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Bumrah and Hardik script stunning comeback to lead India to T20 World Cup glory
Suriyakumar Yadav snatched a boundary catch for the ages, Jasprit Bumrah snuck in two electric final overs, and Hardik Pandya pilfered the two big wickets as India pulled off one of their great heists to win a World Cup, finally.
With five overs to go, South Africa were rampant. Heirich Klassen one of the great hitters in the game, threatening to throw off decades of painful big-match history for his team with a hail of sixes. He and David Miller had clubbed 38 runs off the two previous overs, and with six wickets in hand South Africa needed only a run-a-ball off the last 30 balls.
Rohit Sharma was forced to go to the best bowler in the world, when he would have otherwise saved Bumrah for later overs. Bumrah didn’t quite break the partnership, the batters never daring to take him on. But he did break Klaasen and Miller’s stride. They scrambled only four runs off that over.
But the most telling blow, came at the start of the 17th over. After the flow of the game was further slowed due to an apparent knee complaint for Rishabh Pant, Hardik bowled a wide line outside off and took the edge of Klaasen, Pant snaffling the chance gleefully.
Still, Miller was there, though he couldn’t get a boundary away off the rest of that over.
Then Bumrah came back, bowled several ripsnorters in the last over of yet another tournament he has dominated. With one of those magic balls, a wicked in-seamer, he burst through the defenses of the last recognised South Africa batter, Marco Jansen, and grazed leg stump.
With Keshav Maharaj now in the middle, their batting line-up notably short, and 20 needed off 12 balls, South Africa were for the first time since the early overs of the chase in trouble. Arshdeep Singh delivered a nerveless 19th over, off which South Africa could muster only four.
The dream-killing blow came next. With 16 needed off the final over, bowled by Hardik. Miller tried to lift the first ball, a wide full toss, over the straight boundary. But he didn’t connect perfectly, and Suryakumar, running full tilt along the rope, his feet only centimetres inside, caught the ball, popped it up as he briefly stepped over the boundary, then completed the running catch as he hopped back into the field, sparking wild jubilation in the stands, and ecstatic celebrations from the India players.
South Africa batters No. 8, 9, and 10, did not manage to get Hardik away, aside from a single outside edge that flew for four.
When Hardik India completed the seven-run win, the bowler sank to his knees in relief, his team-mates exulted, and the crowd, largely supporting India, flew into euphoria. Their team had become World Champions again, after 13 years.
On a flat track in Barbados, Bumrah bowled two unplayable deliveries that brought him two wickets – both bowled. The first of these was the better one. It was one of the best in the tournament, and very arguably one of the best ever in finals. Angled in to Reeza Hendricks, it pitched and seamed away to hit the top of off, beating the batter’s outside edge.
He conceded five runs in that first over, eight runs in the next (one of only two boundaries off his bowling came here – a not fully-controlled steer through deep third).
But those last two overs went some distance to defining this match. Four runs off the 16th over, after the 15th had been clubbed for 24 runs. Two runs off the 17th. His figures were 2 for 18.
Arshdeep Singh was almost as outstanding, returning 2 for 20. His two powerplay overs cost only eight, and brought the important wicket of Aiden Markram, who edged him behind. In the middle overs, he dismissed Quinton de Kock, who was looking to raise the tempo after he had overseen the recover after two early blows.
And then that fantastic 19th over, in which he bowled two balls to Miller but conceded only three off them, otherwise keeping Maharaj on strike.
This, after India’s spinners had leaked 106 off their nine collective overs.
One of the best hits of the tournament was Klaasen crashing a wide, Kuldeep Yadav googly way over the cover boundary for six, with minimal foot movement. That was his third six (he’d banged Hardik and Ravindra Jadeja over the rope earlier).
But it was against Axar Patel that he really thumped South Africa into the ascendancy. First ball of the 15th over, he bullied down the ground off the back foot for four. Axar bowled two wides in fear. Then later, two massive hits down the ground – one of which pounded the roof of the stadium, then a four through wide long-off for good measure.
He completed his fifty off 23 balls, the fastest ever in a T20 World Cup final. After he was dismissed, South Africa could not manage a single intentional boundary, the only four coming off Kagiso Rabada’s outside edge.
The headlines will say Virat Kohli top scored with 76 off 59, but there were times when this knock was laboured.
