Coming into the Mount Maunganui Test, Rachin Ravindra had never batted in the top six in Test cricket and had all of 73 runs in six innings at 14.60. In just one innings here, the left-hander has more than tripled his numbers on both counts. Given the all-important No. 4 slot, Ravindra cashed in scoring a sparkling 240 to help New Zealand extend their dominance over South Africa on day two of the first Test.
South Africa captain and debutant Neil Brand finished with figures of 6 for 119, but Ravindra’s double on the back of Kane Williamson’s 118 helped New Zealand amass 511 in their first innings. Kyle Jamieson struck twice as South Africa ended the second day 80 for 4 still trailing the hosts by a massive 431 runs.
Resuming their day on 258 for 2, New Zealand lost Williamson early, but Ravindra continued from where he left on day one. With the second new ball just six overs old, South Africa surprisingly did not go with Tshepo Moreki first up on the second day, instead starting with allrounder Ruan de Swardt and Dane Paterson.
Paterson got the wobble seam going his way and induced an edge off Ravindra’s blade with just his second ball but there was no third slip in place to take the catch. Williamson got his first boundary of the day with a thick edge past gully but failed to carry on. Looking to unsettle de Swardt’s consistent wicket-to-wicket lines, he eyed an uncharacteristic cross-batted hoick, but all he could manage was a top edge that ballooned straight up with Moreki taking the catch at mid-on. That ended a 232-run association between Williamson and Ravindra off 472 balls.
Having been padded up for ages, Mitchell immediately got going with a full-blooded lofted drive past mid-on. Moreki didn’t have the same kind of nip that he found on day one and was pulled stylishly by Ravindra through midwicket. Duanne Olivier was handed similar treatment before two delicious straight drives helped Ravindra breach the 150 mark in Tests for the first time.
Having played circumspect cricket for about four sessions, New Zealand notched up a gear after lunch. Ravindra got his second session underway with a delightful drive past mid-off off de Swardt while Mitchell pulled Dane Paterson with disdain through square leg.
Mitchell lofted de Swardt for a straight six but fell soon after courtesy of a stunning caught and bowled by Neil Brand. Mitchell pummeled a tossed-up length ball back but Brand stuck out both hands to his left and plucked out a quite spectacular take much to the shock of Mitchell.
Tom Blundell came in and struck a four but soon mistimed a heave to short midwicket who took a low catch. Meanwhile, it was a nervous wait for Ravindra on 199. With Blundell falling and Glenn Phillips not able to hand him back the strike, the youngster had to endure close to 20 minutes on the score and go through a drinks break as well.
Ravindra finally reached the milestone by cutting a short-of-a-length ball towards cover as he removed his helmet to soak up the applause. With the double-hundred checked, Ravindra and Phillips decided to go into overdrive adding a 82-run stand off just 71 balls for the sixth wicket.
Ravindra notched up the highest score by a New Zealand batter for his maiden Test century when he went past Matthew Sinclair’s 214 but fell minutes before tea cleaned up by Brand for 240. South Africa struck four times in the session, but New Zealand had added 145 runs in 27 overs going at over five an over.
New Zealand came looking for some quick runs in the final session and Matt Henry provided that by smashing one four and three sixes in his nine-ball 27. Brand, however, picked the last three wickets first going through Mitchell Santner’s defences and then taking out Henry and Tim Southee in one over to become the first South African spinner to bag a six-for on Test debut.
In reply, the South African openers, Brand and Edward Moore, both on debut, held their own for nine overs and a bit. Moore got going with a fierce cut off Southee through point before repeating the shot for a similar result. Brand was more solid in defense getting right behind the line of the ball.
Jamieson, however, came on and changed the face of the match. He first sent back Brand with a fuller delivery that threatened to come back in but held its line. Brand, unsure whether to play or leave the delivery fathered a tiny edge to the wicketkeeper. Two balls later debutant Raymond van Tonder was trapped right in front of the stumps by a Jamieson inswinger. Henry then got rid of Moore with a snorter that he could only glove to Conway who rushed in from cover-point to dive and complete a stunning catch as South Africa slipped to 30 for 3 after 15 overs.
David Bedingham and Zubayr Hamza, however, took the attack to the opposition. Hamza first struck Henry for two successive fours before Bedingham cracked Southee for three fours in the next over. Bedingham was dropped by Henry at deep backward square leg but barring that looked largely untroubled. The duo added 44 off 53 balls for the fourth wicket before Hamza was castled by Santner.
At the end of play on the second day, Bedingham had reached 29 off 39 balls with five fours to his name and had Keegan Peterson for company on 2.
