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Head, Hazlewood extend Australia’s dominance

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Head and Hazlewood combined to hurt West Indies (Cricbuzz)

Travis Head’s counterattacking century and Josh Hazlewood’s second four-fer in as many innings helped Australia take firm control of proceedings on Day 2 of the first Test against West Indies in Adelaide. Head notched up his seventh Test hundred to give the hosts a significant 95-run lead despite a Shamar Joseph fifer on debut, and Hazlewood just hammered home that advantage with a fine opening burst as Windies lost six under a session’s play to go to stumps at 73/6, trailing by 22 more.

With the wicket still offering assistance to the bowlers, Hazlewood remained unplayable through his new-ball spell that ended with staggering figures of 6-4-11-4. Their dismal batting show continued from the first day and the tourists managed to score their first runs off him only at the start of his fifth over off a thick inside edge.

After Mitch Starc began with a maiden, Hazlewood struck with his very first delivery and Tagenarine Chanderpaul departed for a golden duck, having nicked behind to the keeper. Kraigg Brathwaite was the next to depart, credit to the sharp catch under the lid at short leg from Head. Yet to open his account, Alick Athanaze nearly chopped on in the same over and only survived to play seven more dots before gloving his attempted hook to the ‘keeper. He burnt a review in challenging the on-field call only to be left disappointed. Kavem Hodge then fell cheaply for the second time on debut, edging to second slip and giving Hazlewood his fourth.

Staring down the barrel at 7 for 3 after six overs, it was the half-centurion from the first innings that helped West Indies move on briefly. Kirk McKenzie indeed looked most positive of them all in the middle, albeit helped by a couple of early reprieves with tough chances going down. He played a couple of beautiful drives in his 35-ball stay in the middle and was eyeing a third – lured in by a full and wide delivery – when he chipped it straight to short-cover instead. Cam Green had struck on his second ball of the innings and Windies were down to 40/5, still 55 in the red.

A 33-run partnership ensued between Justin Greaves, who batted with a similar positive intent, and Joshua Da Silva as West Indies renewed their hopes of cutting down Australia’s lead. The pair kept busy in the middle, fetching an occasional boundary as West Indies inched closer. However, at the stroke of stumps, Nathan Lyon availed DRS to have the on-field not-out call overturned as Greaves fell for 24. West Indies are still 22 away from making Australia bat again, with only four wickets left in the bank.

Earlier, it was Head’s century – an innings of two halves – that set up the game for Australia. After seeing through a testing morning session and disciplined West Indies bowling, Head converted his hard-fought fifty into a counterattacking hundred that gave Australia 283 in their first essay despite Shamar continuing his impressive run with the ball.

The honours were shared in the morning session, with West Indies picking up three key middle-order wickets for a bargain but also Australia steadily cutting down their deficit. The hosts lost Green and Usman Khawaja without adding a lot to their overnight scores, and Mitch Marsh didn’t look all that convincing through his 26-ball stay for 5. Even Head took his time to get his eye in on a surface that wasn’t exactly easy to bat on. But post Lunch, he put on display his full range of shots to pick up the pace.

Even as a diving catch from Joshua da Silva behind the stumps put an end to Alex Carey’s stay in the middle, Head cut loose and took the attack to the opposition with Australia now having marched into the lead. He took on Shamar with back to back fours to enter the 90s and then pulled the rookie pace on consecutive balls on the other side of his seventh Test hundred.

It was eventually Alzarri who brought curtains on the stunning knock on 119, with an offcutter that Head ended up skying to give a catch at the ropes at the stroke of Tea, just after Australia went past 250. In the final session, Nathan Lyon managed to keep the West Indies bowlers at bay for half an hour before the visitors finally picked up the two remaining wickets to keep Australia’s lead to double digits. As usual, it was Shamar who managed the crucial breakthrough when he cleaned up Lyon to register his maiden fifer on debut, and Pat Cummins was bowled first ball with Australia folding on 283 in reply to West Indies’ 188.

Brief scores:
West Indies 188 & 73/6 (Kirk McKenzie 26; Josh Hazlewood 4-18) trail  Australia 283 (Travis Head 119; Shamar Joseph 5-94) by 22 runs



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Zimbabwe, Ireland look to enhance their ODI cred as road to 2027 World Cup begins

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Ireland will have a settled top six, with Paul Stirling and Andy Balbirnie up the order [Cricinfo]

Zimbabwe and Ireland are set to play three ODIs starting on February 14. The series is not wrapped in a larger context but is working towards the 2027 ODI World Cup – a converging goal for both teams. ESPNcricinfo looks ahead to what the teams can do to align themselves towards their goals in Harare.

Zimbabwe’s summer of 2024-25 is galloping towards its finish, and while they were able to snatch an ODI win each against Afghanistan and Pakistan, they are yet to win a series. In fact, they are yet to win a series across formats. They have three ODIs and three T20Is to change that before heading to England for a Test in three months.

Ireland came out of the cold to seal a hat-trick of Test wins, and they now have the opportunity to whet their appetite in white-ball cricket before their home summer, which also starts in three months.

Both teams did not qualify for the 2023 ODI World Cup, so they were not in contention to make the upcoming Champions Trophy. But they do have a carrot to run towards.

Zimbabwe will co-host the 2027 ODI World Cup along with South Africa. Ireland, who were unable to qualify for the last two editions despite ODIs being the format that helped them break into the international stage, have a chance to make a comeback.

On the flipside, the absence of high stakes can free the teams to test out tactics and players if they wish to do so.

