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Curran, bowlers lead Desert Vipers to maiden ILT20 title

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The victorious Desert Vipers team hold the trophy aloft (Cricinfo)

After two heartbreaks, it was third time lucky for Desert Vipers as they broke the final hoodoo, defeating MI Emirates by 46 runs to claim their maiden ILT20 title in Dubai.

The win was headlined by captain Sam Curran, who held the Vipers innings together with an unbeaten 74 off 51 balls. He was helped by Max Holden (41 off 32) and Dan Lawrence (23 off 15) as Vipers notched up an impressive 182 for 4 in their 20 overs.

MIE never got their chase going, losing wickets at regular intervals. Naseem Shah was at his fiery best, picking up 3 for 18 in his four overs, while Usman Tariq curbed the runs in the middle overs, returning 2 for 20. David Payne also picked up 3 for 42, all three of his wickets coming in an over, as MIE were bowled out for 136 in 18.3 overs. It was fitting that the most consistent team of the season took home the title.

Vipers’ win means that ILT20 has now had a different winner in each of the first four seasons – Gulf Giants, MIE, Dubai Capitals and now Vipers.

Fakhar Zaman didn’t take time to go after Shakib Al Hasan, depositing him over wide long-on second ball of the innings. MIE were sloppy with their fielding, and both Fakhar and Jason Roy cashed in. After Fakhar collected a boundary off first ball off AM Ghazanfar, Roy hit left-arm quick Muhammad Rohid for back-to-back fours as Vipers raced to 34 for 0 after three overs. But Fazalhaq Farooqi helped MIE hit back with a double-wicket opening over.

Roy first flat-batted a short-of-a-length delivery straight to short midwicket before Farooqi cleaned up Fakhar with a peach of an inducker that pitched just outside off and swung back in breaching the opener’s defenses. Curran took five balls to get off the mark but closed out the powerplay in style with three straight fours off Farooqi as Vipers reached 59 for 2 in six overs.

While Holden took his time to settle, Curran kept the scorecard ticking. He pulled offspinner Tajinder Singh twice through midwicket before guiding Kieron Pollard past short third. Holden, going just about a run-a-ball, found his groove as well as he took Tajinder inside out over covers and then planted him over long-on as Vipers raced past 100 in the 12th over.

Mystery spinner Arab Gul broke the 89-run third-wicket stand by accounting for Holden but Lawrence ensured the momentum wasn’t lost. He smoked Gul over covers second ball before Curran reached his fifty off 39 balls as Vipers eyed a late push. That came via a 21-run 18th over with Curran and Lawrence sending Romario Shepherd over the fence three times. Vipers collected 46 runs off the last four overs to breach the 180-mark.

Muhammad Waseem, MIE’s star of the ILT20, started the chase briskly. He clubbed Payne over deep midwicket, while Andre Fletcher sent fast bowler Khuzaima Tanveer straight down the ground for six. Though Fletcher fell, mistiming Naseem to deep midwicket, Waseem kept going. He pulled Naseem through midwicket and then edged Curran past the wicketkeeper. But a flurry of wickets dented MIE’s chase.

Naseem struck for the second time when his pacy indipper had Tom Banton’s bat turning in his hand for a simple catch to Curran at mid-on for 7. Tanveer then got the prized scalp of his countryman Waseem, who in a bid to steer the ball fine, could only manage a thick edge to the wicketkeeper as MIE stumbled to 46 for 3 in six overs. Tariq then got into the act, sending back Sanjay Krishnamurthi. Having managed just 2 off 8, Krishnamurthi tried to pull Tariq over deep midwicket but could only manage a miscue and Hassan Nawaz completed a stunning diving catch low to his right.

With the required rate touching close to 11, it was down to the two experienced heads Shakib and Pollard to try and conjure some magic. They added 60 off 45 balls, but Vipers maintained their lines, not giving much away on a surface which had something for the bowlers throughout. With the required rate almost 14 at the start of the 16th over, Shakib tried to haul Tariq over long-on but failed to generate enough power with Tanveer doing the rest.

Pollard fell six balls later and with that went MIE’s chances of a second title. Payne picked up three wickets in an over before Tanveer closed the chase, sparking wild celebrations in the Vipers dugout. MIE lost their last six wickets for just 22 runs in 3.3 overs to go down in a heap.

