Lucknow Super Giants skipper KL Rahul expressed disappointment with the team's performance in the IPL 2024 after their victory against Mumbai Indians. Despite the win, LSG ended the season with 14 points and was eliminated from the playoffs. Rahul humorously referenced an advertisement featuring himself, his father-in-law Suniel Shetty, and Indian cricket captain Rohit Sharma.
Seasoned all-rounder Hardik Pandya's return to the MI setup was met with much fanfare, but the team managed to win only four out of 14 games under his leadership. Reflecting on the season, Pandya admitted that their performance fell significantly short of expectations, ultimately costing them the chance to make a meaningful impact in the tournament.
MI suffered an 18-run defeat to Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at home, finishing at 196 for six in pursuit of 215, ultimately placing last in the league for the second time in three years. Despite Rohit Sharma's early fireworks, MI's middle-order faltered, losing momentum and failing to capitalize on the strong platform set by their captain. Young talent Naman Dhir showcased his potential with a late half-century, but his effort came too late to change the game's outcome.
Virat Kohli's consistent performance across all formats of the game has distinguished him from his peers. His adaptability to different playing conditions and relentless hunger for runs have made him a formidable opponent for any bowling attack.
Sunrisers Hyderabad secured their spot in the 2024 Indian Premier League playoffs after a rain-induced washout on Thursday. Delhi Capitals, Mumbai Indians, Punjab Kings, and Gujarat Titans are on the elimination list, leaving Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and Lucknow Super Giants in contention for the fourth and final spot in the playoffs.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced on Thursday that India's T20 World Cup warm-up match against Bangladesh will take place on June 1 at a location yet to be determined in the USA. Led by captain Rohit Sharma, India, the inaugural champions of the Men’s T20 World Cup in 2007, are eager to secure victory in the upcoming tournament jointly hosted by the West Indies and the USA, which were awarded hosting rights in 2021.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) playoffs scenarios have taken an intriguing turn following the washout of the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Gujarat Titans (GT) match on Thursday. The unexpected outcome pushed SRH into the playoffs, while simultaneously eliminating the Delhi Capitals (DC) from contention. The spotlight now shifts to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) clash on Saturday, which has morphed into a high-stakes knockout game.
MS Dhoni's appearance on the cricket field is always a mesmerizing spectacle for fans, regardless of the match's outcome. In anticipation of the eagerly awaited and crucial clash between Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore, a video emerged on CSK's social media platform, revealing MS Dhoni bowling during the team's practice session.
Rajasthan Royals suffered their fourth consecutive defeat in the IPL as Punjab Kings secured a five-wicket win in their IPL 2024 match on Wednesday. Despite the loss, Rajasthan Royals, with 16 points, remain secure in terms of qualifying for the playoffs. However, with just one match remaining, Rajasthan Royals might not finish in the top two due to an inferior net run-rate, especially considering that Sunrisers Hyderabad can reach up to 18 points. After the match, Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson said the team needs to introspect what's going wrong for them in the tournament.
On Wednesday, the newly constructed Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, located near New York, was inaugurated, marking an exciting development for the sport's global expansion. The International Cricket Council (ICC) expressed enthusiasm about venturing into new territories through the upcoming T20 World Cup in June. With a seating capacity of 34,000, the stadium boasts infrastructure reminiscent of the Las Vegas Formula 1 circuit, along with drop-in pitches prepared in Florida.
It comes as no surprise when the world's fastest man Usain Bolt says that the fastest form of cricket is his favourite one and feels more fans in the Caribbean and world over will choose the T20 format over Tests going forward.Google I/O kicked off on Tuesday, the first day of the company's annual developer conference. During the keynote event, the company's executives also took the wraps off noteworthy new features coming to Android smartphones over the coming months — strangle enough, the company didn't unveil Android 15 features during the keynote event. These announcements have come ahead of the company's next major smartphone operating update that is expected to arrive in the second half of 2024. As expected, Google is set to introduce new features powered by artificial intelligence (AI), building on the path it took with Android 14 last year.
Dave Burke, VP of Engineering at Google highlighted new AI-powered features coming to Android smartphones in the coming months, at the Google I/O keynote event. One of the most impressive features showcased is an upgrade to Circle to Search — the company's visual lookup feature currently exclusive to select Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones — that will allow students to ask for help with their homework. Google says that its LearnLM technology will allow users to circle a prompt to solve "problems involving symbolic formulas, diagrams, graphs and more" — the feature is expected to arrive later this year.
Gemini, the company's AI model that can also run on Android smartphones, is also getting upgrades. The company says that Gemini on Android will soon be able to provide information about YouTube videos, while AI generated images can be quickly added to Gmail and Messages. Meanwhile, users will be able to utilise Gemini Advanced to get answers from PDF documents — without poring through multiple pages — with a new "Ask this PDF" option, according to the company.
Google Pixel smartphones will also gain support for Gemini Nano with Multimodality, the company's latest model for on-device AI processing. In addition to the existing ability to process text input, Pixel phones will be able to process contextual information like visuals, audio, and even spoken information.
AI is also making its way to Google's most basic smartphone app — the dialler. In a demo shown off at the Google I/O 2024 keynote event, the company demonstrated the ability to detect a potential scam call asking a user to transfer bank information or reveal banking information over the phone. The feature was shown to work in real-time and works on-device to protect user privacy. There's no word from Google on when these features will make their way to users, or which (presumably Pixel) smartphones will be supported.
Google TalkBack, the accessibility feature on Android smartphones will further enhanced with Gemini Nano's multimodal features, according to the company. The service will enable visually impaired users to get more detailed information about images, by filling in information about unlabelled images. Google says that these new features will work on-device, which means that users will be able to take advantage of the improved functionality even when they don't have internet access. There's no concrete launch date for the improved Google TalkBack service powered by Gemini Nano with Multimodality, but the company says it is arriving "later this year".
Former India head coach Ravi Shastri took a swipe at the concept of the Spirit of Cricket while discussing on veteran Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin's YouTube channel, suggesting that he prioritises adherence to rules over the "spirit of cricket." Shastri's remarks come in the context of incidents during India's Test series in England in 2021, during which India secured a historic victory at Lord's in the second Test.