Virat Kohli guides IPL side to finally win their first title
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) ended their 17-season drought by winning their maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) title, defeating Punjab Kings by six runs in the final in Ahmedabad.
RCB posted 190-9, with Virat Kohli top-scoring with 43; Punjab Kings were restricted to 184-7 despite Shashank Singh's 61 off 30 balls.
Virat Kohli was visibly emotional as RCB secured the win, shedding their underachievers' tag.
Despite a steady start, RCB's innings saw Kohli anchoring, but the team struggled to form significant partnerships, failing to surpass the 200-mark.
Punjab's chase began strongly, but key wickets taken by Krunal Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar turned the match in Bengaluru's favour, sealing their victory.
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The Guardian
21 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Harry Brook smiles and riles India's attack with swagger and fortune
Scientists say that the typical human can recognise 21 distinct facial expressions. After seven years of Test cricket, Jasprit Bumrah has grown to know a good handful of them about as well as any man can, from awe, through disgust, to fear, sadness, surprise and all their many combinations. You would guess it's been a while since he's seen a happy batsmen looking back at him from 22 yards, but if you had the binoculars on Harry Brook first thing on Sunday morning, you could see he was wearing such a big, goofy grin that his teeth were glinting through the gloaming. You don't want to kink-shame him, but you'd think there must be easier ways to get your kicks than to go running down the pitch to hit a man bowling 90mph bouncers. But Brook's brain seems to be wired a little differently. On the third ball Bumrah bowled him on Sunday, he decided to take two quick steps forwards and wallop it through the covers for four. It was an extraordinary shot, in an innings studded with them. Brook picked up one of Prasidh Krishna's short balls from outside off and heaved it into the stands beyond mid-wicket; he walked down the pitch to launch Mohammad Siraj over the silly mid-off he's just set to try and deter exactly that shot, and even played Rishabh Pant's roly-poly scoop over the wicketkeeper to score a four off Ravindra Jadeja. It was like watching a kid copying the trick he'd just seen on TV, except he got away with it. These aren't strokes your typical batsman could imagine, let alone execute. But then Brook is the most richly gifted shotmaker England have had since Kevin Pietersen was in the team. Time was, and not so long ago, when you would have been told off for trying them. But Brendon McCullum is the only England coach Brook has ever known – he has grown up being encouraged to play this way. By the time the second new ball came around, India's bowlers had had just about enough of it. They already thought they'd got Brook out once when he couldn't help himself but try to hook one of Bumrah's bouncers and was caught at midwicket off what turned out to be a no-ball, and then they thought they had got him a second time when he edged a ball from Jadeja through to Pant, who couldn't hold on to the catch. They had spent all morning trying, and failing, to persuade the umpires to let them change the soft ball they'd been working with, and now they finally had a shiny new one by right. They gave it to Siraj. He is one of those bowlers who likes to pick a fight, and always seems to be pissed off with his lot. The Telangana police recently swore him in as an honorary deputy constable, and he has the air of a man you wouldn't want to make ask twice to see your licence. Siraj beat Brook once outside off, when Brook swung so hard at a cut that he threw himself off his feet, then he beat him again when he hit his inside edge and the ball ricocheted away off his thigh. He was starting to warm up, then Brook went and belted his next two deliveries for four, and he reached a boil. Siraj banged the next ball in short at Brooks's ribs, and hit him on the elbow. He followed the delivery in and, while Brook winced, Siraj stood in the middle of the pitch, staring at him. He shot him a couple of kind words – exactly what is between the two of them – and then a length delivery which Brook spanked back over his head for six. 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 He might as well have flicked him on the forehead. Siraj fired the next one in so quick that even though Brook missed it, it shot off his pads for four leg byes. When Siraj overcorrected himself and dropped the next one wide on the off-side, Brook hammered him for four more through point. That made it 18 off the over. And it was at this point that Pant decided everyone needed a time out, and called a trainer on to strap up his ankle. His teammates gathered in a huddle. Apart from Siraj who stood, hands on hips, staring into the distance. He looked as if he was going to blow up if anyone came within three feet of him. Somewhere in among all this, Brook was dropped yet again when he cut one of Bumrah's away-swingers to gully. He was finally out on 99, caught in the deep. You sometimes wonder if there's a thought in his head at all, except to belt the ball. In this, at least, he is part of a long Yorkshire tradition – Geoff Boycott, Herbert Sutcliffe and Norman Yardley all got out one shy of a Test hundred in their time, too, though you have to guess they probably weren't trying to belt a six when they did it.
