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By K.R. Nayar From Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai Blunders don’t win matches. Lucknow Super Giants skipper Rishabh Pant won the toss on a hot and sunny afternoon and presented the Mumbai Indians the luxury of batting first. Thanking Pant, Mumbai’s star batters Ryan Rickelton hit 58 off 32 balls, and Suryakumar Yadav smashed 54 off 28 balls against bowlers who had to really sweat it out to get wickets. Rickelton and Yadav were backed by breezy knocks from Naman Dhir (25 off 11 balls) and Corbin Bosch (20 off 10 balls). Mumbai Indians posted a whopping total of 215 for 7 in 20 overs in the first day match of IPL 2025 at the Wankhede Stadium.   Bowling in the comfort of the cool evening, Mumbai restricted Lucknow to 161 and won by 54 runs. Jasprit Bumrah led Lucknow’s destruction   with a deadly spell of 4 for 22. He was supported by Trent Boult with three wickets and Will Jacks with two. This marked Mumbai’s 150th victory in the IPL — the first team in league history to achieve ...

By K.R. Nayar From Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai   Cricketers chase milestones. Cricket memorabilia collectors chase cricketers for autographs on the special collections they accumulate. Shyam Bhatia, a Dubai-based businessman, owns numerous special items used by legendary cricketers that are housed in his museum. He has created a huge poster featuring caricatures of all the ICC World Cup-winning captains along with their signatures. One of the missing signatures was that of Australian skipper Michael Clarke. During the ongoing IPL, he finally secured Clarke’s signature, completing his mission. Clarke, now one of the IPL commentators, was happy to sign for him. The poster autographed by all World Cup winning captains  Bhatia enjoys taking up such challenges. His passion for the game is so immense that he will go to any extent to achieve his goals. Some missions seemed impossible, yet he has succeeded time and again. I have personally witnessed many of these missions, all undertak...

By K.R. Nayar   From Mumbai  When cricketers live up to their names, the team they play for win matches and could potentially emerge as contenders for the championship. Mumbai Indians’ Rohit Sharma, Trent Boult, and Suryakumar Yadav have done just that. In their last encounter, they beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets to register their fourth straight win. As a result, Mumbai—once close to the bottom of the table—have now risen to third place.   While walking through the crowd en route to the press box, most Mumbai fans ahead of you are likely wearing the Rohit No. 45 jersey.  One wonders how this cricketer, whose well-timed hits for sixes that makes him a hit among fans, got named Ro-hit. Did his parents have a premonition? Rohit overtook his team’s batting coach Kieron Pollard as the player to hit most sixes for Mumbai Indians, taking his tally to 260 sixes - two more than his coach.   Rohit Sharma breaks his coach Kieron Pollard's IPL record...

By K.R. Nayar From Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai  It was sheer massacre of the Chennai Super Kings' attack by Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium. A packed crowd of 32,000 watched in awe as the cricket ball was transformed into rockets and shot all around the stadium. Rohit Sharma cracked an unbeaten 76 off 45 balls, packed with mighty and well-timed shots, while Suryakumar Yadav hammered 68 off just 30 balls with unbelievable, out-of-the-book strokes. They launched sixes that soared through the air and landed repeatedly in the stands amidst a roaring crowd, and their boundary shots flashed like lightning to the ropes.   Sharma’s 76 included six sixes and four boundaries, while Yadav’s 68 featured five sixes and six boundaries. This pair, who can be called the modern-day cricket’s assassins of bowlers, put on a 114-run partnership in just 54 balls to chase down Chennai’s challenging total of 176 for 5, winning by nine wickets and 26 balls remaining. They were together for ...

By K.R. Nayar From Mumbai   Listening to Rohit Sharma narrate his inspiring story was fascinating. Though I have followed this cricketer around the world reporting on his splendid performances and even witnessing him lift the 2024 T20 World Cup in Barbados and the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy in Dubai, the experience of hearing him recall his cricketing journey was unforgettable—just like some of his iconic knocks. Listening to his tale, especially in Mumbai, the city that nurtured him into a legend, made it even more special.   MCA President Ajinkya Naik receives Rohit Sharma. Photo by K.R. Nayar  The occasion was the launch of the T20 Mumbai League Season 3 by the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), where Sharma serves as the brand ambassador. Mumbai has always been blessed with great cricketers—be it Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Sachin Tendulkar, or Rohit Sharma—each inspiring through their remarkable legacy. With no shortage of legends, the MCA was spoiled for c...

By K.R. Nayar From Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai   Journalists are meant to share news, but during IPL 2025, I met a fellow journalist who also spreads fragrance in the press box. As soon as I sat down to report on the Mumbai Indians vs Sunrisers Hyderabad match at Wankhede Stadium on Thursday, an elderly gentleman came up to me with a yellow flower. It had such a lovely aroma that I kept sniffing at it repeatedly. What surprised me about him was that he was walking around, offering flowers to every journalist in the press box!   Subhash Harchekar ... spreading the fragrance of love and affection. Photos by K.R. Nayar   While he was moving from one desk to another, I asked the journalist next to me why he was doing this. He said that he does this during every IPL match at Wankhede as well as all international matches he reports on. This piqued my curiosity to know more about his gesture. On enquiring, I learned this journalist was Subhash Harchekar. He is 79 years old ...

By K.R. Nayar From Wankhede Stadium   Mumbai Indians played true to their anthem ‘Play Like Mumbai’, and their slogan ‘Duniya Hila Denge Hum’, which means ‘We will rock the world’, ensuring Sunrisers Hyderabad did not rise above them in a match held soon after sunset at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday. They won by four wickets with 11 balls to spare.   A police man guards the 'Play Like Mumbai ' banner at the Wankhede Stadium. Photo by K.R. Nayar   Mumbai Indians' fans had packed almost every seat in the 32,000-capacity stadium. With a strong will to win the match, Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya won the toss and elected to bowl. Will Jacks, through an all-round performance, transformed the will to win into reality on a sluggish wicket. He picked up two wickets and top-scored with 36 runs.   Former speedster Dale Steyn had predicted that the match would produce a total of over 300 runs. However, Sunrisers scored only 162 for 5, just a little over half...