Latest news with #ArunJaitleyStadium
Times of Oman
26-05-2025
- Sport
- Times of Oman
KKR collapse against SRH's bowling brilliance, end season with heavy 110-run defeat
New Delhi: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) endured a difficult outing on Sunday as they failed to chase down a mammoth target of 279 set by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, crashing to a 110-run defeat. The loss ended KKR's season on a disappointing note, placing them eighth in the table with five wins, seven losses, and one no result. SRH, meanwhile, climbed to sixth with six wins, seven losses, and one no result. Sunrisers Hyderabad's bowling attack was led by a trio of effective performers, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga, and Harsh Dubey, all of whom picked up three wickets each to dismantle KKR's batting line-up. KKR began their chase with an energetic 37-run opening stand between Quinton de Kock and Sunil Narine, with Narine doing the bulk of the scoring. The West Indian all-rounder smashed 31 off just 16 balls, including three boundaries and three sixes, before being cleaned up by Unadkat. Captain Ajinkya Rahane showed glimpses of elegance but was dismissed for 15 by Unadkat, while de Kock struggled for fluency, managing just 9 off 13 balls before falling to Eshan Malinga. Rinku Singh mirrored de Kock's score and was removed by impact player Harsh Dubey. Andre Russell was out for a golden duck on the very next ball, also falling to Dubey, leaving KKR reeling at 70/5. Angkrish Raghuvanshi tried to stabilize the innings but was out for 14 off 18, with Malinga picking up the wicket. KKR brought up their 100 in 13.3 overs, but the game had already slipped away. Ramandeep Singh added 13 before becoming another victim of Dubey, while Manish Pandey's 37 provided some late resistance before Unadkat returned to pick up his third wicket. Vaibhav Arora was run out after a casual approach, and Harshit Rana's 34 off 21 was the final bit of fight before Malinga dismissed him to wrap up the innings at 168 in 18.4 overs. Unadkat ended with figures of 3/24, Malinga with 3/31, and Dubey with 3/34, as SRH's disciplined bowling ensured KKR never looked in control. The result underlined KKR's inconsistency this season, with their final match summing up a campaign that lacked cohesion, execution, and intent, especially in crucial moments. Earlier, a hundred from Sunrisers Hyderabad batter Heinrich Klaasen and an fifty from Travis Head powered SRH to 278/3 in 20 overs against Kolkata Knight Riders in the 68th match of the Indian Premier League. This is the third-highest total by any team in IPL history. Klaasen also registered the fastest hundred of the ongoing IPL in 37 balls. Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and opted to bat. Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head opened the innings for SRH. The duo counterattacked the KKR bowlers as they stormed past 50 runs in the 4th over. Abhishek Sharma 10 (8), Travis Head 38 (16). SRH finished their power-play on 79-0, in the following over the veteran spinner Sunil Narine removed Sharma for 32 (16), studed with four fours and two sixes, Heinrich Klaasen joined Head in the middle. Hyderabad crossed the 100 runs mark in the 8th over, Head in the same over crossed his third fifty in the season. SRH stormed past 150 in the 11th over. Klaasen completed his fifty in just 17 balls, hitting KKR bowlers all around the park. After 12 overs, SRH were 174/1. Head was removed by Narine for 76(40) including six fours and six sixes. Ishan Kishan joined Klaasen in the middle. Narine now has the most wickets in T20 for a team (210). Klaasen smashed two sixes off Narine in the 15th over, taking the score past the 200-run mark. The duo of Klassen and Kishan brought up their 50-run stand in just 21 balls. SRH completed 250 runs in the 18th over. Sunil Narine (2/42) was the pick of the bowlers for KKR, and Vaibhav Arora took a wicket.