The first ever ODI between these two teams, which took place in the 2007 World Cup, ended in a tie, and since then, Ireland have won ten of the 21 ODIs that have been played. The extent of their dominance is magnified in their last ten completed games, out of which they have won eight.  They have won five of the 11 games in Harare, but are coming in with a streak of three wins at the venue.

Zimbabwe will be boosted by the return of Craig Ervine, who missed the Test due to a family emergency, and Sikandar Raza, who was with Dubai Capitals – the winners of the third edition of the ILT20. Their top-seven batters, who have averaged 16.69 since the start of 2024, will need to step up for the team to go through an upward trajectory.

In that period, Ireland have played five ODIs, compared to Zimbabwe’s nine. So, time in the middle will be significant in and of itself. They have a settled top-six, with captain Paul Stirling and Andy Balbirnie at the top, and a seasoned bowling line-up, led by Craig Young and Mark Adair.

Only three ODIs have been played in Harare in the past 12 months. But in the 19 games it has hosted in the last two – including the ODI World Cup Qualifiers in 2023 – the pacers have picked up 144 wickets at an average of 30.38 and economy of 5.37, while the spinners have taken 94 wickets at an average of 36.08 and an economy of 5.10 . However, those numbers could be a result of the fact that all 19 games have been played during the day, where the new ball assisted bowlers in the powerplay before conditions eased out in the middle overs.

So, top-order runs and early wickets in the first innings are likely to carry a premium, as will good defensive spin bowling in the middle overs.

[Cricinfo]

 

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Sri Lankan among hundreds of foreigners freed from Myanmar’s scam centres

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More than 250 people from 20 nationalities including a Sri Lankan who had been working in telecom fraud centres in Myanmar’s Karen State have been released by an ethnic armed group and brought to Thailand.

The workers, more than half of whom were from African or Asian nations, were received by the Thai army, and are being assessed to find out if they were victims of human trafficking.

Last week Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra met Chinese leader Xi Jinping and promised to shut down the scam centres which have proliferated along the Thai-Myanmar border.

Her government has stopped access to power and fuel from the Thai side of the border, and toughened up banking and visa rules to try to prevent scam operators from using Thailand as a transit country for moving workers and cash.

Some opposition MPs in Thailand have been pushing for this kind of action for the past two years.

Foreign workers are typically lured to these scam centres by offers of good salaries, or in some cases tricked into thinking they will be doing different work in Thailand, not Myanmar.

The scammers look for workers with skills in the languages of those who are targeted for cyber-fraud, usually English and Chinese.

They are pressed into conducting online criminal activity, ranging from love scams known as “pig butchering” and crypto fraud, to money laundering and illegal gambling.

Some are willing to do the work, but others are forced to stay, with release only possible if their families pay large ransoms. Some of those who have escaped have described being tortured.

The released foreign workers were handed over by the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, DKBA, one of several armed factions which control territory inside Karen State.

These armed groups have been accused of allowing the scam compounds to operate under their protection, and of tolerating the widespread abuse of trafficking victims who are forced to work in the compounds.

The Myanmar government has been unable to extend its control over much of Karen State since independence in 1948.

Thai News Pix Three people released from scam centres walk across a tarmac
The scammers look for workers with skills in the languages of those who are targeted for cyber-fraud, usually English and Chinese [BBC]

On Tuesday, Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation, which is similar to the US FBI, requested arrest warrants for three commanders of another armed group known as the Karen National Army.

The warrants included Saw Chit Thu, the Karen warlord who struck a deal in 2017 with a Chinese company to build Shwe Kokko, a new city believed to be largely funded by scams.

The BBC visited Shwe Kokko at the invitation of Yatai, the company which built the city.

Yatai says there are no more scams in Shwe Kokko. It has put up huge billboards all over town proclaiming, in Chinese, Burmese and English, that forced labour is not allowed, and that “online businesses” should leave.

But we were told by local people that the scam business was still running, and interviewed a worker who had been employed in one.

Chart showing nationalities of rescued workers

Like the DKBA, Saw Chit Thu broke away from the main Karen insurgent group, the KNU, in 1994, and allied himself to the Myanmar military.

Under pressure from Thailand and China, both Saw Chit Thu and the DKBA have said they are expelling the scam businesses from their territories.

The DKBA commander contacted a Thai member of parliament on Tuesday to arrange the handover of the 260 workers.

They included 221 men and 39 women, from Ethiopia, Kenya, the Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Nepal, Uganda, Laos, Burundi, Brazil, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Tanzania, Sir Lanka, India, Ghana and Cambodia.

[BBC]

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At least 20 injured after car drives into crowd in Munich

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The driver was detained at the scene, officials said [BBC]

A car has driven into a group of people in Munich leaving at least 20 injured, including two seriously, emergency services have said.

The local fire service said some of those hurt were in a “life-threatening condition”.

The driver was detained at the scene and poses no further danger, local police said. A major operation is under way in the Dachauer Strasse area, near the German city’s central train station.

The incident happened at the scene of a rally linked to the transport union Verdi, according to local media.

A police spokesman told broadcaster BR that officers were checking whether there was a link to the demonstration.

Munich’s mayor Dieter Reiter said children were among those injured. “I am deeply shocked. My thoughts are with the injured,” he told local media.

The injured are being treated, police said, adding rescue helicopters were at the scene.

Police said they could not confirm whether anyone else was involved, following unconfirmed reports of a second person in the car.

This comes hours before world leaders including Ukraine’s President Zelensky and US Vice President JD Vance will arrive in the city for the Munich security conference, which takes place on Friday.

The incident occurred around 1.5 kilometres (1 mile) from the security conference venue, and people have been advised to avoid the scene, which has been sealed off.

Police have asked for eyewitnesses to come forward with information and footage of the incident.

[BBC]

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