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Akash Deep ten-for seals statement win for India

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Akash Deep and Mohammad Siraj took 17 of the 20 England wickets [Cricinfo]

After leaving out Jasprit Bumrah, losing the toss and waiting out a storm on the morning of day five, India beat England by 336 runs in this second Test, squaring the series 1-1 and winning their first Test at Edgbaston.

Fittingly, it was Akash Deep, Bumrah’s “replacement”, who capped off India’s dominance. A maiden five-wicket haul of 6 for 99, dismissed England for 271 in their second innings. He took 10 in the match, becoming only the second Indian bowler since Chethan Sharma in 1986, to use English conditions to such devastating effect.

The glory of a record-breaking Test for Shubman Gill has been enhanced ten-fold. His remarkable batting exploits – centuries in both innings, the first a double, 430 runs all in – have come in his first win as Test captain. Fittingly, Gill would take the catch for the final wicket, off Akash, both celebrating wildly themselves before meeting for a hug before both were engulfed by gleeful team-mates.

The scale of defeat made a mockery of the notion England might have fancied chasing a target of 608. At no point were they in with a shout.

Akash’s 21.1 overs were an exhibition of unerring accuracy, use of the crease and some devastating seam movement, stating his case for a starting berth of his own come Lord’s. Arriving into Sunday with Ben Duckett and Joe Root already in his back pocket, both bowled from the Pavilion End, he skittled a third from the City End when Ollie Pope defended onto his stumps 19 balls into a delayed morning session.

A handful of storms pushed the start time to 12:40pm, losing 10 of Sunday’s allotted 90 overs. By 1:04pm, India had the second of the seven wickets they arrived needing, when Harry Brook was pinned on the inside left knee, plumb in front.

The nip off an amenable final-day surface was vicious enough to have the England No. 5 limping out of his crease having been given out lbw by umpire Chris Gaffaney. Encouraged by Ben Stokes, Brook reviewed, which only served to offer a few slow-motion close-ups on the big screen of just how far Akash had decked the ball in. Five days of cricket had created enough wear and tear on a pitch that had produced 1692 runs and Akash kept hitting the cracks ruthlessly to gain the kind of movement that left the batter looking terribly unprepared. Brook was case in point.

It was then that Jamie Smith arrived, with the score 83 for 5, one run shy of the score when he walked in on day three on his way to a staggering 184 not out. Yet again, he put his team-mates in the shade, top-scoring with an 88 that was controlled, even with its pockets of assault, right until an attempt to strike Akash for three consecutive sixes on the leg side fell into the hands of Washington Sundar at deep backward square leg.

That was Washington’s second involvement on the fourth innings scorecard. His first came at the back end of a settling partnership between Smith and Stokes. A sixth-wicket stand had made it to 70, and almost to a very late lunch, before the tall offspinner struck. Around the wicket to the England captain, on 33, gorgeous drift was followed by enough turn to clip the edge of the left-hander’s pad as he pressed forward to defend. Stokes’ review of umpire Sharfuddoula’s on-field decision was more out of hope than expectation.

England did at least successfully overturn one decision, with Smith given out to Prasidh Krishna on 71, only for the projected path to show the ball was expected to clear the top of the stumps by a distance. Krishna, nevertheless, had a first wicket of the innings when Chris Woakes failed to keep a pull shot down.

Smith would fall three overs later, having already pulled the chord on some retaliatory boundaries. With 272 in the match, he now has the record for the most runs in a Test by an English wicketkeeper.

The real glory, however, was with those donned in Indian creams, and the majority of the 18,000 strong crowd, who by now were partying in the stands knowing the end was nigh.
It might have come sooner had KL Rahul hung onto a chance at slip off Brydon Carse, or Mohammed Siraj hung on to a skier from the same batter, even if Siraj had taken a spectacular catch at midwicket to see off Josh Tongue six balls earlier. Shoaib Bashir then successfully reviewed a catch to slip off Jadeja, who, like Akash earlier in the day, was making use of the uncertain bounce from the City End. But that only allowed the ideal finale of ‘caught Gill, bowled Akash’ as Carse holed out to cover.
India were smarting after they had done the running for the first four days in Leeds, only to lose on the day that mattered most. Here in Birmingham, they nailed every single one.
Brief scores:  
India 587 in 151 overs (Shubman Gill 269, Ravindra Jadeja 89, Yashasvi Jaiswal 87; Shoaib Bashir 3-167, Chris Woakes 2-81, Josh Tongue 2-119) and 427 for 6 dec in 83 overs  (Shubman Gill 161, Ravindra Jadeja 69, Rishabh Pant 65, KL Rahul 55;  Josh Tongue 2-93, Shoaib Bashir 2-119) beat England 407 in 89.3 overs (Jamie Smith 184, Harry Brook 158;  Akash Deep 4-88, Mohammed Siraj 6-70) and  271 in 68.1 overs  (Jamie Smith 88, Brydon Carse 38; Akash Deep 6-99, Mohammed Siraj 1-57) by 336 runs
[Cricinfo]


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Landslide Early Warnings issued to the Districts of Kandy and Nuwara Eliya extended

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The landslide early warnings issued to the Districts of Kandy and Nuwara Eliya by the Landslide Early Warning Center of the National Building Research Organisation [NBRO] have been extended until 0600 hrs on the 14th of February 2026.

