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IPL 2025: Harshal, Kamindu lead Sunrisers Hyderabad to their first win against Chennai Super Kings in Chennai

Published

1 year ago

2025/04/26

Priyan

Kamindu Mendis played a crucial knock in the middle order [Cricinfo]

A three-pronged performance from Kamindu Mendis and Harshal Patel’s use of the middle of the pitch led Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to win their first-ever match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Chennai, a win SRH will hope revives a faltering campaign.

Dewald Brevis, on his CSK debut, and Ayush Mhatre, the youngest CSK player ever in only his second innings, threatened to inject some freshness into a stale CSK campaign, but the 154 they took CSK to was not enough to avoid their fourth loss at home in IPL 2025 even though they did give SRH a scare on the dry pitch.

In the kind of slugfest you expect of lowly-placed sides on a tricky surface, the batters overcame the conditions only in small pockets despite heavy dew for considerable duration of the game.

Brevis looked every bit the player that earned the nickname ‘Baby AB’, but his threatening innings was cut short on 42 off 25 balls by arguably the catch of this IPL by Kamindu, who had earlier wowed us again with his ambidextrous spin. CSK mounted a spirited defence, but Kamindu calmed SRH with his unbeaten 32 off 22 to see them home.

Despite a first-ball wicket for Mohammed Shami, the 17-year-old Mhatre continued to display his quality through good intent and efficient hitting through the off side. He hit six fours in the first four overs to take CSK to 37 for 1, but now SRH began to dig the ball in and started to make both him and Sam Curran hit into the leg side.

Harshal was the bowler to kickstart the plan. Mhatre nearly holed out to deep midwicket before Curran actually did so. In the next over, Mhatre drilled Pat Cummins straight into the lap of mid-off. At 50 for 3, CSK edged past only their fourth powerplay of 50 or more in nine games.

Brought in in place of Rachin Ravindra, Brevis immediately looked a notch above the other batters in the match. Even as the placeholder No. 4 Ravindra Jadeja struggled to get any fluency, Brevis took down Kamindu, who had bowled the first two overs for no boundaries and took the wicket of Jadeja. On a dry pitch with enough grip in it, Kamindu made no mistake but Brevis still hit three sixes in his one over, the 12th. He then cut a slower bouncer from Harshal for a six off extra cover.

This is when Brevis looked to hit a second six off Harshal. The ball was in the slot too. He got a good part of it but not quite the elevation. Kamindu, however, was too far in off the long-off fence, so it looked like he would be beaten but he flew to his left, went with two hands at this missile, and came up with the ball in his right hand.

After Brevis’ wicket, SRH turned the screws right in. Cummins bowled overs 16 and 18 for no boundary, hitting a Test-match hard length and beating the bat with some away movement. SRH kept chipping at the wickets, including M S Dhoni caressing Harshal to backward point. There was no finishing kick.

If Shami took a wicket first ball, Khaleel Ahmed took one second ball, reaching eight powerplay wickets this IPL, joint highest along with Mohammed Siraj. Anshul Kamboj, preferred to R Ashwin for this match, then bowled successfully to a difficult plan: a 6-3 off-side field with two mid-offs. He had Travis Head repeatedly playing across the line to straight balls, hitting the pad twice and then the top of off.

Ishan Kishan fought his way past 17 for the first time since the hundred in SRH’s first match, but it was an innings that hovered around a run a ball for a long time. Heinrich Klassen, promoted ahead of Nitish Kumar Reddy who would eventually bat at No. 7, felt obliged to take a risk and got out to Jadeja to make it 54 for 3 in 8.1 overs.

With enough in the pitch for them, the CSK spinners continued to stifle Kishan and Aniket Verma. Just when Kishan looked like he could break free, Curran took a special catch at deep midwicket to send him back for 44 off 34. Verma swung a lot, hit two sixes, but became Noor Ahmad’s second wicket for 19 off 19, leaving 49 required in 6.1 overs.

The two overseas bowlers of CSK, Matheesha Pathirana and Noor, were generous with extras but it was more Kamindu’s assured sweeping that sent signals of calm to the SRH camp. It was actually a credit to the CSK bowling that they took the game so deep because even the changed ball was now wet and flying across the outfield.

