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Magnificent Maxwell sinks South Africa in nail-biting T20I series decider
Glenn Maxwell had scored his first T20I fifty in a year and 11 innings to put Australia on track after they were teetering at 122 for 6, chasing 173, in the 14th. Australia needed 12 runs from 12 balls to complete their highest successful chase at home. Kagiso Rabada was bowled out. What could possibly go wrong from there?
Corbin Bosch took two wickets in two balls in a penultimate over that ended as a double-wicket maiden. Maxwell refused a run off the last ball to keep strike in the final over and Lungi Ngidi was tasked with defending nine runs. His first ball was hit out to deep wide long-on where Bosch flicked the ball back in-field as he leapt over the rope to save four. Then Maxwell beat Lhuan-dre Pretorius at deep cover for four and turned down another opportunity for a single with four runs to get. He reverse-hoicked Ngidi over short third to seal the deal off the second last ball of the match and confirm his status as the big show in a thrilling finale.
Australia are now undefeated in their last seven bilateral T20I series. Of those, this was the first one in that time that went down to a decider and they showed their mettle under pressure. South Africa, on the other hand, have only won one of their last 10 T20I series. They have lost their last three finals in the last over, dating back to last year’s T20 World Cup and including last month’s tri-series final against New Zealand in Zimbabwe, and questions about their ability to close out close games will continue.
The drama aside, South Africa simply did not have enough runs after a slow start. None of their top three got going and it was thanks to Dewald Brevis and Tristan Stubbs’ fourth wicket stand of 61 off 29 balls that they built towards a competitive total, which they made a fist of defending. They had Australia in trouble on 88 for 4 in the 11th over and 122 for 6 in the 14th over but Maxwell was strong square of the wicket, held his nerve and struck at 172.22 to finish with 62 not out off 36 balls and take Australia home.
With the Cairns surface noticeably slower than the Darwin one, the role of spin was always going to be a talking point and Adam Zampa had the first decisive say. He was brought on in the over after the powerplay and could have had a wicket with his first ball. Brevis miscued a pull but Maxwell could not get to the chance in time. Zampa only had to wait four more deliveries to get a reward. Ryan Rickelton misread the googly, played a premeditated sweep shot and top-edged straight up. Rassie van der Dussen was unable to get Zampa away and Stubbs, who reverse-swept Zampa for two fours, fell playing the conventional sweep. He moved across his stumps, missed the shot and was bowled to leave Zampa with an excellent return of 2 for 24 from his four overs.
Nathan Ellis celebrates the key wicket of Dewald Brevis [Cricinfo]
Brevis picked up exactly where he left off after his unbeaten 125 in game two and swivel-pulled the fifth ball he faced over the stadium roof. He went on to top-edge Josh Hazlewood over backward square leg for another six and hit Aaron Hardie for four sixes in the 10th over, which cost 27 runs.
Brevis’ fifty came off 22 balls and he looked set for another century before Maxwell stopped him. As Brevis tucked into a slower short ball from Nathan Ellis and pulled it wide of long-on, Maxwell made significant ground and ran to his right, where he completed the catch diving forward. That was his second stunner of the series after catching Rickelton on the rope in the first match.
While South Africa’s captain Aiden Markram has now gone 31 T20I innings without a half-century, Australia’s skipper Mitchell Marsh broke his drought with a first fifty in 19 innings. He also played his part in Australia’s first half-century opening stand in eight matches.
Marsh got the chase underway when he pulled the last ball of Kagiso Rabada’s opening over – a slower one – into the crowd for six. He gave a Lungi Ngidi cross-seam delivery the same treatment and then hit Kwena Maphaka’s first delivery for four, over mid-off. Rabada could not hold on to a tough return chance when Marsh was on 25 and then saw the fifth ball of his second over flicked over square leg for another six. Left-arm spinner Senuran Muthusamy bore the brunt of Marsh’s big-hitting and was taken for 17 runs off the eight balls he bowled to him, including two sixes that bookended his opening over. Marsh’s fifty also came off Muthusamy, off the 35th ball he faced.
