Sarfaraz Khan delivered a staggering reminder of his credentials by rewriting the Vijay Hazare Trophy record books, even as his heroics went unrewarded in Mumbai’s narrow defeat to Punjab. Overlooked for the ongoing ODI series against New Zealand and still outside the Test set-up despite a strong domestic record, Sarfaraz produced a breathtaking assault in Round 7 of the tournament. The Mumbai batter smashed the fastest half-century in Vijay Hazare Trophy history, racing to the landmark in just 15 balls. In the process, he eclipsed the previous record held by Baroda’s Atit Sheth, who had reached fifty off 16 deliveries against Chhattisgarh in the 2020–21 season.

From the moment he arrived at the crease, Sarfaraz went on the offensive. He dismantled the Punjab attack with ease and delivered the highlight of the innings by hammering Abhishek Sharma for 30 runs in a single over. His explosive knock eventually ended at 62 off just 20 balls, studded with seven fours and five sixes, before Mayank Markande brought his innings to a halt. Despite Sarfaraz’s stunning effort, Mumbai fell agonisingly short, losing the chase by a single run. Pursuing a target of 216, Mumbai suffered early setbacks as Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Musheer Khan departed for 23 and 21 respectively. Sarfaraz’s counter-attack dragged the chase back on course, but once he fell, the pressure returned. Captain Shreyas Iyer attempted to steady the innings with a composed 45 but was also dismissed by Markande. The lower middle order could not finish the job. Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube and Hardik Tamore were dismissed for 15, 12 and 15, allowing Punjab to hold their nerve at the death. Mayank Markande and Gurnoor Brar led the bowling effort with four wickets apiece, while Krish Bhagat and Harnoor Singh chipped in with one each. Earlier in the day, Punjab posted 216 after being asked to bat first. Ramandeep Singh anchored the innings with 72 off 74 balls, while Anmolpreet Singh added a crucial 57 from 75 deliveries. Mumbai’s bowlers shared the workload, with Musheer Khan claiming three wickets and Onkar Tarmale, Shivam Dube and Shashank Attarde picking up two each. The one-run victory ensured Punjab finished on top of the Group C points table. Both Punjab and Mumbai have secured their places in the quarter-finals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

NEW DELHI: ‘Bol ke lab azaad hain tere,’ scribbled across a yellow chart paper, fought for space alongside a poster exhorting freshers to join the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. During the high-decibel Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) polls in Sept, the walls of democracy at North Campus gave opposing student parties the opportunity to stand neck-and-neck-at least on paper-and more. On Wednesday evening, however, when two women students affiliated with the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) attempted to paste posters opposing the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill near St. Stephen’s College, they were shocked to learn that the walls no longer ‘existed’. A video shows at least seven security staff stopping the duo. Only five months ago, Delhi University (DU) had notified guidelines against defacement of walls, especially during the student election season. It also asked departments and colleges to increase the size of these walls of democracy as much as possible at two notified locations. DU’s North and South Campuses have several such walls, typically marked with a university-installed board reading ‘Wall of Democracy’ for easy identification. Walls adjacent to St. Stephen’s College, near the Faculty of Arts, and opposite Daulat Ram College were among those officially designated. During student elections, anti-defacement committees were set up to ensure that posters were pasted only on these walls. Outside election periods, students have also used them to display posters related to protests, meetings and political or social issues. In a social media post, the student body alleged that the guards tore down the posters and verbally informed them of the university’s decision. Students also claimed that the boards identifying these walls were removed without prior notice. DU proctor Manoj Kumar on Thursday confirmed that the walls had been denotified. He, however, did not provide any reason for the decision or indicate whether it had been communicated to students. He also did not clarify whether colleges had been asked to follow suit. A college principal said no one had asked them to follow in the university’s footsteps, so far. The organisation submitted a complaint to the proctor’s office on Thursday, demanding the immediate reinstatement of the walls. In its complaint, the SFI said the removal was carried out without any consultation with students or student organisations. It added that the walls have historically served as an important democratic space for students to express opinions and engage in political and social dialogue within the university. Calling the move an attempt to stifle democratic expression, students said the shrinking of such spaces undermines the democratic character of DU.

