Latest News
IPL 2025: Mumbai Indians survive Nair storm, snap Delhi Capital’s winning run in a thriller
Mumbai Indians snapped back to form with a thrilling 12-run win defending 205 against Delhi Capitals. Karun Nair’s 40-ball 89 had threatened to take the game away from MI after Tilak Varma’s 59 had headlined their innings. But the bowlers pulled things back dramatically in the second half of the defence to pocket a memorable win and clip the Capitals’ four-game winning start to IPL 2025
Where was the game won?
MI managed to keep their nerve even after the blistering assault upfront from Karun Nair. Through the second half of the innings, they kept striking in every over bar two to drag the game back in their favour. MI got the ball changed after the 13th over and it helped their two key architects of the win – Karn Sharma and left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner, who picked four of the five wickets when Delhi collapsed from 119/1 to 160/6. They capped off that good work by three run outs in the penultimate over.
MUMBAI INDIANS
Powerplay – MI show intent but DC keep them in check
Phase Score – 59/1 (RR: 9.83; 4s/6s: 7/3)
A score of 59 was the result of a couple of big overs inside the PowerPlay for Mumbai Indians. Mitchell Starc, searching for swing, erred on the fuller lengths and was hit away for 30 runs in his first couple of overs by Ryan Rickelton and Rohit Sharma. The former was adept at covering for the swing and launched a couple of eye-catching shots – a flick and a cover drive – to get going. Sharma, meanwhile, hit Starc through the offside and even attempted a lap which was a top-edge that went for a six. Mukesh Kumar, in comparison, was more difficult to put away from the hard lengths for MI and conceded 27 in his three overs in the PowerPlay. Additionally, legspinner Vipraj Nigam struck gold, getting Rohit Sharma LBW in his first over which went for just two. But Suryakumar Yadav, coming in at No 3 for this game, announced his intentions with a six off the first ball he faced complementing the aggressive Rickelton.
Middle overs – Tilak, Suryakumar keep MI going
Phase Score – 87/3 (RR:9.66; 4s/6s: 8/5)
Delhi threatened to come back into the game with the spinners coming into play. Kuldeep Yadav got the better of Rickelton with a googly, dismissing him for a 21-ball 45 soon after the PowerPlay was done. With the turn on offer, Delhi had a chance to squeeze MI more. But Tilak, like Suryakumar, got going with a boundary off his first ball. The duo managed to get at least one boundary in every over of their partnership – 60 off 33 balls. While Suryakumar struggled with the momentum initially, getting to 29 off 24 at one stage, he managed to up his strike-rate with a six and four off Nigam to get into the forties. But just as he was getting into the groove, Kuldeep Yadav hit back for Delhi getting Suryakumar caught at long off. Delhi had it even better when Nigam got Hardik Pandya similarly in the following over even as Tilak kept going strong at one end.
Death overs – Naman Dhir provides the finishing touches
Phase Score – 59/1 (RR: 11.8; 4s/6s: 6/2)
Kuldeep finished with exceptional figures of 4-0-23-2 and started the last five overs with a tight one giving away only eight. But Tilak got to his fifty – his eighth in the IPL – off just 26 balls and looked set to shift gears. However, it was his partner Naman Dhir that proved to be the biggest thorn in Delhi’s flesh. In a 62-run stand with Tilak, Naman Dhir was the aggressor hitting a 17-ball 38 that took MI past the 200-run mark. The young batter used the angles well, picking up useful boundaries with the lap shot as well to provide MI a good finish.
DELHI CAPITALS
Powerplay – Karun Nair makes a stunning appearance
Phase Score – 72/1 (RR: 12; 4s/6s: 10/2)
Playing the match as an Impact Sub after Faf du Plessis’ injury, Karun Nair, who had not played an IPL game since 2022, was required to come in just after the first ball of the innings. Jake Fraser-McGurk had chipped the first ball from Deepak Chahar straight to cover and Nair had to dig out a big inswinging yorker from Chahar first-up. He dealt with that and then proceeded to unleash a stunning attack on Mumbai’s No. 1 bowler Jasprit Bumrah. Nair got to a 22-ball fifty hitting eight fours and two sixes. 26 off his first 50 runs had come off just Bumrah whom he toyed with on both sides of the pitch. He started off getting three fours off Trent Boult, but the assault on Bumrah turned the PowerPlay on its head and left MI scampering.
