Billed as a family affair, with Sarfaraz Khan leading Aakash Tigers Mumbai Western Suburbs against younger brother Musheer Khan’s ARCS Andheri, left-arm pacer Ankur Singh stole the spotlight as Tigers kept their qualification hopes alive with a thrilling seven-run victory in a T20 Mumbai cricket league match on Sunday (June 7, 2026).

For long periods of the chase, ARCS Andheri appeared firmly in control. Powered by Prasad Pawar’s composed half-century (54, 39b, 3×4, 2×6), the Andheri outfit looked set to chase down 172 comfortably.

With Pawar and captain Shivam Dube at the crease, Andheri required 47 runs from the last five overs and seemed to have momentum firmly on its side.

The turnaround began when Dube attempted to take on Ankur. After being struck for a four and a six in the 16th over, the left-arm pacer had the last laugh, forcing Dube to top-edge towards third man where Akash Anand completed a running catch.

Even then with 16 needed from the final two overs with four wickets intact, the equation favoured the chasing side. But left-arm spinner Vinayak Bhoir swung the momentum decisively when he removed the well-set Pawar, whose attempted reverse sweep proved costly.

That left Ankur with 10 runs to defend in the final over. The pacer held his nerve brilliantly, dismissing two lower-order batters while refusing to concede a boundary before the last batter was run out off the final delivery to seal a dramatic win for Tigers.

While the men’s competition delivered late drama, the morning fixture in the T20 Women’s League proved a lop-sided affair as SoBo Mumbai Falcons maintained its unbeaten start with a comfortable 39-run victory against Aakash Tigers.

The scores: Aakash Tigers MWS 171/6 in 20 overs (Ajit Yadav 55, Jay Bista 35, Ajay Mishra 2/18) bt ARCS Andheri 164 in 20 overs (Prasad Pawar 54, Ayush Jethwa 36, Ankur Singh 4/39, Shams Mulani 2/30).

Triumph Knights MNE 147/8 in 20 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 48, Nutan Goel 34, Prathamesh Dake 4/30) lost to SoBo Mumbai Falcons 149/5 in 16.4 overs (Shreyas Iyer 61).

Women’s League: SoBo Mumbai Falcons 143/7 in 20 overs (Sarika Koli 49, Simran Shaikh 38, Fatima Jaffar 3/20) bt Aakash Tigers MWS 104 in 18.2 overs (Sanika Chalke 42, Swara Jadhav 2/12, Sayali Satghare 2/21, Nirmiti Rane 2/21).

Shreyas Iyer picked the perfect evening to score his maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) ton as he powered Punjab Kings to a comfortable seven-wicket win over the Lucknow Super Giants.

“He’s a tremendous leader of many. He reads the game well,” said PBKS assistant coach Brad Haddin after the game.

“There are two main things that I think I enjoy most about him. One is his care for his players, and the other is his appetite for the big moment. He’s seen that tonight. He wanted to be the one to make the difference, and that’s what you want from your leaders, whether it’s for the IPL or for your country,” added the 48-year-old.

Haddin emphasised that the team’s overall execution in high-pressure situations has been a major focus behind the scenes.

“I think as any coaching staff, you have to identify moments where you need to get better, and that’s what we’ve done. A lot of the games we lost went to the last over and a couple to the last ball where we were close, but we probably weren’t identifying those big moments,” he said.

Lucknow Super Giants’ captain Rishabh Pant in action during the Tata Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 Twenty20 cricket match against Punjab Kings at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow on May 23, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
SHASHI SHEKHAR KASHYAP

While one captain delivered when it mattered, his counterpart, Rishabh Pant, had little to show for his efforts — either on Saturday (May 23, 2026) or across a grueling season.

LSG’s Global Director of Cricket, Tom Moody, felt his captaincy and batting are correlated. “From a captaincy point of view, he’s found it challenging, obviously, and the results reflect that. And you have to wonder whether that is a pressure that is reflected with his performance with the bat,” he said.

“And certainly when it comes to the leadership of the franchise, it’s something that we’ll be giving some very serious consideration to what it looks like in the future,” he added.

