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Suryakumar, Bumrah star in thrilling Mumbai Indians win

Punjab Kings fell on the wrong side of a third straight final-over thriller at their home ground in Mullanpur with Mumbai Indians edging home to a nine-run win for their third victory of the season to keep pace with the other playoffs chasers. The visitors appeared to be cruising to victory for large portions of the game before a sensational knock from Ashutosh Sharma (61 off 28) rocked their boat sidewards. But another impressive bowling performance from Jasprit Bumrah (3 for 21) enabled the visitors to hold their nerves and clinch victory, thereby ensuring Suryakumar Yadav’s excellent 78 off 53 didn’t go in vain.
That this was not a belter of a wicket, especially in the first innings, is ascertained by the fact that out of Suryakumar Yadav’s 17 scores of 75 or more in T20 cricket, this knock was the only one scored at a strike-rate under 160. But he was typically quick off the blocks after MI were put into bat, hitting Kagiso Rabada for two fours after coming out to play in the third over of the game. MI got to 54/1 at the end of the powerplay with Suryakumar reaching 22 off 15 balls.
At the halfway point of the innings, he was one short of a half-century having played three of his signature shots in the process: a whip behind the wicket for six off Rabada, a swept-four off Harpreet Brar that beat short-fine leg and deep square leg and an inside-out six over extra cover off Liam Livingstone. At the other end, after making a fast start, Rohit Sharma was starved off strike and made only 29 off his 20 balls at the 10-over mark.
Sam Curran, continuing to lead in Shikhar Dhawan’s absence, was proactive with his bowling changes and did not allow the MI batters to line up any one member of his attack. The PBKS skipper dismissed Rohit, who faced only 13 balls in the seven overs leading into the 12th, by getting the India captain to hit to point after a 25-ball 36. Curran, Rabada and Hapreet Brar also bowled three boundary-less overs before Tilak Varma ended a 22-ball drought with back-to-back boundaries off Arshdeep Singh. Suryakumar added a four of his own to make it a 15-run over and inject momentum back into the innings.
MI scored 62 runs off the final five overs against an older ball that didn’t always come on at an expected pace off the wicket. Eighteen of those 62 runs came in Rabada’s fourth over – the 16th of the innings – denting the South African’s figures after he had given away just 25 from his first three. In that over, Suryakumar overturned an LBW decision against him and then proceeded to hit the pacer for a four over extra cover before flicking a full-toss over fine-leg for six. Tilak rounded that over with a pulled six over mid-wicket.
Once Curran dismissed Suryakumar in the 17th over, Tilak took over the baton to give the team a finishing kick. He finished unbeaten on an 18-ball 34 while Tim David added 14 off 7 balls including two fours and a six off Curran’s final over. Harshal Patel produced an impressive final over, dismissing David and Romario Shepherd with slower into-the-wicket balls. Only eight runs came from that over and even though MI fell short of the 200-mark, the 192 they got was more than any team had managed at Mullanpur and it showed.
PBKS made the decision to drop the under-performing Jonny Bairstow and bring in big-money recruit Rilee Rossouw into their XI. It was a move that didn’t work as Bumrah quickly set the cat among the pigeons in the second innings. Curran opted to bring himself up to open the order but saw his partner, Prabhsimran Singh, fall attempting a pull off Gerald Coetzee but only managed to glove the ball to the ‘keeper.
That brought Rossouw to the middle and he was a recipient of an inswinging yorker from Bumrah that laid waste to his stumps. Bumrah added another wicket, via DRS, when he had the PBKS skipper tickle a leg-stump ball to the ‘keeper. PBKS lost a fourth wicket in the 13th ball of the innings when Liam Livingstone’s attempted pull to a pacy delivery from Coetzee popped right back to the bowler. At the end of six overs, PBKS were 40/4 and effectively out of the contest.
All hope seemed lost when Ashutosh joined Shashank Singh in the 10th over with the scoreboard reading 77/6. The pair added 34 runs in 3.5 overs but even so, Mumbai Indians seemed one wicket away from sealing the deal. Bumrah, brought back for one of his overs in the middle, struck with a wicked slower ball first up that Shashank was too early into and lofted a simple catch to mid-wicket. Ashuthosh, though, wasn’t done and made his intentions clear with an audacious sweep off an attempted Bumrah yorker for a six.
Ashutosh hit seven sixes in all, five of them in the region between deep square leg and fine-leg, effortlessly maneuvering balls directed towards his body in that quadrant of the field. It forced MI’s bowlers into panic mode as they packed their legside but a full toss still allowed Ashutosh to put the ball away.
With five overs to go, Punjab needed 52 to win and then the 16th over sent down by Akash Madhwal turned the game on its head. His round the wicket angle to Ashutosh didn’t work as the batter made room and lofted a six over long off. That it was a no-ball allowed Ashutosh to take another risk off the ensuing free-hit and this time he pulled out the reverse-scoop over third man for another six. The over ended with Harpreet Brar pumping another six straight down the ground to make it a 24-run over. That brought the equation down to a very gettable 28 off 24.
MI’s chances distilled down to what Bumrah could do in his final over. PBKS didn’t need to take any risks against him and casually got away by taking just three runs off the master bowler. Hardik Pandya, now front-loading his best bowlers, then bowled Coetzee. The South African struck the biggest blow of the night when he had Ashutosh hitting to the deep mid-wicket fielder towards the longer side of the ground. Ashutosh’s dismissal for a 28-ball 61 turned the pendulum once more in MI’s direction as Coetzee’s over produced just two runs. Hardik brought himself on to bowl the 19th over and gave away just four runs from his first four balls and added the wicket off Brar, but then No.11 Kagiso Rabada walked out and pulled the first ball for six to give PBKS 12 to chase off the final over.
Unfortunately for PBKS, Rabada’s attempts to run two at the start of the final over turned fateful as an accurate throw from the deep caught him short and left PBKS on the wrong side of yet another close game.
Punjab Kings will host the Gujarat Titans on Sunday in their last game of the season at Mullanpur. Mumbai Indians have the weekend off before they head to Jaipur and take on the table-toppers Rajasthan Royals on Monday.
Brief scores:
Mumbai Indians 192/7 in 20 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 78, Rohit Sharma 36; Harshal Patel 3-31) beat Punjab Kings 183 in 19.1 overs (Ashutosh Kumar 61, Shashank Singh 41; Jasprit Bumrah 3-21, Gerald Coetzee 3-32) by 9 runs.
Latest News
Starc, Lyon keep Sri Lanka on a tight leash

