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IPL 2025: Mukesh four-for sets up comfortable win as Delhi Capitals close the gap up top
KL Rahul was unavailable when Delhi Capitals (DC) met Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) earlier in IPL 2025. But coming up against LSG for the first time since they parted ways, Rahul anchored DC’s chase with a half-century and guided them home along with his captain Axar Patel.
DC closed the gap with table-toppers Gujarat Titans, with only net run rate separating the two teams. DC’s win was set up by Mukesh, who claimed career-best IPL figures of 4 for 33 to restrict LSG to 159 for 6 after they were 87 for 0 in the tenth over.
LSG captain Rishabh Pant bizarrely didn’t walk out to bat until his team was five down, with just two balls left in their innings. After stepping out to his first ball and missing, he didn’t connect with a reverse-ramp next ball, and ended up deflecting the ball back on to the stumps off his pads for a duck.
His opposite number, however, had a more productive outing. After having taken the new ball and bowled four tight overs on the trot, Axar cracked an unbeaten 34 off 20 balls from No. 4.
After being asked to bat, LSG had another strong start, passing fifty for the sixth time in nine innings in the powerplay this season. Aiden Markram scored 30 of the 51 runs LSG had scored in the powerplay, including two sixes. Mitchell Marsh was happy to ride in Markram’s slipstream.
Markram also batted with high intent against spin, swatting Axar down the ground for four, and pulling Vipraj Nigam over midwicket for six. Markram went on to bring up his fifty off 30 balls, but when he tried to clear the bigger boundary on the off side, he holed out to sweeper cover for 52 off 33 balls.
It was Dushmantha Chameera who had provided DC with the breakthrough in his first game this season. Axar, meanwhile, had already bowled out by the seventh over, conceding 29 runs in four overs. It allowed him to backload Kuldeep Yadav’s overs. Kuldeep bowled the 11th, 13th, 15th and 17th overs, giving away 33 runs in his four overs.
After being on 87 for 0 in the tenth over, LSG could manage only 72 off the last ten. Mukesh led DC’s remarkable fightback with his hard lengths and reverse-swinging yorkers at the death.
In the 14th over, he coaxed a return catch from Abdul Samad, who was promoted to No. 4, and yorked Marsh while conceding just three runs. Then, in the last over of the innings, Ayush Badoni hit him for three fours in a row, but Mukesh bounced back to bowl both him and Pant, keeping LSG to their lowest total this season.
Mitchell Starc also played his part, having bested Nicholas Pooran with a slower bouncer for 9 off five balls. It was the fifth time in seven innings that Starc had dismissed Pooran in T20 cricket.
As for Pant, he batted at No. 7 for the first time in the IPL since 2016, and lasted all of two balls for zero runs. Impact Player Badoni’s 36 off 21 balls gave LSG’s total a modicum of respectability, but it meant that they could not bring in Mayank Yadav during their defence.
IPL owners often summon captains to explain the decisions they make, but it usually happens behind closed doors. Live visuals of the LSG owner giving Rahul a dressing down after Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) mowed down 166 in under ten overs went viral last season. LSG did not retain Rahul after that, and when he ran into them at Ekana, he extended his fine form for DC with his third half-century this season.
Rahul also ticked off another landmark: he became the fastest to 5000 IPL runs, getting there in his 130th innings. He then sealed the chase with a six in the 18th over.
Opener Abishek Porel who scored 51 off 36 balls for his first fifty of the season, and Axar, also contributed handsomely with the bat for DC.
After DC had lost Karun Nair early, Rahul steadied the innings along with Porel. He was on 19 off 20 balls at one point, but stepped up a gear when he slog-swept Ravi Bishnoi for six. Rahul went onto bring up his fifty off 40 balls. Axar started in fourth gear, and stayed there, as DC wrapped up the win with eight wickets and 13 balls to spare.
