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New Zealand claim historic series win despite Virat Kohli's heroics

A fighting 54th ODI century from Virat Kohli went in vain as New Zealand sealed their first bilateral ODI series win in India with an impressive display in Indore. New Zealand were propelled by another century from Daryl Mitchell and Glenn Phillips helped himself to his second ODI ton as well to help them post a massive total. While India's hopes appeared to end early, Kohli managed to drag the contest right until the end alongside Nitsh Reddy and Harsh*t Rana, only for India to fall short by 41 runs.
India had actually put New Zealand under the pump very early in the game. A late call from Henry Nicholls to leave his first ball of the match cost him dearly as the ball clattered into the stumps after an inside edge. Three balls later, Devon Conway edged Rana's first ball straight to first slip to leave New Zealand stuttering at 5/2 after just seven deliveries into the contest. That meant the onus was on the man in form Mitchell again to resurrect his side. Mitchell and Will Young got New Zealand going with a boundary almost every over in the powerplay to allay any fears of a massive collapse.

England's dismal Ashes tour concluded with a five-wicket loss in the fifth Test, securing Australia's 4-1 series victory.

Australia chased a target of 160 after lunch on the final day in the sunshine of the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Disrupted by injuries, including to captain Pat Cummins, Australia dominated yet another Ashes on home soil - this was their fourth consecutive series win down under - and extended a hold of the urn that began in 2018.
In what was billed as a golden chance to at least compete in this country, the tourists never recovered from an astonishing implosion to lose the first Test in Perth in two days.

Hampered by a lack of adequate preparation, scrutinised for their off-field activities, then hit by a loss of form and injuries to key players, England surrendered the series at the earliest opportunity with defeats in the first three Tests.

A few short weeks ago, England arrived on these shores full of swagger and with a genuine chance of winning the Ashes on Australian soil for the first time since 2010-11. Australia looked unusually vulnerable, particularly when captain Pat Cummins and his fellow paceman Josh Hazlewood went down injured before the first Test, leaving Mitchell Starc to lead a ‘second-string’ attack on the bouncy deck at Perth Stadium.

And for much of the first two days, the Ashes was a dogfight. Both teams ran from their corner and threw a multitude of punches, with 19 wickets falling on an incredible first day. But the turning point came on day two. England were on top, having cruised to 65-1 and a lead of 105 runs. Then Scott Boland produced some of his magic, triggering a collapse of four wickets for 11 runs in 19 balls. Ultimately, England lost 9 for 99 but set a total of 205, still had ascendancy in a Test where no team had scored more than 172.

Enter Travis Head. The maverick with the moustache straight out of 70s central casting wasn’t supposed to open but Usman Khawaja had tweaked his back so out Trav strode… and off he went. As a delirious crowd of 49,983 crowd cheered every blow, Head lashed the third-fastest Test ton by an Aussie as his side cruised to victory in 28.2 overs and won the first Test by eight wickets.

Bangladesh's World Cup schedule remains unchanged.

The status quo is being maintained, as the International Cricket Council (ICC) appears to have received no concrete or actionable intelligence regarding a security threat to the Bangladesh team, an issue the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) raised in its recent letter to the world body, requesting the relocation of their T20 World Cup games out of India.

During an online meeting between ICC authorities and BCB officials on Tuesday (January 6), the safety and security of Bangladesh team was discussed, and BCB representatives were told that the ICC has no assessment indicating any threat to their players in India.
The ICC's final decision is expected to be conveyed to the BCB in the coming days, no later than January 10.
Bangladesh are scheduled to play three Group C matches in Kolkata - against West Indies on February 7, Italy on February 9 and England on February 14 - before facing Nepal in Mumbai on February 17.

As a further counter, the BCB also banned the broadcast of the IPL in their country. Meanwhile, it emerged on Tuesday that Mustafizur has joined the Pakistan Super League (PSL), a development the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has indicated.

Sarvam Maya Box Office Worldwide Collection Tenth Day: Nivin Pauly's Film Joins The ₹100 Crore Club

Sarvam Maya Box Office Worldwide Collection Day 10: Nivin Pauly, the popular Malayalam star is now back in the top of his game, with Akhil Sathyan's horror comedy film. Sarvam Maya, which stars Riya Shibu as the female lead, has earned the blockbuster status just within the first 10 days of its release. The movie has now emerged as Nivin Pauly's first-ever ₹100 crore film.

Some of the cast and crew have shared the Rs 100-crore posters of Sarvam Maya but the worldwide box office collection of the Sarvam Maya movie is Rs 92 crore, as per trade tracker Sacnilk. Nivin Pauly’s film trails behind all-time blockbuster Lokah, Mohanlal thrillers Empuraan and Thudarum to become the fourth-highest-grossing Malayalam film of 2025. If other language films are also considered, Rishab Shetty’s epic Kantara is in the fourth spot of top grossers in Kerala and relegates Sarvam Maya to the fifth spot.