Former England captain Michael Vaughan opened up about reports of Harry Brook’s altercation with a nightclub bouncer the night before captaining an ODI against New Zealand. Vaughan said that the news did not shock him, claiming England players have operated in a relaxed environment for some time.

According to The Telegraph, the situation unfolded in Wellington shortly before England’s third ODI against New Zealand. Brook was denied entry to a nightclub after staff believed he had been drinking, and the refusal later led to a brief confrontation with a bouncer. However, Brook led the team in the match.

It Doesn’t Surprise Me – Michael Vaughan on Harry Brook Altercation

Michael Vaughan said he had no issue with the team’s break in Noosa, but the situation looks different when combined with what happened in New Zealand. Vaughan added that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) still allowed Brook to captain the side the very next day.

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“It doesn’t surprise me. They’ve been quite loose for a while. And I guess, you know, whether it’s consequences with shots that have been played over the course of the last three years, there hasn’t been one,” Michael Vaughan said.

“And now obviously the loose nature of this environment. The Noosa trip was fine for me, but the Noosa trip on the back of now what we know went on in New Zealand. You have to point the finger at the leadership group or the ECB, because if they knew, and then he had this incident, and then he played the next day as England captain,” he added.

”It doesn’t surprise me.”

Michael Vaughan reacts to the news that Harry Brook was involved in an altercation with a nightclub bouncer the night before an ODI against New Zealand in which he was captaining the side. #BBCCricket #Ashes pic.twitter.com/VBYcn3ej9X

— Test Match Special (@bbctms) January 8, 2026

They were Clearly Trying to Brush That – Michael Vaughan

Vaughan stated that the senior leadership of the England and Wales Cricket Board should take responsibility. He said the issue was quietly pushed aside because the Ashes were approaching, adding that addressing it earlier would have caused major attention.

“You have to say that the highest level of management of the ECB have to look at themselves in the mirror, because they were clearly trying to brush that under the carpet because the Ashes were coming up. If they dealt with it there and then, it would have been a big story… but out the way,” Vaughan stated.

Brook finished the Ashes with 358 runs in 10 innings at an average of 39.77. England suffered a 4-1 series defeat in Australia.

Whole Culture Needs to Change – Michael Vaughan

The cricketer-turned-commentator said the controversy has come out at the worst possible time, following England’s 4-1 Ashes defeat and earlier issues like the Noosa break. Vaughan added that the team environment, overall culture, and the role of the ECB all need serious change.

“For it now to have broken on the back of losing 4-1 in Australia, on the back of what happened in Noosa, on the looseness of the players in terms of their discipline with some of their strokes. The whole culture around the team, the group, and the ECB as well needs to change,” he concluded.

They will now shift focus to white-ball cricket as they travel to Sri Lanka for three ODIs and three T20Is, starting with the ODI series on January 22.

These matches will serve as preparation for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026. England are placed in Group C alongside Nepal, the West Indies, Bangladesh, and Italy. They will open their World Cup campaign against Nepal on February 8 at the Wankhede Stadium.

