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Conway 178* and Latham 137 grind West Indies to dust in Mount Maunganui

Published

4 months ago

2025/12/18

Priyan

Devon Conway brought up his sixth Test century [Cricinfo]

The Bay of Plenty lived up to its name but only for New Zealand. Devon Conway and Tom Latham harvested a century each and by that time they were having so much fun they would barely let anybody else play.

West Indies could argue that was a bit rude. They were in Mount Maunganui looking for rich bounty as well. A first Test win on these shores for 30 years, which if secured would hand them a share of this series’ spoils. All of that cast them in the role of a protagonist at the start of the day. But as time wore on and records – both trivial and tumultuous – came to pass, Roston Chase and his men faded into the background.

Each of the five previous Test matches at this ground have yielded a wicket in its first session. This one didn’t. Kane Williamson, so used to an early start at the office, had to wait the longest he ever has to clock in. So restless had he grown that at the start of the final session, he was seen wearing all his gear barring the helmet practicing a rapid-fire series of leaves and blocks. There will be reels. Split-screens with Latham and Conway facing real cricket balls out in the middle and this guy just pretending to do so with a caption of who did it better. The answer is actually Terry Jarvis and Glenn Turner.

Latham had a big part in the history he helped make. Over 25 home Tests, dating all the way back to March 2012, New Zealand have only ever chosen to bowl after winning the toss. Here, he had a hunch about putting runs on the board. Outside of that one bold move, everything else he did was basic. Playing close to the body. Knowing exactly where his off stump was. Frustrating the bowlers to target his pads. Manufacturing easy put-aways. Latham’s 15th Test century – where he went past 6000 runs as an opener – was proof that fairy tales aren’t the only things that can come to life. Textbooks do too. It took all the way to 6.30pm for Latham to fall on 137. Test cricket was so close to having a fifth opening pair lasting the entire first day.

Conway played himself into form. Twenty-six of his last 39 innings were cut short at or below the 30-run mark, which isn’t ideal considering his role at the top of the order is to set the whole team up. Given he was walking out onto a pitch with an unusual amount of grass – 13mm, normally it’s around 7-10mm – there was cause for concern. He put them all to bed, weathering an initial period where West Indies were willing to give up only 11 runs in eight overs. He instigated the first period of New Zealand dominance, the six overs to morning drinks where they scored a-run-a-ball. He went on to bat for longer than he has ever done since his double-century on debut at Lord’s four years ago.

The only way any of this could have been worse for West Indies was if they had brought it all on themselves, and only the finest line separated that from what actually happened. Because they got what they wanted at the toss. First use of a surface that looked like it had been left in the care of a kindergartener with a green crayon. The bowlers, though, didn’t make the best use of it.

Their third seamer Anderson Phillip, started with a spell of 3-0-25-0, and as hard as he tried to improve – creating a rare wicket-taking opportunity when Latham nicked one behind to the keeper on 104 and was dropped – he still went to stumps with 14-2-71-0. It was symptomatic of a bowling attack that still produced jaffas – and might feel aggrieved none of them yielded any joy – but didn’t have it in them to back it up; to hit the good length spot consistently, test the batter’s discipline and search for vulnerability.

Indeed, at the start of the second session, New Zealand had a harder time not scoring boundaries, five of them coming their way in the space of 12 balls. A small spell of rain offered West Indies the chance to regroup and they appeared willing to take it, Jayden Seales adopting the method of local hero Neil Wagner and going short for a concerted period of time. Conway wore one on the left hand, needed medical attention, and at the start of the 52nd over, he was overheard on the stump mic asking the umpire about the time for tea. He was in need of reprieve. Seconds later, Chase lobbed up a long hop that he pulled away for four. West Indies kept undoing their own good work. Often immediately.

This was no batting paradise. Nor was it ever a fast bowler’s dream. Spinners took two-thirds of the wickets in the mostrecent first class game in Mount Maunganui. It is with that in mind that New Zealand brought Ajaz Patel into the XI and backed themselves to put up a big total.

Conway has led them there – batting through cramp, batting one-handed and eventually hitting that rarefied place where he was just batting on instinct, reacting perfectly even to things like extra and low bounce – but things could have been so different if West Indies had shown a little more discipline. Now their batters have to pick up the slack.

