Latest News
Classy Rahul sets up Lucknow Super Giant’s big win
Despite yet another enthralling cameo from MS Dhoni – this time pushing Chennai Super Kings to a good total on a tacky surface – CSK finished second best in Lucknow. KL Rahul was largely responsible for that outcome as he smashed a fine 53-ball 82 in the chase. Quinton de Kock got runs too as CSK struggled for wickets and eventually conceded the game in 19 overs.
Ajinkya Rahane, sent to open the CSK innings once again, started off with a classical backfoot punch through point on the second ball, but this was a PowerPlay where run-making wasn’t straightforward for the holders. Rachin Ravindra’s lean run extended to five games as he was cleaned up on the first ball of the second over by Mohsin Khan while trying to take a wild swipe at it.
Though LSG used pace all through the PowerPlay, the ball didn’t quite come on to the bat for the batters to easily hit through the line. Yash Thakur arrived in the fifth over to nick off Ruturaj Gaikwad for 17 off 13.
CSK promoted Ravindra Jadeja, perhaps to deal with pace in the PowerPlay before they could unleash Shivam Dube on the spinners in the middle. Rahane got a couple of boundaries off Ravi Bishnoi but was cleaned up by Krunal Pandya in the ninth over, falling for a 24-ball 36. This was the fourth time in 52 balls that Rahane fell to the left-arm spinner in the IPL. Shivam Dube’s arrival came with the anticipation of quick runs against the spinners but they tied him down by firing balls at close to 100kmph. He couldn’t tee off straight away like he’s done before this season, and managed just three runs off his first seven balls – all from spinners.
Rahul went back to pace and even used Marcus Stoinis on the tacky surface with immediate dividends. The Australian, who has barely bowled this season, struck first ball with a short ball to Dube. The CSK batter pulled clumsily and was caught by Rahul. CSK went to Sameer Rizvi as their impact substitute, but he lasted all of five balls for one run – getting stumped off Krunal.
Rahul managed his bowlers perfectly well in the middle-overs, a phase where CSK scored at a lowly rate of 6.2 an over.
MS Dhoni kept up his habit of walking out and enthralling an already smitten crowd with his six-hitting. But even before he stepped out to deafening noise, Jadeja and Moeen Ali set the stage for the flourish. In the 17th over, Jadeja hit Mohsin for a six to bring up his fifty before Moeen hit a hat-trick of sixes off Bishnoi in the 17th to push CSK closer to 150. Moeen exited with a 20-ball cameo worth 30 runs to his name, and Dhoni went the other way to put on an even better show. His 9-ball 28 had trademark shots well over midwicket – one six even going 101m long. Dhoni even improvised with a shuffle-across and scoop shot over the keeper’s head. His efforts pushed CSK to 176/6, but that proved to be rather insufficient in the end.
With the white-ball not swinging enough in all venues, Deepak Chahar has been rendered largely ineffective this season. Though he came back for Shardul Thakur for this game, he couldn’t make the required inroads early on to put the home side under pressure in chase. Instead, Rahul and de Kock scored freely to dwarf the asking rate by the end of the six overs, in which they got 54 runs. CSK’s ordinary returns with the ball in the PowerPlay (7 wickets at an economy rate of 9.47) continued. Even Tushar Deshpande who has been frugal this season, couldn’t eke out a dismissal.
Nothing changed besides the field, from the seventh over on. Even CSK’s golden goose – Matheesha Pathirana – didn’t bring his wicket-taking knack to the middle overs as the LSG openers welcomed him with a 12-run over. The pair comfortably took LSG to 89/0 at the halfway stage, and then went after Jadeja to speed up the proceedings. Rahul cut one off Jadeja past point to go past 50, while de Kock upped his scoring rate too. Mustafizur Rahman attempted to break through with his wily change of pace, but he too hit a wall. Rahul and de Kock took the opening stand past 100 – the highest for any wicket at the venue. De Kock too got a fifty before feathering an attempted pull off Mustafizur to Dhoni behind the stumps.
That wicket, and of Rahul to follow, were mere consolations as LSG wrapped up the chase with an over to spare. Rahul looked set to mark the victory with a century to his name, only for Ravindra Jadeja to take a one-handed blinder at backward point to catch the LSG captain 18 short. But before this could happen, Nicholas Pooran had walked out swinging for the fences and put LSG well on course to pocketing the two points.
