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Abhishek, Tilak and spinners secure gold for India at Asian Games again

Published

33 mins ago

2026/10/3

Priyan

The India players celebrate their gold medal by doing a victory lap of the stadium [Cricinfo]

Rapid half-centuries from Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Verma at either end of their innings set India up to defend their Asian Games men’s gold with a 19 run win over Pakistan in Nisshin. The final pitted a full-strength India against a second-string Pakistan, and the first two-thirds of the contest went alongside expected lines, but a stunning 51-ball 96 from Hasan Nawaz ensured there was a tense finish. With this result, India have a 4-3 advantage over Pakistan in finals of major tournaments (five or more teams) across formats.

The pitch in Nisshin was another slow, grippy turner, but the smallness of the outfield meant spinners were under constant pressure to hit their lengths consistently. India hit 15 sixes, and Pakistan ten – that perhaps summed up the difference between the two sides. India had more pedigreed T20 hitters in their line-up, and bowlers with better control too. In packing their side with allrounders, though, they were also perhaps a frontline bowler light, and it showed in the figures of their fourth, fifth and sixth bowlers – Ravi Bishnoi, Abhishek and Shivam Dube went for a combined 100 in eight overs.

It was clear from the start that Pakistan’s bowling lacked the pinpoint control to contain a line-up as explosive as India’s. And their plans seemed a little iffy too. For instance, they brought on Saad Masood, a legspinning allrounder making his T20I debut, in the second over against the left-left pair of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Abhishek. In an over reminiscent of Abrar Ahmed to Ishan Kishan in the T20 World Cup earlier this year – a similar match-up that Kishan dominated – Saad went for 24 runs in the over, conceding three sixes and a four.

Sooryavanshi was caught behind off Saim Ayub off the first ball of the next over, earning a look of disgust from his partner – it seemed to communicate his disapproval of Sooryavanshi’s choice of shot, the reverse-sweep. The rest of Abhishek’s innings showed why he may have been disappointed in Sooryavanshi. He tore Pakistan’s attack to shreds, but pretty much all his shots followed a broad plan: sit on the back foot as much as possible, and use the slowness of the pitch to his advantage by shortening the lengths of the spinners. Pakistan’s spinners, for their part, obliged him with some long-hops of their own.

Abhishek hit seven sixes in 27 balls before he fell trying to hit another, undone by low bounce after stepping out to the left-arm spinner Arafat Minhas. At that stage, with India 93 for 3 in 7.5 overs, it looked like Abhishek had batted Pakistan out of the game.

Pakistan’s spin quintet – both teams played just one frontline seamer each – regrouped, though, and conceded just 28 runs in six overs, while taking the wickets of Kishan and Shreyas Iyer, to have India 142 for 5 after 16.

But Pakistan’s control loosened thereafter. Where they had been guilty of bowling too short at the start of India’s innings, they erred too full now, and began feeding Tilak and Shivam Dube with slot balls. They hit six sixes between them in the last four overs, four of them coming off successive balls across the 18th and 19th overs. Ahmed Daniyal, Pakistan’s lone seamer, dismissed Dube off the first ball of the final over, but Tilak ensured there would be no let-up in the hitting, finishing the innings with 6, 6, 2, 1, reaching his half-century along the way.

India scored 69 off their last four overs, and once again looked to have batted Pakistan out of the game.

Pakistan began their chase with a 33-run opening stand during which Sahibzada Farhan and Maaz Sadaqat kept finding the boundary off the edge. That stand ended when Farhan middled a slog-sweep off Washington Sundar straight to deep midwicket.

False shots continued to bring Pakistan runs through their innings. In all, their batters would score 51 off 49 not-in-control balls, as against India’s 12 off 25. Luck certainly played its part in evening this contest.

The other major factor, however, was Nawaz. He walked in when Pakistan were going nowhere, and 36 for 2 soon became 39 for 3 in 6.1 overs. Nawaz himself took his time early on, and could have been out for 4 off 11 had a collision between Sooryavanshi at long-off and Bishnoi at long-on not caused the former to spill a catch off Abhishek.