Brief scores: [Day 1 stumps]
New Zealand 334 for 1 in 90 overs (Tom Latham 137, Devon Conway, 178*; Kemar Roach 1-63) vs West Indies

[Cricinfo]

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Trump announces two-week ceasefire as Iran agrees to reopen Hormuz Strait

Published

18 hours ago

2026/04/8

Priyan

[file pic]

United States President Donald Trump has agreed to suspend his planned bombing of Iran for two weeks, following his threat that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Tehran did not comply with his demands.

On Tuesday evening, within hours of the planned attack, Trump took to his platform Truth Social to announce he had reversed course.

He credited Pakistan for mediating the settlement, but warned it came with conditions – namely that Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“Based on conversations with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, of Pakistan, and wherein they requested that I hold off the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran, and subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks,” Trump wrote.

The message was posted online at 6:32pm US Eastern time (22:32 GMT), just under one and a half hours before Trump’s 8pm (00:00 GMT) deadline for the attack.

Shortly after Trump’s message, Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi confirmed that a tentative agreement had been reached.

“If attacks against Iran are halted, our Powerful Armed Forces will cease their defensive operations,” Araghchi wrote.

“For a period of two weeks, safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible via coordination with Iran’s Armed Forces and with due consideration of technical limitations.”

Araghchi likewise thanked Pakistan for its last-minute appeal to suspend the US bombing campaign. Iran’s Supreme National Security Council also hinted in a separate statement that the ceasefire could be extended beyond its initial two weeks if negotiations proceed favourably.

Further talks are expected to take place in Islamabad over the coming weeks

In the lead-up to the Thursday evening announcement, there had been speculation that Trump might extend the deadline, as he has multiple times in recent weeks.

But tensions had mushroomed on Tuesday as the deadline inched closer – and after Trump himself posted a menacing message on social media that morning.

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Trump had written. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”

He added that the evening deadline would mark “one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World”.

Trump had previously threatened to blow up power plants, bridges and other civilian infrastructure, actions that many legal experts said would amount to a war crime.

In his Tuesday evening message, the US president once again claimed victory over Iran and said that Tehran had delivered a feasible ceasefire proposal.

“This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE,” Trump wrote.

“The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Long term PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East. We received a 10 point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate.”

Trump explained that the next two weeks would be spent finalising the agreement with Iran. But he voiced optimism that any past disagreements had been resolved.

“Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran,” Trump said.

“It is an Honor to have this Long term problem close to resolution,” he added.

Al Jazeera correspondent Osama Bin Javaid noted that Trump’s latest announcement was likely to be welcomed by US allies in the Middle East, who had been bracing for a heavy attack on Iran and the possibility of counterattacks.

“That is going to be a big sigh of relief, collectively from the region and beyond, because the alternative was so horrific,” Bin Javaid said.

“The level of anxiety around the region was extraordinary, and Donald Trump was the only person who could defuse it, because he’s the one who lit the fuse in the first place.”

Trump’s announcement was initially met with scepticism and confusion on the ground in Tehran, where some questioned how much of the conflict would be paused under the ceasefire.

“It’s not clear, at least not to me, whether he’s suspending what is already going on since the beginning of the war entirely, or he’s extending the deadline for that ultimate destruction of the power plants,” Al Jazeera correspondent Mohamed Vall said from Tehran.

The war has been raging for more than five weeks, since Israel and the US launched a joint military offensive against Iran on February 28.

Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have argued that the offensive was necessary to eliminate Iran as a regional threat and prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

But legal experts have described the offensive as an unprovoked attack, in violation of international law.

Already, nearly 2,076 people have been killed in Iran since the start of the war. Another 28 people have been killed in nearby Gulf states.

The US, meanwhile, has lost 13 military members, while 26 people have been killed in Israel.

[Aljazeera]

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Yashasvi Jaiswal powers Royals past Mumbai Indians in 11-over thrash

Published

18 hours ago

2026/04/8

Priyan

Yashasvi Jaiswal was all smiles at the end of the match [Cricinfo]

Heavy rain in Guwahati delayed the start of the match between Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Mumbai Indians (MI) by more than two and a half hours. And when play finally began at 10.10 pm, there was another storm awaiting MI.

RR’s openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Sooriyavanshi ransacked 80 runs in five overs. Sooryavanshi was eventually dismissed for 39 off 14, but Jaiswal rampaged unbeaten through the 11-over innings, scoring 77 off 32 to power RR to 150 for 3.

