Sports

Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s captain Rajat Patidar during the IPL Match between Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bangalore held at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on April 7, 2025
| Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini

Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain Rajat Patidar was fined ₹12 lakh after his team maintained a slow over-rate during their IPL match against Mumbai Indians here.

RCB beat MI by 12 runs and Patidar contributed a stylish 32-ball 64 to his side’s eventual total of 221 for five. MI were then restricted to 209 for nine.

“As this was his team’s first offence of the season under Article 2.2 of the IPL’s Code of Conduct, which pertains to minimum over-rate offences, Patidar was fined Rs 12 lakh,” stated an IPL media release.

The Bengaluru team, which is currently third on the table with six points, will face Delhi Capitals at home in their fifth match of the season at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on April 10.

Mumbai Indians’ Jasprit Bumrah bowls a delivery during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 cricket match between Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

Jasprit Bumrah, returning from a three-month injury layoff, gave his Mumbai Indians teammates a pep talk following their heartbreaking 12-run loss against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday.
Bumrah was playing his first match since missing the final day of the fifth Test against Australia in Sydney due to a back injury.
“It felt really good. But unfortunately, that’s how T20 cricket goes,” Bumrah said.
“The competition is still on. We can get on a roll, and we have to believe we can get on a roll.
“We are playing good cricket, and when we regroup in Delhi, we should be fresh and ready to go, believing we can turn things around and give it our best shot,” he added.
Bumrah conceded only 29 runs in his four overs. He was the only Mumbai bowler to average less than 10 runs per over.
“Having him (Bumrah) makes any team in the world very special,” Hardik Pandya said of his pace ace. “He came in and did his job, and I’m very happy to have him.”
Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene said Bumrah is in “good nick” following his three-month injury layoff, and Mumbai Indians want to ease him back into competition mode in the IPL.

“I just spoke to him after the game, and he looks in good nick. He’s disappointed, as we all are, because he wanted a win on his return, but other than that, he looks fine. His pace was up, and his execution was good,” Jayawardene told the media after the match.
“(Having Bumrah back) just gives us more options,” Jayawardene said.
“We have two swing bowlers, and we need to give them that opportunity first up. Boom (Bumrah) is coming back from a three-month layoff, so we just wanted to ease him back into the competition,” the MI head coach said.
Jayawardene sounded assured of Bumrah’s progress and current status in terms of fitness and form.
“Yesterday (Sunday) was his first day where he bowled to batsmen. That (Bumrah’s bowling) is something we lacked in the last few games, so we have that now. But we just need to put all these pieces together and execute a good game to give us confidence so that we can move on,” he said.

Barcelona’s improvement under Hansi Flick helped Frenkie de Jong return to form and in return the Dutchman’s presence has allowed his club to aspire to new heights this season. The Catalan giants are in contention for a possible quadruple and host Borussia Dortmund in a Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday. Since De Jong has reestablished himself, Barcelona have stepped up a gear, battling their way back to the top of La Liga as well as sailing onwards in Europe.

They last won the Champions League in 2015 and after a catalogue of humiliations find themselves back among the favourites to lift the trophy.

Last season they reached the quarter-finals for the first time since 2020, and this year are favourites to progress to the final four.

De Jong has formed a stylish tandem at the heart of Barcelona’s midfield with Pedri Gonzalez.

While neither player is at their best when burdened with defensive responsibilities, together they do enough to help Barca survive at the back while flourishing offensively.

“Playing with a player like Pedri makes life easier,” said De Jong last week.

Flick hailed the duo after they helped Barca reach the Copa del Rey final with a win away at Atletico Madrid.

“Frenkie and Pedri were unbelievable, really brave with the ball, keeping the possession,” enthused their coach.

It has been a long road back for De Jong, who until the turn of the year was behind Marc Casado in the pecking order.

Flick started the season with youngster Marc Bernal at the base of midfield but after he suffered a long-term injury, relied on Casado.

De Jong was injured in April 2024 and only returned to fitness in October and for a while Flick used him sparingly.

“He must deal with this situation, he must regain his confidence,” Flick warned in November.

As Barcelona’s form slumped towards the end of last year, he started using De Jong ahead of Casado and it quickly paid dividends.

The Catalans are unbeaten in 22 matches in 2025, with De Jong only participating in one of Barca’s six defeats this season.