Even before the final round of league-stage matches began, Sunday (May 25, 2026) afternoon’s fixture at the Wankhede Stadium had already emerged as the most consequential contest of the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) business end.

Of the five teams that were still in contention for the lone remaining playoffs spot, Rajasthan Royals is the only side with its fate firmly in its own hands.

Adding to the intrigue is the maiden appearance of teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi at the Wankhede — that too in front of nearly 19,000 schoolchildren attending as part of Mumbai Indians owners’ Education and Sports For All initiative. For perhaps the first time at the venue, the Royals could find themselves enjoying overwhelming crowd support.

The equation for Rajasthan Royals is straightforward: win and qualify. But the challenge is anything but simple.

The Royals management will anxiously monitor the fitness of captain Riyan Parag and veteran allrounder Ravindra Jadeja. Yet, even in their absence, stand-in skipper Yashasvi Jaiswal marshalled the side impressively before Sooryavanshi’s explosive innings against Lucknow Super Giants earlier this week kept RR’s campaign alive.

Rajasthan will once again bank on the youthful duo of Sooryavanshi and Jaiswal — returning to his alma mater — while hoping Jofra Archer continues his fine rhythm with the ball.

Mumbai Indians’ Suryakumar Yadav during a practice session ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 T20 cricket match against Rajasthan Royals, in Mumbai, Maharashtra, Saturday, May 23, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
PTI

But facing Mumbai Indians with nothing to lose can often be a dangerous proposition. After an underwhelming season, the home side will be desperate to sign off on a winning note. It will be interesting to see if Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya — the duo that has had a lacklustre season — end it on a high.

Will Mumbai Indians play disruptor-in-chief? Or will Rajasthan Royals seal the playoffs berth and render the final league game in Kolkata irrelevant?

As the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) most expensive overseas recruit ever at ₹25.2 crore, Australia’s Cameron Green had many more eyeballs fixed on his exploits for Kolkata Knight Riders this season.

A patchy start to the tournament, coupled with KKR’s streak of losses, meant Green was in the firing line, but the all-rounder from Perth — an imposing presence at 6’6” — has got better as the competition has progressed.

The 26-year-old has contributed 232 runs and four wickets in 10 matches for the three-time champion. While he would have certainly liked to make more of an impact, he hasn’t felt any additional pressure because of his price tag.

“The support staff never put any pressure on me. They have been awesome to me since day one. I was never made to feel that there was any extra pressure compared to anyone else,” Green said after Knight Riders defeated Delhi Capitals on Friday (May 8, 2026).

“There’s always pressure on the international guys. You have to be performing at all times because the guys on the bench are also ready to go. But, no, I’ll probably have the support staff to thank for that.”

KKR’s hopes of reaching the playoffs appeared derailed when it went winless in its first six matches. Now, a run of four victories on the trot has given Ajinkya Rahane and Co. a fresh lease of life. Asked for his view on the resurgence, Green argued that the belief was always intact.

“I didn’t think the belief was ever gone. We’ve had a really good culture this whole tournament,” he opined.

Comfort has eluded Delhi Capitals at home in IPL’s 19th edition. The Axar Patel-led franchise has won just one out of five matches at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. On its visits to other venues, it has fared much better, notching up three wins in five games.

Contributing to the travails at home has been the large deviation in the nature of surfaces, hindering DC from cultivating a consistent style of play in its backyard.

The last three matches in the national capital make for pertinent examples. Having engaged in a run-fest against Punjab Kings on a featherbed where Shreyas Iyer’s side chased down a record 265 on April 25, 2026, Capitals’ duel against Royal Challengers Bengaluru just two days later swung to the other extreme.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood extracted swing and seam movement, reducing the host to eight for six inside four overs. DC folded up for 75 and lost by nine wickets.

On Tuesday (May 5, 2026) night, the strip in use was on the slower side. DC’s batters couldn’t adapt quickly enough, allowing Chennai Super Kings to register an eight-wicket victory.

DC head coach Hemang Badani conceded that the lack of homogeneity with the pitches at home wasn’t ideal. At the same time, the 49-year-old explicitly stated that the franchises didn’t have a role in the preparation of pitches.

