The India Premier League 2023 runs from March 31 to May 28, with 10 teams competing for the title. Mumbai Indians have won the title five times, which is the most by any team, followed by Chennai Super Kings' four triumphs, while the Gujarat Titans are the defending champions.
Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma praised Yashasvi Jaiswal, saying he was surprised with the power the youngster packed in his strokes, while also adding that it was heartening to see his team chase down a big total set by Rajasthan Royals in Mumbai on Sunday.
Yashasvi Jaiswal’s maiden IPL hundred against the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday night must rate amongst the best centuries in the IPL. That it came in the 1000th IPL match couldn’t have been more apt. However, it took just three balls of magic from Tim David to turn it into a vain effort in a losing cause.
In a match full of dramatic twists and turns, Zimbabwe allrounder Sikandar Raza played an audacious chip shot over the head of square leg to get three runs of the last ball that helped Punjab Kings chase down a daunting 201 for a four-wicket win.
Struggling to maintain momentum provided by Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell, Royal Challengers Bangalore face a belligerent Lucknow Super Giants in Lucknow on Monday.
Veteran shooter Mairaj Ahmad Khan and young Ganemat Sekhon won gold in the skeet mixed team event, giving India its first medal at the ISSF Shotgun World Cup on Sunday.
The World Chess Championship will be decided in a rapid-play tiebreak on Sunday, after Russia's Ian Nepomniachtchi and China's Ding Liren remained deadlocked following 14 games played under classical rules.
Andreas Christensen, Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha struck for Barcelona at Camp Nou with Guido Rodriguez netting a late own goal to round off the rout.
The battle for top four berths is seriously heating up. And in the first day game of this IPL at Chepauk on Sunday with Chennai Super Kings taking on Punjab Kings, the temperatures are bound to soar. A tiring Chepauk pitch will get baked under the sun and there could be a change of strategy on offer.
Having just completed a decade as the Mumbai Indians captain and set to celebrate his 36th birthday on Sunday, India skipper Rohit Sharma will look to rediscover his mojo and steer his team's ship, currently in choppy waters, from the front when MI take on Rajasthan Royals at the Wankhede Stadium.
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Birmingham Commonwealth Games silver medallist triple jumper Abdulla Aboobacker won gold in the Mikio Oda Memorial Athletics meet in Hiroshima, Japan, with a season's best effort of 16.31m on Saturday.
Nike's partnership with Durant has led to 15 signature shoe releases and another in the works with the apparel maker backing Durant's grassroots basketball initiatives, including court refurbishment in needy neighborhoods worldwide. The new deal will continue such works.
The India U17 women's team spent some anxious moments in the last 15 minutes before emerging 2-1 winners against Myanmar in its concluding AFC U-17 Women's Asian Cup Qualifiers Round 1 tie on Friday.
Who are the world's most promising young footballers? Switzerland-based CIES Football observatory has come up with a ranking of the finest U-20 players after checking out 75 leagues in the world.
For most of Delhi Capitals' training at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Friday evening, Prithvi Shaw cut a forlorn figure, strolling around the practice area and reluctantly going through some bat-swing drills before ambling in for a hit in a net away from the core team.
Delhi Police on Friday registered two separate FIRs against Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh on complaints of sexual harassment levelled by some female wrestlers. The first FIR pertains to allegations levelled by a minor victim which is registered under the Pocso Act. The second FIR was registered to carry out a comprehensive investigation into the allegations by the adult complainants.Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Wednesday blocked Microsoft's $69 billion (nearly Rs. 5,64,100 crore) acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard over concerns it would hinder cloud gaming.
The ruling was a shock after the regulator had already resolved its concerns about the consoles market, a sector dominated by Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox, which dwarfs cloud gaming.
Is the deal dead?
Not necessarily. Microsoft said it remained fully committed and would appeal.
The regulator's decision reflected a flawed understanding of the market, it said.
How does the appeal process work?
Microsoft can appeal to Britain's Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), an independent judicial body, which will only examine the CMA's decision-making process, not the merits of the merger.
