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As Mumbai end an eight-year wait for their 42nd title, we look at the key stats from the 2023-24 season

Sampath Bandarupalli15-Mar-2024

End of eight-year wait for Mumbai

Mumbai extended their dominance in the Ranji Trophy, clinching their 42nd title, defeating Vidarbha at the Wankhede Stadium. The remaining teams have collectively won 47 Ranji titles, with eight by Karnataka being the second most. Across all the domestic first-class competitions, only New South Wales have won more titles than Mumbai. The Australian domestic team has won the Sheffield Shield on 47 occasions out of 122.The 2023-24 season triumph was the first for Mumbai in seven seasons, they last won a title in the 2015-16 edition. It is the second-longest span for Mumbai (previously called Bombay) between their two Ranji Trophy titles, having gone eight consecutive seasons without winning one between their title wins in 1984-85 and 1993-94.

Crucial runs by the lower order for Mumbai

The lower-order batters played a role in Mumbai’s victory by bailing the team out of trouble in the knockouts. Tanush Kotian and Tushar Deshpande struck hundreds batting at No. 10 and No. 11 in the quarters to rule out any chances of a comeback from Baroda. They added 232 runs in just 40 overs but fell one run short of the highest tenth-wicket partnership in Ranji. The highest is 233 by Ajay Sharma and Maninder Singh against Mumbai, then called Bombay, in 1991-92.

They are among a few unknown young batters who have shown from the word go that they know the IPL terrain

Nagraj Gollapudi14-Apr-20222:57

Manjrekar: This season might be remembered for the ‘new lot’

IPL matches come and go. We remember a few of them for a long time while majority recede into the memory bin even before we wake up the next morning.Wednesday’s contest between Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings will probably fade away from our memory soon. But the memory of Dewald Brevis taking on Rahul Chahar will stay fresh in the mind for a long time. The way Jitesh Sharma turned the game back in Kings’ favour immediately after Jasprit Bumrah had delivered a superb 15th over will be spoken about by the cricketing fraternity each time the Vidarbha batter comes up for discussion. And the way Tilak Varma showed both boldness and composure once again in his maiden IPL season will not only make the Mumbai scouts happy but also have the national selectors keep an eye on his progress.The beauty of a 10-team IPL is well known: not only does it spread talent across the board, but it also provides opportunity to many more players, especially newcomers. To encash that opportunity is one thing. To do it in an enthralling fashion by playing nerveless innings that enervates the opposition is what has made some of the young batters stand out this IPL.At 18 years and 350 days, Brevis is the youngest player to have featured in a playing XI so far this IPL. When Mumbai, impressed by his batting technique and boldness at the Under-19 World Cup, picked Brevis at the auction in February, the South African youngster was pinching himself in disbelief. He was flown business class and his journey was scripted into a video blog by the franchise. Brevis was straightway introduced to the IPL life: it was as much about cricket but also about doing things outside your comfort zone. To his credit Brevis, stood up to the task and was not shy to take on the challenge.But Brevis, who came with the moniker of “Baby AB” as his batting technique resembles that of his countryman AB de Villiers, was yet to announce himself this IPL until Wednesday. In Mumbai’s last match, against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Wanindu Hasaranga had snapped him with a wrong ‘un for 8.When he walked in against Kings, Mumbai had been numbed by the quick fall of their opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan in a space of four deliveries. Brevis felt he could just swing his bat and the ball would fly. He failed to open his account after the first eight deliveries he faced. He was charging at the bowlers, but soon he calmed down. Arshdeep Singh angled a short delivery away from length and Brevis stepped back to cut fiercely for his first four. Next ball was driven hard for another four. Next over, responding to a short ball from Odean Smith, Brevis swiftly pulled his first six over deep square leg.Tilak Varma turned it on in partnership with Dewald Brevis•BCCIBrevis’ strength at the Under-19 World Cup was his batting against spin. When Chahar came on to bowl, Mumbai needed 136 runs from the final 12 overs. The first ball Brevis faced from Chahar was the second of the over. Brevis crouched, just like de Villers used to, he lined up for the short and straight delivery and sent it to the straight boundary like a tennis player hitting a forehand down the line with a horizontal bat. Class and finesse.The final four deliveries of the overs were all sixes and with every passing delivery, Chahar’s plan fell apart. His last ball was a floating legbreak, which pitched outside off but Brevis stepped out and thumped it so high that it now is the biggest six – at 112 metres – recorded so far in the tournament, according to host broadcaster Star Sports. Brevis’ strike rate against spin in the game was 414.28. Mumbai’s win percentage had suddenly jumped from 13.3% to 48.5% after that Chahar over. It took Brevis five deliveries to turn the match.Brevis and Tilak Varma were playing in the same fashion as Kings’ batters this IPL – going with gusto at every delivery. When Vaibhav Arora bowled fast and short at Tilak Varma’s body immediately after the time out which was taken after the Chahar over, the Hyderabad batter did not flinch and instead pulled – the top edge sailed over the wicketkeeper for another boundary. When Smith sprayed a short and wide delivery outside off, Tilak Varma leapt at the opportunity and swatted a fabulous six over deep point.Brevis and Tilak Varma would certainly be distraught that despite helping Mumbai back into the game, their team eventually faltered and fell short by a mere 12 runs. But their efforts will not go unnoticed by the captain and the staff, for sure.Jitesh will be thanked by the Kings team management for playing the catalyst to help them finish on a formidable score when at one point it appeared they had suddenly stalled. At the end of the 15th over, Kings were 132 for 3, after Bumrah had bowled one of the best overs of the tournament including the searing 143 kmph yorker that pegged back Liam Livingstone’s off stump. But Jitesh proved how an innings can turn in a few balls when he picked 23 runs off Jaydev Unadkat’s over including three sixes, the best of which was a reverse shovel over short third man.Brevis, Tilak Varma and Jitesh are among a few unknown young batters in this IPL and from the word go they have shown that they know the terrain. On Tuesday evening, an unknown Goan batter Suyash Prabhudessai played a cameo that nearly upset Chennai Super Kings’ march to their first win of the tournament. Ayush Badoni, Anuj Rawat and Abhinav Manohar are some of the other batters who have shown they can match the best and play against the best bowlers without breaking sweat.We have not even reached the halfway stage of the 2022 IPL yet, but this season has shown how the young, bright talents have outshone their experienced seniors in the team.

