Latest News

Nawaz slams maiden ton as Pakistan chase 205 in 16 overs

Published

9 months ago

2025/03/21

Priyan

After two ducks in his first two international innings, Hasan Nawaz scored a match-winning century in his third [Cricinfo]

Pakistan’s high-risk, high-reward tactics finally bore fruit after two failed attempts as the Salman Agha led side stormed to a nine-wicket victory against New Zealand in an enthralling battle that saw 411 runs being amassed at Eden Park Hasan Nawaz’s maiden T20I century outplayed Mark Chapman’s 94 as Pakistan chased down 205 in just 16 overs and kept the five-match series alive at 1-2.

Pakistan backed their new openers Nawaz and Mohammed Haris in the post Mohammed Rizwan-Babar Azam era and they repaid the faith by putting up a 74-run opening stand off just 35 balls to lay the perfect foundation for the chase. Salman capitalised on the flying start to score 51 not out and was involved in an unbroken 133-run second-wicket stand. Nawaz, who was coming off two successive ducks, blazed away the fastest hundred by a Pakistan batter in T20Is, off just 44 balls, in a sensational chase.

Chapman’s blistering knock off just 44 balls set New Zealand up for what seemed like an above-par total at the innings break. After losing Finn Allen for a three-ball duck in the first over by Shaheen Shah Afridi, Tim Seifert (19 off nine) and Chapman pushed New Zealand past early jitters. Seifert fell to Haris Rauf in the fifth over but Chapman didn’t slow down.

He pulled and hooked the short balls, brought out beautiful cover drives against seamers and punished loose deliveries from Abrar Ahmed and Shadab Khan. He brought up his fourth half-century against Pakistan off 29 balls. This was also his first T20I fifty in almost a year.

Pakistan got the much-needed breakthrough in the tenth over when Daryl Mitchell (17 off 11) chased a wide delivery of Shadab and miscued to Rauf. Chapman kept finding boundaries, however, even when Pakistan captain Agha brought himself on and leaked 13 runs off his only over.

His strong bottom-hand and exceptional placement saw him smash 11 fours and four sixes. He was eventually deceived by an Afridi slower ball in the 13th over.

Pakistan fought back with quick wickets including two double-wicket overs from Rauf and Abrar but Michael Bracewell’s 31 off 18 ensured New Zealand crossed 200.

After two disappointing outings, Haris and Nawaz gave the visitors a dream start. Haris began with two sixes off Kyle Jamieson’s first over of the innings and followed it up with two fours against Jacob Duffy. Nawaz had a tough time early on with his timing but still found boundaries through streaky edges. Pakistan reached their joint-fastest team fifty in men’s T20Is, in four overs.

Duffy removed Haris for a 20-ball 41 with a bouncer in the sixth over and Pakistan ended the phase with 75 for 1, their highest powerplay total in men’s T20Is, moving past the 73 they scored against England in 2016.

Nawaz rode his luck but made sure to hang around. He was not particularly convincing against short balls early on but he was able to see the balls more clearly as the innings progressed. Though he started the chase playing second fiddle to Haris, Nawaz took charge after the powerplay.

His first confident strike came against Ish Sodhi in the seventh over, when he picked a loopy googly and clubbed it over long-on for a six. He brought up his maiden T20I fifty off 26 balls in the ninth over and propelled Pakistan to 124 for 1 at the halfway stage.

Nawaz was dropped on 68 by Sodhi off Ben Sears’ bowling but New Zealand couldn’t do much on a batting-friendly pitch with dew also making the task hard for the bowlers. Nawaz eventually hammered ten fours and seven sixes in his 45-ball stay.

Unlike Nawaz, Agha was precise and clever in his batting that fetched him six fours and two sixes. The duo scored 65 runs in the last four overs of the chase to take the team home early.

Nawaz brought up his century off the penultimate ball, before Pakistan completed the fastest 200-plus chase in men’s T20Is.

