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Dube’s death-overs batting fuels India’s fourth win on the bounce

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Shivam Dube was the chief catalyst who propelled India to a match-winning total [Cricbuzz]
For some time on Wednesday evening in the biggest cricket ground in the world, Netherlands dared to dream of causing the biggest upset of the World Cup. They had India on the ropes until Shivam Dube began to dispatch balls in his arc, and outside of it, to the boundary en route to a 30-ball 66 that led India to 193/6.

That score was initially beyond India’s imagination against Netherlands’ multiple sleights of hand – slower ones, cutters and knuckle balls, that tied down an otherwise explosive batting order. It worked for long, until Dube took advantage of some of the predictability that came with change of pace, and the skewed square boundary dimensions (60m and 68m).

India’s innings didn’t take off until the 12th over, and even then it looked like a flash in a pan. Life leading up to that point was a constant struggle for India’s top-order as Netherlands’ bowlers nailed their lengths while bowling to their fields. Abhishek Sharma fell for a third successive duck and Ishan Kishan suffered a slice of misfortune – both bowled by off-spinner Aryan Dutt who bowled three exceptional PowerPlay overs for just 17 runs.

Netherlands’ medium-pacers then frustrated Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav for long stretches of play. The middle-overs were a toil against slower ones bowled into the pitch outside the off-stump. A stunning blinder-of-a-catch from Roelof van der Merwe then broke this partnership that was going nowhere as Tilak trudged back for a 27-ball 31. Suryakumar was looking for an outlet to flip the complexion of his and India’s innings like he did against USA, but that didn’t quite come.

On the last ball of the 12th over, Suryakumar ended a 19-ball boundary drought by hitting a six over his favourite fine leg region, and Dube then got in on the act against Colin Ackermann in the 13th over after a scratchy start. He took the medium pacer for two sixes and a four in the over, but Kyle Klein hit back in the 14th. He had Suryakumar caught at long leg for a 28-ball 34, bringing Hardik Pandya to the middle just before the death overs.

Even he, however, couldn’t middle as well as he would’ve liked. But Dube batted like he was playing in a different postcode. He rose from 6 off 11 and raced to a 25-ball half-century. Netherlands’ bowlers offered him a buffet of bad balls at the death – full tosses and slot hit-me deliveries that he gleefully sent to the stands over mid-wicket and long-on.

He went after Logan van Beek in the 20-run 17th over, hit Klein for a four in the 18th and got another six against van Beek in the 20th before being caught on the fine leg boundary by substitute fielder Timm van der Gugten for a 31-ball 66 in the same over. Hardik whose timing was topsy-turvy, managed to connect on three sixes for his 21-ball 30. India added 75 off the last five overs to push the game beyond Netherlands’ reach.

Netherlands opener Max O’Dowd did just about enough to avoid giving his wicket to Jasprit Bumrah in the PowerPlay, but was undone by Varun CV, who cleaned him up in the sixth over. Hardik then struck to remove Michael Levitt as Netherlands’ chase meandered in the middle. Colin Ackermann tonked a couple of sixes to add a spark to the chase, but Varun sent him and Dutt packing off successive deliveries. Dube, who went for a few runs, broke through next, dismissing Bas de Leede for a 23-ball 33.

At the start of the death overs, Netherlands lost Scott Edwards to Bumrah, but threw their bats around to narrow India’s victory margin. Noah Croes and Zach Lion-Cachet took 11 runs off Washington Sundar, 12 off Arshdeep Singh and 18 off Hardik before Dube broke the stand in the final over. In the end, Netherlands fell short by only 17 runs.

Brief Scores:
India 193/6 in 20 overs (Ishan Kishan 18, Tilak Varma 31, Suryakumar Yadav 34, Shivam Dube 66; Hardik Pandya 30; Aryan Dutt 2-19, Logan van Beek 3-56, Kyle Klein 1-38) beat Netherlands 176/7 in 20 overs (Michael Levitt 24, Max O’Dowd 20, Bas de Leed 33, Collin Ackerman 23, Scott Edwards 15, Zach Lion-Cachet 26, Noah Croes 25*; Jasprit Bumrah 1-17, Varun Chakravarthy  3-14, Hardik Pandya 1-40, Shivan Dube 2-35) by 17 runs



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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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