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Australia clinch thriller to book yet another semi-final; India on the brink
India’s T20 World Cup semi-final hopes have been taken out of their hands after a nine-run defeat to Australia in their final group-stage match. India have lost two of their four matches and will have to wait on the result of New Zealand vs Pakistan tomorrow to find out if they will advance to the knockouts. Any margin of victory for New Zealand will eliminate India but a Pakistan victory will decide the semi-finalists on net run rate.
Permutations aside, the tournament finally got the thriller it had been crying out for in an intense clash in front of an electric, sold-out Sharjah crowd of 14,946. They were treated to a high-octane affair with both sides acutely aware of what was at stake amid injury concerns. Australia were without captain, opening batter and wicket-keeper Alyssa Healy, who arrived on crutches after sustaining a foot injury against Pakistan, and Tayla Vlaeminck who has been ruled out of the tournament. .
India also lost Asha Sobhana to a knee injury after the toss and needed Australia’s permission to replace her in the XI, which was given0 Radha Yadav who had appeared as a substitute fielder in previous games, was included in Asha’s place. Later, Renuka Singh left the field limping after bowling her four overs but came back to face the final ball of the match.
By then, India’s chances of victory were gone after their chase started brightly but was pinned back by wickets at crucial times. They were 47 for 3 in the seventh over before a 63-run stand between Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma put them back on track. A collapse of 6 for 31 left Harmanpreet the last batter standing and despite a second successive half-century, she could not take India over the line alone.
Australia were uncharacteristically messy in the field, put down two chances and bowled four wides and a no-ball but had enough at their disposal to defend.Grace Harris opening in Healy’s place, was their top-scorer with a 41-ball 40 and shared a 62-run stand with Tahlia McGrath, which steadied Australia after two early losses. Ellyse Perry’s 23-ball 32 gave them much-needed impetus at the end.
Australia were off to a slowish start with 17 runs from their first 16 balls when Renuka struck with a delivery that angled away from Beth Mooney. Australia’s senior opener reached for it and hit a low chance to Radha at backward point, where she dived forward to take a good catch. Georgia Wareham was pushed up to No. 3, where she has occasionally been used as a pinch hitter, and the first ball she faced thudded into the front pad as she missed her flick.
Renuka was joined by every single one of her team-mates in appealing and umpire Sue Redfern eventually raised her finger as Wareham began walking off. Harris asked Wareham if she wanted to review but she decided against it, only to return to the dressing room and find out that ball tracking showed that the ball would go on to miss leg stump by some distance. Australia held Perry back and stand-in captain McGrath was in at No. 4, where she had to rebuild.
Harris and McGrath took Australia to 37 for 2 in the powerplay and launched into attack mode from the eighth over, when they both took on Pooja Vastrakar. McGrath hit her through cover for four and then Harris scooped her over fine leg in an over that cost ten runs and took Australia past fifty. Australia were 65 for 2 at the halfway stage of their innings and the Harris-McGrath stand grew to 62 off 54 balls and India were desperate to separate them.
They reviewed an lbw appeal against McGrath off a Renuka full toss which was missing leg. McGrath was then dropped on 31 by Harmanpreet off Radha at cover. The India captain got both hands on the ball but it burst through. Harris hit the next ball in the air and Harmanpreet ran back to try and take an overhead catch but missed. It was third time lucky for India when McGrath charged Radha, missed and Richa Ghosh stumped her.
Harris went nine balls later when she pulled her WPL team-mate Deepti to Smriti Mandhana at short mid-on and India had their foot on the Australian middle order’s throat when Ashleigh Gardner’s leading edge found Radha at cover. After 15 overs, Australia were 101 for 5. Perry showed intent when she took 13 runs off Shreyanka Patil’s third over.
India thought they had another important breakthrough when Deepti appealed for lbw after Phoebe Litchfield missed an attempted reverse sweep. Redfern gave it out on field and Litchfield was walking but Perry convinced her to review. The ball was pitching outside leg stump and even though Litchfield changed her stance, the third umpire Jacqueline Williams deemed that Litchfield did that only after the ball was delivered and asked Redfern to change her decision to not out. India initially protested the decision but soon calmed down. Litchfield was on 5 at the time, finished the innings unbeaten on 15, and hit a six off the last ball.
India’s intent was evident off the bat of Shafali Verma, who had to wait until only the sixth ball she faced when she found the boundary with great force. She slogged Gardner over square leg for India’s first four, then sent Megan Schutt over her head for four more and finally went all the way, slamming Schutt over long-off. Shafali had soon raced to 20 off 12 balls but fell to Gardner for the fifth time in T20Is, trying to clear Annabel Sutherland at long-on.
Australia sensed an opportunity to break through and when Sutherland rapped Jemimah Rodrigues on the pad. They reviewed the call after it was given not out only to find that the impact was outside the line. Their next review was successful, when Mandhana was beaten on the pull and hit on the back thigh off Sophie Molineux’s quick, skiddy first ball. Ball-tracking confirmed it was hitting the middle of middle stump and India ended their powerplay on 41 for 2.