Sri Lanka endured another shoddy batting show at the start of the second Test in Galle as the hosts ended the opening day at 229/9. Despite half-centuries from Dinesh Chandimal and Kusal Mendis, Australia kept the home side on a tight leash to take early control in the second fixture.
Dhananjaya de Silva put his under-fire batting unit in on a dry surface after winning the toss. A week after Australia posted a first-innings total of 654/6 at the same venue, Sri Lanka made a fairly solid start through the senior pair of Dimuth Karunaratne – playing in his 100th and final Test for Sri Lanka, and Chandimal. Nathan Lyon was employed early on a surface that took sharp turn from the first hour itself, and saw the back of returning opener Pathum Nissanka. The second-wicket pair of Karunaratne and Chandimal, however, saw through the rest of the morning session with solidity and some intent to push the team ahead.
What transpired after this break though, would’ve further peeved head coach Sanath Jayasuriya, who chided his batters for their shot selection in the aftermath of the first Test defeat. Karunaratne, who’d moved along to 30s, fell in the third over after the break – cleaned up by Lyon from round the stumps. Angelo Mathews was scratchy and circumspect for 25 deliveries, before biting the bullet on the 26th when Lyon tossed one up for him to reach out and defend, only to nick behind to Alex Carey.
Right after the drinks break, Australia struck through the golden arm of Travis Head. The offie got Kamindu Mendis to nick to Steve Smith in first slip while attempting a cut shot. Dhananjaya de Silva’s arrival coincided with the return of Mitchell Starc, and the pacer dismissed the Sri Lankan captain right away. Starc bowled full and wide and Dhananjaya chased after it, nicking to Beau Webster at gully.
Chandimal, who scored his 32nd Test fifty in this session, batted out the rest of the session with Kusal Mendis. But once again it didn’t result in a bigger, more significant alliance as Sri Lanka lost a wicket early into a session. This time, Chandimal fell to an exceptional piece of glovework by Carey. Matthew Kuhnemann got Chandimal to press forward and miss, and Carey whipped the bails off with no part of the batter’s foot behind the line. He walked off for 74.
Kusal Mendis tried to throw Lyon off his lengths by repeatedly slog sweeping him. He and Ramesh Mendis pushed back for the majority of the final session, showing gumption for a big partnership. They added 65 runs for the seventh wicket to take Sri Lanka past the 200-mark but Starc returned, with new ball in hand, to ensure Australia finished the day in the driver’s seat.
Starc bowled a quick one – 144kmph – across the right-hander, who was indecisive in playing or leaving the delivery and ended up edging to Carey. Prabath Jayasuriya then edged one to Smith at second slip for a first-ball duck. Kuhnemann then reduced Sri Lanka to 224/9 by cleaning up Nishan Peiris. Steve Smith threw in a lot of catchers around the bat for the final pair who still had to negotiate 3.5 overs to get to stumps. Lahiru Kumara played 11 of those balls – dead-batting most, to survive the day in the company of Mendis, who went to stumps unbeaten on 59.
Brief Scores:
Sri Lanka 224/9 (Dinesh Chandimal 74, Kusal Mendis 59; Mitchell Starc 3-37, Nathan Lyon 3-78, Matthew Kuhnemann 2-53) vs Australia.
Foreign News
India ‘engaging with US’ after shackled deportees spark anger

