Shortly after the BCCI announced the full schedule of IPL 2025 season, Zaheer Khan, the mentor of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), said the side shapes up as a strong contender for winning the title. The Rishabh Pant-led LSG will play its opening match of IPL 2025 against Delhi Capitals, a side the wicketkeeper-batter previously led, in an evening clash on March 24 at ACA-VDCA Stadium in Visakhapatnam. Pant became the most expensive player in IPL’s history when LSG acquired him for INR 27 crore at the mega auction in Jeddah last year. LSG reached the playoffs of IPL 2022 and 2023 seasons, before exiting in the Eliminator twice. In IPL 2024, LSG finished at seventh place in the points table.

“Under the captaincy of Rishabh Pant, the team has many excellent players like David Miller, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Mitchell Marsh, Ayush Badoni, Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan, and Ravi Bishnoi. LSG is a strong contender for the IPL Cup. We will achieve this goal with the love and support of cricket lovers,” said Zaheer in a statement issued by the franchise.

LSG will begin its run of playing seven home games at the Bharat Ratna Shree Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium when it faces Punjab Kings in an evening game on April 1. They will later play their home games against Mumbai Indians (April 4), Gujarat Titans (April 12), Chennai Super Kings (April 14), Delhi Capitals (April 22), Royal Challengers Bengaluru (May 9), and Sunrisers Hyderabad (May 18).

Apart from Zaheer, Justin Langer is the head coach, while Vijay Dahiya and Lance Klusener are assistant coaches. Each team in the IPL will play 14 matches during the league phase, with top four teams to feature in the playoffs.

The Qualifier 1 and the Eliminator will be held on May 20 and 21, respectively, at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. It is followed by the Qualifier 2 and the final to be played at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on May 23 and 25 respectively.

LSG squad for IPL 2025: Rishabh Pant (Captain), Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Matthew Breetzke, Nicholas Pooran, Shamar Joseph, Ayush Badoni, Ravi Bishnoi, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, Avesh Khan, Akash Deep, Aryan Juyal, Abdul Samad, Himmat Singh, Arshin Kulkarni, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Akash Singh, Digvesh Singh, M Siddharth, and Prince Yadav.

The Indian Premier League 2025, 18th edition of the t20 extravaganza, will be a closely watch affair. There is huge curiosity among the fans about the season as the teams will bear a fresh look following a mega auction that took place in November last year. While teams were allowed a maximum of six retentions, including Right-To-Match option, the rest of the squad had to be formed via the auction. Some big names fetched massive sum and the bidding wars made the IPL 2025 all the more interesting. For the stats, Rishabh Pant turned out to be the costliest player ever sold in IPL auction history as he was picked by Lucknow Super Giants for a whopping INR 27 crore.

According to a report in Cricbuzz, the IPL 2025 will start on March 22 with a match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challenges Bengaluru. The report said defending champions KKR will face RCB, who announced their new skipper Rajat Patidar on Thursday, at Eden Gardens. Last year’s runners-up Sunrisers Hyderabad will also play their first game at home against Rajasthan Royals at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal on March 23.

The report said, the final will be held in Kolkata on Sunday, May 25. 

The report further claimed that apart from the 10 regular centres – Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Mullanpur, Delhi, Jaipur, Kolkata and Hyderabad, Guwahati and Dharamsala will host matches too. 

Guwahati is likely to gets a couple of Rajasthan Royals’ ‘home’ matches on March 26 and 30. Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings will be their opponents in the games. Dharamsala may host a couple of home games of Punjab Kings.

Earlier, on January 12, BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla, who attended the Special General Meeting in Mumbai, said, “IPL is going to start from March 23.”

Screengrab of Ed Sheeran playing cricket with Rajasthan Royals.© Rajasthan Royals

File image of KL Rahul.© BCCI/IPL

Shreyas Iyer in Punjab Kings’ jersey.© X/@PunjabKingsIPL

Mahalingam Venkatesan, affectionately known as ‘Mali,’ has defied numerous challenges, including a cricket ban and a setback in his career, to remain closely connected to the sport he loves. At 69, the Tamil Nadu native now works as a public officer for the Joburg Super Kings in the SA20 tournament, having written his own remarkable story in the world of cricket. Mali, now based in Durban, left India to be with the woman he loved and eventually married, all while staying committed to cricket. He has a rich cricketing history, having played alongside former Indian greats such as Kris Srikkanth, Gundappa Viswanath, Syed Kirmani, Roger Binny, and Bharath Reddy in Tamil Nadu.

A botched surgery ended his dream of representing Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy, but Mali went on to work for a national bank, relocate to South Africa, open three restaurants, and is now works in the SA20.

“I am from Chennai and I played school cricket, varsity, TNCA, CK Nayudu Trophy, U-22 (and) Junior State (competitions). I was even in the Ranji Trophy probables, but I couldn’t play because I had a bad incident — due to a wrong operation on my right knee,” Mali told PTI.

