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Ravindra 240 and Jamieson’s burst make it New Zealand’s day
Coming into the Mount Maunganui Test, Rachin Ravindra had never batted in the top six in Test cricket and had all of 73 runs in six innings at 14.60. In just one innings here, the left-hander has more than tripled his numbers on both counts. Given the all-important No. 4 slot, Ravindra cashed in scoring a sparkling 240 to help New Zealand extend their dominance over South Africa on day two of the first Test.
South Africa captain and debutant Neil Brand finished with figures of 6 for 119, but Ravindra’s double on the back of Kane Williamson’s 118 helped New Zealand amass 511 in their first innings. Kyle Jamieson struck twice as South Africa ended the second day 80 for 4 still trailing the hosts by a massive 431 runs.
Resuming their day on 258 for 2, New Zealand lost Williamson early, but Ravindra continued from where he left on day one. With the second new ball just six overs old, South Africa surprisingly did not go with Tshepo Moreki first up on the second day, instead starting with allrounder Ruan de Swardt and Dane Paterson.
Paterson got the wobble seam going his way and induced an edge off Ravindra’s blade with just his second ball but there was no third slip in place to take the catch. Williamson got his first boundary of the day with a thick edge past gully but failed to carry on. Looking to unsettle de Swardt’s consistent wicket-to-wicket lines, he eyed an uncharacteristic cross-batted hoick, but all he could manage was a top edge that ballooned straight up with Moreki taking the catch at mid-on. That ended a 232-run association between Williamson and Ravindra off 472 balls.
Having been padded up for ages, Mitchell immediately got going with a full-blooded lofted drive past mid-on. Moreki didn’t have the same kind of nip that he found on day one and was pulled stylishly by Ravindra through midwicket. Duanne Olivier was handed similar treatment before two delicious straight drives helped Ravindra breach the 150 mark in Tests for the first time.
Having played circumspect cricket for about four sessions, New Zealand notched up a gear after lunch. Ravindra got his second session underway with a delightful drive past mid-off off de Swardt while Mitchell pulled Dane Paterson with disdain through square leg.
Mitchell lofted de Swardt for a straight six but fell soon after courtesy of a stunning caught and bowled by Neil Brand. Mitchell pummeled a tossed-up length ball back but Brand stuck out both hands to his left and plucked out a quite spectacular take much to the shock of Mitchell.
Tom Blundell came in and struck a four but soon mistimed a heave to short midwicket who took a low catch. Meanwhile, it was a nervous wait for Ravindra on 199. With Blundell falling and Glenn Phillips not able to hand him back the strike, the youngster had to endure close to 20 minutes on the score and go through a drinks break as well.
Ravindra finally reached the milestone by cutting a short-of-a-length ball towards cover as he removed his helmet to soak up the applause. With the double-hundred checked, Ravindra and Phillips decided to go into overdrive adding a 82-run stand off just 71 balls for the sixth wicket.
Ravindra notched up the highest score by a New Zealand batter for his maiden Test century when he went past Matthew Sinclair’s 214 but fell minutes before tea cleaned up by Brand for 240. South Africa struck four times in the session, but New Zealand had added 145 runs in 27 overs going at over five an over.
New Zealand came looking for some quick runs in the final session and Matt Henry provided that by smashing one four and three sixes in his nine-ball 27. Brand, however, picked the last three wickets first going through Mitchell Santner’s defences and then taking out Henry and Tim Southee in one over to become the first South African spinner to bag a six-for on Test debut.
In reply, the South African openers, Brand and Edward Moore, both on debut, held their own for nine overs and a bit. Moore got going with a fierce cut off Southee through point before repeating the shot for a similar result. Brand was more solid in defense getting right behind the line of the ball.
Jamieson, however, came on and changed the face of the match. He first sent back Brand with a fuller delivery that threatened to come back in but held its line. Brand, unsure whether to play or leave the delivery fathered a tiny edge to the wicketkeeper. Two balls later debutant Raymond van Tonder was trapped right in front of the stumps by a Jamieson inswinger. Henry then got rid of Moore with a snorter that he could only glove to Conway who rushed in from cover-point to dive and complete a stunning catch as South Africa slipped to 30 for 3 after 15 overs.
David Bedingham and Zubayr Hamza, however, took the attack to the opposition. Hamza first struck Henry for two successive fours before Bedingham cracked Southee for three fours in the next over. Bedingham was dropped by Henry at deep backward square leg but barring that looked largely untroubled. The duo added 44 off 53 balls for the fourth wicket before Hamza was castled by Santner.