Between the fourth and 18th over, Kohli faced 35 balls in which he scored 29 and hit no boundaries. When he got to fifty, he had used up 48 deliveries, and didn’t raise his bat, having batted for most of that time in ODI middle-overs mode. There was an obvious critique to make here: was this an innings so unambitious, it was actually doing India harm?
But the counter-argument is strong. Kohli had been 22 off 16 when the third wicket (Suryakumar Yadav) went down, in the fifth over. And the security he gave at one end, allowed Axar (pushed up the order No. 5) and Shivam Dube to prosper with their big-hitting.
His stands with those batters reaped 72 off 54 (Axar hit 47 off 31) and 57 off 33 (Dube hit 22 off 13), and formed the heft of India’s innings. Their 176 for 7 was the most any team has scored in a World Cup final.
For 35 overs of this game, you could not have possibly arrived at that conclusion. They were pumped up in the early overs, when Keshav Maharaj struck twice, and Rabada removed Suryakumar – India’s most-dangerous batter. They held their catches and were excellent in the outfield.
They overcame losing early wickets nicely too. But at one point, they needed 26 off 24 balls, had six wickets in hand, and only one over of Bumrah left to face. They tried to target Hardik, which was the smart play in that situation, but lost both their key batters to him.
There are simpler explanations too: India were battle-hardened and skilful; South Africa’s batting line-up was short.
Brief scores:
India 176 for 7 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 76, Axar Patel 47, Shivam Dube 27; Marco Jansen 1-49, Keshav Maharaj 2-23, Kagiso Rabada 1-36, Anrich Nortje 2-26) beat South Africa 169 for 8 in 20 overs (Quinton de Kock 39, Tristan Stubbs 31, Heirich Klaasen 52, David Miller 21; Jasprit Bumrah 2-18, Arshdeep Singh 2-20, Axar Patel 1-49, Hardik Pandya 3-20) by seven runs
[Cricinfo]
The Philippine House of Representatives has voted to impeach Vice-President Sara Duterte for a second time, threatening her plan to run for president in 2028.
Monday’s vote moves the impeachment process to the Senate for trial, where if convicted, the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte will be disqualified from holding public office.
The 47-year-old is leading early surveys to replace her ally-turned-bitter foe, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The case against the vice-president stemmed from her alleged misuse of public funds and public threats against Marcos, his wife and his cousin, the former House speaker.
Duterte was impeached on the same grounds in 2025, but the Supreme Court blocked it on a technicality before the
senate trial could start.
The case was revived this year. Last week, a House committee that looked into the evidence against the vice-president ruled that there was sufficient grounds to impeach her.
Duterte described the case as “nothing more than a scrap of paper” in a formal written response. She refused to appear in the committee hearings which she said had been politically motivated.
After the impeachment vote on Monday, Duterte’s defence counsel said in a statement that “the burden now rests on the accusers to substantiate their claims” according to the law.
Monday night’s impeachment vote served as a barometer of Marcos’ support in the House. 257 of the 290 lawmakers in attendance voted to impeach Duterte, more than the one-thirds required to advance the case to trial.
But unlike in the House, a conviction in the Senate is uncertain, if a trial does start and runs its course.
In Philippine politics that is dominated by patronage and dynastic alliances, House members, who are elected per legislative district are friendlier to the incumbent president, compared to senators.
The country’s 24 senators are elected on the national level and the Senate is a traditional springboard for those hoping to run for president or vice-president in the future.
In the 2025 mid-term vote, where half of the Senate was elected, candidates allied with Duterte fared better than those who ran under Marcos’ coalition.
But the outcome of an impeachment vote will be difficult to predict under the country’s multi-party system with shifting alliances.
Duterte announced her intention to run for president in February, much earlier than expected. Marcos is limited by the constitution to a single six-year term.
She holds a 17-point lead over her nearest rival based on a survey in March by Manila pollster WR Numero.
In the 2022 elections, Duterte was the survey frontrunner to succeed her father, but she formed an alliance with Marcos and ran for vice-president instead to consolidate their support bases and fend off a reformist wave. The pair won by a landslide.
But the alliance soon unravelled as they pursued divergent political agendas.
Marcos’ allies in the House, led by cousin, then speaker Martin Romualdez, investigated allegations of fund misuse in Duterte’s office.
At the height of public scrutiny, Duterte hosted a late night online press conference, where she said she told one person that “if I get killed, go kill BBM [President Marcos], [First Lady] Liza Araneta, and [House Speaker] Martin Romualdez”.
