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Jofra Archer impresses on comeback as Jos Buttler makes the difference in 23-run win
Joffra Archer took 2 for 28 and was clocked at 92mph/148kph in his first professional match in 385 days, as he overcame an expensive start to close out England’s victory over Pakistan at Edgbaston.
Playing in front of an international crowd in England for the first time since the 2019 Ashes, Archer slashed his first ball for four and crunched his third for six in a four-ball cameo of 12 not out. But his first over cost 15 runs, as Fakhar Zaman swung him over midwicket for four and scooped him for six after Babar Azam had rifled Archer’s second ball over mid-off.
But he struck with the first ball of his next over when Azam Khan chipped to short cover – prompting a broad smile after months of rehabilitation – and effectively sealed the win when he had Imad Wasim caught at deep point in his final over. He conceded a solitary boundary in his final three overs and was regularly clocked at 90mph/145kph or above.
Jos Buttler who described Archer’s performance as “brilliant”, was named player of the match for his own innings of 84 off 51 balls. Buttler looked scratchy early on but ruthlessly targeted Shadab Khan who bowled four wicketless overs for 55, only a fortnight after conceding his previous worst figures of 0 for 54 against Ireland. Buttler brought up 3,000 T20I runs in the process, the first Englishman to reach the landmark.
Pakistan kept the required rate manageable for much of their pursuit of 184, thanks primarily to Fakhar’s powerful innings of 45 off 21 from No. 4. But they lost wickets too regularly, with no partnership lasting for even 30 balls, and were eventually bowled out with four balls unused.
Buttler, playing a record-equalling 115th T20I for England, inside-edged his fourth ball past his leg stump and though he and Phil Salt traded boundaries in the first three overs, they both struggled for timing. Salt fell early, hauling Imad Wasim’s first ball to Shaheen Afridi at wide long-on, but Will Jacks looked in pristine touch at No. 3.
He lofted the fifth ball he faced for a straight six off Haris Rauf – playing his first match since February, when he dislocated his shoulder at the PSL – and had 21 off 10 balls at the end of the Powerplay, crashing boundaries through the covers off both Haris and Mohammad Amir. At the same stage, Buttler had a more sedate 19 off 17.
But Shadab’s introduction prompted a change in Buttler’s approach: he slapped the first ball of the legspinner’s over for four, and the final ball disappeared over long-on. Buttler went through his repertoire, deftly scooping Haris for six in between reverse-sweeping and reverse-slog-sweeping Shadab for four and then six. All told, he took 40 off the 15 balls he faced from him.
After Jacks slapped Rauf to point, Jonny Bairstow ground out four runs off his first 10 balls before slog-sweeping Shadab for six in his final over, which cost 20. He crunched Shaheen over extra cover for four then flicked his full toss away for six, but his top-edged pull to deep square leg set about a collapse of 5 for 25 in 25 balls.
Imad – whose four miserly overs cost only 19 runs – bowled Harry Brook as he backed away second-ball, while Buttler mistimed Haris’ slower ball to long-on as he looked to launch at the death. His 84 was his highest score in any international cricket since his hundred against South Africa in February 2023.
Shaheen struck twice in his final over, having Moeen Ali caught at wide long-on and Chris Jordan top-edging to short fine leg. Having looked set for 200, England at least went past 180 thanks to Archer’s cameo but when Liam Livingstone could only toe-end the final ball of the innings back to Amir, Pakistan looked in the game.
After 14 months since his last match for England, Archer had to wait another five overs until he was brought into the attack: Buttler threw the new ball to Moeen instead, and Mohammad Rizwan fell into the trap. After defending the first two balls of the innings, Rizwan charged down looking to haul Moeen over the leg side but could only pick out Livingstone at short midwicket.
Reece Taylor hared the new ball with Archer held back, and struck in his second over when Saim Ayub swung his rising length ball straight to deep square leg. Fakhar was nearly dismissed by the first ball he faced, edging just past Moeen at wide slip, but then deftly scooped his second for four and swung his fourth through midwicket.
Archer’s first ball was right on the money at 86mph/138kph, but his first over – the sixth – cost 15 as Fakhar raced to 27 off his first nine balls. But Babar fell without making much of a dent in the target, trapped lbw on the sweep by Moeen for 32 off 26 balls: the sort of innings that ignites debate over his role in Pakistan’s T20I side.
Fakhar continued to attack, swinging Moeen into the third tier of the pavilion, but struggled to get on strike. Adil Rashid – playing his first match since the ILT20 in February – conceded seven runs in his first two overs and accounted for Shadab, whose difficult afternoon culminated in a miscued slog-sweep to long-on.
