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Ghosh, Ahuja script stunning comeback as RCB complete WPL’s biggest chase
A run-fest that produced the highest aggregate as well as the highest successful chase in the WPL ended with defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru chasing down 202 in a canter in Vadodara.
Richa Gosh who was dropped first ball, showed there was more to her game than just brute force. Her 23-ball half-century injected momentum into RCB’s chase after Ellyse Perry’s dismissal for 57 left them needing 93 off 46 balls. Ghosh’s unbeaten, 26-ball 64 included a stunning takedown of Gujarat Giants captain Ashleigh Gardner in a 23-run 16th over to turn the game on its head.
Ghosh was supported by the diminutive left-hander Kanika Ahunja who scored an unbeaten 13-ball 30. Their unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 93 off just 37 balls completed a sensational RCB turnaround, consigning Gardner’s scarcely believable 37-ball 79 not out from earlier in the evening to second best.
Renuka Singh struggled for accuracy in her first two overs, but her first attempt at bowling stump-to-stump rather than searching for devious inswing led to Laura Wolvaardt being bowled for 6 in the fifth over. D Hemalatha came in at N0. 3 for Giants rather than Harleen Deol, and they were two down when she sliced the offspinner Ahuja to point. Giants were 41 for 2 in the seventh.
Beth Mooney shifted gears in the 10th over after she successfully overturned an lbw appeal through DRS off legspinner Georgia Wareham, whome she hit for three back-to-back fours while bringing up a 37-ball half-century. Mooney then stepped out and lofted legspinner Prema Rawat inside-out to the extra-cover boundary, but fell in the same over when she picked out Smriti Mandhana at midwicket for 56.
That brought in Deandra Dottin and she took just four balls to announce herself. She first thumped Kim Garth over mid-off and then played a neat little glide past the keeper to the deep third boundary.
At the other end, Gardner continued from where she had left off at the Women’s Ashes earlier in the month by taking toll of Rawat’s inexperience and hitting her for three consecutive sixes. After hitting the first two over long-off and long-on, she pummelled the half-tracker that followed over deep backward square leg.
Gardner was able to sustain this momentum against Wareham in the following over when she hit her for back-to-back fours. The Dottin-Gardner partnership had surged to 63 off 26 balls when Perry dropped a set Dottin at long-on, but it wouldn’t cost RCB much as she fell four balls later.
Gardner ended the innings in a blaze, taking down the teenaged seamer VJ Joshita as Giants hit 49 off the last three overs. Garner’s innings was studded with three fours and eight sixes.
Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru Women 202 for 4 in 18.3 overs (Richa Ghosh 64*, Ellyse Perry 57, Raghvi Bist 25, Kanika Ahuja 30*; Ashleigh Gardner 2-33) beat Gujarat Giants Women 201 for 5 in 20 overs (Ashleigh Gardner 79, Mooney 56, Deandra Dottin 25; Renuka Singh 2-25) by six wickets
[Cricinfo]
A suicide attack outside a court in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad has killed 12 people and injured at least 27 more, the country’s interior minister said.
Mohsin Naqvi said a bomber was planning to attack the district courthouse but was unable to get inside.
Naqvi said authorities would prioritise identifying the bomber, and that those involved would be brought to justice.
Suicide blasts in Islamabad have been rare in recent years. Footage from the scene on Tuesday showed the remains of a burnt out car and a police cordon in place.
The 27 people injured are receiving medical treatment, Naqvi said.
He added that the attacker detonated the bomb close to a police car after waiting for up to 15 minutes.
Footage of the aftermath showed plumes of smoke rising from a charred vehicle behind a security barrier. The incident occurred at 12:39 local time (07:39 GMT).
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said he “strongly condemned the suicide blast”.
A lawyer who said he was parking his car outside the court at the time described hearing a “loud bang”.
Rustam Malik told AFP news agency “it was complete chaos”.
“Lawyers and people were running inside the complex,” he added. “I saw two dead bodies lying on the gate and several cars were on fire.”
No-one has claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has claimed that extremist groups “actively backed by India” were involved.
In a statement, he said that “terrorist attacks on unarmed citizens of Pakistan by India’s terrorist proxies are condemnable”.
Delhi has not responded to the accusations. It has previously denied such claims.
In a separate incident on Monday, a car exploded in India’s capital Delhi, killing eight people and injuring a number of others.
The Indian government has not called the incident a terror attack, although the case has been referred to the country’s anti-terror body.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said following the attack: “The conspirators behind this heinous act will not be spared. All those responsible will be brought to justice, no matter how deep the conspiracy runs.”
There is, however, no official word yet on what led to the blast.
