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IPL 2025: Kohli, Padikkal fifties fire Royal Challengers Bengaluru to fifth away win
Another away game, another Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) win in IPL 2025, it was their fifth in five matches and this one has taken them to ten points and third on the points table. Less than 48 hours after going down at home, RCB went up north to Mullanpur and exacted revenge from Punjab Kings (PBKS) in comprehensive fashion.
The RCB bowlers hardly gave away anything as PBKS were restricted to 156 for 7. In reply, the chasemaster Virat Kohli was at it again as he recorded his 67th fifty-plus score in the IPL, the most for any batter. Devdutt Padikkal also recorded his first IPL fifty of the season as RCB romped home with seven balls to spare and by seven wickets.
RCB had no hesitation in bowling on what Rajat Patidar called a “decent” surface. For the first six overs, it seemed that it was more than just decent as PBKS smashed 62 in the powerplay with Prabhsimran Singh going big.
Then the RCB spinners came to the fore, and it was one-way traffic thereon. Krunal Pandya picked 2 for 25 in his four overs, Suyash Sharma returned 2 for 26 as RCB put a lid on the scoring in the middle overs. Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar then put on a death-bowling masterclass, hardly giving PBKS an inch.
In the chase, Arshdeep Singh got Phil Salt for the fourth time in T20s, but Kohli and Padikkal added 103 off 69 balls for the second wicket to keep RCB on track. Even as Padikkal and Patidar fell, Kohli held his own to remain unbeaten on 73 off 54 as RCB kept their 100% away record intact.
There is an inevitability when it comes to Kohli and chasing middling totals. He seems to have the scoring all mapped out. How many runs to get, the required rate, when to attack, when to hold himself back. A 158-chase gave him all those liberties. He hit five fours in his first 20 balls, all inside the powerplay. Then for the next 24 balls, he hit none. He was content with taking the ones and the twos, handing back the strike to the more aggressive Padikkal, but ensured he stayed put. He struck two fours and a six after recording his fifty off 43 balls, and stayed unbeaten till the end to take RCB over the line with plenty to spare.
Kohli’s 73* was his 67th fifty-plus score in the IPL, which is the most for any batter in the history of the league. That it came in an RCB win will please Kohli to no end.
It’s been a patchy IPL 2025 for Padikkal. In fact, it’s been a patchy couple of years in the IPL. His last fifty in the league came in IPL 2023, incidentally against PBKS when he was playing for Rajasthan Royals. But when it mattered, he’s come good.
Padikkal was beaten on the upper-cut first ball. That didn’t deter him, and he went again the next ball and carved Arshdeep over the keeper for four. With Kohli going strong, he took the aggressive route. There was an all-run four before he thumped Xavier Bartlett across the line for six. Harpreet Brar was spanked for four before Yuzvendra Chahal was whacked across the line for six. Padikkal raced to his fifty off 30 balls.
He got a high-five from Kohli, and as he raised his bat, for the first time in 14 IPL innings and the first time since May 2023, there was a certain amount of relief on Padikkal’s face.
He celebrated by going 4 and 6 against Marcus Stoinis before finally holding out to long-on for a 35-ball 61 but not before giving RCB a certain amount of cruise control in the chase.
The story, however, looked quite different six overs into the match. Bhuvneshwar, who has a good match-up against Prabhsimran, started with a two-run first over. The next five, though, belonged to PBKS. Priyansh Arya’s pick-up pull off Yash Dayal got the hosts’ six counter running. He drove Dayal through covers again before Prabhsimran smashed Bhuvneshwar for three fours in the third over: a guide past short third, a slap through point and pull through midwicket.
Arya and Prabhsimran took 23 off Hazlewood’s first two overs. Arya fell to Krunal, his top-edge going as far as mid-off but at 62 for 1 after six, the powerplay was PBKS’ all the way through.
RCB have often relied on their pacers for the wickets so far this season. On Sunday, it was the RCB spinners coming to the fore. Prabhsimran failed to clear long-on first ball after the powerplay and was caught by David at long-on. Shreyas Iyer then fell soon after for 6 caught splendidly by Krunal moving to his left from long-on with Romario Shepherd picking his first wicket for the season. It’s been an all-or-nothing season for Iyer. In eight innings, he’s had three fifty-plus and five sub-ten scores.
A needless run out had Nehal Wadhera walking back before Suyash sent back Josh Inglis and Marcus Stoinis in a single over as PBKS slipped to 114 for 6 after 14. PBKS managed only 67 runs and lost five wickets in the middle overs (between seven to 17), and that was always going to hurt them.