But that moment of fortune seemed to flick a switch in Nawaz, and suddenly he began holding his shape beautifully through his big hits. He hit three sixes off the next five balls he faced, off Abhishek and Bishnoi. With Ayub also beginning to pepper the boundary at the other end, India began to worry. The pair put on 87 off 48 balls, with Nawaz by far the dominant partner, contributing 57 off 26.

When Dube came on in the 15th over and immediately removed Ayub, Pakistan needed 86 from 35 with six wickets in hand. Nawaz continued to keep Pakistan in the contest, but by this stage both teams were very aware that there was one Jasprit Bumrah over remaining. He started it with Pakistan needing 44 off 12, and finished it with the equation reading 33 from 6. Debutant Saad hit his one minor misstep – a low full-toss – for a straight six, but the other five balls were near-unhittable, either searing yorkers or slower cutters that gripped and lost a lot of pace off the pitch.

Pakistan were still not out of it mathematically, and it came down to the lumbering Dube – who had bowled a similarly nervy final over in the T20 World Cup semi-final earlier this year, conceding 22 when England had needed 30. Here he gave away a four off the first ball and a wide immediately after, but a pinpoint yorker next up ensured the match was all but sealed mathematically. Nawaz slogged the fourth ball for six to get in sight of a hundred, but his top-edged hook off the final ball settled in Sanju Samson’s gloves, leaving him four runs short.

Scores:
India 211 for 6 in 20 overs (Vaibhav Sooriyavanshi 15, Abhishek Sharma 61, Shreyas Iyer 21, Ishan Kishan 20, Tilak Varma 51*, Shivam Dube 27; Saim Ayub 1-47, Ahmed Daniyal 2-43, Arafat Minhas 2-25, Abrar Ahmed 1-29) beat Pakistan 192 for 6 in 20 overs (Sahibzada Farhan 10, Maaz Sadaqat 23, Hasan Nawaz 96, Saim Ayub 29, Saad Masood 12*; Axar Patel 2-29, Washington Sundar 2-29, Shivam Dube 2-33) by 19 runs

[Cricinfo]

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Turkish court detains football refereeing chief pending corruption trial

Published

10 mins ago

2026/10/3

Priyan

The refereeing scandal is the latest controversy to shake football in Turkiye [Aljazeera]

The head of Turkiye’s football refereeing body and four other officials have been placed in pretrial detention by a court as part of a corruption investigation, the state news agency Anadolu reports.

Ferhat Gundogdu, head of the Central Referees Committee, and six others appeared before a judge over allegations of manipulation of the referee administration process, Anadolu said on Saturday.

They appeared on Friday before a judge at Istanbul’s Caglayan courthouse on several charges, including forgery of official documents, breach of trust and illegal acquisition of personal data, the report said.

The judge remanded five people in custody and granted the other two conditional release, Anadolu said.

It was the latest scandal to shake football in Turkiye, coming exactly a year after the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) suspended 149 referees on charges of illegal betting.

On Thursday night, police from the illegal betting and sports crime unit also detained Yasin Kol, a referee from Turkiye’s top-flight Super Lig, as well as an assistant referee, media reports said.

Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said prosecutors are examining claims about “interference in the processes of referee classification, assignments, scoring and appointments as well as the exams on rules”.

During raids on Tuesday, police searched the VAR room at TFF’s headquarters in Istanbul. Observers said the investigation was likely linked to last year’s betting scandal and would have implications for the federation.

“It does seem to be a continuation of 2025, and it looks like it will continue further,” sports journalist Ayhan Sensoy told the AFP news agency.

Sensoy, who wrote a 2024 book on the issue called The Gambling Pit, said it was unlikely that federation bosses “have any chance of staying in office”.

So far, the TFF has not directly addressed the arrests as its top officials are due to fly home on Saturday after attending Friday night’s Belgium-Turkiye UEFA Nations League clash in Liege, which Turkiye lost 3-0.