On the last ball of the penultimate over, from Deshpande, the West Indian backed away and hit one over point to put the finishing touch to a thoroughly competitive victory.
Brief Scores:
Chennai Super Kings 176/6 in 20 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 36, Ravindra Jadeja 57*, Moeen Ali 30, MS Dhoni 28*; Moshin Khan 1-37, Yash Thakur 1-45, Krunal Pandya 2-16, Ravi Bishnoi 1-44, Marcus Stonis 1-07) lost to Lucknow Super Giants 180/2 in 19 overs (KL Rahul 82, Quinton de Kock 54, Nicholas Pooran 23*; Mustafizur Rahman 1-43, Matheesha Pathirana 1-29) by 8 wickets
(Cricbuzz)
The Sri Dalada Maligawa has announced that due to the large number of devotees coming to Kandy to venerate the sacred tooth relic, the time of exposition of the sacred tooth relic has been extended by an hour.
Accordingly the public can pay homage from 11.30am upto 05.30pm from today [21]
US Vice-President JD Vance has arrived in the Indian capital, Delhi, where he is due to hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi amid global trade tensions sparked by Washington’s tariff policies.
The talks are likely to focus on fast tracking a much-awaited bilateral trade deal between the two countries.
Vance is also expected to go on a sightseeing tour of Agra and Jaipur with his family.
His visit comes as countries across the world rush to negotiate trade deals before US President Donald Trump’s 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs ends on 9 July.
“The two sides will also exchange views on regional and global developments of mutual interest,” India’s foreign ministry said ahead of Vance’s visit.
The vice-president is accompanied by his children and wife Usha Vance whose parents migrated to the US from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
After his arrival in Delhi on Monday morning, Vance visited the Akshardham temple complex in the city.
He is due to meet the Indian prime minister for formal talks later in the day and Modi is to host Vance for dinner in the evening.
The visit comes amid escalating trade tensions between Washington and several countries after Trump announced steep reciprocal tariffs on them.
Trump, who has repeatedly called Delhi a tariff abuser, had announced a tariff of 27% on India before he temporarily paused it on 9 April.
India has already slashed tariffs on some US goods, with further cuts expected as the balance of trade is still stacked heavily in favour of Delhi, which enjoys a $45bn trade surplus.
India’s average tariffs of around 12% are also significantly higher than the US’s 2%.
Until recently, the US was India’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade reaching $190bn (£144bn).
Prime Minister Modi was among the first leaders to meet Trump after his inauguration. Modi hailed a “mega partnership” with the United States following his meeting with the president.
Trump and Modi set an ambitious target to more than double bilateral trade to $500bn, as the two leaders announced a deal for India to import more from America, including oil and gas.
Weeks later, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard visited India, followed by a US delegation led by Assistant Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch.
Vance’s India tour is also seen as significant as Trump is likely to visit the country later this year for the Quad summit, which will also host leaders of Australia and Japan.
Speaking about Vance’s engagements in India, Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal last week said Delhi was “very positive that the visit will give a further boost to our bilateral ties”.
[BBC]
Mumbai Indians (MI) put together a third straight win in IPL 2025 as they outgunned a Chennai Super Kings (CSK) side shorn of hitting power. The lack of batting showed in how they played a highly cagey brand of cricket, only targeting certain pockets and conceding match-ups without protest. It took them three overs to hit a boundary, then they went 27 balls in the middle overs without even attempting one, only to cap it off with no boundary in the 17th and 18th overs, bowled by MI’s best bowlers on the night: Jasprit Bumrah and Mitchell Santner.
Not only did MI manage a run-rate boost with the win that takes them to eight points in eight matches, they also welcomed Rohit Sharma back to runs. Rohit scored his first fifty this IPL – his previous highest was 26 – they put together their first half-century opening stand this IPL, and Suraykumar Yadav got the better of CSK’s spin threat with his various sweeps.
This match was played on the pitch that produced 430 runs for RCB and MI. The toss, as usual, was a big advantage at Wankhede. Which should make it important to look for above-par scores, but CSK took the pragmatic route: don’t risk 120 all out looking for 200. Consequently, their openers tested waters for too long, timing shots straight to fielders. When Shaik Rasheed finally hit one in the air, and for a four, CSK had only 16 in three overs.