Australia were cruising on 64 without loss after seven overs when Markram brought himself back on in what he has called “gut feel” decision-making over when and how much to bowl. Four deliveries into his second over, Travis Head played a full-blooded pull back towards him. Markram dived to his left but couldn’t take the catch in what turned out to be a boundary-preventing stop. Two balls later, Head top-edged a sweep to short fine and Markram had sparked a collapse. In the next over, Bosch bowled Inglis for a golden duck, then Maphaka had Marsh and Cameron Green caught on the boundary. Australia lost four wickets for 22 runs in the space of 18 balls and South Africa were back in the game.
Australia needed 27 runs off the last three overs, Maxwell was on 39 off 25 balls and Rabada was about to bowl his final over. The balance of the game, it seemed, hung on those six balls. Rabada started off with a full toss that went over Maxwell’s head and was called a no-ball. Maxwell punished him by hitting the free hit, a low full toss, for six.
Two balls later, Maxwell guided Rabada over short third and then brought up fifty off 30 balls with a single to long-on. Rabada conceded 15 runs in that over as Maxwell took control. It looked like a simple win from there, with Australia needing 12 off 12 and with Maxwell at the crease they would always have backed him to finish the job.
Brief scores:
Australia 173 for 8 in 19.5 overs (Glenn Maxwell 62*, Mitchell Marsh 54, Travis Head 19, Tim David 17, Kagiso Rabada 2-32, Aisen Markram 1-06, Kwena Maphaka 2-36, Corbin Bosch 3-26 ) beat South Africa 172 for 7 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 13, Lihuan-dre Pretorius 24, Dewald Brevis 53, Tristan Stubbs 25, Rassie van der Dussen 38; Josh Hazelwood 2-30, Nathan Ellis 3-31, Adam Zampa 2-24) by two wickets
[Cricinfo]
Sunrisers Hyderabad [SRH] became the first team in IPL 2026 to successfully defend a total, and for that, they had to post 226 for 8, the highest score of the season so far. Even that did not look safe at one point, but in the end, Kolkata Knight Riders [KKR] fell short by 65 runs.
Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma set the platform for SRH by adding 82 in 5.4 overs. Head made 46 off 21 balls, and Abhishek 48 off 21. KKR did make a comeback in the middle overs, but Heinrich Klassen’s 52 off 35 deliveries ensured they picked up 51 in the last four overs.
Finn Allen, batting on the same strip where he had scored a blazing hundred against South Africa in the T20 World Cup semi-final, started the chase by smashing 24 runs off David Payne. But Harsh Dubey had him caught and bowled from the other end. Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s 27-ball fifty steered KKR to 110 for 3 in ten overs, but his run-out soon after proved to be the turning point. Rinku Singh’s brief resistance was futile, and KKR were eventually all out for 161 in 16 overs.
Ajinkya Rahane, playing his 200th IPL match, opted to bowl after winning the toss. Vaibhav Arora started with three dots, beating Head’s outside edge on all three occasions. But that was the proverbial calm before the storm. Head pulled the last ball of the over for four before picking two more fours off Blessing Muzarabani in the next over.
Muzarabani was trying the short-ball ploy that had worked for Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Jacob Duffy against the same opposition in the tournament opener, but it backfired here. Abhishek rubbed it in by pulling yet another short ball from Muzarabani for a six.
After Head smashed two sixes and two fours in Vaibhav’s next over, Rahane turned to spin. Sunil Narine conceded only three runs from the fourth over, and even induced a miscue from Head, but it landed safely. However, Abhishek took Varun Chakravarthy apart from the other end, hitting two sixes and three fours in a 25-run over.
Kartik Tyagi ended the stand by dismissing Head, but not before the batter had smashed him for a four and a six. SRH finished the powerplay on 84 for 1.
Muzarabani pulled things back for KKR by dismissing Ishan Kishan and Abhishek in the space of three balls. Kishan was caught at deep cover, and Abhishek at deep square leg, where Varun dived forward to complete a low catch. The third umpire had multiple looks at it before deciding it in KKR’s favour.
In the next over, Anukul Roy had Aniket Verma caught at long-off to make it 118 for 4. After that, Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy decided to go into consolidation mode. As a result, only 37 runs came from overs 10 to 14.
Klaasen and Reddy picked up a four each off Narine in the 15th over, but Tyagi gave away only seven runs in the next. When Vaibhav conceded only three off the first five balls of the 17th over, it started looking like the final flourish might never come. But his final ball was in the slot for Reddy, who launched it over the bowler’s head for a six.