Middle Overs – Nair explodes but MI’s spinners hit back
Phase Score: 86/4 (RR: 9.55; 4s/6s: 8/4)
Abhishek Porel provided an ideal foil, but he was only second-fiddle to Nair who found answers in boundaries to every question posed by Mumbai Indians. Against the spinners who came into play in the middle overs, Nair brought out a variety of sweeps to keep the momentum going in the chase. The 119-run stand for the second wicket appeared to have turned the game decisively in DC’s favour. They had notched up half of the target in half the overs with plenty of wickets in hand still. But Karn Sharma, MI’s Impact Sub, brought an end to it when he had Porel caught in the deep going for a second consecutive six. Inbetween, Nair continued to keep the heat on, hitting Karn for back-to-back boundaries and picking one of Mitchell Santner in the following over. However, against the run of play, Santner got one to turn big and past Nair’s bat ending a sensational 40-ball 89. Axar Patel got going with a couple of boundaries but he got a leading edge off Bumrah to give MI their third wicket in as many overs. It turned out to be four in four as Sharma got Stubbs to get a top-edge in the following over. Despite the clump of wickets, DC were still in the chase needing 47 from the last five overs with the in-form KL Rahul still in the middle.
Death Overs – Hat-trick of run-outs seal thriller
Phase Score: 35/5 (RR 8.75, 4s/6s: 3/1)
Karn Sharma had an outing to remember finishing with 4-0-36-3 with the last of those wickets being the big one of Rahul in the 16th over. Rahul top-edged a slog-sweep offering a simple return catch to Karn, who had now turned the game back on its head, leaving a tight chase for DC’s finishers against MI’s experienced attack. Trent Boult backed this up with six yorkers in the 17th over giving away only three runs leaving DC needing 39 off 18. DC managed 16 off the next over with Vipraj Nigam striking Santner for a six first ball. But the spinner hit back, getting the batter stumped to keep DC in check. The penultimate over bowled by Bumrah started off on a good note with Ashutosh Sharma squeezing two boundaries off Bumrah. But in a desperate attempt to keep strike, Ashutosh was run out going for the second run. Similar desperation for a second saw Kuldeep Yadav too run out off the next ball. MI capped this off with Santner’s glorious pick-up and throw from mid wicket off the final ball to have three run outs in as many balls and clinch MI a come-from-behind win.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indians 205/5 in 20 overs (Tilak Varma 59, Ryan Rickelton 41, Rohit Sharma 18, Suryakumar Yadav 40, Naman Dhir 38*; Mukesh Kumar 1-38, Vipraj Nigam 2-41, Kuldeep Yadav 2-23) beat Delhi Capitals 193 in 19 overs (Abhishek Porel 33, Karun Nair 89, KL Rahul 15, Ashutosh Sharma 17, Vipraj Nigam 14; Deepak Chahar 1-24, Jasprit Bumrah 1-44, Mitchell Santner 2-43, Karn Sharma 3-36) by 12 runs
What next?
Mumbai Indians have a three-day gap after this game before they host the imperious Sunrisers Hyderabad while Delhi Capitals host Rajasthan Royals a day earlier on April 16.
Latest News
Landslide RED warnings issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions of Ududumbara, Nildadndahinna and Walapane
The landslide early warning center of the National Building Research Organisation [NBRO] has issued RED warnings to the districts of Kandy and Nuwara Eliya for the next 24 hours effective from 0900 hrs today [09th January].
Accordingly,
LEVEL III RED landslide early warnings have been issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas of Ududumbara in the Kandy district, and Nildandahinna and Walapane in the Nuwara Eliya district.
LEVEL II AMBER landslide early warnings have been issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas of Wilgamuwa in the Matale district, and Mathurata and Hanguranketha in the Nuwara Eliya district.