Microsoft will not be able to offer new remedies at this stage, such as offering to keep Activision content off its Xbox Game Pass, a subscription service for Xbox users, in Britain, as some analysts suggest.
"The CAT will not engage with the merits of the CMA's decision or conduct a wholesale review of the parties' evidence," said Edward Lane, senior associate at law firm Harbottle & Lewis, where his particular focus is on creative industries, including film, TV, video games and music.
What's next?
Microsoft must appeal by May 24 and a decision may take many months.
"The CAT aims to deal with 'straightforward' cases in under nine months – and Microsoft/Activision is anything but straightforward," Lane, said.
What happens if Microsoft wins?
The Tribunal will return the case to the regulator for further review. Microsoft can then offer new concessions.
"The likelihood is that without a material change in circumstances or new evidence, the CMA is most likely to reach the same conclusion as it did first time around," said James Groves, a competition associate at European law firm Fieldfisher.
What about other regulators?
European regulators will rule on the world's biggest gaming deal by May 22. The US Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint to block the deal, which Microsoft has indicated it will fight.
If either of those blocks the deal, it could be game over, Lane said.
If the EU goes against it, Microsoft would be fighting an increasingly uphill battle and could decide to cut its losses, even if that would mean paying Activision a hefty $3 billion (nearly Rs. 2,450) break fee.
What has happened to other CMA appeals?
Facebook-owner Meta appealed a 2021 decision by the CMA to block its acquisition of Giphy, seen as a test case for the British regulator's resolve to take on "Big Tech".
Meta succeeded on a single procedural ground, with the decision otherwise upheld. The CMA considered new submissions, but it came to the same view and Meta had to sell animated images platform Giphy.
Global financial services company FNZ appealed a block on its 2019 merger with rival GBST. The regulator then "identified certain potential errors" in its investigation chaired by Martin Coleman, who also oversaw the Microsoft-Activision case.
The CAT sent the case back to be reconsidered, and the CMA agreed to accept a new remedy whereby FNZ could sell GBST and then buy parts of it back.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
Apple Watch — like contemporary smartwatches that connect to Android smartphones — is capable of connecting to one iPhone at a time. The wearable that tracks health indicators, workouts, displays notifications and messages, syncs data to the connected smartphone. A relatively new tipster now claims that Apple will add support for syncing data from an Apple Watch across multiple devices. If the rumour is true, users may not be limited to a single iPhone, seeing data from their Apple Watch across their devices.
According to a tipster Analyst941 on Twitter, Apple is working on the ability to sync data from an Apple Watch across more than one device. However, details are scarce and the tipster does not mention whether this purported multi-device sync support will be supported on existing Apple Watch models, or whether users will need to upgrade to an upcoming Apple Watch model.
Apple Watch can sync across more than one Apple device too, finally. I don't know how this will be implemented. All I know, again, **ALL** I know, is that Apple Watch will sync across multiple iOS/iPadOS/Mac devices, and will no longer be tied to one single iPhone.
— 941 (@analyst941) April 27, 2023
Apple does not currently offer a Watch app for iPad or Mac, and users who purchase an Apple Watch must pair it with an iPhone in order to set it up. It is currently unclear whether Apple will bring the Watch app to other platforms, allowing users to set the wearables up without an iPhone, or whether it will simply sync data using a user's Apple ID after it has synced to their iPhone.
While it is best to take these claims with a pinch of salt, it is worth noting that Bloomberg's Mark Gurman recently reported that Apple is working on bringing the Health app to iPad later this year. The company introduced the Health app on iOS in 2014, and has since added several features to the application, including the ability to track steps without an Apple Watch.
The Cupertino company is also working on a new subscription health coaching service that will motivate users to eat and sleep better, or get enough exercise, as per the report. Codenamed Quartz, the service will reportedly rely on AI and data from a user's Apple Watch to customise a health coaching program for each user. The Health app for iPad is expected to be unveiled at WWDC in June, while the subscription service could be launched next year, according to the report.