Times of Oman
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Times of Oman
Gill-Sudharsan continue dominant run, thrash DC by 10 wickets to make playoff road worse for hosts
New Delhi: A dominant 205-run partnership between captain Shubman Gill and opener Sai Sudarshan powered Gujarat Titans to rattle the Delhi Capitals bowling unit and register a thumping 10-wicket victory at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Sunday. With this win, the Gujarat-based franchise moved top of the table and qualified for the IPL 2025 playoffs. They have 18 points from their 12 games. On the other hand, the Axar Patel-led side remained at the fifth spot in the IPL 2025 points table with 13 points in 12 games. Chasing a total of 200, Gujarat Titans openers Shubman Gill and Sai Sudarshan started attacking the Capitals' bowlers from the first over. Gill-Sudharsan completed their 50-run partnership in the fifth over and they completed their 100-run partnership in the 11th over of the innings. The Titans completed the 150-run mark in the 15th over and the 200-run mark on the last ball of the 19th over with a six, which sealed the game for them. Sudarshan slammed unbeaten 108 runs from 61 balls at a whopping strike rate of 177.05, which was laced with 12 fours and sixes in his innings. On the other hand, Gill smashed unbeaten 93 runs off 53 balls at a staggering strike rate of 175.47 with the help of three boundaries and seven maximums in his innings. Earlier, after GT put DC to bat first, the visitors surely proved their decision right as for the first three overs, GT pacers Mohammed Siraj and Arshad Khan built up pressure on openers KL Rahul and Faf Du Plessis, not letting them even collect singles. Faf continued his mediocre run, succumbing to the pressure. He gave an easy catch to Siraj at mid-on, but Arshad Khan dismissed him for five in 10 balls. DC was 16/1 in 3.2 overs. Abishek Porel joined KL on the crease, and the experienced Indian batter put back pressure on GT, with two well-timed fours against Siraj and by looting 17 runs off Kagiso Rabada's first over, the final one of the powerplay. This included two sixes and four from Rahul. At the end of six overs, DC was 45/1, with KL (36*) and Axar (1*) unbeaten. DC brought up their 50-run mark in seven overs. KL brought up another fifty in the season, in just 35 balls, with five boundaries and two sixes. This was his fourth of the season. With Porel and Rahul upping the attack, DC reached 81/1 in 10 overs, with KL (56*) and Porel (15*) unbeaten. After getting to his fifty, Rahul upped the ante, with two sixes against Rabada. Their 90-run partnership ended, with Sai Kishore getting Porel caught behind by Jos Buttler for 30 in 19 balls (with a four and three sixes). DC was 106/2 in 12 overs. Skipper Axar Patel joined KL at the crease, and the duo collected some boundaries against spinners. At the end of 15 overs, DC was 136/2, with Axar (10*) and Rahul (86*) unbeaten. The promising partnership between KL and Axar was cut short as the skipper was caught by Sai Kishore on a Prasidh Krishna delivery at third man for 25 in 16 balls, with two fours and a six. DC was 151/3 in 16.2 overs. KL continued his innings unaffected by the falling wickets, absorbing all the pressure. He finally reached his fifth IPL century in 60 balls, with 12 fours and four sixes, giving Prasidh his most expensive spell of the season: 1/47 in four overs. DC ended their innings really well, getting 16 runs in the final over, including two fours by KL and a gigantic six by Tristan Stubbs. At the end, KL was unbeaten at 112* in 65 balls, with 14 fours and four sixes and Stubbs at 21* in 10 balls, with two sixes. DC was 199/3 in their 20 overs.
The Guardian
13-05-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Beyond the runs: Virat Kohli's obsessive intensity left indelible mark on Test cricket
At dawn on a pale pastel morning in late January, thousands of fans started queueing outside the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. Before long the queues turned chaotic. Scuffles broke out. Three people were injured and a police motorcycle was damaged. Armed security personnel were deployed inside and outside the venue, occasionally stepping in front of the sightscreen and causing play to be stopped. But the consequences of Virat Kohli playing his first domestic red-ball game for Delhi in 12 years are less interesting than why he was there in the first place. Kohli rolled up in his Porsche two days before the game, arriving early to beat the crowds and so he could fit in a full gym session before team fitness drills and net practice. Desperately short of form, and yet a desperate romantic, Kohli had come to worship at the altar. One last crack at Test cricket. One last attempt at rekindling the skill that had long deserted him. As it turned out, Delhi v Railways would be Kohli's last red‑ball innings. He was bowled for six and Delhi won by an innings, so that was it, apart from the spectator who invaded the field to touch his feet. And as he announced his retirement from Test cricket on Monday, somehow the strongest memory was not of the 149 at Edgbaston or the 169 at Melbourne or the 254 at Pune, the times when he would make cricket look scandalously easy. What lingers, by contrast, is the times when it was scandalously hard: when the bowlers were fresh and the pitch was spicy and the verbals were flowing, and he pushed through anyway, because this game is a sacred birthright and you will never truly conquer it, but the only glory is in trying. 