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Venkatesh, Starc star as Kolkata Knight Riders break 12-year Wankhede jinx
Kolkata Knight Riders further embedded themselves near the top of the IPL table, and Mumbai Indians’ hopes of qualifying for the final four took another big hit.
How MI managed to lose a match in which they took five KKR wickets in the first 37 legal deliveries, will require some examination from the franchise brains trust. But essentially, MI didn’t go for the kill when they had KKR on the ropes at 43 for 4, then 57 for 5. And although MI closed the innings nicely through Bumrah, their having allowed KKR to recover through an 83-run stand between Venkatesh Iyer and Manish Pandey, would haunt them in the end.
Their own top order was shambolic, as has been the case through the season. But still, thanks to a good innings from Suriyakumar Yadav, MI were still in with hope into the death. Mitchell Starc put paid to those hopes, however, and MI were all out for 145 in the 19th over.
Despite their faltering start, MI still only needed 51 runs off the last five overs, with Suryakumar at the crease on 56. Andre Russel bowled the 16th over, and Suryakumar will feel he should have done better with the knee-high full toss he got second ball. Instead of launching it into the legside stands, he got a huge top edge that flew towards fine leg, with wicketkeeper Phil Salt able to chase it down and take it comfortably in his gloves.
It was Starc who really ended MI’s chances though. He bowled a spectacular 17th over in which he conceded only three runs. And when MI needed 32 off the last two overs, he did concede a six off first ball of the 19th, but had Tim David caught at long on next ball, had Piyush Chawla chip one to extra cover immediately after, then wiped out the innings with a yorker that took out Gerald Coetzee’s middle stump.
After a rough start to the IPL, Starc came back in this match with figures of 4 for 33, having also dismissed Ishan Kishan with the new ball.
Before Starc could work his magic with the ball, KKR needed something to defend. And Venkatesh’s 70 off 52 was the spine of KKR’s innings. He was quick early on, hitting two fours off his first four balls, before settling down a little while wickets fell at the other end. But to KKR’s great credit, their run rate did not slow substantially despite the dismissals. They were 51 for 4 after five overs, 83 for 5 after 10, and got to triple figures in the 12th over of the innings.
This was in large part thanks to Venkatesh, and to Pandey, who kept seeking out boundary opportunities instead of settling too deep into accumulation mode. Pandey was out for 42 off 31 in the 17th over, but Iyer stayed till the 20th, and was the last to be out off the penultimate ball. Of his three sixes, the back away and crash over long off, off the bowling of Hardik Pandya, was the most memorable.
Though MI continue to stink up the IPL, Bumrah is their unerring talisman, today finishing with figures of 3 for 18 off 3.5 overs. In his first over he conceded just two runs, but Hardik did not bring his best bowler back even when KKR were struggling in the first seven overs.
Bumrah then had one modest middle-overs over, in which Pandey hit him for a six and a four.
But at the death, he was exemplary, taking two wickets and conceding just two runs off the 18th over, before hemming Venkatesh in and getting him out off the fifth ball of the last over – the batter having tried to scoop him over the shoulder, only to miss and to have his middle stump knocked out of the ground. He had scored just two runs off the previous four deliveries.
Bumrah keeps the purple cap, though MI’s chances of making the playoffs grow remote.
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 169 in 19.5 overs (Venkatesh Iyer 70, Manish Pandey 42; Jasprit Bumrah 3-18, Nuwan Thushara 3-42, Hardik Pandya 2-44, Piyush Chawla 1-15) beat Mumbai Indians 145 in 18.5 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 56, Tim David 24; Mitchell Starc 4-33, Varun Chakrawarthy 2-22, Sunil Narine 2-22, Andre Russell 2-30) by 24 runs
(Cricinfo)
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Heavy showers about (100-150) mm are likely at some places in the Central, Sabaragamuwa, Uva and Southern provinces
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.
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]
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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Showers above 75 mm are likely at some places in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Central, Southern, Uva and North-Western provinces and in Anuradhapura and Mannar districts.
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