Also read: Harry Brook drunk, violent & out of control; handed £30,000 fine and almost sacked after nightclub fight

AIADMK leader Edappadi K Palaniswami

NEW DELHI: Pushing for expansion of NDA in Tamil Nadu, BJP is crafting a high-pitched campaign to position the alliance as a natural choice for anti-DMK voters amid emergence of actor Vijay-led TVK as the third force in the state’s traditionally bipolar politics. AIADMK leader Edappadi K Palaniswami’s meeting with home minister Amit Shah, a keen votary of widening the NDA tent in the poll-bound state, on Wednesday covered a range of issues related to the alliance’s growth and agenda. That the PMK faction led by Anbumani Ramadoss was welcomed into NDA by EPS, as Palaniswami is commonly known, in Chennai hours before he met Shah in Delhi was as much about timing as about consolidating the alliance. However, EPS, the declared leader of NDA, has drawn a red line on including O Panneerselvam and Sasikala back into AIADMK or the alliance. In comments to media on Thursday, he reiterated his stand against them but offered no direct answer on TTV Dhinakaran, another former AIADMK functionary being spoken of as a prospective NDA member. BJP has long been of the view that the return of those once associated with AIADMK and its late leader J Jayalalithaa will send out a message of unity after the reverses it has suffered in elections. However, people familiar with the issue said BJP will ultimately go with EPS as it has already named him as leader of the alliance and believes an AIADMK-led front remains the best bet to defeat the DMK-Congress-Left combine. What has thrown up an imponderable in the poll equation is the emergence of TVK, which has gained in attraction for local satraps disaffected with their parent party or drawn by higher profiles on offer. With AIADMK under EPS ceding some space over the years, some functionaries have crossed over to TVK amid buzz that Panneerselvam and Dhinakaran may also move to the new outfit. A BJP functionary likened the attention and crowds Vijay is drawing to the buzz poll strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor had generated in Bihar, before his party came a cropper in the polls. Sources added that BJP would like to bring together all political forces, including TVK, opposed to the DMK-led front, but Vijay’s projection of himself as the CM candidate and criticism of BJP’s ideology have made such a prospect improbable. In fact, TVK has called Congress a natural ally amid a section of the national party openly indicating their unhappiness with DMK’s refusal to share power and warm up to TVK. With issues far from settled in the state’s governing alliance, NDA is planning to tie up the loose ends and shape the poll agenda by building a high-octane campaign around alleged corruption and misgovernance.

NEW DELHI: Auqib Nabi played one of the finest knocks of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025–26 to help Jammu and Kashmir pull off an incredible win against Hyderabad. The match was played at the Niranjan Shah Stadium, Ground C, in Rajkot on Thursday, and it turned into a thriller that only few will forget.

Chasing a big target, Jammu and Kashmir were in serious trouble early. They were reduced to 90 for 7, with defeat looking almost certain. Hyderabad’s bowlers were on top, using the pace and bounce of the pitch well. Captain CV Milind and Mohammed Siraj led the attack and picked up two wickets each. Their short-ball plan worked, and J&K kept losing wickets at regular intervals.That is when Auqib Nabi stepped up. He stayed calm under pressure and slowly turned the game around. Dar attacked at the right time. He was strong against the spinners as he used his height and timing to hit the ball cleanly over the boundary. He kept finding gaps and clearing the ropes with ease.Dar remained unbeaten on 114 off 82 balls, hitting 10 fours and seven sixes. He also built a massive 182-run unbeaten partnership for the eighth wicket with Vanshaj Sharma. Sharma gave him solid support and stayed not out on 69. Together, they guided Jammu and Kashmir to a stunning three-wicket win with 13 balls to spare.As the partnership grew, Hyderabad lost control of the match. Dropped catches and missed chances made things worse for them. Dar reached his maiden List A century in just 65 balls, showing great fighting spirit and belief when his team needed it most.Hyderabad had posted a strong total after being asked to bat first. Rahul Singh Gahlaut got them off to a fast start with 56 off 36 balls, while Aman Rao added a steady 60. K. Nitesh Reddy played a key role at the end with an unbeaten 54, helping Hyderabad cross the 250-run mark.Despite some fielding mistakes by J&K, Dar’s heroic innings ensured they walked away with one of the most memorable comebacks of the tournament.

FARIDABAD: Haryana Police have registered a case against a shooting coach, Ankush Bhardwaj, accused of sexually assaulting an 17-year-old national-level woman shooter at a hotel in Faridabad last month.Police said the athlete was a minor at the time of the alleged incident.