LEVEL I YELLOW landslide early warnings have been issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas of Uva Paranagama, Welimada, Kandaketiya, Badulla, Meegahakiwula, Hali_Ela, Passara and Lunugala in the Badulla district, Minipe in the Kandy district, Ambanganga Korale, Ukuwela, Rattota, Naula and Laggala_Pallegama in the Matale district, and Nuwara Eliya in the Nuwara Eliya district.
In its fourth season, the WPL now feels part of the system, shaping careers and standards in increasingly visible ways. Most notably, it played a part in India winning their first ODI World Cup last year. How ’bout that. Almost silly that there was a time when this idea struggled to get off the ground.
While rivalries are still taking shape in this five-team league, Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru has all the ingredients of being the best one. Borrowing from its IPL counterpart, it pits two of the biggest names in Indian cricket, Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana, against each other. They are also the only teams to have lifted the trophy so far, with MI holding a slender 4-3 head-to-head advantage
There is an extra layer of significance this time. Harmanpreet and Mandhana return to the venue where the defining night of their international careers played out two months ago. The DY Patil Stadium will stir fond memories not just for the two captains but also for the India players on both sides, even if the sea of MI blue in the stands is expected to outweigh RCB’s red, black and gold. It was here that the duo shared an emotional hug after India clinched the World Cup, before circling the ground together, singing and dancing long into the night. On the eve of the WPL opener, both admitted those memories came flooding back as they walked into the stadium.
Harmanpreet has since spoken of the venue becoming a hub for women’s cricket in India, a sentiment Mandhana echoed ahead of the season. “Whenever you enter the ground, you remember exactly where the last catch was taken,” she said, recalling Harmanpreet’s leap at extra cover to dismiss South Africa’s Nadine de Klerk and seal the win in the final. “This is still just one-and-a-half months later, but even after 20 years, if we come back to this ground, we are still going to remember exactly what happened on November 2.”
The friendship remains untouched but once the WPL begins, Harmanpreet said the focus will be on “how we can win against each other.”
For defending champions MI, the template established in the inaugural season – continuity, role clarity, a strong core and enviable depth – continues to serve them well. Retaining five players ahead of the auction preserved the backbone of the batting, while the return of familiar faces ensured stability. While other teams opted for reshuffles, MI doubled down on their processes, backing experience, investing in youth and trusting a leadership group that has grown with the league.
RCB arrive with a sense of renewal after missing the knockouts last season. Mandhana remains the face of the team, supported by T20 firepower in Georgia Voll, Grace Harris, Richa Ghosh and Nadine de Klerk, though Ellyse Perry’s withdrawal leaves questions at the top. Their bowling, however, looks formidable, with pace from Lauren Bell, Arundhati Reddy, Pooja Vastrakar and de Klerk, and spin options in Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil and Harris.
G Kamalini 17, was retained by MI ahead of the auction alongside players like Harmanpreet, Sciver-Brunt, Matthews and Amanjot, which is an indicator of how highly she is rated. A left-handed wicketkeeper-batter with the ability to go big, Kamalini offers flexibility in the line-up. She made her WPL debut last season and announced herself in just her second game, against RCB, holding her nerve to seal a last over victory, She continued to impress in the domestic circuit, which earned her a maiden India call-up late last year for the T20I series against Sri Lanka, where she made her international debut. Captain Harmanpreet indicated ahead of this season that Kamalini would be given a “special role”, suggesting a move up the order, and said she expects the teenager to be one of the “main players” in the team.
After missing WPL 2025 and spending more than a year sidelined by a series of injuries, spin-bowling allrounder Shreyanka Patil returns to the tournament that launched her into prominence. She was just 20 when she debuted for RCB in 2023, and her rise was swift, with India T20I and ODI caps following later that year. Patil enjoyed a breakthrough campaign in 2024, finishing as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker as RCB went on to lift their maiden title. She made her return from injury at the Women’s CPL last September, featured in the domestic season for Karnataka, and was one of four players retained by RCB ahead of the auction. In the lead-up to the season, Patil has focused on fine-tuning her offspin, batting and overall fitness during a month-long conditioning camp at the private academy where she trains.