Casado later suffered an injury which is likely to keep him out until the end of the season, but the Dutchman had already won the spot by then. 

“Casa hasn’t done anything wrong… Frenkie is doing really well,” explained Flick.

“I spoke with Frenkie the first day here. He had a huge injury, came back step by step, day by day and he’s getting better.

“And now I think also you can see how good he is, how good he is for the team.”

Handbrake off

De Jong was billed as the successor to Sergio Busquets when he arrived from Ajax in 2019 for 75 million euros ($82 million), completing a dream move he had wished for since his youth.

However despite a bright start, it quickly became clear his dynamic game was badly hampered if told to stay in a deep-lying role.

Years of inconsistent form, injury niggles and being forced towards the exit by the club, keen to recoup his transfer fee and unburden themselves of his wages, left De Jong in a difficult position.

De Jong has never quite fitted into the team in a position that seems totally suited to him, and even now his presence does leave Barcelona more exposed at the back.

However Flick’s team play with the handbrake off and they are gloriously entertaining, scoring four or more goals on 20 occasions this season.

De Jong helps the team progress with the ball, adding touches of quality and daring to Barcelona’s build-up play.

“De Jong, who was sprinting nearly 90 metres or something like that (to join the attack), this is the mentality, the attitude of the team and it’s good,” said Flick after Barca thumped Girona 4-1 in March.

The situation off the pitch has turned for De Jong too, with reports he may sign a new deal in the coming months.

After a frustrating half-decade in the Catalan capital his story is finally changing for the better.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Mohammed Siraj (BCC/IPL Photo)

HYDERABAD/CHENNAI: Mohammed Siraj is a man on a mission. Currently sitting out of the India white-ball set-up, Siraj is serving a timely reminder to the national selectors with result-determining performances for Gujarat Titans (GT) in the ongoing Indian Premier League IPL season.
The fast bowler on Sunday extended his purple patch, with a four-wicket haul to engineer GT’s comprehensive win over Sunrisers Hyderabad.
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Siraj is proving one of the biggest beneficiaries of the lifting of the saliva ban in the league, stressing that the return of the old rule has taken some burden off the bowlers.

“Yes, 100%,” the paceman said on whether the old rule is helping him in the IPL, “If the ball tails a bit, there is a wicket. When saliva is not applied on the ball, it comes onto the bat easily. Even if the ball tails only a bit, there is a chance for bringing bowled and leg-before dismissals into play.”
Former India pacer and current Tamil Nadu head coach L Balaji felt that saliva has more impact on the ball than sweat.
“There is more sodium content in sweat and the ball gets heavy when sweat is applied on it. Saliva, on the other hand, helps in maintaining the balance of the ball better. The ball absorbs saliva well. By applying saliva, Siraj could be getting a better grip on the ball and purchase off it,” Balaji, former bowling coach of Chennai Super Kings, told TOI on Monday.
The application of saliva helps in maintaining a shinier side on the ball and brings reverse swing into the equation. Siraj on Sunday displayed the benefits fast bowlers could reap, dishing out in-swingers which led to a double haul in the penultimate over.
The IPL first prevented the use of saliva during the Covid-19 pandemic and lifted the ban just ahead of the ongoing season. The ban, though, is still there in international cricket.
Balaji said that using saliva was what bowlers of this generation had grown up with and when suddenly taken away, it became difficult.
“There is a thing called comfort level. I am sure that is in Siraj’s case as well. Add to that his experience and he is really looking good,” said the former pacer.
While saliva has been a help as the frequency of 200-plus chases has come down significantly, ex-Australian legend Glenn McGrath had earlier said: “I do not think that saliva is the issue; soaking on mint and other things is. I have no issue with using saliva as long as there is nothing else being used.”

Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Hardik Pandya expressed disappointment after losing the fixture against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 clash at the iconic Wankhede Stadium on Monday. Rajat-led RCB continues to defy narratives and breach fortresses as after beating five-time Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at Chepauk after 17 years, they have now beaten five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) at Wankhede for the first time in 10 overs, overcoming a scary partnership between Tilak Varma and skipper Hardik Pandya that threatened to chase down 222 runs set by RCB.