'I cannot explain the job satisfaction you get when you do well in Test cricket,' Kohli once said in an interview with Wisden Cricket Monthly. But what he could not explain in word, he more than conveyed in deed. Kohli kept getting out to Jimmy Anderson in 2014. Before his next tour of England four years later, he buried himself in video footage and net practice: realigning his hips, his footwork, his shoulders, seeking out old coaches for advice, even installing a camera alongside the crease so he could monitor his foot position. Frankly, Test cricket should be exactly this hard, exactly this obsessive, exactly this painstaking, exactly this exacting. This is the only way it makes sense. Kohli made 593 runs in that 2018 series, the centrepiece of a purple patch that lasted from late-2014 to the pandemic, during which he seemed to be batting with a kind of force field around him. He scored centuries on every continent, against every team he faced. And of course it never had to be this way. Early in his career Kohli was pegged as a white-ball specialist who would never sufficiently harness his hot-blooded temperament to succeed in the five-day game. There were occasional unflattering comparisons with Michael Bevan. Though it seems strange to recall now, there was a feverish element of superimposed crisis to the early years of Kohli's career, the first imperial bloom of the Indian Premier League. The deeply fusty idea that the older generation – Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble – had treasured this game, and now the flash kids with their tattoos and haircuts were going to ruin it by turning it into an obstacle course or a Gangnam Style or something. Neither market forces nor physical wellbeing dictated that Kohli had to dominate Test cricket. He could easily have quiet-quit like Jos Buttler or Mahendra Singh Dhoni, made his legend and made his fortune. But something about this game beguiled him, bewitched him, wound him closer. And ultimately Kohli would advocate for Test cricket not just through words and not just through deeds, but by a kind of exemplary fury: a face and an energy and an intensity that through its sheer force of will ennobled the contest itself. Whether through fielding standards or fitness, petulance or belligerence, Kohli did not just want to beat you. He wanted to bury you. He wanted you to cry about it. 'The most Australian non-Australian cricketer we've ever seen,' was Greg Chappell's verdict on Monday, and it speaks volumes about Kohli that his average against Australia away is higher than it was at home. Something about those tours – the sledging, the crowd abuse, the heat and the light and the hostility – seemed to summon the animal in him. Eight years ago, on a white-ball tour of India, I was exercising in a hotel gym in Nagpur when in walked pretty much the last person you want to be exercising alongside in a hotel gym in Nagpur. And of course Kohli was the perfect physical specimen, emasculatingly so, a man who could lift more with his left arm than I could with both. But the bit that sticks was when Kohli noticed that the Australian Open final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal was reaching a crucial juncture. Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion Kohli strode right up to the TV until the screen was about four inches from his face. For the rest of the set his veins bulged, he shook his fist, he shouted encouragement. For years I had assumed the famed Kohli intensity was a kind of public persona, a superhero costume he could slip off as soon as the day was done. This was the moment the penny dropped. Oh wow. It is not an act. He is actually just like this all the time. And so my abiding Kohli memory is not an innings, or a series, but the sight of him screaming 'COME ON ROGER! YES ROGER! LET'S GO! YES!' in a hotel gym in Nagpur to an audience of one. It matters, too, that Kohli excelled in all three formats, that he did so as a classically orthodox player, all timing and training. Kohli described Test cricket as the most beautiful format of all, but he loved them all, and wherever he went he took his board, his teammates, his fans and the eyeballs of the world with him. He teaches us, perhaps, that amid the tribalism and format warfare, this is all basically cricket, the same base material we all know and love. The only reliable way of securing a legacy was to master all of it. The finances of the game are still grossly unequal. The smaller nations still need more support. Kohli always resisted the idea that one man could sustain Test cricket by exemplar alone, always urged national boards to invest in red-ball cricket, always argued that the dominance of Twenty20 was not simply a question of finance but of standards, facilities and basic respect. In this respect he may well end up being the most consequential cricketer of his age. The retirement of Kohli, and Rohit Sharma and Tim Southee and Anderson before him, will be greeted inevitably with heralds of doom. Test cricket's existential crisis will never pass. In many ways the existential crisis is baked into the product, a form of sport that comes with its own in-built sense of decline. But the torch will pass: to Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant, to Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Suryavanshi, the teenage prodigy who already has a century in whites for India under-19s. All will tread a path Kohli blazed: the idea of cricket as a cogent whole, each part as important as the next. Kohli believed in Test cricket until it broke him. Now, more than ever, is the time to show the same faith.