Brief scores:

Pakistan 207 for 1 in 16 overs (Hasan Nawaz 105*, Salman Agha 51*, Mohammad Haris 41, Jacob Duffy 1-37) beat New Zealand 204 in 19.5 overs (Tim Seifert 19, Mark Chapman 94,Daryl Mitchell 17, Michael Bracewell 31, Ish Sodhi 10; Shaheen Shah Afridi 2-36, Abrar Ahmed 2-43, Haris Rauf 3-29, Abbas Afridi 2-24, Shadab Khan 1-33) by nine wickets

[Cricinfo]

All News Advertisement

Foreign News

More than 30 dead after Myanmar military air strike hits hospital

Published

32 mins ago

2025/12/11

Priyan

The junta has turned to air bombardments to reclaim territory from ethnic armies [BBC]

At least 34 people have died and dozens more are injured after air strikes from Myanmar’s military hit a hospital in the country’s west on Wednesday night, according to ground sources.

The hospital is located in Mrauk-U town in Rakhine state, an area controlled by the Arakan Army – one of the strongest ethnic armies fighting the country’s military regime.

Thousands have died and millions have been displaced since the military seized power in a coup in 2021 and triggered a civil war.

In recent months, the military has intensified air strikes to take back territory from ethnic armies. It has also developed paragliders to drop bombs on its enemies.

The Myanmar military has not commented on the strikes, which come as the country prepares to vote later this month in its first election since the coup.

However, pro-military accounts on Telegram claim the strikes this week were not aimed at civilians.

Khaing Thukha, a spokesperson for the Arakan Army, told the BBC that most of the casualties were patients at the hospital.

“This is the latest vicious attack by the terrorist military targeting civilian places,” he said, adding that the military “must take responsibility” for bombing civilians.

The Arakan Army health department said the strike, which occurred at around 21:00 (14:30 GMT), killed 10 patients on the spot and injured many others.

Photos believed to be from the scene have been circulating on social media showing missing roofs across parts of the building complex, broken hospital beds and debris strewn across the ground.

The junta has been locked in a years-long bloody conflict with ethnic militias, at one point losing control of more than half the country.

But recent influx of technology and equipment from China and Russia seems to have helped it turn the tide. The junta has made significant gains through a campaign of airstrikes and heavy bombardment.

Earlier this year, more than 20 people were killed after an army motorised paraglider dropped two bombs on a crowd protesting at a religious festival.

Civil liberties have also shrunk dramatically under the junta. Tens of thousands of political dissidents have been arrested, rights groups estimate.

Myanmar’s junta has called for a general election on 28 December, touting it as a pathway to political stability.

But critics say the election will be neither free nor fair, but will instead offer the junta a guise of legitimacy. Tom Andrews, the United Nations’ human rights expert on Myanmar, has called it a “sham election”.

In recent weeks the junta has arrested civilians accused of disrupting the vote, including one man who authorities said had sent out anti-election messages on Facebook.

The junta also said on Monday that it was looking for 10 activists involved in an anti-election protest.

Ethnic armies and other opposition groups have pledged to boycott the polls.

At least one election candidate in in central Myanmar’s Magway Region was detained by an anti-junta group, the Associated Press reported.

[BBC]

Latest News

Venezuelan Nobel winner emerges to collect prize in Oslo after months in hiding

Published

39 mins ago

2025/12/11

Priyan

María Corina Machado greets crowds in Oslo [BBC]

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who has been in hiding for months, has told the BBC that she knows “exactly the risks” she’s taking by travelling to Norway to collect her Nobel Peace Prize.

Machado appeared in Oslo in the middle of the night, waving from the balcony of a hotel. It was the first time she has been seen in public since January.

The 58-year-old made the covert journey despite a travel ban and a threat from the Venezuelan government that she would be labelled as a fugitive.

In an emotional moment, Machado waved to cheering supporters who had gathered outside the Norwegian capital’s Grand Hotel, blowing them kisses and singing with them. To their delight, she then came outside and greeted them in person, climbing over the security barricades to get closer.