Huge crowds of protesters have been marching through Iran’s capital and other cities, videos show, in what is said to be the largest show of force by opponents of the clerical establishment in years.
The peaceful demonstrations in Tehran and the second city of Mashhad on Thursday evening, which were not dispersed by security forces, can be seen in footage verified by BBC Persian.
Later, a monitoring group reported a nationwide internet blackout.
Protesters can be heard in the footage calling for the overthrow of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the return of Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the late former shah, who had urged his supporters to take to the streets.
It was the 12th consecutive day of unrest that has been sparked by anger over the collapse of the Iranian currency and has spread to more than 100 cities and towns across all 31 of Iran’s provinces, according to human rights groups.
The US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) has said at least 34 protesters – five of them children – and eight security personnel have been killed, and that 2,270 other protesters have been arrested.
Norway-based monitor Iran Human Rights (IHR) has said at least 45 protesters, including eight children, have been killed by security forces.
BBC Persian has confirmed the deaths and identities of 22 people, while Iranian authorities have reported the deaths of six security personnel.
On Thursday evening, videos on social media and verified by BBC Persian showed a large crowd of protesters moving along a major road in Mashhad, in the country’s north-east.
Chants of “Long live the shah” and “This is the final battle! Pahlavi will return” can be heard. And at one point, several men are seen climbing on an overpass and removing what appears to be surveillance cameras attached to it.
Another video posted online showed a large crowd of protesters walking along a major road in eastern Tehran.
In footage sent to BBC Persian from the north of the capital, another large crowd is heard chanting “This is the final battle! Pahlavi will return”. Elsewhere in the north, protesters were filmed shouting “Dishonourable” and “Don’t be afraid, we are all together” following a clash with security forces.
Other videos showed protestors chanting “Death to the dictator” – a reference to Khamenei – in the central city of Isfahan; “Long live the Shah” in the northern city of Babol, and “Don’t be afraid, we are all together” in the north-western city of Tabriz.
In the western city of Dezful, footage sent to BBC Persian showed a large crowd of protesters and also security personnel appearing to open fire from a central square.
The evening protests came not long after Reza Pahlavi, whose father was overthrown by the 1979 Islamic revolution and lives in Washington DC, had called on Iranians to “take to the streets and, as a united front, shout your demands”.
In a post on X, Pahlavi said “millions of Iranians demanded their freedom tonight”, describing the protesters as his “courageous compatriots”.
He thanked US President Donald Trump for holding the “regime to account”, and called on European leaders to do the same.
Pahlavi has also called for protests to continue from 20:00 local time (16:30 GMT) on Friday night.
Iranian state media downplayed the scale of Thursday’s unrest. In some cases, they denied protests had taken place altogether, posting videos of empty streets.
Meanwhile, internet watchdog NetBlocks said its metrics showed that Iran was “in the midst of a nationwide internet blackout”.
“The incident follows a series of escalating digital censorship measures targeting protests across the country and hinders the public’s right to communicate at a critical moment,” it warned, referring to previous losses of connectivity in several cities.
Earlier in the day, footage from Lomar a small town in the western province of Ilam showed a crowd chanting “Cannons, tanks, fireworks, mullahs must go” – a reference to the clerical establishment. Another showed people throwing papers into the air outside a bank that appeared to have been broken into.
Other videos showed many shuttered shops in a number of predominantly Kurdish cities and towns in Ilam, as well as Kermanshah and Lorestan provinces.
It followed a call for a general strike by exiled Kurdish opposition groups in response to the deadly crackdown on protests in the region.
At least 17 protesters have been killed by security forces in Ilam, Kermanshah and Lorestan during the unrest, and many of them have been members of the Kurdish or Lor ethnic minorities, according to Kurdish human rights group Hengaw.
On Wednesday, there were violent clashes between protesters and security forces in several cities and towns in western Iran, as well as other regions.
IHR said it had been the deadliest day of the unrest, with 13 protesters confirmed to have been killed across the country.