At the end of play on the second day, Bedingham had reached 29 off 39 balls with five fours to his name and had Keegan Peterson for company on 2.
Brief scores:
South Africa 80 for 4 in 28 overs (David Bedingham 29*, Edward Moore 23, Zubayr Hamza 22; Kyle Jamieson 2-21) trail New Zealand 511 in 144 overs (Tom Latham 20, Rachin Ravindra 240, Kane Williamson 118, Daryl Mitchell 34, Glenn Phullips 39, Matt Henry 27; Neil Brand 6-119, Ruan de Swardt 2-61) by 431 runs
The aid group Doctors Without Borders has reported recovering 11 bodies and rescuing dozens of people off the coast of Libya as it criticised the migration policies of the North African country and European countries.
In a statement on Friday, the group, known by its French initials MSF, said its Geo Barents rescue vessel managed to recover the bodies following a search operation lasting more than nine hours after being alerted by German nongovernmental organisation Sea-Watch, which also rescues refugees and migrants.
“As we cannot determine the reason behind this tragedy, we know that people will continue to take dangerous routes in a desperate attempt to reach safety, and Europe must find safe and legal pathways for them,” MSF said in a post on X. “This catastrophe must end!”
Sea-Watch said it is unclear whether the bodies were victims of a previously unknown shipwreck, adding that they tried to contact Libya’s coastguard to go and retrieve the dead, but received no reply.
“The so-called Libyan coastguard – financed by the EU – ignored our call demanding that the bodies be recovered,” the group said.
Thousands of people trying to head from Africa to Europe use Libya as a departing point, with the Italian island of Lampedusa the nearest European destination as they undertake the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean to escape war, poverty and persecution.
Italy, which wants to put a stop to the migration stream, has said Libya and neighbouring Tunisia must do more to stop people from going to sea. It has also clamped down on the operation of the rescue ships, arguing that they encourage people to head to Europe, a charge that is denied by the charities.
Emphasising its policy on the rescue ships, Italy said on Friday that it forced the MSF rescue vessel to take the 165 people that it had saved from boats in the Mediterranean operation to the northern port of Genoa. The port was more than 650 nautical miles (1,200km) from their position and much farther than the more convenient ports in nearby Sicily, significantly delaying assistance to the rescued.
The route in the central Mediterranean is the most dangerous migrant crossing in the world, with the United Nations registering more than 20,000 deaths and disappearances in the area since 2014.
More than 3,000 refugees and migrants went missing in 2023 while attempting to use the route, according to the International Organization for Migration.
According to Italy’s interior ministry, the number of arrivals in the country has dropped in 2024 to fewer than 21,800 people since the beginning of the year, compared with close to 53,300 in the same period last year.
[Aljazeera]
Nuwan Thushara’s last over brought Sri Lanka screaming back into the match,as he first bowled Rishad Hossain, and then nailed Taskin Ahmed in front of the stumps with a pinpoint swinging yorker. This left Bangladesh eight wickets down, with 12 runs still to get.
However, the experienced Mahmudullah was at the crease for Bangladesh, and despite some further nervy moments, pushed Bangladesh across the line off the last ball of the 19th over.
But this was a match chiefly decided by Bangladesh’s own outstanding bowling. Mustafizur Rahman was the best among them, using shorter lengths and his cutters efficiently, to claim figures of 3 for 17. Rishad Hossain’s three-for through the middle overs also kept Sri Lanka quiet.
Mustafizur was instrumental in Sri Lanka’s downward spiral through the middle overs, which culminated in a crash-and-burn end. Ultimately, their inability to find boundaries, or even rotate strike against good Bangladesh bowling resulted in their downfall. A score of 125 for 9 always seemed poor on a decent pitch, even if their bowlers made a match of it in the end.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 125 for 8 in 19 overs (Towhid Hridoy 40, Litton Das 36; Dhanajaya de Silva 1-11, Nuwan Thushara 4-18, Wanidu Hasaranga 2-32, Matheesha Pathirana 1-27) beat Sri Lanka124 for 9 in 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 47, Dhananjaya de Silva 21; Tanzim Hasan Sakib 1-24, Taskin Ahmed 2-25, Mustafizur Rahman 3-17, Rishad Hossain 3-22) by two wickets
[Cricinfo]
Afghanistan boosted their Super Eight chances with yet another dominating win, this time thumping New Zealand by 84 runs in Providence. Having beaten Uganda by 125 runs in their opening match, they are now at the top of Group C with a net run rate of 5.225.
After being sent in, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran gave Afghanistan a start of 103 in 14.3 overs. It came off the back of the 154 the pair added against Uganda, thus making them the first opening pair to register two successive century stands in the history of the T20 World Cup.
