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Gujarat Titans’ bowler Mohammed Siraj celebrates with teammate Rashid Khan after the wicket of Sunrisers Hyderabad’s batter Aniket Verma during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Gujarat Titans, at Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, in Hyderabad. (PTI Photo)

Sunrisers Hyderabad’s horror show with the bat continued as they suffered their fourth straight loss, going down to Gujarat Titans by seven wickets at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.
Coming up against a disciplined Titans bowling led by Hyderabad ‘home boy’ Mohammed Siraj (4/17), the hosts posted a below-par 152/8. The visitors then rode on captain Shubman Gill unbeaten 61 (43b, 9×4) and his match-winning 56-ball 90-run stand with Washington Sundar (49; 29b, 5×4, 2×6) to cruise home with 3.2 overs to spare for their third straight win.
Siraj recorded his best bowling figures in the T20s and also joined the club of 100 IPL wickets (102) during the match that earned him back-to-back Player of the match awards.
Titans lost in-form batters Sai Sudharshan (5) and Jos Buttler (0) early. While Sudharshan pulled Mohammed Shami straight to Aniket Verma at square leg, Buttler edged Pat Cummins to Klaasen to be 16/2 in the fourth over.
But Washington hammered Simarjeet Singh for 20 runs with two boundaries and two sixes in the sixth over, which shifted the momentum in favour of the visitors, who were 48/2 in six overs. Both Gill and Sundar scored runs at ease without taking risk. Gill hit Zeeshan Ansari for a boundary to reach his halfcentury in 36 deliveries in the 13th over. Though Shami returned to dismiss Washington in the next over, Gill and Impact player Sherfane Rutherford (35*; 16b, 5×4, 1×6), who hit Abhishek for four consecutive boundaries in the 15th over, added 47 runs for the unbroken fourth wicket to take their side home.

Numbers Game from SRH vs GT match.

Earlier, the Gujarat bowlers justified skipper Gill’s decision to bowl as they fired in unison. Siraj broke the back of SRH by accounting for openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma inside powerplay while R Sai Kishore (2/24) and Prasidh Krishna (2/24) strangled the batters in the middle.
Siraj first dismissed Head in the very first over and then got rid of Abhishek (18; 16b, 4×4) in the fifth over as the hosts struggled at 45/2 in the powerplay. Prasidh Krishna then accounted for Ishan Kishan (17; 14b, 2×4) to push the hosts back.
With Rashid Khan and Prasidh bowling tight lines, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Heinrich Klaasen could not score a single boundary for six overs – from overs five to 10.
Klaasen added 50 runs for the fourth wicket with Nitish before Sai Kishore rattled his stumps. Sai Kishore also ended Nitish’s 31 (34b, 3×4) struggle in his next over. Cummins’s 9-ball 22* (3×4, 1×6) failed to stop the Titans.

Mangalore BC defeated VBC (Mandya) in the final to emerge as the Karnataka rural basketball league champion for men at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium courts here on Sunday.

The result:

Final: Mangalore BC 90 (Prastik 31, Shashank Rai 19) bt VBC (Mandya) 58 (Shashank Gowda 20).

Bengaluru

Oliver Crawford claimed the S.M. Krishna Memorial Open title after his injured opponent Jay Clarke retired in the final at the S.M. Krishna Tennis Stadium here on Sunday. 

Clarke, the top seed, retired in the first set due to an ankle injury.

Crawford, seeded second, was quick to get off the blocks as he raced to a 4-0 lead within 25 minutes. The Englishman came into the tournament after winning two successive titles in Shenzen and Luan.

Clarke, playing in his fourth final in as many weeks, took a medical timeout to get treatment on his right ankle. The 26-year-old Clarke returned to the court, but could not continue for long. 

Crawford was gracious in victory, stating, “Obviously that’s never the way you want to win a match or a tournament, but I think it was the right decision for Jay to stop and not cause further damage to his leg.”

The result:

Final:

Oliver Crawford (GBR) bt Jay Clarke (GBR) 5-2 (retired).

On numerous occasions during his three year stint with the Mumbai Indians, Tim David had faced Jasprit Bumrah in the nets. David is likely to come up against Bumrah on Monday, but this time as an opponent when the Mumbai Indians take on the Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Wankhede Stadium. Bumrah is one of the best bowlers in the death overs, and with the 29-year-old Tim David likely to bat in the back-end of the innings, they are likely to face off. So, what has the RCB batter picked up from watching Bumrah in the nets that he would be using against the MI bowler on Monday?

The Singapore-born Australian player said he will get his toes out of the way as Bumrah has got a lethal yorker.

