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Virat Kohli walks up to Mayanti mid-celebrations; his stirring ‘touch the trophy' gesture leaves anchor misty-eyed

Virat Kohli walks up to Mayanti mid-celebrations; his stirring ‘touch the trophy' gesture leaves anchor misty-eyed

Hindustan Times04-06-2025
The IPL Trophy victory on Tuesday was not just for the Rajat Patidar-led side, which beat Punjab Kings by six runs at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, but for every player that has been part of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru outfit over the last 18 years - Virat Kohli did not just say it, he meant it. And his gesture for broadcaster Mayanti Langer, whose husband Stuart Binny was part of the RCB outfit the last time they reached the final, left her misty-eyed.
In a clip that went viral on social media, midway through the celebrations, as the RCB players were going around the ground with the title, Kohli was seen taking the trophy from the hands of Jitesh Sharma and walked over to Mayanti and told her, 'touch the trophy'. The gesture left her emotional.
Binny, a Bengaluru boy himself, who retired from all forms of cricket in 2021, was part of the RCB team for two seasons. In his debut campaign, in 2016, RCB reached the final, but was denied the honour after losing to Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Mayanti, too, has her connections to the city. Despite being originally from Delhi, she shifted her base to Bengaluru over a decade back. "I followed a boy to Bengaluru (laughs). When I met Stuart (cricketer Stuart Binny) and we started getting serious, we decided to stay together after we got engaged. That is how Bengaluru happened. I knew it was a long-term commitment; my husband got an apartment for us, and that is how I came to be here. I love the city, it has a charm about it," he had told Hindustan Times in an interview in 2021. "From Cubbon Park to Chinnaswamy Stadium, there are so many places that I've come to like, and we have a great group of friends here, so it feels like home," she added.
The Patidar-led team reached Bengaluru on Wednesday afternoon amid a roaring welcome from waiting fans, who lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the star-studded side. The state's Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, received the players at the airport.
The entire team will participate in a victory celebration at the Chinnaswamy Stadium at 5 PM. The celebration will begin with the much-anticipated open-top bus parade from Vidhana Soudha to the stadium.
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PBKS star Priyansh Arya speaks on debut IPL, second season of Delhi Premier League
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PBKS star Priyansh Arya speaks on debut IPL, second season of Delhi Premier League

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For Akash, the sky is the limit
For Akash, the sky is the limit

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time2 hours ago

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For Akash, the sky is the limit