“We don’t have any control over the surfaces. There is a clear mandate from the BCCI that it looks after the surfaces and it is the one which ensures that no local side benefits. You play on what is presented to you,” Badani told reporters.

“Yes, it’s been a bit of an up-and-down curve for us to understand what we are going to get in Delhi. I think the whole competition is quite neutral that way. But ideally, yes, you want to have some consistency.”

The adage ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ stands true for Anshul Kamboj and his emergence as a bankable death-bowler.

From bowling just three deliveries in overs 16 to 20 in his first two IPL seasons to being the first to take 10 wickets in that phase in the 2026 edition, Kamboj’s evolution has come at the right time for Chennai Super Kings.

Twenty-four days after launching its Men’s T20 World Cup title defence with a scratchy win over the United States, Suryakumar Yadav’s men returned to the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday night — this time with a semifinal against England looming large.

As the Indian squad went through its fielding drills under lights, the curators quietly covered the 22-yard strip that will dictate fortunes on Thursday. Two days out, the surface wore a greener look than is customary at the Wankhede — even by First-Class standards, let alone a T20 International.

With temperatures climbing steadily over the past fortnight, the decision to retain a healthy grass cover was understandable, a protective measure to prevent the pitch from drying out and breaking up. The pertinent question now is how much of that grass will be shaved off before match time.

Interestingly, while head coach Gautam Gambhir took a close look at the strip before it was covered, none of the Indian players ambled across to inspect it. Perhaps they are content to wait until match day, drawing cues from the two fixtures already played on this surface earlier in the tournament.

The red-soiled surface slated for Thursday’s semifinal was used for England’s clash against West Indies on February 11 and the Italy-Nepal game the following day. On both occasions, it offered assistance to spinners, particularly as the games progressed. Yet, much has changed since then — not least the weather and the stakes.

India’s preference for truer, flatter decks has been indulged through the Super Eights. Whether that pattern continues at the semifinal stage remains to be seen. For now, beneath the covers and the coastal humidity, the Wankhede strip holds its secrets close — waiting to reveal them on the biggest night of India’s campaign.

The ability to generate pace and bounce is Marco Jansen’s natural gift, but the 6.8-feet-tall pacer’s subtler variations are a result of improvisation and relentless training.

Jansen dug deep into his bag of tricks and pulled out a delivery that he developed on his own to take the sting out of New Zealand’s innings in their T20 World Cup contest on Saturday (February 14, 2026). On the face of it, it was a slower delivery that induced Mark Chapman’s leading edge to the backward point fielder.

“It is not a knuckleball, but it is not a back-of-the-hand palm ball either. It is a mixture of the two. If I bowl the knuckleball, you can see my knuckles. So, I specialised my own version,” Jansen said.

“For me, it was about getting another ball in my arsenal, so I would not get hit for a six.”

Necessity is indeed the mother of invention.

Format, opposition, conditions — nothing seems to matter to R. Smaran in his current vein of form. The Karnataka batter continued his prolific run with a career-best 67 (41b, 7×4, 2×6) — his second T20 fifty — to set up a successful chase of 198 against Uttarakhand in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy tournament here on Wednesday. Karnataka got home with five wickets to spare.

Smaran later reflected that coming into the tournament on the back of a heavy run-scoring Ranji season helps, allowing him to “carry over the confidence” and have a positive start to the campaign.

The 22-year-old explained that his role in the T20 setup is “very simple” — “to take the game deep and finish things off.”

Karnataka’s Smaran in action during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy cricket match against Uttarakhand at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, Gujarat on Wednesday, November 26, 2025.
| Photo Credit:
VIJAY SONEJI

A compact, clean-hitting batter, Smaran is especially strong against spin, using his long levers to access both sides of the wicket. He displayed it against leg-spinner Himanshu Bish, launching two towering sixes down the ground. There were no funky strokes in his knock — just pure, orthodox ball-striking.

“You need to get your basics right in order to get those big hits. But I think I’m not a guy who can straight away go in and get those big hits. That is something I’m trying to work on — to get going from ball one,” he said.

He added that he’s been working on playing the reverse sweep. “Both point and short third will be in (inside the circle) for the spinners. And I think if you get that shot right, it straightaway puts pressure on the bowler.”