“I’ll just try and get my toes out of the way as he’s got a pretty lethal yorker. He’s a brilliant bowler. And when you put in big performances against the best teams, against the best players, they’re the best feelings you get as a player. So you want to be challenged by the best, and I’m looking forward to that,” said Tim David during the pre-match press conference on Sunday.

Bumrah is coming back after a lengthy injury layoff, having recovered fully from the lower back injury he suffered during the fifth and final Test in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series a couple of months back. He has missed the first four matches played by the Mumbai Indians but will most probably be running up to bowl the first delivery on Tuesday.

The 29-year-old Tim David, who has played for the Mumbai Indians from 2022 to 2024, hoped that the first delivery bowled by Bumrah against his team would go for a four or six.

“If we’re going to go deep in this tournament, we need to beat the best teams, we need to beat the best players. So you know, hopefully Boom (Bumrah’s nickname) bowls the ball in the first over tomorrow night, and the first ball goes for four or six from whoever’s batting for us,” he said.

“You know, that’ll be a statement, and it’ll be great to have him back playing the tournament because the game is better with him in it,” he added.

David said it was bittersweet coming to Mumbai as he has great memories playing here.

“Firstly, yeah, it’s bittersweet coming back to Mumbai. Obviously, a lot of great memories playing here and a lot of good friends to catch up with. So that’s an interesting part of the first year of the new IPL cycle,” said Tim David, who said all RCB players are available for selection.

In the three matches he has played so far for Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Tim David has scored 54 runs at a strike rate of 207.69 and has a highest of 32. Known for his big-hitting prowess, Tim David has played for Singapore from 2019 to 2020 before switching to Australia. He was part of the Australian team at the 2022 T20 World Cup.

Pacer Mohammed Siraj on Sunday said he was initially struggling to come to terms after being dropped from the Indian team for the Champions Trophy earlier this year. Siraj delivered an outstanding performance to return figures of 4/17 in Gujarat Titans’ seven-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their Indian Premier League match. Speaking at the presentation ceremony, Siraj said, “At one time, I was not able to digest it (having not been picked for Champions Trophy) but I kept my spirits up and worked on my fitness and game.” He added, “Whatever mistakes I was making, I worked on those and I’m enjoying my bowling.

“As a professional, when you are consistently with the Indian team, a doubt grows in your mind (on him being dropped) but I cheered myself up and was looking forward to the IPL.

“When you execute what you are trying to deliver, you stay at the top. When you move the ball both in and out and it works instinctively, it gives you a different feeling.” Siraj was delighted that he could perform so well with his parents watching him from the stands.

“When you come to your home ground, it’s a special feeling. My family was there in the crowd and that lifted me up. I have played seven years for RCB. I have worked hard on my bowling and also on my mindset, it’s working really well for me,” Siraj said.

Bowling first, GT restricted SRH to 152 for eight.

Gill praises bowlers

Gujarat Titans skipper Shubman Gill lavished praise on his bowlers after their comfortable victory over hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad, terming them “game-changers” in the shortest format.

“Bowlers are game-changers, especially in this format. Lot of people talk about T20s, batting and hitting, but we think matches are won by bowlers and that is why there is a lot of emphasis on bowlers (in this franchise).” Gill led from the front with the bat, remaining not out on 61 off 43 balls. The skipper was also pleased to see the talented Washington Sundar excelling on GT debut.

“He (Washington) was very close (to playing) in the game against Mumbai. He was padded the whole game, but with the impact player rule, it gives you an opportunity to play someone else (if you need an extra bowler),” Gill said of Washington.

“It was all about having a good partnership, and we said once we are set, we will take it from there.” About Siraj, Gill said, “The energy he brings is tremendous. When playing against him, you want him in your team. His energy is infectious.” On his part, Washington said the advice from his captain was to take the game deep.

“Skipper kept telling me to play as deep as possible. Got off to a good start and wanted to bat as deep as possible and finish for the team.

“This has been the trend in Hyderabad in the last few years. In the second innings, the wicket gets better and easier to chase 160-170 on the board. I was well aware of it and it helped me.” SRH skipper Pat Cummins said, “Not a traditional Hyderabad wicket, tough to get fluency in your innings. At the end there, it did not spin as much as we thought. A few (runs) short and they batted well,” he added. 

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

Hitesh claimed the 70kg gold medal as he got a walkover against England’s Odel Kamara, who did not fight in the final due to an injury, at the World Boxing Cup Brazil 2025 in Foz do Iguacu.

Abhinash Jamwal, the other Indian to reach the final, was beaten 5-0 by local favourite Yuri Reis in the 65kg title clash.

M. Jadumani Singh (50kg), Manish Rathore (55kg), Sachin (60kg) and Vishal (90kg) bagged bronze as India finished with six medals.