Daily Mail
35 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Harry Brook falls agonisingly short of century as England fight back with ruthless batting on third day of gripping first Test against India
Harry Brook smacked his left hand on his helmeted forehead, reconciled himself to his fate and began a slow trudge back to the pavilion, spinning his bat in the air, then dropping it, as if to compound the misery. On a day of classic Headingley mayhem, his dismissal for 99 – caught on the pull – silenced another full house as abruptly as the removal of his fellow Yorkshireman Joe Root had the night before. Yet Brook could also console himself, for his performance was the centrepiece of England's fightback in a gripping first Test against India that has boiled down to a second-innings shoot-out after the tourists' lead was limited in thrilling fashion to six. What Bazball taketh away with one hand, it giveth with the other. Rarely has this team's basic – and at times fragile – pact with its public been so starkly illustrated. The local mood shifted again as India set about a tricky third innings in grey drizzle. Brydon Carse had Yashasvi Jaiswal, a centurion on Friday, caught behind for four, and Ben Stokes later persuaded Sai Sudharsan to chip a low catch Zak Crawley at midwicket for 30. Shortly after 6pm, with the clouds closing in and the rain growing heavy, KL Rahul – who had driven his way sweetly to 47 – and Shubman Gill couldn't leave the field quickly enough. There are two days to go, and India are 96 ahead, but they will want to extend their advantage to 300 and beyond to feel safe on a surface that has shown signs of unevenness but remains batsman-friendly, especially when the sun is out. This Test is yet to be taken by its scruff. Above all, though, this was a day when England responded to the existential threat posed by Jasprit Bumrah by attacking his team-mates with a ruthlessness straight out of Brendon McCullum's playbook. While Bumrah finished with five for 83, a 14th five-wicket haul that scarcely did justice to his unique genius, the rest of the Indian attack cobbled together five for 346. The old joke, usually attributed to Graham Gooch, was that facing Richard Hadlee's 1980s New Zealanders was a case of the World XI at one end and Ilford 2nds at the other. Some of the stuff served up by Bumrah's team-mates might have earned a ticking-off in Ilford 3rds. Quite how India will cope when he is rested later in the series is a question without a comforting answer. From England's resumption on their overnight 209 for three, to their dismissal for 465 to signal a delayed tea, they ransacked 31 fours and five sixes, and raced along at almost five an over. Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna went for 250 between them, and India dropped two more chances, Brook the beneficiary on 46 and 82. Gill, their new captain, looked in need of advice, or possibly a cuddle. But Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma now ex-Test cricketers, and there was precious little of either. England being England, of course, there was much to test their fans' blood pressure. Ollie Pope added only six to his overnight 100 before edging a mediocre delivery from Krishna, and Stokes made just 20 before fiddling tamely at Siraj. He tossed his bat in the air too, and with sound cause: since the start of last year, he averages 27, his batting and bowling outputs going in opposite directions. But then this is Headingley, a venue often spoken of in mystical terms, like some living, breathing organism that controls the players' wills and dictates their deeds. Bad balls are edged behind, good balls driven for four, easy chances spurned. Logic seems to go out of the window more easily than at other venues. Perhaps that was the best explanation for the dismissal of Jamie Smith, who moved imposingly to 40 with a crunching pull for six off Krishna, then aimed for a repeat and was caught at deep backward square by Ravindra Jadeja, who was so close to the boundary that he smartly offloaded the ball to Sudharsan. With a strong wind in his favour, and despite three men on the fence, Smith had backed his ability, as per the dressing-room mantra. But the new ball was available next over, and Bumrah about to return. Stokes spoke before the game about the need to make smarter decisions in crucial moments, yet there was no worse time to expose the lower order. An entertaining sixth-wicket stand of 73 had come to a careless end. Inevitably, the chaos continued. Already put down by Rishabh Pant off Jadeja's left-arm spin, Brook now prodded Bumrah to fourth slip, where Jaiswal unaccountably grassed his second chance of the innings. Brook's response was to help take 18 off an over from the talkative Siraj, who suddenly lost his tongue. A push for two off Krishna took him to 99, and Headingley prepared to celebrate one of their own. Caught on nought off a Bumrah no-ball late on Saturday evening, he was ready to join them. Instead, an uncontrolled pull headed straight for Shardul Thakur, a few yards in from the fine-leg boundary, and the effect in the stands was as if parents had just gatecrashed their teenagers' secret party. Of Brook's eight Test hundreds, seven have come abroad. The sense of a missed opportunity was acute and painful. But England kept going. Carse slapped 22, and Chris Woakes, innocuous with the ball, held firm for 38. When Bumrah collected his fourth and fifth wickets, bowling Woakes and Josh Tongue in successive overs, England were all out for 465, and within a six hit off India. The teams' proximity alone captured this game's madness. While India had been 430 for three in their first innings after being invited to bat, only to lose their last seven for 41, England's last seven had put on 259. It turns out there really is more than one way to skin a cat, especially at Headingley.
