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Harmanpreet, Sciver-Brunt lead Mumbai Indian’s demolition of Delhi Capitals

Published

9 months ago

2026/01/11

Priyan

Harmanpreet Kaur hits out [Cricinfo]

After a nail-biter slipped through their hands in the last over of the opening night of WPL 2026, defending champions Mumbai Indians bounced back with style and thrashed three-time table-toppers Delhi Capitals with bruising half-centuries from their experienced duo of Nat Sciver-Brunt and Harmanpreet Kaur, and a three-for from their fresh recruit Nicola Carey, Chasing an imposing 196, DC slipped to 33 for 4 in the sixth over and hardly ever looked like bouncing back, eventually falling short by 50 runs.

As is often the case for MI, the heavy lifting with the bat was done by Sciver-Brunt and Harmanpreet, especially in the absence of the injured allrounder Hayley Matthews. After the boundary-laden half-century from Sciver-Brunt and some late sixes from Harmanpreet powered MI close to 200, Carey’s early seam movement knocked over the off stumps of Shafali Verma and Laura Wolvaardt, before also accounting for Marizanne Kapp. From 33 for 4, DC stuttered to 86 for 6 as Amelia Kerr also chipped in with an economical spell and three wickets that rolled over DC for 145.

For the second game in a row, MI’s openers failed: Kerr fell for a duck while Gunalan Kamalini struggled to 16 off 19. After a scratchy 4 off 15 on Friday night in the season opener, Kerr edged her first legal delivery – an outswinger from Chinelle Henry – behind, as Lizelle Lee completed a diving catch on her second attempt. Kamalini also handed a diving catch to Lee, soon after she smashed Nandani Sharma for consecutive fours down the ground, but the debutant’s riposte earned her a maiden WPL wicket with Kamalini’s thick outside edge.

Sciver-Brunt then led MI’s innings and looked in top form, smashing three fours in her first four balls to different corners of the ground. She collected another pair of consecutive fours, again going after Henry, and took MI to 43 for 1 in the powerplay. While Sciver-Brunt went about finding the boundaries against the spinners too for a 32-ball fifty, Harmanpreet took her time to reach 15 off 17 before taking off.

The Harmanpreet act started when she dispatched Henry for six over long-on. She followed it with her trademark loft over the covers for four, to take MI past 100 at the end of the 13th over. Sciver-Brunt then outfoxed Minnu Mani with late adjustments for three fours in the next over, which went for 14, and even though the England batter was soon caught for 70 at cover, MI were set for a strong finish on 127 for 3 after 15.

Harmanpreet was not going after the bowlers by herself, however. She found a hard-hitting partner in Carey, who reverse-pulled for one of her four fours during her 21 off 12. But it was Harmanpreet’s clean striking that left the new DC captain Jemimah Rodrigues sweating, as the experienced MI leader played with the field, especially in the last over off Shree Charani. She hit four back-to-back fours to help MI collect 53 runs in the last four overs.

With Meg Lanning – the WPL’s second-highest scorer – released before the auction, DC had big shoes to fill at the top of the order. It didn’t happen on Saturday, at least, as Lee fell for 10 on her WPL debut.

Shafali and Wolvaardt then saw their off stumps pegged back as Carey seamed the ball into them, in the space of three balls in the fifth over. When Rodrigues fell to a one-handed stunner from Kamalini behind the stumps off Shabnim Ismail, DC had lost four wickets in the powerplay for the first time in the WPL.

DC still had hope with depth in their line-up, but when Kapp was also sent back by Carey, DC needed a stiff 150 runs from 78 balls. Chinelle Henry’s hitting from No. 7 was the only silver lining for DC. Her penchant for boundaries belied DC’s score as she went after the inexperienced Triveni Vasishta – on WPL debut – and even the experienced Kerr. While she collected boundaries, wickets fell at the other end, and the asking rate climbed from over 12 after the halfway mark to nearly 20 by the time four overs were left.

Henry brought up her second WPL fifty in eight innings with a big six over long-on, but once she fell for 56 with the score 133, DC lasted just 11 more balls for 12 runs, before going down in their season opener.

