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India on Monday celebrated captain Rohit Sharma’s return to form after a match-winning ODI century against England on the eve of the Champions Trophy.Rohit slammed his 32nd one-day ton to lead India to a series-clinching victory in the second match against the visitors on Sunday following months of speculation over his future.”The Hitman Returns,” the Times of India newspaper triumphantly declared.The 37-year-old opener struggled in the 3-1 Test loss in Australia last month and was not involved in the final match because of poor form.He got out for two in the ODI opener but regained his mojo in Cuttack to hit 119 off 90 balls in a knock of 12 fours and seven sixes.”The good thing is that before an important tournament like the Champions Trophy, scoring a hundred is a huge boost,” spinner Ravindra Jadeja said after the four-wicket win over England.”It’s great for the team, and obviously, he himself knows his game well.”India will begin their Champions Trophy campaign against Bangladesh on February 20 before a blockbuster clash against arch-rivals Pakistan in Dubai three days later.The captain displayed an array of strokes with flicks, drives and his trademark pull to steer India’s chase of 305, won with 33 balls to spare.Rohit scored just 31 runs in three Tests against Australia and averaged 10.37 across formats in his previous 16 innings before the current series.He quit T20 internationals after leading India to World Cup glory last year but the lean patch raised doubts over his future in ODIs and Tests. “Every time I walk on the pitch I want to try and do well,” Rohit said in a video posted on the Indian cricket board’s website.”Sometimes it happens, sometimes it may not happen.”He added: “That mindset of how to get runs, how to score runs sounds very simple, but it is quite difficult.”Rohit is 13 short of 11,000 ODI runs ahead of Wednesday’s final match against England in Ahmedabad.Star batsman Virat Kohli has also been under fire for underperforming and after missing the series opener due to a sore right knee, got out for five on Sunday.

Skipper Rohit Sharma defied a floodlight failure to return to form with a cracking 119 as India swept to a four-wicket, series-clinching win over England in the second one-day international on Sunday.Chasing 305 for victory, Rohit’s 90-ball knock, laced with 12 fours and seven sixes, set up the chase as India achieved victory with 33 balls to spare in Cuttack.The hosts took an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-match series, which comes ahead of the 50-over Champions Trophy starting February 19 in Pakistan and Dubai.Rohit, 37, reigned supreme with his 32nd ODI ton in 76 balls with a six off leg-spinner Adil Rashid after he put on 136 runs with opening partner Shubman Gill.”It was good, really enjoyed being out there, scoring some runs for the team,” Rohit said after being named player of the match in his 50th ODI as captain of India.On his batting plans, Rohit said, “I broke it into pieces how I wanted to bat. It’s a format that is longer than T20 cricket and a lot shorter than Tests. Still, you need to assess and bat according to the situation.”Rohit, who scored two in the opening match, took on the bowlers with a flurry of boundaries.A 20-minute break due to a floodlight failure at the ground did not stop Rohit, who reached his fifty to overcome a lean patch in India’s recent Test series defeat in Australia.He averaged just 10.37 in his previous 16 innings before the ODI series across all formats in the 2024-25 season.Rohit, who displayed an array of strokes including his trademark pull, finally fell to Liam Livingstone’s leg-spin and walked off to a standing ovation.Vice-captain Gill, who made 60, struck his second successive half-century in 45 balls after he made 87 in the opening win.- Kohli flops -Jamie Overton took down Gill and India lost Virat Kohli, who missed the opener due to a sore right knee, caught behind for five off Rashid.India stuttered in the middle but Shreyas Iyer’s 44 and an unbeaten 41 by Axar Patel steered the team home.Earlier Ben Duckett and Joe Root stood out for England with scores of 65 and 69 to help their team to 304 all out in 49.5 overs.Indian spinner Ravindra Jadeja returned figures of 3-35.The left-handed Duckett came out firing and put on 81 with opening partner Phil Salt, who made 26.Duckett reached his 50 off 36 balls before Salt became debutant spinner Varun Chakravarthy’s first ODI wicket.Duckett was dismissed by by left-arm spinner Jadeja, dropping to his knees in disappointment.Harry Brook joined Root, who played his second ODI since his return to the format after the 2023 World Cup, and the two rebuilt the innings in a 66-run third-wicket stand.Fast bowler Harshit Rana sent Brook back for 31, with Gill taking a stunning catch running backwards from mid-on.Root stood firm and put on 51 with skipper Jos Buttler before England lost three quick wickets, but Livingstone’s 41 boosted the total.”We played the powerplay brilliant, we needed someone to kick on and a score around 330-350 would have been defendable,” said Buttler.On the final match in Ahmedabad on Wednesday and the following Champions Trophy plans, Buttler said, “Just keep making steps in the right direction, the results are not there but we need to keep going and be positive.”Brief scores:England 304 all out in 49.5 overs (J. Root 69, B. Duckett 65, L. Livingstone 41; R. Jadeja 3-35) v India 308-6 in 44.3 overs (R. Sharma 119, S. Gill 60, S. Iyer 44, A. Patel 41 not out; J. Overton 2-27)Result: India won by four wicketsToss: EnglandSeries: India lead the three-match series 2-0