“Maria!” “Maria!” they shouted, holding their phones aloft to record the historic moment.

The Nobel Institute awarded Machado the prize this year for “her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy” in Venezuela. Earlier on Wednesday, her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her mother’s behalf.

Until Wednesday night, the mother of three had not seen her children in about two years, having sent them away from Venezuela for their own safety.

In an interview with the BBC’s Lucy Hockings after her balcony appearance, Machado said she had missed their graduations, and the weddings of her daughter and one of her sons.

“For over 16 months I haven’t been able to hug or touch anyone,” she said. “Suddenly in the matter of a few hours I’ve been able to see the people I love the most, and touch them and cry and pray together.”

During the BBC interview, Machado had many rosary beads hanging around her neck, which she said supporters had given to her outside the hotel.

There has been much speculation about whether she will be able to safely return to Venezuela.

“Of course I’m going back,” she told the BBC. “I know exactly the risks I’m taking.”

“I’m going to be in the place where I’m most useful for our cause,” she continued. “Until a short time ago, the place I thought I had to be was Venezuela, the place I believe I have to be today, on behalf of our cause, is Oslo.”

Considered one of the country’s most respected voices in Venezuela’s opposition, Machado has long denounced President Nicolás Maduro’s government as “criminal” and called on Venezuelans to unite to depose it.

She was barred from running in last year’s presidential elections, in which he won a third six-year term in office. The vote was widely dismissed on the international stage as neither free nor fair, and many nations view his rule as illegitimate.

The Maduro government has repeatedly threatened her with arrest, accusing her of calling for a foreign invasion and labelling her a terrorist for protesting against the election results.

Last month, Venezuela’s attorney general said Machado would be considered a fugitive if she traveled to Norway to collect her prize, saying she was accused of “acts of conspiracy, incitement of hatred, and terrorism”.

It made her journey to Norway difficult and risky.

The details of the trip were kept so tightly under wraps, that even the Nobel Institute did not know where she was or whether she would be in Oslo in time for the prize ceremony.

The Wall Street Journal reports that to escape Venezuela, Machado wore a disguise, managed to get through 10 military checkpoints without being caught, and sailed away on a wooden skiff from a coastal fishing village.

The plan was two months in the making, it reports, citing a person close to the operation, and she was assisted by a Venezuelan network that helps people flee the country. The US was also involved, the report says, but it is unclear to what extent.

Machado did not deny these details to the BBC, but also would not elaborate on the journey.

“They [the Venezuelan government] say I’m a terrorist and have to be in jail for the rest of my life and they’re looking for me,” she said. “So leaving Venezuela today, in these circumstances, is very, very dangerous. “I just want to say today that I’m here, because many men and women risked their lives in order for me to arrive in Oslo.”

Jorgen Watne Frydnes – chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, who sat with Machado during the interview – had described her journey to Norway as “a situation of extreme danger”.

Sitting next to her during the BBC interview, he said it was an “emotional” moment for him. “In the middle of the night to have you here, it’s incredible,” he said. “It’s hard to describe what it means to the Nobel committee and to all of us.”

Machado accused Maduro’s regime of being funded by criminal activities such as drugs and human trafficking, repeating calls for the international community to help Venezuela “cut those inflows” of criminal resources. “We need to address this regime not as a conventional dictatorship, but as a criminal structure,” she told the BBC.

Maduro has always vehemently denied being connected to cartels.

When asked whether she would support a US military strike on Venezuelan soil, given Washington’s recent attacks on alledged drug vessels, Machado did not answer directly but instead accused Maduro of “giving away our sovereignty to criminal organisations”.

“We didn’t want a war, we didn’t look for it… it was Maduro who declared war on the Venezuelan people,” she added.

Machado says she and her team are ready to form a government in Venezuela, and that she offered to sit down with Maduro’s team to work out a peaceful transition, but “they rejected it”.