Brief scores:
Mumbai Indians Women 195 for 4 in 20 overs (GunalanKamalini 16, Harmanpreet Kaur 74*, Nat Sciver-Brunt 70, Nicola Carey 21; Chinelle Henry 1-32, Shree Charani 1-45, Nandani Sharma 2-26) beat Delhi Capitals Women 145 in 19 overs (Lizelle Lee 10, Marizanne Kapp 10, Niki Prasad 12, Chinelle Henry 56, Sneh Rana 11, Shree Charani 10*; Shabnim Ismail 1-14, Nat Sciver Brunt 2-29, Amelia Kerr 3-24, Nicola Carey 3-37, Sanskriti Gupta 1-09) by 50 runs

[Cricinfo]

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Landslide Early Warnings issued to the Districts of Kandy, Kegalle, Matale and Ratnapura

Published

1 day ago

2026/10/4

Priyan

The Hational Building Research Institute (NBRI) has issued landslide early warnings to the Districts of Kandy, Kegalle, Matale and Ratnapura valid from 2200 hrs on 03rd October upto 2200 hrs on 04th October 2026.

Accordingly,

LEVEL II (AMBER) landslide early warnings have been issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas of Udu Dumbara and Minipe 8n the Kandy district, Dehiowita in the Kegalle district, and Ambanganga Korale and Matale in the Matale district.

LEVEL I (YELLOW) landslide early warnings have been issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas of Rambukkana in the Kegalle district, Rattota in the Matale district, and Eheliyagoda in the Ratnapura district.

Latest News

Turkish court detains football refereeing chief pending corruption trial

Published

2 days ago

2026/10/3

Priyan

The refereeing scandal is the latest controversy to shake football in Turkiye [Aljazeera]

The head of Turkiye’s football refereeing body and four other officials have been placed in pretrial detention by a court as part of a corruption investigation, the state news agency Anadolu reports.

Ferhat Gundogdu, head of the Central Referees Committee, and six others appeared before a judge over allegations of manipulation of the referee administration process, Anadolu said on Saturday.

They appeared on Friday before a judge at Istanbul’s Caglayan courthouse on several charges, including forgery of official documents, breach of trust and illegal acquisition of personal data, the report said.

The judge remanded five people in custody and granted the other two conditional release, Anadolu said.

It was the latest scandal to shake football in Turkiye, coming exactly a year after the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) suspended 149 referees on charges of illegal betting.

On Thursday night, police from the illegal betting and sports crime unit also detained Yasin Kol, a referee from Turkiye’s top-flight Super Lig, as well as an assistant referee, media reports said.

Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said prosecutors are examining claims about “interference in the processes of referee classification, assignments, scoring and appointments as well as the exams on rules”.

During raids on Tuesday, police searched the VAR room at TFF’s headquarters in Istanbul. Observers said the investigation was likely linked to last year’s betting scandal and would have implications for the federation.

“It does seem to be a continuation of 2025, and it looks like it will continue further,” sports journalist Ayhan Sensoy told the AFP news agency.

Sensoy, who wrote a 2024 book on the issue called The Gambling Pit, said it was unlikely that federation bosses “have any chance of staying in office”.

So far, the TFF has not directly addressed the arrests as its top officials are due to fly home on Saturday after attending Friday night’s Belgium-Turkiye UEFA Nations League clash in Liege, which Turkiye lost 3-0.

[Aljazeera]

Foreign News

Ten injured after car crashes into rugby supporters in Australia

Published

2 days ago

2026/10/3

Priyan

A fire truck drives towards a crash site as a police vehicle blocks a road in Wallsend, News South Wales, on October 3, 2026, after a car drove into a crowd [Aljazeera]

A car has crashed into a crowd of rugby league supporters in the eastern Australian city of Newcastle, injuring 10 people, including three children.

New South Wales police said on Saturday that two of the injured – a five-year-old girl and a 67-year-old man – were in a critical condition and the other eight were in stable condition in hospital.

Police said they had arrested the 18-year-old man driving the vehicle and were investigating what happened. They said the crash was not believed to be related to “terrorism”.

The crowd had gathered to farewell the local rugby league side, the Newcastle Knights, ahead of their grand final against the Sydney Roosters on Sunday.

Newcastle Lord Mayor Gavin Morris said the driver, a rugby league fan, had lost control of his vehicle and had been taken into custody.

“He was revving the car, he was excited, he was a supporter, he was there for the joy of the moment,” Morris told the national broadcaster ABC.

“Somehow he lost control of the car … and he’s gone into the crowd,” he added.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “My thoughts are with everyone injured or involved in the horrible incident this morning in Newcastle.”

“Rugby league brings people together, and this should have been a weekend of excitement and pride for Newcastle fans,” he wrote in a social media post.

[Aljazeera]