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All-round Chennai Super Kings thump Gujarat Titans

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Shivam Dube led the way with a 23-ball 51 (Cricbuzz)

Chennai Super Kings were clinical with both bat and ball as they completely outplayed Gujarat Titans to register their second win on the trot in IPL 2024. Packed with powerful performances right through with the bat, their bowlers mirrored the collective effort to ensure that Gujarat were never allowed to squeeze their way back in the game, and condemned them to a 63-run loss.

CSK found someone to keep them going right through the innings. Through the powerplay this role was taken up by Rachin Ravindra who blitzed his way to 47 in a 62-run opening stand with Ruturaj Gaikwad. Ravindra first went after Umesh Yadav’s missed lengths hitting him for a six and a four off consecutive deliveries. In the following over, he meted out similar treatment to Azmatullah Omarzai. When Yadav opted for slightly shorter lengths next time around, he was still not spared as Ravindra picked up another six and a four. The boundary flow didn’t stop as Omarzai erred similarly next up to be put away promptly. Ravindra’s blitzkrieg came to an unfortunate end when he was out stumped after the ball deflected off his body and close to the wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha.

Ajinkya Rahane next up could not keep up with the tone set by Ravindra as he was out stumped after a run-a-ball 12. But Gaikwad had found his groove by now and kept the momentum up with a flurry of boundaries. He raced away to 46 but just as he was looking good for more, Spencer Johnson found an edge from a delivery angled across. But by now, the next of CSK’s hitters – and the one who had maximum impact – was ready.

Shivam Dube played his role to a tee as he hit the first two balls he faced – against the favourable match-up of Sai Kishore’s left-arm spin – for sixes. It set him up beautifully for the rest of the innings as he kept upping the ante. Rashid Khan was tonked for a six as well before Johnson was hit for a four and a pulled six as the short ball ploy went for a toss. He brought up his fifty off just 22 balls and looked set for a bigger finish heading into the last couple of overs.

Rashid Khan got the better of Dube with a googly early in the 19th over raising Gujarat’s hopes of applying the brakes. However, debutant Sameer Rizvi had other ideas. He hit his first ball in IPL for a six as he slog-swept Rashid and followed it up with a lofted six over long off making sure that it turned into a 15-run over. But Mohit Sharma’s final over went for only eight with Rizvi holing out to long on even as CSK finished with a total over 200, which eventually proved to be more than enough.

Gujarat were dependent on getting a good start in the powerplay to pose a challenge in the chase. Both Shubman Gill and Wriddhiman Saha made their intentions clear with Gill even lofting his first ball for a six but neither was able to make it continue for long. Deepak Chahar had Gill lbw with a skidding delivery while Saha holed out to to the deep giving Chahar his second wicket. At 34/2, Gujarat were already put on the backfoot.

With the tone set, none of Gujarat’s middle-order batters could do enough to reverse the pressure back. It didn’t help that CSK held onto sharp chances. Veterans MS Dhoni and Ajinkya Rahane each held onto sharp chances while Rachin Ravindra dropped one but held onto three more ensuring that the collective control was never let up right till the end.

What next?

Chennai play their first ‘away’ game of the season as they travel to Vizag, the temporary ‘home’ for Delhi Capitals this season. On the same day – Sunday, March 31 – Gujarat Titans will go back home to take on Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Brief Scores:
Chennai Super Kings 206/6 in 20 overs (Shivam Dube 51, Rachin Ravindra 46, Ruturaj Gaikwad 46, Daryl Mitchell 24*; Rashid Khan 2-49, Sai Kishore1-28, Spencer Johnson 1-35, Mohit Sharma 1-36) beat  Gujarat Titans 143/8 in 20 overs (Wriddhiman Saha 21, Sai Sudharsan 37, David Miller 21; Deepak Chahar 2-28,  Mustafizur Rahman 2-30,  Tushar Deshpande 2-21, Daeyl Mitchell 1-18, Matheesha Pathirana 1-29) by 63 runs



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Heavy showers about (100-150) mm are likely at some places in the Central, Sabaragamuwa, Uva and Southern provinces

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WEATHER FORECAST FOR 13 October 2026
Issued at 2.00 p.m. on 12 October 2026 by the Department of Meteorology

A low-pressure area may form over the southeastern Bay of Bengal by 13 October.

Under the influence of this system, an increase in rainfall is expected over the island and the deep and shallow sea areas around the island during the next few days from tomorrow (13).

The general public, as well as the naval and fishing communities, are requested to be attentive to the future forecasts and bulletins issued by the Department of Meteorology in this regard.

Heavy showers about (100-150) mm are likely at some places in the Central, Sabaragamuwa, Uva and Southern provinces.
Fairly heavy showers  above 75 mm are likely at some places in the other areas of the island. Showers or thundershowers will occur in most parts of the island.

The general public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimize damage caused by temporary localized strong winds and lightning during thundershowers.

Misty conditions can be expected at some places in the Sabaragamuwa, Central and Uva provinces during the early hours of the morning.

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Farhan and Sadaqat help Pakistan seal series in style

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Maaz Sadaqat clobbered 96 off just 51 balls [Cricinfo]

Maaz Sadaqat crashed 96 off 51,Sahibzada Farhan clobbered 73 off 44, and Pakistan scorched their way through the last 12 overs of their innings to mount a fearsome total of 215 for 3. Pakistan reaped 156 runs just in the last 12 overs of their innings, as a 73-run stand between Sadaqat and Farhan was followed by a manic 72-run partnership between Sadaqat and Hasan Nawaz.

