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Major Flood warning issued for the Yan Oya Basin

Published

6 months ago

2025/11/28

Priyan

Flood warning issued for the Yan Oya Basin by the Hydrology and Disaster Management Division of the Irrigation Department
at 3.00 AM on the 28th of November 2025 valid till 3.30 AM on 30th of November 2025

Due to the heavy rainfall occurring in the upper and middle catchment areas of the Yan Oya Basin, and as water is currently being released through the Yan Oya spillway, hereby a warning is issued that a Major Flood Situation may occur in the lower reaches of the Yan Oya.

The public residing in the lower areas of the Yan Oya are requested to take necessary measures to minimize possible risks arising from this flood situation. Vehicle drivers travelling through these areas are also advised to act with extreme caution.

In particular, the residents living in the low-lying areas along the Yan Oya in the Divisional Secretariat Divisions of Kuchchaveli, Padavi Sripura, Morawewa, Padaviya, Kebithigollewa, Gomarankadawala, Horowpothana, Kahatagasdigiliya, and Galenbindunuwewa, as well as motorists and passengers travelling through these areas, should remain highly vigilant.

The Disaster Management Authorities are requested to take all necessary actions in this regard.

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Pakistan name Iram Javed in Womens T20 World Cup squad

Published

2 hours ago

2026/05/17

Priyan

Fatima Sana recently scored the fastest fifty in women's T20Is [PCB]

Fatima Sana will lead Pakistan at a T20 World Cup for the second consecutive edition after the PCB announced the squads for their upcoming T20I tri-series in Ireland, as well as the World Cup.

The squad features a blend of continuity and fresh inclusions, with 34-year-old batter Iram Javeed retaining her place despite a difficult recent run. Eyman Fatima, Natalia Pervaiz, Rameen Shamim, Saira Jabeen and Tasmia Rubab will travel to their maiden T20 World Cup.

Pakistan will look to overturn a run of indifferent performances at recent ICC events. At the last T20 World Cup in 2024, they exited in the group stage with one win in four games, while in 2022, they finished bottom of the pile with six defeats in seven. At last year’s ODI World Cup, Pakistan propped up the table again and were the only team in the tournament to end winless, though three of their games were washed out.

Pakistan will first travel to Ireland, where they play a tri-series that also includes West Indies from May 28 to June 4 in Dublin. Their first game at the World Cup is on June 14, against India in Birmingham. They play South Africa, the finalists from the 2024 edition, next, followed by Bangladesh, Australia and Netherlands. They will also take part in two warm-up fixtures against Sri Lanka and Scotland.

Pakistan’s most recent T20I series was a dominating 3-0 win over Zimbabwe at home, which included Sana scoring the fastest half-century in women’s T20I cricket, taking just 15 balls.

Pakistan squad for Ireland tri-series and T20 World Cup

Fatima Sana (capt), Aliya Riaz, Ayesha Zafar, Diana Baig, Eyman Fatima, Gull Feroza, Iram Javed, Muneeba Ali (wk), Nashra Sundhu, Natalia Pervaiz, Rameen Shamim, Sadia Iqbal, Saira Jabeen, Tasmia Rubab, Tuba Hassan

Reserves Amber Kainat, Momina Riasat, Sadaf Shamas, Sidra Amin, Syeda Aroob Shah, Umm-e-Hani

[Cricinfo]

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Allen, Raghuvanshi and Green thump Gujarat Titans to keep Kolkata Knight Riders alive

Published

11 hours ago

2026/05/17

Priyan

Matheesha Pathirana left the field two balls into his first match of the season [Cricinfo]

After five successive wins in conditions that weaponised their bowlers and masked their limitations with the bat,Gujarat Titans [GT] found their kryptonite at Eden Gardens. In near-perfect batting conditions, Kilkata Knight Riders [KKR] ran away to 247 for 2, the highest total anyone has ever scored against GT.

Finn Allen set the tone, hitting 10 sixes in 35 balls on his way to an awe-inspiring 93, and Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Cameron Green carried the baton with impressive unbeaten half-centuries. GT had their chances to minimise the punishment they took, but they put down four mostly straightforward catches, including two off Allen.

Everything needed to go right for GT to be able to get to 248; the highest target they had previously chased down was 204. But after a frenetic start in which they rushed to 42 for no loss in three overs, they simply couldn’t keep up with the required rate.

B Sai Sudarshan, who provided much of that early impetus, retired hurt after taking a blow to the elbow, and returned to bat in the 17th over. In between Shubman Gill and Joss Buttler scored half-centuries and put on a 128-run stand for the third wicket. But by the time Sai Sudharsan returned, the match was done and dusted, with GT needing an absurd 71 off 22 balls.

The one man at the ground who could have pulled off that task was relaxing on KKR’s bench: Allen, subbed out at the change of innings. The only sore point of the match for KKR, in the end, concerned the man who came on for Allen. Matheesha Pathirana made his first appearance of the season, but went off the field with a hamstring issue having bowled just 1.2 overs.

At the toss, GT captain Gill suggested that the pitch might start out “sticky” before easing out, and he proved spot-on with his assessment. In the early overs, KKR’s batters couldn’t quite find their timing with Mohammed Siraj and Kagiso Rabada extracting a little bit of seam and a little bit of spongy bounce. The first two overs produced just eight runs.

Allen got going with back-to-back fours off Siraj in the third over – one was off the inside edge – but could have fallen next ball had Jason Holder been able to cling onto a one-hander at extra-cover. Allen was on 14 at that point.