Brief scores: South Africa 80 for 4 in 28 overs (David Bedingham 29*, Edward Moore 23, Zubayr Hamza 22; Kyle Jamieson 2-21) trailNew Zealand 511 in 144 overs (Tom Latham 20, Rachin Ravindra 240, Kane Williamson 118, Daryl Mitchell 34, Glenn Phullips 39, Matt Henry 27; Neil Brand 6-119, Ruan de Swardt 2-61) by 431 runs
Protesters had called for the university to reject demands from the White House [BBC]
The Trump administration has said it is freezing more than $2bn (£1.5bn) in federal funds for Harvard University, hours after the elite college rejected a list of demands from the White House.
“Harvard’s statement today reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges,” the Department of Education said in a statement.
The White House sent a list of demands to Harvard last week which it said were designed to fight antisemitism on campus. They included changes to its governance, hiring practices and admissions procedures.
Harvard rejected the demands on Monday and said the White House was trying to “control” its community.
It is the first major US university to defy pressure from the Trump administration to change its policies. The sweeping changes demanded by the White House would have transformed its operations and ceded a large amount of control to the government.
President Trump has accused leading universities of failing to protect Jewish students when college campuses around the country were roiled by protests against the war in Gaza and US support for Israel last year.
In a letter to the Harvard community on Monday, its President Alan Garber said the White House had sent an “updated and expanded list of demands” on Friday alongside a warning that the university “must comply” in order to maintain its “financial relationship” with the government.
“We have informed the administration through our legal counsel that we will not accept their proposed agreement,” he wrote. “The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”
Mr Garber added that the university did not “take lightly” its obligation to fight antisemitism, but said the government was overreaching.
“Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard,” he said.
Shortly after his letter was sent, the education department said it was freezing $2.2bn in grants and $60m in contracts to Harvard immediately.
“The disruption of learning that has plagued campuses in recent years is unacceptable,” it said.
“The harassment of Jewish students is intolerable. It is time for elite universities to take the problem seriously and commit to meaningful change if they wish to continue receiving taxpayer support,” the statement added.
The White House said in its own letter on Friday that Harvard had “in recent years failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment”.
The letter included 10 categories for proposed changes that the White House said were needed in order for Harvard to maintain its “financial relationship with the federal government”.
Some of the changes included: reporting students to the federal government who are “hostile” to American values; ensuring each academic department is “viewpoint diverse”; and hiring an external government-approved party to audit programs and departments “that most fuel antisemitic harassment”.
The letter orders the university to take disciplinary action for “violations” that happened during protests on campus over the past two years. It also demands an end the university’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies and programmes.
Since taking office, President Trump has put pressure on universities to tackle antisemitism and end diversity practices.
In December 2023, the president’s of top US universities were questioned in a tense congressional hearing in which they were accused of failing to protect Jewish students following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war two months earlier.
Claudine Gay, who was then president of Harvard, later apologised after telling the hearing that calls for the killing of Jews were abhorrent, but it would depend on the context whether such comments would constitute a violation of Harvard’s code of conduct.
That comment, as well as allegations of plagiarism, led her to resign from the post a month later.
In March, the Trump administration said it was reviewing roughly $256m in federal contracts and grants at Harvard, and an additional $8.7bn in multi-year grant commitments.
Harvard professors filed a lawsuit in response, alleging the government was unlawfully attacking freedom of speech and academic freedom.
The White House had previously pulled $400m in federal funding from Columbia University and accused it of failing to fight antisemitism and protect Jewish students on its campus.
When the $400m was pulled, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said: “Universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding”.
Shortly after, Columbia agreed to several of the administration’s demands, drawing criticism from some students and faculty.
Earlier on Monday, a lawyer for an organiser of pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University said her client had been arrested by immigration officials as he attended an interview as part of his application for US citizenship.
Mohsen Mahdawi, a green card holder who is due to graduate next month, was detained on Monday in Colchester, Vermont.
Others who took part in campus protests against the war, including Columbia University’s Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University’s Rumeysa Ozturk, have been detained in recent weeks.
MS Dhoni and Shivam Dube bump fists in the middle [BCCI]
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) were staring at the prospect of losing a sixth game in a row when MS Dhoni joined Shivam Dube with five overs left in the chase. But Dhoni won the battle against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) seamers with an 11-ball 26 while Dube made 43 to give them their second win in seven outings.
LSG captain Rishabh Pant felt right after the game that LSG were “10-15 runs short” in their first-innings effort. Despite Pant’s own 49-ball 63, his first half-century in LSG colours, they scored only 166 for 7 in 20 overs, their lowest total of the season. They were pegged back by Ravindra Jadeja’s two wickets and kept in check by Noor Ahmed’s miserly four overs that went for only 13 runs.
After CSK’s opening partnership put them on course early, LSG dragged the game back with their spinners. Digvesh Rathi, Ravi Bishnoi and part-time offspinner Aiden Markram produced combined figures of 11-0-80-4, but a 19-run over from Shardul Thakur in the penultimate over ended LSG’s hopes.