Sri Lanka’s batting was woeful in response. They slumped to 64 for 5 by the 11th over, with none of their top seven managing to get to 30. They limped to 133 for 7, having had their hopes of leveling the series wrecked by quicks Mohammad Imran and Salman Mirza, who took five wickets between them.

Sadaqat propels Pakistan into the stratosphere

The openers had laid a decent platform with Pakistan having got to 55 for 1 by the end of the seventh over. But it was Sadaqat who injected the energy that truly set Pakistan on course to their mammoth total. Having gone at less than a run a ball in his first eight balls, Sadaqat unleashed a spectacular lofted square drive off Eshan Malinga to collect his first six, before pumping the same bowler down the ground later in the 10th over.

Sadaqat would go on to clobber six further sixes and five further fours. The big hits tended to come down the ground, while his fours were more square of the wicket. Of the 125 runs Pakistan plundered in the second half of their innings, 79 off 40 came from Sadaqat, who pummeled both pace and spin with equal relish. Off the sixteenth over, bowled by Maheesh Theekshana, Sadaqat thumped three sixes in the arc between long on and midwicket.

Sadaqat, whose previous top score in three T20Is had been 50, could have gone to triple figures off the last ball of the innings, but holed out to deep cover instead, unable to quite find the power to lift a Malinga slower ball over the ropes. He had utterly dominated the middle and late overs, however.

Farhan sets the tone

On another flat Rawalpindi deck, Farhan made the first big charge, although he waited until spin came on to really get into high gear. Theekshana was one of his main victims as well. Farhan’s first six came from a slog sweep off Theekshana in the seventh over, before he launched the same bowler over wide long on and cow corner off successive balls in the ninth over. Getting to his 12th T20I fifty off the 31st ball he faced, Farhan began to aim big blows off the seamers as well. He was caught at deep third off the bowling of Dasun Shanaka, in the 15th over.

Sri Lanka stumble in the powerplay

An excellent Salman Mirza bouncer took the glove of Lahiru Udara in the first over, ending the innings of one of Sri Lanka’s few form batters for a mere five runs. And although Sineth Jayawardena – playing his first international in a full-strength Sri Lanka side – hit three consecutive boundaries in the third over, Sri Lanka were unable to build up any momentum in the powerplay. By the end of the sixth over, they had laboured to 35 for 2.

Imran’s spell lights up the middle overs

A full house in Rawalpindi was treated to some excellent fast bowling by Imran, who finished with the game’s best figures of 3 for 11 from his four overs. Having got Jayawardena to top-edge a desperate pull shot at the end of his second over, Imran had Kusal Mendis caught behind off a slower delivery, before two balls later (a wide in between), he took Sahan Arachchige’s edge with a quick delivery angled across the left-hander. Wicketkeeper Khawaja Nafay made two diving grabs to convert these chances in the eighth over.

All through his unbroken spell, Sri Lanka’s batter struggled to so much as hit Imran off the square, despite the good batting conditions on offer. Imran mixed up his pace, frequently going to slower balls, but his line and length control were also excellent through the spell. When he finished his unbroken spell at the end of the 10th over, Sri Lanka’s required rate had climbed past 15.

Chamindu Wickramasinghe and Theekshana struck some late boundaries, but by the time they came to the crease, Sri Lanka did not have a realistic shot at levelling this series. They lost by 82 runs in the end.

Scores:
Pakistan 215 for 3 in 20 overs (Sahibzada Farhan 73, Fakhar Zaman 22, Maaz Sadaqat 96, Hasan Nawaz 19*; Maheesh Theekshana 1-55, Eshan Malinga 1-41,Dasun Shanaka 1-30)  beat Sri Lanka 133 for 7 (Sineth Jayawardena 22, Kamnbdu Mendis 23, Chamindu Wickremasinghe 29, Maheesh  Theekshana 32*; Salman Mirza 2=28, Mohammad  Imran 3-11, Saim Ayub 1-19, Shadab Khan 1-19) by 82 runs

[Cricinfo]

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At least 139 dead, 84 missing as migrant boat capsizes off Djibouti

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A member of the International Organization for Migration inspects the abandoned wreckage of a boat that capsized off the coast of Djibouti on April 12, 2026 [Aljazeera]

At least 139 people, including 15 children, have died and 84 are missing after a boat capsized off the coast of Djibouti, according to the United Nations migration agency.

In a statement on Sunday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) quoted survivors as saying that the incident happened near Guhere off Djibouti’s eastern coast in the Gulf of Aden near the Bab al-Mandeb strait from Thursday night to before dawn on Friday.

The boat was heading from Djibouti to Yemen with more than 300 people on board. More than 80 people – all Ethiopians – survived the shipwreck while Djiboutian search and rescue operations continued.

“Our teams are on the ground alongside local authorities to provide emergency assistance,” IOM Chief of Mission in Djibouti Alexandre Coissac said, lamenting the “devastating loss of life”.

That number only includes those buried by authorities in Djibouti. Others have been buried by the migrants themselves but they won’t be added to the official count until authorities can verify the bodies, Alexandre Coissac, IOM Chief of Mission in Djibouti, told the Associated Press.

“This tragedy is a stark reminder of the dangers faced by migrants along this migration corridor as they seek economic opportunities,” Coissac added.

[Aljazeera]

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