The last time Pakistan’s capital was targeted by a suicide bombing was three years ago when a police officer was killed and several others injured.
There have been suicide attacks in other parts of the country in the years since but not in Islamabad.
[BBC]
Israel’s parliament has passed the first reading of a bill that would introduce the death penalty for “terrorism”.
The amendment to the penal code, proposed by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, was approved by 39 votes to 16 in the 120-member Knesset on Monday, signalling it has support from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
According to the draft text, the death penalty would apply to individuals who kill Israelis out of “racist” motives and “with the aim of harming the State of Israel and the revival of the Jewish people in its land”, The Times of Israel reported.
Critics said the wording means that in practice, the death penalty would apply almost exclusively to Palestinians who kill Jews, not to Jewish hardliners who carry out attacks on Palestinians.
Attempts to introduce similar legislation have failed in the past. The current bill must pass a second and third reading before becoming law.
A statement from the National Security Committee that includes the bill’s explanatory note said: “Its purpose is to cut off terrorism at its root and create a heavy deterrent.”
Ben-Gvir welcomed the result of the vote on social media and said his Jewish Power party is “making history”.
Human rights groups have condemned Ben-Gvir’s long-running push for such legislation, warning that it targets Palestinians specifically and deepens systemic discrimination.
While the death penalty still exists for a small number of crimes in Israel, it has become a de facto abolitionist state. Nazi Holocaust perpetrator Adolf Eichmann was the last person executed by the country when he was put to death in 1962.
The vote on the bill took place during the United States-brokered ceasefire, which came into effect last month, aimed at ending Israel’s war on Gaza.
Israel is accused of violating the ceasefire with consistent attacks on Gaza, while Israeli settlers and the military have regularly carried out deadly assaults across the occupied West Bank.
Israel claims Hamas is breaking the terms of the ceasefire and remains a threat to its military in Gaza.
Responding to the parliamentary vote, the Palestinian group said the proposed law “embodies the ugly fascist face of the rogue Zionist occupation and represents a blatant violation of international law”.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates called the proposed bill “new form of escalating Israeli extremism and criminality against the Palestinian people”.
More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently being held in Israeli prisons.
Israeli and Palestinian human rights organisations assert that they are subject to torture, starvation and medical neglect that has led to the deaths of numerous detainees.
[Aljazeera]
As per the current national policy of the government to make public transport in Sri Lanka efficient and streamlined, the necessity of establishing multi-modal transport hubs with required facilities has been identified to enable efficient public transport services to be initiated from transit cities and main cities through the interconnection between transport modes.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved in principle the proposal presented by the Acting Minister of Transport, Highways, and Urban Development to develop the following multi-modal transport hubs on a priority basis, with the objective of upgrading the interconnection of transport modes such as buses, trains, and taxi services by integrating bus stands and railway stations identified as having a growing passenger circulation on the island, subject to a formal feasibility study.
• Kandy Multimodal Transport Hub (Construction work has already been started under world bank financing)
• Anuradhapura (South) Multimodal Transport Hub (Constructions are about to be completed under the Anuradhapura combined urban development project)
• Anuradhapura (North) Multimodal Transport Hub (feasibility study has been performed and preliminary work completed)
• Multimodal Transport Hub centered around the Fort Railway Station (as proposed by the ComTrans Master Plan, which has been prepared for urban transport in Colombo and suburbs)
• Moratuwa Multimodal Transport Center (proposed by the ComTrans Master Plan)
• Ragama Multimodal Transport Center ( identified through a study conducted by the Japan International Coorperation Agency)
• Avissawella, Galle, Katunayake, Kurunegala Multimodal Transport Centers (identified according to the urban plans of the Urban Development Authority)
• Gampaha Multimodal Transport Center ((identified according to the urban plans of the Urban Development Authority and railway electrification of the Colombo Suburban Railway Project)
• Katunayake Multimodal Transport Hub (identified under the Airport Development Plan)
• Kaluthara Multimodal Transport Center (identified as a proposal of the District coordination Committee)
• Kankasanthure Multimodal Transport Center(identified according to the urban plans of the Urban Development Authority)
Suicide bombing in Islamabad kills 12, says Pakistan’s interior minister
Israel parliament passes first reading of death penalty for ‘terrorism’ law
Cabinet nod to appoint Mrs. Tharani Kumaradasa to the Post of Commissioner of Cooperative Development / Cooperative Society Registrar
Cabinet nod to hold 28th joint Asia Pacific Regional Social Workshop from 18-21 November in Sri Lanka
Establishment of multi-modal transport hubs
Cabinet approves restructuring of the Sri Lanka Housing Development Finance Corporation Bank and the State Mortgage and Investment Bank
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