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Aryansh Sharma, Sohaib Khan power UAE to thrilling win over Canada
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]
Donald Trump has stressed that any deal with Iran must result in the country’s “unconditional surrender”, setting maximalist war objectives for the United States.
The US president’s remarks on his Truth Social platform on Friday appear to reject the prospect of a compromise amid Iranian confirmation of diplomatic mediation to end the conflict.
“There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” Trump wrote.
“After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before.”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had said earlier that some countries are engaging in mediation efforts to end the war, emphasising that Iran is committed to peace in the region but prepared to defend itself.
“Mediation should address those who underestimated the Iranian people and ignited this conflict,” Pezeshkian said in a social media statement.
The conflict has spread across the Middle East, igniting Iranian attacks across the Gulf and a war between Hezbollah and Israel, resulting in a mass displacement crisis in Lebanon.
Iran has been launching missiles and drones at Israel and US interests and assets across the region. Iranian forces have also targeted energy and civilian infrastructure in Gulf countries, straining ties with the Arab world.
The violence, which saw Iran largely succeed in closing down the Strait of Hormuz, has sent oil prices soaring globally.
Iranian officials have expressed defiance since the start of the war, stressing that they are ready for a long conflict and prepared to fend off a US ground invasion should it occur.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a message to Trump on Thursday that the US plan for a “clean rapid military victory failed”.
“Your Plan B will be even a bigger failure,” Araghchi wrote on X.
On Friday, Iran’s top diplomat posted a photo of the coffins of a mother and child, the apparent victims of US-Israeli attacks. “Our Brave and Powerful Armed Forces will avenge each and every Iranian mother, father, and child who has been targeted by hostile forces,” Araghchi wrote.
The war has killed at least 1,332 people in Iran, among them 181 children, according to UNICEF.
The deadliest incident was a strike on a girls’ primary school in the southern city of Minab on the opening day of the conflict, which Iranian authorities said killed about 180 pupils and staff.
The Trump administration has pushed to project confidence and dominance over Iran, with top officials saying that the US would “rain missiles”, “death and destruction” on the country.
In recent days, Trump has repeatedly said that he would like to replicate the Venezuela playbook in Iran – keeping the governing system in place but installing a leader who is friendly to US interests.
On Wednesday, Trump said he has to be “involved” in choosing the successor of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated in a US-Israeli attack on Saturday.
Trump told CNN later on Thursday that the situation in Iran is going to work “easily” like it did in Venezuela when Delcy Rodigues replaced President Nicolas Maduro after he was abducted by US forces in January.
Rodriguez, who previously served as Maduro’s vice president, has allowed Washington to sell Venezuela’s oil and cut off petroleum supplies to Cuba under the threat of further US strikes.
Trump said he does not mind of the next leader of Iran is a religious figure.
“I’m saying there has to be a leader that’s going be fair and just. Do a great job. Treat the United States and Israel well, and treat the other countries in the Middle East — they’re all our partners,” he told CNN.
The supreme leader of Iran must be a Shia Muslim religious scholar.
Khamenei’s successor will be selected by an elected council of 88 members known as the Assembly of Experts.
[Aljazeera]
A tiny possum with one extra-long finger on each hand is one of two species thought to have been extinct that have been discovered in West Papua, in what’s been called an “exceptional” scientific discovery.
The other is a a ring-tailed glider with a tail that can grasp branches. Both have been found living in remote rainforests after they were thought to have disappeared 6,000 years ago.
Finding living examples of a lost species is rare, but discovering two is “remarkable,” say scientists who published their findings in the Records of the Australian Museum journal on Friday.
Such discoveries are known as “lazarus taxon”, a term inspired by a biblical figure who was raised from the dead.
“The discovery of one lazarus taxon… is an exceptional discovery,” said Prof Tim Flannery, a prominent Australian scientist best known for his 2005 The Weather Makers book about climate change.
“But the discovery of two species, thought to have been extinct for thousands of years, is remarkable.”
The first rediscovered species was the pygmy long-fingered possum, a striped marsupial weighing about 200g, which is understood to have vanished from Australia during the Ice Age.
A distinguishing feature is that on each hand, the possum’s fourth finger is twice the length of other digits, which scientists say help it dig out wood-boring insect larvae, it’s main source of food.
The second species is the ring-tailed glider, and just like its Australian cousin the greater glider, it lives in the hollows of tall trees.
The discoveries were made by piecing together parts of a puzzle with scientists combing through decades-old fossils, rare photos and old specimens to gather clues before making visits to remote New Guinea locations.
Flannery, along with another of the paper’s co-authors Prof Kris Helgen and researchers from the University of Papau, spoke to local elders from the Tambrauw and Maybrat clans – some of whom have only had contact with the modern world since the 1960s.
Identification of the species would not have been possible without their help, according to Rika Korain, a Maybrat woman and another co-author.
“They’re very traditional people,” Flannery added, and regard the glider as so sacred that “not only won’t they hunt it, they won’t mention its name”.
But the gliders habitat was increasingly coming under threat from logging in the area, Flannery said.
This, in part, has prompted efforts by scientists and wildlife groups to try secure native title for the forests to ensure logging cannot be carried out without consent from locals, he said.
(BBC)
The death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon this week has risen to at least 123 people, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health says, as a new wave of strikes pounded the country and Hezbollah warned Israeli residents to evacuate towns within 5km (3 miles) of their northern border, in one of the fiercest fronts in the wider United States – Israel war on Iran.
“The toll from the Israeli aggression on Monday, increased to 123 martyrs and 683 wounded,” a ministry statement said on Thursday.
Lebanese state media said early on Friday that Israel had launched air strikes on several towns in southern Lebanon.
“Enemy warplanes launched nighttime strikes on the towns of Srifa, Aita al-Shaab, Touline, as-Sawana and Majdal Selem,” the official National News Agency (NNA) reported.
Another strike hit the eastern Lebanese town of Douris at dawn, the NNA said.
The Israeli army also reported a new attack on the suburb of Dahiyeh in Beirut.
It has also continued attacks in southern Lebanon with raids on the area’s biggest city Sidon, according to sources on the ground.
NNA also reported Israeli warplanes over the southern towns of Tyre and Bint Jbeil.
(Aljazeera)
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