Sports
Iyer, Gill, Suryakumar and Ashwin stud India’s series-clinching win
India’s box-ticking ahead of the World Cup continued, with Shreyas Iyer and R Ashwin coming up with impressive performances, as the hosts secured a 99-run victory (DLS) in the second ODI in Indore on Sunday (September 24) to seal the three-match series. Iyer’s third ODI ton and Shubman Gill’s sixth hundred, along with half-centuries from Suryakumar Yadav and KL Rahul, powered India to a commanding 399/5. After a rain break in the second innings, Australia’s target was revised to 317 in 33 overs but they ended up well short as Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja bagged three apiece to bowl the visitors out for 217.
Matthew Short started positively in the chase as he managed two fours off Mohammed Shami in the opening over. But Prasidh Krishna, who replaced Jasprit Bumrah for this game, had Short caught at third man and also got Steve Smith, the stand-in captain, to edge to slip. The bowler, though, was taken for a few boundaries by David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne as they took Australia past 50 before it started to rain again in Indore, forcing the players off the field. Upon resumption, Australia faced a steep challenge as they needed 261 in 24 overs at close to 11 an over as per the DLS revised target.
Warner and Labuschagne, who extended their stand past 50, had to play their shots from the get-go and they were up for it as they targeted Shardul Thakur. Ashwin, on the other hand, wasn’t as easy to score off and Warner even batted right-handed against him, executing a sweep shot for a four. Labuschagne, though, fell to the offspinner as he was bowled off a back flipper. Warner, who registered his second fifty-plus score of the series, persisted with his right-hand tactics against Ashwin, and ended up being out lbw attempting a reverse sweep, although replays revealed he had edged the ball onto his pad.
Ashwin also removed Josh Inglis soon after and Jadeja, after an expensive start, accounted for Alex Carey. A direct hit from Ishan Kishan, who was ‘keeping in this game, caught Cameron Green short of the crease. Jadeja picked up his second by having Adam Zampa bowled, as Australia slipped to 140/8. Josh Hazlewood and Sean Abbott struck a few big hits while a couple of dropped catches came as blemishes in an otherwise dominating show by India. Australia got some ticking done too as Abbott showcased his hitting skills to bring up a 29-ball fifty, his first in ODIs. A 77-run ninth wicket stand came to an end when Hazlewood, who had hit two fours off Shami, was eventually bowled by the experienced pacer for 23. Abbott was the last to fall, bowled by Jadeja, as Australia’s innings ended in the 29th over. It meant they had now lost five ODIs on the bounce.
Earlier, having been asked to bat, India got off to a good start as Ruturaj Gaikwad struck two fours off debutant Spencer Johnson. Hazlewood, back in the side, bowled in the right channels, and reaped the reward as he got Gaikwad to edge to Carey. Iyer hit the straps straightaway as he dealt in regular boundaries. Be it driving through covers or going over it, he exuded confidence as he helped India pick up pace. Gill was a bit subdued until he went straight over Abbott’s head for his first boundary-shot, which was a maximum, and then came down the track to hit one past cover for a four. Gill also took on Green in his first over, striking a four and a six. After a brief rain interruption, Gill and Iyer continued to tee off, with the former bringing up a 37-ball fifty and the latter getting to a 41-ball half-century with a six off Johnson.
Australia weren’t able to keep a lid on India’s scoring rate, with Iyer targeting the spinners for a couple of sixes and Gill finding the boundaries regularly. India’s 200 came up in just the 29th over and an 86-ball ton for Iyer came next, and the joy and relief of getting to hundred was palpable in his celebrations. Iyer was reprieved when the third umpire ruled that Abbott didn’t take a return catch cleanly. But the batter fell in the same over, soon after hitting a boundary to raise the 200 partnership, when he failed in his attempt to clear the fence. Rahul started with a six off Zampa, after which Gill reached three figures, becoming only the fifth player to get five ODI hundreds in a calendar year before turning 25. Rahul also hit a Green delivery out of the ground before Gill’s innings came to an end in the same over when he was undone by a slower ball.