The ball continued to do a little bit through the powerplay, and KKR ended it at 56 for 1, with Allen on 31 off 15 and Raghuvanshi, new to the crease, having shown his intent with a scooped six over his own head off Rabada.

Neither team would have believed they were on top at this stage. The match shifted decisively in KKR’s favour towards the end of the seventh over. Holder got a hard-length ball to climb awkwardly at Allen, and he swatted it straight to long-on, where Siraj put down a sitter. Next ball, Raghuvanshi whipped Holder for a big six over backward square leg.

That was the first of ten sixes that KKR hit over the next 23 legal balls they faced. Allen hit eight of them, and it didn’t matter if he was facing pace or spin. If the ball was remotely in his arc, he used his reach and launched it straight and clean with the purest of bat-swings. If it was remotely short, he rocked back and pulled anywhere in the arc from fine leg to wide long-on.

That frenetic period of play completely cancelled out KKR’s somewhat slow start, and the disadvantage they may have had of batting in the trickiest conditions of the match.

R Sai Kishore, bowling his left-arm spin from over the wicket, got Allen to hole out to deep midwicket in the 12th over, seven short of his second hundred of the season. If GT thought they could breathe a little easier, though, they were wrong, because Green and Raghuvanshi continued to find the boundary regularly.

And GT continued to be generous on the field. Arshad Khan dropped Green on 23 in the 16th over, and Washington Sundar put down a low but eminently catchable chance at deep backward square leg to reprieve Raghuvanshi on 52.

As the innings went deeper, Raghuvanshi began to show his range, hitting Siraj for three sixes in the 19th over – an inside-out loft over extra-cover, a scoop over fine leg, a sweep over backward square – as well as a reverse-swipe for four. Having taken 33 balls to get to his fifty, he scored 29 off his last 11 balls.

Green, meanwhile, reached his fifty off 26 balls, getting there with a slog-sweep off Rashid Khan in the final over, which ran away to the boundary via a misfield. A last-ball overthrow completed GT’s woes, as Raghuvanshi and Green walked off having put on an unbroken 108 off 53 balls.

GT made as good a start as they could have hoped for, but when Sai Sudharsan went off injured at the end of the third over, their momentum began to deflate. First, Pathirana – bowling for the first time this season, and bowling in the powerplay for the first time in his IPL career – sent down a seven-run fourth over. Then Sunil Narine, playing his 200th IPL game, came on and struck first ball, getting Nishant Sindhu – who had been promoted above Buttler to keep the left-right partnership going – to hole out to long-off.

Narine conceded just two runs off that over and bowled four straight balls to Gill without conceding a run off the bat.

Gill hit two sixes off Narine’s next over, but by then GT were already falling well behind the required rate. And this story continued. The good overs – such as the 18-run ninth over bowled by Anukul Roy – were surrounded by not-so-good ones – such as the eighth over, from Varun Chakravarthy, that went for just five. Green and Kartik Tyagi were able to extract bounce and a bit of grip by bowling cutters into the surface, and Buttler struggled for timing against both of them.

When Allen had been at the crease, KKR had four straight overs – from the eighth to the 11th of their innings – that brought them 15 or more runs. GT only had two such overs in the first 14 overs of their innings. Gill hit Varun for two sixes and two fours in that 14th over, but KKR immediately responded by bringing back Narine and bowling out his last two overs.

His first one went for 11, and that was still well short of the 16 an over that GT now needed. And his second – the 17th of the innings – pretty much sealed the game: five runs, and the wicket of Gill, caught on the boundary looking to sweep one of those fast, into-the-pitch, stump-to-stump Narine deliveries that generations of IPL batters have tried and failed to master.

Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 247 for 2 in 20 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 14, Finn Allen 93, Angkrish Raghuvanshi 82*, Cameron Green 52*; Mohammed Siraj 1-50, Sai Kishore 1-38) beat Gujarat Titans 218 for 4 in 20 overs (Sai Sudharsan 53*, Shubman Gill 85, Jos Buttler 57; Saurabh Dubey 1-23, Cameron Green 1-25, Sunil Narine 2-29) by 29 runs

[Cricinfo]

Latest News

Canadian from hantavirus-hit cruise ship tests positive

Published

11 hours ago

2026/05/17

Priyan

Canadian passengers from the MV Hondius were flown back from Tenerife on 10 May [BBC]

A Canadian who sailed on the cruise ship MV Hondius which was hit by a hantavirus outbreak in April has tested positive for the disease, officials in the province of British Columbia say.

The individual, one of four people isolating on Vancouver Island after leaving the ship, had developed mild symptoms.

The province’s senior health officer said the four had not had any contact with the public since arriving in Canada.

The case brings the total number of infections to 11, all among cruise passengers. Three people who travelled on the ship have died, with two confirmed to have had the virus.

British Columbia health officer Bonnie Henry said the person’s test came back as a presumptive positive on Friday, meaning that it still remains to be confirmed by a national microbiology lab.

“Clearly, this is not what we hoped for, but it is what we planned for,” she said, quoted by national broadcaster CBC.

“I want to emphasise that hantavirus is a very different virus than the other respiratory viruses that we’ve been dealing with – like Covid, like influenza, like measles – and it remains one that we do not consider to have pandemic potential,” Dr Henry added.

Of the six Canadians who were on the Dutch ship, two are self-isolating at their home in Ontario.

Two more couples are isolating on Vancouver Island, one from British Columbia and the other from Yukon. The person who tested positive is from Yukon.

None of the other five have tested positive so far.

[BBC]