Sports
Nabi, Rashid turn the tables on Ireland to level series for Afghanistan
It was like using a cheat code in EA Sports Cricket. They seemed to be applied on Ireland’s new-ball bowlers Mark Adair and Josh Little, who wrecked Afghanistan despite their decision to bat first. With the score at 14 for 4 in the fourth over, the batters dismissed managed only 3, 5, 0 and 0. Then the user seemed to have pressed autoplay, and the computer helped Mohammad Nabi counterattack.
Nabi added 79 with opening batter Sediqullah Atal, who mostly kept playing and missing and mistiming. The partnership was ended when Atal was run out after struggling to 35 off 32 balls, even as Nabi went to smash 59 from 38. Rashid Khan then provided late fireworks by cracking 25 off 12 deliveries and taking Afghanistan to 152.
In reply, Ireland were 49 without loss after the final over of the powerplay started. But Mangeyalia Kharote broke that stand and struck again later while Rashid pocketed four wickets, as Afghanistan restricted Ireland to 142 and levelled the three-match series with one to play.
Almost every ball bowled by Little and Adair in the first two overs swung considerably, but they were accurate with line and length. However, a lack of luck meant only one Afghanistan wicket had fallen. Little got one to skid through to clean up Rahmanullah Gurbaz after Adair hit Atal’s off stump only for the bail to remain unmoved.
But Adair then struck back-to-back to end the third over. He had Ibrahim Zadran get a leading edge to mid-off before trapping Mohammad Ishaq in front. Replays indicated that the impact might have been outside off, as some luck seemed to even out. Adair also removed Ijaz Ahmad Ahmadzai in the death overs and finished with 3 for 27. Before that, Little had Azmatullah Omarzai caught behind for what was the batter’s second successive first-ball duck.
Nabi came in at No. 6, and punched his fourth ball for four to get off the mark. One over of the powerplay was still left, and Nabi pulled Little for six to keep going. But the boundaries kept coming even after the field spread. Nabi hacked Ben White, drove Gareth Delany and slashed Curtis Campher for four, leading Afghanistan’s rebuilding. They had pushed their way to 68 for 4 at the halfway stage.
But just after the drinks break, Nabi launched White for a six which went 90 degrees over the umpire’s head, while also calmly ticking over singles off the spinners. Atal was run out in the 14th over, but even that didn’t stop Nabi. He hit Campher for four in the same over, before smashing four and six off consecutive deliveries against White in the 15th. White had him caught two balls later, but by then, Nabi, who ended the day as Afghanistan’s leading run-scorer in T20Is, had laid the platform for Rashid.
Having demoted himself to No. 9, Rashid arrived with 21 balls left and the score at 119. He crashed Adair first ball for four to deep backward point, before attacking Barry McCarthy next over. Both the four and the six stood out in their own ways: the first was a swat wide of long-off after he made room and jumped down the pitch to a shortish ball, while the next was a no-look swipe over fine leg off a full toss, with the ball flying over the Sachin Tendulkar stand. Another four followed in the penultimate over, but more action from Rashid was due.
Ireland were sitting pretty at 68 for 1 halfway into the ninth over, when Rashid struck. He was on a hat-trick for the second game in a row after his return to action, as Lorcan Tucker paddle swept to short fine leg, and Harry Tector was bowled by the wrong ‘un. Rashid returned to bowl the 16th over, by which time Kharote had got rid of both set openers Paul Stirling and Andy Balbirnie.
The googly also got George Dockrell to start Rashid’s final over, and cleaned Adair up too two balls after. Ireland were seven down, and staring at defeat, which was delayed only by Delany’s late entertainment with the bat.
Scores:
Afghanistan 152 for 9 in 20 overs (Sediqullah Atal 35, Mohammad Nabi 59, Rashid Khan 25; Mark Adair 3-27, Josh Little 2-20, Barry McCarthy 2-33, Ben White 1-32) beat Ireland 142 for 8 in 20 overs (Andy Balbirnie 45, Paul Stirling 24, Gareth Delany 39: Fazalhaq Farooki 1-48, Rashid Khan 4-14, Nangeyalia Kharote 2-23, Mohammad Nabi 1-14) by 10 runs
Arjun Menon, Cricket Malawi’s operations director, has died aged 48. Police are reported to be investigating the circumstances of his death in Blantyre, Malawi’s financial and commercial capital, on Sunday.
Menon played for Singapore and held coaching roles with various international teams including Chile, Botswana, Indonesia and Singapore before taking on the Malawi role in 2020.
“As Cricket Malawi, we are devastated by this loss because Arjun did so much to our transformative agenda,” Vivek Ganesan, the president of Cricket Malawi, told Nation Online. “All the successes we have so far are attributed to him. This is a very painful loss.”
Dr. Henry Kamata, CEO of the Malawi National Council of Sports, also conveyed his condolences in a statement. “Arjun was a dedicated coach and a passionate advocate for the development of cricket in Malawi,” he said. “His contributions to the sport were immense and far-reaching, playing a pivotal role in the growth and success of the Malawi cricket team on regional and international platforms.