Online retail titan Amazon on Thursday reported that its cloud and ads units helped it beat earnings expectations in the first quarter of this year despite shoppers and businesses being more careful about spending.
"For the first time in several quarters, Amazon may finally have a bit of wind at its back," said Insider Intelligence principal analyst Andrew Lipsman.
Amazon shares spiked more than 10 percent shortly after release of the earnings figures, only to sink slightly below the day's closing price as it warned that customers were remaining watchful of their budgets.
Amazon reported a profit of $3.2 billion (roughly Rs. 26,162 crore) on revenue that climbed 9 percent to $127.4 billion (roughly Rs. 10,41,616 crore) in the quarter.
The net income was about a billion dollars more than analysts had forecast.
"There's a lot to like about how our teams are delivering for customers, particularly amidst an uncertain economy," said Amazon chief executive said Andy Jassy.
"Our Stores business is continuing to improve the cost to serve in our fulfillment network while increasing the speed with which we get products into the hands of customers."
Jassy in March laid out a plan to cut 9,000 more jobs from the online retail giant's workforce, following the 18,000 that were axed in January.
The layoffs account for a smaller percentage of Amazon's total workforce, which ran up to 1.5 million people in December 2022, than the cuts seen at some other tech giants.
Jassy told workers that the extra layoffs were necessary as the company seeks to downsize after years of hiring, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic when people turned to the internet for shopping.
Amazon said that the number of packages handled by a "Robin" robotic system used across its operations in North America and Europe eclipsed a billion during the quarter.
Robin uses computer vision and artificial intelligence to help workers sort and handle packages being shipped to Amazon customers, according to the company.
Rising clouds
Amazon's AWS cloud computing unit saw revenue climb 16 percent to $21.4 billion (roughly Rs. 1,74,965 crore), but costs ate into operating income, which tallied $5.1 billion (roughly Rs. 41,697 crore) as compared to $6.5 billion (roughly Rs. 53,143 crore) in the same quarter a year earlier, according to the earnings report.
"Amazon's stronger-than-expected performance for its key profit centers of AWS and advertising indicate that the enterprise and the digital ad sectors may be turning the corner," analyst Lipsman said.
AWS is prioritizing long-term customer relationships as it "navigates companies spending more cautiously in this macro environment," Jassy said.
Microsoft's results for the first three months of the year also pleased investors this week, lifted by its industry-leading business cloud products.
The company founded by Bill Gates reported that revenue from Cloud and AI offerings more than offset drops in money made from licensing Windows software to computer makers, as sales suffer in that market.
Meanwhile, Google parent Alphabet this week reported that its cloud computing business turned a profit for the first time since it began reporting separate figures for that unit.
"I'm pleased with the ongoing momentum in cloud," Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai said on an earnings call.
Alphabet beat market expectations in the first quarter of 2023 in a sign that the search engine behemoth is regaining its footing.
The internet titan became a focus of worry when Microsoft-backed ChatGPT was released and quickly went viral late last year.
The Windows maker has added the technology to its Bing search engine and office software.
The search giant has since rushed out Bard, its own version of the language-based AI, but the release was seen as clumsy and has so far disappointed observers and company insiders, according to media reports.
After the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president, PT Usha, labeled the ongoing protest by India's top wrestlers as "indiscipline", the athletes protesting at Delhi's Jantar Mantar received a shot in the arm on Friday as the Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra called for "quick action to ensure justice".
Rajasthan Royals reclaimed the top spot in the IPL 2023 points table with their win over Chennai Super Kings in Jaipur on Thursday, and visiting skipper MS Dhoni picked giving away too many runs in the powerplay as the primary reason for his side's defeat.
Tottenham Hotspur fought back from two goals down to hold Manchester United to a 2-2 draw on Thursday as Newcastle closed in on Champions League football with a 4-1 thrashing of Everton.