Azam Khan crashed Jordan for back-to-back boundaries through point but when he miscued Archer to short cover, England were back on top. Archer’s second over cost only a single, and after Fakhar fell for 45 – swinging Livingstone down to long-on – the required rate climbed towards 12.
Imad and Iftikhar both briefly threatened, both launching towering sixes, but after the latter holed out off Topley, England’s seamers closed things out. Jordan, Archer and Topley conceded a solitary boundary between them in the final 20 balls of the innings, with Shaheen caught at deep midwicket to leave Pakistan bowled out 24 short of their target.
Brief score:
England 183/7 in 20 overs (Jos Buttler 84, Will Jacks 37, Jonny Bairstow 21; Shaheen Shah Afridi 3-36, Imad Wasim 2-19, Harris Rauf 2-34) beat Pakistan 160 in 19.2 overs (Babar Azam 32, Fakhar Zaman 45, Ifthikar Ahmed 23, Imad Wasim 22; Moeen Ali 2-26, Reece Topley 3-41, Joffra Archer 2-28, Chris Jordan 1-31, Adil Rashid 1-25, Liam Livingstone 1-09) by 23 runs
(Cricinfo)
Tourists and residents have been evacuated as a volcano erupted in south-west Iceland, threatening a town and popular attraction.
The volcano has been spewing lava and smoke in a fiery display of orange and red since the eruption began in the morning, creating a huge crack in the ground which has grown to 1.2km (0.75 miles) long.
Multiple earthquakes have occurred in the volcanic area throughout the day.
The volcano is close to the fishing town of Grindavik and the famous Blue Lagoon spa. A small number of people refused to evacuate the town, local media reported.
People were asked to “leave the danger zone,” the region’s police commissioner, Ulfar Ludviksson, told Iceland’s RUV broadcaster. But he said individuals staying in “seven or eight houses there… have decided to remain in the town.”
There were fears that the town was “in danger of having lava flows entering the inhabited area”, said Rikke Pedersen from the Nordic Volcanological Centre.
A hot water pipe has broken in the northern part of Grindavík, which confirms that considerable cracking has occurred within the town, the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said.
The protective barriers around Grindavik have also been breached, as new eruptive fissure opened a few hundred meters inside, the IMO reported. But volcanic activity eased off in the early afternoon on Tuesday.
Roads in and out of the town remain closed, but flights are currently not affected.
Most of the 4,000 residents of Grindavík left in a mass evacuation in 2023 because of the dangers of the volcanic activity. The volcano has erupted several times since.
The length of the magma that formed on Tuesday under the crater series stretched to about 11 km (6.8 miles) – the longest that has been measured since 11 November 2023, meteorologists said. The magma corridor extends about 3km further northeast than seen in previous eruptions.
Based on current wind direction, gas pollution from the eruption will travel northeast towards the capital area, the IMO added.
The eruption, which began around 09.45 local time (10:45 BST), occurred after several earthquakes hit the area known as the Sundhnúk crater range.
Multiple eruptions have occurred on the Reykjanes Peninsula since 2021. The last time the peninsula had a period of volcanic activity was 800 years ago – and the eruptions continued for decades.
Iceland has 33 active volcano systems and sits over what is known as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the boundary between two of the largest tectonic plates on the planet.
[BBC]
Mandalay used to be known as the city of gold, dotted by glittering pagodas and Buddhist burial mounds, but the air in Myanmar’s former royal capital now reeks of dead bodies.
So many corpses have piled up since a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck last Friday close to Mandalay, that they have had to be “cremated in stacks”, one resident says.
The death toll from the quake and a series of aftershocks has climbed past 2,700, with 4,521 injured and hundreds still missing, Myanmar’s military chief said. Those figures are expected to rise.
Residents in the country’s second most populous city say they have spent sleepless nights wandering the streets in despair as food and water supplies dwindle.
The Mandalay resident who spoke of bodies being “cremated in stacks” lost her aunt in the quake.
“But her body was only pulled out of the rubble two days later, on 30 March,” said the 23-year-old student who wanted only to be known as J.
Poor infrastructure and a patchwork of civil conflicts are severely hampering the relief effort in Myanmar, where the military has a history of suppressing the scale of national disasters. The death toll is expected to keep rising as rescuers gain access to more collapsed buildings and cut-off districts.
J, who lives in Mandalay’s Mahaaungmyay district, has felt “dizzy from being deprived of sleep”, she said.
Many residents have been living out of tents – or nothing – along the streets, fearing that what’s left of their homes will not hold up against the aftershocks.