Mali assisted Chennai Super Kings during the second edition of the IPL in South Africa, and when the country launched its own T20 league two years ago, he was once again called up by the franchise for the SA20.

“In 2009, when they had the IPL in South Africa, Mr N Srinivasan gave me the opportunity to assist them. (Now) after the start of SA20, they appointed me as a public officer for Joburg Super Kings,” Mali said.

Rooted in Tamil Nadu, Mali’s love story brought him to South Africa, where he started playing again, though his journey was short-lived.

“I worked with State Bank of India from 1978 to 2000. After retirement from cricket, I was a member in charge of the State Bank team and then I moved to South Africa in the year 2000,” he said.

“Why I came to South Africa, it is like a real love story. I met my wife in Chennai in 1983. In 1984, I wanted to come and meet her in South Africa. I got a special permission from the Government of India and I landed in South Africa.

Mali said he also played cricket in South Africa, where he may have been the first non-native cricketer to do so in 1984.

“I played for NCB (Natal Cricket Board), but there were two boards here because of the apartheid time. I played for the non-white cricket (team). I was selected but they found out that I wasn’t a local, I was from India. They banned me and I went back to India,” he said.

“(It was) then (when) I met my girlfriend in Chennai. I came here, I convinced her family and in 1986 and we got married,” he added.

Reflecting on his time in South Africa as a cricketer, Mali said, “During those times, the non-whites, the coloured, the blacks and Indians, they didn’t have an opportunity to play.

“After the end of apartheid you can see that it became well-balanced. A lot of our black players or non-white players were given a chance and they (have) proved it also.

“You can see South Africa was in the finals of the T20 World Cup as well as the World Test Championship now,” he added.

For Mali, being involved in the game at his age is all he could ask for.

“Even after so many years you are mixing with the team. I’m travelling with the team. What else do you need? You have been a cricketer. Even after your old age, you’re still with the cricketers,” he added.

File image of Vaibhav Suryavanshi.© X (Twitter)

File image of Manish Pandey.© BCCI/IPL

Out-of-favour India batter Ajinkya Rahane‘s explosive fifty capped Mumbai’s stunning six-wicket victory over Vidarbha and their entry into the semifinals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in Alur on Wednesday. Once Vidarbha posted a massive 221 for six, Mumbai needed a strong chase and Rahane led from the front with an 84 off 45 balls. Mumbai made 224 for four in 19.2 overs and they will face Baroda in the semifinals on Friday. Under-fire Prithvi Shaw reminded of the immense talent beneath his callous exterior with a powerful knock as Mumbai marched to 83 in just 7 overs.

Another batter, who stood out, in the Mumbai innings was 21-year-old Suryansh Shedge, a batting all-rounder bought by Punjab Kings for Rs 30 lakh at IPL 2025 auction.In his fiery 12-ball knock, Suryansh scored 36 runs with the help of four sixes and a four.

Watch videos of his batting here –

Suryansh Shedge is at it again

Smashes , as Mumbai take 24 off the crucial 17th over!#SMAT | @IDFCFIRSTBank

Scorecard https://t.co/6VsAOYwAI8 pic.twitter.com/bplBTilNKp

— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) December 11, 2024

Mumbai are into the semis

They ace yet another run chase, chasing down 222 against Vidarbha to win by 6 wickets

With 60 needed off the last 4 overs, Shivam Dube & Suryansh Shedge pulled off a terrific win#SMAT | @IDFCFIRSTBank

Scorecard https://t.co/6VsAOYwAI8 pic.twitter.com/bQ0Ds4J94q

— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) December 11, 2024

Skipper Shreyas Iyer (5) and India T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav (9) fell in quick succession as Mumbai were reduced to 118 for three in the 11.1 overs.

They still needed 104 runs from the remaining eight overs.

Rahane, who played a few sublime shots, fell when his side was at 157 in 15.1 overs.

But India middle-order batter Shivam Dube (37 not out), who was dropped early in his innings by Karun Nair, and Suyansh clobbered 67 runs in a little over four overs to take their side home.

The frenetic run collection included a 22-run over by Shedge off off-spinner Mandar Mahale through a sequence of 6, 6, 6, 4 in the 17th over.

Earlier, Atharva Taide (66, 41b), Apoorva Wankhade (51, 33b,) and Shubham Dubey (43, 19b) led Vidarbha’s run glut.

Delhi also in last four

Anuj Rawat made a brutal unbeaten 73 off 33 balls as Delhi defeated Uttar Pradesh by 19 runs in their quarterfinal match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

They will face Madhya Pradesh in the semifinal on Friday.

Rawat’s innings powered Delhi to a healthy 193 for three after being asked to bat first. UP were bowled out for 174.

(With PTI Inputs)