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Pat Cummins rises to the occasion to seal two-wicket Edgbaston epic

Published

3 years ago

2023/06/21

Priyan

Pat Cummins and James Anderson have a lighthearted post-match word

Australia won an epic first Test by two wickets, to take a 1-0 lead over England at Edgbaston, an hour and six minutes after they seemed to have lost it.

Pat Cummins their captain, back-cut Ollie Robinson’s short ball down towards the boundary directly in front of the travelling Australian supporters in their canary caps in Block 31 of Edgbaston’s South Stand. Harry Brook sprawled to his right in a bid to cut it off at deep third, but the ball squirmed out of his grasp and into the boundary to clinch a two-wicket victory.

When Joe Root held an outrageous caught-and-bowled off Alex Carey, Australia still needed 54 more runs to win with Nathan Lyon described by Robinson as the first of their “three No. 11s” – walking out to join Cummins. England were two wickets away from victory, and had a second new ball available.

But 12 overs later, Cummins and Lyon were still there. Cummins flogged Root for two sixes in the first over of the final hour to make a dent in the target and after surviving a spectacular effort by Ben Stokes at square leg when miscuing a hook, Lyon chipped Stuart Broad over mid-on to take the target down to single figures.

The Eric Hollies Stand roared England’s depleted attack on. Cummins dug out a yorker from Robinson and both batters wore short balls on the body. With three to win and 28 balls left, Cummins guided Robinson away to the rope, tossed his bat and helmet away, punched the air and lifted Lyon off his feet. It had echoes of the 2005 Test here – but this time, it was Australia who won by two.

In the dressing room, Usman Khawaja was “absolutely s***ing myself for the last five minutes” – and Australia’s win would not have been possible without his contribution. He faced 518 balls in the match and batted on each of the five days, top-scoring in both innings with 141 and then 65.

After rain wiped out the first session, he batted through an afternoon in which Australia added 76 runs for the loss of only two wickets – one of them nightwatcher Scott Boland, who edged Broad through to Jonny Bairstow. Travis Head poked Moeen Ali to slip as England kept a lid on the scoring rate, but with 98 to win after tea, Australia were clear favourites.

Khawaja added 49 with Cameron Green in a sixth-wicket stand that spanned the interval, but when Green inside-edged Robinson’s in-ducker on to his stumps, Stokes sensed an opportunity.

He brought himself on for his only spell of the second innings, battling his chronic left-knee injury, and smiled wryly when Khawaja chopped his short, slow legcutter on to off stump. The Edgbaston crowd paused for a moment, deceived by Stokes’ non-celebration, before erupting into life. England had the most important wicket, and needed only three more.

Root, bowling an extended spell from the Birmingham End with Moeen’s blistered spinning finger rendering him unable to grip the ball, dropped two difficult half-chances off his own bowling, giving Carey and Cummins a life each. Stokes opted not to take the new ball when it became available; three deliveries later, Root held a stunning reaction catch.

With Carey gone, Cummins became the protagonist. He has been criticised throughout these five days for a perceived negativity in his tactics, but took control of the game in its decisive passage. Root went full, so he cleared his front leg and swung him down the ground for six – then repeated the trick two balls later.

Broad returned, still with the old ball, and Lyon hooked the second ball of his spell out to Stokes at square leg, 25 yards in from the boundary. He flung himself back, sticking his right hand over his shoulder; the ball looped towards him but escaped his grasp, then squirmed away from his desperate second attempt.

When Cummins slapped a cut for four two balls later, the target was down to 30. Stokes opted to take the new ball, but it offered little for Broad and Robinson. They charged in with spread fields but had almost nothing left in the tank; as if to mark the changing of a guard, James Anderson ambled stiffly around the outfield.

Despite the jibes, Lyon batted more like a No. 3, lacing an off drive for four down the ground to the rope – and beating Robinson at mid-off to his right. After Cummins’ off-side slap snuck under Crawley at the cover boundary, Lyon flogged Broad over the top towards the Australian supporters.

They had been barracked relentlessly by the neighbouring Hollies Stand over the course of the Test match but jumped to their feet to celebrate an imminent Australian victory. Three overs later, they did so once more to mark the clinching moment of an enthralling run chase.

England were “devastated”, in Stokes’ words, but without their enterprising tactics this game would have been written off as a rain-ruined draw. Instead, it bubbled up to a conclusion that had Australians gripped to their television screens until well past 4am – with the promise of four more Tests to come.

Brief scores:

Australia 386 (Khawaja 141, Carey 66, Head 50) and 282 for 8 (Khawaja 65) beat England 393 for 8 declared (Root 118, Bairstow 78, Crawley 61, Lyon 4-149) and 273 (Cummins 4-63, Lyon 4-80) by two wickets

(Cricinfo)

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South Korea’s ex-president jailed for life for masterminding an insurrection

Published

21 mins ago

2026/02/19

Priyan

Yoon Suk Yeol supporters sttanding outside the court in Seoul in tears after the verdict is read out [BBC]

A South Korean court has found ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol guilty of masterminding an insurrection.