“I have seen many people, myself included, crouching over and crying out loud on the streets,” J said.
But survivors are still being found in the city. The fire service said it had rescued 403 people in Mandalay in the past four days, and recovered 259 bodies. The true number of casualties is thought to be much higher than the official version.
In a televised speech on Tuesday, military chief Min Aung Hlaing said the death toll may exceed 3,000, but the US Geological Survey said on Friday “a death toll over 10,000 is a strong possibility” based on the location and size of the quake.
Young children have been especially traumatised in the disaster.
A local pastor told the BBC his eight-year-old son had burst into tears all of a sudden several times in the last few days, after witnessing parts of his neighbourhood buried under rubble in an instant. “He was in the bedroom upstairs when the earthquake struck, and my wife was attending to his younger sister, so some debris had fallen onto him,” says Ruate, who only gave his first name. “Yesterday we saw bodies being brought out of collapsed buildings in our neighbourhood,” said Ruate, who lives in the Pyigyitagon area.
“It’s very sobering. Myanmar has been hit by so many disasters, some natural, some human made. Everyone’s just gotten so tired. We are feeling hopeless and helpless.”
A monk who lives near the Sky Villa condominium, one of the worst-hit buildings reduced from 12 to six storeys by the earthquake, told the BBC that while some people had been pulled out alive, “only dead bodies have been recovered” in the past 24 hours. “I hope this will be over soon. There are many bodies still inside, I think more than a hundred,” he said.
Crematoriums close to Mandalay have been overwhelmed, while authorities have been running out of body bags, among other supplies, including food and drinking water.
Around the city, the remains of crushed pagodas and golden spires line the streets. While Mandalay used to be a major centre for the production of gold leaf and a popular tourist destination, poverty in the city has soared in recent years, as with elsewhere in Myanmar (formerly called Burma).
BBC BurmeseLast week’s earthquake also affected Thailand and China, but itsnimpact has been especially devastating in Myanmar, which has been ravaged by a bloody civil war, a crippled economy and widespread disillusionment since the military took power in a coup in 2021.
On Tuesday, Myanmar held a minute of silence to remember victims, part of a week of national mourning. The junta called for flags to fly at half mast, media broadcasts to be halted and asked people to pay their respects.
Even before the quake, more than 3.5 million people had been displaced within the country.
Thousands more, nany of them young people, have fled abroad to avoid forced conscription – this means there are fewer people to help with relief work, and the subsequent rebuilding of the country.
Russia and China, which have helped prop up Myanmar’s military regime, are among countries that have sent aid and specialist support.
But relief has been slow, J said.
“The rescue teams have been working non-stop for four days and I think they are a little tired. They need some rest as well.
“But because the damage has been so extensive, we have limited resources here, it is simply hard for the relief workers to manage such massive destruction efficiently,” she said.
While the junta had said that all assistance is welcome, some humanitarian workers have reported challenges accessing quake-stricken areas.
Local media in Sagaing, the earthquake’s epicentre, have reported restrictions imposed by military authorities that require organisations to submit lists of volunteers and items that they want to bring into the area.
Several rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have urged the junta to allow aid workers immediate access to these areas.
“Myanmar’s military junta still invokes fear, even in the wake of a horrific natural disaster that killed and injured thousands,” said Bryony Lau, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director.
“The junta needs to break from its appalling past practice and ensure that humanitarian aid quickly reaches those whose lives are at risk in earthquake-affected areas,” she said.
The junta has also drawn criticism for continuing to open fire on villages even as the country reels from the disaster.
[BBC]
The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Dr. Harini Amarasuriya is on an official visit to Paris, France to participate in the high-level segment of the International Expert Conference on ’An Integrated and Sustainable Approach to Safeguarding the World Heritage Property of the Sacred City of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka and Associated Living Heritage’ which was to be held at UNESCO Headquarters today [Tuesday 1 April], with the participation of the Director-General of UNESCO Audrey Azoulay.
The Conference, organized by UNESCO in partnership with Sri Lanka, brings together leading international experts to discuss sustainable strategies for the conservation of Anuradhapura, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of immense cultural and historical significance.
On the sidelines of the Conference, the Prime Minister is also scheduled to meet senior interlocutors of the French Government to discuss bilateral cooperation and areas of mutual interest.
The Delegation of the Prime Minister includes the Minister of Buddhasasana Religious and Cultural Affairs, Dr. Hiniduma Sunil Senevi.
[Prime Minister’s Media Division]
Tourists and residents evacuated as volcano erupts in Iceland
Mandalay was the ‘city of gold’ – now it reeks of death
PM visits France to attend high-level conference at UNESCO
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