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Sunrisers sneak home after staving off Punjab’s late surge
Sunrisers Hyderabad stole a two-run victory defending 182 as they notched up their third win of IPL 2024.
The heroes of Punjab’s previous win almost did an encore, launching an exhilarating hitting show at the death. Defending 29 off the final over, Jaydev Unadkat bowled as many as three wides and also saw three dropped catches out of which two were palmed over the ropes. The brute power for Ashutosh was paired with Shashank Singh’s smart strokeplay.
Shashank first hit three boundaries off Bhuvneshwar Kumar when the equation was 67 off the final four. Ashutosh powered a couple of boundaries off Cummins next to keep Punjab in the chase. Only 10 came off the penultimate over bowled by T Natarajan despite two boundaries, and that paved the way for some crucial runs in the bag for Unadkat to defendand taking SRH home after a see-saw game that saw fortunes change hands right through.
At the start of the match, Punjab had a decent start after winning the toss. In what was his best outing so far in IPL 2024, left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh had an opening spell to remember as he prised out both Travis Head and Aiden Markram in the space of three balls. Head could have been dismissed off the first ball of the innings but Punjab Kings failed to review an outside edge.
It allowed Head to then cut loose with three consecutive boundaries off Rabada in his next over. But Arshdeep culled the blows by having Head miscuing a big hit that was taken well by Shikhar Dhawan who had to pedal back and across from mid off. With some movement on offer still, Arshdeep then angled one across Markram who nicked behind giving Arshdeep figures of 2-8 in his first spell.
Despite Arshdeep’s early strikes, SRH kept going hard with Abhishek Sharma embodying that effort. He struck Sam Curran for a four an a six but in an attempt to keep it going, he gave the bowler the charge but only to hit to cover point where Shashank took a good low catch. At 39/3 in five overs, SRH opted to bolsted their batting by subbing out Head for Rahul Tripathi. However, on a pitch that had some assistance for the pacers still Tripathi struggled to get going initially against Harshal Patel who eventually picked him up. Curran pushed for a review against Tripathi’s attempted upper-cut and was proved right as the batter was found to have nicked behind giving Harshal a wicket in the process. For SRH, things took a turn for the worse when Heinrich Klaasen mistimed a loft off Harshal and holed out to long off.
Just when the innings seemed to be going nowhere at 100/5, SRH found two youngsters answering their distress call. 20-year-old Nitish Reddy had been thrust in early at No. 4. With wickets falling consistently, Reddy’s first 18 balls fetched only 14 runs. But with counterattack as the fallback option, he along with Abdul Samad proceeded to take apart PBKS in the middle overs. Reddy’s last 19 balls saw him hit three fours and five sixes as he raced away to a well-earned fifty, with a pull off Rabada being a standout shot before he laid into Harpreet Brar in his final over to hit him for 22 runs. Samad, at the other end, picked up four boundaries in total off Harshal Patel and played his part in a 50-run stand that came off just 20 balls.
The final four overs saw SRH lose three crucial wickets but also manage 32 runs with Shabaz Ahmed and Jaydev Unadkat managing crucial boundaries. Inbetween, Arshdeep finished off as he started with a double-wicket over that saw him get both the set batters. The eventual target of 183 ended up as a competitive one even as dew began to settle in.
Punjab Kings ended up with the lowest powerplay total of the season with just 27 coming in the first six overs. Skipper Pat Cummins set the tone by getting Jonny Bairstow bowled for a duck in his first over. Bhuvneshwar Kumar complemented that with two strikes – first getting Prabhsimran Singh to miscue a big hit and then having Shikhar Dhawan stumped thanks to Heinrich Klaasen’s sharp glovework. At 20/3, the chase appeared to have derailed early but Punjab Kings managed to keep hitting back.
Punjab’s riposte to the early breaks came in the form of more bluster from the middle order. First Sam Curran hit a couple of fours and as many sixes before he fell for 29 with Cummins taking a good overhead catch. But Sikandar Raza continued the good work matching Curran’s boundary-count in his 22-ball 28 while Jitesh Sharma scored a quick 19. But both Raza and Jitesh fell in quick succession, leaving Punjab Kings with an uphill task of chasing 69 in 27 balls, which was turned into a nail-biter by the brilliance of Ashutosh and Shashank.
Brief Scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 182/9 in 20 overs (Nitish Reddy 64; Arshdeep Singh 4-29) beat Punjab Kings in 20 overs 180/6 (Shashank Singh 46*, Ashutosh Sharma 33*) by 2 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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