Then in March last year, Marcos allowed theInternational Criminal Court to arrest Rodrigo Duterte and detain him at The Hague, where he now awaits trial for crimes against humanity over the hundreds who died in his so-called war on drugs.
[BBC]
An American and a French national who have returned to their home countries having left a cruise ship hit by a deadly outbreak of hantavirus have tested positive, authorities say.
In total seven cases of hantavirus linked to the MV Hondius have been confirmed, with two other cases suspected, the World Health Organization [WHO] said on Monday.
The US health department said a second American national on the repatriation flight had also shown mild symptoms, adding that both passengers had travelled back in “biocontainment units out of an abundance of caution”.
French Health Minister Stéphanie Rist said a woman was isolating in Paris and her health was deteriorating, with 22 contacts traced.
Three passengers have died after travelling on the ship, two of whom were confirmed to have had the virus.
The WHO said the person who is believed to have been the first to be infected in the outbreak died before he could be tested.
Two other British nationals with confirmed cases are currently being treated in the Netherlands and South Africa.
Hantaviruses are usually carried by rodents, but human transmission of the Andes strain – which the World Health Organization (WHO) believes was contracted by some of the Dutch ship’s passengers while in South America – is possible.
Symptoms can include fever, extreme fatigue, muscle aches, stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhoea and shortness of breath.
Officials say the risk of a major outbreak is very low.
More than 90 passengers of the MV Hondius ship, currently docked in Spain’s Canary Islands, are being repatriated.
In its latest update from Tenerife on Monday, Spanish officials said 54 passengers and crew were still on board the ship. Spanish Health Minister Mónica García said six of those were passengers: four Australians, one Briton and one New Zealander.
Some 22 people would disembark the ship to fly to the Netherlands on Monday, she said – including the Australians who had been expected to be flown home directly but whose plane could not be guaranteed to arrive on time.
The MV Hondius was then expected to leave for the Netherlands later on Monday, she said.
In its statement early on Monday, the US Department of Health and Human Services said all 17 US citizens on Sunday’s flight would undergo “clinical assessment” at a medical facility in Nebraska. A British national living in the US was also repatriated alongside them.
Seven other US passengers had already returned home and were being monitored in their home states.
Before the American case was confirmed, WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the decision by the US not to follow his organisation’s guidelines over the hantavirus outbreak “may have risks”.
The WHO has recommended 42 days of isolation for those leaving the MV Hondius.
But Dr Jay Bhattacharya, the acting head of the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said he did not want to cause public panic, insisting that human-to-human transmission was rare and it should not be treated like the Covid virus.
Cruise ship passengers were pictured wearing blue gowns, bouffant caps, and medical face masks as they disembarked on Sunday at the port of Grandilla de Abona in Tenerife.
On Sunday, a plane carrying 20 British nationals arrived in the UK.
The passengers flew into Manchester Airport on a chartered flight from Tenerife and were taken to Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, Merseyside, to isolate for 72 hours. None of them have reported symptoms.
In Spain, 14 Spaniards flown to Madrid now face mandatory quarantine at a military hospital. Another two evacuation flights are scheduled for Monday afternoon.
A separate flight with 26 passengers and crew – including eight Dutch nationals – arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday.
Earlier on Monday, Ukraine said four of its citizens would remain on board the MV Hondius as part of the crew to ensure the ship’s transfer to the Netherlands. Upon arrival, the foreign ministry said, they would be expected to quarantine at a medical facility.
Another Ukrainian national was expected to leave the ship as part of the partial crew evacuation on a flight to the Netherlands.
At present, no signs of illness have been recorded among the Ukrainians, the ministry added.
In a video message released on Monday by Oceanwide Expeditions, which operates the MV Hondius, the captain said the crew’s thoughts were “with the ones that are now longer with us”.
Jan Dobrogowski also said that “the past few weeks have been extremely challenging to us all”, while praising the patience, discipline and kindness shown on board the vessel.
During her update, the Spanish health minister also said that one of the police officers involved in the ongoing repatriation operation had died of cardiac arrest.
An elderly Dutch man was the first passenger who died on board the MV Hondius on 11 April. He had earlier developed symptoms – but is considered a probable case as no tests have been carried out.
His wife – a 69-year-old woman – left the ship on the island of St Helena on 24 April and flew to South Africa. She died two days later in a clinic in Johannesburg.
A German woman died on board the cruise ship on 2 May.
The two women are both confirmed cases.