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Then, out of the blue, he made it to the Bengal Under-23 team, followed by a place in the senior state side. After being a net bowler with Royal Challengers Bengaluru (then Bangalore) in 2021, he was bought by the franchise the following season for his base price, ₹20 lakh. That, in the mega auction in Jeddah last November, Lucknow Super Giants eventually shelled out ₹8 crore to enlist his services goes to show the strides he had made in the two years since his maiden IPL foray. Akash's Test debut – he hasn't represented the country in the two white-ball formats yet – was against England, in Ranchi, which is 300 kilometres from his birthplace. In a way, therefore, it was a homecoming of sorts. The same village where cricket was frowned upon when Akash was rolling his arm over as an early teenager was now agog that one of its own was representing the country in the most visible sport in India. How vindicated the young man must have felt. Akash had what is lazily conveniently termed a 'dream debut'. It started off in nightmarish fashion, though; barely had he started to celebrate breaching Zak Crawley's defences with his 11th ball in Test cricket when umpire Rod Tucker extended his right arm parallel to the ground upon TV umpire Joel Wilson's advice, indicating that the bowler had overstepped and therefore the wicket didn't count. It must have been a bitter blow but Akash dug deep – pardon the horrible pun – to redeem himself. In his next over, he dismissed Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope off successive deliveries. The opener was caught behind off a beautiful delivery that nibbled off the seam at the proverbial last second, the right-handed No. 3 was beaten on the inside-edge and adjudged leg before on India's review. Akash wasn't finished yet. With the penultimate ball of his sixth over, he bowled Crawley for the second time in an hour, once again hitting the top of the off-stump after sneaking the in-cutter past the right-hander's inside edge. What drama, what theatre! Those were to be Akash's only successes in his first Test appearance. India didn't need him to bowl in the second innings with R. Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav sharing nine wickets. But what a wonderful debut it turned out to be. History repeats itself Akash only earned his Test cap because a certain Jasprit Bumrah was rested after playing the first three Tests of that series. Now, a year and a half later, history has repeated itself. His comeback to the Test arena after a back spasm ruled him out of the final Test in Australia in Sydney in January must have stirred a sense of déjà vu because here he was at Edgbaston, playing only because Bumrah was given the game off following his exertions during the five-wicket defeat at Headingley. Akash could either look at it as a massive and onerous task, stepping into the breach filled by Bumrah's unpluggable absence, or as a huge opportunity to do something for his side. It was no surprise that he went for the latter option. 'I took this as an opportunity,' he reveals. 'If you take pressure, you won't be able to perform. You are playing for the country and there can be no greater privilege than that. I never look at any situation as pressure-filled; I take it as an opportunity and a responsibility.' Even with Bumrah in their midst, India couldn't stop England from rattling up 371 in the fourth innings in Leeds. 350 of those runs came on the final day, when the champion pacer ended up without a wicket. There were apprehensions in several quarters about what the fate of the Indian bowling would be without Bumrah, about where the wickets would come from. 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Akash provided India with the early impetus in the England first innings on Thursday when he dismissed Duckett and Pope, first-ball, in his second over. Sounds familiar? Duckett, then Pope for a golden duck? Shades of Ranchi, anyone? We did say déjà vu, after all. He was far from done, though. England counter-punched through Brook and Jamie Smith after slumping to 84 for five, the two right-handers sending India on a leather-hunt by adding 303. As the Duke's lost its newness and its hardness, wicket-taking became practically impossible, staunching the bleeding an onerous task. Shubman Gill was banking on the second new ball, and Siraj and Akash, to snap the alliance and give his team a handy lead. His two pace bowlers didn't disappoint. Siraj ripped out the tail, cleaning up Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue and Shoaib Bashir for ducks – together, they lasted a mere eight deliveries – but it was Akash who had provided the opening with a wicked, trademark weapon in the third over with the new ball. Like he had done in Ranchi, he produced a signature in-ducker that snaked back a mile, beat a batter on 158 all ends up and pegged his off pole back. It had taken a special ball to end a special innings from Brook, and Siraj drew inspiration from that moment of magic to run through the last three. Akash's four for 88 was numerically inferior to his senior partner's six-wicket haul, but in terms of impact and effect, it was in the same league, at the very least. But Akash was not yet done. Far from it. Concerns abounded that India hadn't given themselves enough time to bowl England out when they extended their second innings to 427 for six, an overall lead of 607. Had they been too conservative? Were they in such awe of England's attacking prowess that they were willing to court a draw to rule out any chance of defeat? Fear not, the two new-ball bowlers said. Late on the fourth evening, Siraj drew first blood, ending a forgettable Test for Crawley by having him caught for England's seventh blob of the match. Duckett was enterprising as ever when Akash stepped in, with a ball of indeterminate length – play forward or back was the left-hander's dilemma – that snaked into the off-stump via the inside-edge. But the coup de grace was still a few minutes away. Illustrating what Morkel said, Akash went wide of the crease and angled a ball in towards Joe Root, England's most accomplished batter. The No. 4 did nothing wrong, playing the line of the ball which – horror, horror – didn't come in on pitching but straightened a touch to curve around his outside edge and rattle timber. It was a ball of the same quality as the one that had evicted Brook in the first innings, right out of the top drawer, reducing a high-class batter to a blubbering wreck. Akash Deep, he sure can bowl. Akash has made sure that even when Bumrah returns at Lord's, he will keep his place in the XI. The trick for him will be to remain injury-free, to build on the gains of Edgbaston and emerge from this series in a month's time as a more rounded and complete bowler. After that, well, who knows what the limit is.

