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IPL 2025: Gujarat Titans stun Mumbai Indians to win a classic

Published

8 months ago

2025/05/7

Priyan

Hardik Pandya missed a throw at the stumps that would have taken the game to a Super Over [Cricinfo]

In a chaotic match laced with rain breaks during the second half, Gujarat Titans got home by the barest of margins to reach the top of the IPL 2025 points table and end Mumbai Indians’ six-match winning streak. When it started to rain just before midnight, MI would have thought they had fashioned an improbable comeback. Between two rain breaks, they had taken 4 for 25 to turn GT’s lead of eight on the DLS par score to a deficit of four with two overs to go.

Thanks to some excellent work from the groundstaff, the game resumed at the last possible moment, leaving GT 15 to get in the 19th over. Deepak Chahar was hit for a four and a six in the first three balls, then bowled a no-ball, but came back to take a wicket. With one needed off the last ball, MI could still have forced a tie had someone come around to collect the throw from mid-off. Hardik Pandya, who had bowled two no-balls earlier and had decided against bowling the last over, missed with the direct-hit, sparking wild celebrations in the GT camp.

There was appreciable seam movement for GT to exploit after winning the toss and choosing to field. Mohammed Siraj had Ryan Rickleton caught at short cover second ball, and Arshad Khan troubled Rohit Sharma before getting him out for 7 off 8.

GT could have shut MI out of the game then and there but they dropped Will Jacks on 0 and 29, and Suryakumar Yadav on 10. Jacks went on to score his first fifty for MI, in just 29 balls, and Suryakumar registered a 12th straight score of 25 or more. Despite some help for the spinners, MI seemed well-placed at 97 for 2 in 10.3 overs.

It is the strength and depth in the GT bowling that allows their batters to play more conventional cricket than some other teams, and it was on full display in the second half of MI’s innings. R Sai Kishore, who doesn’t always get to bowl, troubled the right-hand-heavy MI middle order before going over the wicket and cramping Suryakumar on an inside-out shot for a catch at long-off. He then responded unerringly to the attacking fields for Hardik, who slogged and top-edged. Between these two wickets, Rashid Khan marked his comeback from 3-0-50-0 in the last match with the wicket of Jacks, having drawn five false shots in nine balls bowled to him

Prasidh Krishna strengthened his grip on the purple catch as he and Gerald Coetzee drove home the advantage with a wicket each. Rashid came back to bowl the 18th over for just four. Corbin Bosch hit two sixes in the final over before getting hit on the back of the head, an event that would go on to have implications later in the night.

The new ball seamed for MI as well, and they have the bowling to exploit it. Trent Boult beat B Sai Sudarshan first ball and then took his edge second ball, one short of Suryakumar’s tally of 510 this year. The orange cap remained on Suryakumar’s head, but two other GT batters reached 500 runs during a testing, chaotic time.

Amid heavy wind, Shubman Gill and Jos Buttler were forced to quite literally weather the storm. Jasprit Bumrah and Boult were exceptional, and at 21 for 1 in five overs, the shortest period for this to constitute a match, GT were well behind the par score.

By now, though, it had stopped raining, vindicating the umpires’ decision to not take the players off. Even as Gill struggled to get going, Buttler got GT moving. An 11-ball over from Hardik – two no-balls, three wides – sent GT on their way, but a new twist in the tale was Bosch’s concussion substitute, the left-arm quick Ashwani Kumar.

Ashwani conceded just five in his first over, and had Butter caught off the bottom edge in his second.

Sherfane Rutherford made a comeback to the GT side as the Impact Player, which led to the introduction of Jacks’ part-time spin. GT were five behind the par score, and Rutherford just 1 off 2 when Jacks started the said over. Three dots later, GT looked in trouble. Rutherford, though, turned it around with an inside-edged four and two lovely inside-out shots for 10 runs. In the next over, he took down Ashwani. GT were now eight ahead of the par score as for the first time rain forced players off the field.

Bumrah had two overs left, and Boult one, when play resumed without any deduction in the overs. Quite incredibly, Bumrah drew seam movement from the old ball to go past Gill, who scored 43 off 46 despite two free hits and a dropped catch, and Shahrukh Khan two balls after he had hit Bumrah for a four. Between these two wickets, Boult skidded one through to get Rutherford out for 28 off 15.

It is a miracle they got the teams back on for that one over. It was double trouble for MI as their three best bowlers had bowled out, and they now had to bowl with one boundary rider fewer because of their slow over-rate. Chahar struggled to control a ball that got wet with Rahul Tewatia’s hit to the fence first ball. Coetzee smoked a slot ball over long-off to leave them four needed off three. A no-ball made it easier, but a sharp bouncer brought in Arshad to face the last ball.

Two mistakes were made by MI. They didn’t position a fielder next to the pitch to jump on to collect a throw, and Suryakumar and the bowler weren’t swift to get to the stumps from short extra cover. Hardik looked up to see if he could throw the ball to someone, he saw no one, and had to shy at the stumps. He missed.