By the time the 17th over arrived, Marco Jansen and Shashank Singh were relatively set. Both these batters have an impressive death-overs strike rate and can hit a long ball. Bhuvneshwar and Hazlewood though had other ideas.
The duo put in a proper masterclass in death bowling and left PBKS nowhere. According to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, the duo landed eight yorkers in the last four overs, and gave away just one boundary – a six off the final ball of the innings. PBKS did not lose a wicket in these four overs but could only manage 28 runs, and that was never going to be enough.
Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 159 for 3 in 18.5 overs (Virat Kohli 73*, Devuutt Padikkal 61, Rajat Patidar 12; Jitesh Sharma 11*; Arshdeep Singh 1-26, Harpreet Brar 1-27, Yuzvendra Chahal 1-36) beat Punjab Kings 157 for 6 in 20 overs (Priyansh Arya 22, Prabhsimran Singh 33, Josh Inglis 29, Shashank Singh 31*, Marco Jansen 25*; Krunal Pandya 2-25,Romairo Shepherd 1-18, Suyash Sharma 2-26) by seven wickets
[Cricinfo]
One person has died and 300 properties have been destroyed in bushfires that have torn across south-east Australia.
The fires have raged in dozens of locations across the country for several days, mostly in the state of Victoria, but also in New South Wales, burning through land almost twice the size of Greater London.
A state of emergency has been declared in Victoria as thousands of firefighters and more than 70 aircraft battle the blaze. Residents in more than a dozen communities have been advised to leave their homes.
Authorities fear the fires, which are being fuelled by very hot, dry and windy conditions, could burn for several weeks.
Victoria’s Premier Jacinta Allan said 30 active fires were burning across the state, 10 of which were of particular concern.
She said 350,000 hectares had been burnt across the state as of 08:00 local time on Sunday (23:00 GMT on Saturday).
“We will see fires continue for some time across the state and that is why we are not through the worst of this by a long way,” she told Australian media.
“There are fires that are continuing right now that are threatening homes and property.”
Human remains were found in the village of Gobur, near the town of Longwood, some 110km (70 sq miles) north of the state capital Melbourne, police said. The victim has not yet been identified.
Allan praised the emergency workers who worked to retrieve the body. “This is difficult and confronting work, and it takes a heavy toll.”
“The Gobur community is grieving,” she said.
Bushfire smoke is impacting air quality in many areas across Victoria, including metropolitan Melbourne.
Authorities said the fires were the worst to hit the south-east of Australia since the 2019-2020 blazes that destroyed an area the size of Turkey and killed 33 people.
(BBC)
Iran has warned it will retaliate if attacked by the US, as protesters defied a deadly government crackdown on Saturday night.
Videos verified by the BBC and eyewitness accounts appeared to show the government ramping up its response to the protests, which have spread to more than 100 cities and towns across every province in Iran.
Medics at two hospitals have told the BBC that more than 100 bodies had been brought in over a two day period. The nationwide death toll is feared to be far higher.
The US has threatened to strike Iran over the killing of protesters. Iran’s parliament speaker warned that if the US attacked, Israel along with US military and shipping centres in the region would become legitimate targets.
The protests were sparked in the capital, Tehran, by soaring inflation, and are now calling for an end to the clerical rule of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran’s attorney general said anyone protesting would be considered an “enemy of God” – an offence that carries the death penalty – while Khamenei has dismissed demonstrators as a “bunch of vandals” seeking to “please” Trump.
US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the US “stands ready to help” as Iran “is looking at FREEDOM”.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has blamed the US and Israel for the unrest.
“They have trained certain individuals inside the country and abroad, brought terrorists into the country from outside, set mosques on fire, and attacked markets and guilds in Rasht, setting the bazaar ablaze,” he said without providing evidence.
As protests intensify, the number of deaths and injuries recorded by human rights monitors continues to rise.
Footage authenticated by BBC Persian and BBC Verify shows security officers shooting at gatherings of protesters in Tehran, in the western Kermanshah province and the southern Bushehr region.
Multiple verified videos filmed in the centre of the western city of Ilam last weekend show security forces firing shots towards Imam Khomeini Hospital, where a group of protesters had been holding a rally.
Staff at several hospitals have since told the BBC they have been overwhelmed with the injured and dead.
BBC Persian has verified that 70 bodies brought to one hospital in the city of Rasht on Friday night, while a health worker reported around 38 people dying at a Tehran hospital.
Sources inside Iran have told BBC Persian that plain-clothes officers have been targeting people filming and on their own at the protests.
Iran’s police chief said on state TV that the level of confrontation with protesters had been stepped up, with arrests on Saturday night of what he called “key figures”. He blamed a “significant proportion of fatalities” on “trained and directed individuals”, not security forces, but did not give specific details.