[Aljazeera]

Foreign News

Ten injured after car crashes into rugby supporters in Australia

Published

15 mins ago

2026/10/3

Priyan

A fire truck drives towards a crash site as a police vehicle blocks a road in Wallsend, News South Wales, on October 3, 2026, after a car drove into a crowd [Aljazeera]

A car has crashed into a crowd of rugby league supporters in the eastern Australian city of Newcastle, injuring 10 people, including three children.

New South Wales police said on Saturday that two of the injured – a five-year-old girl and a 67-year-old man – were in a critical condition and the other eight were in stable condition in hospital.

Police said they had arrested the 18-year-old man driving the vehicle and were investigating what happened. They said the crash was not believed to be related to “terrorism”.

The crowd had gathered to farewell the local rugby league side, the Newcastle Knights, ahead of their grand final against the Sydney Roosters on Sunday.

Newcastle Lord Mayor Gavin Morris said the driver, a rugby league fan, had lost control of his vehicle and had been taken into custody.

“He was revving the car, he was excited, he was a supporter, he was there for the joy of the moment,” Morris told the national broadcaster ABC.

“Somehow he lost control of the car … and he’s gone into the crowd,” he added.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “My thoughts are with everyone injured or involved in the horrible incident this morning in Newcastle.”

“Rugby league brings people together, and this should have been a weekend of excitement and pride for Newcastle fans,” he wrote in a social media post.

[Aljazeera]

Foreign News

Polls open in Latvia against backdrop of perceived Russia threat

Published

22 mins ago

2026/10/3

Priyan

A man votes during the general election in Saulkrasti, Latvia, on October 3, 2026 [Aljazeera]

Polls have opened in Latvia for an election taking place against the backdrop of perceived security threats from Russia and a nationwide cost-of-living squeeze.

Saturday’s vote is the first electoral test for Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs after coming to power in May this year when his predecessor resigned due to a backlash from stray drone incursions from Ukraine.

Kulbergs, whose right-wing United List party is currently polling at about 20 percent, is expected to hold onto his position, but the decline of two allies in his current coalition means he is set for a complicated negotiation over the makeup of any future government.

Polls opened at 05:00 GMT and will close at 17:00 GMT. The results are not expected to change Latvia’s pro-European and pro-Ukrainian course.

A woman holds an election campaign leaflet of the "Latvia First" party with a picture of the party's leader, Ainars Slesers, before the general election in Riga, Latvia, September 27, 2026. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo — *A woman holds an election campaign leaflet of the Latvia First party with a picture of the party’s leader, Ainars Slesers, before the general election [File: Aljazeera]*

About 1.5 million people are eligible to vote in the country’s 11th parliamentary election since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Latvian politics are highly fragmented, with parties rarely seeing above 20 percent vote share and coalitions being the norm.

This year, 14 electoral lists are contesting the election, but polls indicate only seven are likely to enter parliament, with the rest expected to fail to meet the minimum 5 percent vote threshold.

Rising living costs, low wages, strains on the healthcare system and long-term population decline have all featured prominently in campaign debates.

Most parties in Latvia are pro-Ukraine; however, the populist Sovereign Power party – which says it wants Ukraine to win but argues money spent supporting Kyiv would be better spent at home – looks likely to become the country’s second-biggest party, with more than 9 percent of the vote. Most other parties have ruled out forming a coalition with Sovereign Power.

Latvia First, a pro-Ukraine and populist nationalist party currently polling at about 9 percent, could be a potential coalition partner for PM Kulbergs.

The Progressives, a pro-European social democratic party, are polling at 6 percent.

Ethnic Russians make up roughly one in four Latvian citizens, but their vote, which has traditionally been cast along identity-based lines, looks set to be made according to economic and social issues.

Latvia is the poorest of the Baltic states, and it has sharply increased its defence spending since Russia invaded Ukraine, now allocating nearly 5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) to defence.

[Aljazeera]