&w=3840&q=100)
'One who plays badly stays behind': Virender Sehwag singles out Josh Inglis, Nehal Wadhera while discussing Punjab Kings' defeat
Discussing Punjab Kings' defeat in the IPL 2025 final, legendary cricketer Virender Sehwag singled out the knocks of Josh Inglis and Nehal Wadhera as the key reason. read more
Legendary Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag did not mince his words as he singled out Josh Inglis and Nehal Wadhera for Punjab Kings' (PBKS) narrow defeat in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 final on Tuesday. The IPL 2025 points table leader, PBKS, agonisingly fell short by just six runs in the 191-run chase against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad as their top-order failed to fire at the biggest stage.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
Also Read | PBKS' strength turns into weakness as RCB brutally expose their batting in IPL final
On a slightly slowish track, RCB did well to post 190 despite most of their batters failing to convert the starts into a fifty. Virat Kohli was the top run-getter with 43 while Mayank Agarawal, Rajat Patidar, Liam Livingstone and Jitesh Sharma scored in the 20s.
PBKS faced the same issue as openers Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh scored 24 and 26 respectively, while Inglis made 39 and Wadhera struggled big time with a knock of 15 off 18 balls. Shreyas Iyer got out for 1.
Also Read | IPL 2025 Award Winners List: Orange Cap, Purple Cap, Emerging Player and others winners
While the Punjab openers did not stay in the middle for long, they set the foundation, but Inglis and the middle-order failed to capitalise. The 30-year-old Australian Inglis scored an attacking 39 off 23 but paid the price for playing one too many shots, while uncapped Indian batter Wadhera struggled to get going in the middle, which took away the momentum from PBKS.
Also Read | Full list of Indian Premier League winners following Bengaluru's historic triumph in Ahmedabad
Shashank Singh hit 61 not out off 30 balls from the No.6 slot, but the acceleration came very late as RCB won their maiden IPL title.
Sehwag slams Inglis, underlines Wadhera's struggles under IPL final pressure
Sehwag pointed out that someone from the top three needed to score a match-winning knock for PBSK to win the IPL final and he felt Inglis was the batter who should have done that. He also highlighted how the pressure of a final match made Wadhera completely ineffective in the chase.
'Every RCB batter got starts, but no one played a big innings. The same happened with PBKS,' Sehwag told Cricbuzz. 'If Inglis had scored 60-70, then the job was done. If what Shashank did at the end had been done earlier by Inglis, then there would have been no slowdown. He would not have been out and somebody from the other end would have also played, runs would have come, the pressure would not have come.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
'The pressure comes when you lose wickets. Your hands start shaking, thinking if I get out. That's why you are not able to connect. That's why Nehal Wadera made 15 off 18 balls. If only he had made 26 off 18 balls, PBKS could have won. This is the pressure of the final, the pressure created by the fall of wickets. The one who plays well in such pressure blossoms and the one who plays badly stays behind. Maybe it was his first final, he doesn't have experience, first time such a situation came. It's different to bat in this situation in a normal match than in the final. I think that was what they lacked.'
Sehwag also felt that a few runs from the openers could have also completed the job for PBKS. 'If they had at least one batter from the top three (playing good). The start wasn't poor, they scored 52 in powerplay, which was eight less than 60. If only they had got those eight runs at the start, then they would not have been required to chase that eight runs at the end.'