Yashasvi Jaiswal cracked a magnificent 77 before spinners Adam Zampa and Ravichandran Ashwin set up Rajasthan Royals' emphatic 32-run win over Chennai Super Kings in the reverse fixture of the IPL 2023 on Thursday.A delivery executive of an e-commerce firm allegedly stole 10 iPhones by replacing them with dummy phones on the way to deliver them to the customer here, police said on Thursday.
Station in-charge of Matrix Finance Solution, which delivers Amazon's parcel, Ravi in his complaint alleged that on March 27 delivery executive Lalit was handed over a customer's parcel, which contained 10 iPhones and an AirPods, at his address, they said.
However, instead of delivering the parcel, Lalit replaced the iPhones with replicas and sent his brother Manoj to deposit them back to the company claiming that the customer could not be contacted, Ravi said in his complaint.
Suspecting some tampering with the packaging, the parcel was opened and the delivery company found the fake phones inside, police said.
Meanwhile, upon not receiving his parcel, the customer also cancelled his order, they said.
An FIR has been registered against Lalit under sections 420 (cheating), 408 (criminal breach of trust by employee) of the Indian Penal Code at Bilaspur police station on Wednesday, they said.
Efforts are on to nab the accused who is absconding, they said.
Meanwhile, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the deputy minister for information technology, said that the US tech giant Apple could double or triple investments in India, along with exports, over the next few years as the company opened a second store in the world's biggest smartphone market after China.
Apple mainly assembles iPhones in India through Taiwan contract manufacturers but plans to expand into iPads and AirPods, as it looks to cut reliance on China.
Its iPhones made up more than half of total smartphones worth about $9 billion (roughly Rs. 74,000 crore) exported from India between April 2022 and February, data from the India Cellular and Electronics Association shows.
Rayo Vallecano stunned La Liga leaders Barcelona on Wednesday with a 2-1 win, outplaying the Catalans at a rowdy Vallecas.
Holders Inter Milan reached the Italian Cup final on Wednesday after beating Juventus 1-0 to go through to next month's showpiece 2-1 on aggregate.
Jason Roy, one of the architects of Kolkata Knight Riders' much-needed win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League game on Wednesday night, has been fined 10 percent of his match fee for a code-of-conduct breach
Delhi Police on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that it is ready to register an FIR based on the sexual harassment complaint filed by seven women wrestlers against Wrestling Federation of India president and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
Kolkata Knight Riders snapped their four-match losing streak with a comfortable 21-run victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore in the reverse fixture of the IPL 2023 played at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
Catches win matches is an age-old saying but it matters the most when you grab something extraordinary to take out the big fish and the same thing happened on Wednesday when Kolkata Knight Riders' Venkatesh Iyer took an outstanding catch to get rid of Royal Challengers Bangalore's stand-in skipper Virat Kohli in an IPL match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.The Flash just got a new trailer in English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu. At this year's CinemaCon event in Las Vegas, Warner Bros. dropped the second trailer for the standalone 'Scarlet Speedster' movie, which will serve as the reset point for the DC Universe, drawing inspiration from the Flashpoint storyline. Michael Keaton's Batman gets a lot more screentime here, as he touches upon the often talked about pas of Bruce Wayne, and teams up with the two Barry Allens (Ezra Miller) on a dangerous mission to thwart General Zod. The Flash releases June 16 in theatres worldwide, with the release having been brought forward to avoid clashing with Disney's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
The trailer for The Flash opens with a voiceover from Bruce Wayne (Keaton), as we see two versions of Barry Allen (Miller) walking through the mist into Wayne Manor. “I lost my parents. That pain made me who I am,” he says, as we're treated to glimpses of his Batcave. “I spent a lifetime trying to right the wrongs of the past… as if fighting crime would bring my parents back.” We then cut to Bruce opening the doors to his “Bat-closet” of sorts, donning long, scraggly hair, hinting that he's been out of action for a while. The Flash trailer then offers some context to Barry's plight; having discovered Speed Force at the end of Zack Snyder's Justice League, he decided to turn back time and save his parents. However, being an unstable energy source and messing around with time throws him into a world with no metahumans. Meaning, when General Zod (Michael Shannon) arrives on planet Earth, there is no Superman to save the day.