[BBC]

Latest News

Fifties from Conway, Hay extend New Zealand’s advantage

Published

2 hours ago

2025/12/11

Priyan

Devon Conway raises his bat after getting to his first half-century against West Indies [Cricinfo]

Despite a bright bowling performance from the West Indies seamers, half-centuries from New Zealand’s Devon Conway and Mitchell hay extended the hosts’ advantage after an absorbing second day of the Wellington Test. New Zealand secured a 73-run first-innings lead before a double-wicket burst from their quicks left West Indies still 41 behind with eight wickets in hand.

West Indies produced bursts of quality with the ball to keep pegging New Zealand back, and several home batters contributed to their own dismissals with loose shots. But the visitors also offered enough scoring opportunities for Conway and Hay to make valuable inroads.

Conway’s 60 – his first fifty against West Indies and 13th overall – anchored one end, while debutant Hay struck an enterprising 61 from No. 6. Their efforts allowed New Zealand to declare at 278 for 9, with the injured Blair Tickner not batting.

With the relatively new ball, Kemar Roach, Jayden Seales, Ojay Shields and Anderson Phillip consistently challenged the batters as the ball swung both ways and occasionally jagged off the surface. Conway, however, punished the loose deliveries, hitting eight fours – mostly cuts and flicks – to keep New Zealand moving.

From the non-striker’s end, he saw Tom Latham (11) lose his off stump to a nip-backer from Roach from around the wicket, before watching Kane Williamson (37) have his off stump pegged back by an Anderson Phillip delivery that squared him up. After lunch, Rachin Ravindra – who made 176 in Christchurch – was caught behind off Roach while chasing a wide one. Conway himself was then caught down the leg side off a poor Justin Greaves delivery, thanks to a superb diving take from Tevin Imlach. At that stage, New Zealand seemed to be wobbling at 117 for 4.

A fifth-wicket stand of 73 between Daryl Mitchell (25) and Hay – the latter playing in place of the injured Tom Blundell – brought New Zealand closer to West Indies’ first-innings score of 205. Mitchell was conservative, while Hay leaned on his white-ball instincts to score his runs, producing strong cuts through the off side and, when tested with short balls, pulling confidently over the leg side.

Mitchell, like Conway, was eventually strangled down the leg side off Phillip. Hay later fell to the short-ball tactic: after striking back-to-back fours behind square leg, he miscued a pull off Shields straight to Roach at deep-backward square and walked back bitterly disappointed. At 213 for 6, New Zealand then leaned on Glenn Phillips (18) and the lower order to extend their lead.

West Indies continued to pepper Phillips with short balls in a cat-and-mouse exchange that brought body blows and top-edges over the keeper. Seeking a change, captain Roston Chase turned to spin for the first time in the innings, and needed only four deliveries to tempt Phillips into a slog that failed to clear deep midwicket.

Zak Foulkes then batted 43 balls and frustrated West Indies with deflections off the seamers’ through the gully region on his way to an unbeaten 23. Jacob Duffy added further runs with boundaries to long-off and long-on, and No. 10 Michael Rae joined a rare group of batters to begin their Test careers with five runs off an overthrow boundary. Rae reached 13 before the expensive Seales finally claimed his first wicket of the match, knocking back the debutant’s leg stump.

New Zealand’s batting may have been patchy, but their bowlers restored control with a sharp ten-over burst late in the day. John Campbell fell in the seventh over, beaten by a Rae delivery that zipped in to hit off stump. Next over, nightwatcher Phillip initially survived a DRS review for caught behind off Duffy, but a second look confirmed he was lbw instead. Brandon King (15*) and Kavem Hodge (3*) saw out the final few minutes, but West Indies still face a steep challenge when play resumes on Friday.

Brief scores:
West Indies 205 and 32 for 2 (Brandon King 15*; Michael Rae 1-4, Jacob Duffy 1-8) trail New Zealand 278 for 9 dec (Mitchell Hay 61, Devon Conway 60; Andeson Phillip 3-70) by 41 runs

[Cricinfo]