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
25 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Gen-Next in focus: Kriish Tyagi steps into the big league
Kriish Tyagi, India's top-ranked junior player, is No. 44 on the ITF World Junior Tennis Tour and has seven singles titles to his name. But having turned 18 in April, he is now in his final year competing as a junior. The young player from Sarjapur, Bengaluru, now finds himself at a defining crossroads — where the river of junior tennis meets the vast, uncharted ocean of the senior circuit. While a strong finish in his final showing at the Junior Grand Slams remains important, Kriish isn't afraid to make sacrifices for the bigger picture — which is why, after completing his Class 12 exams last month and facing limited clay-court training options in India, he and coach Harsha Lingappa chose to skip the French Open this year. 'The quality of clay courts in Europe is something you don't get in India. I don't feel my game is ready for that kind of clay. It's just tough to get a hang of it when you go for tournaments,' Kriish told Sportstar. He is, however, looking forward to Wimbledon and the US Open. 'Playing on grass courts is mainly about hand skills, slices, volleys and serves, and I feel I'm good at that. As far as the US Open is concerned, I've won all my titles on hard courts. So, I'm confident about that surface,' said Kriish. Looking to build his ATP ranking, Kriish has also been adding more Futures events to his calendar — a move that's already showing results. He reached the semifinals as a qualifier at a $30,000 tournament in Ahmedabad and followed it up with another semifinal finish at a $15,000 event in Tashkent. Once a swimming enthusiast, Kriish took up tennis at the age of 10 during his after-school lessons. Sapna, Kriish's mother, has been a huge pillar of strength for him as his father, Ajay, works in the port sector in Jeddah, while his elder brother, Akash, is employed at Procter & Gamble in Pennsylvania. When a young Kriish, inspired after watching a match between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal on TV, told his mother about his desire to give tennis a try, she didn't discourage him despite knowing well the tough road ahead for Indian tennis players. 'I just told him to be prepared and work very hard — don't worry about the results. You have to be ready for all the ups and downs,' recalled Sapna. While other top Indian juniors, such as Manas Dhamne and Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi, went abroad to train, Kriish chose to stay in India, joining the Harsha Lingappa Tennis Academy in Bengaluru in 2021. 'I saw Kriish for the first time in 2021 at an ITF tournament in Nepal,' said coach Harsha. 'He was a very gritty player. He wanted to win the match but didn't know how to do it — strategy or technique-wise. It was easy for me to train this kid because he gave his 100 per cent on the court. We worked completely on his serve, his forehand, added a bit of strategy, and created a weapon out of it.' A few months before appearing for his Class 12 exams via the National Institute of Open Schooling, Kriish received an offer from a US college to play on the NCAA circuit — a path many young tennis players around the world have taken. However, whether he takes that route will depend on how the coming months unfold. 'At the moment, I'm signed up with Texas A&M University, but I feel if I do something big — like maybe get into a Grand Slam or perform really well at the men's level — I'm going to take a one-year break, train more, and try to see if I can go further up before rushing to college,' said Kriish. STATFILE ITF Juniors Ranking 46 (as of June 3, 2025) ATP Ranking 1166 ITF Juniors Titles 7 Junior Grand Slam Appearances Australian Open (2023–2025) Coach Harsha Lingappa Sponsors IndianOil and Yonex Favourite Players Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka
Hindustan Times
26 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
RCB's IPL celebration-turned-tragedy—who is to blame?
Death is used liberally in cricket as a metaphor. Bowling at the death. Reviving an innings. Coming back from the dead. Nobody ever expects it to stop being a metaphor, though. When that happens, the cricketing world stands numb with shock, grief and even fury. But the people who died in the stampede-like situation at the Royal Challengers Bangalore's celebration event won't be around to register the deluge of outrage and sympathy their deaths have caused. It was perhaps the strangest two days in the life of any cricket team or its fans. On June 3, there was a peak of euphoria like no other. On June 4, there was a depth of despair that couldn't have been fathomed. There are 11 fans whose families will never hear them smile, laugh, reminisce again. They had gone to the event thinking it was an extension of the happiest day of their lives. Everyone who was there at the event would have gone to celebrate. Everyone. And therein lies the issue. When it's to do with a franchise like RCB, 'everyone' is a massive number. Why the hurry to celebrate? There are questions that must arise from the tragedy. Who decided that a celebration involving the teeming public of a metropolis, less than 24 hours after a momentous win, was a good idea? Didn't anyone understand the emotional magnitude of the victory? RCB had won the IPL after 18 years, having come close several times, having had the players to go all the way often, but never winning? They had become the favourite punchline of IPL trophy jokes. And then to actually win it, was like deliverance. If it was so for players, it would have been doubly so for fans. The players get to pack up after a disappointing season and move on to the next tournament. They have to compartmentalise