Rahul and Kishan kept the big hits coming as they raised a 59-run stand to help India past 300 in the 41st over. But Kishan fell soon after, getting out to Zampa for an 18-ball 31 looking to go for another big one. After two quiet overs, Suryakumar unleashed his array of strokes in the 44th over off Green, hitting four successive sixes. Rahul got to a 35-ball fifty but it was Suryakumar who scored the bulk of the runs in a half-century stand before Green ended the Indian skipper’s stay. But there was no stopping Suryakumar, who smashed a six and two fours in a 17-run over from Abbott as he got to a 24-ball fifty. Jadeja and Suryakumar scored a four apiece off Hazlewood in the 48th. It was a forgettable outing with the ball for Green, who conceded 103 runs despite giving away only five runs in the 49th over. Abbott was hit for a six by Suryakumar in the final over but he kept it tight otherwise, preventing India from reaching 400.
Brief scores:
India 399/5 in 50 overs (Shreyas Iyer 105, Shubman Gill 104, Suryakumar Yadav 72*, KL Rahul 52; Cameron Green 2-103) beat Australia 217 (Sean Abbott 54, David Warner 53; R Ashwin 3-41, Ravindra Jadeja 3-42) by 99 runs (DLS method).
A two-paced, up-and-down pitch in Raipur was the stage for one of the most enthralling contests of IPL 2026, and it ended in the most dramatic of last-ball finishes, with Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) breaking a two-match losing streak to go to the top of the table. In doing so they ended the playoffs hopes of not just Mumbai Indians (MI), their opponents on the night, but also Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).
In the end, the finish defied explanation. With RCB needing two to win off the last ball, Rasikh Salam clipped a near-yorker from Raj Bawa back towards the bowler. Bawa fumbled, the ball dribbled into the mid-on region, and when Ryan Rickelton collected the throw and broke the wicket at the keeper’s end, Rasikh had just made his ground, diving to complete the second run.
Perhaps the only explanation was that two players did not deserve to be on the losing side. One was Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He took three wickets in a bewitching new-ball spell, then returned to take out MI’s top scorer at a crucial moment in the death overs, and then, batting at No. 10 with nine runs required from three balls, hit Bawa for a gloriously timed six over the leaping sweeper cover fielder. It was Bhuvneshwar’s first six in the IPL since 2016.
The other was Krunal Pandya. Promoted to No. 5 with RCB 39 for 3 in the sixth over, Krunal took charge of the chase, finding ways to hit boundaries even as everyone around him struggled to middle the ball, and hitting sixes while fighting cramps, and eventually scored 73 off 46 balls.
From the start it was evident that hard lengths would be extremely difficult to negotiate on this pitch. From these lengths, the ball stuck and jumped on some occasions, bringing the leading edge into play, and at other times it skidded and kept low.
After RCB opted to bowl in their first match at their second home for the season, Bhuvneshwar struck in the first over with a hard-length ball. It hit high on Rickelton’s bat as he looked to punch over mid-off, and all he managed to do was hit it to the fielder.
But there was more to Bhuvneshwar’s magic on the night than merely his use of the pitch. His second wicket came off one of the great balls of his IPL career: a knuckle-ball outswinger that made Rohit Sharma reach for the drive, which he edged to the keeper. Next ball, he went back to a traditional good length and closer to the stumps, and found late, late swing to get Suryakumar Yadav nicking to slip for a golden duck.
MI were 28 for 3 in three overs.
With the pitch behaving as it did, Naman Dhir and Tilak Varma began an old-school rebuild, knowing that even 180 would be an excellent total. And they set up perfectly for that final push, putting on 82 off 57 balls.
But RCB dismissed both just when they were looking dangerous. Dhir had just struck Rasikh for a pair of pleasing back-foot fours through the off side when a shooter did him in. Then, in the 18th over, Bhuvneshwar dismissed Tilak, who played on while looking for the scoop over short fine leg. It took away one of MI’s most dangerous death-overs hitters with two overs remaining; they only scored 11 runs off those two overs, as Josh Hazlewood and Rasikh kept extracting misbehaviour from hard lengths.
Virat Kohli had been out for a duck in RCB’s previous game, the victim of a peach from Prince Yadav. On Sunday he was out for a golden duck; this time he looked to impose himself on a wide outswinger from Deepak Chahar, but ended up mishitting it to mid-off.
Chahar was erratic – he conceded 14 in his first over, with Jacob Bethell putting him away for back-to-back fours off his first two balls – but continued to bowl good balls. In his second over, he sent down a jaffa that squared up Devdutt Padikkal and nicked him off, straightening after angling into the left-hander from round the wicket.
Then, in the final over of the powerplay, RCB lost their third wicket; this time, Corbin Bosch made full use of a pitch made for his strengths. He banged it in short, got the ball to hurry and cramp Rajat Patidar on the pull, and the top-edged ballooned to the keeper.