“It was a run-fest. The wicket was really good. I was just talking about that to myself that again we fell short with two hits. I don’t have much to say. (Was 221 par or above-par?) The way the wicket was, the bowers didn’t really have much place to hide. It came down to execution. You can stop the batters, but I don’t want to be harsh on the bowlers. It was a tough track; we did not have many options. (No. 3 position) The original skeleton of our team, Naman, was always batting down the order,” Hardik Pandya said in the post-match presentation.

Rohit Sharma played the first three games for the five-time champions in the IPL 2025, scoring 13 (against Chennai Super Kings), 8 (against Gujarat Titans), and 0 (against Kolkata Knight Riders) respectively before missing the franchise’s previous encounter, which was played against Lucknow Sper Giants (LSG) at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow.

After missing the last game, Rohit played in the 20th clash of the ongoing 18th edition of the cash-rich league as the impact player. He came out to the field in the 15th over of the RCB innings. While opening the innings in this match, he was able to score just 17 runs in just nine balls, which came with the help of two fours and a six and at a whopping strike rate of 188.89.

Speaking about Rohit, the all-rounder explained, “It’s just that in the last game, Ro wasn’t available, so we had to push someone up, and someone like him has the multi-dimensional game where he can come up as well and can play in the death as well. Once Ro was back, we knew that Naman would have to come down. Tilak was fantastic. Last game, a lot of things happened. People said a lot of things about it but people don’t know that he had a very nasty hit the previous day. It was a tactical call, but because of the finger that he had, the coach just felt that it was a better option for someone fresh to come and do it. Today, he was fantastic. In this sort of game, powerplays are very crucial. We were not able to get in the middle, and that put us back in the chase. It comes down to execution in the death – we were not able to play those balls.”

In the end, the 31-year-old player spoke about right-arm seamer Jasprit Bumrah, who was playing his first game of the IPL 2025. He went wicketless in his four overs, giving away 29 runs at an economy of 7.20.

“Having him (Bumrah) makes any team in the world very special. He came in and did his job; we were very happy to have him. In life, never back down, and always see the positive side of it. Go out there, try to play the best cricket of your life and back yourself. We are all backing them, just hope for the result to come our way,” Hardik Pandya concluded.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Mumbai Indians’ captain Hardik Pandya gestures during an Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 cricket match between Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Hardik Pandya completed 200 wickets in T20 cricket on Monday (April 7, 2025). Pandya accomplished this milestone during his side’s Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at Wankhede Stadium.

During the match, Pandya delivered a four-over spell of 2/45, getting wickets of Virat Kohli and Liam Livingstone in quick succession. Now in 291 matches, Pandya has taken 200 wickets.

Hardik is the joint-highest wicket-taker in IPL 2025, with 10 wickets in four matches at an average of 12.00 and best figures of 5/36. The highest T20 wickets are by Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan, who has 635 scalps at an average of 16.8 and best figures of 6/17.

Yuzvendra Chahal is India’s top taker in T20s, with 365 scalps in 315 matches at an average of 23.64 and best figures of 6/25.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Krunal Pandya celebrates the dismissal of Mumbai Indians’ Will Jacks during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
| Photo Credit: AP

Royal Challengers Bengaluru all-rounder Krunal Pandya acknowledged that he had to dig deep into his decade-long experience of playing the game to help his side beat Mumbai Indians by 12 runs in an edge-of-the-seat thriller here on Monday.

Just when it seemed Mumbai Indians would chase down a steep target of 222 with Hardik Pandya (42) and Tilak Varma (56) batting with ferocity, Krunal kept his composure and grabbed three three wickets in the last over to take the wind out of the home team’s sails, managing to tie them down to 209 for nine.

“The amount of games I have played in the last 10 years, whatever experience I had, it had to come in right. Sometimes, you want to commit but you know it is important to commit 100 per cent,” said Krunal, who returned excellent figures of 4 for 45, after the match.

“So the execution becomes much on your side. I was clear in a way where I wanted to commit fully to whatever ball I wanted to bowl,” Krunal added as RCB clinched their first victory at the Wankhede Stadium in 10 years.

On his bonding with brother Hardik, who hit some lofty shots and was on the verge of taking the game away from RCB with his 15-ball knock, Krunal said the two cherish the affection they have for each other.

“The bond that we have, at the end of the day, we knew only one (Pandya) would win. But the love and affection we have for each other is very natural. He (Hardik) batted well. We won, and I also wanted to win, he also wanted to win. I feel for him,” said Krunal.

