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Ashwin stars as dominant India decimate England
avichandran Ashwin’s 36th five-wicket haul (5-77) in Tests led India’s clinical bowling display on the third day of the fifth Test against England in Dharamsala, powering the hosts to a mammoth victory margin of an innings and 64 runs. The off-spinner became only the fourth bowler in history to achieve a fifer in the 100th Test and ended the game level with Muttiah Muralitharan for the most wickets in the landmark Test – 9. Joe Root (84) was the only England batter in the second innings to show resolve and he looked largely flawless at the crease, only to run out of partners at the other end.
Tom Hartley promised to dig in for a bit with Root before the former was taken out by a Jasprit Bumrah special to be trapped LBW. In the same over, India’s vice-captain produced a similar nut to get Mark Wood LBW. Shoaib Bashir, though, dug in for a while to support Root’s quest for a ton and the partnership stretched the game deep into the session. However, a cracker from Ravindra Jadeja cleaned up Bashir, leaving Root with no choice but to take the bowling on. In the process, he perished to long-on, to give India a crushing win. Much like in the first innings, England’s batting once again came a cropper.
After James Anderson’s landmark 700th scalp in the morning session had hastened the end of India’s innings, the onus was on England to put up a strong fight to sign off the tour. Unfortunately for them, that wasn’t to be. Ashwin sliced through the top-order with his guile, forcing England’s batters to play with indecision. Jonny Bairstow (39 off 31) threatened to provide some entertainment but as was the case in the first innings, his fun was cut short by Kuldeep Yadav as soon as the wrist spinner was brought on. When Stokes fell to Ashwin at the stroke of lunch, it was a dismissal that summed up England’s fortunes in the series.
If Ashwin sealed the game on day three, the victory was set up by Kuldeep’s brilliance (5-72) on day one. While England’s decision to bat under seamer-friendly conditions was a brave one, it was soon evident that it was the right call. After the morning session, the pitch started to play true, allowing batters to play their shots. However, there was just a bit of hold in there for spinners if they were willing to be accurate, and Kuldeep was just that. It also helped that he had a bag of tricks to which England had no answer to. Right through the series, the 29-year-old had dented the visitors with his repertoire and Dharamsala was no different.
Zak Crawley (79) showed that runs were there to be made but his dismissal also showed how good Kuldeep was in the first innings. The visitors lost six wickets in just 37 balls and on a good batting surface, that was unpardonable. Ashwin duly mopped up the lower order to end with a four-fer in the first innings, and that momentum was carried on by the veteran into the second innings when he bowled close to his best in the series. India’s batters didn’t make the mistake of their counterparts and feasted on the surface by piling on the runs. Yashasvi Jaiswal smashed a fifty, going past 700 runs in the series as well but couldn’t kick on.
However, the momentum he gave set up Rohit Sharma (103) and Shubman Gill (110) to notch up their respective second tons of the series. Their 171-run stand flattened England as runs came at a brisk pace with boundaries. Both took the spinners to the cleaners and Stokes’ unorthodox plans with the field sets also didn’t work. Rohit feasted on anything short and wide on either side of the wicket while Shubman Gill’s footwork against spin was a delight to watch. England did remove the set batters in succession through Stokes’ magic ball – his first of the series – to remove the Indian captain. Anderson then removed Gill but India refused to put their foot off the pedal.
The visitors then had to contend with fifties from Devdutt Padikkal (65) and Sarfaraz Khan (56). The duo came out with a counterpunch mentality at a time when England were hoping to make further inroads with the ball reversing. Both had their moments of fortune but also displayed tremendous bravado through testing spells. Even Kuldeep (30) himself was involved in a 49-run stand with Bumrah (20) as India’s batters blunted England’s venomless bowling attack to the core. Bashir (5-173) ended with a fifer and while he did bowl well in parts, the inexperience showed.
England’s moments to remember in the game were Anderson’s milestone and Stokes’ ripper to Sharma. Across the series, the visitors’ bowling attack got found out and so did their muddled batting approach. On a sporting Dharamsala surface, India were just too hot to handle.
Brief scores:
England 218 and 195 (Joe Root 84; Ashwin 5-77) lost to India 477 (Shubman Gill 110, Rohit Sharma 103, Devdutt Padikkal 65; Shoaib Bashir 5-173) by an innings and 64 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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