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India win big after racking up their highest T20I total
India all but guaranteed themselves a semi-final spot with a convincing win over UAE in which their middle order got a much-needed hit out and their bowlers plenty of miles.
Harmanpreet Kaur top-scored with 66, but it was Richa Ghosh’s sensational late acceleration – she hit an unbeaten 29-ball 64 – that helped India post their first-ever score of 200-plus in T20Is.
UAE hardly posed a challenge, even though Esha Oza, the captain, and Kavisha Egodage gave good account of themselves in hitting 36 and 40 not out respectively. That UAE hit more than the 115 for 8 they managed against a lower-ranked Nepal should be confidence-boosting.
Despite the loss, UAE aren’t mathematically out of the semi-finals race. A win for Pakistan against Nepal in the evening game should keep them alive.
India were put in, and they weren’t particularly disappointed. There was the looming threat of their marauding openers – Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana – running away with it once again. But at 52 for 3 inside the powerplay, the opportunity was UAE’s to seize.
Among those who fell early, D Hemalatha would’ve been particularly disappointed at having missed out yet another opportunity to make the No. 3 spot her own. In nine innings at that position since the tour of Bangladesh, an unbeaten 41 she made in her first opportunity there remains the highest.
Two nights ago against Pakistan, she was out slicing a lofted hit to point for 14 in a low-pressure chase after the openers had shellacked 85 in 9.3 overs. Here, the openers were up and away quickly with the platform set – India brought up fifty inside five overs. But Hemalatha’s dismissal for 2 after she was bowled attempting a pull off Heena Hotchandani had India wobbling briefly.
One of the consequences from Hemalatha batting at No. 3 is that India have had to rejig a batting position for Jemimah Rodrigues, who has built a reputation of being a touch player. Hemalatha’s continued lean run could at some point have the team management into reinstating Rodrigues at No.3, considering the lower-order firepower at their disposal.
On Sunday, Rodrigues made all of 14 in a 54-run stand with Harmanpreet before picking out mid-off in her first attempt to hit over the top.
Harmanpreet was happy to knock singles and twos early, but upped the tempo soon after the halfway mark, when she welcomed legspinner Vaishnavee Mahesh for back-to-back fours. On 31, she had a steak of luck when a leading edge while attempting to work one into the leg side landed short of backward point.
That aside, Harmanpreet seemed intent on taking the innings right till the end. Along the way, she brought out her plethora of sweeps that found different arcs on the leg-side boundary, ranging from deep backward square to wide long-on.
The beauty of Harmanpeet’s sweeps is that when on song, she has the ability to take the bowlers and pitch out of the equation; she can hit just as effectively against the turn as she can with it, primarily because of a giant forward stride and how she gets on top of the bounce most times.
At the other end, Ghosh made heads turn with some aesthetically pleasing cover drives and lofted hits with the spin. It’s a bit of a misconception that her game is only centered around power. On Sunday, she showed she can hit authentic strokes and find boundaries with regularity without looking to bash the ball.
She hit a crisp cover drive off her fourth delivery, and a six two balls later to quickly get into her stride. She was particularly severe on Oza’s gentle long hops, hitting her for four boundaries, including three back-to-back, in the 15th. Ghosh was comfortably the aggressor in the half-century stand off just 32 balls. Yet at 156 for 2 in 17 overs, 200 seemed a long way off.
It needed Harmanpreet to tee off in the penultimate over that brought India 17, and Ghosh’s five back-to-back boundaries off Heena Hotchandani’s left-arm spin in a 20-run final over to give India their highest total in women’s T20Is. Ghosh hit 54 of her 64 runs in boundaries (12 fours and a six).
UAE barely made a push for the target. Theertha Satish took nine balls to get off the mark and was the first to fall in the fifth over as she chipped Renuka Singh to mid-off. Pooja Vastrakar had her first wicket six balls later when she beat Rinitha Rajith to hit top of off.
Oza held firm without looking spectacular, but showed signs of shifting gears when she muscled Deepti Sharma out of the ground. In Kavisha Edodage, she found some support as their pair added 40, before Oza became debutant Tanuja Kanwar’s first international wicket.
Kanwar, who has forced herself into contention on the back of an excellent WPL for Gujarat Giants, lulled her in flight and beat her in turn to have her stumped. She would finish with figures of 4-0-14-1 to cap off a dream debut that didn’t seem likely even 48 hours ago. From there on, the only academic interest left was to see if UAE could narrow the margin of defeat.
Brief scores:
India Women 201 for 5 in 20 overs (Shafali Verma 27, Harmanpreet Kaur 66, Richa Ghosh 64*, Samaira Dharnidharka 1-42, Kavisha Egodage 2-36), Heena Hotchandani 1-40) beat UAE Women 123 for 7 in 20 overs (Kavisha Egodage 40, Esha Oza 36; Deepti Sharma 2-23, RenukaSingh1-30, Tanuja Kanwar 1-14, Pooja Vastrakar1-27, Radha Yadav 1-29 ) by 78 runs
(Cricinfo)
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Prasidh, Buttler set up comfortable win for Gujarat Titans
Prasidh Krishna is beginning to make a mark at IPL 2026. Three nights after his clever slower bouncer to David Miller sealed a tense last-ball win over Delhi Capitals, he followed it up with 4 for 28 – blending typical Test-match lengths with sharp pace-off variations – as Gujarat Titans made it two in two, this time edging out Lucknow Super Giants in their own backyard on Sunday.