The India Malayalam net collection of Sarvam Maya is Rs 44.95 crore, and India gross collection at Rs 53 crore. The Nivin Pauly film, which was released on December 25, 2025, has been making the most of the festive holidays

Shreyas Iyer returns to India's ODI squad as vice-captain for New Zealand series

Shreyas Iyer will make his return to India's ODI squad as the team's vice-captain for the three-match series against New Zealand. His selection though is subject to receiving a fitness clearance from the BCCI Centre of Excellence following a spleen injury sustained while fielding during a match against Australia in Sydney last October

India squad:Shubman Gill (c), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (wk), Shreyas Iyer (vc)*, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Harsh*t Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal

Shubman Gill himself will return to lead the side after missing the ODI series against South Africa last month due to a neck injury picked up during the Kolkata Test. The return of the two senior batters has meant that Ruturaj Gaikwad and Tilak Varma have had to make way, this despite both scoring a century each in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Rishabh Pant holds on to his spot in the squad as the second 'keeper behind KL Rahul with Dhruv Jurel now left out.

The most significant absentee is Hardik Pandya, who has not been deemed fit to bowl his full quota of 10 overs by the CoE. With the T20 World Cup starting next month, the selectors have opted to manage his workload carefully, ruling him out of this series.

Akshaye Khanna's Dhurandhar hits the screens today

The espionage thriller Dhurandhar, directed by Aditya Dhar and starring Ranveer Singh, has released a revised version in cinemas nationwide after the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting ordered changes to certain dialogues and muted words due to political sensitivities.

Aditya Dhar’s espionage thriller Dhurandhar has continued its dominance at the Indian box office since its release on December 5 2025. The film, led by Ranveer Singh and Akshaye Khanna, has officially crossed the Rs 1,100 crore mark, outpacing previous blockbusters such as Pathaan (2023), Jawan (2023), and Chhaava. Despite its commercial success, Dhurandhar has faced controversy, with some labelling it as propaganda due to perceived political undertones.

The film’s box office performance remains unaffected by these developments. In India alone, Dhurandhar has accumulated over Rs 720 crore within 27 days of release. Ranveer Singh’s portrayal of an Indian spy infiltrating a terror group in Pakistan has resonated with local audiences.

Featuring standout films like Lokah, Feminichi Fathima, Moonwalk, and Eko, here are the 10 best Malayalam movies of 2025.

Top 10 Malayalam movies of 2025: Although 2025 wasn’t as eventful for Malayalam cinema as 2024, mainly because the number of phenomenal hits and impressive works dipped, the year nonetheless saw the industry expand its horizons at the box office, entering the Rs 300 crore club for the first time. Subsequently, Malayalam cinema also made strides at the 71st National Film Awards, with Mohanlal earning the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, actors Vijayaraghavan and Urvashi bagging trophies for their performances, and movies like Ullozhukku and Pookkaalam winning big. However, one can’t deny that there was a significant dearth of impressive mainstream movies, as well as out-of-the-box films, that made an impact at the box office, such as last year’s Manjummel Boys, Aavesham, Premalu, Ajayante Randam Moshanam (ARM), and Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil, The Goat Life, Bramayugam, and Kishkindha Kaandam.

While many highly anticipated commercial films utterly disappointed the audience, a couple of smaller, less ambitious works stole their hearts this time, proving once again that scale can never be the yardstick for quality. Nonetheless, 2025 also saw Malayalam cinema make it evident, with Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra, what a brilliant filmmaker and their exceptional team can achieve when their remarkable idea is given ample financial backing to reach fruition. As the year draws to a close, here are the Malayalam movies SCREEN considers the best among those released in 2025. (The films are listed in chronological order of their theatrical/OTT release and not arranged by rank)

Netflix crashes once again following the highly anticipated Stranger Things finale premiere.

Netflix experienced widespread service disruptions as the Stranger Things Season 5 finale premiered on the morning of January 1, 2026 (IST), leaving thousands of subscribers unable to stream the highly anticipated final episode. Outage trackers and user reports indicated that viewers across multiple regions faced error messages, buffering, and unexpected logouts as traffic surged within minutes of the release.

The disruption coincided with one of Netflix’s largest release events of the year, with the long-running series drawing massive simultaneous viewership. Social media quickly filled with screenshots of failed login attempts and loading errors, as frustrated fans reported being locked out during the show’s final moments.

This marks the second time this season that Stranger Things has strained Netflix’s infrastructure. In November, the release of Volume 1 of Season 5 also triggered a brief global outage due to overwhelming demand.

The finale is the eighth episode of the fifth and last season. Netflix adopted a split-release strategy for the season, launching the first four episodes on Thanksgiving Day as Stranger Things 5: Volume 1, followed by three more episodes on Christmas under Volume 2.

Sarvam Maya' box office collections day 6: Nivin Pauly back in Form...Gross 26 crores in All over India

Nivin Pauly’s 'Sarvam Maya' is showing a strong and steady run at the box office. After a good start, the film is holding well even on weekdays.

The film has not seen a big drop on day 6 and this is a good sign. According to day 4 the film collected Rs 5.8 crores. Day 5 brought Rs 4.25 crores and day 6 followed closely with Rs 4.15 crores. The collections are still solid for a weekday even witha small dip. The film is now being praised as a proper comeback for Nivin Pauly.

The horror comedy is directed by Akhil Sathyan. It stars Nivin Pauly along with Aju Varghese, Preity Mukhundhan, and Janardhanan. The film has opened to positive reviews from both critics and audiences.