Opener Ben Duckett and Joe Root hit half-centuries to help England reach 304 all out in the second one-day international against India on Sunday as they look to keep the series alive.England opted to bat first at Cuttack in a match where star India batsman Virat Kohli returned to the team after he missed the opener won by the hosts.The three-match ODI series comes ahead of the 50-over Champions Trophy tournament starting in Pakistan and Dubai on February 19.Duckett smashed 65 off 56 balls, and Root hit 69, before Liam Livingstone’s 41 took the total past 300. However, three run outs in the final two overs saw England bowled out in 49.5 overs.Indian spinner Ravindra Jadeja returned figures of 3-35 from his 10 overs.The left-handed Duckett came out firing and put on 81 runs with opening partner Phil Salt, who made 26.Salt survived a reprieve on six, when Axar Patel dropped a simple catch at deep backward point off fast bowler Hardik Pandya.Duckett reached his 50 off 36 balls before Salt became debutant spinner Varun Chakravarthy’s first ODI wicket.Duckett looked solid but went for an ambitious heave off left-arm spinner Jadeja and was caught at long-on, dropping to his knees in disappointment.Harry Brook joined Root, who is playing his second ODI since his return to the format after the 2023 World Cup, and the two rebuilt the innings in a 66-run third-wicket stand.Fast bowler Harshit Rana sent Brook back on 31, with vice-captain Shubman Gill taking a stunning catch running backwards from mid-on.Root stood firm and put on 51 runs with skipper Jos Buttler before England lost three quick wickets.Pandya removed Buttler for 34 and then Root and Jamie Overton both fell to Jadeja as England slipped to 258-6.Batting all-rounder Livingstone hit two fours and two sixes in his 32-ball knock and put on a key stand with number nine Adil Rashid, who hit 14 off five balls.India need 305 to clinch the series.Brief scores:England 304 all out in 49.5 overs (B. Duckett 65, J. Root 69, L. Livingstone 41; R. Jadeja 3-35) v IndiaToss: England

The Dalai Lama led prayers in India on Sunday mourning the loss of his elder brother, a veteran leader of the exiled Tibetan people, who has died aged 97.Gyalo Thondup was born in 1928, more than three decades before the 1959 revolt in Lhasa against Chinese forces, whose crushing forced the Dalai Lama across snowy Himalayan passes into India.He later led the Tibetan government in exile as chairman of its “Kashag” or cabinet in the early 1990s, and was the personal emissary of the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama, speaking Sunday in prayers at the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in southern India, said elder brother “did his best, and was very dedicated and brave”.The spiritual leader offered prayers “for the fulfilment of the deceased’s wish to be able to work closely with the Dalai Lama for the Tibetan cause in all his future lives”.Thondup died in India on Saturday evening.The fading generation of Tibet leaders — especially those who can remember what their homeland was like before the 1959 uprising — raises worries amongst many in the diaspora for the future. The 89-year-old Dalai Lama says he has decades yet to live, but Tibetans who have followed him abroad are bracing for an inevitable time without him.China says Tibet is an integral part of the country, and many exiled Tibetans fear Beijing will name a rival successor to the Dalai Lama, bolstering control over a land it poured troops into in 1950.- ‘The world is changing’ -Tibet has alternated over the centuries between independence and control by China, which says it “peacefully liberated” the rugged plateau and brought infrastructure and education.The International Campaign for Tibet group said Thondup was the “point person to take up the Tibetan issue internationally” after the Lhasa uprising.He was also key among those who reached out to the CIA for supplies to a 2,000-strong force to launch guerrilla attacks against Chinese forces as a Cold War proxy.During the 1960s they snuck into Tibet from Nepal’s mountainous kingdom of Mustang to lay ambushes, including blowing up Chinese army trucks.But after the CIA cut funding, and the Dalai Lama in 1974 urged fighters to lay down arms, the fighters and Thondup followed his call for a peaceful solution.Thondup, speaking in 2008, is quoted as saying that he hoped China would take a more “reasonable approach and treat us equally”.Despite little sign of policy shifts from Beijing, including rounds of negotiations in which he had a major role, he said he had not lost hope for a peaceful resolution.”Have you ever dreamed? China is changing, the world is changing,” he said. “I’m quite optimistic”.

