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Kolkata Knight Riders qualify for playoffs as Chakravarthy, Narine strangle Mumbai in rain-hit game
On an evening that started with the ball swinging around like a boomerang following plenty of rain in Kolkata, Kolkata Knight Riders’ spin twins – Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine stifled Mumbai Indians’ chase to seal a playoffs berth for their side, with an almost-certain finish in the top two as well.
After MI were set 158 runs in 16 overs, Chakravarthy and Narine started the strangle that saw MI score just 22 runs in the five overs after the powerplay for two wickets that mounted the pressure on the visitors.
Suriyakumar Yadav and Tim David had no choice but to go after the quicks and fell to Andre Russell’s variations that saw MI stumble to 92 for 5 and there was no coming back from there, barring a late cameo from Tilak Varma. He reduced the equation to 22 required from the six balls, but his wicket early in the last over eventually handed MI their ninth loss in 13 matches.
After rain had delayed the start of the game by an hour and 45 minutes, the match was reduced to 16 overs a side. Even though KKR lost their openers early, Venkatesh Iyer and some lower-order hitting powered them to 157, which may have seemed short early on but proved to be enough.
Rohit Sharma was struggling for runs and scored at under run a ball in the first six overs. So the onus of hitting was on Ishan Kishan who flat-batted his way to 37 off 17 in the powerplay (which was five overs for this game). He largely peppered the square boundaries, the highlight being a four with a reverse hit followed by a six with a pull at the end of the powerplay to take MI to 59.
But Narine was ready with his riposte in his next over and had Kishan hole out for 40. With the spin on from both ends that featured a lot of stump-to-stump bowling and 17 consecutive boundary-less balls, Rohit’s struggle ended on 19. Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak also hardly attacked the spinners and the equation soon became 77 required from 36.
Russell then got the ball. His scrambled seam snared Suryakumar and the slower ball removed David. In between, Chakravarthy had Hardik Pandya caught for 2 to add to MI’s woes.
The equations like 57 needed from 18 have become all the more achievable in this IPL, and Tilak kept MI’s flame burning when he took on Harshit Rana in the 14th over for 16 runs by dispatching his slower ones to the ropes. No. 8 Naman Dhir took inspiration from Tilak to smash Russell for a couple of sixes and a four for a 19-run over that brought MI back in the game. With 22 needed from six, Dhir and Tilak fell in the first three deliveries of the last over, which sealed MI’s fate.
You didn’t have to guess that the KKR openers would come out all guns blazing in this shortened game. Phil Salt kicked off the innings with a first-ball six against Nuwan Thushara but fell in the same over. From the other end, Bumrah showed some magic Narine had no answer for.
Bumrah’s first ball was a yorker that tailed in just a bit at the end from outside off. Narine, who had shouldered arms to it, was flabbergasted by the late movement that took the base of the off stump. It was Narine’s first duck of this IPL.
The ball was swinging and troubling the batters in overcast conditions. After the hard-hitting openers were dismissed back and Russell was yet to walk out, Venkatesh took charge of the innings. He went down the track, rocked back to pull the short balls, and used his reach to score 25 off 10 in the powerplay. It also included 14 off five balls against Bumrah.
Venkatesh enjoyed some luck too, as edges evaded the fielders and his proactive approach helped KKR collect 77 in the first eight overs, all bowled by fast bowlers.
But spin struck first ball when Piyush Chawla had Venkatesh hole out for 42 off 21. Out walked Russell and smoked Chawla over his head for a six and a four in his next two overs, along with a drill through the covers. Chawla moved his field around, stationed a fielder at the rope right behind the umpire for the straight hit and varied his pace even beyond 110kph while Russell took KKR past 100. After being hit for another six in the 13th over, this time by Rinku Singh, Chawla had the last laugh as Russell skied a 117kph thunderbolt to deep midwicket.
Thushara and Bumrah then sent down a flurry of yorkers in the last two overs and it was only because of a six each from Rinku and Ramandeep Singh that KKR crossed 150.
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 157/7in 16 overs (Venkatesh Iyer 42, Nitish Rana 33, Andre Rusell 24, Rinku Singh 20; Nuwan Thushara 1-31, Jasprit Bumrah 2-39, Anshul Kamboj 1-24, Piyush Chawla 2-28) beat Mumbai Indians 139/8 in 16 overs (Ishan Kishan 40, Tilak Varma 32; Varun Chakravarthy 2-17, Sunil Narine 1-21, Harshit Rana 2-34, Andre Rusell 2-34) by 18 runs – Match reduced to 16 overs per side due to rain
(Cricinfo)
Security forces in northwest Nigeria are intensifying their efforts to find the 25 schoolgirls abducted by gunmen in an early-morning raid on their school this week.