Afghanistan’s was an innings of two halves. They scored 55 for no loss in the first ten overs and 104 for 6 in the last ten, with Gurbaz contributing 80 off 56 balls. New Zealand, who had decided not to play any warm-up games, looked every bit rusty as their fielders dropped catches and missed run-out opportunities.
With the pitch assisting both seamers and spinners, chasing 160 was not going to be easy. But few would have expected New Zealand to collapse in the manner they did.
Fazalhaq Farooqi picked up three wickets in the powerplay and Rashid Khan three just after it. Eventually, both ended with identical figures of 4 for 17 as New Zealand were bowled out for 75 in the 15.2 overs. Glenn Phillips and Matt Henry were the only New Zealand batters to reach the double digits.
Trent Boult found some swing in the opening over but Gurbaz and Ibrahim showed their intent by picking up three fours off Henry from the other end. Both batters had luck on their side, too. Gurbaz got a second life when he skipped down the track to Santner and missed the ball, which went on to brush the leg stump but the bails did not budge. In the following over, Finn Allen dropped Ibrahim off Henry at the deep-square-leg boundary.
That was not all. Gurbaz got another reprieve after being involved in a miscommunication with Ibrahim. Having taken off for a single, Gurbaz had to retrace his steps and would have been run out had Conway not fumbled the throw.
Two balls later, New Zealand finally seemed to have found success when Santner pinged Ibrahim’s pads and umpire Kumar Dharmasena ruled it lbw. But the batter got the decision overturned on review as the ball was heading down the leg side. Immediately after that, Ibrahim hit Santner for an inside-out four as Afghanistan ended the powerplay on 44 for no loss.
New Zealand went against the prevailing wisdom of not bowling an offspinner when two right-hand batters at the crease, and Michael Bracewell repaid that faith by conceding only six off his first two overs.
Lockie Ferguson was even more frugal, going for five in his first two. He could have had Ibrahim off a slower full toss but a leaping Kane Williamson failed to pull off a one-handed stunner at mid-off. That meant while Afghanistan remained unscathed, they had only 55 on the board after ten overs.
Afghanistan had not hit a single six in the first ten overs, but there were five in the next three, including three in one Bracewell over as Gurbaz and Bracewell stepped on the accelerator. The pair took the side past 100 in the 14th over. New Zealand finally broke through when Ibrahim bottom-edged a short ball from Henry onto his stumps, after having been hit on the grille on the previous delivery.
Promoted to No. 3, Azmatullah Omarzai played his part with 22 off 13, which included two sixes in three balls off Henry. Mohammad Nabi fell for a first-ball duck but Gurbaz kept finding the boundary at regular intervals. However, a three-wicket, three-run final over by Boult kept Afghanistan to 159.
Farooqi gave Afghanistan a dream start with the ball. With the very first delivery of the innings, he uprooted Finn Allen’s leg stump as the ball moved in late. In the seamer’s next over, Conway pushed at one that seemed to come slower off the surface and was caught at extra cover.
The decision to give Farooqi a third over in the powerplay brought further rewards. This time, bowling around the wicket to Daryl Mitchell, he got a length delivery to just straighten and take the outside edge. Gurbaz took a regulation catch to complete the dismissal and leave New Zealand 28 for 3.
It could have been worse for New Zealand. In between, Naveen-ul-Haq had rapped Kane Williamson’s front pad after the batter had moved across to play a delivery. Afghanistan sent it upstairs for an lbw review but the umpire’s call saved the New Zealand captain.
Afghanistan did not have to wait too long for Williamson’s wicket. Rashid brought himself on after the powerplay and struck straightaway as Williamson guided one to first slip. But Rashid was just warming up. In his next over, he dismissed Mark Chapman and Bracewell off successive deliveries to leave New Zealand on 43 for 6. Chapman went for a pull and got bowled; Bracewell was late to bring his bat down and was lbw.
Phillips was New Zealand’s last hope. He did hit a couple of boundaries but was soon caught at long-on when he tried to take on Nabi. That ended any hopes of revival New Zealand might have had.
Brief scores:
Afghanistan 159 for 6 in 20 overs (Rahmanullah Gurbaz 80, Ibrahim Zadran 44, Azmatullah Omarzai 22; Trent Boult 2-22, Matt Henry 2-37, Lockie Fergusoan 1-28) beat New Zealand 75 in 15.2 overs (Glenn Phillips 18; Rashid Khan 4 for 17, Fazalhaq Farooqi 4 for 17, Mohammad Nabi 2-16) by 84 runs
[Cricinfo]
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