Bruce cleans up, straps on his cape and cowl, and accepts Barry's request in assembling a team of heroes to fix the multiverse. At this point, it's too early to tell if the alternate version of Barry is good or evil, but he's seen in a makeshift Flash suit, working with our heroes. As General Zod wages war on Earth, The Flash trailer introduces Supergirl (Sasha Calle), the Kryptonian who is capable of going head-to-head against the massive threat. It's unclear what Zod's goal here is; in Man of Steel, he went up against Clark Kent/ Kal-El (Henry Cavill), But it appears that he doesn't even exist in this alternate timeline. Could the latter's role have been replaced with Supergirl? Only time will tell.
“You want to get nuts?”, Keaton's Bruce says, as our four heroes head onto the battlefield, offering assistance to the US military. “Let's get nuts.” The Flash trailer quickly switches to a sombre tone, offering glimpses of Barry making contact with his mother, Ben Affleck making his final appearance as Bruce Wayne, and Supergirl beating up Zod with ease. But it seems as though Zod's plan had already been set into motion, causing Barry/ The Flash to ensure that ‘nobody dies' on this mission. Could this be hinting at another Speed Force moment? I mean, our heroes sure look defeated.
The Flash speeds into theatres worldwide on June 16.
England fast bowler Jofra Archer had a minor operation on his troublesome right elbow earlier this month but the procedure is unlikely to harm his chances of selection for the Ashes series against Australia, the Telegraph reported.
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The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked Delhi Police to respond within three days to a petition accusing it of not registering an FIR based on sexual harassment complaints by seven national-level female wrestlers against Wrestling Federation of India president.
Defending champions Gujarat Titans produced a clinical performance to demolish five-time-champions Mumbai Indians by 55 runs in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 match at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.
The 11-member Indian squad will participate at the 2023 World Table Tennis Championships slated to be held in Durban from May 20 to 28. CWG gold medallist Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra, the top-ranked Indian women player, will spearhead the Indian challenge at the event.
Match number 35 of IPL 2023 will see the defending champions Gujarat Titans take on the most successful team in the history of the competition, Mumbai Indians, in Ahmedabad today.
The Chennai hockey fans will get a taste of Indo-Pak rivalry as they look forward to an international event in the city after 16 years. Pakistan confirmed on Monday morning that they will send their team for the Asian Champions Trophy to be held in Chennai from August 3-12.
Sports Ministry stalls Wrestling Federation of India’s May 7 elections, directs IOA to form ad-hoc committee to run day-to-day affairs; wrestlers invite all political parties to join their protest
Royal Challengers Bangalore have been handed hefty fines for maintaining a slow over-rate in their IPL 2023 match against Rajasthan Royals at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday.
Ajinkya Rahane and Shivam Dube fashioned a convincing 49-run victory for Chennai Super Kings, which took them to the top of the table.British chipmaker Arm is building its own semiconductor to showcase the capabilities of its products, as it seeks to attract new customers and fuel growth following its Initial Public Offering (IPO) later this year, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
Arm will team up with manufacturing partners to develop the new semiconductor, FT said, citing people briefed on the move, adding that the company has built a new "solutions engineering" team that will lead the development of these prototype chips for mobile devices, laptops, and other electronics.
The SoftBank Group-backed company's newest chip, on which it started work in the past six months, is "more advanced" than ever before, FT said, citing industry executives.
The chip designer has no plans to sell or license the product and is only working on a prototype, FT said.
Arm is a major supplier of intellectual property to many chip companies, especially in mobile phones and has partnerships with major chip contract manufacturers.
Earlier this month, Intel said it will work with Arm to ensure that mobile phone chips and other products that use Arm's technology can be made in Intel's factories.
Arm did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
The India Premier League 2023 runs from March 31 to May 28, with 10 teams competing for the title. Mumbai Indians have won the title five times, which is the most by any team, followed by Chennai Super Kings' four triumphs, while the Gujarat Titans are the defending champions.