Manchester United’s Manuel Ugarte, left, and Manchester City’s Jeremy Doku fight for the ball during the English Premier League soccer match.
| Photo Credit: AP

Manchester United and Manchester City played out an anticlimactic 0-0 Premier League draw on Sunday in a low-key derby that dealt a blow to City’s bid for Champions League qualification.

Pep Guardiola’s team are fifth in the table on 52 points, one behind Chelsea, and United are languishing in 13th place on 38.

With both sides struggling through difficult campaigns, neither created many clearcut chances, particularly in a drab first half at a sun-drenched Old Trafford.

The game picked up after the interval and City striker Omar Marmoush unleashed a blistering shot from 25 yards that forced United goalkeeper Andre Onana into a terrific save.

Joshua Zirkzee had United’s best opportunity midway through the second half when he turned and struck a half-volley that forced City keeper Ederson into an outstanding two-handed save.

SRH lost to Gujarat Titans in IPL 2025 match© BCCI

It was a routine Wednesday night — in as much as a Wednesday night with India playing a Twenty20 International can be routine — until it wasn’t.

The series had been won and lost. In Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s comeback to the 20-over scheme of things internationally in India’s final engagements before the T20 World Cup, the hosts had taken a winning 2-0 lead over Afghanistan. Kohli had missed the first game due to personal reasons while Rohit had been dismissed without scoring in both victories, run out in the first match in Mohali and bowled in the next in Indore.

For both, 17 January 2024 was an important date – their last T20I before the World Cup in the Americas. Kohli was dismissed for a first-ball duck, one of four wickets India lost in the PowerPlay. At 22 for four with 93 deliveries remaining, everything pointed to a consolation maiden T20I victory for Afghanistan over their Big Brother.

Until Rohit decided it was time to show everyone who the boss was. With Rinku Singh for company, the captain initiated a rescue act. And more than five years after his previous T20I hundred, the opener added a fifth to his tally, an unbeaten 121 off 69 which, coupled with Rinku’s 69 not out, hauled India to 212 for four.

Afghanistan replied in kind through their top order and finished on 212 for six, sending the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium crowd into raptures and setting up a Super Over. Where the Afghans batted first and made 16. Thanks to Rohit’s two sixes, India reached 15 with one ball to spare. The skipper was at the non-striker’s end after a single off the fifth ball, had a word with the umpire and trudged off. Rinku replaced him in the middle, ostensibly because he was the quicker runner. 
Yashasvi Jaiswal managed just one off the last ball, sending the match spiralling to a second Super Over. Rohit Sharma, presumably retired out, a tactical move.

Wait. Forget about presumably. It seems he hadn’t retired out. Because otherwise, how could he have come out to bat in the second Super Over? The rules clearly stipulate that a batter who has been dismissed — in any mode, which includes retired out — is ineligible to bat in any subsequent Super Over. Oh well…

In the immediacy of that game — oh, India won in the second Super Over, with Rohit slamming a six and a four in his team’s 11 for two, and Ravi Bishnoi picking up two wickets in the first three deliveries to derail Afghanistan — head coach Rahul Dravid practically acknowledged that Rohit had retired himself out. “Taking himself out was Ashwin-level thinking. That’s Ash-level thinking,” Dravid, who thinks little of repeating himself when he feels the need to stress a point, told the host broadcaster.

Novelty factor

The Rohit retired out or not drama was laid to rest then and there, especially with Afghanistan opting not to make an issue of it. But the Dravid reference to R. Ashwin, lingered. After all, the off-spinner with novelty and creativity coursing through his veins was the first player to be retired out in the Indian Premier League in April 2022, while batting for Rajasthan Royals against Lucknow Super Giants.

Ashwin had made 28 off 23, two sixes, when he walked off; his team was on 135 for five with ten deliveries left. More than anything else, that decision was influenced by the need to have a younger, faster partner for the marauding Shimron Hetmyer, though that shouldn’t have been a consideration, considering the West Indian left-hander smashed six sixes in his 36-ball 59 not out. RR added 30 in those 10 balls to finish on 165 for six, decisive given that they trooped out winners by three runs.

Further retirements came the next season — Punjab Kings’ Atharva Taide (55 off 42) against Delhi Capitals, and Sai
Sudharsan (43 off 31) for Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 2 against Mumbai Indians, with mixed fortunes. Taide’s ‘dismissal’ triggered a collapse and Punjab went down by 15 runs. Post Sudharsan’s retirement at the end of the 19th over, Gujarat amassed 19 runs in an eventually comfortable 62-run hammering of Mumbai.