TORONTO — For an instant, the sellout crowd at Rogers Centre fell silent. They felt sure that Andrés Giménez’s liner was about to fall. In the visitors’ dugout, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts feared it was about to fall. In the home dugout, Blue Jays second baseman Isiah Kiner-Falefa it was about to fall. 

But in that fraction of a second, as 44,710 people held their breath, left fielder Kiké Hernández heard something: Tyler Glasnow had broken Giménez’s bat. Hernández was already playing shallow—with one out, runners on second and third and a two-run lead, he wanted to be able to hold the batter-runner at first and the runner at second at third on a single. But now he knew that the ball was hit more softly than it looked. He sprinted toward it. 

And it was a good thing he did, because then he lost it in the lights. , he told himself. . 

He was not looking at second base, but he has played all over the diamond, and in that time he has learned to feel a play as it develops. And what he felt was that Addison Barger had taken too big a lead off second base. So after he snagged the ball, Hernández fired to the bag, where Miguel Rojas held on to preserve the Dodgers’ 3–1 victory in Game 6 of the World Series and force Game 7. 

“[Hernández] is one of my favorite baseball players to watch,” said manager Dave Roberts afterward. “He’s one of the headiest baseball players I’ve ever been around. And even just getting off on the ball, the awareness to get to his arm, get the ball into second base. He’s just a heck of a baseball player.”