An FIR was filed on Tuesday at the Women’s Police Station in NIT Faridabad after a detailed complaint by the shooter’s family. Investigators said they are collecting CCTV footage from the hotel and recording statements of witnesses.Based on the complaint, the case has been registered under Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Section 351(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.According to the FIR, the athlete was initially asked to wait in the hotel lobby after a training session but was later persuaded to go to the coach’s room on the pretext of a more focused discussion. Once inside, the coach allegedly sexually assaulted her despite resistance. The complaint also alleges that he threatened to destroy her career and harm her family if she spoke about the incident.The 17-year-old said in her complaint that while she was seated on a chair, Bharadwaj offered to relieve her back by “cracking” it.The shooter reportedly left the hotel in a state of shock and later informed her family. She told police that she had been training under the coach since August last year and finally disclosed the incident to her mother on January 1 after repeated questioning.The SuspensionBhardwaj, a member of India’s shooting coaching staff, has been suspended by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) following the registration of the FIR, news agency PTI reported. The NRAI confirmed that the case was filed in Faridabad.“NRAI has suspended him and we will issue a show-cause notice,” NRAI secretary Rajiv Bhatia told PTI. “He has been suspended on moral grounds. Now, he has to prove himself innocent. Till the inquiry is not completed, he will not be associated with any coaching activity,” he added.Bhatia said Bhardwaj had been recommended by the NRAI for inclusion in the 37-member national coaching team after the Paris Olympics in 2024. “It was on the recommendation of the NRAI that he was appointed by SAI as one of the coaches. It is a case of sexual harassment which happened in Surajkund,” he said.While the NRAI did not specify the exact date of the incident, the FIR states that the alleged assault took place last month following a training session at Delhi’s Karni Singh Shooting Range.Bhardwaj, a former pistol shooter, had earlier served a doping ban in 2010 for using a beta-blocker during his competitive career.

Mumbai: Warning against technological dependence, Maharashtra Chief Secretary Rajesh Aggarwal on Tuesday made a strong case for “sovereign AI”, citing what he described as the quiet external takeover of Venezuela’s critical infrastructure as a cautionary tale.“We saw Americans just going to another country and picking up their President, very silently, very recently, and obviously people have different conjectures. No one really knows what happened outside, but probably they got full grip over their power grid many months back and sold into many of their systems,” said Aggarwal, and warned that without its own AI capabilities, India risked becoming “a slave again — of a different kind.““So unless we are good at AI and we are good at manufacturing and the whole supply chain of the entire thing, our sovereignty will also be at stake in future,” he warned at the day-long conclave on AI for Science at IIT Bombay, one of the precursor meetings to the AI Impact summit in February.An IIT Delhi alumnus, Aggarwal recalled his own work on artificial intelligence dating back to the late 80s, when he worked on what he described as an early “nano-AI” system that could generate code from natural language prompts. Noting that nearly 60% of India’s data centres are located in Maharashtra, he said technological sovereignty was no longer optional, but strategic.“Let’s work together on this and ensure that we remain sovereign. AI is going to be a very different beast from other inventions till now, and if we lag behind, probably we will be slaves again in a different way,” he said.Earlier, Richa Bagla, Maharashtra principal secretary (finance), accounts and treasuries, said digital platforms were no longer just systems of record, but systems of intelligence.“AI can definitely help in predictive analytics for cash flow, revenue trends and expenditure patterns. It can help with early warning systems for abnormal transactions, fraud detection and risk profiling,” she said. “AI can greatly improve and expedite automated compliance and audit readiness, thus reducing manual intervention. And not just this, decision support systems for budget formulation and outcome-based monitoring, but also intelligent, grievous and exception handling for faster service delivery are some of the key areas in which AI can be a strong backbone,” said Bagla.IIT Bombay director Shireesh Kedare summed it up when he said, “The short-term impact of AI is over-estimated and the long-term impact of AI is mostly under-estimated.”Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Abhay Karandikar, said AI may have a deeper role than what it is currently perceived to achieve. “If scientific discoveries get disrupted by AI, it will have a far more effect and impact than what is currently being thought … because there is a possibility of disrupting even the scientific principles.”

