New Zealand 104 for 4 in 11.4 overs (Tim Robinson 23, Bevon Jacobs 62*, Dean Foxcroft 15*; Mahedi Hassan 1-2,  Shoriful Islam  3-19) beat Bangladesh 102 in 14.2 overs (Saif Hassan 16, Litton Ds 26. Towhid  Hridoy 33; Nathan Smith 2-14,  Ben Sears 2-12. Jayden Lennox 1-28,  Josh  Clarkson 3-09, ) by six wickets (DLS method)

Bevon Jacobs’ cracking unbeaten 62 took New Zealand to a six-wicket win against Bangladesh in the third T20I. The win in the rain-affected match in Dhaka ensured the three-match series was levelled 1-1 after the second game was rained out.

On Saturday, rain interrupted the Bangladesh innings for nearly two hours after it came down hard at 2.37pm local time. Play resumed at 4.30pm, and the match was reduced to 15 overs per side.

New Zealand, however, bowled Bangladesh out for 102 in the 15th over, with Josh Clarkson taking 3 for 9. Later, it was Jacobs who struck 62 off 31 balls, including five fours and three sixes, to get them home with 20 balls to spare.

Shoriful Islam gave Bangladesh a stunning start in their defense. He bowled a teasing outswinger with his second ball, that Katene Clarke couldn’t help but chase, thus edging to wicketkeeper Litton Das for 1. Shoriful rounded up the first over with Dane Cleaver’s wicket, also caught behind – this time off the inside edge.

Tim Robinson looked promising at the other end, crashing Ripon Mondol for a sweetly timed four and a brutally struck six over point, but he fell trying to slog Shoriful in the fourth over. Mahedi Hasan got into the act too, when he bowled captain Nick Kelly for one.

Jacobs went after Shoriful in his last over, striking him for two fours through midwicket, before Dean Foxcroft swung him down the ground for a third boundary. Jacobs struck Rishad Hossain through midwicket soon after, before Mondol was sent high over mid-off for a six.

Jacobs reached his fifty with a six off Rishad’s next over. Parvez Hossain Emon could have taken a catch at long-on, but instead punched it over for the maximum. Jacobs then slammed a straight boundary, before slog-sweeping Rishad for a six over midwicket to complete the chase with a sequence of 6, 4, 6.

Before the rain, Nathan Smith gave New Zealand a solid start with two wickets off consecutive deliveries in the fifth over. Smith burst through Tanzid Hasan with a delivery that held its line as Tanzid went for a heave across the line. Next ball, Parvez Hossain’s upper cut was poorly timed, as it lobbed towards Ish Sodhi at short third.

Before the double strike, left-arm spinner Jayden Lennox became the third New Zealander to take a wicket with his first ball in T20Is. On debut, Lennox outfoxed Saif Hassan into giving a simple catch to Robinson at cover. Before Lennox did on Saturday, Lockie Ferguson and Cole McConchie had taken wickets with their first ball on debut.

When play resumed after a lengthy rain break, Clarkson removed Litton, who was caught at the deep-cover boundary after he made 26 off 17 balls. Towhid Hridoy survived a run-out chance in the next over when wicketkeeper Cleaver dislodged the stumps before the throw came in from the point fielder, with Hridoy stranded outside the crease.

Bangladesh’s luck, however, ran out soon, when Sodhi removed Shamim Hossain in the 12th over. Clarkson dismissed Hridoy and Mohammad Saifuddin off consecutive balls in the next over. Robinson took a great low catch, about which he was unsure of initially; he eventually finished with three catches in the innings,the most by a New Zealand outfielder in Bangladesh.

Rishad was run out trying to complete a second, before Ben Sears, fresh off the plane from the PSL, bowled Shoriful and Mondol early in the last over.

Sri Lanka completed a clean sweep of Bangladesh after winning the third T20I by three runs. In the rain-affected match in Sylhet, Chamari Athapaththu once again led the visitors with an all-round show. After her 41 runs from the bat helped Sri Lanka to 87 in nine overs, she bagged 2 for 15 with the ball when defending the total.

Sent in to bat first after a two-and-a-half hour delay, Sri Lanka sped off to 40 runs in the shortened powerplay of three overs. Offspinner Sultana Khatun removed Imesha Dulani in the fourth over after she made 19 off 10 balls with four boundaries.

Athapaththu played a lone hand henceforth while wickets fell at the other end. She struck five fours and a six, some of them blistering through the in field, and a couple of flicks, as she held the Sri Lanka innings on her own.

Harshitha Samarawickrama fell to Sanjida Akter in the fifth over, before Sultana removed Hansima Karunaratne and Nilakshika Silva in the sixth. Kavisha Dilhari struck two fours and a six in her seven-ball 15 which bolstered Sri Lanka towards the end of their innings.

In the chase, Athapaththu removed Dilara Akter in the second over before Juairiya Ferdous and Sobhana Mostary added 30 runs for the second wicket. Captain Nigar Sultana couldn’t get a move on, as she made 13 off nine balls, and Bangladesh couldn’t get to the target in the end. They needed 14 runs off the last over, with Sultana only getting a single boundary off Athapaththu.

Brief scores:
Sri Lanka Women 87 for 6 in 9 overs  (Chamari Athapaththu 41, Imesha Dulani 19, Kavisha Dilhari 15; Sultana Khatun 3-08, Sanjida Akter Meghia 1-16) beat Bangladesh Women 84 for 6 in 9 overs (Juairia Ferdous 15, Sobhana Mostary 21, Nigar Sultana 13; Chamari Athapaththu 2-15, Sugandika Kumari 2-22, Nimasha Meepagr 1-16, Mithali Ayodhya 1-13 )  by three runs

[Cricinfo]

The United States military has said that it will pull 5,000 troops out of Germany amid ongoing tensions with the key European ally concerning the US war against Iran, according to media reports.

Reuters reported that the Pentagon made the decision on Friday, several days after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Iran was humiliating the US during negotiations over the end of the war.

“The president is rightly reacting to these counterproductive remarks,” the report cites an anonymous official as saying.

The news service reported that the withdrawal is expected to take place over the next six to 12 months. The decision was also reported by CBS News, citing senior defence officials.

President Donald Trump has lashed out at European allies for not doing more to assist the US-Israel war on Iran, and had stated on Wednesday that he was thinking of pulling troops out of European countries deemed insufficiently supportive.

The US outlet Politico reported earlier this week that Trump’s threats to pull troops out of European countries caught the military by surprise, citing several anonymous defence officials and a congressional aide.

Trump attacked his German counterpart in another social media post on Thursday, stating that Merz should spend more time trying to end the war between Russia and Ukraine and less time “interfering with those that are getting rid of the Iran Nuclear threat, thereby making the World, including Germany, a safer place”.

While European countries have been hesitant to commit their own forces to the US war on Iran, leaders such as Merz were initially hesitant to offer criticism of the US attacks, widely considered illegal under international law.

[Aljazeera]