Chennai Super King’s bowling acquisitions during the off-season paid immediate dividends as their four new bowlers took nine wickets between them to restrict Mumbai Indians to 155 for 9, a total that they ultimately chased down with ease but not without a hiccup against debutant left-arm wristspinner Vignesh Purthur,  who is yet to represent his state side in senior cricket.

However, it was the other left-arm wristspinner, younger than Puthur but a veteran by comparison, who made the telling impact. Noor Ahmad registered his best IPL figures and the best figures for a CSK spinner against MI, 4 for 18, to capitalise on the inroads made b Khaleel Ahmed whose CSK debut was not too shabby either: wickets of the openers and analysis of 4-0-29-3.

CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad made the chase look like a walk in the park with 53 off 26, bringing the requirement down to a run a ball in the ninth over, but this is when they started losing wickets to Puthur, struggling to impart power into his slow wristspin. Three of them holed out in the deep, but Rachin Ravindra anchored the chase with 65 off 45 to see them home.

Khaleel is a dichotomous IPL bowler. He is worse than the average fast bowler during afternoon games, and better than the average fast bowler in night games. The only explanation for it is that there is a small window for movement with the new ball under lights, and he is a different beast when the ball moves. It showed in how he denied the openers a big hit with the little bit of movement that was available. The eventual dismissals looked soft – Rohit Sharma caught at forward square leg and Ryan Rickleton bowled off an inside edge – but they were the results of the pressure created by Khaleel himself.

Pope Francis has arrived home at the Vatican after leaving the Gemelli University Hospital in Rome, shortly after making his first public appearance following a five-week hospitalisation for a life-threatening bout of pneumonia.

The 88-year-old, who was admitted on February 14 after a bout of bronchitis worsened, greeted his well-wishers on Sunday from a balcony of Gemelli hospital before his discharge.

Using a wheelchair, as he has for several years, the pope smiled, waved, and made a sign of a thumbs up at a group of well-wishers gathered outside below.

The pope, whose face looked swollen, appeared only for a few moments.

Pope Francis spoke briefly, with a feeble voice, to thank an elderly woman among the crowd below who had brought yellow flowers.

A car carrying the pope left the hospital shortly after noon and was accompanied through Rome by a convoy of police vehicles.

As he was being discharged, the Vatican released the pope’s Angelus prayer calling for an “immediate” end to Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, and for the resumption of dialogue for the release of captives and a “definitive ceasefire”.

“I am saddened by the resumption of the intense Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, with so many deaths and injuries,” Francis wrote.

“I ask that the weapons be silenced immediately and that the courage be found to resume dialogue so that all the hostages can be freed and a definitive ceasefire reached,” said Francis, who was set to return to the Vatican on Sunday.

“The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is once again very serious and requires the urgent commitment of the conflicting parties and the international community,” he added.

Pope Francis had only been seen by the public once before during his hospital stay, in a photo the Vatican released last week, showing the pontiff at prayer in a hospital chapel.

In the moments before the pontiff’s appearance on Sunday, the crowd of hundreds of well-wishers called out for the pope, chanting “Francis, Francis, Francis”.

On Saturday, one of the doctors treating him said the head of the Roman Catholic Church would be discharged from hospital on Sunday and would need two months of rest at the Vatican.

[Aljazeera]

In IPL 2024, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) took batting to dizzying heights. With Ishan Krishan’s addition to an already power-packed line-up, everyone wondered if they might be the first team to hit 300 in the IPL. In their opening fixture of IPL 2025, they seriously threatened to get there, thanks to Kishan’s 45-ball hundred on franchise debut and Travishek’s opening salvo. They eventually fell 14 short of 300, and just one short of the IPL record they had set last season, but it was another emphatic statement of their high intent and power.

Kishan is an upgrade over their previous No. 3 Rahul Tripathi. He seamlessly slotted into SRH’s line-up, clattering an unbeaten 106 off 47 balls, his first IPL ton. After Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma had helped SRH take 94 in the first six overs, the fifth-highest powerplay total, Kishan launched from there.

Rajasthan Royals (RR) made a decent fist of the chase, with Sanju Samson and Dhruy Jurel matching the intent and power of SRH’s batters with half-centuries. Late blows from Shimron Hetmyer, the only overseas batter in RR’s squad, contributed to a match aggregate of 528, the second highest in the IPL, but such a mammoth target was always going to unchaseable.

Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 286 for 6 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 24, Ishan Kishan 106*, Travis Head 67, Nitish Kumar Reddy 30, Heinrich Klassen 34; Maheesh Theekshana 2-52, Sandeep Sharma 1-51,  Tushar Deshpande 3-44) beat Rajasthan Royals 242 for 6 in 20 overs  (Dhruv Jurel 70, Sanju Samson 66, Nitish Rana 11, Shimron Heytmeyer 42, Shubnam Dubey 34*; Mohammed Shami 1-33,  Simarjeet  Singh 2-46, Adam Zampa 1-48, Harshal Patel 2-34) by 44 runs

[Cricinfo]