2nd Test: Shubman Gill, Akash Deep Set Up Famous Win For India Against England At Edgbaston
2nd Test: Shubman Gill, Akash Deep Set Up Famous Win For India Against England At Edgbaston

NDTV

time3 hours ago

  • NDTV

2nd Test: Shubman Gill, Akash Deep Set Up Famous Win For India Against England At Edgbaston

An unheralded Akash Deep, hailing from Bihar's Sasaram, owned the big stage like never before in the absence of an iconic Jasprit Bumrah as Shubman Gill's young India's broke 58-year-old 'Edgbaston Jinx' thrashing England by 336 runs to level the five-Test series 1-1. The 28-year-old Akash Deep took a match-haul of 10 wickets, including his maiden five-for -- 6/99 in England second innings with the hosts getting all-out for 271 in pursuit of an improbable 608. If Gill, with his magnificent batting (269 and 161) set it up, Akash deserves equal credit for his lion-hearted effort on a track which was primarily a bowler's graveyard. The rain delayed the start of the day by an hour and 40 minutes, reducing the day's quota of overs to 80 with England resuming their second innings at 72 for three chasing a near impossible 608. If Mohammed Siraj (7 wickets and catches) bowled like the leader of the attack in the first innings, Akash Deep built on his first innings gains to strike twice with new ball early on day five. Once not having enough opportunities in a non-descript town in Bihar, the journey hasn't been a bed of roses for the son of a government school teacher, who would survive on pocket money earned by playing tennis ball cricket before scouts in Bengal saw his potential and fast tracked him into the age-group system seven years back. He played his debut first-class game for Bengal during Christmas in 2019. In less than six years, his sharp incutters from length that fooled Joe Root, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope and Harry Brook didn't let his skipper miss the peerless Bumrah. For England, Jamie Smith (88) fought a lonely battle before being dismissed by a slow bouncer from Akash, giving the medium pacer his first five-wicket haul in Test cricket. Fittingly, Akash got the final wicket of the game to complete a match haul of 10/187. The other star performer, Gill, pouched the catch at cover, leading to an animated celebration of his first success as Test captain. England also felt the pressure from Indian spinners duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, who got the ball to drift and straighten. After losing the series opener at Leeds from an 'unlosable' position, Gill-led India made an admirable comeback at the back of the captain's record breaking 430 runs in the match and the showing of Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj, who both got the new ball to talk on a flat surface. In Jasprit Bumrah's absence, not much was expected from the Indian pace attack but Siraj and Akash Deep changed the perception with match turning spells in either innings. The Edgbaston authorities had slashed the ticket prices for the final from a minimum of GBP 90 to 25. For the first time in the game, the Indians outnumbered the England supporters and eventually got their money's worth The third Test begins at Lord's in four days' time and India seem to have most bases covered with bowlers complementing the batters here. Bumrah will be back and Akash Deep, who attacks the stumps from good length, would be looking forward to run in down the hill from the Pavillion End at the iconic Lord's. India were on course for a series-levelling win after Akash Deep struck twice to leave England on 153 for six at lunch. Washington Sundar had Ben Stokes leg before wicket at the stroke of lunch to matters worse for the opposition. On a typical English weather day when heavy cloud cover and subsequent rain made way for bright sunshine, the start was delayed by one hour and 40 minutes. Prasidh Krishna opened the bowling alongside Akash Deep, who was the stand out bowler of the session. For the first time in the high-scoring game, the wicket appeared to have deteriorated a bit with Akash getting a prodigious amount of seam movement. It was a tad surprising that Mohammed Siraj did not start alongside Akash. Having said that, Akash Deep needed seven balls to provide the breakthrough in the opening hour as Ollie Pope played one on to his stumps. In the following over from Akash, the dangerous Harry Brook was trapped in front with a delivery that hit the crack and seamed back in sharply. Brook could not do much about that. It can be assumed that the medium pacer has sealed his place for the Lord's Test with a stellar use of the new ball at Edgbaston. Krishna from the other end could not strike but performed the holding role effectively. Ravindra Jadeja was brought in after the first hour of and he got the ball to turn from the rough instantly, posing problems for Ben Stokes and Jamie Smith. Unlike Headingley, Jadeja tried to take some pace off his deliveries and it did turn off the rough. The England captain however was able to get some much needed runs. He got four boundaries off Siraj including from a pull and extra cover drive off Siraj. Realising that there was little point in just defending, Stokes decided to sweep Jadeja. Going into day five, either an India win or draw were probable results with England effectively conceding that there were not going to go for the mammoth target despite only drawing one game in the last three years.

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