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Waleed Hussain

4 March 2025 at 2:34:30 pm

Opener turned into six -hitting contest

Mumbai: The IPL 2026 opening match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium wasn’t a cricket contest. It was a full-scale six-hitting festival, complete with bowlers serving as reluctant ball boys and the leather sphere treating the boundary ropes like an optional suggestion rather than a hard limit. SRH, batting first after being inserted, scraped together 201 for 9 in their full 20 overs. Stand-in skipper Ishan Kishan led the charge with a...

Opener turned into six -hitting contest

Mumbai: The IPL 2026 opening match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium wasn’t a cricket contest. It was a full-scale six-hitting festival, complete with bowlers serving as reluctant ball boys and the leather sphere treating the boundary ropes like an optional suggestion rather than a hard limit. SRH, batting first after being inserted, scraped together 201 for 9 in their full 20 overs. Stand-in skipper Ishan Kishan led the charge with a fiery 80 off just 38 balls, peppering the stands with 5 sixes and eight fours. It was the kind of knock that screams “I’m the captain now, watch me launch.” Youngster Aniket Verma (or Ankit, depending on the scorecard scribbles) chipped in with a brisk 43 that included another 4 sixes in a desperate late surge. Heinrich Klaasen added his usual muscle, but the early wobble to 49/3 thanks to Jacob Duffy’s fiery 3/22 in the powerplay kept things from spiraling into total absurdity. SRH’s total sixes: a “modest” 12. How refreshingly conservative. One almost expected them to apologize to the bowlers for not clearing the stadium entirely. Then came RCB’s reply. Chasing 202, the defending champions made it look like a Sunday net session gone gloriously rogue. They polished off the target in a mere 15.4 overs, losing just 4 wickets and winning by 6 wickets with 26 balls to spare. Devdutt Padikkal went ballistic with 61 off 26 balls — a strike rate that would embarrass a missile. He smashed 4 sixes and seven fours, treating SRH spinners like they owed him money. The middle overs turned into a personal highlight reel as he dispatched deliveries into the second and third tiers with contemptuous ease. Elder Statesman Virat Kohli, ever the composed elder statesman at 69 not out off 38, casually added 5 sixes of his own. King Kohli didn’t just bat; he conducted a masterclass in timed aggression, finishing the game with a flourish of boundaries that had the Chinnaswamy crowd in absolute delirium. Rajat Patidar and a quick cameo from Tim David ensured there were no unnecessary heart attacks for the home faithful. RCB’s six tally: a cheeky 13. Combined across both innings? A staggering 25 sixes in one high-octane evening. That’s not T20 cricket anymore. That’s aerial warfare with a red leather projectile. The ball spent more time orbiting the stadium than rolling on the turf. Ground staff probably clocked more kilometers chasing it into the stands than the batsmen ran between wickets. Spectators got an unexpected workout fielding souvenirs, while bowlers stared skyward like astronomers discovering new constellations every over. “Where did that one go?” became the unofficial match commentary.
Collective Hug The bowlers deserve a collective group hug — or perhaps therapy. Jacob Duffy’s impressive debut haul was the lone bright spot for the attack, but even he must have questioned his career choices every time a length ball disappeared into the night. Short balls? Met with the same disdain. Full tosses? Please, they were practically gift-wrapped invitations to the parking lot. Harshal Patel and the SRH death bowlers leaked runs like a sieve in the final stages, watching six after six sail over their heads while fielders sprinted futilely, arms outstretched in vain hope. The spinners fared even worse. One over from a hapless SRH tweaker disappeared for multiple maximums, turning what should have been a containing spell into a public humiliation. Krunal Pandya and Harsh Dubey were taken to the cleaners with such regularity that you half-expected the umpires to intervene on humanitarian grounds. Why bowl when the batsmen treat your best deliveries like practice balls for a batting cage? It’s almost insulting how nonchalantly these sixes were dispatched. No drama, no buildup — just clean, brutal connection followed by polite applause from the crowd and another sprint for the ball boys. Traditionalists mourning the death of “proper” cricket could only clutch their Test whites tighter and mutter about the good old days when a six was an event, not the default setting. At Chinnaswamy, the pitch played like a trampoline on steroids, and the boundaries shrank with every lusty swing. Group Therapy By the 15th over of the chase, the match had lost all pretense of competition. It became a group therapy session in power-hitting, where everyone took turns launching the ball into orbit. The six-count on the giant screen must have broken some internal software trying to keep up. If this is the tone for IPL 2026, buckle up, folks. Expect every subsequent game to threaten world records for most maximums, highest strike rates, and most exhausted retrieval staff. The real MVP? Not Kohli’s classy anchor, not Padikkal’s blitz, not even Duffy’s early breakthroughs. It was the six itself — that glorious, crowd-pleasing projectile that turned a cricket match into prime-time entertainment. Bowlers might as well start their run-ups from the sightscreen next time; at least give the ball a fighting chance. Bravo to both teams for kicking off the season with such unapologetic carnage. You’ve reminded us why we love this format: raw power, minimal fuss, and maximum entertainment. Just don’t be surprised when future matches come with a mandatory “six insurance” clause for nearby residents. The ropes are trembling, the stands are full, and the bowlers are already booking appointments with sports psychologists. Long live the six. May the aerial assault continue unabated.