It was the second wild play in four pitches. A close but straightforward game turned into a thriller when the bottom of the ninth went spooky on Halloween night. Roki Sasaki, trying to get six outs to preserve a two-run lead, hit the Blue Jays’ Alejandro Kirk on an 0–1 to open the frame. Then, on a 2–2 count, Barger lined a fastball to the center field wall—where it lodged. Center fielder Justin Dean threw up his hands, believing that if he touched it, the ball would be in play. The umpires called it a ground-rule double. If the ball had landed anywhere else, it would have been a one-run game. (Even the Dodgers could not agree afterward on the rule, but a Major League Baseball official confirmed that Dean should have played the ball; the umpires can rule it dead even after a fielder touches it, and they would have done so in this case. Regardless, in this case, the result was the same.)

Instead, the runners stood at second and third. With no options remaining, Roberts summoned presumptive Game 7 starter Tyler Glasnow in relief; he induced a pop-up for the first out of the inning. Then came Hernández’s ears and his arm and the first game-ending 7–4 double play in World Series history. If he had missed it, the World Series might have been over. Instead, the game was. 

For most of the night, the question was whether the lineup could sort itself out. The Dodgers shared the blame—as a group they entered the night hitting .201 in the World Series—but it was Mookie Betts’s struggles that received the most attention, both internally and externally. 

“Focus on one game,” was manager Dave Roberts’s message. “Be good for one game. Go out there and compete.”

So when Betts, after getting beaten on two straight fastballs up in the third inning of a win-or-go-home World Series Game 6, lined the third one to left field to drive home the go-ahead runs, the happiest person at the Rogers Centre was surely the shortstop, who howled his relief and banged at his thighs. But No. 2 might have been his skipper, who shouted and pointed at Betts. 

Roberts had tried to put a charge into Betts by publicly challenging him. The manager had tried to reassure him, both to the media and behind closed doors, by insisting that he would be fine. He had dropped him down in the lineup, from No. 2 to No. 3 and then finally, on Friday, to No. 4. 

Betts had left 24 men on base this postseason, and he was hitting .132 since the beginning of the National League Championship Series. “I’ve just been terrible,” he lamented after yet another 0-for-4 in Game 5. He added, “I wish it were from lack of effort. But it’s not. I mean, that’s all I can say.”

Perhaps that effort was the problem. Maybe he needed to remember that he wasn’t the only one scuffling, and therefore he wasn’t the only one responsible for fixing it. So there was reason to believe that a new slot in the batting order might help. He has spent most of his career in the two-hole, but perhaps the move to the cleanup spot, where there were more run opportunities, would unlock his ability to stay short to the ball and use the whole field: Over his October career, he has hit .313 with runners in scoring position and .241 without. 

He took batting practice on Thursday’s workout day, and both he and the hitting coaches believed he’d found something. “I was able to pull the ball,” he said of the workout. “I was able to get my A swing off.” But Betts is such a tinkerer with his swing that he often finds something and loses it within a few minutes. 

“They’re going to make good pitches,” Roberts said before Game 6. “He’s going to go out there and compete. But I think that where his swing is at mechanically is as good as it’s been in a week, so I really feel good about that.”

is what Roberts has been practically begging his silent offense to do all series. He openly covets his opponents’ at-bats. “You clearly see those guys finding ways to get hits, move the baseball forward, and we're not doing a good job of it,” he said after rookie right-hander Trey Yesavage held the Dodgers to one run in Game 5, while Toronto exploded for six. “I thought Yesavage was good tonight mixing his fastball, slider, and the split. But you still have to use the whole field and take what they give you, and if they’re not going to allow for slug, then you've got to be able to kind of redirect and club down to take competitive at-bats, and you see, whether it’s [Addison] Barger or [Bo] Bichette, those guys are doing it.”

For Halloween, to Roberts’s delight, the Dodgers went as the Blue Jays. Game 6 featured a rematch of Game 2, which started as a pitcher’s duel and ended in history. Kevin Gausman matched Yoshinobu Yamamoto until the seventh inning, at which point Gausman made a pair of mistakes—two fastballs that caught too much of the plate and that Will Smith and Max Muncy whacked for homers—and Yamamoto seemed only to get stronger. He completed his second straight game, the first time anyone has done that in the postseason since 2001. 

