end in the 15^th over. A hatrick from Yuvraj changed everything. Once upon a time Chargers required 48 runs of the 18 balls. With a superb performance by young lad Rohit Sharma the game came at four runs on the last ball. The game the Kings Played 2 days before against Delhi was also like this.

Now the tournament has entered a very interesting phase. Let’s have a look at the table tally. Delhi is safe at the top and is for sure going to the semifinals. Whereas no other team is final as of now. With two consecutive victories of Punjab and today’ defeat of Chennai the tournament is open for all now except three team; Kolkata and Mumbai which are anyways out of the race and Delhi which is already in the semifinals. Now if Chennai losses to Punjab in their last game, they will have only 15 points and Punjab would go to the semifinals with 16 points. On the other hand whichever team wins in the clash between Deccan Chargers and Bangalore will have 16 points and would go into the semifinals. Rajasthan has 13 points and if they win Kolkata in their last game they will have 15 points as well. Now here is the scene to be watched. If Rajasthan wants to enter into the semis they will not only have to defeat Kolkata but will have to defeat with a huge margin to cross the net run rate of Chennai which is almost close to 1 (0.93). If they lose or if they do not score well, Chennai will for sure enter the semi finals.

In a nut shell the games that we should not miss would be Delhi Vs Bangalore to be played on May 19. This game would ensure if Bangalore is still in the race of semifinals or not. If they win they surely win. On the very next day the game against Rajasthan and Kolkata will ensure if Rajasthan is in the race anymore or not. And on 20^th May itself it would be made clear if Punjab is there in the semi finals as they would play their last game against Chennai and the latter would like to make its place safe by winning the game. On 21^st May Deccan Chargers will measure sword with Bangalore. If the latter wins tomorrow then this is also a fight to be watched. Of course then we have the semifinals and the grand finale. Don’t Miss.

The Hunas were a nomadic tribe who originally belonged to the Central Asia. The whole race divided itself into two steams. One advanced to Europe and spread over it s central and eastern parts. The other stream overran the whole of Persia.  In the beginning of the 5^th Century AD hey moved further south into Afghanistan. They crossed the Hindukush Mountains and conquered the Gandhara region. They vanquished the Kidara Kushanas in the Western Punjab, Kabul Valley and adjacent lands and drove them into the mountainous regions of the upper Indus valley and Kashmir. Despite the fierce onslaughts of the Hunas, there are traces of the survival of the Kushana rule until about the middle of the 5^th Century AD. The Kidara Kushana dynasties were completely indianised in course of time.

After subjugating the Kidara Kushanas, the Hunas advanced further into India, probably in about 455 AD. The first onrush of the Hunas hordes was successfully met by Skandagupta, the Crown prince during the reign of Kumaragupta. But towards the close of reign of Skandagupta, a fresh swarm of Hunas poured down into the Punjab and Rajputana and then advanced eastwards and overwhelmed the Gupta Empire. Skandagupta failed to resist the onslaughts of the enemy who had come in large numbers like flights of locusts. The Hunas leader Toramana raided the Punjab from his base somewhere on the river of Chenab and devastated many Buddhist cities such as Sanghavala or Sanghalaya which is modern Sanghol in Punjab. He also defeated a number of local Rajas in Central India and Punjab who formerly owed allegiance to the Guptas. He overran not only the Punjab and Kashmir but also parts of Gangetic plains, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Nothing is precisely known about the closing years of Toramana’s rule. It is presumed that his reign continued into the opening years of the 6^th Century AD.

Toramana was succeeded by his son Mihiragula who ruled for a long period and dominated regions which included Afghanistan, the Punjab, Rajputana and Malwas. His capital was probably at Sialkot. The concurrent traditions represent him as a merciless, cruel and unscrupulous tyrant. The Christina monk Cosmas who visited India during that time speaks of him as a great oppressor of his people. He was all fire and sword and destroyed Buddhist monasteries and Stupas. Hiuen Tsang’s accounts of his travels and Kalhana, the great chronicler of Kashmir, speak of heart rending stories of his cruelties.

But Mihiragula was not destined to enjoy his success for long. His cruelties at last became so unbearable that the principal Indian rulers formed a confederacy under the leadership of Baladitya or Narasmihagupta and Yashodharma of Malwas to destroy the Hunas power. They inflicted a crushing defeat on Mihiragula. The Hunas also suffered defeats at the hands of the Maukharis who fought against them as a feudatory of the Guptas or as an independent power. Though Hunas menace was great, they never counted as a lasting factor in Indian politics. But for the short period of Mihiragula’s success, the Hunas never played an important political role save in the border regions of Kashmir and Afghanistan. Prabhakar Vardhana who has been described as a lion to the Huna deer removed the last vestiges of the Huna power by the end of the 6^th Century AD.