Sri Lanka’s Dimuth Karunaratne said Sunday it had been “a very emotional day” after his 100th and final Test ended with a defeat to Australia.The veteran opening batsman Karunaratne was given the honour of bowling the final few balls as Australia wrapped up a nine-wicket win and series sweep before lunch on the fourth day in Galle.”It has been a long career — after my family and friends, I was spending most time with my teammates,” he said.”I am leaving them, but this team will be always in my heart.”The 36-year-old former skipper was a rock at the top of the Sri Lankan order for more than a decade, but had gone 25 innings without a century.He had announced before the second Test in Galle that it would be his farewell to the five-day game.”When I started my cricket, I just wanted to play one Test match,” he said. “To go on to play 100 Tests was amazing. Playing cricket for so long has been a privilege”.Renowned for his cool head and affable nature, Karunaratne also proved a shrewd leader.Taking over the captaincy at a turbulent time in 2019, he led Sri Lanka to a historic series win in South Africa. To this day, Sri Lanka remain the only Asian team to conquer the Proteas in their own backyard.Karunaratne relinquished the captaincy in 2023, saying it was time for younger cricketers to lead.He said that after a playing career with “lots of happy memories” he now wanted to spend time with his family, and move into coaching.”I intend to take up coaching,” he said Sunday. “I want to get qualified … I will start coaching either here or overseas.

Australia wrapped up a dominant 2-0 sweep of the Test series against Sri Lanka at Galle on Sunday, romping to a nine-wicket victory before lunch on day four.Set a modest target of 75 to win, Australia lost only Travis Head as they stormed to a commanding victory in a ruthless display from the world’s top-ranked Test side.Head and Usman Khawaja put on 38 for the first wicket, looking at ease on a turning wicket.Prabath Jayasuriya removed Head, caught behind but Marnus Labuschagne with 26 and Khawaja, 27, knocked off the runs.With three runs required for the win, Dimuth Karunaratne, playing his 100th and final Test match, was called up to bowl.Labuschagne flicked his third delivery to midwicket to level the scores, and with another flick on the next ball, sealed the win 16 minutes before lunch.- ‘It’s been a privilege’ -“When I started my cricket, I just wanted to play one Test match,” said Karunaratne. “To go on to play 100 Tests was amazing. Playing cricket for so long has been a privilege”.Australia had inflicted an innings and 242-run defeat on Sri Lanka in the first Test, the host’s worst ever defeat.The second Test victory triggered jubilant celebrations among the Australian fans, who far outnumbered the home contingent in the stands.Many were perched on top of the centuries-old Galle Fort. One banner declared “South Africa, you’re next!” in reference to the World Test Championship final at Lord’s in June.Australia had been aware of the dangers of Galle’s turning pitches and had prepared with a week-long training camp in Dubai on similar tracks.The Australian batting unit delivered a masterclass, with a double hundred and four centuries in the two matches. No Sri Lanka batsman managed a century, with Kusal Mendis’s unbeaten 85 the highest individual score.Steve Smith’s men began Sunday’s fourth day by bundling Sri Lanka out for 231 from 211-8 overnight.Sri Lanka’s resistance lasted just 26 minutes, losing Kusal Mendis for 50 and Lahiru Kumara for nine. Matthew Kuhnemann and Nathan Lyon shared the spoils with four wickets apiece in the innings. But left-arm spinner Kuhnemann, playing just his fifth Test, upstaged the seasoned Lyon in the series to finish as the leading wicket-taker with 16.Lyon did go past 550 Test wickets in the match, becoming only the third Australian after Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath to reach the milestone.Sri Lanka’s fragile batting meant their fortunes rested heavily on Kusal Mendis, who had already played a fine hand in the first innings with an unbeaten 85.In the second innings, he carried on the fight, bringing up his half-century with a crisp punch through covers off Lyon.Off the next ball, Mendis was done in by extra bounce, top-edging an attempted flick straight into the hands of Steve Smith for his 200th Test catch.The Australian skipper became only the fifth player in Test history to complete 200 catches –- alongside Rahul Dravid, Joe Root, Mahela Jayawardene and Jacques Kallis.Winning skipper Smith praised his side. “The way the guys have played is exceptional,” he said.