The MV Hondius departed Argentina’s southern city of Ushuaia on 1 April, and is currently docked at the port of Grandilla, southern Tenerife.
[BBC]
For a man who spent most of the past 20 years in exile, and the past eight months in jail, the figure of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra still looms large over Thailand.
His release from prison at the age of 76 after serving part of a one-year sentence for corruption and abuses of power during his terms as prime minister from 2001 to 2006, was headline news in Thailand.
Hundreds of supporters wearing red cheered as Thaksin emerged from Bangkok’s Klong Prem jail on Monday, wearing a white shirt and short cropped hair.
Thaksin told reporters soon after his release that he was in good health and was “relieved”.
He was greeted outside Bangkok’s Klong Prem prison by family members, including his daughter and protege, former prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
Thaksin’s party Pheu Thai’s insistence that from now on he will remain in the background could not stop feverish media speculation over what role he might still play in Thai politics.
This is hardly surprising.
From the moment he swept to power in January 2001 Thaksin, a brash, self-made billionaire, has sought to reshape his country, winning devoted supporters and bitter opponents in equal measure. His parties kept winning elections, even after he was deposed by a coup in September 2006, but fear of his vaunting ambition in the powerful royalist establishment led to multiple court rulings against his allies, years of violent street clashes, and another coup in 2014.
Yet he refused to step back. He continued to run his party from abroad, and, after an apparent “grand bargain”, his conservative opponents allowed him to come home in 2023, to direct it once it was back in government again.
His continued popularity was evident outside the prison where his supporters had gathered.
One of them – Maysa Lombuarot – had driven 700km (435 miles) to see him released.
“Today I brought him 20kg of lychees. I know he likes them. Now that he’s free, I want him to eat something good,” she told the BBC, adding that she hoped he would continue his political career.
“I want him to help the country, to help the people who are suffering so much right now… only he can deliver what he promised,” she said.
And Thaksin does seem incapable of taking a back seat, whatever he may say about spending more time with his grandchildren.
This time, though, it really could be different.
Thaksin was jailed ;ast September, after the Supreme Court ruled that the six months he spent in a police hospital after his return to Thailand had been a ruse to avoid serving his sentence.
This verdict followed the collapse of the Pheu Thai-led coalition government less than two weeks earlier, when the Constitutional Court dismissed his daughter Paetongtarn as prime minister over a leaked phone conversation she had had with the Cambodian leader Hun Sen over how to handle the border dispute between the two countries. Once again, the powerful, conservative courts were determining his party’s fate, as they have so often in the recent past.
While Thaksin was behind bars, Pheu Thai had its worst-ever result in the February general election. It was pushed down to third place behind the reformist People’s Party, and eclipsedby the conservative Bhumjaithai party, which benefited from a surge of nationalist sentiment after the border war with Cambodia. Pheu Thai has been forced to accept being a junior coalition partner in the new government.
“Thaksin emerges from prison to a new political environment”, says political analyst Ken Lohatepanont.
“Pheu Thai has been sidelined as just a mid-sized party. You can never count Thaksin out, but the challenge that he and his Party face is of a different magnitude to those he has faced in the past. Pheu Thai will have to decide whether a public comeback for Thaksin will boost the party, or whether the party might be better served by placing the spotlight on their newer generation leaders.”
The jury is still out in Thailand over why the “grand bargain” with royalist forces which had allowed Thaksin to end his long exile in 2023 collapsed so quickly.
Had the conservatives always intended to use the courts to cripple the governments his party led? His first choice of prime minister was also dismissed by the courts on a seemingly trivial pretext.
Or were they provoked into moving against him by his refusal to stay in the background, his determination to drive his party’s agenda and to explore new and controversial areas of business?
Either way, the mistrust between Thaksin and Thai conservatives is now probably insurmountable. Even if he does still hanker after a prominent political role, he will almost certainly be barred from getting one.
The past 25 years in Thailand could reasonably be called “the Thaksin era”. That era is almost certainly over.
[BBC]
Philippine VP Sara Duterte impeached for a second time
US and French nationals test positive for hantavirus after leaving ship
Thailand’s divisive ex-PM is out of jail, but is the Thaksin era over?
Andy Flower fined for ‘use of an audible obscenity’ during Mumbai Indians clash
Royal Challengers Bengaluru eliminate Mumbai Indians and go top after tense finish
Car bomb attack and ambush in northwest Pakistan kill at least 21 police
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