Police said men armed with rifles stormed Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Kebbi State’s Maga town approximately 4am local time (03:00 GMT) on Monday, arriving on motorcycles in an apparently well-planned attack.
The attackers exchanged gunfire with police before scaling the perimeter fence and abducting the students. The assailants killed the school’s vice principal during the attack.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for abducting the girls, and their motivation was unclear.
On Tuesday, security teams swept nearby forests where gangs often hide, while others were deployed along major roads leading to the school.
Kebbi Governor Nasir Idris visited the school on Monday and assured of efforts to rescue the girls, and Lieutenant-General Waidi Shaibu, Nigeria’s chief of army staff met with soldiers in the hours after the attack and directed “intelligence-driven operations and relentless day-and-night pursuit of the abductors,” according to an army statement.
“We must find these children. Act decisively and professionally on all intelligence. Success is not optional,” Shaibu told troops during a visit to Kebbi on Tuesday. “You must continue day and night fighting.”
He urged the soldiers to “leave no stone unturned” in the search for the schoolgirls.
Monday’s raid was the second mass school abduction in Kebbi in four years, following a June 2021 incident when bandits took more than 100 students and staff members from a government college.
Those students were released in batches over two years after parents raised ransoms. Some of the students were forcefully married and returned with babies.
At least 1,500 students have been kidnapped across the country since members of the Boko Haram armed group abducted 276 girls from their school in the town of Chibok on April 14, 2014.
In March 2024, more than 130 schoolchildren were rescued after spending more than two weeks in captivity in the Nigerian state of Kaduna.
While Kebbi State police told news wire AFP on Tuesday that the abducted schoolchildren were all Muslim, supporters of US President Donald Trump have seized on the tragedy to embolden their claim that Christians are under attack in Nigeria.
“While we don’t have all the details on this horrific attack, we know that the attack occurred in a Christian enclave in Northern Nigeria,” Republican Representative Riley Moore wrote on X.
Trump has threatened to invade Nigeria “guns-a-blazing” over what right-wing lawmakers in the US allege is a ‘Christian genocide’
Nigeria has rejected the US president’s statements, saying the country’s various security crises have left more Muslims dead.
[Aljazeera]
Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya stated that education is a process of sharing collective knowledge, and has the power to bring people together politically, socially, and economically.
The Prime Minister made these remarks while addressing the conference held on Tuesday (18) at the Galle Face Hotel, Colombo, aimed at fostering cooperation among countries in Asia, the Middle East, and the Pacific region regarding the role of education within the Green Transition.
The Erasmus+ Programme funded by the European Union, is one of the world’s leading initiatives for international cooperation in education, training, youth, and sports. Its objectives include enhancing mobility between countries, intercultural exchange, capacity development, and policy advancement.
The programme creates opportunities for collaboration and funding in higher education, vocational training, youth development, and institutional partnerships in Sri Lanka. This conference will be held from the 18th to the 20th of this month at the Galle Face Hotel, Colombo.
Further expressing her views, Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya sated:
“As a legacy of the post-colonial education system, Sri Lanka has become a country with a high literacy rate.
However, today, education has become something that focuses only on individual success and achievement. As a result, the planning and principles of education have become heavily driven by competition.
Consequently, our education system has become extremely competitive and examination-oriented. Education should not be a process aimed solely at individual achievement.
What we now strive for is to move away from this educational model and restore the true purpose of education where its aims be not merely scoring high marks, but sharing collective knowledge and strengthening transformative learning.
We often forget the transformative power of education. It goes beyond personal achievement. Education has the ability to unite people politically, socially, and economically. Therefore, it is essential to shape education into a shared space of mutual expectation and mutual success.
Within our new education reforms, promoting collaborative learning, fostering a sense of responsibility towards one another, building responsibility towards the world, and especially towards the environment amidst today’s global challenges, have become extremely important.
Amid the spread of unscientific methods and misinformation in the modern world, the necessity of education has become even more pronounced. Moreover, the pressures within the university system can also be overcome through this transformation.