Brief scores:
Delhi Capitals 161 for 2 in 17.5 overs (KL Rahul 57*, Abishek Porel 51, Karun Nair 15, Axar Patel 34*; Aiden Markram 2-30) beat Lucknow Super Giants 159 for 6 in 20 overs( Aiden Markram 52, Mitchell Marsh 45, David Miller 14, Ayush Badoni 36; Mitchell Starc 1-25, Mukesh Kumar 4-33, Dushmantha Chameera 1-25) by eight wickets
[Cricinfo]
European leaders, including in France and Germany, have announced they are working on a plan in the event the United States follows through on its threat to take over Greenland as tensions soar.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told France Inter radio on Wednesday that while nations want to act if the US moves to seize Greenland from an ally, Denmark, they want to do so “together with our European partners”.
“I myself was on the phone with the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday. He discarded the idea that what just happened in Venezuela could happen in Greenland,” Barrot said.
On Saturday, the United States – using fighter jets, attack helicopters, and special forces – abducted Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, bringing him to New York City to be tried for alleged drug trafficking.
US President Donald Trump’s decision to greenlight the abduction of Maduro led to widespread condemnation and fear that Greenland, which the president has previously said should be part of Washington’s security apparatus, could be forcibly taken.
But since then, European allies have rallied behind Greenland’s sovereignty, saying the country belongs to its people.
Johannes Koskinen, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Finland’s parliament, called for the issue to be raised within NATO.
“[Allies should] address whether something needs to be done and whether the United States should be brought into line in the sense that it cannot disregard jointly agreed plans in order to pursue its own power ambitions,” he said.
Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart, Vivian Motzfeldt, requested an urgent meeting with Rubio to discuss the situation.
“We would like to add some nuance to the conversation,” Rasmussen wrote in a social media post. “The shouting match must be replaced by a more sensible dialogue. Now.”
Denmark has warned that any move to take Greenland by force would mean “everything would stop”, including NATO and 80 years of close security links.
Greenland’s government will join a meeting between Rubio and Danish officials next week following renewed US claims on the Arctic island, its foreign minister said on Wednesday.
The European Union will support Greenland and Denmark when needed and will not accept violations of international law no matter where they occur, European Council President Antonio Costa said.
“On Greenland, allow me to be clear: Greenland belongs to its people. Nothing can be decided about Denmark and about Greenland without Denmark or without Greenland,” Costa said in a speech.
“The European Union cannot accept violations of international law – whether in Cyprus, Latin America, Greenland, Ukraine, or Gaza. Europe will remain a firm and unwavering champion of international law and multilateralism.”
Greenland – the world’s largest island, with a population of 57,000 people – is located between Europe and North America. Since 2019, during Trump’s first term, the president has raised the idea of controlling Greenland, saying it would benifit US security.
So far, Trump has not ruled out using force to take the island.
Rubio told reporters on Wednesday that Trump’s intention is to buy Greenland. “That’s always been the president’s intent from the very beginning.”
House US House Speaker Mike Johnson said he hasn’t heard talk of sending the military into Greenland and the US is “looking at diplomatic channels”.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump and his national security team have “actively discussed” the option of buying Greenland.
“He views it in the best interest of the United States to deter Russian and Chinese aggression in the Arctic region. And so that’s why his team is currently talking about what a potential purchase would look like,” Leavitt told reporters.
Neither Leavitt nor Rubio ruled out the use of force. But Leavitt said, “The president’s first option, always, has been diplomacy.”
[Aljazeera]
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Landslide early warnings issued to the Districts of Badulla, Kandy, Matale and Nuwara Eliya
The Landslide Early Warning Center of the National Building Research Organisation [NBRO] has issued landslide early warnings to the districts of Badulla, Kandy, Matale and Nuwara Eliya for the next 24 hours commencing at 1200hrs today [08]
Accordingly
LEVEL II AMBER landslide early warnings have been issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas of Ududumbara in the Kandy District, Wilgamuwa in the Matale District, and Nildandahinna and Walapane in the Nuwara Eliya District.
LEVEL I YELLOW landslide early warnings have been issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas of Meegahakiwula, Welimada, Kandaketiya, Lunugala, Badulla, Passara, Uva Paranagama and Hali_Ela in the Badulla District, Ambanganga Korale in the Matale District, and Mathurata and Hanguranketha in the Nuwara Eliya District.
Greenland allies vow action if Trump moves to seize world’s largest island
Landslide early warnings issued to the Districts of Badulla, Kandy, Matale and Nuwara Eliya
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