The 65-year-old has been sentenced to life in prison over his botched attempt in December 2024 at imposing military rule

Yoon’s order lasted just six hours but shook the country – it paralysed what was left of the government and cost his party the next election

It also polarised South Korea, and that is evident today as crowds of his supporters gathered to protest outside the court

Yoon is already serving jail time for another conviction over the martial law order. He still faces two more trials in relation to it

[BBC]

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Peru appoints Jose Maria Balcazar as president, ninth leader in a decade

Published

1 hour ago

2026/02/19

Priyan

Jose Maria Balcazar, a member of Peru's Congress, casts his vote to elect a new president on February 18 [Aljazeera]

Peru’s Congress has voted to appoint former judge and left-wing lawmaker Jose Maria Balcazar as interim president, replacing the right-wing leader Jose Jeri a day after his removal.

Wednesday’s vote ushers in Peru’s ninth president in a decade. Balcazar’s term, however, will be short.

In just 53 days, on April 12, the country will head to the ballot box to vote for a new president. If no candidate gains more than 50 percent of the vote, a run-off will be held in June.

Traditionally, Peru’s president-elects are inaugurated on the country’s Independence Day in late July. That ceremony will mark the end of Balcazar’s leadership.

Balcazar’s short tenure is the latest sign of turbulence in Peru’s government. Of Peru’s last eight presidents, four have been impeached and removed from office, and two have resigned before their term’s end.

The last president to serve a complete term was Ollanta Humala, whose presidency ended in July 2016.

Balcazar’s ascent to the presidency, however, was marked by its own turmoil. In an initial round of voting, centre-right lawyer Maria del Carmen Alva, 58, and Balcazar, 83, came out ahead, with 43 and 46 votes respectively.

But they both fell short of the 59 votes needed to be president, so another round of voting was announced. The left-wing party Together for Peru, however, decided to boycott the second round.

Balcazar ultimately won after a tally of the 113 congressional votes cast. He received 60 votes.

Maria del Carmen Alva in Congress — *Maria del Carmen Alva, a member of Peru’s Congress, was considered a frontrunner in Wednesday evening’s presidential vote [Aljazeera]*

The prospect of Balcazar’s victory in the vote sparked outrage and frustration among some right-wing politicians, who denounced him on social media.

(Aljazeera)

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Eight skiers found dead after California avalanche

Published

7 hours ago

2026/02/19

Priyan

Rescue teams combing through the backcountry of California’s Lake Tahoe region say they have found the bodies of eight skiers who went missing in an avalanche on Tuesday.

The search for a final missing skier continues but that person is presumed dead, Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Officials said one of the deceased was the spouse of someone on one of the search-and-rescue teams, making continued rescue efforts “challenging emotionally”.

Fifteen skiers were reported missing on Tuesday after a “football-field” sized avalanche came barreling down in the Castle Peak area around 11:30 PST (19:30 GMT). Six have been rescued.

“I want to offer my condolences to the family in this very trying time,” Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo said on Wednesday.

The bodies of the eight dead skiers are still trapped in the snow and can’t yet be recovered due to “pretty horrific” conditions, officials said.

Since the avalanche, another 3ft (.9m) of snow has fallen on the area, Tahoe National Forest supervisor Chris Feutrier said.

“The hazard remains high,” he said.

Once the bodies are recovered, they will be transported to the Placer County morgue.

Families of the deceased have been notified. Authorities have not yet released any of their names.

Officials say the victims are seven women and two men.

Sheriff Woo said the rescue operation was a joint effort involving two teams and roughly 50 crew members who had to traverse “extreme weather conditions” using specialised equipment.

At 17:30 local time on Tuesday, search teams arrived to an area roughly two miles (3.2km) from where survivors were sheltering in make-shift tents, and had to ski in from there.

Two of the six survivors had to be carried back and “could not walk because of the injuries they sustained during the avalanche”, Sheriff Moon said. They were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Among the survivors, one was a guide and five were clients of the Blackbird Mountain guided tour.

The entire ski group consisted of a mix of 11 recreational skiers and four ski guides.

The avalanche on Tuesday occurred as they were making their way back at the end of a three-day trip.

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office said in a post on X that state authorities were “co-ordinating an all-hands search-and-rescue effort” with local emergency teams.

Conditions on Wednesday remained dangerous, multiple officials said, with Woo describing the climate as “treacherous”.

“Avoid the back country,” he said. “Please allow us to focus all of our resources on continuing to recover these bodies for the family and bring them home.”

The avalanche that trapped the skiers was rated as a D2.5 on a destructive potential scale of D1 to D5, according to the Sierra Avalanche Center, which would mean it was over half a mile in length and would have a deposit of around 6.5ft (2 metres).

The Boreal Mountain Ski Resort, which is near where the accident occurred, has reported over 30in (76cm) of snowfall since Tuesday.

The resort decided to close on Tuesday because of high winds and low visibility.

The storm has also closed several highways, including Interstate 80 and Highway 50.

[BBC]