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Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer tons power India to 397/4

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Kohli got his 50th ODI ton (Cricbuzz)

Virat Kohli scored his record-breaking 50th ODI hundred and Shreyas Iyer scored his second successive one – off just 67 balls – to take India a giant leap towards burying New Zealand under a mountain of runs and reaching the final of the World Cup. Kohli and Iyer’s efforts came after Rohit set the stage up with a blazing start while Gill too was among the runs until the sweltering Mumbai heat got to him.

Rohit Sharma went about business as usual after winning the toss and opting to bat, as he hit over mid-wicket and through covers against Trent Boult in the first over. The left-armer got no swing and was forced to change his angle to round the stumps in just his second over after Rohit gave him the charge and smashed a six over extra cover. Rohit’s brutality stretched to Tim Southee too, as short balls received the treatment it usually does from the opener. In the fifth over, Rohit hit his third six of the innings – and 50th in World Cups, overtaking Chris Gayle’s tally of most sixes in the history of the showpiece event.

Kane Williamson had to turn to Mitchell Santner as early as the sixth over, who too was taken apart by Rohit as he audaciously moved to 45 off just 22. In the ninth over, Rohit tried to drill a big shot down the ground but didn’t get the timing right on a clever change of pace from Southee. Kane Williamson covered quite a lot of ground from mid off, paced backwards and completed an excellent catch to send his opposite number packing. Shubman Gill however, ensured India didn’t step off the gas as he treated Lockie Ferguson’s first three overs with disdain, dispatching all the short balls on either side of the square boundary. New Zealand’s four specialist bowlers ploy was under the pump after Ferguson was hit for runs and Rachin Ravindra also started off with a 10-run over in which Gill brought up his 41-ball 50. Even as Kohli began slowly, Gill kept the boundaries flowing, taking India to 150/1 in 20 overs.

Gill was primed for his first World Cup century, but cramps got the better of him in the Mumbai heat, as he needed the physio’s attention between overs for his left leg and back. In the 23rd over, he retired hurt on 79 off 65. Shreyas Iyer walked out and Williamson straightaway brought back Ferguson to test the No.4 batter with the short ball but Iyer navigated past it to lay into the spinners in the company of Kohli. In the 28th over, Kohli brought up his eighth hundred of the World Cup – the most in a single edition, going past Sachin Tendulkar and Shakib Al Hasan’s tally.

Williamson’s effort to put a lid on the easy flow of runs by bringing back Boult and Southee was met with resistance as Kohli used his feet against both to get a four and a six respectively. Iyer meanwhile, saw through Southee’s ruse of repeatedly using the slower ball and clobbered him for a six over midwicket. After getting 84 runs in the first 10 overs, India consolidated well with 66 and 64 in the next two sets of 10, but Iyer and Kohli found a way to nudge it even further with 73 in the next 10. From 287/1 in 40 overs, India were set for a big finish. Before that came about, Kohli got to his milestone century, which cued some emotional celebrations from India’s No.3 batter. Iyer meanwhile showed off his spin-hitting prowess as he went after Ravindra, who conceded 60 off 7 overs. Even the pacers struggled to keep Iyer in check as he flew to a 67-ball century in the 48th over.

India hit 110 in the last 10 overs with even New Zealand’s seasoned bowlers going for plenty of runs. Boult went for 86 in his 10 overs while Southee leaked 100 as his plan to take pace off didn’t yield the desired results beyond Rohit’s wicket. Ferguson bowled only 8 for his 65 while the part-time spin pair of Glenn Phillips and Rachin Ravindra went for 93 in 12 overs combined.

Brief scores:
India
397/4 in 50 overs (Rohit Sharma 47, Virat Kohli 117, Shreyas Iyer 105, Shubman Gill 80*, K L Rahul 39*; Tim Southee 3-100) vs New Zealand



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Heavy showers about (100-150) mm are likely at some places in the Central, Sabaragamuwa, Uva and Southern provinces

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WEATHER FORECAST FOR 13 October 2026
Issued at 2.00 p.m. on 12 October 2026 by the Department of Meteorology

A low-pressure area may form over the southeastern Bay of Bengal by 13 October.

Under the influence of this system, an increase in rainfall is expected over the island and the deep and shallow sea areas around the island during the next few days from tomorrow (13).

The general public, as well as the naval and fishing communities, are requested to be attentive to the future forecasts and bulletins issued by the Department of Meteorology in this regard.

Heavy showers about (100-150) mm are likely at some places in the Central, Sabaragamuwa, Uva and Southern provinces.
Fairly heavy showers  above 75 mm are likely at some places in the other areas of the island. Showers or thundershowers will occur in most parts of the island.

The general public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimize damage caused by temporary localized strong winds and lightning during thundershowers.

Misty conditions can be expected at some places in the Sabaragamuwa, Central and Uva provinces during the early hours of the morning.

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Farhan and Sadaqat help Pakistan seal series in style

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Maaz Sadaqat clobbered 96 off just 51 balls [Cricinfo]

Maaz Sadaqat crashed 96 off 51,Sahibzada Farhan clobbered 73 off 44, and Pakistan scorched their way through the last 12 overs of their innings to mount a fearsome total of 215 for 3. Pakistan reaped 156 runs just in the last 12 overs of their innings, as a 73-run stand between Sadaqat and Farhan was followed by a manic 72-run partnership between Sadaqat and Hasan Nawaz.