Australia got even further ahead when Rodrigues pulled Schutt straight to Gardner at deep midwicket in the seventh over. It allowed them to apply the squeeze. Deepti gloved a sweep for four in the eighth over but then there were no boundaries for three overs, at the end of which Australia had confirmed their semi-final spot.
Harmanpreet pulled Darcie Brown through deep square leg in the 11th over, which was her first boundary and off the 15th ball she faced. Another 20 balls went by before India found the boundary again, in the 14th over by which point the required run rate was above ten an over. India needed 62 runs off the last six overs.
The India captain almost single-handedly kept her side in the hunt, especially when the boundaries dried up. At the end of the 14th over, she hit the four that reignited the chase and she went on to find gaps in the field that kept India in it. After Deepti sent Wareham over short fine for four, Harmanpreet bisected the gap between extra cover and mid-off.
Deepti and Ghosh were dismissed in the space of three balls and Harmanpreet struck successive fours off Gardner to make sure India stayed in the contest. She brought up fifty off 44 balls but was at the non-striker’s end for most of the final over, from where watched four wickets fall and India’s chances fade away.
Brief scores:
Australia Women 151 for 8 in 20 overs (Grace Harris 40, Tahlia McGrath 32, Elysse Perry 32; Renuka Singh 2-24, Shreyanika Patil 1-32, Pooja Vastrakar 1-22, Deepti Sharma 2-28, Radha Yadav 1-14) beat India Women 142 for 9 in 20 overs (Shafali Verma 20, Harmanpreet Kaur 54*, Deepti Sharma 29; Megan Schutt 1-25, Ashleigh Gardner 1-32, Annabel Sutherland 2-22, Sophie Molineux 2-32) by nine runs
[Cricinfo]
President Donald Trump has named former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to his so-called “Board of Peace”, which is expected to oversee the United States president’s 20-point plan to end Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza.
The White House said on Friday that Blair would be among the board’s founding executive members, alongside Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the US special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.
The other members are Marc Rowan, the CEO of Apollo Global Management; World Bank Group President Ajay Banga; and Robert Gabriel, a US deputy national security adviser.
The board members “will oversee a defined portfolio critical to Gaza’s stabilization and long-term success”, the White House said, including “governance capacity-building, regional relations, reconstruction, investment attraction, large-scale funding, and capital mobilization “.
Bulgarian diplomat and former senior United Nations official Nickolav Mladenoy will serve as the High Representative for Gaza, according to the statement.
The announcement also named members of a Gaza Executive Board, aimed at supporting governance and services in Gaza. Blair, Kushner and Witkoff were also named to the board, along with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Qatari diplomat Ali Al Thawadi and others.
In addition, the White House said that US Major-General Jasper Jeffers has been appointed as Commander of the International Stabilisation Force for Gaza.
Jeffers, who is the current commander of US special forces, would lead the force in a range of areas, including security operations, delivering humanitarian aid and supporting “comprehensive demilitarization”, the White House said.
While the US has long supported Israel’s demand that Hamas surrender all of its weapons, the Palestinian group has said it wants guarantees before doing so.
The Gaza Executive Board will support the Office of the High Representative and a National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), headed up by Ali Shaath, which is expected to handle day-to-day governance in Gaza in lieu of Hamas.
Shaath is a former Deputy Minister of Transportation for the Palestinian Authority, who is from Khan Younis in Gaza but based in the occupied West Bank.
Hamas had previously said it was ready to abandon its governing duties in the enclave as outlined under the Trump plan.
There was no immediate response from Hamas and other Palestinian political factions to the makeup of the Board of Peace’s executive board.
The White House announcement on Friday comes just days after Witkoff announced the launch of the second phase of the US-brokered plan to end Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 71,000 Palestinians since October 2023.
The US administration has said Trump’s plan is “moving from ceasefire to demilitarization, technocratic governance, and reconstruction”.
But Palestinians have questioned what that will mean in practice, as Israel continues to carry out deadly attacks across the coastal enclave and restrict deliveries of humanitarian aid, in violation of the US-brokered ceasefire deal that came into effect in October.
A 10-year-old girl, a 16-year-old boy and an elderly woman were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza on Friday, as members of a planned Palestinian technocratic committee sat down for the first time in Cairo to prepare for the rollout of phase two of Trump’s plan.
The participation of Blair, who served as British prime minister from 1997 to 2007, has also been a major point of contention, after his name was floated as a possible candidate for the Board of Peace months ago.
The former United Kingdom Labour Party leader strongly supported the US-led so-called “war on terror” in the early 2000s, and joined then-US President George W Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and another newly-named executive board member, is also a staunch supporter of Israel who previously suggested that Palestinians are incapable of self-governance.
Kushner’s family also has strong ties to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes committed in Gaza.
In 2024, Kushner underscored that Gaza has “very valuable” waterfront property, saying that Israel should “move the people out and then clean it up”.
Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington, DC, noted that some of the people nominated by Trump will be “members of both the Board of Peace and of the executive board for Gaza”.
“It would appear from this structure outline that the Board of Peace has the overarching responsibility, but dealing with the nuts and bolts on the ground in transition will be the Gaza Executive Board,” Hanna said.
Hanna also noted that Mladenov’s role as the High Representative for Gaza shows that there will be a UN component, considering the Bulgarian diplomat was previously the UN’s top envoy to the region from 2015-2020.
“There is a UN component in this, which is very important, given the differences between the US and the UN in recent years,” Hanna said.
“To have the UN viably involved in the reconstruction of Gaza is utterly essential for these boards, the Board of Peace and the administration board, to have a semblance of credibility,” he added.
Criticism of the board also emerged swiftly.
Ashish Prashar, who worked as an aide to Blair between 2010 and 2012, called for rejecting international trusteeship over Gaza, stating in a post on social media that “the future of Palestine should only be decided by Palestinians”.
“It appears the only qualification for joining the Gaza ‘peace board’ is to have a strong track record of endorsing (and arming) Israel’s project of genocide, apartheid and ethnic cleansing, and criminalising those who oppose it,” Prashar told Al Jazeera in a statement.
“Trump’s Gaza ‘Board of Peace’ was just a pilot project. All states who signed off on it are the ones who paved the way for Trump’s next ‘Boards of Peace’ in Venezuela, Ukraine and any other place the extractionist American regime wants to take next,” he said.
[Aljazeera]
The ICC has decided to send officials to Dhaka this weekend to meet the BCB’s top brass in a bid to resolve the impasse over Bangladesh travelling to India for the T20 World Cup that starts in three weeks.
The ICC’s team is expected to provide the BCB with security details including an independent assessment as part of the discussions. The development comes days after the BCB reiterated its stance of not sending Bangladesh to play in co-hosts India’s venues owing to “security concerns.” So far meetings and discussions have taken place via video conference; this will be the first time the two parties will meet in person.
During the January 13 virtual meeting, the BCB asked the ICC to move Bangladesh, who are placed in Group C, outside India. However, the ICC said it would not tweak the original schedule, with the tournament start date – February 7 – less than a month away. Bangladesh are scheduled to play on that opening day, against West Indies, in Kolkata.
With relations between India and Bangladesh tense in recent times, the BCB sent a letter to ICC on January 4 stating it would not be safe for Bangladesh to travel to India for the World Cup where its four group matches are scheduled. That was in response to the BCCI “authorising” Kolkata Knight Riders to release Bangladesh left arm fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman. No specific reason was given for that decision.
A Risk Assessment report for the World Cup, compiled by an independent security agency, and accessed by ESPNcricinfo, says the threat to teams playing in India is in the moderate-high band but there is “no information to indicate a direct threat against participating teams.”
The ICC shared that security assessment report with the BCB in their last call, which indicated no specific or heightened threat to the Bangladesh cricket team in India. The assessment was shared with the BCB’s security team and concluded there was no overall threat to the side, but pointed to low to moderate risks in some venues and low to nil in others – standard ICC categorisations around the world that do not ordinarily constitute sufficient reason to move games.
[Cricinfo]
Steven Hogan’s century, which included a 186-run stand with Nitesh Samuel, helped Australia brush aside Ireland for an eight wicket win in Windhoek.
After being put in to bat, Ireland openers James West and Freddie Ogillby were off to a slow start, before John James struck to remove West for 11. Sebastian Dijkstra was the next one to go, with Charles Lachmund pinning him in front in the 18th over. That brought Rob O’Brien to the crease, who then slowly rebuilt the innings in Ogilby’s company to put up a 43-run stand.
Offspinner Will Malajczuk, however, denied Ogilby his half-century, having him caught behind for 49 in the 29th over. O’Brien continued to build steadily and found the boundaries occasionally, before departing for a 98-ball 79 in the 49th over, helping push Ireland’s total to 235.
Australia got off to a strong start in the chase, with Malajczuk hitting a four and six in the first over. After he fell in the third over, Samuel and Hogan continued to build towards the target, scoring their half-centuries off 62 balls and 50 balls respectively. Their 100-run stand came up in the 21st over, and Hogan continued to find boundaries, bringing up his ton off 97 balls in the 32nd over.
Medium-pacer Luke Murray provided the breakthrough in the 36th over, having Hogan caught behind for 115. In his 111-ball stay, Hogan hit 11 fours and a six. By then, Australia needed only another 20 runs to win. Ollie Peake then joined Samuel, who finished unbeaten on 77, and together they completed the chase with 62 balls remaining to get Australia off to a rollicking start.
Brief scores:
Australia Under 19s 237 for 2 in 37.2 overs (Steven Hogan 115, Nitesh Samuel 77*; Luke Murray 1-46) beat Ireland Under 19s 235 for 7 in 50 overs (Freddie Ogilby 49, Rob O’Brien 79; Charles Lachmund 3-41) by eight wickets
[Cricinfo]
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