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Head hurricane leaves New Zealand a mountain to climb in Dharamsala
Travis Head’s spectacular century on World Cup debut and David Warner’s equally aggressive 81 set the tone for Australia’s imposing 388 against New Zealand in Dharamsala. Put in to bat first, the Australian opening pair combined for a 175-run stand in just 19 overs before part-timer Glenn Phillips clipped the carnage, and helped New Zealand stage a belated middle-overs recovery with his career-best 3-37. Lower-order cameos, however, tilted the momentum back in Australia’s favour and set New Zealand the challenge of a record chase.
Barring Trent Boult, New Zealand’s pacers lacked discipline or control in the Powerplay and the Australian openers punished everything that was either too full or too short, or when they were offered width. Coming into the game on the back of consecutive centuries, Warner got going with two fours in the opening over from a wayward Matt Henry. The bowler’s figures after a short three-over opening spell read 0-44 and Lockie Ferguson, replacing him, leaked 19 in his first with Warner dispatching two short ones over the ropes. He notched up a 28-ball fifty en route his 81, the highlight of which was a fiery 154 kmph thunderbolt from Ferguson that he effortlessly muscled into the stands.
Head too made his intentions clear from the word go – with a four over Boult’s head – and then never took his foot off the pedal. He tore into Henry in his second over, with sixes off consecutive balls to put New Zealand under pressure right away and later Mitch Santner. On return from an hand injury, Head had his fifty in just 25 deliveries – joint fastest this World Cup. He got a life on 70 and 75 – both tough chances – and went on to bring up his maiden World Cup hundred in just 59 balls, which is also the third quickest of this event.
So relentless was their assault that New Zealand failed to squeeze in a boundary-less over until the 14th, bowled by Phillips. Australia’s 150 came up in the 15th but spin in tandem had managed to drag down their scoring rate to single digits. It was Phillips indeed who got the first breakthrough, when Warner offered a straightforward return catch. Even though Head took on Rachin Ravindra’s spin, New Zealand managed to clip Australia’s wings over the next 10 overs as Phillips bowled an excellent middle-overs spell. He bowled Head on 109, putting an end to a fine comeback knock from the Australian, and then had Steve Smith chipping to mid-off in his penultimate over.
Australia had 175 in the first 19, but could muster only 55 in the next 11. After conceding at more than 10 an over in his first spell, Santner also made a strong comeback in his last spell as he sent back a rather scratchy Mitch Marsh and Marnus Labuschagne in the space of five balls. His figures though were ruined once again when Glenn Maxwell decided to up the ante at death and launched back-to-back sixes. That was the onset of death-overs thrashing as Australia picked 109 in the last 11.
Jimmy Neesham got his first over only at death, and he struck immediately when he had Maxwell (41 off 24) holing out to long-off to bring curtains on his brisk 51-run stand with Josh Inglis (38 off 28). That barely had an impact on Australia’s surge as the keeper-batter took charge alongside his captain, Pat Cummins. Henry and Boult both came in the firing line while Neesham was taken to the cleaners with four sixes in the 48th over. If not for a Boult three-fer in the 49th, which included Cummins’ wicket after an entertaining 14-ball 37, Australia would have comfortably reached 400.
Brief scores:
Australia 388 all out in 49.2 overs (Travis Head 109, David Warner 81, Mitchell Marsh 36 Glenn Maxwell 41, Josh Inglis 38, Pat Cummins 37; Glenn Phillips 3-37, Trent Boult 3-77, Mitchell Santner 2-80) vs New Zealand
(Cricbuzz)
Some 360 bodies have been recovered and more than 1,400 people are missing across Nepal and China’s Tibet region after a huge collapse of mud and rock into a Himalayan river triggered catastrophic flooding across local towns and valleys, authorities have said.
Rescue teams waded through mud on Thursday searching for the missing, as authorities in Nepal said at least 359 people have been killed there.
At least three people have died in the neighbouring Tibet region.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrived at the mudslide site in Tibet on Thursday afternoon to “guide emergency rescue and relief work” a day after the disaster, state media reported.
Nepalese police and tourism officials said that more than 500 foreigners were among 910 people missing in Nepal.
Among the missing are tourists from more than two dozen countries: 177 are from India, 63 from the United States, 34 from Australia, 33 from the United Kingdom, and 25 from Canada.
Beijing’s foreign ministry also said nearly 100 Chinese nationals were among the missing in Nepal.
In Tibet’s Gyirong county, 558 people are reported missing, including 260 foreign nationals, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Search and rescue operations are proving to be a “massive challenge” as just simply “getting to the affected areas … to try and recover the survivors”, is proving to be extremely difficult as the roads and bridges there have suffered extensive damage, said Al Jazeera’s Minelle Fernandez, reporting from the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.
[Aljazeera]
India 503/9 decl (Devdutt Padikkal 117, Dhruv Jurel 115; Asitha Fernando 4-106, Prabath Jayasuriya 2-132) drew with Sri Lanka 290 (Sonal Dinusha 103, Pasindu Sooriyabandara 80; Prasidh Krishna 3-52, Manav Suthar 3-85) and 429/9 f/o (Sonal Dinusha 133*, Pasindu Sooriyabandara 92; Ravindra Jadeja 3-94, Manav Suthar 3-121)
Asif Khan the UAE batter, has been banned for 15 months after admitting to having tested positive for a banned substance – “a metabolite of mesterolone” – in an out-of-competition test conducted in September 2025, the ICC said in a statement on Thursday.
The statement said that Asif, 36, “had admitted the violation” of Article 2.1 of the ICC’s anti-doping code and accepted the period of ineligibility “pursuant to a case resolution agreement entered into with the World Anti-Doping Agency and the ICC”, which means there is no right to appeal on the part of the player.
The sanction is effective from September 8, 2025 and will run until December 7, 2026.
“Asif may return to training with a team or use the facilities of a club or other ICC Member organisation from 8 October 2026 but will only be eligible to play from 8 December,” the statement added. “The player’s individual results from 8 September 2025 until his provisional suspension on 29 December 2025 have been disqualified, along with all resulting consequences, including the loss of any medals, points, prize money or prizes.”
Asif, a former Pakistan Under-19 cricketer, made his UAE debut in March 2022 in an ODI against Oman in the ICC’s Cricket World Cup League 2. He turned out in 38 ODIs and 56 T20Is between then and September 2025.
The last three of those T20Is, against India, Oman and Pakistan in the T20 Asia Cup in 2025, came after September 8, and will be removed from his record.
[Cricinfo]
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