JAIPUR, India (AP) — Punjab Kings failed to clinch a top-two spot in the Indian Premier League after being thrashed by Delhi Capitals by six wickets on Saturday.
Playoffs-bound Punjab made a strong 206-8 but Sameer Rizvi with a blistering unbeaten 58 off 25 balls — his maiden IPL half-century — led Delhi’s winning chase to 208-4.
The game was replayed after it was called off in Dharamsala on May 8 when the floodlights went off during air raid alerts in the second innings. The IPL was later suspended due to the military strikes between India and Pakistan.
Mumbai Indians, Gujarat Titans and Royal Challengers Bengaluru are the others to have filled out the playoff spots but their final positions are still to be determined. The top two have home advantage.
Rizvi and Karun Nair, who made 44, revived Delhi’s chase after it lost seasoned pros Lokesh Rahul (35) and captain Faf du Plessis (23) inside the first seven overs.
Nair, who was recalled to the India test team after eight years on Saturday, took his time to settle before he smashed leg-spinner Praveen Dubey for four straight boundaries in the 11th over.
Nair added 62 runs with Rizvi until Nair's leg stump was knocked back by spinner Harpreet Brar just before the death overs. Delhi still needed 52 off the final five overs.
Rizvi continued to attack and got lucky when he edged an Azmatullah Omarzai yorker but it flew to the fine leg boundary.
Rizvi swept Marcus Stoinis for a huge six on the leg side to raise the victory with three balls to spare.
Punjab captain Shreyas Iyer made 53 and held the innings together in the middle overs before Stoinis' late flourish of an unbeaten 44 off 16 balls which included four sixes.
Delhi left-arm fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman bagged 3-33, but pacers Mukesh Kumar (1-49) and Mohit Sharma (0-47) conceded 25 and 22 runs respectively in their last overs to give Punjab a late surge.
Mustafizur dismissed Priyansh Arya in the second over but Josh Inglis kickstarted Punjab by smashing 32 off 12 balls. Inglis was stumped by Vipraj Nigam’s wide ball down the leg side.
Iyer scored freely despite wickets falling around the Punjab captain. Iyer reached his half-century off 33 balls and was caught at fine leg off Kuldeep Yadav in a three-run 18th over.
However, Stoinis smacked 32 runs off the final two overs, hitting Sharma for 6-4-4-6. Brar smacked six off the first ball he faced and took Punjab past 200 for the seventh time this season.
AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
Punjab Kings' captain Shreyas Iyer plays a shot during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, India, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Surjeet Yadav)
Delhi Capitals' Sameer Rizvi and Karun Nair cheer each others during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, India, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Surjeet Yadav)
Delhi Capitals' Sameer Rizvi plays a shot during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, India, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Surjeet Yadav)
ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.
The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.
The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.
The U.S.-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Islamic State group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria's national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”
The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.
Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.
The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.
On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.
Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.
“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”
Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.
Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.
“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.
Associated Press journalist Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.
Sandbag barriers used as fighting positions by Kurdish fighters, left inside a destroyed mosque in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Burned vehicles at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
People flee the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
A Syrian military police convoy enters the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Burned vehicles and ammunitions left at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