Krunal added that RCB skipper Rajat Patidar always back his players, one of the reasons they have started so strongly in IPL 2025.

RCB are currently third with six points from four games while MI have just two from five matches.

“Rajat has been terrific the way he has started. A captain who gives you that comfort, he gives you the ball and backs your game-plan. Sometimes as a bowler, you want that.

“He has a calm demeanour, does not make things complicated. Been good playing under him. Jitesh (Sharma, 40 not out) has been terrific, he has improved his game. The game awareness while batting has been top-notch, and with the gloves, he has been terrific always.”

On whether RCB can break the IPL jinx this time around, Krunal said, “I don’t want to jinx it or say it, but we all know what you want at the end of the season. Just want to keep my head down and keep winning.”

MI skipper Hardik said there was not much his bowlers could do to stop the flow of runs on this surface.

“It was a run-fest. The wicket was really good. I was just talking about that to myself. We fell short with two hits, don’t know what to say. The way the wicket was, the bowlers did not really have much space to hide.

“It came down to execution. You can stop the batters, but I don’t want to be harsh on the bowlers. It was a tough track, not much options. 5-10, maybe 12 runs I can say (we conceded more),” he said.

He was, however, happy that Jasprit Bumrah was back in the side after recovering from an injury.

“Having him (Bumrah) makes this team, any team in the world really special. He came and did his job, very happy to have him. In life, never back down, always see the positive side of it.

“The message will be very clear: go out there and try to play the best cricket of your life. We are all backing them and hope for the result to come our way,” he added.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru all-rounder Krunal Pandya acknowledged that he had to dig deep into his decade-long experience of playing the game to help his side beat Mumbai Indians by 12 runs in an edge-of-the-seat thriller in Mumbai on Monday. Just when it seemed Mumbai Indians would chase down a steep target of 222 with Hardik Pandya (42) and Tilak Varma (56) batting with ferocity, Krunal kept his composure and grabbed three three wickets in the last over to take the wind out of the home team’s sails, managing to tie them down to 209 for nine.

“The amount of games I have played in the last 10 years, whatever experience I had, it had to come in right. Sometimes, you want to commit but you know it is important to commit 100 per cent,” said Krunal, who returned excellent figures of 4 for 45, after the match.

“So the execution becomes much on your side. I was clear in a way where I wanted to commit fully to whatever ball I wanted to bowl,” Krunal added as RCB clinched their first victory at the Wankhede Stadium in 10 years.

On his bonding with brother Hardik, who hit some lofty shots and was on the verge of taking the game away from RCB with his 15-ball knock, Krunal said the two cherish the affection they have for each other.

“The bond that we have, at the end of the day, we knew only one (Pandya) would win. But the love and affection we have for each other is very natural. He (Hardik) batted well. We won, and I also wanted to win, he also wanted to win. I feel for him,” said Krunal.

Krunal added that RCB skipper Rajat Patidar always back his players, one of the reasons they have started so strongly in IPL 2025.

RCB are currently third with six points from four games while MI have just two from five matches.

“Rajat has been terrific the way he has started. A captain who gives you that comfort, he gives you the ball and backs your game-plan. Sometimes as a bowler, you want that.

“He has a calm demeanour, does not make things complicated. Been good playing under him. Jitesh (Sharma, 40 not out) has been terrific, he has improved his game. The game awareness while batting has been top-notch, and with the gloves, he has been terrific always.” On whether RCB can break the IPL jinx this time around, Krunal said, “I don’t want to jinx it or say it, but we all know what you want at the end of the season. Just want to keep my head down and keep winning.” MI skipper Hardik said there was not much his bowlers could do to stop the flow of runs on this surface.

“It was a run-fest. The wicket was really good. I was just talking about that to myself. We fell short with two hits, don’t know what to say. The way the wicket was, the bowlers did not really have much space to hide.

“It came down to execution. You can stop the batters, but I don’t want to be harsh on the bowlers. It was a tough track, not much options. 5-10, maybe 12 runs I can say (we conceded more),” he said.

He was, however, happy that Jasprit Bumrah was back in the side after recovering from an injury.

“Having him (Bumrah) makes this team, any team in the world really special. He came and did his job, very happy to have him. In life, never back down, always see the positive side of it.

“The message will be very clear: go out there and try to play the best cricket of your life. We are all backing them and hope for the result to come our way,” he added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)