Again they looked close to even on Friday. Barger doubled to lead off the third and George Springer, returning from an oblique injury that cost him two games and visibly wincing with every swing, singled to drive in a run. 

Meanwhile, Gausman struck out six of the first seven hitters he faced. But the eighth was Tommy Edman, who doubled, and Gausman intentionally walked Shohei Ohtani, the fifth time the Blue Jays have removed the bat from his hands this series. The strategy worked the first four times, but on Friday, Will Smith lofted a double down the left field line to bring home the Dodgers’ first run. The hit marked their first with a runner in scoring position since Game 3. Freddie Freeman walked to load the bases, and then the beleaguered Betts finally barreled up that fastball. 

The sequence marked the Dodgers’ first hit with a runner in scoring position since Game 3, and their first multi-run inning since Game 4 of the NLCS. They loaded the bases again with two outs in the eighth, but failed to cash in; still, the third-inning rally held up, even as Yamamoto for the first time in three weeks went only six innings. The leaky bullpen held the lead at two, where it remained. 

Game 7 awaits. The Dodgers hope to quiet the crowd here then, too.

For the first time in the series, India’s fast bowlers bowled poorer lengths than England’s. But they regrouped quickly to script a turnaround

Sidharth Monga01-Aug-2025

Prasidh Krishna returned his best figures in Test cricket•Getty Images

“Have you ever felt nothing good was ever gonna happen to you?”At lunch on day two at The Oval, some of the younger players in the India team would have felt the way Chris Moltisanti did when he uttered this immortal line in . Chris is easily frustrated by circumstances, impatient to move up in the North Jersey mafia hierarchy, and even tries his hand at writing a movie script.This Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy has been an incredible learning curve for this young India team, a tour where they have had reason to believe that they haven’t been rewarded proportionately for their efforts. The situation at lunch on day two was India 2-1 behind in the series, 224 plays 109 for 1 in 16 overs, and yet another selection looking to blow in their face with just three fast bowlers in the side.Related

• 'That was the plan' – Prasidh on verbal duel with Root

• Siraj, Jaiswal and Prasidh put India in front on 15-wicket day

• Stats – The breathtaking Crawley-Duckett opening salvo

For the first time in the series, India’s fast bowlers had bowled poorer lengths than England’s, hit off the good areas by the sensational and skilful opening pair of Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley. One more session of it, and the series would have been gone. India badly needed a Paulie “Walnuts” Gualtieri to say, as he did in response to the aforementioned question: “Yeah. So what?”Paulie is one of the most ruthless and trusted henchmen of the mob boss Tony Soprano. He is as psychopathic as the other wise guys but he is not given to feeling pity for himself. He is one of the more stoic wise guys. At The Oval, it had to be one or all of the India fast bowlers to step up and say “so what”. We will get up again and do the work. We will do the right things again. So what if the results haven’t gone our way?Mohammed Siraj is a good fit as Paulie. Never to be Tony Soprano, not even of the fast-bowling group, but happy to do the hard work and step up when needed. Sometimes Siraj even reckons he is proud of being given the responsibility and does better when he is, but he knows he is not quite his “Jassi “. He didn’t start off well, bowling ordinary lines with the new ball, conceding 31 in his first four overs, which is why he had to watch Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna start off this crucial session.3:42

‘A workhorse, a man to have in the team’