Sony PlayStation’s online services came back online on Saturday, the Japanese group said, after a 24-hour outage frustrated gamers around the world. PlayStation Network “has been restored. You should be able to access online features without any problems now,” said a statement on X around midnight GMT Sunday, 24 hours after a message acknowledged users were experiencing “difficulty launching games, apps or network features.” “Sorry for the inconvenience!” the post added, without providing further details on the reasons for the outage. The network’s failure prevented many owners of Sony consoles including the PS4 and the PS5 from playing multiplayer games such as the hugely popular “Fortnite” and “Call of Duty.”  The specialized site DownDetector.com had reported that users’ difficulties peaked sharply around 7:00 pm US Eastern time on Friday (midnight GMT Saturday), before falling steadily, but not quite returning to normal levels. Players expressed impatience and anger on social media during the outage. One user said on X that it was “criminal” to have a PlayStation outage on a Friday evening, but another quipped more equably that it was time for him to reintroduce himself to the woman he married five years ago. 

Glenn Phillips cracked a maiden century and Mitchell Santner grabbed three wickets to help New Zealand overpower Pakistan by 78 runs in the opening match of a tri-nations series in Lahore on Saturday.Phillips hit 106 not out from 74 balls, with seven sixes and six boundaries to help the tourists post an impressive 330-6 in 50 overs before Santner’s 3-41 helped dismiss Pakistan for 252 in 47.5 overs.South Africa are the third team in the series, a warm-up event for the Champions Trophy from February 19 to March 9 in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.Phillips also added the prized wicket of Pakistan opener Fakhar Zaman who top-scored with a 69-ball 84 including four sixes and seven boundaries.Fakhar and Babar Azam, promoted to open the innings, had given Pakistan a solid start of 52 before Michael Bracewell broke through with the wicket of Azam who made just ten.Santner then exploited the slow Gaddafi Stadium pitch, dismissing Kamran Ghulam (18), skipper Mohammad Rizwan (three) and Khushdil Shah (15) to put Pakistan on the back foot.Salman Agha (40) and Tayyab Tahir (30) added 53 for the fifth wicket but that wasn’t enough in a tough chase.Pacer Matt Henry took 3-53 and Bracewell 2-41. Earlier, Phillips built on the good work by Daryl Mitchell (81) and Kane Williamson (58) after New Zealand chose to bat. Phillips added a quickfire 54 off just 47 balls with Bracewell for the sixth wicket. Bracewell scored 31 from 23 balls, with three sixes.New Zealand plundered 123 runs in the last 10 overs, including 84 from the final five.Phillips smashed a boundary and two sixes off pace bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi to reach his hundred off 72 balls, taking 25 in the 50th over.Shaheen ended up with expensive figures of 3-88 from his 10 overs, although he gave Pakistan an early breakthrough by removing opener Will Young for four with the fourth ball of the match.Spinner Abrar Ahmed had opener Rachin Ravindra caught and bowled for 25 but Williamson and Mitchell then added 95 off 112 balls to rebuild the innings.Williamson hit seven boundaries in his 46th half century, his first one-day international since November 2023, before edging Shaheen to wicketkeeper Rizwan.Mitchell appeared well set for a hundred but miscued a shot off Abrar in the 38th over to be caught after hitting four sixes and two boundaries.Pakistan was hit hard when pace bowler Haris Rauf walked off in the 37th over after suffering a side strain, having bowled 6.2 overs that included the wicket of Tom Latham for nought. Brief Scores:New Zealand 330-6 in 50 overs (G. Phillips 106 not out, D. Mitchell 81, K. Williamson 58; Shaheen Shah Afridi 3-88, Abrar Ahmed 2-41) v Pakistan 252 in 47.5 overs (Fakhar Zaman 84, Salman Agha 40; M. Santner 3-41)Result: New Zealand won by 78 runs Toss: New ZealandNext match: New Zealand vs South Africa, Lahore on Monday