High-flier who soared the skies, now among the stars

Legendary aviator, extreme sports lover, ex-Sheriff of Mumbai and industrialist, Dr. Vijaypat Kailashpat Singhania – former Chairman Emeritus of the Raymonds Group, passed away here late on Saturday.


He was 87 and is survived by his wife Ashadevi, sons Madhupati and Gautam, daughter Shephali Ruia and their respective spouses, and several grandchildren.


Taking the Raymond Group companies, especially the textiles businesses, to new heights and expanding to beyond clothing under his captaincy, Singhania lived life to the full in the skies pursuing his passion for flying. He set/shattered many records and was honoured with Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan over the years.


On Sunday afternoon, Singhania’s funeral procession led by his sons and other kin, started from his home at Haveli on LD Ruparel Marg and wended its way to the Chandanwadi Crematorium where he was cremated with full state honours later.


Top business leaders and politicians including Governor Jishnu Dev Varma, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy CMs Eknath Shinde and Sunetra Pawar, Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and Nationalist Congress Party (SP) leaders, aviation enthusiasts and others paid rich tributes to Singhania.


Ease In Cockpit

At ease in cockpit or the chairman’s seat, the soft-spoken Singhania was truly ‘The Complete Man’ – the iconic branding of the apparels giant - when he helmed it for decades, besides wearing multiple hats including as a renowned business honcho photographer, professor and philanthropy, and Sheriff of Mumbai.


Born on October 4, 1938 into a wealthy Marwari business family running one of India’s oldest textile mills, Vijaypat Singhania inherited both, a growing enterprise and the legacy of nationalism with the likes of the Tatas, Birlas, Bajajs and many other business houses – but was a reluctant businessman.


After taking over the Raymond Group at Chairman in 1980 – after diversifying into areas like denim, synthetic, realty, engineering, cement, steel and more – Singhania continued rapid expansion of these ventures, modernizing the production and fortifying brand equity to tackle cut-throat competition in global markets, turning Raymonds, which was bought over by the family in 1944, into an enviable household name.


He stepped down as Chairman in 2000, handed over the baton to his son Gautam Singhania and even transferred his own full 37 pc stake in the group to him – a move which he later regretted, as per his own admission.


First Love

While skilfully handling the nitty-gritties of the corporate world, Singhania also tended to his first love of flying, idolizing American Howard Hughes, the legendary aerospace engineer, aviator, business tycoon, film producer, and Indian magnate, Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata, the Father of Indian Aviation, who launched the venerable Air India.


Briefly from 1987, he dabbled in the media by launching a daily, ‘The Indian Post’, but owing to multiple reasons, it was sold to a Gujarat-based publication group but later winded up in 1990.


In 1988, he completed a solo flight of 8,724-kms, in a microlight aircraft from London to New Delhi in 23 days, breaking the previous record of 34 days, and earned a permanent entry in Guinness World Records.


In May 1994, he flew with an American co-pilot Daniel Brown in a Cessna Conquest Aircraft in a "around-the-world-air race" to mark the golden jubilee of International Civil Aviation Organisation and bagged the gold medal. The winning aircraft was displayed for many years at the Nehru Science Centre in Mumbai.


In 2005, he recounted the deadly thrills of his flying life in a book ‘An Angel in the Cockpit: The True Story of a Death Defying Flight Across 5000 miles of Land and Sea’ and later, ‘An Incomplete Life’, his autobiography.


Recognizing his contributions to aviation and high adrenaline sports, the Indian Air Force conferred the rank of Honorary Air Commodore on Singhania, then 67, plus he bagged many more international accolades and honours.


New Record

That year (Nov 2005), Singhania set a world record by ascending to 69,000 feet – or 21.03 kms, nearly three times the height of Mt. Everest - in a hot air balloon, which took off from Mumbai’s Mahalaxmi Racecourse, wowing global aviation circles.


The giant balloon was as tall as a 22-storied building, had 18 burners and he travelled in a pressurised aluminium capsule below to protect him when temperatures plummeted to -93C at that staggering height, before descending from space after five hours, and landed in a Nashik village.


He was decorated with the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award for Lifetime Achievement (2001), Padma Bhushan in (2006), and was appointed Sheriff of Mumbai in 2005.


In his later years, his one son became estranged while he was embroiled in several legal battles with the other son, yet he remained resilient, never compromising on the principles of his life and choosing freedom over dependency, till the end.

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