Brief scores:

Desert Vipers 182 for 4  in 20 overs (Fakhar Zaman  20, Janson Roy 11, Sam Curran 74*, Max Holden 41, Dan Lawrence 23; Fazalhaq Farooqi 2-33, Arab Gul 1-14) beat MI Emirates 136 in 18.3 overs  (Muhammed Waseem 26, Andre Fletcher 10, Shakib Al Hasan  36, Kieron Pollard 28, Tajinder Singh 12;  Naseem Shah 3-18, Davi Payne 3-42, Khuzaima Tanveer 2-22, Usman Tariq 2-20) by 46 runs

(Cricinfo)



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US press gala shooting suspect charged with attempting to kill Trump

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US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel and Assistant Director in Charge (ADIC) of the FBI Washington Field Office Darren Cox stand next to a picture of a shotgun carried by Cole Tomas Allen, April 27 [Aljazeera]

Federal authorities in the United States have charged the suspect who allegedly shot a US Secret Service agent as he tried to breach security at a press gala attended by Donald Trump with attempting to assassinate the US president.

Cole Thomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, also faces firearms charges in a three-count complaint, prosecutors announced on Monday.

In the case of a conviction, the attempted assassination of Trump carries out a sentence of up to life in prison.

Allen wore a blue prison jumpsuit at his first appearance in Washington, DC, federal court, two days after authorities said they foiled an attack at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, an annual black-tie gathering of journalists and politicians in the US capital.

“He attempted to assassinate the president of the United States, Donald J Trump”, prosecutor Jocelyn Ballantine said in court.

Allen has not yet responded to the allegations. Seated at the defence table flanked by US Marshals, Allen said he would answer all questions truthfully and that he had a master’s degree in computer science.

US Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh ordered Allen detained while the case moves forward. Sharbaugh scheduled another hearing over Allen’s continued detention for Thursday.

Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for Washington, DC, said further charges could be filed against Allen as the investigation proceeds.

“Make no mistake, this was an attempted assassination of the president of the United States, with the defendant making clear what his intent was – and that intent was to bring down as many of the high-ranking cabinet officials as he could,” Pirro told reporters on Monday.

She cited an alleged manifesto written by the suspect, saying that his targets were administration officials “prioritised from highest-ranking to lowest”.

Pirro added that Allen allegedly had a semiautomatic pistol, a shotgun and three knives. She said authorities believe the guns were purchased in California.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Allen travelled via train from his home near Los Angeles to Chicago and then to Washington.

[Aljazeera]

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Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar lead rout of Delhi Capitals

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Josh Hazlewood struck with his first two deliveries [Cricinfo]

On Saturday, Delhi served up a belter of a pitch on which 265 played 264. Two days later, the adjacent surface produced a passage of play straight out of a spicy Test-match session. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood maximised the swing and bounce on offer in the early exchanges to raze through Delhi Capitals. DC crumpled to 8 for 6 – their powerplay score of 13 was the lowest in a full IPL game – and were in danger of being dismissed for the lowest total in the league.

Contributions from the lower order helped them avoid that ignominy and dragged them to 75. Royal Challengers Bengaluru completed the demolition job with nine wickets and 81 balls to spare. They narrowed Punjab Kings’ lead at the top of the table to just one point and boosted their NRR.

The carnage began with Bhuvneshwar yorking IPL debutant Sahil Parakh for a two-ball duck in the first over and ended with DC being decimated for the lowest powerplay score.

The Delhi pitch didn’t misbehave, but offered swing and bounce throughout the powerplay. Bhuvneshwar and Hazlewood made the most of it to return figures of 3-0-5-3 and 3-0-8-3 respectively in the first six overs. At the innings break, Bhuvneshwar said that he was surprised that the ball swung for so long. Safe to say so were the DC batters.

Parakh, picked ahead of Prithvi Shaw, came in as a player with considerable reputation for an 18-year old. DC’s director of cricket Venugopal Rao believes he can play for India one day, but on Monday, his IPL debut lasted all of two balls. Bhuvneshwar hit his edge first ball with an outswinger and knocked out his middle stump with an inswinger next ball.

