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Royal Challengers Bengaluru begin title defence with statement win

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Virat Kohli began the season with a fifty [Cricinfo]

After Jacob Duffy made his best Josh Hazlewood impersonation on IPL debut, Devdutt Padikkal,  who had replaced him as the Impact Sub, took center stage as Royal Challengers Bengaluru kicked off their title defence with a drubbing of Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Duffy bowled a nerveless spell, taking the new ball and delivering four overs on the trot to come away with 4-0-22-3, including the wickets of Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head. Duffy then put his feet up in his dressing room while Padikkal ripped the heart out of SRH’s attack with a high-intent 61 off 26 balls. Virat Kohli did his thing and knocked off a fifty of his own as RCB mowed down 202 with six wickets and 26 balls to spare.

Ishan Kishan had marked his IPL captaincy debut with 80 off 38 balls, but Duffy and Padikkal combined to put that in the shade.

On the opening day of the very first season of the IPL, in 2008, a certain Brendon McCullum from the south of New Zealand set the Chinnaswamy alight. On the day the IPL turned 19, another player from the south of New Zealand caused a stir at the Chinnaswamy.

After sussing out the conditions early – the new ball wasn’t swinging for long – Duffy kept hitting a hard length and kept attacking the stumps to discomfit SRH’s heavy-hitters. All of Abhishek, Head and Nitish Kumar Reddy were out, failing to control their pull shots off that length. During those early exchanges, some balls also stopped on batters, and Duffy used that to his advantage.

When Rajat Patidar said “Jacob” was in RCB’s bowl-first XI at the toss, many would have assumed him to be Jacob Bethell, who was coming into the IPL on the back of a splendid century against India in the World Cup semi-final.  Instead, it was Duffy who got the nod and made it a debut to remember.

Kishan countered Duffy’s strikes, racing away to a 27-ball fifty. In the recent past, IPL captaincy has forced some India batters to dial down their aggression, but Kishan continued to bat with the freedom that was central to India winning the T20 World Cup earlier this month.

When the ball was doing a bit early doors, he started with a classical cover-driven four off Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the powerplay and then hit T20 mode when he lined up Abhinandan Singh, the other RCB debutant, for 30 off 13 balls. When RCB went to spin in the form of Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma, Kishan lined them up as well.

It felt like RCB would need something special to stop Kishan and that something special came via a one-handed screamer from Phil Salt near the point boundary at the end of the 16th over.

Aniket Verma then produced a knock that was just as electric as Kishan’s. He faced 18 balls and sent seven of those disappearing to the boundary. Aniket wasn’t just about power. When Bhuvneshwar floated a slower, shorter knuckle ball, Aniket held his shape for long enough and ramped it over the keeper. After clearing the fence four times, he holed out in the penultimate over of the innings while attempting his fifth six.

Jaydev Unadkat struck in his first over when he removed Salt for eight, but Padikkal and Kohli then got together and turned the chase into a cakewalk. By the time their partnership ended at 101 off 45 balls, RCB’s asking rate had dropped to eight.

Padikkal, who was picked ahead of RCB’s new recruit Venkatesh Iyer, dashed out the blocks, hitting three fours and three sixes off his first 11 balls. He carried on to bring up his fastest IPL fifty, off 21 balls.

After the match, Kohli said that he had originally planned to attack SRH’s bowlers, but after watching Padikkal middle almost everything, he decided to sit back and anchor the chase. Kohli got to his own fifty off 33 balls and then rushed RCB home with a sequence of 6,4,4,4 off Harshal Patel in 15.4 overs – the quickest any team has successfully chased a target of 200-plus runs. RCB left SRH’s six-man attack, nursing economy rates ranging from 9.5 to 17.5.

No Hazlewood? No problem for RCB. No Cummins? Plenty of problems already for SRH.

Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 203 for 4 in 15.4 overs (Virat Kohli 69*, Devdutt Padikkal 61, Rajat Patidar 31, Tim David 16*; Jaydev Unadkat 1-29, David Payne 2-35, Harsh Dubey1-35) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 201 for 9 in 20 overs  (Travis Head 11, Ishan Kishan 80, Heinrich Klassen 31, Aniket Verma 43;  Jacob Duffy 3-22, Buvaneshwar Kumar 1-31, Abhinandan Singh 1-38, Romario Shepherd 3-54, Suyash Sharma 1-28) by six wickets

Eleven seats were left empty at the Chinnaswamy stadium as a tribute to the fans who lost their lives in the stampede last year [Cricinfo]

[Cricinfo]



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Rana and Mosaddek star as Bangladesh end 21-year wait with crushing win

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Nahid Rana caused plenty of problems with his pace [Cricinfo]

Nahid Rana and Mosaddek Hossain combined brilliantly to secure Bangladesh a huge win against Australia in the first ODI in Dhaka. The 86-run victory, which eventually came via DLS due to a thunderstorm, was only the second time that Bangladesh have defeated Australia in this format; their previous win was in June 2005, known as the Cardiff Miracle. However, this win 21 years later was far from an upset as Bangladesh continued their impressive home form by completely dominating proceedings.

Mosaddek celebrated his return to the team after four years with an all-round showing that included an unbeaten career-best 86 and two wickets. Rana, who had taken three five-wicket hauls in the last three months, claimed 4 for 41 in a fiery performance where he was clocked at over 150kph.