The importance of such dialogues, exchanges, and discussions emphasises once again the need for transformative education, a form of learning that encourages sharing of ideas and working together.
Transforming our education system from a cage of competition into a free space of collaboration and responsible knowledge-sharing is one of the fundamental challenges Sri Lanka must overcome for its future”.
The event was attended by the Ambassador of the European Union to Sri Lanka Carmen Moreno, Secretary to the Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education Nalaka Kaluwewa, as well as regional representatives and government officials.
[Prime Minister’s Media Division]
Zimbabwe lost seven wickets for 37 runs to slip to 147 for 8, when a total greater than 180 had been on the cards. Still, they pushed Pakistan’s chase into the final over, their seamers striking three times in the powerplay to slow Pakistan’s advance, before also squeezing the hosts in the middle overs.
Pakistan’s Nos. 5, 6, and 7, however, dug them out of the hole. Playing his comeback T20I innings Fakhar Zaman hit 44 off 32, putting on a 61-run partnership with Usman Khan. Usman was then joined by Mohammad Nawaz, who had earlier been the best of Pakistan’s bowlers. The required rate had become something of a challenge at this stage, but Nawaz’s 20 off 12 balls ensured victory was ultimately comfortable.
Had Brian Bennett held a straight-forward chance off Nawaz on the midwicket boundary, with 15 needed off 10, Zimbabwe could have mounted a sterner challenge at the business end. In the end, Nawaz struck the winning boundary with four balls to spare.
Zimbabwe veteran Graeme Cremer, playing his first T20I in over seven years and after 122 matches – the latter, a record – conceded 27 runs in three overs for one wicket.
After seven overs, Zimbabwe were running the show. The openers had hit 11 fours and a six between them. The run rate was in touching distance of 10. And the first two overs of spin had conceded 26 runs. But Nawaz, bowling quicker and more accurately than the legspinners, made the breakthrough that soon brought a flood of wickets when he had Tadiwanashe Marumani caught at deep square leg, though that first wicket came off a full toss. Later, he would also have Ryan Burl holing out.
It was Nawaz’ economy, though, that set him apart. He conceded only 22 from his four overs, and had by far the lowest economy rate (5.50) of any bowler to bowl four overs in the game. With the bat, he was fortunate to be reprieved on nine, but struck a six and two fours to ensure Pakistan didn’t flounder at the finish.
The period in which Zimbabwe crashed hardest was through the middle of their innings, when they slipped from 91 for 1 in the 11th over, to 128 for 8 in the 19th. Pakistan’s spinners bossed this period, with Saim Ayub and Abrar Ahmed also picking up key wickets. Although there was not much turn off the surface, the legspinners frequently beat batters in the flight, and created pressure through dot balls. It is this pressure that also caused two Zimbabwe run-outs.
In the eight-over stretch between the 11th and 19th overs, Pakistan conceded only 30. It took an unbeaten 34 from Sikandar Raza 34 off 24 balls to avert complete disaster.
They would struggle through the next four overs too, and when Ayub was dismissed by Cremer’s legspin in the 10th over, the required-rate was up to nine, and Zimbabwe looked like defending their total. But a sensible stand between Zaman and Usman gave the Pakistan chase some substance and Nawaz finished the job.
Brief scores:
Pakistan 151 for 5 in 19.2 overs (Sahibzada Farhan 16, Saim Ayub 22, Fakhar Zaman 44, Usman Khan 37*, Mohammad Nawaz 21*; Richard Ngarava 1-31, Tinotenda Maposa 1-29, Brad Evans 2-26, Graeme Cremer 1-27) beat Zimbabwe 147 for 8 in 20 overs (Brian Bennett 49, Tadiwanashe Marumani 30, Brendan Taylor 14, Sikandar Raza 34*; Shaheen Shah Afridi 1-34, Salman Mirza 1-21, Saim Ayub 1-31, Abrar Ahmed 1-28, Mohammad Nawaz 2-22) by five wickets
[Cricinfo]
Showers will occur in the Northern, North-central, Eastern, Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern and Uva provinces and Nuwara-Eliya district
CP asks whether MoU with US a precursor to SOFA
NPP going ahead with move to abolish MPs pensions
Pathfinder demands early action by Colombo to halt ecological disaster being caused by Tamil Nadu in Palk Bay, Gulf of Mannar
Nigeria intensifies search for 25 abducted schoolgirls
Launch of UPI One World for Sri Lankan Buddhist pilgrims
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