Melbourne Stars captain Marcus Stoinis gave Sydney Sixers batter Babar Azam a savage send-off, adding more heat to the moment during the 27th Match of the ongoing Big Bash League 2025-26 (BBL 2025-26) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in Melbourne on January 8.

Stoinis bowled a full and straight delivery aimed right at the stumps in the seventh over. The ball moved slightly back in after pitching. Babar stepped forward and tried to play across the line, but he closed the bat face too early. Because of that, the bat missed the ball completely.

Savage Celebration in BBL 2025-26: Marcus Stoinis vs Babar Azam at the MCG

The ball went on to hit him on the pads in line with the stumps. Stoinis appealed loudly, and the umpire immediately raised a finger. The Pakistani batter had a quick discussion with his Sydney Sixers batting partner Philippe about taking a review, but he decided not to challenge the on-field umpire’s decision after thinking it through.

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Read Also: Mitchell Starc, Steve Smith join Babar Azam-starrer Sydney Sixers ‘superteam’ for BBL 2025-26

As Babar walked back to the dugout, Stoinis aggressively celebrated the massive breakthrough, with the Pakistani star managing only 14 runs off 17 deliveries in the ongoing BBL 2025-26 clash at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Stoinis said, “See you later Babar! See you later, brother!”

Marcus Stoinis removes Babar Azam, and doesn’t he love that 👀 #BBL15 pic.twitter.com/eyAAOhIRsH

— KFC Big Bash League (@BBL) January 8, 2026

Babar Azam’s tough BBL 2025-26 run

With this poor dismissal, Babar Azam’s struggles in the BBL 2025-26 continue. In seven innings, the right-handed batter has managed only 145 runs, with just two half-centuries. An average of 24.16 and a slow strike rate of 108.20 highlight a season far below Babar’s usual standards.

Slower ball trap ends Josh Philippe’s fight as Melbourne Stars on top

Later, Haris Rauf bowled a slower ball on the middle stump to Josh Philippe. The Australian star tried to hit the ball over long-on for a big shot, but the bat twisted in his hands at the moment of contact, and the ball did not go where he wanted.

Read Also: Ruturaj Gaikwad humiliates Ajit Agarkar, Gautam Gambhir, becomes Vijay Hazare Trophy’s greatest batter

Instead of going straight, the ball went slightly to the right of long-on, and Thomas Rogers ran across quickly, slid on the ground, and took a clean catch in a big moment for the Melbourne Stars, as Philippe was dismissed for 35 runs off 25 balls, hitting two fours and two sixes.

Defending the paltry target of 128 runs, Melbourne Stars had a great start, as Peter Siddle dismissed Moises Henriques lbw, and then Babar Azam and Josh Philippe could not also make a big impact. The captain Stoinis is on fire, as Sam Curran became his second victim in the 13th over.

Sydney Sixers hold edge after bowling Stars out for 128

At the time of writing, the Sydney Sixers need 37 runs in 42 balls to win the BBL 2025-26 clash against the Melbourne Stars at the MCG. Earlier, after being asked to bat first, the Stars could manage only 128 runs thanks to collective efforts from Sam Harper (21), Thomas Rogers (23), Stoinis (33), and Blake Macdonald (33) against the Sixers in the Big Bash League clash.

Ben Dwarshuis (4/13) and Jack Edwards (3/27) were outstanding with the ball for the Sydney Sixers, while Joel Davies also chipped in with two wickets against the Stars in Melbourne. This match is equally important for both teams to boost their chances for the playoffs.