Akash Deep had not had a great start himself. He had troubled Duckett, was all over him, hit him in the box, and nearly had him three times in his second over, but a reverse-pull for a six from Duckett completely rattled him. The next time Duckett charged at him, Akash Deep lost his length completely and was dismissively cut away. Duckett was almost telling him – twice in one over – that he was not quick enough. That he could leave the crease early and still have time to cut him if he changed the length.This was Bazball at its best, and India were on the back foot. The height difference between Crawley and Duckett meant India were getting cut and driven from the same lengths, which weren’t necessarily big errors. Prasidh looked the best of the three, but never forget that he was coming off the ignominy of having to sit out at Old Trafford for a bowler straight off the flight.It was this beleaguered trio that needed to say “so what” and get on with it. A session of 6 for 106 was as emphatic a “so what” as any. Being the wise guys, they needed to wise up a little first, which they did among themselves. Take your pick on who Silvio and Bobby – two of Soprano’s other lieutenants – are but this was a chat they needed to have to lift each other up. Prasidh said the three got into a corner and decided what had happened had happened. He said they needed to reassure each other, help each other when they veered off lines and lengths, and also “show some body language”.Mohammed Siraj celebrates after dismissing Ollie Pope•Getty ImagesThey knew they had – as a human reaction – started to bowl hard lengths as if in the middle overs of an ODI, but that was not going to help them. Immediately, they started bowling better lengths for this pitch: one with appreciable seam movement available. India have generally stayed on 6-8m for most of the series, but here they started hitting 5-6m more often: 13.4% of the times as opposed to 7.2% in the first session. So even when they pulled it back in reaction to aggression, they were still on the good length.As a result, they not only kept the edges and the stumps in play – thanks to the seam movement – but also gave the ball a chance to swing. Even though high-seam deliveries went down, their average swing went up, which created the combination India needed. Results were not instant, Crawley resumed just as merrily, but even though he didn’t start bowling, Siraj at mid-on was always reassuring his bowlers they were on the right track.Prasidh said it was challenging to keep bowling good balls when the batters played as well as Duckett and Crawley did, but they needed reassurance from each other that if they bowled well, “it was a matter of time”.1:45

Prasidh: I’ve been picked to do a job

Time, though, was not on their side. There were just three of them on a pitch that needed fast bowling the most. Bringing spin on would ease all the pressure. This is where Akash Deep, who took just one wicket, played a big role. He started the session with a five-over spell, had time off for just three overs, and then pitched in with a six-over spell from the other end. All the while clutching his shoulder and stretching it because of a niggle. These were not just any spells; they were 5-0-16-0 and 6-0-18-0 with plenty of questions asked.At the other end, the only fast bowler left standing after playing all Tests, Siraj pulled in a shift: 8-0-35-3. He pulled out the lethal combination of outswing and wobble-seam. He dragged Joe Root across with outswing before bowling the lbw ball with the wobble seam. As a true disciple of Jasprit Bumrah, in his first 12 overs, Siraj bowled only one ball fuller than 5m: the near-yorker to get Jacob Bethell out.It was then time for Prasidh to take over from Akash Deep and show off his wobble-seam ball. He has been bowling it for a while now, increasing the frequency of it as his trust in it had grown, but he also perhaps produced his first wicket with the way the wobble-seam ball is intended: to nip back in and trap the batter in front, Jamie Overton in this case.Good things now started to happen to the wise guys. The rain break came at just the right time to allow them to stay fresh and limit the damage Harry Brook could cause in the company of the tail. If you are just watching from the outside and thought the series was over at lunch, you are probably reacting like Silvio, a nod to if ever there was one: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”

Russell has been a constant for the franchise since IPL 2014, and was among five players retained by the franchise ahead of the 2025 mega auction for INR 12 crore

Nagraj Gollapudi15-Nov-2025In one of the most high-profile releases in IPL history, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have decided to let go of their star allrounder Andre Russell ahead of the auction for IPL 2026.Russell has been a constant for the franchise since IPL 2014 and was among five players retained by the franchise ahead of the 2025 mega auction. Though Russell had cost KKR INR 12 crore, releasing him has given the franchise an additional INR 18 crore for the auction, since he was Player 1 in KKR’s list of retainees last year, worth INR 18 crore, and that amount gets credited to the team’s purse now.A bona fide T20 great, Russell is also an IPL GOAT. Only two players in IPL history have scored over 2000 runs and picked 100 wickets. One of them – Russell – has been released, and the other – Ravindra Jadeja – has been traded, making the 2026 retention window among the most headline-making ones.Related

