Latest News
Bumrah and Ashwin beat England’s bazballers as India draw level
Bumrah’s figures of 3 for 46 in 17.2 overs were less spectacular than his first-innings six-for, but the timing of his breakthroughs was everything on a fraught fourth day – in particular, his priceless extraction of Jonny Bairstow on the stroke of lunch, a dismissal that capped a five-wicket session for India and left England’s chase with too far to run, having bursted out of the blocks with now typical gusto.
The loss was only England’s third in 11 fourth innings chases since the start of the Bazball era, and if a target of 399 had always seemed outlandish, their all-out total of 292 was still higher than the previous successful chase by a visiting team in India – West Indie’s 276 for 5 in Delhi in 1987-88.
For all of their endeavour, England will rue a handful of key moments that derailed their hopes – most particularly a lbw verdict against their most composed chaser, Zak Crawley, moments before the Bairstow extraction, and an atypically lax piece of running from the captain, Ben Stokes, that sawed off his ominously poised innings before it could cut loose. Joe Root, nursing a damaged finger, played a wild knock of 16 from 10 balls that begged several questions too, particularly given how composed England’s tail proved to be in adversity, most notably Tom Hartley, who was last man out for 36 from 47 balls.
The tone of England’s chase was established in the opening moments of the day. At one end, there was Crawley, all poise and calculation as he lined up India’s dangerman Bumrah and committed only to the balls that his 6’5″ frame could drive with impunity. At the other, there was Rehan Ahmed, a blur of ambitious strokeplay as he resolved to live dangerously and burgle his runs before India could get settled, as he did with a brace of boundaries in Axar Patel’s second over.
Rehan was there for a good time, not a long time, and Axar duly had the final word with a plumb lbw from round the wicket, but not before Rehan’s 23 from 31 balls had helped to add 45 runs in 11 overs for the second wicket. Out came Ollie Pope, the second-innings hero in Hyderabad, and as he too launched onto the offensive with a lasered drive for four first-ball, it was clear England weren’t about to go into their shells.
Crawley strode onto the front foot once more to dump Axar through long-off to reach a supremely measured 83-ball half-century, but while he sought to provide a very Bazball definition of an anchor, Pope was business personified in the course of a fleet-footed cameo. His faith in the sweep was a clear indication that the bounce had gone out of the surface, at least while Axar was in his sights, from whom he picked off all five of his boundaries in a 21-ball stay.
Brief scores:
India 396 (Yashaswi Jaiswal 209, James Anderson 3-47, Rehan Ahmed 3-65, Shoaib Bashir 3-138) and 225 (Shubman Gill 104, Tom Hartley 4-77) beat England 253 (Zak Crawley 76, Jasprit Bumrah 6-45, Kuldeep Singh 3-71) and 292 (Zack Crawley 73, Jasprit Bumrah 3-46, Ravichandran Ashwin 3-72) by 106 runs
(Cricinfo)
Spain has started evacuating passengers from a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship anchored near Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
Health Minister Mónica García said the operation was “proceeding normally” and that all passengers on board the MS Hondius were still asymptomatic.
They will be divided into groups by nationality and ferried to the coast in small boats. Charter planes will be on the tarmac at the local airport, ready to repatriate them to their home countries.
Fourteen Spanish nationals will be the first to disembark, then those flown out by the Netherlands, including Dutch, Greek and German passengers, and part of the crew.
Other flights are poised to leave after that, including to the UK and US. The last evacuation flight is expected to leave on Monday to Australia.
With a long camera lens, passengers could be seen wandering around on the deck of the ship, or at the windows, all in white medical face masks, as the first evacuation took place.
Several sat socially distanced on the small evacuation boat, filming and taking photos as they approached land, where they were met by officials in white protective suits.
The Hondius pulled into the port of Granadilla before dawn on Sunday, a month after the first passenger died on board.
The sun then rose to reveal it anchored offshore, with military police boats on patrol and a major operation unfolding on land to help more than 100 passengers and crew disembark.
At about 07:00 (06:00 GMT) on Sunday, medical teams went on board to check everyone for signs of the virus.
There have been meticulous preparations to receive the ship, which won’t be permitted to reach shore: a security perimeter of one nautical mile was enforced around it as it approached the island.
Dozens of intensive care specialists are on stand-by at the Candelaria hospital in Tenerife in case anyone from the Hondius becomes seriously ill during the transfer. A strict isolation facility has one bed fully equipped to deal with infectious diseases, complete with testing kit and a ventilator.
