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Gujarat Titans keep their cool in nerve-wracking win
A masterclass in death bowling ensured that Gujarat Titans came from behind to pouch a six-run victory over Mumbai Indians – their third against the opposition at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Needing 42 off the last six overs with 7 wickets in hand, Mumbai Indians lost their way completely as Gujarat stuck to their plans.
Nearly all of Shubman Gill’s death bowlers packed a punch with the tone set by veteran Mohit Sharma. With his back-of-the hand slower ones gripping well on a sticky pitch, Mohit proved hard to hit. He first had Dewald Brevis caught and bowled and then bounced Tim David out to have him caught in the deep splendidly by an athletic David Miller. With 39 needed off the last three overs, Tilak Varma proceeded to deny singles off Rashid Khan’s final over with David for company. The spinner did not give away any boundaries in the over adding to the pressure building. Spencer Johnson, bowling the penultimate over, gave away a six off his first ball but came back in style. He had Varma caught at fine leg and then had Gerald Coetzee caught and bowled.
The last-man standing between the Titans and victory turned out to be their former skipper Hardik Pandya, who had delayed his entry. Pandya smacked a six and a four off the first two balls bowled by Umesh Yadav to bring the equation down to 9 off four. But he then fell trying to pull a short ball to be caught at long on, signaling the final nail in the coffin and sealing Mumbai’s rapid downward slide after a breezy start.
After a four-ball duck for Ishan Kishan, MI’s chase was first put on course by a breezy 10-ball 20 from Naman Dhir coming in at No. 3. Thereafter Rohit Sharma and Brevis found the going easy in dewy conditions as they added a quickfire 77-run stand. Gujarat’s standout bowler in this period turned out to be left-arm spinner Sai Kishore who finished with 1/24 in his four overs. He also picked up the wicket of Rohit, out LBW on the sweep, to kickstart a stunning turnaround.
The bowlers ensured that they made a middling total look far more than it was.
The pitch did not hold too many demons, albeit gripping slightly for the spinners. Plenty of Gujarat batters got off to starts but could not convert them into bigger ones. Sai Sudharsan knocked his way to 45 while Shubman Gill hit three fours and a six in his 31. Gujarat depended on one of their top order batters to carry through after getting their eye in.
Because of the brilliance of Jasprit Bumrah, mainly, the pacer finished with figures of 3-14 and applied the brakes with crucial strikes. Showcasing a full range of his skills, Bumrah first had Wriddhiman Saha bowled for 19 with a booming yorker. He then proceeded to outfox David Miller with a slower one and a ball later had the well-set Sudharsan caught in the deep. With that he ensured that Gujarat’s momentum was constantly nipped in the bud. It continued so in the death overs.
MI’s newest recruit, pacer Gerald Coetzee, was saved up for the second half of the innings fully. It worked well as Coetzee first had an attacking Azmatullah Omarzai caught while trying to hit off a hard length. At the back-end, Gujarat threatened to get more than they eventually would when Rahul Tewatia tore into Luke Wood. The 18th over of the innings went for 19 runs with Tewatia hitting the straps. But Bumrah and Coetzee gave away only 12 in the last two overs with Coetzee snapping up Tewatia as well.
The plans that new captain Hardik Pandya brought in worked pretty much to a tee but that was not enough to win over the crowd.
The former Gujarat Titans title-winning captain moved to Mumbai Indians on a transfer and it seemingly hasn’t gone down well with at least a part of the fans in the stadium. Hardik was welcomed with boos at the toss and at various points during the match. Returning to bowling in the tournament, he ended up giving away 30 runs in his three overs. He came close to turning it around with the bat but to no avail.
Brief Scores:
Gujarat Titans 168/6 in 20 overs (Shubman Gill 31, Sai Sudharsan 45, Rahul Tewatia 22; Jasprit Bumrah 3-14, Piyush Chawala 1-31, Gerald Coetzee 2-27) beat Mumbai Indians 162/9 in 20 overs (Nahman Dhir 20, Dewald Brevis 46, Rohit Sharma 43, Tilak Varma 25; Azmatullah Omarzai 2-27, Umesh Yadav 2-31, Spencer Johnson 2-25, Mohit Sharma 2-32, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore 1-24) by 6 runs
What next for the teams?
GT have just a day’s gap to go from their home city to Chennai where they face Ruturaj Gaikwad’s CSK on Tuesday (March 26). MI also head south – to Hyderabad -where they face SRH a day later (March 27).
(Cricbuzz)
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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