India’s Hindu-nationalist ruling party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrated a landslide victory Saturday in key elections in the capital province Delhi, with the former chief minister suffering a crushing defeat.”Development has won, good governance has won,” Modi said after the city’s ex-leader — a key opposition figurehead to the premier — was confirmed as having lost his seat.Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in government in the national parliament but has not controlled the local legislature in the capital Delhi since 1998, so it is a symbolic and strategically important victory.”We will leave no stone unturned in ensuring the overall development of Delhi and making the lives of residents better,” Modi said in a post on social media.Arvind Kejriwal lost his seat to Modi’s BJP, reflecting wider damaging losses by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).Kejriwal’s AAP had governed the sprawling megacity of more than 30 million people for most of the past decade.”We accept the verdict and congratulate the BJP,” Kejriwal said in a video statement.Chanting BJP supporters danced for joy outside its New Delhi headquarters as vote results from Wednesday’s election were counted, waving flags and posters of Modi.Counting is in the last stages and the BJP has already secured a stunning two-thirds of the 70-seat assembly, having won 47 seats, according to the election commission. It is tipped to win at least one more seat. BJP’s Parvesh Sahib Singh, who is widely tipped to be the capital’s next chief minister, defeated Kejriwal.  “Delhi has chosen development,” Singh said in his victory statement. Singh, 47, comes from a family of politicians, and his father served as Delhi’s chief minister in the early 1990s. A former national lawmaker, Singh courted controversy in 2022 when he appeared to call for a “total boycott” of Muslims, although he did not explicitly refer to the community by name.”Our victory is a sign of the people’s faith in Prime Minister Modi’s vision of progress,” interior minister and BJP stalwart Amit Shah said in a statement.”The Delhi mandate shows that people can’t be misled with lies every time.”- ‘Very strong position’ -Kejriwal, who rode to power as an anti-corruption crusader a decade ago, spent several months behind bars last year over accusations his party took kickbacks in exchange for liquor licences, along with several fellow party leaders.He has denied wrongdoing and characterised the charges as a political witch hunt by Modi’s government.He was one of the key pillars of an opposition bloc formed ahead of India’s general elections last year, when the BJP suffered significant losses despite holding on to power. Kejriwal’s defeat in his Delhi stronghold puts the BJP “back in a very strong position”, said Rahul Verma of the Centre for Policy Research think tank in New Delhi.”Now it seems what happened in the general elections was a temporary lapse,” Verma said. “And it has put AAP in a difficult position going ahead.”Despite hectic weeks-long campaigning, little was said about Delhi’s crippling air pollution crisis, which smothers the city for months in hazardous fumes.New Delhi is regularly ranked the worst capital in the world for choking smog, which often surges as much as 60 times the World Health Organization’s recommended daily maximum.Years of piecemeal government initiatives have failed to measurably address the problem, with the smog blamed for thousands of premature deaths annually and particularly affecting the health of children and the elderly.

Glenn Phillips cracked a maiden century to lift New Zealand to 330-6 against Pakistan in the tri-series opener in Lahore on Saturday.Phillips hit 106 not out from 74 balls, with seven sixes and six boundaries, after New Zealand won the toss and batted.He was ably supported by Daryl Mitchell with 81 and Kane Williamson (58).Phillips added a quickfire 54 off just 47 balls with Michael Bracewell for the sixth wicket. Bracewell scored 31 from 23 balls, with three sixes.New Zealand plundered 123 runs in the last 10 overs, including 84 from the final five.Phillips smashed a boundary and two sixes off pace bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi to reach his hundred off 72 balls, taking 25 in the 50th over.Shaheen ended up with expensive figures of 3-88 from his 10 overs, although he gave Pakistan an early breakthrough by removing opener Will Young for four with the fourth ball of the match.Spinner Abrar Ahmed had opener Rachin Ravindra caught and bowled for 25 but Williamson and Mitchell then added 95 off 112 balls to rebuild the innings.Williamson hit seven boundaries in his 46th half century, his first one-day international since November 2023, before edging Shaheen to wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan.Mitchell appeared well set for a hundred but miscued a shot off Abrar in the 38th over to be caught after hitting four sixes and two boundaries.Pakistan was hit hard when pace bowler Haris Rauf walked off in the 37th over after suffering a side strain, having bowled 6.2 overs that included the wicket of Tom Latham for nought.