Kamindu and Reddy didn’t have to do anything fancy in their unbeaten 49-run stand in under five overs. They didn’t try to hit a single six. Extras helped but they also timed the ball well. They got to their first away win of this season with eight balls to spare.

Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 155 for 5 in 18.4 over (Ishan Kishan 44, Kamindu Mendis 32*, Travis Head 19, Aniket Verma 19, Nitish Kumar Reddy 19*; Khaleel Ahmed 1-21, Anshul Kamboj 1-16, Noor Ahmad 2-42, Ravindra Jadeja 1-22) beat Chennai Super Kings 154 in 19.5 overs (Dewald Brevis 42, Ayush Mhatre 30, Ravindra Jadeja 21,Shivam Dube 12, Deepak Hooda 22; Mohammad Shami 1-28, Harshal Patel 4-28, Pat Cummins 2-21,Jaydev Unadkat 2-21, Kamindu Mendis 1-26) by five wickets

[Cricinfo]

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US press gala shooting suspect charged with attempting to kill Trump

Published

19 hours ago

2026/04/28

Priyan

US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel and Assistant Director in Charge (ADIC) of the FBI Washington Field Office Darren Cox stand next to a picture of a shotgun carried by Cole Tomas Allen, April 27 [Aljazeera]

Federal authorities in the United States have charged the suspect who allegedly shot a US Secret Service agent as he tried to breach security at a press gala attended by Donald Trump with attempting to assassinate the US president.

Cole Thomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, also faces firearms charges in a three-count complaint, prosecutors announced on Monday.

In the case of a conviction, the attempted assassination of Trump carries out a sentence of up to life in prison.

Allen wore a blue prison jumpsuit at his first appearance in Washington, DC, federal court, two days after authorities said they foiled an attack at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, an annual black-tie gathering of journalists and politicians in the US capital.

“He attempted to assassinate the president of the United States, Donald J Trump”, prosecutor Jocelyn Ballantine said in court.

Allen has not yet responded to the allegations. Seated at the defence table flanked by US Marshals, Allen said he would answer all questions truthfully and that he had a master’s degree in computer science.

US Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh ordered Allen detained while the case moves forward. Sharbaugh scheduled another hearing over Allen’s continued detention for Thursday.

Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for Washington, DC, said further charges could be filed against Allen as the investigation proceeds.

“Make no mistake, this was an attempted assassination of the president of the United States, with the defendant making clear what his intent was – and that intent was to bring down as many of the high-ranking cabinet officials as he could,” Pirro told reporters on Monday.

She cited an alleged manifesto written by the suspect, saying that his targets were administration officials “prioritised from highest-ranking to lowest”.

Pirro added that Allen allegedly had a semiautomatic pistol, a shotgun and three knives. She said authorities believe the guns were purchased in California.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Allen travelled via train from his home near Los Angeles to Chicago and then to Washington.

[Aljazeera]

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Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar lead rout of Delhi Capitals

Published

19 hours ago

2026/04/28

Priyan

Josh Hazlewood struck with his first two deliveries [Cricinfo]

On Saturday, Delhi served up a belter of a pitch on which 265 played 264. Two days later, the adjacent surface produced a passage of play straight out of a spicy Test-match session. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood maximised the swing and bounce on offer in the early exchanges to raze through Delhi Capitals. DC crumpled to 8 for 6 – their powerplay score of 13 was the lowest in a full IPL game – and were in danger of being dismissed for the lowest total in the league.

Contributions from the lower order helped them avoid that ignominy and dragged them to 75. Royal Challengers Bengaluru completed the demolition job with nine wickets and 81 balls to spare. They narrowed Punjab Kings’ lead at the top of the table to just one point and boosted their NRR.

The carnage began with Bhuvneshwar yorking IPL debutant Sahil Parakh for a two-ball duck in the first over and ended with DC being decimated for the lowest powerplay score.

The Delhi pitch didn’t misbehave, but offered swing and bounce throughout the powerplay. Bhuvneshwar and Hazlewood made the most of it to return figures of 3-0-5-3 and 3-0-8-3 respectively in the first six overs. At the innings break, Bhuvneshwar said that he was surprised that the ball swung for so long. Safe to say so were the DC batters.

Parakh, picked ahead of Prithvi Shaw, came in as a player with considerable reputation for an 18-year old. DC’s director of cricket Venugopal Rao believes he can play for India one day, but on Monday, his IPL debut lasted all of two balls. Bhuvneshwar hit his edge first ball with an outswinger and knocked out his middle stump with an inswinger next ball.