The fourth-wicket partnership of 55 was a study in contrasts. Bethell did not hit another boundary after the two he’d hit off Chahar at the start of his innings, and struggled to pierce the field while limping to a run-a-ball 27. At the other end, Krunal exuded a sense of certainty right from the time he pulled Bosch for six off just the third ball he faced.
His handling of spin was particularly crucial to how the chase unfolded. He used his reach to sweep and slog whenever the chance presented itself, and this may have made Suryakumar Yadav – standing in in the continued absence of Hardik Pandya with a back issue – hesitate to use Raghu Sharma, the legspinner MI had brought on as their Impact Player. Instead, he turned to Bawa’s military medium; his first over went for just eight runs, but Krunal and Jitesh Sharma took his second over, the 14th of RCB’s innings, for 16 runs.
That left RCB needing 57 off 36 balls.
Jitesh, coming into this game with an average of 8.00 for the season, played an important cameo, 18 off 12 including an eye-catching back-foot punch off Jasprit Bumrah in the 15th over, and a hooked six off Bosch in the 16th.
Just as the contest seemed to be tilting RCB’s way, though, Bosch hit back with two wickets in two balls. Jitesh sliced him into deep point’s hands, and Tim David fell for a first-baller, toe-ending an attempted pull to the keeper, undone by a ball that stopped on him. MI gained more control as Chahar conceded just six off the 17th over, using his slower bouncer expertly.
With 30 to get off the last three, and with Bumrah to bowl one of those three, the 18th over became crucial. And AM Ghazanfar nearly became a hero, inducing a mishit from Krunal only for Naman Dhir and Tilak Varma – converging from deep midwicket and long-on respectively – to mess up a possible relay catch via miscommunication.
Krunal was actively cramping at this stage, but he somehow found the reserves within him to hit two sixes off the next three balls, falling to the floor in agony after completing his shots. A third six off the final ball of the over would have left RCB needing 12 off 12, but this time Tilak judged and executed the running, juggling catch perfectly at long-on.
This meant Bumrah bowled the 19th to two new batters. And neither Romario Shepherd nor Rasikh had much of an answer to his mix of hard lengths and yorkers; only three came off the over, of which one was a leg bye.
It was the perfect assist. All that remained was for the final-over bowler to finish it off. But the three seamers had bowled out, and Suryakumar wasn’t going to use a spinner. So it was Bawa who stepped up, and he did a decent job under the circumstances; he overstepped once, and there were three wides, but these were the result of sticking to a wide-line plan. And Shepherd struggled against his round-the-wicket angle, losing shape while trying to muscle the ball, and he eventually fell off the third legal ball of the over, leaving Nos. 9 and 10 to score 10 off three balls.
On most days, you would back the bowling team to close it out. On this day, Bhuvneshwar was an irresistible force.
Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 167 for 8 in 20 overs (Jacob Bethell 27, Devudutt Padikkal 12, Krunal Pandya 73, Jitesh Sharma 18; Deepak Chahar 2-33, Corbin Bosch 4-26, A M Gazhanfar 1-33, Raj Bawa 1-39) beat Mumbai Indians 166 for 7 in 20 overs (Rohit Sharma 22, Naman Dhir 47, Tilak Verma 57, Will Jacks 10, Raj Bawa 16; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 4-23, Josh Hazelwood 1-33, Rasik Salam 1-42, Romario Shepherd 1-18) by two wickets
[Cricinfo]
Urvil Patel played the kind of innings that erased a bit of history and created a bit of history. In 2025, team after team came to Chepauk and breached it and the crowd got used to leaving early. On Sunday evening, 32,825 people – some of whom might have seen the morning show where one of Tamil Nadu’s most popular actors took charge as the chief minister – were given double delight as Chennai Super Kings (CSK) chased down their first 200-plus target since 2018 and one of their future stars announced himself with the IPL’s joint fastest half century.
Urvil got there in 13 balls. When he walked into the middle, CSK’s chances of winning were 38.13%. When he walked out, to a standing ovation from the crowd and his coaching staff, CSK’s chances of winning were 93.02%. He single-handedly changed the game and powered CSK to fifth spot.