Interestingly, neither Ashwin nor Taide and Sudharsan had dawdled during their knocks. Ashwin struck at 121.73 (not flash, agreed), Taide’s strike-rate was 130.95 and Sudharsan had scored even faster, at 138.70 runs per 100 balls faced. Yet, they were called back by their respective decision-making group for tactical reasons. Ashwin was hailed, like he has been for so many things over the last decade and a half, for walking off, Rajasthan were commended for thinking on their feet. 
Taide and Sudharsan almost flew under the radar because, well, they are not Ashwin.

But Friday at the sprawling Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow was bereft of commendation, of feel-good, of a pat on the back for the Mumbai Indians management. Not because they went down by 12 runs to hosts Lucknow  Super Giants, but because of their move to retire out Tilak Varma, the gifted left-hander who admittedly was struggling to get the ball off the square.

Tilak is a wonderful talent, supremely level-headed for one who is still only 22. He is confident and high on self-belief. A few months back, he approached T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav during the series in South Africa and asked for the captain’s No. 3 position in the batting order. When Suryakumar obliged, Tilak justified his request with successive hundreds in Centurion and Johannesburg. How about that, people?

In 25 T20Is, Tilak averages 49.93, his strike-rate is a wonderful 155.07. In the IPL, where all his 42 matches since his debut in 2022 have come for five-time former champions Mumbai, his average is a healthy 39.09, his strike-rate a more-than-acceptable 143.14. He is at once one for the present and the future, an explosive bundle of power and aesthetics, a new-age player who is steeped in old-school values.

But this hasn’t been a great season for the left-hander. Before Friday, he had made 70 runs in three innings, striking at 114.75. The usual fluency peeped out only in patches, one of the reasons why Mumbai have struggled to make an impact. In Lucknow, despite his best efforts, he struggled and struggled, limping to 25 off 23 – the target was a testing 204 – when Mumbai finally decided they had had enough. Like he had been when Sudharsan  was retired out in 2023, Hardik Pandya was again at the non-striker’s end. Like then, when he was the GT skipper, he was again in a leadership role, helming MI campaign.

Tilak  came out after 18.5 overs, with 24 required off seven deliveries. Replacing him, and on strike, was Mitchell 
Santner, the New Zealand captain who had done battle against Pandya in the final of the Champions Trophy in Dubai just about four weeks previously.

Santner is primarily a left-arm spinner but he is no mug with the bat. He averages 26 in Tests and has struck 107 sixes in 217 T20s, boasting a strike-rate of 130.35. Not Tilak level, true, but certainly better than the level Tilak displayed on the night. It was a move that didn’t come off, because Santner faced just two of the last seven deliveries. And in that is a tale in itself.

The Kiwi skipper bunted two runs off his first ball, then watched as Pandya smashed the first ball of the last over, from 
Avesh Khan, over cover for six. Now 16 off 5. The next ball produced a couple – 14 off 4. Jangle, jangle. Pandya tonked the next ball to deep square-leg but did not take the single. He sent Santner back, believing that if anyone could get them over the line, it was him. That didn’t quite work out. Just one run off the next three deliveries meant Mumbai slumped to their third loss in four matches.

If Santner was to be denied the strike in the last over because of Pandya’s belief in himself more than his partner, then why was he summoned in the first place? And if all that Pandya’s partner had to do was run between the wickets, couldn’t Tilak have managed that? After all, while the big strokes were proving elusive, that shouldn’t be a deterrent to pace over the 22 yards, correct?

Pandya and head coach Mahela Jayawardene have received plenty of flak for retiring Tilak out. After all, the ends justify the means, and because Mumbai ended up on the losing side, this was a move open to criticism. Had Pandya (and/or 
Santner) pulled the fat out of the fire, it would have been eulogised and celebrated as a masterstroke, such is the wisdom hindsight confers on us. Subsequent damage control has surfaced in the form of ‘sources’ revealing that Tilak had a ‘finger niggle’ (a new one that) in his left hand, which precipitated his exit from the middle. If that was the case, why wasn’t he retired out a little earlier? Why was Santner not given the luxury of a few more deliveries? Why did Mumbai leave it so late before deciding that it wasn’t going to be Tilak’s night? And if they had chosen to believe in him until 18.5 overs, maybe they could have just stuck with him, come what may?

These are questions to which there will be no satisfactory answers, depending on perspective. Retiring out is a tactical, strategic, legal option but more than in most things, prudence and emotion jostle for pre-eminence in this instance. Feel for Tilak, sure, but don’t throw Pandya and Jayawardene under the bus. After all, this is the world of T20 cricket, where emotional rollercoasters are an everyday guarantee.

Washington Sundar in action in IPL 2025© X (Twitter)