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Kolkata Knight Riders qualify for playoffs as Chakravarthy, Narine strangle Mumbai in rain-hit game
On an evening that started with the ball swinging around like a boomerang following plenty of rain in Kolkata, Kolkata Knight Riders’ spin twins – Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine stifled Mumbai Indians’ chase to seal a playoffs berth for their side, with an almost-certain finish in the top two as well.
After MI were set 158 runs in 16 overs, Chakravarthy and Narine started the strangle that saw MI score just 22 runs in the five overs after the powerplay for two wickets that mounted the pressure on the visitors.
Suriyakumar Yadav and Tim David had no choice but to go after the quicks and fell to Andre Russell’s variations that saw MI stumble to 92 for 5 and there was no coming back from there, barring a late cameo from Tilak Varma. He reduced the equation to 22 required from the six balls, but his wicket early in the last over eventually handed MI their ninth loss in 13 matches.
After rain had delayed the start of the game by an hour and 45 minutes, the match was reduced to 16 overs a side. Even though KKR lost their openers early, Venkatesh Iyer and some lower-order hitting powered them to 157, which may have seemed short early on but proved to be enough.
Rohit Sharma was struggling for runs and scored at under run a ball in the first six overs. So the onus of hitting was on Ishan Kishan who flat-batted his way to 37 off 17 in the powerplay (which was five overs for this game). He largely peppered the square boundaries, the highlight being a four with a reverse hit followed by a six with a pull at the end of the powerplay to take MI to 59.
But Narine was ready with his riposte in his next over and had Kishan hole out for 40. With the spin on from both ends that featured a lot of stump-to-stump bowling and 17 consecutive boundary-less balls, Rohit’s struggle ended on 19. Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak also hardly attacked the spinners and the equation soon became 77 required from 36.
Russell then got the ball. His scrambled seam snared Suryakumar and the slower ball removed David. In between, Chakravarthy had Hardik Pandya caught for 2 to add to MI’s woes.
The equations like 57 needed from 18 have become all the more achievable in this IPL, and Tilak kept MI’s flame burning when he took on Harshit Rana in the 14th over for 16 runs by dispatching his slower ones to the ropes. No. 8 Naman Dhir took inspiration from Tilak to smash Russell for a couple of sixes and a four for a 19-run over that brought MI back in the game. With 22 needed from six, Dhir and Tilak fell in the first three deliveries of the last over, which sealed MI’s fate.
You didn’t have to guess that the KKR openers would come out all guns blazing in this shortened game. Phil Salt kicked off the innings with a first-ball six against Nuwan Thushara but fell in the same over. From the other end, Bumrah showed some magic Narine had no answer for.
Bumrah’s first ball was a yorker that tailed in just a bit at the end from outside off. Narine, who had shouldered arms to it, was flabbergasted by the late movement that took the base of the off stump. It was Narine’s first duck of this IPL.
The ball was swinging and troubling the batters in overcast conditions. After the hard-hitting openers were dismissed back and Russell was yet to walk out, Venkatesh took charge of the innings. He went down the track, rocked back to pull the short balls, and used his reach to score 25 off 10 in the powerplay. It also included 14 off five balls against Bumrah.
Venkatesh enjoyed some luck too, as edges evaded the fielders and his proactive approach helped KKR collect 77 in the first eight overs, all bowled by fast bowlers.
But spin struck first ball when Piyush Chawla had Venkatesh hole out for 42 off 21. Out walked Russell and smoked Chawla over his head for a six and a four in his next two overs, along with a drill through the covers. Chawla moved his field around, stationed a fielder at the rope right behind the umpire for the straight hit and varied his pace even beyond 110kph while Russell took KKR past 100. After being hit for another six in the 13th over, this time by Rinku Singh, Chawla had the last laugh as Russell skied a 117kph thunderbolt to deep midwicket.
Thushara and Bumrah then sent down a flurry of yorkers in the last two overs and it was only because of a six each from Rinku and Ramandeep Singh that KKR crossed 150.
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 157/7in 16 overs (Venkatesh Iyer 42, Nitish Rana 33, Andre Rusell 24, Rinku Singh 20; Nuwan Thushara 1-31, Jasprit Bumrah 2-39, Anshul Kamboj 1-24, Piyush Chawla 2-28) beat Mumbai Indians 139/8 in 16 overs (Ishan Kishan 40, Tilak Varma 32; Varun Chakravarthy 2-17, Sunil Narine 1-21, Harshit Rana 2-34, Andre Rusell 2-34) by 18 runs – Match reduced to 16 overs per side due to rain
(Cricinfo)
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]
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.
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
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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