to succeed, because it is their profession. The fan has carried the hurt for 18 years. Did no one expect an absolute outpouring of fandom on the streets then? Perhaps most important of all, even if the franchise wanted to celebrate in that giddy rush of a first-time victory, why were the officials responsible for logistics and security so blase about letting the event take place? Why were they not forcefully saying it was not possible at such short notice? A 'no' from the authorities would have meant a postponing of the celebration. It would have allowed the initial adrenaline rush to at least dissipate. There would have still been massive throngs of people - but better security and planning would have been in place. The answers to these questions will be lost amidst the blame-game that inevitably emerges whenever there's a national tragedy. There have already been arrests, or calls to arrest, officials from the franchise, the event management company and those from the Karnataka State Cricket Association. These bodies were part of organising the celebration, sure. But could they have done it without official sanction? The other fallout of any national tragedy is that there is never one tragedy: there are two. First, is the tragic event itself. And that is followed by a howling lynch mob online who want their bloodlust satisfied by ritual sacrifice. So you have social media abuzz with trends that call for the arrest of Virat Kohli. You have editorials that demand victims' families be compensated X amount or Y amount. You have people call for the banning of RCB. I'd be willing to bet that none of those making these sorts of outrageous demands feel as much sadness for the victims as they feel joy in tearing down people for their own agendas. Because how is a Virat Kohli responsible for any of the tragic events, in any manner whatsoever? How does banning the franchise address why the stampede happened and how to ensure it never gets repeated? How does an internet warrior sitting at home determine not just what sum of money should be paid, but who should be paying it? The stampede, the loss of lives, and the injuries and trauma was a tragedy. It's important to hold people accountable for it. It's equally important to not point the finger at those who weren't central to the decisions that led to the tragedy.
Time of India
29 minutes ago
- Time of India
GTA 6: One-third of developers working on the game are Indian; data sparks racist reactions, fans fire back with facts
GTA 6, a.k.a. Grand Theft Auto VI's second trailer, is out now! After a long wait of over one year, teasing with the first trailer, Rockstar Games finally released the second trailer in May 2025. Despite this, fans have been eagerly waiting for the game to release. Amid this, a new rumour has surfaced, and it has an India connection! According to recent data shared on an X (formerly called Twitter) account called @GTAVI_Countdown, it is suggested that around one-third of software developers working on GTA 6 are Indians. The post shared on Thursday, June 5, has already garnered 1.9 million views so far. The post-GTA 6 is the first game in the franchise to be primarily developed by all Rockstar Games studios collectively, rather than just Rockstar North, involving an estimated 6,000 developers across 10 studios around the globe. GTA 6 is the first title in the series to be primarily developed by all Rockstar Games studios not just Rockstar North, with an estimated 6,000 developers across 10 studios gonna be worth the wait. Nearly 6,000 software developers are from India As per the data, about one-third, or 1,615, out of nearly 6,000 software developers working on Grand Theft Auto VI are reportedly Indians. While over 2,600 developers are based in British video game developing offices in the UK, 1,400 developers are based in its US offices. According to Inshorts, Rockstar India is solely responsible for developing the Vice Beach area of the GTA 6 map. Fans across the world react to the update on GTA 6 As soon as the post surfaced on X, it quickly grabbed the attention of fans, and one said, "If you add those from Toronto and London, it brings it to 2004 Indian developers." "The India location has the highest quantity of devs," another wrote. While some also made racist comments such as "With that many Indians, this will be a shitshow." This sparked debate among the fans, and one replying to the same wrote, "Rockstar India, before GTA6, developed the animal ecosystem and food chain for RDR2 game(in 4 years), arguably the most complex yet greatest realistic features ever in gaming history. Racists seething won't change the fact, they're genius devs and the industry needs them." Rockstar India before GTA6, developed the animal ecosystem and food chain for RDR2 game(in 4 years), arguably the most complex yet greatest realistic features ever in gaming history. Racists seething won't change the fact, they're genius devs and the industry needs them. "More Indian devs means more fun 🤩" "Why people are confused with rockstar India. They had already worked with GTA 5 back in 2013," one added. Why people are confused with rockstar india They had already worked with GTA 5 back in 2013 Indian developers already worked on GTA 5 in 2013 Back in 2013, Indian developers were involved in the creation of Grand Theft Auto VI and have contributed significantly to Rockstar Games as a whole. For instance, Satish Bharadwaj is listed on LinkedIn India as a lead animator at Rockstar Games, working specifically in the gameplay division. His profile showcases expertise in motion capture, character animation, and other core game development areas, indicating his involvement in the production of GTA V. To stay updated on the stories that are going viral, follow Indiatimes Trending.
