A commanding opening stand between Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana, followed by an excellent overall bowling effort, gave India their eighth Asia Cup title, fourth in T20 format, as they beat previous champions Sri Lanka by 72 runs in Dubai.

Shafali and Mandhana put up 129 for the first wicket, the highest partnership for any wicket in the Women’s T20 Asia Cup, to power India to 183 for 5. Sri Lanka’s chase never got going, despite India dropping as many as five catches, as the spin unit led by Deepti Sharmaand N Shree Charani kept them under control throughout. Chamari Athapaththu top-scored with 36, but Sri Lanka were eventually bowled out for 111. India now lead Sri Lanka 6-1 in Asia Cup final meetings.

Shafali set the tone after captain Harmanpreet Kaur opted to bat after winning the toss. When Sri Lanka introduced spin in the second over, both openers immediately attacked, picking up two boundaries. But Shafali combined power with placement in the third over, first using the pace on a short ball from outside off to guide it past short third, before clipping a length delivery through midwicket to make it back-to-back fours.

Athapaththu brought herself on in the fifth over but that brought little respite. Shafali got underneath a tossed-up delivery and launched it straight back over the bowler’s head before sending another ball in the slot over long-on. India raced to 57 without loss at the end of the powerplay.

The boundary-hitting continued after the powerplay too, with Shafali finding the ropes regularly on her way to a 24-ball fifty, the fastest half-century in Women’s T20 Asia Cup history. Mandhana, who had initially scored at around a run a ball, then joined in on the fun as she lofted a flighted delivery from Chamudi Praboda over long-on before bringing up her own half-century, off 36 balls, with a cut through the offside. India reached 98 without loss at the end of ten overs.

With India looking well on track for a 200-plus total, Sri Lanka finally made inroads in the 13th over when Praboda broke through, having Shafali mistime a shot to cover. India suffered another setback in the following over when Mandhana was run out for the third time in the tournament. Harmanpreet, coming in at No. 3, struck Athapaththu’s delivery straight to point and immediately set off for a single, but she hesitated midway before continuing, leaving Mandhana stranded as the throw came in. The mix-up ended Mandhana’s innings on 59, with Sri Lanka sending back both well-set openers in a space of six balls.

Sri Lanka could have had Richa Ghosh soon after but Kavisha Dilhari could not hold on to a difficult running catch. Ghosh had mistimed a slog sweep towards deep backward square leg, with Dilhari racing in and diving forward, only for the ball to slip from her hands as she hit the ground. Ghosh could not make the most of the reprieve as she scored 15 off 13 before picking out cover.

Sri Lanka did a better job at the death, restricting India and picking up the wickets of Harmanpreet and Deepti in successive deliveries in the 19th over. That brought G Kamalini, playing her first match in this Asia Cup and just her second T20I, to the crease and she managed a four and a six off the last two balls to take India to 183 for 5.

A chase of 184 was never going to be easy, but Imesha Dulani started the proceedings positively, shuffling across to a full delivery from Kranti Gaud and paddling it past short fine leg for four. But a similar attempt brought an end to her innings in the fourth ball of the over, with Dulani attempting a scoop only to miss the ball completely and watch it crash into the top of leg stump.

Earlier, Sri Lanka had suffered a setback when Vishmi Gunaratne appeared to roll her ankle while returning the ball and was carried off the field on a stretcher. She, however, came out to bat at No. 3, attempting to rebuild alongside Athapaththu. But fast bowlers Gaud and Nandani Sharma left the duo frustrated, with Athapaththu enduring a testing over from Gaud, getting off the mark only on the eighth delivery she faced.

She then showed off some of her big hitting, taking on Shafali for a six and a four, but despite the boundaries, she was only going at a run-a-ball at the end of the powerplay. Any hopes of Sri Lanka coming close to chasing the total ended with her dismissal in the tenth over.

Anticipating Athapaththu would look to attack, Deepti shortened her length, making her charge down the pitch. But the ball turned away sharply, beating Athapaththu’s attempted shot, and Ghosh completed a straightforward stumping, dismissing the Sri Lanka captain for 36. Deepti struck once more in the over, having Gunaratne bowled, leaving Sri Lanka needing 121 off the last ten.

As has been the case throughout the tournament, India’s spinners showed their prowess, never letting Sri Lanka even have a sniff at the game thereon. Wickets fell regularly, with Charani removing Harshitha Samarawickrama, the hero of the 2024 Asia Cup with a sharp return catch for 9.