More than 2,500 people have been arrested since protests began on 28 December, according to a human rights group.
The BBC and most other international news organisations are unable to report from inside Iran, and the Iranian government has imposed an internet shutdown since Thursday, making obtaining and verifying information difficult.
Nonetheless, some footage has emerged.
Several videos, confirmed as recent by BBC Verify, show clashes between protesters and security forces in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city.
Masked protesters can be seen taking cover behind bins and bonfires, while a row of security forces is seen in the distance. A vehicle that appears to be a bus is engulfed in flames.
Multiple gunshots and what sounds like banging on pots and pans can be heard.
A figure standing on a nearby footbridge appears to fire multiple gunshots in several directions as a couple of people take cover behind a fence.
In Tehran, a verified video from Saturday night shows protesters also taking over the streets in the Gisha district.
Other verified videos from the capital show a large group of protesters and the sound of banging on pots in Punak Square, and a crowd of protesters marching on a road and calling for the end of the clerical establishment in the Heravi district.
Internet access in Iran is largely limited to a domestic intranet, with restricted links to the outside world. But during the current round of protests, authorities have for the first time severely restricted that too.
An expert told BBC Persian the shutdown is more severe than during the “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising in 2022.Alireza Manafi, an internet researcher, said the only likely way to connect to the outside world was via Starlink satellite, but warned users to exercise caution as such connections could potentially be traced by the government.
Trump did not elaborate on what the US was considering. However, he has been briefed on options for military strikes on Iran, an official told the BBC’s US news partner CBS.
The Wall Street Journal reports these were “preliminary discussions” and that there was no “imminent threat” to Iran.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday about the possibility of US intervention in Iran, they told CBS.
On Sunday, Reza Pahlavi , the exiled son of Iran’s last Shah, who lives in the US and whose return protesters have been calling for, told demonstrators that Trump had “carefully observed your indescribable bravery” in a social media post.
“Your compatriots around the world are proudly shouting your voice,” he wrote, pledging: “I know that I will soon be by your side.”
Pahlavi claimed the Islamic Republic was facing a “severe shortage of mercenaries” and that “many armed and security forces have left their workplaces or disobeyed orders to suppress the people”. The BBC could not verify these claims.
He encouraged people to continue protesting on Sunday evening, but to stay in groups or with crowds and not “endanger your lives”.
(BBC)
Rescue workers are racing to find dozens of people still missing following a landslide at a landfill site in the central Philippines that occurred earlier this week, an official has said.
Mayor Nestor Archival said on Saturday that signs of life had been detected at the site in Cebu City, two days after the incident.
Four people have been confirmed dead so far, Archival said, while 12 others have been taken to hospital.
Conditions for emergency services working at the site were challenging, the mayor added, with unstable debris posing a hazard and crew waiting for better equipment to arrive.
The privately-owned Binaliw landfill collapsed on Thursday while 110 workers were on site, officials said.
Archival said in a Facebook post on Saturday morning: “Authorities confirmed the presence of detected signs of life in specific areas, requiring continued careful excavation and the deployment of a more advanced 50-ton crane.”
Relatives of those missing have been waiting anxiously for any news of their whereabouts. More than 30 people, all workers at the landfill, are thought to be missing.
“We are just hoping that we can get someone alive… We are racing against time, that’s why our deployment is 24/7,” Cebu City councillor Dave Tumulak, chairman of the city’s disaster council, told news agency AFP.
Jerahmey Espinoza, whose husband is missing, told news agency Reuters at the site on Saturday: “They haven’t seen him or located him ever since the disaster happened. We’re still hopeful that he’s alive.”
The cause of the collapse remains unclear, but Cebu City councillor Joel Garganera previously said it was likely the result of poor waste management practices.
Operators had been cutting into the mountain, digging the soil out and then piling garbage to form another mountain of waste, Garganera told local newspaper The Freeman on Friday.
The Binaliw landfill covers an area of about 15 hectares (37 acres).
Landfills are common in major Philippine cities like Cebu, which is the trading centre and transportation gateway of the Visayas, the archipelago nation’s central islands.
[BBC]
One person dead and 300 buildings destroyed in Australia bushfires
Iran warns it will retaliate if US attacks as protesters defy crackdown
GENERAL WEATHER FORECAST FOR NEXT 36 HOURS
National Communication Programme for Child Health Promotion (SBCC) has been launched. – PM
Level I landslide early warnings issued to the Districts of Badulla, Kandy, Matale and Nuwara-Eliya extended
Rescuers race to find dozens missing in deadly Philippines landfill collapse
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
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