Mitchell Marsh had taken first strike in eight out of 11 Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) matches. Here he gave it up so that Josh Inglis could do his thing. One of the best spin hitters in the world threw the opposition’s bowling plans off when he targeted Akeal Hosein, hitting him for three successive boundaries in the first over. CSK turned to pace, which suited Marsh better and which Inglis harnessed to play some of the coolest ramps ever seen and he went for them over and over.
According to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, nobody has tried more ramps (four) inside the powerplay. Even when he missed one, he created scoring opportunities. Because Anshul Kamboj, having seen what he wanted to do, went fuller instead of camping on a good length area and got smacked through the covers. Inglis’ ease in accessing the ‘V’ behind the wicket opened up easier scoring shots in front of it. He was 77 off 25 after six overs. Only Suresh Raina (87 vs PBKS in 2014), Travis Head (84 vs DC in 2024) and Jake Fraser-McGurk (78 vs MI in 2024) have scored more inside the field restrictions.
But with the field spreading, CSK unleashed the season’s joint-second-highest wicket-takers (12 each) in the middle overs on LSG. Noor Ahmad aced his match-up with Nicholas Pooran (two runs off nine balls for three dismissals). In his first three games this season, he had 0 for 111 at an economy rate of 11.1. In the next eight, Noor has picked up 12 for 215 at an economy rate of 7.16. In the background, MS Dhoni had suggested that the Afghanistan wrist-spinner focus more on his legbreak than just going googly all the time. That’s had a knock-on effect of Noor targeting the stumps a little more and it’s worked for him.
This was the same pitch where CSK won their first game of the season against DC. Just like that day, Jamie Overton played a big role. Inglis, who had faced 25 of the first 36 balls of the innings and hit nine fours and six sixes, could only get on strike for eight of the 19 balls since the powerplay. Antsy to keep the rate up, he went for a scoop against Overton and got caught behind. Hitting the deck with both pace on and off, Overton delivered 10 dots in his first 18 balls and provided two wickets. LSG were 56 for 5 in 50 balls after the field restrictions. Shahbaz Ahmed helped LSG recover a bit, hitting the last ball of the innings for six, to push the score past 200.
There is a sign of respect that a bowler gives a batter in T20 cricket. Bowling wides. Hiding the ball away from his hitting arc because he keeps walloping everything. Andre Russell has experienced this. Kieron Pollard has experienced this. And for one glorious moment, Urvil experienced this when Digvesh Rathi speared a ball practically down into the next pitch in the sixth over. This was because Urvil had sent the previous four balls he had faced out of the ground.
Urvil came into the game with a balls-per-boundary ratio of 2 in the IPL but his longest innings was 19 balls. He will likely persist with this method, trying to whack everything for six, because India have won a T20 world title with batters playing the exact same way. Also, LSG didn’t really give him a reason to take a backward step. They kept bowling the ball to which he could clear his front leg and swing to midwicket. Seven of his eight sixes went there. He was barely 10 minutes into his innings when had a chance to hit six sixes back to back. Three off Avesh Khan. Two of Rathi. When the sixth ball that he carved over point bounced in front of the boundary, he threw his head back in utter disappointment.
At 41 off 8, Urvil had the chance to break the IPL’s record for the fastest fifty. But he ended up scoring just nine off the next five balls and had to settle for sharing the title with Yashasvi Jaiwal. When he finally fell for 65 off 23, CSK needed 78 runs in 64 balls.
Veer could’ve been dismissed twice off two balls in the 19th over off Avesh but Rathi and Pooran dropped straightforward chances. Veer capitalised by hitting a six to bring the equation down to 10 off the last over. LSG went to Aiden Markram, figuring an offspinner turning the ball away from the two left-hand batters in the middle might work. It didn’t. Dube, on 3 off 5, hit back-to-back sixes to finish the game
Brief scores:
Chennai Super Kings 208 for 5 in 19.2 overs (Sanju Samson 28, Rutraj Gaikwad 42, Urvil Patel 65, Kartik Sharma 20. Dewald Brevis 10, Shivam Dube 15*, Prashant Veer 17*; Digvesh Rathi 2-45, Avesh Khan 1-44, Shahbaz Ahmed 2-30) beat Lucknow Super Giants 203 for 8 in 20 overs (Josh Inglis 85, Mitchell Marsh 10, Rishabh Pant 15, Akshat Raghuwanshi 18, Shahbaz Ahmed 43*, Himmat Singh 17; Anshul Kamboj 2-47, Noor Ahmad 1-24, Jamie Overton 3-36) by five wickets
[Cricinfo]
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