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U – 19 World Cup: Australia top Group A after bowling SL out for 58
A five-wicket haul from Will Byrom helped Australia top Group A of the Under 19 men’s World Cup after they skittled Sri Lanka for 58. Byrom and Charles Lachmund ripped through Sri Lanka in the first powerplay, reducing them to 31 for 6 at the ten-over mark.
In the third over, Lachmund had yorked out Viran Chamuditha right in front of the stumps, while Dimantha Mahavithana edged one to slip. From there, the procession never stopped. The two tall pacers extracted movement and bounce off a pitch that had plenty in it for those who bowled it quick. Most Sri Lanka batters were either caught in the slip cordon or stuck in front of the crease, unable to counter the movement, and often late on their feet.
Hayden Schiller and Kasey Barton slipped into the attack once the powerplay was done, and immediately took over the same lines and lengths. The highlight of Barton’s own spell was his wicket of Sethmika Seneviratne. He dropped it on a full length and fizzed it back into the off stump, trimming Seneviratne’s bails and breaching through Sri Lanka’s last recognised batter.
Sri Lanka’s bowling defence began with Rasith Nimsara extracting similar movement off the pitch. However, both his bowling, and Kugathas Mathulan’s from the other end, were plagued by inconsistent lines that often drifted down leg. Sri Lanka ended up conceding 11 extras, which included nine wides. After Will Malajczuk fell early, Nitesh Samuel was a little circumspect. But Steven Hogan ensured to finish the run chase with little fuss, just as time before rain drifted in towards the ground.
Brief scores:
Australia Under 19s 61 for 1 in 12 overs (Steven Hogan 28*; Rasith Nimsara 1-20) beat Sri Lanka Under 19s 58 in 18.5 overs (Chamika Heenetigala 14; Will Byrom 5-14, Charles Lachmund 2-19, Kasey Barton 2-13) by nine wickets
[Cricinfo]
Bangladesh cruised to a seven wicket victory to close out their group stage, with a three-for from Iqbal Hossain Emon, and an 82-ball 64 from captain Azizul Hakim leading the way against USA.
Batting first, USA lost opener Amrinder Gill and No. 3 Arjun Mahesh by the end of the third over. But a more applied approach from Sahil Garg and Utkarsh Srivastava took them out of the powerplay to the relative safety of 33 for 2.
The scoring rate was slow throughout their innings, with Bangladesh’s Al Fahad, Shariar Ahmed and Rizan Hossan all taking two wickets, and keeping the scoring rate around a touch below four. When Adnit Jhamb walked out at No. 7 in the 30th over, he kicked into a higher gear. He hit just three boundaries and a six during his knock of 68, but rotated the strike much better than any other USA batter on the day. Alongside the lower order, Jhamb dragged their total up to a respectable 199.
Bangladesh, however, remained in cruise control during the chase. Opener Zawad Abrar was particularly brutal, hitting five fours and three sixes as he raced away to a 42-ball 47. He fell to a caught-and-bowled effort off Garg, but by that point, Bangladesh were 78 for 1, and more than a third of the way to their target.
Another big partnership followed after his dismissal: Hakim hit the sole half-century of the match, stitching together an 88-run partnership with Kalam Siddiki. By the time he was the third batter to be dismissed, the result was a foregone conclusion.
Rizan Hossan hit two sixes in back-to-back overs in the company of Siddiki. The second one closed out the match, giving Bangladesh their first win of the tournament, and pushing USA out of contention for the Super Sixes
Brief scores:
Bangladesh Under 19s 201 for 3 in 41.3 overs (Azizul Hakim 64, Zawad Abrar 47; Rifat Beg 30, Kalam Siddiki 30*; Ritvik Appidi 1-27) beat USA Under 19s 199 in 50 overs (Adnit Jhamb 68*, Utkarsh Srivastava 39; Iqbal Hossain Emon 3-41, Al Fahad 2-38, Shahriar Ahmed 2-32, Rizan Hossan 2-27) by seven wickets
US President Donald Trump has withdrawn an invite for Canada to join his newly constituted Board of Peace, in the latest spat between the North American neighbours.
“Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining,” Trump said on Truth Social in a post addressed to Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Carney made headlines this week warning of a “rupture” in the US-led global order. Ottawa also said it would not pay to join Trump’s new body.
The board, which gives Trump wide decision-making powers as chairman, is being billed by the US as a new international organisation for resolving conflicts.
Trump did not give a reason in Thursday evening’s post as to why he had decided to revoke Canada’s offer.
Carney’s office did not immediately respond. The prime minster had indicated last week he would accept Trump’s invite on principle.
But Ottawa had indicated in recent days that it would not pay the $1bn (£740m) membership fee which Trump has said permanent members will be asked to pay to help fund the board.
His Board of Peace was originally thought to be aimed at helping end the two-year war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and oversee reconstruction.
[BBC]
Two people have died and several are feared buried after landslides in New Zealand’s North Island.
The deaths were reported at Welcome Bay, while rescue workers are still searching through rubble at a different site in a popular campground on Mount Maunganui.
There are no “signs of life”, authorities said, adding that they have a “rough idea” of how many people are missing but are waiting for an exact figure. They provided no other details except that the group includes “at least one young girl”.
The landslides were triggered by heavy rains over the last few days, which led to flooding and power outages across the North Island. One minister said the east coast resembled “a war zone”.
New Zealand is “heavy with grief” after the “profound tragedy” caused by recent weather, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on X.
Footage from the campsite on Mount Maunganui, an extinct volcano, shows a huge slip near the base of the volcanic dome, as rescuers and sniffer dogs comb through crushed caravans and flattened tents.
Authorities said that the search would continue through the night. “This is a complex and high-risk environment, and our teams are working to achieve the best possible outcome while keeping everyone safe,” said Megan Stiffler, the deputy national commander for the Urban Search and Rescue team,
The extinct volcano is a sacred Māori site and one of the most popular campgrounds in New Zealand, with a local holiday website describing it as a “slice of paradise”. But it has been repeatedly hit by landslides in recent years.
“I heard this huge tree crack and all this dirt come off, and then I looked behind me and there’s this huge landslide coming down,” Australian tourist Sonny Worrall told local broadcaster TVNZ.
“I’m still shaking from it now… I turned around and had to jump out of my seat and just run,”he added. He saw it happen while swimming in a hot pool.
Hiker Mark Tangney told the New Zealand Herald he heard people screaming from under the rubble. “So I just parked up and ran to help… We could hear people screaming: ‘Help us, help us, get us out of here’,” he said.
Those calls persisted for about half an hour and then went silent, Tangney said.
A surf club in another part of Mount Maunganui has been evacuated following fears of more landslides.
A state of emergency has been declared in the Bay of Plenty where Mount Maunganui sits, and various parts of the North Island, including Northland, Coromandel, Tairāwhiti and Hauraki.
Several areas reported their wettest days on record on Thursday. Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty, for example, received three months worth of rain within a day, according to local media.
Some 8,000 people were without power as of Thursday morning, Radio New Zealand (RNZ) reported.
The wife of a man who was swept away in the Mahurangi River is holding out hope that he will survive.
“I know his personality is strong, wise,” she told RNZ, adding that he was a fisherman back home in Kiribati and knew how to swim and dive.
The man, 47, was driving to work with their nephew when the car they were in fell into the river.
He had pushed the nephew towards a branch so the nephew could hoist himself onto land; but the older man did not manage get back up himself, according to the report.
“It’s been a very big event for us as a country, really hitting almost our entire eastern seaboard of the North Island,” said Minister for Emergency Management Mark Mitchell.
“The good news is that everyone responded really quickly, and there was time to get prepared. That helps to mitigate and create a very strong response,” he told RNZ.
December to February are typically the sunnier months in New Zealand but in recent years heavy rains and storms have become more frequent.
In February 2023, parts of the island were devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle, which is to date the costliest cyclone to hit the Southern Hemisphere, with damage amounting to NZ$13.5bn ($7.9bn; £5.9bn).
This week’s flooding has added to the toll for the local communities that are still rebuilding.
[BBC]
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