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While the development will surprise many, including KKR fans, the franchise had deliberated releasing Russell ahead of the 2025 mega auction before deciding to stall that call. Russell, who is 37, had retired from international cricket in July, having only played the T20 format after the 2019 World Cup.Russell, who was the Player of the Tournament in IPL 2019, was part of the KKR’s title-winning teams in 2014 and 2024. Russell also won 16 Player-of-the-Match awards at KKR and is only behind the other KKR great Sunil Narine. A powerful batter who is known to take bowlers apart, especially in death overs, Russell has hit the joint-seventh most sixes (223) in the IPL.It is understood that more than one franchise sought out Russell in trade. KKR, though, will have the biggest purse, INR 64.30 crore, at the auction and could look to even buy him back. The teams will also pay attention to Russell’s form in the 2025 season. With the bat in ten innings, Russell hit 167 runs at a strike rate of 163.72, including a 50. His bowling numbers, though, were under par: eight wickets in nine innings at an average of 27.12 and an economy of 11.94.

Bayern Munich legend Oliver Kahn has given his verdict on veteran goalkeeper Manuel Neuer’s performance against Arsenal. Kahn insisted Neuer was fouled during the controversial opening goal but admitted the goalkeeper made a "mistake" for the third strike that sealed the first defeat of the season for Vincent Kompany and Co.

Neuer involved in controversial opener and decisive third goal

Bayern goalkeeper endured a difficult evening during his side's 3-1 Champions League defeat to the English team, with two of the goals conceded drawing significant scrutiny. Kahn provided a detailed verdict on the critical moments, defending Neuer over a controversial opener but admitting the veteran made a "mistake" on the goal that effectively ended the contest.

Bayern Munich's unbeaten Champions League run came to an end at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday, with the spotlight falling firmly on the performance of goalkeeper Manuel Neuer regarding key moments in the 3-1 defeat.

Arsenal took the lead in the 22nd minute following a corner kick. As the ball was delivered into the six-yard box, Neuer appeared to be impeded by an Arsenal player, preventing him from making a clean attempt to catch or punch the ball clear. Amid the confusion and contact, Jurrien Timber finished to put the hosts ahead.

While Lennart Karl briefly equalised for Bayern, Arsenal regained control in the second half through Noni Madueke in the 69th minute. The critical moment that sealed Bayern's fate arrived in the 77th minute. Gabriel Martinelli struck Arsenal's third goal after Neuer came rushing up the field to challenge him, only to be left in the Brazilian's dust.

AdvertisementGetty Images SportKahn argues Neuer was fouled for Timber goal

Kahn offered a robust defence of Neuer regarding the opening goal, arguing that the shot-stopper was the victim of a foul that went unpunished by the match officials and VAR.

Speaking to , Kahn analysed the corner kick incident: "As a goalkeeper, you're focused on the player taking the corner. That means you can't see what's happening behind you. And if someone comes along at that exact moment and gives you even the slightest nudge or bumps into you, you lack the coordination you need to bring the corner down or punch it away."

Kahn expressed strong disdain for such tactics used against goalkeepers in the penalty area. "I hated those kinds of disguised attacks. Even a small nudge is enough to make you lose the necessary coordination with the ball. In my opinion, VAR should have intervened and awarded a foul and a free kick."

Bayern legend admits 'mistake' on Martinelli strike

While Kahn defended Neuer over the first goal, he was less forgiving in his assessment of the decisive third goal scored by Martinelli in the 77th minute. When asked directly if Neuer had committed an error that led to the goal, Kahn's response was blunt.

"Was that a mistake, yes or no? Yes, if that's how you want to see it, then it was a mistake," Kahn admitted, acknowledging that the German international should have done better in that defining moment.

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Bayern Munich lack cutting edge despite possession

The defeat marked Bayern Munich's first loss in the Champions League group stage this season and dropped them to third place in the standings, three points behind new leaders Arsenal. Despite dominating possession with 55% of the ball and completing significantly more passes than their opponents, Bayern struggled to threaten the Arsenal goal consistently.

Kompany's side managed only two shots on target throughout the entire match, compared to Arsenal's eight, highlighting their issues in the final third against a disciplined Gunners defence. The result leaves Bayern level on 12 points with Inter Milan, making their final group fixtures crucial for securing a top seeding for the knockout phase.