Tennis star Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday said that he is not legendary Rafael Nadal's "replacement" as the teenager comfortably defended his Barcelona title. Alcaraz now has nine career titles under his belt.
Lilia Vu defeated Angel Yin on their first playoff hole to win her first major title on Sunday at the Chevron Championship in The Woodlands, Texas.
The Philadelphia 76ers booked a place in the Eastern Conference semifinals as they accomplished a 4-0 sweep in the NBA playoffs series against Brooklyn Nets on Saturday. Elsewhere in the East, Miami Heat brushed aside Milwaukee Bucks to go 2-1 up.
Punjab restricted Mumbai to 201/6 after putting up 214/8 on the board, led by stand-in skipper Sam Curran's 29-ball 55. But the England allrounder, who was named the 'Player of the Match', said it was the bowlers who won the game for Punjab.
Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku will play in the Coppa Italia semi-final second leg against Juventus on Wednesday after his one-match ban was overturned on Saturday by the president of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) as a measure to fight racism.
Royal Challengers Bangalore openers have been prolific this season. Faf du Plessis is the top-run scorer in the league with 343 runs while Virat Kohli has 279 against his name. Rajasthan Royals openers - Jos Buttler (244) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (180) - are not too far away.
Marco Asensio and Eder Militao struck for Real Madrid in a comfortable 2-0 win over Celta Vigo in La Liga on Saturday, bringing the champions within eight points of leaders Barcelona.
Sachin Tendulkar is nothing if not a man of milestones. He just had to get to another 50, even though he retired ten years ago. And this one feels different to the 68 half-centuries he has scored in Tests, the 96 he cracked in Odis, the 116 he smashed in First-Class cricket and the 114 in List A games.
Rajasthan Royals might be sitting pretty with four wins in six matches, but an inconsistent middle-order remains a major worry for the former champions as they prepare for an away battle against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday.Computer-memory company Netlist convinced a federal jury in Texas on Friday to award it more than $303 million (roughly Rs. 2,500 crore) for Samsung Electronics's infringement of several patents related to improvements in data processing.
The jury in Marshall, Texas determined after a six-day trial that Samsung's "memory modules" for high-performance computing willfully infringed all five patents that Netlist accused the Korean tech giant of violating.
Representatives for the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Netlist stock was up 21 percent following the verdict on Friday afternoon.
Irvine, California-based Netlist sued Samsung in 2021, alleging Samsung memory products used in cloud-computing servers and other data-intensive technology infringe its patents. Netlist said its innovations increase the power efficiency of memory modules and allow users to "derive useful information from vast amounts of data in a shorter period of time."
A Netlist attorney told the jury that Samsung took its patented module technology after the companies had collaborated on another project, according to a court transcript.
Netlist had asked the jury for $404 million (roughly Rs. 3,300 crore) in damages.
Samsung had argued that the patents were invalid and that its technology worked in a different way than Netlist's inventions.
The case is Netlist v. Samsung Electronics, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, No. 2:21-cv-00463.
In another news, it was reported that Samsung Electronics was considering replacing Google with Microsoft-owned Bing as the default search engine on its devices. The report, published by the New York Times over the weekend, underscores the growing challenges Google's $162-billion (roughly Rs. 13,29,477 crore) a-year search engine business face from Bing — a minor player that has risen in prominence recently after the integration of the artificial intelligence tech behind ChatGPT.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
Hailing the bond between CSK fans and Dhoni, former India cricketer Harbhajan Singh -- who has donned the CSK yellow jersey in the past -- claimed the wicketkeeper-batter has accepted all the adulation from the fans with utmost respect.
Eleven years after his most famous triumph, the Portuguese coach found himself in India on a unique mission. He was here as part of the Laureus-supported Slum Soccer programme and the time he spent with kids in the slums of Delhi left a lasting impression.
Having rediscovered their mojo after three wins on the bounce after a familiar slow start, five-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians will look to continue their momentum when they face an inconsistent Punjab Kings in their sixth game of IPL 2023, at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday night.