“The evidence shows that the scope of crackdown is becoming more violent and more extensive every day,” said the group’s director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.
Hengaw said two protesters were shot dead by security forces in Khoshk-e Bijar, in the northern province of Gilan, on Wednesday night.
Iran’s semi-official news agency Fars, which is close to the Revolutionary Guards, reported that three police officers were also killed on Wednesday.
It said two were shot dead by armed individuals among a group of “rioters” in the south-western town of Lordegan, and the third was stabbed to death “during efforts to control unrest” in Malard country, west of Tehran.
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump reiterated his threat to intervene militarily if Iranian authorities killed protesters.
“I have let them know that if they start killing people, which they tend to do during their riots – they have lots of riots – if they do it, we are going to hit them very hard,” he said in an interview with the Hugh Hewitt Show.
Separately, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said the Iranian economy was “on the ropes”.
While speaking at the Economic Club of Minnesota on Thursday, he added: “President Trump does not want them to harm more of the protesters. This is a tense moment.”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian earlier called on security forces to exercise “utmost restraint” when handling peaceful protests. “Any violent or coercive behaviour should be avoided,” a statement said.
Khamenei – who has ultimate power in Iran – said on Saturday that authorities should “speak with the protesters” but that “rioters should be put in their place”.
The protests began on 28 December, when shopkeepers took to the streets of Tehran to express their anger at another sharp fall in the value of the Iranian currency, the rial, against the US dollar on the open market.
The rial has sunk to a record low over the past year and inflation has soared to 40% as sanctions over Iran’s nuclear programme squeeze an economy also weakened by government mismanagement and corruption.
University students soon joined the protests and they began spreading to other cities, with crowds frequently heard chanting slogans critical of the clerical establishment.
In messages sent to the BBC, via a UK-based activist, a woman in Tehran said despair was driving the protests. “We’re living in limbo,” she said. “I feel like I’m hanging in the air with neither wings to migrate nor hope to pursue my goals here. Life here has become unbearable.”
Another said she was protesting because her dreams had been “stolen” by the clerical establishment and she wanted it to know that “we still have a voice to shout, a fist to punch them in the face.”
A woman in the western city of Ilam said she knew of young people from families affiliated with the establishment who were taking part in protests. “My friend and her three sisters, whose father is a well-known figure in the intelligence services, are joining without their father knowing,” she said.
The protests have been the most widespread since an uprising in 2022 sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly. More than 550 people were killed and 20,000 detained by security forces over several months, according to human rights groups.
The biggest protests since the Islamic revolution took place in 2009, when millions of Iranians took to the streets of major cities after a disputed presidential election. Dozens of opposition supporters killed and thousands were detained in the ensuing crackdown.
[BBC]
Landslide RED warnings issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions of Ududumbara, Nildadndahinna and Walapane
Harmanpreet, Mandhana return to DY Patil, on opposite sides this time
Huge anti-government protests in Tehran and other Iranian cities, videos show
Clinical Pakistan look to keep momentum going and wrap up series
Astronaut’s ‘serious medical condition’ forces Nasa to end space station mission early
Six whales die after mass stranding on remote New Zealand beach
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
Sunday Island 27 December – Headlines
#SundayIsland 17th December – Headlines
Sunday Island – 28th March
Sunday Island Headlines – 21 March
Sunday Island – 21st February – Headlines
-
News3 days agoInterception of SL fishing craft by Seychelles: Trawler owners demand international investigation
-
News3 days agoBroad support emerges for Faiszer’s sweeping proposals on long- delayed divorce and personal law reforms
-
News4 days agoPrivate airline crew member nabbed with contraband gold
-
News2 days agoPrez seeks Harsha’s help to address CC’s concerns over appointment of AG
-
News2 days agoGovt. exploring possibility of converting EPF benefits into private sector pensions
-
Latest News22 hours agoWarning for deep depression over South-east Bay of Bengal Sea area
-
Features3 days agoEducational reforms under the NPP government
-
News6 days agoHealth Minister sends letter of demand for one billion rupees in damages