Rachin Ravindra by now felt he had to target the change bowler without a sighter. He looked to go big down the ground, and edged the first ball by Ashwani Kumar. His replacement at the wicket, CSK’s younger player of all time, the 17-year-old Aush Mhatre injected some life to the innings with flair reminiscent of Dwayne Bravo. It still meant only 48 runs in the powerplay. The unperturbed MI stayed with Deepak Chahar for a fourth straight over, eventually resulting in the legcutter that got Mhatre out for 32 off 15.
Santner produced a beauty in the eighth over at 77kmph to have Rasheed stumped on the defence, but that brought together Shivam Dube and Ravindra Jadeja. They have batting behind these two, but it’s MS Dhoni, Jamie Overton and Vijay Shankar. So these two decided not to hit anything even though their coming together meant Santner was taken off despite figures of 2-0-8-1. Put together, CSK didn’t make a boundary attempt between Mhatre’s dismissal and the return of Boult in the 12th over.
To be fair to CSK, they did well when they went after Boult and Ashwani, taking 85 in the six overs bowled by them. Dube raced away from 16 off 19 to a 30-ball fifty even as Jadeja hovered around a run a ball. However, when Bumrah got Dube with a slower ball, it allowed MI to bring back Santner for the 18th over because Dhoni and Jadeja were in the middle.
Santner bowled the 18th without a boundary, and it was only a late surge from Jadeja off Boult in the last over that took CSK to a modicum of respectability.
MI have been resurgent in recent times, but they might feel this was the final missing piece in the puzzle. A sizeable opening partnership, and Rohit carrying on from a quick start. He was severe on early errors from the quick bowlers, haring away to 32 off 18 in the powerplay, hitting three sweetly timed sixes. Only R Ashwin managed to keep him quiet. However, he went on to get the better of Ashwin when he slog-swept him for a six in the eighth over.
That six still didn’t take Rohit to a run a ball in his head-to-head against Ashwin in all these years, but it must have provided him a sense of victory against his old foe. Rohit was not the only one getting better of nemeses. Suryakumar entered this match with just 50 runs and four dismissals off 65 Jadeja deliveries. It was Jadeja that brought Suryakumar into the middle with the wicket of Ryan Rickleton in the seventh over. In the ninth over, Surya drove Jadeja over extra cover for four followed by a swept six, his first career six off Jadeja.
This was only a harbinger of what was to come. In all, Surya played nine sweeps for a whopping 35 runs. Three of them flew over the ropes, four others ended in the advertising boards. He outpaced Rohit with ease, and his flourish made sure MI got a bit net-run-rate boost, winning with 4.2 overs to spare.
Brief scores:
Mumbai Indians177 for 1 in 15.4 overs (Ryan Rickelton 24, Rohit Sharma 76*, Suryakumar Yadav 68*; Ravindra Jadeja 1-28, Matheesha Pathirana 0-34) beat Chennai Super Kings 176 for 5 in 20 overs (Shaik Rasheed 19, Ayush Mhatre 32, Ravindra Jadeja 53*, Shivam Dube 50; Jasprit Bumrah 2-25, Deepak Chahar 1-32, Ashwani Kumar 1-42, Mitchell Sabtner 1-14) by nine wickets
[Cricinfo]
We aspire to build a nation where all citizens coexist in peace and resilience for the future generation -PM
Exposition of sacred tooth relic extended by an hour –
J D Vance in Delhi to meet Modi amid tariff tensions
-
Business3 days agoDIMO pioneers major fleet expansion with Tata SIGNA Prime Movers for ILM
-
Features4 days agoNipping the two leaves and the bud
-
Features4 days agoAvurudu celebrations … galore
-
Features4 days agoProf. Lal Tennekoon: An illustrious but utterly unpretentious and much -loved academic
-
News2 days agoFamily discovers rare species thought to be extinct for over a century in home garden
-
Foreign News2 days agoChina races robots against humans in Beijing half marathon
-
Latest News6 days agoTrump freezes $2bn in Harvard funding after university rejects demands
-
News4 days agoCounsel for Pilleyan alleges govt. bid to force confession