In reply, MI lost three wickets inside the powerplay, which was reduced to 3.2 overs, and were eventually restricted to 123 for 9. Jofra Archer had provided the first breakthrough, and Sandeep Sharma, Nandre Burger and Ravi Bishnoi picked up two wickets apiece. RR moved to the top of the points table with three wins in three games, while MI suffered their second successive defeat.

Sooryavanshi and Jaiswal don’t need to be told to be aggressive, and that natural instinct was heightened in a rain-shortened contest. If there was any moisture in the pitch due to the weather, there was no evidence of it in the powerplay. MI chose to give the first over not to Trent Boult but to Deepak Chahar and Jaiswal tore into him: 4, 6, 4, 0, 4, 4.

Then came the highly-anticipated battle: 15-year old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi facing Jasprit Bumrah for the first time in his fledgling career. How would he approach one of the greatest bowlers in the game? Bumrah’s first ball was a slot ball. Sooryavanshi played the delivery and not the deliverer, and smashed it over the long-on boundary. The strike rotated back to him over the next two balls, and when Bumrah tested him with an off-pace delivery, Sooryavanshi swivelled and pulled him for another six over deep backward square leg. Round one – 13 off 5 balls – to Sooryavanshi.

Boult came on for the third over and Jaiswal cleared the deep square leg boundary twice and Sooryavanshi once, and by the time the 20-ball powerplay was finished, RR were 59 for 0.

Jaiswal is usually boom or bust against MI. Before this match, he had two centuries and five scores of less than 15 in eight innings against them. On Tuesday, he went boom again, smashing four fours and three sixes in his first nine deliveries. He got to fifty off 23 balls by cracking Hardik Pandya through point.

Sooryavanshi fell to the golden arm of Shardul Thakur, Dhruv Jurel and Riyan Parag fell to the mystery spin of AM Ghazanfar, but Jaiswal didn’t stop. He clobbered Bumrah for a straight six and picked three fours off Shardul in the final over to take RR to 150.

Like they had with the ball, MI suffered 20 balls of powerplay mayhem with the bat. Facing an asking rate of nearly 14, Ryan Rickelton swung Jofra Archer for six over deep midwicket but then top-edged another pull and was caught by Jurel running back. Suryakumar Yadav paddled Nandre Burger for the flattest of sixes over fine leg but was deceived by a hard-length offcutter and caught at deep backward square a ball later. Rohit was pinned lbw for the sixth time in 13 IPL innings by Sandeep. While RR’s powerplay score was 59 for 0; MI responded with 29 for 3.

The pitch had become a little tacky as the match progressed and the RR quicks adapted by using their cutters to good effect. Legspinner Ravi Bishnoi extended his lead at the top of the Purple Cap charts by dismissing Hardik and Tilak Varma in his first over, reducing MI to 46 for 5 after five overs. He should have had a third in his next over, when Sherfane Rutherford miscued to long-on but Jaiswal dropped the chance.

With the required rate soaring to past 17 an over, Naman Dhir and Rutherford tried to revive the chase with a partnership of 47 in 17 balls. But any slim hope MI may have had was extinguished when Sandeep dived forward at short third to take a low catch to end Rutherford’s innings. Burger, Sandeep and Archer closed out the innings to seal RR’s victory by 27 runs.

Brief scores: [11 overs per team]
Rajasthan Royals 150 for 3 in 11 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 77*, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 39, Riyan Parag 20; Shardul Thakur 1-36, AM Ghazanfar 2-21) beat Mumbai Indians 123 for 9 in 11 overs (Tilak Varma 14, Sherfane Rutherford 25, Naman Dhir 25; Jofra Archer 1-17, Nandre Burger 2-21, Sandeep Sharma 2-26, Tushar Deshpande 1-29, Ravi Bishnoi 2-25) by 27 runs

[Cricinfo]

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The Sun is directly overhead Warakapola, Aranayaka, Gampola, Bibile, Inginiyagala, and Akkaraipattu at about 12:12 noon today (08)

Published

22 hours ago

2026/04/8

Priyan

On the apparent northward relative motion of the sun, it is going to be directly over the latitudes of Sri Lanka from the 05th to 15th of April this year.

The nearest areas of Sri Lanka over which the sun is overhead today (08th) are Warakapola, Aranayaka, Gampola, Bibile, Inginiyagala, and Akkaraipattu at about 12:12 noon.