Sri Lanka’s batting was woeful in response. They slumped to 64 for 5 by the 11th over, with none of their top seven managing to get to 30. They limped to 133 for 7, having had their hopes of leveling the series wrecked by quicks Mohammad Imran and Salman Mirza, who took five wickets between them.

Sadaqat propels Pakistan into the stratosphere

The openers had laid a decent platform with Pakistan having got to 55 for 1 by the end of the seventh over. But it was Sadaqat who injected the energy that truly set Pakistan on course to their mammoth total. Having gone at less than a run a ball in his first eight balls, Sadaqat unleashed a spectacular lofted square drive off Eshan Malinga to collect his first six, before pumping the same bowler down the ground later in the 10th over.

Sadaqat would go on to clobber six further sixes and five further fours. The big hits tended to come down the ground, while his fours were more square of the wicket. Of the 125 runs Pakistan plundered in the second half of their innings, 79 off 40 came from Sadaqat, who pummeled both pace and spin with equal relish. Off the sixteenth over, bowled by Maheesh Theekshana, Sadaqat thumped three sixes in the arc between long on and midwicket.

Sadaqat, whose previous top score in three T20Is had been 50, could have gone to triple figures off the last ball of the innings, but holed out to deep cover instead, unable to quite find the power to lift a Malinga slower ball over the ropes. He had utterly dominated the middle and late overs, however.

Farhan sets the tone

On another flat Rawalpindi deck, Farhan made the first big charge, although he waited until spin came on to really get into high gear. Theekshana was one of his main victims as well. Farhan’s first six came from a slog sweep off Theekshana in the seventh over, before he launched the same bowler over wide long on and cow corner off successive balls in the ninth over. Getting to his 12th T20I fifty off the 31st ball he faced, Farhan began to aim big blows off the seamers as well. He was caught at deep third off the bowling of Dasun Shanaka, in the 15th over.

Sri Lanka stumble in the powerplay

An excellent Salman Mirza bouncer took the glove of Lahiru Udara in the first over, ending the innings of one of Sri Lanka’s few form batters for a mere five runs. And although Sineth Jayawardena – playing his first international in a full-strength Sri Lanka side – hit three consecutive boundaries in the third over, Sri Lanka were unable to build up any momentum in the powerplay. By the end of the sixth over, they had laboured to 35 for 2.

Imran’s spell lights up the middle overs

A full house in Rawalpindi was treated to some excellent fast bowling by Imran, who finished with the game’s best figures of 3 for 11 from his four overs. Having got Jayawardena to top-edge a desperate pull shot at the end of his second over, Imran had Kusal Mendis caught behind off a slower delivery, before two balls later (a wide in between), he took Sahan Arachchige’s edge with a quick delivery angled across the left-hander. Wicketkeeper Khawaja Nafay made two diving grabs to convert these chances in the eighth over.

All through his unbroken spell, Sri Lanka’s batter struggled to so much as hit Imran off the square, despite the good batting conditions on offer. Imran mixed up his pace, frequently going to slower balls, but his line and length control were also excellent through the spell. When he finished his unbroken spell at the end of the 10th over, Sri Lanka’s required rate had climbed past 15.

Chamindu Wickramasinghe and Theekshana struck some late boundaries, but by the time they came to the crease, Sri Lanka did not have a realistic shot at levelling this series. They lost by 82 runs in the end.

Scores:
Pakistan 215 for 3 in 20 overs (Sahibzada Farhan 73, Fakhar Zaman 22, Maaz Sadaqat 96, Hasan Nawaz 19*; Maheesh Theekshana 1-55, Eshan Malinga 1-41,Dasun Shanaka 1-30)  beat Sri Lanka 133 for 7 (Sineth Jayawardena 22, Kamnbdu Mendis 23, Chamindu Wickremasinghe 29, Maheesh  Theekshana 32*; Salman Mirza 2=28, Mohammad  Imran 3-11, Saim Ayub 1-19, Shadab Khan 1-19) by 82 runs

[Cricinfo]

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At least 139 dead, 84 missing as migrant boat capsizes off Djibouti

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A member of the International Organization for Migration inspects the abandoned wreckage of a boat that capsized off the coast of Djibouti on April 12, 2026 [Aljazeera]

At least 139 people, including 15 children, have died and 84 are missing after a boat capsized off the coast of Djibouti, according to the United Nations migration agency.

In a statement on Sunday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) quoted survivors as saying that the incident happened near Guhere off Djibouti’s eastern coast in the Gulf of Aden near the Bab al-Mandeb strait from Thursday night to before dawn on Friday.

The boat was heading from Djibouti to Yemen with more than 300 people on board. More than 80 people – all Ethiopians – survived the shipwreck while Djiboutian search and rescue operations continued.

“Our teams are on the ground alongside local authorities to provide emergency assistance,” IOM Chief of Mission in Djibouti Alexandre Coissac said, lamenting the “devastating loss of life”.

That number only includes those buried by authorities in Djibouti. Others have been buried by the migrants themselves but they won’t be added to the official count until authorities can verify the bodies, Alexandre Coissac, IOM Chief of Mission in Djibouti, told the Associated Press.

“This tragedy is a stark reminder of the dangers faced by migrants along this migration corridor as they seek economic opportunities,” Coissac added.

[Aljazeera]

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