Accordingly,
The Level II [AMBER] landslide early warnings issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas  of Walapane and Nildandahinna in the Nuwara Eliya district and

the Level I [YELLOW] landslide early warnings issued to the Divisional Secretaries Division and surrounding areas  of Pathahewaheta in the Kandy district have been extended till 0600AM on Saturday [14]

 

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Aryansh Sharma, Sohaib Khan power UAE to thrilling win over Canada

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Sohaib Khan changed the tempo of the chase [Cricinfo]

Aryansh Sharma and Sohaib Khan fired Unitrd Arab Emirates to a hard-fought five wicket win against Canada in Delhi. It was UAE’s second win in the competition, after they beat Namibia in the 2022 edition of the T20 World Cup. Aryansh and Sohaib did justice to Junaid Siddique’s five-wicket haul which restricted Canada to 150 for 7.

UAE were themselves down in the dumps at 66 for 4, before this pair added 84 of the 85 runs required at that stage. With eight needed from the last over, Aryansh struck a six off the first ball and then took a single. Sohaib top edged Jaskarandeep Singh to fall with UAE needing one off three balls before Muhammad Arfan scored the winning run.

UAE however were nowhere near a win when left-arm spinner Saad Bin Zafar took 3 for 14 to put Canada a strong position by the 13th over of the chase.

Kaleem Sana had the UAE captain Muhammad Waseem caught at midwicket for four in the third over. Zafar then removed the other dangerman, Alishan Sharafu, in the seventh over to give Canada the early advantage. Sharafu couldn’t clear Nicholas Kirton at covers and fell for five.

Zafar was stingy and kept his subtle change of pace going, removing Mayank Kumar for four in the 11th over. Kumar’s intention to belt him down the ground only found Sana at long-on. In his next over, Zafar had Harshit Kaushik cagut at deep midwicket.

UAE had their backs to the wall as they needed 56 runs in the last four overs. Sohaib hit Dilon Heyliger for two sixes and a four. He first smoked him over midwicket for a maximum, followed by a lofted shot over mid-off for four, and a six straight into the sight-screen. After the 17-run over, Sohaib then got stuck into Jaskarandeep with a four and a six off the first two balls of the 18th over.

He then cracked two more fours to start Sana’s penultimate over, before the left-arm quick’s beamer hurt wicketkeeper Shreyas Movva. Another top edged boundary and a straight hit for two got Sohaib to his half-century off just 28 balls, leaving UAE eight to win from the last over.

The 33-year-old Siddique began UAE’s push when he had Dilpreet Bajwa caught at mid-off in the second over for 11. Yuvraj Samra mistimed a pull to mid-on in Siddique’s next over. When Muhammad Jawadullah had Nicholas Kirton caught behind in the sixth over, UAE gained a stronghold in the game.

Siddique returned with three more wickets in his late spell. He started off with Harsh Thaker’s wicket after he had reached his half-century. Siddique used the slower delivery to outfox a set Thaker. He removed Movva and Zafar in the last over, completing his maiden five-wicket haul in T20Is.

Dhaliwal, who made a half-century against South Africa in Canada’s previous game, struck four boundaries in his 34 off 28 balls. His run-out was unfortunate when Dhaliwal’s bat got stuck just outside the crease. Thaker later fell on exactly 50 off 41 balls, with two fours and three sixes, though Thaker held together the UAE innings till the 18th over.

Brief scores:
United Arab Emirates 154 for 5 in 19.4 overs (Arynash Sharma 74*, Sohaib Khan  51; Kaleem Sana 1-29, Jaskaran Singh 1-45, Saad Bin  Zafar 3-14) beat Canada 150 for 7 in 20 overs  (Dilpreet Bajwa 11,Navneet Dhaliwal 34, Harsh Thaker 50, Shreya Movva 21;  Junaid Siddique 5-35, Muhammad Jawadullah 1-16) by five wickets

[Cricinfo]

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Muzarabani, Bennett orchestrate famous Zimbabwe win

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Blessing Muzarabani struck the first blow [Cricinfo]

Zimbabwe remain undefeated against Australia in T20 World Cups after a career-best bowling display from Blessing Muzabarani and a gutsy 64 not out from Brian Bennett helped orchestrate a stunning 23-run win in Colombo and throw group B into chaos.

Muzarabani took 4 for 17 from four overs, ripping out the top order alongside Brad Evans in the powerplay who also took 3 for 23, as Australia never really looked close to chasing Zimbabwe’s impressive 169 for 2 on a slow pitch that had been set up by even contributions from the top four.

Matt Renshaw’s 65 off 44 gave Australia hope but on top of the polished display with bat and ball they also fielded superbly to restrict Australia and threaten their Super Eight hopes.

Brief scores:
Zimbabwe 169 for 2 in 20 overs  (Brian Bennett 64*, Tadiwanashe Marumani 35, Ryan Burl 35, Sikandar Raza 25*; Marcus Stoinis 1-17, Cameron Green 1-06) beat Australia 146 in 19.3 overs (Travis Head 17, Glenn Maxwell 31, Matt Renshaw 65; Blessing  Muzarabani 4-17, Brad Evans 3-23, Wellington Masakadza 1-36, Ryan Burl 1-09) by 23 runs

[Cricinfo]

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