Ashutosh Sharma was going nowhere. He was on 20 off 20 balls. The required rate was over 12. Then he flicked a switch and decided to make Delhi Capitals’ opening game of IPL 2025, against Lucknow Super Giants in Visakhapatnam, all about him.
With 62 needed off 30, with four wickets in hand, Ashutosh went bang, bang and then some more as he smashed 46 off his next 11 balls to lead DC to an epic one-wicket win with just three balls to spare. Arms raised he was engulfed by his team-mates as a bewildered Rishabh Pant, DC’s ex-captain now leading LSG, looked on.
LSG, sent in to bat and riding on Nicholas Pooran and Mitchell Marsh’s whirlwind knocks, had posted 209 for 8. At one point, they had looked set for much more, even 250, but the DC bowlers came back in style, conceding only 48 runs off the last seven overs and picking up six wickets. While Pooran and Marsh accounted for 147 off 66 balls, the rest of LSG’s batters managed just 55 off 55 between them.
DC were reduced to 7 for 3 in their chase and at most stages looked down and out, but they found a new hero in the debutant Vipraj Nigam, who walked out at No. 8, with 97 needed in 45 balls, and thrashed 39 off 15. He fell with DC needing 42 off 23, but Ashutosh made sure to haul DC over the line, finishing things off with a six down the ground off Shahbaz Ahmed.
Ashutosh had been Punjab Kings’ finisher supreme in IPL 2024, playing blinders one after the other. But they often did not come in winning causes, with Ashutosh falling just short of the finishing line in thrilling chases against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians. Now, playing for a new team, he entered the match as their Impact Player with DC in more than a spot of bother at 65 for 5 in 6.4 overs. He started slowly, taking time to find his touch, but made sure he didn’t throw his wicket away.
Losing Tristan Stubbs didn’t help, and at 116 for 6 in 13 overs, ESPNcricinfo’s win probability for DC was 1.46%. But Ashutosh has made fighting the odds a habit. He got excellent support from Nigam, who actually got the chase going. The allrounder first took on Ravi Bishnoi, carting him for two fours and a six in the 14th over, and then hacked Shahbaz for a four and a six in the next.
While Nigam fell to fellow debutant Digvesh Rathi, Ashutosh was in no mood to stop. He went 6, 4, 6 against Bishnoi and the equation came down to a manageable 22 off 12, though DC only had two wickets in hand. It came down to the last wicket when Kuldeep Yadav was run out in an attempt to sneak a bye and get Ashutosh back on strike, but that sacrifice seemed worth it when Ashutosh hit the last two balls of that over, from Prince Yadav, for six and four to take DC into the final over needing just six.
No. 11 Mohit Sharma was on strike for the first ball, and he could have been dismissed when he overbalanced, looking to flick Shahbaz against the turn. The ball missed his outside edge and deflected off his back leg, causing Pant to fumble a half-chance for a stumping, but he took a review for lbw; ball-tracking suggested the ball would have just missed off stump. Mohit then managed to push the next ball away for a single, bringing Ashutosh back on strike. Ashutosh walloped Shahbaz straight into the sightscreen, and the DC dugout erupted with joy.
New DC captain Axar Patel had said at the toss that he was bowling first because he didn’t “want to take a risk with the dew later on”. Unfortunately for him, DC’s top order collapsed even before the dew could take effect. And it was Shardul Thakur who made the early strikes. Thakur wasn’t even supposed to be at the IPL. He went unsold at the auction, and was supposed to be playing County cricket for Essex while the IPL was on. But the injured Mohsin Khan was ruled out and Thakur found a way in.
And in his first over, he had Jake Fraser-McGurk and Abishek Porel miscuing. There was excellent captaincy as well from Pant, who stationed a long-off for Fraser-McGurk. He miscued an outswinger in that fielder’s direction while attempting to go over the on side, and Ayush Badoni completed a good catch. Two balls later, Porel mistimed an outswinger to Pooran at mid-off.
Sameer Rizvi came in and creamed a cover drive first ball but fell soon after, giving the left-arm spinner M Siddharth his first wicket as DC slipped to 7 for 3 in the second over. Axar and Faf du Plessis did a repair job of sorts, adding 43 off 23 balls, but both fell in successive overs and DC were 65 for 5 in the seventh.
In IPL 2024, LSG were often found lagging in the powerplay. This season, they are on a mission to fix that, and Marsh and Pooran took on the responsibility. While Aiden Markram fell early, Marsh took on his countryman Mitchell Starc. Marsh, who is playing IPL 2025 as a specialist batter, piled on the runs in the powerplay – 43 off just 19 balls, the most he has ever scored in the phase in the IPL.
Pooran came in at No. 3 and the onslaught came from both ends. While Marsh reached his half-century in 21 balls, Pooran took 24 to get there as LSG crossed the 100 mark in the ninth over. Pooran was particularly severe on the spinners. He smashed 60 runs off just 18 balls against them, at a strike rate of 333.33. That included a 28-run over against Stubbs, with Pooran smashing his offspin for four back-to-back sixes and then a four. At the other end, Marsh was brutal against the quicks, going at 255.55 against them.
Pooran struck six fours and seven sixes in his 30-ball 75, while Marsh hammered six fours and six sixes in his 36-ball 72. When they were together, even 250 seemed to be on for LSG.
But it would all go awry, soon.
At 161 for 2 after 13 overs, the sky was the limit for LSG. ESPNcricinfo’s forecaster had them scoring 246, and they looked like going beyond. But Starc and Kuldeep brought DC roaring back into the game. Kuldeep first took out Pant for a six-ball duck, as he toe-ended straight to long-off. Starc then rattled Pooran’s stumps with a full delivery that tailed in late in the next over, the 15th. Badoni took Kuldeep on in the 17th and failed to clear long-on, and two balls later, Thakur was run out. Starc took out Shahbaz and Bishnoi in his final over, and LSG only added 33 runs from overs 14 to 19 while losing six wickets.
That LSG even crossed 200 was down to David Miller thumping Mohit for two sixes off the last two balls of the innings. That took them to 209, and for the longest time it felt like it would be enough. It wasn’t.
Brief scores: Delhi Capitals 211 for 9 in 19.3 overs (Faf du Plessis 29, Axar Patel 22, Ashutosh Sharma 66*, Vipraj Nigam 39, Tristan Stubbs 34; Shardul Thakur 2-19, Digvesh Rathi 2-31, Manimaran Siddharth 2-39, Ravi Bishnoi 2-53) beat Lucknow Super Giants 209 for 8 in 20 overs (Aiden Markram 15, Nicholas Pooran 75, Mitchell Marsh 72, David Miller 27*; Mitchell Starc 3-42, Vipraj Nigam 1-35, Mukesh Kumar 1-22, Kuldeep Yadav 2-20) by one wicket
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!”