India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has told parliament the government is working with the US to ensure Indian citizens are not mistreated while being deported.
His statement came a day after a US military flight brought back 104 Indians accused of entering the US illegally.
One of the deportees told the BBC they had been handcuffed throughout the 40-hour flight, sparking criticism.
But Jaishankar said he had been told by the US that women and children were not restrained. Deportation flights to India had been taking place for several years and US procedures allowed for the use of restraints, he added.
Deportation in the US is organised and executed by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“We have been informed by ICE that women and children are not restrained,” Jaishankar said.
He added that according to ICE, the needs of deportees during transit, including for food and medical attention, were attended to and deportees could be unrestrained during bathroom breaks.
“There has been no change from past procedure,” he added.
However Jaspal Singh, one of the deportees on the flight that landed in Amritsar city in the state of Punjab on Wednesday, told BBC Punjabi that he was shackled throughout the flight.
“We were tortured in many ways. My hands and feet were tied after we were put on the plane. The plane stopped at several places,” he said, adding that he was unshackled only after the plane landed in Amritsar.

The US has not given further details of how deportees were treated on the flight. Officials have said that enforcing immigration laws is “critically important to the national security and public safety of the United States” and it was US policy to “faithfully execute the immigration laws against all inadmissible and removable aliens”.
The US border patrol chief posted video showing deportees in shackles, saying the deportation flight to India was the “farthest deportation flight yet using military transport”.
President Donald Trump has made the mass deportation of undocumented foreign nationals a key policy. The US is said to have identified about 18,000 Indian nationals it believes entered illegally.
Trump has said India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured him that the country would “do what’s right” in accepting US deportations.
In his statement on Thursday, Jaishankar said all countries had an obligation to take back their nationals who had entered other countries illegally. They often faced dangerous journeys and inhumane working conditions once they had reached their destinations, he said.
Fraudulent Indian travel agencies are known to take huge sums of money from people desperate to travel abroad for work, and then make them undertake dangerous journeys to avoid being caught by immigration officials.
Jaspal said he had taken a loan of 4m rupees ($46,000; £37,000] to travel to the US, a dangerous journey that took months and during which he saw bodies in the jungle of other migrants who had died on the route.
[BBC]
Latest News
Trump signs order banning transgender women from female sports

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that prevents transgender women from competing in female categories of sports.
The order provides guidance, regulations and legal interpretations, and it will enlist the Department of Education to investigate high schools thought to be non-compliant.
Republicans say it restores fairness to sports but LGBT advocacy and human rights organisations have described the move as discriminatory.
The order, which goes into effect immediately, largely covers high school, universities and grassroots sports.
A number of sporting governing bodies, including swimming, athletics and golf, have banned transgender women from competing in the female category at elite level if they have gone through male puberty.
According to White House officials who briefed reporters on Wednesday morning, this latest order empowers the Department of Education to investigate how schools implement Title IX, a US law that bans sex discrimination in federally funded education programmes.
An administration official said that the executive order will reverse the position of the Biden administration which in April last year said that LGBT students would be protected by federal law, although it did not give specific guidance on transgender athletes.
“If you let men take over women’s sports teams or invade your locker rooms, you will be investigated for violations of Title IX and risk your federal funding,” Trump explained.
Additionally, the White House plans to bring in sporting bodies – such as the National Collegiate Athletics Association, or NCAA – to come to the White House to meet female athletes and their parents to discuss concerns.
The official who discussed the order, said the US would do all it could to prevent transgender athletes from competing against females in International Olympic Committee competitions that take place on US soil.
President Trump specified that the order would include the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
He has said he will deny visas for transgender Olympic athletes trying to visit the US to compete at the LA Games.
Ahead of signing the executive order, Trump declared that “the war on women’s sports is over”, saying that during the LA Games, “my administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes.”
He said he would direct the secretary of homeland security “to deny any and all visa applications made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying themselves as women athletes…”
IOC has been approached for comment.
White House officials described the policies as being broadly popular with Americans, and critical to ensuring “fairness” for women in sports, as well as safety.
In a statement, Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson said that the order “exposes young people to harassment and discrimination, emboldening people to question the gender of kids who don’t fit a narrow view of how they’re supposed to dress or look”.
“For so many students, sports are about finding somewhere to belong,” Ms Robinson added. “Not partisan policies that make life harder for them.”
Less than 1% of the population over the age of 13 in the US are transgender, according to a study by the UCLA Williams Institute, and the number playing sports is smaller.
On Trump’s first day in office on 20 January, he signed a separate order calling for the federal government to officially define sex as either being male or female.
[BBC]
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