Mohammed Siraj and Ashok Sharma were just as vital at the two ends of LSG’s innings, striking early and closing things out respectively. They played the perfect supporting acts to Prasidh’s headline-grabbing performance to restrict LSG to 164. GT captain Shubman Gill then calmly anchored the chase, scoring a half-century off 34 balls. His second-wicket stand of 84 with Jos Buttler helped them scale the target in 18.4 overs with seven wickets in hand.
The mini-battle to watch was Mohammed Shami vs Gill: India’s bowling veteran looking to force his way back into the international reckoning, up against the country’s current Test and ODI captain. Shami had set it up nicely, conceding just 10 runs off his first two overs, with enough movement to keep Gill honest.
It had all the makings of a proper contest. Until Gill consigned it to one-way traffic in the third, as he peeled off three fours and a six. That six was no ordinary hit, but a lofted hit on the up, straight over Shami’s head, eliciting an extra second’s pose to the cameras. The boundaries were pleasing too: a delectable leg glance, a stab through the covers, and a wristy flick over midwicket. This helped Gill gallop towards a half-century.
Buttler gave more than an inkling of form in the previous game when he made 52 off 27 against DC. Having come in at the fall of Sai Sudharsan’s wicket – he helped a half-tracker straight to short fine off Digvesh Rathi in the sixth- Buttler punched one through the covers off the third ball to raise GT’s fifty.
Rathi was unlucky not to have Buttler in his second over when he nicked behind, for Rishabh Pant to put down a regulation chance on 12. LSG would rue that missed opportunity as Buttler quickly took charge to dismantle the spinners, forcing Pant to turn to his faster men quickly.
In came Avesh Khan with a plan of trying to hit hard lengths but Buttler responded by hitting him for three back-to-back fours off the 12th over, and soon brought up his half-century, his 100th in T20s, off just 29 balls. By now, the chase was down to being a mere formality. He celebrated the fifty by reverse-sweeping Linde over point.
Gill fell with the target in sight, gloving a short ball behind off Prince Yadav, but Buttler stayed on to seal victory.
Kagiso Rabada began by being hit for 10 off his first two deliveries, but had Mitchell Marsh pick out mid-on to complete a fine comeback as GT struck early. This brought Rishabh Pant to the middle, and he seemed keen on taking the attack to the bowlers, but was snaffled by Siraj’s hard lengths as the ball caught the splice and lobbed to mid-off to leave LSG 45 for 2 in the fifth.
One second, Prasidh had hands on his head when Aiden Markram’s imperious flick just eluded a diving Glenn Phillips running across from deep square leg. Three balls later, he celebrated his first when Markram picked out deep midwicket perfectly. In his second over, Ayush Badoni fell in almost identical fashion as LSG slumped to 74 for 4 in the ninth.
That brought Nicholas Pooran to the middle, but this wasn’t the white-ball destroyer, but an avatar searching for form and confidence; his stroke play lacked any kind of fluency as the faster men kept tucking him up. Pooran seemed to have found a release when he hit Rashid Khan for back-to-back sixes, but that surge was all too brief with the end almost tame as he flat-batted Prasidh’s into-the-pitch delivery to Gill at mid-off. Pooran made 19 off 21.
He should’ve been run out off his third delivery when he tried to pinch a single to cover, but Ashok Sharma missed the stumps at the striker’s end despite having all three stumps to aim at from short cover. Then Mukul was hit on the helmet by a 150.2kph bouncer from Ashok.
But not long after, the trademark whip behind square that he unleashed to astonishment in Kolkata three nights ago, made an appearance, eliciting hopes of a grandstand finish. But that wasn’t to be as he got a big nick behind attempting to pull Prasidh’s slower bouncer. His 18 off 14 helped LSG nudge past 150, before Shami and Linde’s mini-cameo set up a 165-target.
Six overs in, it became increasingly evident those were at least 30-40 runs too little.
Brief scores:
Gujarat Titans 165 for 3 in 18.4 overs (Sai Sudarsan 15, Jos Buttler 60, Shubman Gill 56, Washington Sundar 21*, Rahul Tewatia 10*; Mohammed Shami 1-36, Prince Yadav 1-31, Digvesh Rathi 1-31) beat Lucknow Super Giants 164 for 8 in 20 overs (Aiden Markram 30, Mitchell Marsh 11, Rishabh Pant 18, Nicholas Pooran 19, Abdul Samad 18, Mukul Choudhary 18, George Linde 16, Mohammed Shami 12*; Mohammed Siraj 1-19, Kagiso Rabada 1-54, Ashok Sharma 2-32, Prasidh Krishna 4-28) by seven wickets
[Cricinfo]
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Heat Index at Caution level’ in the Northern, North-central, North-western, Western and Southern provinces and in Trincomalee district.
Warm Weather Advisory
Issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre
Issued at 3.30 p.m. on 12 April 2026, valid for 13 April 2026.
Heat index, the temperature felt on human body is likely to increase up to ‘Caution level’ at some places in the Northern, North-central, North-western, Western and Southern provinces and in Trincomalee district.
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 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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Sun directly overhead Pesalai, Mankulam and Nedunkerny about 12:11 noon
On the apparent northward relative motion of the sun, it is going to be directly over the latitudes of Sri Lanka from 05th to 15th of April in this year.
The nearest areas of Sri Lanka over which the sun is overhead today (13th) are Pesalai, Mankulam and Nedunkerny about 12:11 noon.
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