In the second over, Hazlewood hit the perfect length – neither short or full – with his first ball to KL Rahul and had him top-edging a pull to the wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma. Hazlewood pushed his length and line fuller and wider next ball and found late away movement to have Sameer Rizvi nicking to Jitesh for a golden duck.

Tristan Stubbs denied Hazlewood a hat-trick, but in the next over he too edged behind, off Bhuvneshwar. With two slips in play, including a wide one, Rajat Patidar ramped up the pressure on DC and empowered his bowlers to keep attacking. When Bhuvneshwar also kissed Axar Patel’s edge, DC were 7 for 5 in the third over.

It soon became 8 for 6 when Hazlewood dug a snorter into Nitish Rana’s arm pit from around the wicket. Rana took his eyes off the ball and ended up fending it to Padikkal.

Even RCB couldn’t believe what had just transpired. Tim David covered his face in disbelief.

A dust storm, which caused a brief stoppage, and a 35-run partnership for the seventh wicket between Abhishek Porel and David Miller then gave DC some respite.

DC had pressed the emergency switch and brought Porel in as an Impact Player following the fall of the fifth wicket. The first shot of authority came from Porel when he swatted Rasikh Dar over midwicket for four soon after the powerplay.

Miller also seemed fairly comfortable against RCB’s change bowlers before Rasikh drew a top edge with a short ball that stopped on the batter. Batting at No.8 for the first time in his 565-match T20 career, Miller was dismissed for 19 off 18 balls.

Kyle Jamieson hit the first six of the game when he launched Romario Shepherd over square leg in the 11th over, but two overs later, Krunal Pandya pinned him lbw for 12 off 13 balls.

Porel hung around for 33 balls for 30 runs before he was the last man dismissed. He was also the only DC batter to pass 20 and took them past the lowest IPL total of 49. Hazlewood made a mess of his stumps with a searing yorker that tailed in from around the wicket.

With Phil Salt still nursing an injury, Jacob Bethell retained his place in the RCB team and ran away to 20 off 11 balls before Jamieson had him caught superbly by T Natarajan running back from mid-on. Devdutt Padikkal was even quicker off the blocks, reaching 22 off eight balls, and by the end of the powerplay, RCB were 65 for 1.

Kohli got the job done for RCB in the next over with back-to-back sixes off Natarajan. Along the way, he became the first player to 9000 IPL runs.

Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 77 for 1 in 6.3 overs (Jacob Bethell 20, Virat Kohli 23*, Devdutt Padikkal 34*; Kyle Jamieson 1-42) beat Delhi Capitals 75 in 16.3 overs (AbishekPorel 30, David Miller 19, Kyle Jamieson 12; Josh Hazlewood 4-12, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3-05, RasikhnSalman 1-21, Suyashb Sharma 1-07, Krunal Pandya 1-09) by nine wickets

[Cricinfo]

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Heat Index at Caution Level in the Northern, North-central and North-western provinces and in Colombo, Gampaha, Kegalle, Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts during the day time

Published

20 hours ago

2026/04/28

Priyan

Warm Weather Advisory
Issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre
Issued at 3.30 p.m. on 27 April 2026, valid for 28 April 2026.

The Heat index, the temperature felt on human body is likely to increase up to ‘Caution level’ at some places in the Northern, North-central and North-western provinces and in Colombo,
Gampaha, Kegalle, Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts during the day time.

The Heat Index Forecast is calculated by using relative humidity and maximum temperature and this is the condition that is felt on your body. This is not the forecast of maximum temperature. It is generated by the Department of Meteorology for the next day period and prepared by using global numerical weather prediction model data.

Effect of the heat index on the human body is mentioned in the above table and it is prepared on the advice of the Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medical Services.

ACTION REQUIRED
Job sites: Stay hydrated and takes breaks in the shade as often as possible.
Indoors: Check up on the elderly and the sick.
Vehicles: Never leave children unattended.
Outdoors: Limit strenuous outdoor activities, find shade and stay hydrated.
Dress: Wear lightweight and white or light-colored clothing.

Note:
In addition, please refer to advisories issued by the Disaster Preparedness & Response Division, Ministry of Health in this regard as well. For further clarifications please contact 011-7446491.