Brief scores:
Gujarat Titans 147 for 7 in 19 overs (Shubman Gill 43, Joss Buttler 30, Sherfane Rutherfird 28, Rahul Tewatia 11*, Gerald Coetzee 12; Deepak Chahar 1-32, Trent Boult 2-22, Jasprit Bumrah 2-19, Ashwani Kumar 2-28) beat Mumbai Indians 155 for 8 in 20 overs (Will Jacks 53, Suryakumar Yadav 35, Corbin Bosch 27; Mohammed Siraj 1-29, Arshad Khan 1-18, Prasidh Krishna 1-37, Sai Kishore 2-34, Rahid Khan 1-21, Gerald Coetzee 1-10) by three wickets (DLS method)

[Cricinfo]

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Lanka Premier League draft set to take place on March 22

Published

11 hours ago

2026/01/13

Priyan

The sixth edition of the LPL will take place in July-August 2026 [Cricinfo]

There will be no auction for this year’s Lanka Premier League, Sri Lanka Cricket has announced, with a player draft set to take place instead on March 22.

The sixth edition of the LPL had originally been slated for early December 2025, but was postponed on account of ensuring the readiness of venues for the 2026 World Cup set to be co-hosted by Sri Lanka and India. The league has since been scheduled to take place from July 8 to August 8, which is the SLC’s preferred window.

This will be the first time since 2022 that a draft system is being utilised in the LPL, with both of the past two seasons hosting player auctions.

“During the draft, franchises will select both Sri Lankan and overseas players for the upcoming season of Sri Lanka’s premier domestic T20 tournament,” an SLC media release confirmed.

The inclusion of a sixth team had also been mooted prior to the competition’s postponement, however there have been no developments on that front since. Each of the first five editions of the LPL saw five teams representing Colombo, Galle, Kandy, Dambulla and Jaffna compete.

Earlier this year, Jaffna Kings – formerly the longest-standing franchise, having joined in the tournament’s second edition – and Colombo Strikers were terminated by SLC for “failure to uphold contractual obligations.” As a result, the LPL currently has no franchise owners with a history stretching back beyond 2024. New owners for both the Jaffna and Colombo teams are yet to be announced.

[Cricinfo]

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Trump to meet Venezuelan opposition leader Machado at the White House

Published

12 hours ago

2026/01/13

Priyan

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado will meet President Donald Trump on Thursday, the White House has confirmed.

The visit comes just weeks after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was seized in Caracas by US forces. But Trump declined to endorse Machado, whose movement claimed victory in 2024’s widely contested elections, as its new leader.

The US instead backed Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice-president.

Machado said last week she hoped to thank Trump personally for the action against Maduro and would like to give the Nobel Prize to him. Trump called it “a great honour”, but the Nobel Committee later clarified that it was not transferable.

Earlier, Trump had expressed displeasure over Machado’s decision to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, an honour the president has long coveted.

Asked on Friday whether receiving Machado’s prize might change his view of her role in Venezuela, the president said: “She might be involved in some aspect of it.”

“I will have to speak to her. I think it’s very nice that she wants to come in. And that’s what I understand the reason is,” he said.

Earlier this month, after Maduro’s ouster, Trump had said Machado “doesn’t have the support within, or the respect within, the country”. “She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect,” he said.

The US has so far backed Delcy Rodríguez as Venezuela’s interim president.

Trump describes Rodríguez as an “ally”, and she has not been charged by US officials with any crimes.

“Delcy Rodríguez and her team have been very cooperative with the United States,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday.

But Machado has maintained that her coalition should “absolutely” be in charge of the country.

Machado has said nobody trusted Rodríguez, telling CBS that the interim leader was “one of the main architects… of repression for innocent people” in the South American country.

“Everybody in Venezuela and abroad knows perfectly who she is and the role she has played,” Machado said.

The former legislator, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year, described US military action in Venezuela as “a major step towards restoring prosperity and rule of law and democracy in Venezuela”.

Rodríguez has rebuffed claims by Trump that the US was in charge of Venezuela.

“The Venezuelan government rules our country, and no-one else does,” she said in a televised speech. “There is no external agent governing Venezuela.”

[BBC]

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Festival advance for government officers to be increased

Published

12 hours ago

2026/01/13

Priyan

In terms of the provisions of the Establishments Code on payment of festival advance to government officers, there’s a possibility of obtaining rupees 10,000/- as an advance for celebrating festivals of Theipongal, Ramazan, Sinhala and Hindu New Year, Wesak, Deepavali, and Christmas as well as for pilgrimages (Sri Paada pilgrimage and Hajj pilgrimage).

Provisions have been given to recover the said advance in 08 installments or if required earlier without interest. It has been proposed by the Budget 2026 to increase the said festival advance up to rupees 15,000/-.

Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers granted approval to the proposal submitted by the Minister of Public Administration, Provincial Councils and Local governments to revise the relevant provisions so that the festival advance can be increased up to rupees 15,000/- .