“His commitment, professionalism, and vision were truly inspirational, and his loss is a devastating blow to the sporting fraternity in Malawi and beyond.”
During Menon’s tenure, the Malawi men’s team were runners-up behind Tanzania in Group A of the T20 World Cub Sub Regional Africa Qualifier in September 2024. The Under-19 women’s team, meanwhile, topped Division 2 of the 2025 Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier, gaining entry to Division 1 where they achieved a seventh-place finish.
[Cricinfo]
St. Peter’s College, Bambalapitiya player Ashlin de Silva won his third title of the 110th Vision Care Colombo Championships when he beat Mayooran Kubheran in the Under 16 boys’ sigles final at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association clay courts.
While Ashlin clinched the Under 16 boys’ title, Akesha Silva bagged the girls’ singles title of that age category.
Akesha Silva
Ashlin beat Kubheran 6-0 in the first set before the latter retired when the score was 3-1 in Ashlin’s favour.
Ashlin was also the winner of the Under 18 boys’ singles and joined Kubheran to clinch the Under 16 boys’ doubles title, beating Yudheerya Atapattu and Damsath Peiris 7-6, 6-2.
In the Under 16 girls’ final Newstead College player Akesha Silva beat Annaya Norbert 7-6 (3), 6-3.
IPL 2025 will resume on May 17 and end on June 3, as per the revised schedule announced by the BCCI on Monday night.
The remainder of the tournament, which was suspended on May 9 for a week due to cross-border tensions between India and Pakistan, will be played at six venues: Bengaluru, Jaipur, Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The venues for the playoffs will be announced later, but the matches will be played on the following dates: Qualifier 1 on May 29, the Eliminator on May 30, Qualifier 2 on June 1 and the final on June 3. A total of 17 matches will be played after the resumption, with two double-headers, both of which will be played on Sundays.
The revised schedule features 13 league games and the four playoff matches. This means that the Punjab Kings (PBKS) vs Delhi Capitals (DC) game, which was called off midway through the first innings on May 8 in Dharamsala, will be played again, on May 24 in Jaipur, which will be the temporary home base for PBKS. Two days later, PBKS will play against Mumbai Indians (MI), a match they were originally meant to play in their second home base of Dharamsala on May 11. The match that will restart the tournament on May 17 will be played between Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Bengaluru.
On the first of the two double-header days, Rajasthan Royals (RR) will meet PBKS in the day game (3.30pm IST) on May 18 and DC will take on Gujarat Titans (GT) in the evening (7.30pm IST). The next Sunday – May 25 – will see GT take on Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the day game in Ahmedabad and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) meet KKR in Delhi at 7.30pm IST. The last league game will be between Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and RCB on May 27 in Lucknow.
The change in venues also means that three teams – PBKS, CSK and SRH – won’t get to play on their original home grounds anymore. With CSK and SRH out of the playoffs race, PBKS will count themselves unlucky to be playing two of their home matches at a neutral venue. With 15 points from 11 matches, PBKS were third on the points table before the tournament was suspended.
The official release said the BCCI held “extensive consultations with government and security agencies, and with all the key stakeholders” before finalising the resumption of the tournament.
The delayed finish of the IPL, which was originally scheduled to end on May 25 in Kolkata, means it will now coincide with the entire ODI series between England and West Indies starting on May 29 in Birmingham and ending on June 3 at The Oval. It will lead to a clash for Romario Shepherd (RCB), Shamar Joseph (LSG) and Sherfane Rutherford (GT), who have all been picked in the West Indies ODI squad. England have not named their squad yet but the players likely to be affected are Jos Buttler (GT), Phil Salt (RCB), Jacob Bethell (RCB), Liam Livingston (RCB), Will Jacks (MI) and Reece Topley (MI), depending on which teams make the playoffs.
The revised IPL schedule also squeezes the gap between the IPL final and the WTC final to just seven days, with Australia and South Africa set to contest the Test world title from June 11 at Lord’s. Both Australia and South Africa are scheduled to announce their squads on Tuesday. The players who are currently part of the IPL teams and are likely to be picked for the WTC final are Australia captain Pat Cummins and Travis Head (both SRH), Mitchell Starc and Tristan Stubbs (both DC), Josh Hazlewood (RCB), Marco Jansen and Josh Inglis (both PBKS), Aiden Markram (LSG), Kagiso Rabada (GT), Ryan Rickelton (MI) and Kwena Mphaka (RR).
The revised schedule will also potentially impact the India A tour of England, which is scheduled to begin from May 30, for two unofficial Tests in Canterbury and Northampton. Several fringe India players, some of whom are likely to be part of the India squad for the five-Test series starting on June 20 in England, will now be part of the IPL when the A matches begin.
For now, the biggest challenge for the 10 IPL franchises will be to re-assemble their squads and bring back overseas players and support-staff members who had begun flying back home over the weekend. The team that could find it easiest to get back together will be GT, currently on top of the table, who had seen only two of their overseas players fly back: Buttler and Gerald Coetzee. The rest of their squad was continuing to train in Ahmedabad. MI could also benefit from the revised schedule, as their first game is on May 21, four days after the tournament resumes.
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