Klaasen then reverse-lapped Tyagi over deep third for a six, before Reddy hit him for back-to-back fours. Vaibhav hurt SRH by dismissing Reddy and Salil Arora off successive deliveries, but Klaasen, with the help of Dubey and Shivang Kumar, took them past 220.
Allen gave KKR the start they needed, with 25 runs coming off the first over. While Rahane was struggling and eventually fell for 8 off ten balls, Raghuvanshi didn’t let the scoring rate drop. He hit two sixes off Abhishek in the third over, and smashed back-to-back fours off Jaydev Unadkat in the fifth. After five overs, KKR were 67 for 2.
Cameron Green, though, was run out in the following over. As Raghuvanshi drove one back towards Eshan Malinga, the two batters set off, only to find the bowler had stopped the ball with his boot. Both Raghuvanshi and Green froze for a moment before deciding to keep running. Malinga picked the ball up and broke the stumps. Initially, it looked like Raghuvanshi, who was running towards the non-striker’s end, was run out. But the TV umpire found out the batters hadn’t crossed when the wicket was broken, and it was Green who was out.
Raghuvanshi and Rinku, though, kept the chase on track, and took KKR to 100 in nine overs, with SRH’s poor ground fielding also contributing towards it.
Soon after that, Reddy got rid of Roy and Rinku in back-to-back overs. Narine and Ramandeep Singh took KKR to 155 for 6 in the 15th over, before falling to Malinga’s slower balls. Unadkat then wrapped up the win with two wickets in two balls.
Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 226 for 8 in 20 overs (Heinrich Klaasen 52, Abhishek Sharma 48, Travis Head 46, Ishan Kishan 14, Nitish Kumar Reddy 39; Vaibhav Arora 2-47, Blessing Muzarabani 4-41, Kartik Tyagi 1-48, Anukul Roy 1-16) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 161 in 16 overs (Finn Allen 28, Angkrish Raghuvanshi 52, Rinku Singh 35, Ramandeep Singh 10, Sunil Narine 12; Harsh Dubey 1-17, Jaydev Unadkat 3-21, Eshan Malinga 2-14, Nitish Kumar Reddy 2-17) by 65 runs
Eshan Malinga and Shivang Kumar celebrate after running out Angkrish Raghuvanshi [Cricinfo]
[Cricinfo]
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Heat Index at Caution Level in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Eastern, North-western, Northern and North-central provinces and in Monaragala district.
Warm Weather Advisory
Issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre
Issued at 3.30 p.m. on 02 April 2026, valid for 03 April 2026.
The Heat index, the temperature felt on human body is likely to increase up to ‘Caution level’ at some places in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Eastern, North-western, Northern and North-central provinces and in Monaragala district.
The Heat Index Forecast is calculated by using relative humidity and maximum temperature and this is the condition that is felt on your body. This is not the forecast of maximum temperature. It is generated by the Department of Meteorology for the next day period and prepared by using global numerical weather prediction model data.
Effect of the heat index on the human body is mentioned in the above table and it is prepared on the advice of the Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medical Services.
ACTION REQUIRED
Job sites: Stay hydrated and takes breaks in the shade as often as possible.
Indoors: Check up on the elderly and the sick.
Vehicles: Never leave children unattended.
Outdoors: Limit strenuous outdoor activities, find shade and stay hydrated.
Dress: Wear lightweight and white or light-colored clothing.
Note:
In addition, please refer to advisories issued by the Disaster Preparedness & Response Division, Ministry of Health in this regard as well. For further clarifications please contact 011-7446491.
Former Matara District Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister Mahinda Wijesekara has passed away this morning (02) at the age of 83 family sources have announced.
Mahinda Wijesekara served as a Member of Parliament for the Matara district for over two decades (1989 to 2010), representing the People’s Alliance, the United National Party and the United People’s Freedom Alliance.
He held several ministerial portfolios, including Minister of Postal and Telecommunication Services in 2008, Minister of Forestry and Envioronment 1999-2001, Minister of Fisheries and Ocean Resources from 2001 to 2004 and Minister of Special Projects 2007-2008
He was in poor health following injuries sustained in the 2009 bomb attack by the LTTE terrorists in Godapitiya, Matara.
He was the father of former Minister Kanchana Wijesekara.
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Heat Index at Caution Level in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Eastern, North-western, Northern and North-central provinces and in Monaragala district.
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