Charani then picked up two wickets in the over. Kavisha Dilhari fell first, slicing a thick outside edge towards short third, following which Nilakshika Silva, who was playing with a broken finger, top-edged a shot towards deep square leg.

India were sloppy in the field, dropping five catches but it was too late for Sri Lanka to capitalise on the chances. Deepti finished with three wickets and Charani with four, finishing as the tournament’s top two wicket-takers, as India bowled Sri Lanka out for 111 on the last ball of the innings.

Scores:
India Women  183 for 5 in 20 overs  (Smriti Mandhana 59, Shafali Verma 68, Harmanpreet Kaur 14,  Richa Ghosh 17, Gunalan Kamalini 15*; Mithalia Ayodhya 1-33, Chamari Athapaththu 1-34, Chamudi Prabodha 1-40) beat Sri Lanka Women 111 all out in 20 overs (Chamari Athapaththu 36, Vishmi Gunarathne 20, Nilakshika Silva 22; Kranti Gaud 1-08, Shafali Verma 1-23, Shree Charani 4-20, Deepti Sharma 3-19, Prema Rawat 1-22) by 72 runs

[Cricinfo]

‎Rumesh Tharanga outsmarted a strong field including his closest rivals this season, Anderson Peters and Julian Webber to clinch the men’s javelin title of the inaugural Ultimate Championship in Budapest.

‎The Diamond League champion overtook Webber and Peters with his third round throw which was measured at 87.11 metres before further improving the distance to a colossal 91.01metres, the third time the 23 year old has exceeded the 90 meters mark this season.

‎The two-time world champion Peters finished second with 86.18m.

‎European champion Weber, who led in the first round, finished third with 85.89m. (RF)

The head of AI company Anthropic has called for the pace of development of artificial intelligence models to slow down and to be closely monitored.

In an essay, Dario Amodei said developing AI was not in question, but the risks associated with it were “serious” and companies and governments must be given time to address them.

The bosses of two rival AI firms, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk, have both said they agree with Amodei.

There have been growing concerns recently about the technology’s potential risks. An AI researcher who left Anthropic this week told the BBC that “if we don’t slow down at the current rate of progress, there is a strong chance that we could all die in the immediate future”.

Jacob Coxon told Laura Kuenssberg that people working at AI companies were “genuinely frightened… genuinely concerned about the fate of humanity in the next two years”.

“It’s not at all an exaggeration to say that the people who are involved with both founding these companies and building the tech believe there is a possibility of human extinction,” Coxon said.

“Many of the people who are sort of deep in the weeds on actually coding the thing believe that there is like a greater than ten percent chance, or even greater. Some smaller, but they all have different numbers for a probability that humans might die. And they all keep this in their head on a daily basis while working on the technology.”

In Amodei’s essay, called We Must Pace the Frontier and made public on Saturday, he proposed a three-point plan that includes independent monitoring of AI models as they are developed, industry-wide regulation and global regulation.

As his proposal made the rounds, even competitors voiced support for the idea of third-party monitors who could evaluate the safety of models as they are developed.

“I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier,” wrote OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on X. He called independent evaluators “a great idea.”

In a new interview with Fortune Magazine, Altman had sounded similar safety concerns, saying standards were “not at a place” to push AI capabilities much further.

He added that he believed AI beyond human control is “absolutely” possible.

Elon Musk meanwhile said the Anthropic boss was “right”.

The warnings have prompted calls to action, but US President Donald Trump has so far rejected such fears, saying on Thursday he was concerned “if we don’t win AI, we’re going to be put in a very bad position”.

Cyber-security concerns have grown as new models have exhibited more and more powerful hacking capabilities.

Anthropic withheld its Mythos model from public use when it was announced in April that it could independently escape the testing environment, known as the sandbox.

In the run-up to the release of its most recent Astra model, OpenAI cited cybersecurity concerns as it explained it had paused certain aspects of the model’s development.

Safety has also taken centrestage in the rivalry between Anthropic and OpenAI.

Amodei, who had previously worked as a vice president at OpenAI, has said he co-founded Anthropic in 2021 so he could build safer and more trusted AI models.

In his essay, Amodei pointed out that AI had advanced “drastically faster” including its “ability to build the next generation of AI” – and mentioned an incident involving rival OpenAI which has revealed that agents conducted cybersecurity attacks on targets they were not asked to attack in July.

The OpenAI agents had “essentially acted as a fanatically devoted collective”, Amodei said. OpenAI has said it is slowing down training of certain advanced AI models and tools as a result.

Amodei called for “building AI at a balanced rate that aims to ensure its safety while still achieving its benefits”.