BBC News
42 minutes ago
- BBC News
Why Bumrah is most complete fast bowler ever
It is getting harder and harder to reject the claim that India's Jasprit Bumrah is the most complete fast bowler of all impact he has on a match every time he bowls is remarkable and he has been a cut above anything else we have seen in the first Test at Headingley. Bumrah took 5-83 in England's first innings, along with having three catches dropped and Harry Brook caught off a Bumrah gets the ball in his hand it is box-office viewing. It feels as though something is happening every ball. He makes the bowlers at the other end look as though they are playing a different can leave the best players in the world confused about what has just happened. A whir of arms, a flick of his wrist, and the ball has hit you before you know I ever had the misfortune of facing Bumrah, he'd be done with me in a maximum of two deliveries. A good short ball, then a searing yorker would do the trick. I'd hold out hope he'd go straight for the second of those options as, by all accounts, it is incredibly hard to see the ball when Bumrah is bowling. He would cause a tailender like me some harm. Describing a bowler as "hard to pick up" is a phrase you will hear from batters about bowlers with quirky actions. Bowlers who hide the ball from a batter's view until the very last second are horrible to Bumrah, the ball starts in his unique load-up point. Imagine a clock face and Bumrah's action from behind. His fully straightened arm points to the number two. His arm then comes quickly down in to his bowling arc, but as it comes through to deliver, his elbow hyper-extends. This is where he gets some of his pace from - the ball disappears behind his elbow and the batter momentarily loses sight of the forearm then catches up with the rest of his arm, he cocks his wrist and is ready to unleash whatever delivery he has chosen. It's like a catapult. At the very last millisecond, the ball is back in the batter's view, hurtling at somewhere around challenge to batters and an advantage to Bumrah is his release point. He delivers the ball from closer to the batter than any other pace watching a fast bowler from side on. You will see most release the ball when their arm is directly above their front foot. Bumrah somehow gets his hand about 40cm ahead of his front foot, cutting the distance between himself and the batter, thus reducing the batter's reaction approach to the crease is not befitting of someone who is going to bowl fast. Bumrah has short, stuttering steps, without any sort of fluency. There is nothing in the approach that suggests he will be capable of bowling with the speed he does.A batter could watch as many hours of Bumrah footage as they like, yet still be surprised when they face him. There is no 'tell' as to what he going to bowl. No change of arm path, no change of finger position. A batter can only rely on reacting to what is coming their way. Another phrase you might hear to describe a bowler is "beyond the perpendicular". Again, using the clock face, a bowler with an over-the-top action would, from behind, have it pointing to the number 12, directly above their head. A bowler with a round arm would be at one or a bowler goes beyond the perpendicular, they are coming from the number 11, meaning the angle always feels like it is coming in to a right-hander, making them play at deliveries they might not need example of this would be the success Bumrah has had against Joe Root, dismissing him 10 times in Test cricket - only Australia's Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood have got Root makes Root push at balls wide of off stump, just like the first innings of this Test, angled in and moving away at the last second once he has opted to play at the ball, continuing in a similar vein to their duels in of the technical elements of Bumrah's bowling action, I don't think there has been a fast bowler in history able to affect matches so is like a computer constantly calibrating what is needed in any given situation, and he is able to implement almost exactly what he wants to with absolute this for versatility. Of pace bowlers from major nations to have sent down at least 500 deliveries in T20 internationals, Bumrah's economy rate of 6.27 is the best. At the same time, Bumrah has comfortably the best bowling average of any bowler in Test history with at least 200 wickets. At 19.33, Bumrah is miles ahead of West Indies legend Malcom Marshall in second place on it a stage further, the only bowlers with more than 100 wickets at a lower average than Bumrah all played before World War a climate where the disparity between the Test and T20 formats for bowlers is becoming wider and requiring a differing range of skills, Bumrah is the best in is a thinker about the game and would have been India's first choice as the new Test captain has it not been for his struggle to play in every match. He took the decision himself to not pursue the job as he did not feel it was fair on the lucky to be in an era of great fast bowlers. From recent international retirees Stuart Broad and James Anderson, to Kagiso Rabada, Cummins, Hazlewood and Mitchell sits atop of them all as the finest fast bowler to have played the game. Some accolade.
