Ishan Kishan, bowlers fashion SRH's 42-run win over RCB in IPL
Lucknow, May 23 (PTI): Royal Challengers Bengaluru squandered a golden chance to finish inside the top two of the IPL points table, going down to Ishan Kishan-fuelled Sunrisers Hyderabad by 42 runs here on Friday.
As a result of this heavy defeat, Royal Challengers (17 points) have slid down to third on the table behind Gujarat Titans (18) and Punjab Kings (17). The Net Run Rate (NRR) also took a significant beating.
Once they were asked to chase an imposing 232, which the SRH set after Kishan made a stunning unbeaten 94 off 48 balls, RCB required some calculated assault on the target.
They mounted it through Phil Salt (62, 32b, 4xx, 5x6), Virat Kohli (43, 25b, 7x4, 1x6) and Jitesh Sharma (24, 15b), but could only amass 189 before getting bundled out, and it was RCB's first defeat away from home this season.
But the beginning of RCB's chase offered a different tale, as Kohli and Salt sprinted to 80 runs in just 7 overs.
Kohli, who had recently retired from Test cricket, was the chief aggressor, clattering pacers Harshal Patel for two fours and Eshan Malinga for a swatted six over mid-wicket.
But the veteran fell to an old nemesis — left-arm spin —for the 22nd time in his storied T20 career, this time to 22-year-old Harsh Dubey, the highest wicket-taker in 2024-25 Ranji Trophy season for champions Vidarbha.
However, Salt, who made 14 off his first 12 balls, found his depth at the right time, smashing 48 runs in the next 20 balls, and a tennis-style forehand six off Nitish Kumar Reddy was just stunning in its execution.
Salt raced to fifty in 27 balls but cramps curtailed his movements, and soon perished to Pat Cummins.
But on a rather smooth pitch, the RCB batters kept on finding regular boundaries to keep the asking rate from escalating.
Skipper Rajat Patidar (18) and Jitesh Sharma (24) added 44 quick runs for the fourth wicket to take RCB to 173 for three in the 16th over.
But a horrible mid-pitch between them saw Patidar getting run out by a couple of miles, and in the same over Malinga jettisoned big-hitting Romario Shepherd for a first-ball duck.
Jitesh perished to Unadkat and Tim David, who appears to have suffered a hamstring injury, in the space of nine deliveries as the fight soon ebbed out of the Royal Challengers.
In fact, the Bengaluru side lost the last seven wickets for 60 runs as Cummins (3/28) and Malinga (2/37) led SRH's bowling charge.
Earlier, the Hyderabad side went ballistic from the beginning through usual suspects — Abhishek Sharma (34, 17b) and Travis Head (17, 10b) before Kishan found his range during his 48-ball knock studded with seven fours and five sixes.
The famed 'Travi-shek' added 54 runs in just four overs, as the left-handers blitzed RCB new ball bowlers Yash Dayal and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Bhuvneshwar conceded 18 runs in the second over as Head hammered him for a boundary, followed by a six and another four by Abhishek.
But soon, Abhishek flicked Lungi Ngidi straight into the waiting hands of Salt at square leg as the innings that played at a strike-rate of 200 came to an end.
Head too did not last long as the Aussie lobbed a knuckle ball from Bhuvneshwar to Shepherd near the circle.
It soon transpired into a trend as SRH batters, except Kishan, engaged in mindless aggression to squander their starts. But Kishan was a constant amidst all these fumbling, playing with a sensible head.
The left-handed power-hitter has been off-colour after a century in the initial part of the IPL, but showed glimpses of his destructive powers in this innings.
He never overdid things like some of his colleagues, and the measured six off Bhuvneshwar in the last ball of the 18th over was a treat to watch as he galloped to his first fifty in 10 innings in 28 balls.
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Traffic fraud: Fake 'no-entry' sticker racket busted in Delhi, mastermind among 3 held
New Delhi (PTI): Police here have busted a crime syndicate involved in traffic fraud and extortion, arresting three people including the alleged mastermind who sold fake stickers to help commercial vehicles bypass no-entry restrictions, an official said on Saturday.
The police said they dismantled a third organised syndicate linked to traffic-related frauds, with the arrest of Rinku Rana alias Bhushan, his associate Sonu Sharma and Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, who was also connected to another extortion syndicate.
According to the police, Rinku Rana was running a well-organised network that facilitated the movement of commercial goods vehicles during restricted hours by selling fake 'marka' or stickers for Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per vehicle every month. The stickers were falsely projected as authorisation to evade traffic challans.
During raids, the police recovered Rs 31 lakh in cash, property documents worth several crores of rupees, over 500 fake stickers and six mobile phones allegedly used to operate the syndicate.
The crackdown followed a complaint filed by a traffic police officer in April this year after a commercial vehicle tried to evade checking by producing a fake sticker claiming exemption from enforcement action.
Investigation revealed that social media groups were being used to coordinate the illegal movement of vehicles and alert drivers about traffic police checkpoints, police said.
"A parallel system was being run to cheat drivers and vehicle owners while undermining traffic enforcement. On the basis of evidence, provisions related to organised crime under the BNS were invoked," a senior police officer said.
Sonu Sharma, the police said, managed social media groups through which stickers were sold and real-time alerts were circulated regarding traffic police movement. He also acted as a link between Rana and drivers operating in the field.
In a related development, Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, an associate of Rajkumar alias Raju Meena, who was earlier arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), was also apprehended.
Mukesh allegedly helped extort money from transporters and was involved in blackmailing traffic police personnel by recording enforcement actions, the police said.
Investigators alleged the syndicate led by Rajkumar deployed drivers to deliberately violate traffic rules and secretly record police officials during challans, later using manipulated videos to extort money under threat of false allegations.
The police said that in total, eight accused belonging to three different organised crime syndicates linked to traffic frauds and extortion have been arrested so far.
Further investigation is underway to trace the remaining members, conduct financial probes, and analyse digital evidence recovered during the raids, officials added.