In the second over, Hazlewood hit the perfect length – neither short or full – with his first ball to KL Rahul and had him top-edging a pull to the wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma. Hazlewood pushed his length and line fuller and wider next ball and found late away movement to have Sameer Rizvi nicking to Jitesh for a golden duck.

Tristan Stubbs denied Hazlewood a hat-trick, but in the next over he too edged behind, off Bhuvneshwar. With two slips in play, including a wide one, Rajat Patidar ramped up the pressure on DC and empowered his bowlers to keep attacking. When Bhuvneshwar also kissed Axar Patel’s edge, DC were 7 for 5 in the third over.

It soon became 8 for 6 when Hazlewood dug a snorter into Nitish Rana’s arm pit from around the wicket. Rana took his eyes off the ball and ended up fending it to Padikkal.

Even RCB couldn’t believe what had just transpired. Tim David covered his face in disbelief.

A dust storm, which caused a brief stoppage, and a 35-run partnership for the seventh wicket between Abhishek Porel and David Miller then gave DC some respite.

DC had pressed the emergency switch and brought Porel in as an Impact Player following the fall of the fifth wicket. The first shot of authority came from Porel when he swatted Rasikh Dar over midwicket for four soon after the powerplay.

Miller also seemed fairly comfortable against RCB’s change bowlers before Rasikh drew a top edge with a short ball that stopped on the batter. Batting at No.8 for the first time in his 565-match T20 career, Miller was dismissed for 19 off 18 balls.

Kyle Jamieson hit the first six of the game when he launched Romario Shepherd over square leg in the 11th over, but two overs later, Krunal Pandya pinned him lbw for 12 off 13 balls.

 

Porel hung around for 33 balls for 30 runs before he was the last man dismissed. He was also the only DC batter to pass 20 and took them past the lowest IPL total of 49.  Hazlewood made a mess of his stumps with a searing yorker that tailed in from around the wicket.

With Phil Salt still nursing an injury, Jacob Bethell retained his place in the RCB team and ran away to 20 off 11 balls before Jamieson had him caught superbly by T Natarajan running back from mid-on. Devdutt Padikkal was even quicker off the blocks, reaching 22 off eight balls, and by the end of the powerplay, RCB were 65 for 1.
Kohli got the job done for RCB in the next over with back-to-back sixes off Natarajan. Along the way, he became the first player to 9000 IPL  runs.

 

Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 77 for 1 in 6.3 overs (Jacob Bethell 20, Virat  Kohli 23*, Devdutt Padikkal 34*; Kyle Jamieson 1-42) beat Delhi Capitals 75 in 16.3 overs  (AbishekPorel 30, David Miller 19, Kyle Jamieson 12; Josh Hazlewood 4-12, Bhuvneshwar Kumar  3-05, RasikhnSalman 1-21, Suyashb Sharma 1-07, Krunal Pandya 1-09) by nine wickets

 

[Cricinfo]

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Heat Index at Caution Level in the Northern, North-central and North-western provinces and in Colombo, Gampaha, Kegalle, Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts during the day time

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Warm Weather Advisory
Issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre
Issued at 3.30 p.m. on 27 April 2026, valid for 28 April 2026.

The Heat index, the temperature felt on human body is likely to increase up to ‘Caution level’ at some places in the Northern, North-central and North-western provinces and in Colombo,
Gampaha, Kegalle, Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts during the day time.

The Heat Index Forecast is calculated by using relative humidity and maximum temperature and this is the condition that is felt on your body. This is not the forecast of maximum temperature. It is generated by the Department of Meteorology for the next day period and prepared by using global numerical weather prediction model data.


Effect of the heat index on the human body is mentioned in the above table and it is prepared on the advice of the Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medical Services.

ACTION REQUIRED
Job sites: Stay hydrated and takes breaks in the shade as often as possible.
Indoors: Check up on the elderly and the sick.
Vehicles: Never leave children unattended.
Outdoors: Limit strenuous outdoor activities, find shade and stay hydrated.
Dress: Wear lightweight and white or light-colored clothing.

Note:
In addition, please refer to advisories issued by the Disaster Preparedness & Response Division, Ministry of Health in this regard as well. For further clarifications please contact 011-7446491.

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