When Dhoni walked in at the 15th over, Dube had made only 17 in his first 20 balls. Dube had failed to boss the spinners like his usual self and the dismissals of Vijay Shankar and Jadeja had only added to the pressure.
But Dhoni enjoys pace, coming into the game with a strike-rate of 222 against seamers since IPL 2024, and LSG supplied him with just that. Despite one over of Bishnoi left, LSG went for Avesh Khan and Shardul Thakur, and their wide yorker plan to both batters ended up being predictable.
Dhoni edged a couple of fours down to deep third but showed his power by punching a boundary through the covers, flicking a full toss over midwicket and dragging a one-handed six over deep square leg.
He also ran his ones and twos, sometimes gingerly, with Dube and took the pressure off him. When Shardul bowled two full tosses at the start of the 19th over, Dube smacked him for four and a no-ball six.
Dhoni picked up his first IPL player-of-the-match award since 2019 while Dube, soon after hitting the winning runs, said he was proud of taking the game deep. Their partnership of 57 came in only 28 balls.
Shaik Rasheed’s skills were never in doubt. He is a former Under-19 World Cup-winning vice-captain, has a Syed Mushtaq Ali century and a double ton in first-class cricket. It’s for those reasons CSK have kept a close eye on him since IPL 2023.
With Devon Conway not among the runs, CSK gave Rasheed an IPL debut and he took strike to start the chase. By the second over, he had pumped three fours off Akash Deep, with one flick over midwicket described on the broadcast as “Virat Kohli-like.”
His 19-ball 27 with six fours helped CSK reach fifty in only 4.2 overs, and alongside Rachin Ravindra’s 22-ball 37, gave them a rare successful opening stand. Those runs proved crucial as a collapse against spin soon followed.
With a strike-rate of 80 and a high score of 21 this season, Pant needed to get going. He walked-in in the fourth over with Markram and Nicholas Pooran out to Khaleel Ahmed and Anshul Kamboj cheaply.
He started on a positive note, improvising a reverse lap over third man early for six along with a handful of contorted pulls and cuts. But his strike-rate of 165 plummeted to 103 when CSK’s spinners applied the squeeze. Pant saw wickets fall from the other end, and ended up playing ten dots in 15 balls against Noor, scoring only six runs. His strike rate of 40 against the purple-cap holder ended up being the second worst for any batter against a bowler in IPL (minimum15 balls).
However, from 40 in 39 balls, Pant found his touch against the pace-on options of Matheesha Pathirana and Khaleel to turn his innings around. He couldn’t stay till the end, though, and the CSK spinners’ effort ensured LSG could make only 166 on a day where their second-highest individual score was Mitchell Marsh’s 30.
Brief scores: Chennai Super Kings 168 for 5 in 19.3 overs (Shaik Rasheed 27, Rachin Ravindra 37, Shivam Dube 43*, Mahendra Singh Dhoni 26*; Digvesh Rathi 1-23, Avesh Khan 1-32, Ravi Bishnoi 2-18, Aiden Markram 1-25) beatLucknow Super Giants 166 for 7 in 20 overs (Mitchell Marsh 30, Rishabh Pant 63, Ayush Badoni 22, Abdul Samad 20; Khaleel Ahmed 1-38, Anshul Kamboj 1-20, Ravindra Jadeja 2-24, Matheesha Pathirana 2-45) by five wickets
Prime Minister Dr Harini Amarasuriya in her message for the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, called upon all Sri Lankans to commit themselves to move forward with dedication, trust, and resilience to achieve success and progress in the coming year.
The full text of the prime minister’s message
“Let us step into the New Year with renewed hope and a vision, as we continue to work together toward “a prosperous country and a beautiful life.”
I extend my heartfelt wishes to the Sinhala and Tamil people of Sri Lanka, who celebrate the New Year in unity and generosity.
This New Year dawns at a moment when a new change is essential in every aspect of our lives. This traditional festivity reminds us to bring about positive change that is deep rooted in our culture and values, and move forward together in unity.
In recent years, the economic crisis made even the thought of celebrating the New Year a painful experience for many. However, the courageous efforts of the people to break free from a cycle of corruption and fraud, has led the path for the emergence of a new beginning.
Thus, the 2025 New Year marks a significant turning point. It is a year where communities from the North, South, East, and West unite and continue to work together under democratic principles to build a better future. In the upcoming month of May, the people’s aspirations will once again bear fruit.
At this moment when a new chapter begins with the New Year, I urge every citizen to act with respect, peace, and compassion in community. Let us commit ourselves to move forward with dedication, trust, and resilience to achieve success and progress in the coming year.
To all Sri Lankans celebrating Sinhala and Tamil New Year, I wish the nation is blessed with the strength, unity, and new energy needed for meaningful transformation and a prosperous tomorrow.
Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!”
