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Broad’s late strikes leaves Edgbaston Test in balance
Even after a day when Australia would believe they had a better outing, they are left needing 174 runs with seven wickets in hand. The visitors bundled out England for 273, set themselves a target of 281 and reached 107 for 3 by the end of the fourth day’s play at Edgbaston, on Monday. While Nathan Lyon and Pat Cummins led the charge with the ball, picking four wickets each, Usman Khawaja yet again kept one end safe with the bat, heading to stumps unbeaten on 34.
England, resuming on 28 for 2 after a rain-hit third day, started aggressively with Joe Root bringing out three reverse scoops in the first seven balls of the morning. After having failed in his first attempt, he picked up a six and a boundary off the next two, despite three slip fielders and a wicketkeeper standing up. The 16-run over off Scott Boland set in motion England’s approach on the day.
Australia struck in the first hour itself, with Cummins’ inswinging yorker cleaning up Ollie Pope on 14. However, while Pope largely remained away from the strike, Root was scoring at nearly run-a-ball with Boland being at the receiving end of his cuts and drives that raced away for boundaries.
Harry Brook took some time to settle in, but once he got going, Root took the secondary role. Brook was aided by a couple of short deliveries by Lyon and he duly put them away to welcome the offspinner into the attack with boundaries. Root, who had slowed down for a brief period decided to attack the offie soon after the drinks interval but missed out on a big hit after stepping out against the spinner and was stumped with ease on 46.
With the ball moving around a bit, England slowed down considerably after Root’s dismissal. Brook, who had been tied down for a while, eventually fell while looking to break-free. He pulled Lyon straight to the mid wicket fielder, and departed four short of a fifty.
England, uncharacteristically, made a watchful start post Lunch, after having been tested for a brief period late in the morning session. However, Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow managed to add 46 runs for the sixth wicket before the latter was eventually trapped leg-before by Lyon. He took a review for the second time in his innings, but this one didn’t come to his rescue.
Stokes was the more aggressive of the two in the partnership, taking advantage of the width offered by Boland and Cummins, cracking the duo for a couple of boundaries each. While he took advantage of Boland’s lines, he tried to disturb Cummins’ length. Just when it seemed Bairstow had settled in and smashed a couple of boundaries off the Australian captain through the point-cover region, he fell.
Stokes departed soon after, undone by an incoming delivery from Cummins. He also took a review which showed that the ball would’ve clipped the top of the legstump. He became the third English batter to have missed out on a half-century on Monday (19)
Josh Hazlewood bowled a testing spell of short-picthed deliveries and nearly had Ollie Robinson and Stuart Broad caught fending. But despite the best diving efforts of Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith, the duo survived. However, Moeen Ali was caught behind nicking a short delivery down the legside.
Despite reducing England 229/8 in the third quarter of the post-Lunch session, Australia had to wait for 70 balls to dismiss the last two batters, a period in which England managed to add 44 runs. Lyon and Cummins eventually cleaned up the tail, setting base for an interesting fourth innings.
In response, Australia, after three poor starts in England this summer, finally managed a good one with openers – Khawaja and David Warner stitching a half-century stand. There wasn’t much assistance for the pacers, and Khawaja got going with a couple of boundaries in the first over of the chase itself. Warner, on the other hand, took his time to settle in.
Soon enough, the duo went conservative with their stroke play, playing out the first hour of the post Tea session rather dourly. Barring a couple of deliveries from Moeen Ali that ripped past them, there wasn’t much danger posed by the English attack. Robinson, who had bowled a couple of maiden overs on a trot, began to lose his line and length and offered ample opportunities for Warner and Khawaja to score some easy boundaries.
However, just when it seemed like Warner was getting comfortable, a delivery from Robinson from round the wicket nibbled away slightly and caught the outside edge of his bat to the ‘keeper.
Labuschagne took little time to settle at the crease. He got going by reverse sweeping Moeen for a boundary, and followed it up with a couple of more hits to the fence. But his stay was short-lived. For the second time in the match, he was caught edging an out-swinger by Broad to the ‘keeper.
After a half-century stand to begin with, Australia failed to capitalise, and England sneaked with another wicket late in the day, with Smith too falling for an out-swinger – looking to drive at a full delivery but only edging to the ‘keeper.
Boland, who was brought in as a nightwatchman for the last 20 minutes of play, did well to keep Khawaja safe at the other end and even picked up three boundaries to help Australia past the 100-run mark.
Brief Scores:
England 393/8 decl. (Joe Root 112*, Jonny Bairstow 78, Zak Crawley 61; Nathan Lyon 4-149, Josh Hazlewood 2-61) & 273 (Joe Root 46, Harry Brook 46; Pat Cummins 2-63, Nathan Lyon 2-80) lead Australia 386 (Usman Khawaja 141, Alex Carey 66, Travis Head 50; Ollie Robinson 3-55, Stuart Broad 3-68) & 107/3 (David Warner 36; Stuart Broad 2-28) by 173 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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