“We are absolutely ready,” chief intensive care doctor Mar Martin told me on the unit, where large numbers of protective suits, masks and gloves are already piled up for staff.
“We’ve never seen [hantavirus] before – but it’s a virus, with some complications, just like we manage every day. We are fully trained for that.”
The complex operation to prevent the rare Andes strain of this virus spreading is described by Spain’s health minister as “unprecedented”.
On Saturday, she stressed that the risk of contagion for the general population was low. “We believe that alarmism, misinformation and confusion are contrary to the basic principles of preserving public health.”
Security measures in the port, an industrial facility in the south of Tenerife, increased notably on Saturday. Spain’s military police and disaster response teams have both set up large reception tents and access to the waterfront is restricted.
Spanish nationals leaving the ship will be flown to Madrid, where they face a mandatory quarantine in the Gomez Ulla military hospital. Complete isolation would be gruelling – the virus has an incubation period of up to nine weeks – and it is not clear how long people in Spain or elsewhere will be quarantined.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, now in Tenerife to oversee the disembarking, has praised the authorities for their “solid and effective response” to this outbreak.
It has been linked to a landfill site in the southernmost tip of Argentina, popular with birdwatchers. The virus is carried there by rodents, and it’s rare for it to pass between people, but three cruise passengers have died.
The WHO boss has urged nervous Spaniards to trust those in charge of the evacuation.
“Your concern is legitimate, because of the experience of Covid: that trauma is still in our minds,” he acknowledged. But he added that the risk of wider contagion now was low “because of how the virus works, and because of how the Spanish government has prepared to avoid any problem”.
There was some anger here when people learned the Hondius was being diverted to their island.
On Friday, a group of port workers gathered outside the local parliament in noisy protest, concerned that safety measures were not strong enough.
Then very late last night, all the carefully laid plans were briefly thrown into chaos when the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, said he would refuse to permit the ship into port as the disembarkation could not be done in a day. The central government in Madrid had to intervene.
Clavijo then claimed on TV that a rat carrying the hantavirus might “get off the ship in the middle of the night and endanger the people of the Canary Islands”. The health secretary had to come out and insist that such a scenario was “not a risk”.
In general, people on the island seem reassured that the risk is low.
“The virus is dangerous, of course. But they say you need to have very close contact to get it,” a woman named Jennifer told me, out walking with her child in Tenerife’s capital Santa Cruz.
“If we’re careful, we hope it’s not too serious.”
Not everyone will disembark in Tenerife from the Hondius: some 30 crew members will stay on board to take the cruise ship back to the Netherlands. But for most, there is at last an end in sight to weeks of fear and uncertainty at sea.
Now come the long weeks of quarantine.
[BBC]
The Landslide Early Warning Center of the Building Research Organisation [NBRO| has issued Landslide Early Warnings to the Districts of Badulla and Moneragala valid upto 2130 hrs today [10th May 2026]
Accordingly,
Level I [Yellow] landslide early warnings have been issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas of Passara in the Badulla district and Badalkumbura and Wellawaya in the Monaragala District.
Showers about 100 mm are likely at some places in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Central, Uva, Southern, North-western, Northern and North-central provinces and in Trincomalee district.
Treasury theft: Speaker’s conduct brought to IPU’s attention: SJB
Navin calls for formal alliance between UNP and SJB
Diversion of USD 2.5 million: COPF accused of shielding culprits
Showers likely to last for several days: Met Dept.
At Asia’s crossroads, Sri Lanka must decide how it will join the future
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
Sunday Island 27 December – Headlines
#SundayIsland 17th December – Headlines
Sunday Island – 28th March
Sunday Island Headlines – 21 March
Sunday Island – 21st February – Headlines
-
News4 days agoMIT expert warns of catastrophic consequences of USD 2.5 mn Treasury heist
-
News6 days agoCJ urged to inquire into AKD’s remarks on May 25 court verdict
-
Editorial4 days agoClean Sri Lanka and dirty politics
-
News1 day agoLanka Port City officials to meet investors in Dubai
-
Opinion6 days agoSecurity, perception, and trust: Sri Lanka’s delicate balancing act
-
Editorial3 days agoThe Vijay factor
-
News2 days agoSLPP expresses concern over death of former SriLankan CEO
-
News5 days agoDevelopment Officer bids Rs. 48 mn for CPC’s V8 at auction