Australia had a forgettable day at the Shere Bangla National Stadium. They dropped four catches and looked unlike themselves in the field. Then they couldn’t withstand Rana’s speed on a pitch that produced mostly even bounce and a bit of pace. Cameron Green ended unbeaten with 52 but the game had long since gone.

Taskin Ahmed’s peach of a delivery that moved slightly off the wicket castled Matt Short off the first ball of the Australia chase. Short became only the fifth opener to get out first ball in an ODI innings against Bangladesh, and the first in 17 years. It meant Australia had registered three consecutive scoreless opening stands.

Mustafizur Rahman trapped the struggling Marnus Labuschagne lbw with the second ball of the next over. Left-armer Mustafizur pitched it up to Labuschagne who played around the delivery. There was initial doubt about the review before captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz gave the signal and it was the right call.

Rana then bowled a perfect length to Australia captain Josh Inglis who edged to wicketkeeper Litton Das. Rana, who usually doesn’t react to his wickets too loudly, really went into a celebratory run, appearing to say something Inglis. He reacted to Rana’s outburst, before Mehidy escorted away his Australian counterpart. In the rest of the over, Rana bowled deliveries in excess of 146kph.

Mosaddek’s fine day continued when he removed Cooper Connolly in the 20th over with a delivery from around the wicket which slid into leg stump. Connolly, opening for just the second time in his ODI career, made 35 off 50 balls. Alex Carey was the next to go, nicking Rana to the keeper for 47 when he looked beaten for pace. In the 29th over, Rana bowled one delivery that reached 150kph.

Rana also removed debutant Liam Scott and Xavier Bartlett in the space of two overs. Scott fended a rising delivery to Tawhid Hridoy, who took a diving catch in front of him at gully, and Bartlett avoided getting hit when he gave a simple catch to Tanzid at square-leg off a 148kph delivery.

Meanwhile, Mosaddek had added his second when he trapped Matt Renshaw lbw for 2 with one which turned sharply to hit the back leg. Mosaddek capped off his brilliant day with a terrific catch running back from mid-off when Nathan Ellis top-edged Mustafizur.

After Bangladesh were sent in to bat, Mosaddek led the way in the latter part of the innings as he struck seven fours and three sixes in his unbeaten 86 off 70 balls. Mosaddek added 75 for the fifth wicket with Hridoy who contributed a sedate 31. The partnership revived the Bangladesh innings after they had slipped to 140 for 4.

Tanzid Hasan and Najmul Hossain Shanto had laid the platform with a 96-run stand for the second wicket after Bangladesh lost Saif Hassan in the second over. The left-handed duo kept the home side in the driver’s seat with regular boundaries throughout their stay. Shanto was initially the more aggressive of the pair, regularly coming down the track against the Australia seamers.

Tanzid played mostly from his crease, as he crashed the ball down the ground whenever it was pitched up. However, they were unable to push on, falling shortly after reaching their first milestones. Tanzid holed out to Bartlett at mid-on followed by Shanto chipping to long-off nine overs later. In between, Renshaw had taken a superb caught-and-bowled to remove Litton for 7.

Mosaddek and Hridoy batted positively while rotating the strike during their fifth-wicket stand, continuing their impressive form from the DPL. Mosaddek’s first boundary was a straight six off Adam Zampa although he was lucky, too, surviving dropped catches on 21, 38 and 73.

In between, he struck the ball hard down the ground. When he lost Hridoy and Mehidy in quick succession, Mosaddek didn’t panic, adding 65 with the lower order. Taskin supported him with a six and two fours while Mosaddek raced between the wickets whenever there was an opportunity to take a second run.

Brief scores:
Bangladesh 284 for 8 in 50 overs  (Tanzid Hasan 54, Najmul Hosain Shanto 67, Mosaddek Hossain 86*; Nathan Ellis 3-38, Liam Scott 2-57, Matt Renshaw 2-35) beat Australia 191 for 9 in 42.2 overs (Alex  Carey 47, Cameron Green 52*; Mustafizur Rahman 2-24,  Nahid Rana 4-41, Mosaddek Hossain 2-37) by 86 runs (DLS method)

[Cricinfo]

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Cabinet approval for Sri Lanka Community and Health Survey – 2026/2027

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The Sri Lanka Community and Health Survey is the main data source for obtaining necessary information for reviewing progress toward achieving the national health development goals, as well as the expected sustainable development goals by 2030.

The last survey was conducted in the year 2016, and the Sri Lanka Community and Health Survey should be conducted to obtain updated data to enable the collection of related data and indicators concerning the health and well-being targets of the Global Sustainable Development Objectives.

Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development to take necessary steps to conduct the aforementioned survey.

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Mrs. Chandanie Sagarika Boogahawatthe appointed as Additional Secretary at the Prime Minister’s office

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Approval of the Cabinet of Ministers was granted at their meeting held on 02.12.2024 to appoint Mrs. Chandanie Sagarika Boogahawatthe, an officer in Grade I of Sri Lanka Planning Service to a post of Additional Secretary at the Prime Minister’s office on full time acting basis.

She has been promoted to the Special Grade of  the Sri Lanka Planning Service with effect from 01.01.2026 by the Public Service Commission.

Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the resolution furnished by the Prime Minister to appoint Mrs. Chandanie Sagarika Boogahawatthe to a post of Additional Secretary at the Prime Minister’s office on permanent basis.

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