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Mustafizur’s six-wicket haul scripts big win for Bangladesh

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The USA team poses with the trophy after the historic series win (USA Cricket)

Mustafizur Rahman’s career-best 6 for 10 backed up by an unbeaten century-stand between Tanzid Hasan and Soumya Sarkar helped Bangladesh claim a resounding ten-wicket win over USA in the third and final T20I in Dallas. It brought down the series margin to 2-1 for USA who would nonetheless celebrate a milestone performance.

Mustafizur’s six-for – the first time a Bangladesh bowler claimed a six-wicket haul in T20Is – restricted USA to 104 for 9. In reply, Tanzid and Sarkar added 108 runs in just 11.5 overs to take Bangladesh home. This was Mustafizur’s second six-for in white-ball cricket after his 6 for 43 against India in an ODI in 2015.

Apart from Mustafizur, wristspinner Rishad Hossain also bowled brilliantly conceding just seven runs in his four overs and picking a wicket. This was Bangladesh’s most economical T20I spell (minimum four overs). Before both of these milestones though, Shakib Al Hassan reached a unique feat, too.

Having secured the series, USA rested four first-choice players in Monank Patel, Steven Taylor, Harmeet Singh and Ali Khan. They got off to a blazing start after being sent in, with Shavan Jahangir creaming Hasan Mahmud for two fours in the second over before Andries Gous launched Shakib for a huge six over midwicket. Gous then took a liking to Tanzim Hasan Sakib, hitting him twice through point and cover, in between a beautiful flick shot.

Gous finished the fourth over with another four through fine leg. After Jahangir lofted Shakib for his first six next over, Najmul Hossain Shanto dropped Gous on 23. He smacked the next ball for four, but Shakib finally removed Gous in the same over. He made 27 off 15 balls, becoming Shakib’s 700th international wicket. Shakib became the 17th cricketer to reach the milestone but the first to get to the mark with 14000-plus runs under his belt.

Jahangir was dismissed in the last over of the powerplay caught at deep square leg off Mustafizur. Nitish Kumar and Milind Kumar could only add ten runs in 3.5 overs before Mustafizur broke this stand in the 10th over when Nitish was caught behind for 3.

Rishad meanwhile kept things tight at the other end. Milind was his only wicket, getting caught in the deep leg-side boundary after a painstaking 7 off 20 balls. Before Milind’s wicket, Tanzim had removed Aaron Jones in the 12th over, when the USA captain for the day half-heartedly struck a pull shot down Rishad’s throat at the deep square-leg boundary.

When Shadley van Schalkwyk struck Mahmudullah for a four through long-on, it was USA’s first boundary in 10.5 overs. Corey Anderson then hit Tanzim for a four and six in the next over and it looked like the home side were warming up for a fast finish.

Mustafizur put paid to those thoughts removing both van Schalkwyk and Anderson in the 18th over. Bowling from the around-the-wicket angle to both left-handers, he first got one to slide away from van Schalkwyk to hit the top of his off stump while Anderson chopped one onto his stumps for 18. Mustafizur then pinned a yorker through Jasdeep Singh’s legs in the last over, before getting Nisarg Patel to hole out at point for his sixth wicket.

Bangladesh motored along through the powerplay as USA struggled without their three first-choice bowlers. Tanzid slapped two Saurabh Netravalkar half-volleys for fours through the covers. Soumya survived two mistimed shots in between a four and a six in van Schalkwyk’s first over before Tanzid went after Jasdeep and Milind in the next two overs. The pair struck one four each in Nitish’s over, and then one six each off Netravalkar

Tanzid reached his third T20I fifty in the 11th over before his second six got the partnership to three figures. Soumya played the perfect foil with his unbeaten 43 off 28 balls with two sixes. The pair put on their second century stand in 15 days.

Brief scores:
Bangladesh
108 for 0 in 11.4 overs (Tanzid Hasan  58*, Soumya Sarkar 43*) beat USA 104 for 9 in 20 overs  (Andries Gous 27, Shayan Jahangir 18, Corey Anderson 18; Tanzim Hasan Sakib 1-32, Shakib Al Hassan 1-23,  Mustafizur Rahman 6-10, Rishad Hossain 1-07) by ten wickets

(Cricinfo)

 



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Scores of whales to be euthanised after mass stranding in Australia

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Australian authorities are euthanising about 90 false killer whales which survived a mass stranding on a remote beach in Tasmania.

A team of experts at the site said complex conditions have made it impossible to save them.

They are part of a pod of 157 whales that had beached near Arthur River, in the island’s north west. The rest had died shortly after the stranding.

Tasmania has seen a series of mass whale strandings in recent years – including the country’s worst-ever in 2020 – but false killer whales haven’t mass stranded there in over 50 years.

False killer whales are technically one of world’s largest dolphin species, like their orca namesakes. They can grow up to 6m (19ft) and weigh 1.5 tonnes.

Authorities on Wednesday said the pod had been stranded at the site for 24 to 48 hours, and the surviving animals were already under extreme stress.

Local resident Jocelyn Flint told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation she had travelled to the site on Wednesday morning after her son noticed the pod while out shark fishing overnight.

“There are babies… There’s just families of them. Their eyes are open, they’re looking at me, like ‘help’.”

“It’s just absolutely horrific.”

The site – about 300km (186 miles) from the city of Launceston – is extremely difficult to access and transport any rescue equipment to, marine biologist Kris Carlyon told media.

“This is possibly the trickiest location I’ve seen in 16 years of doing this role in Tasmania,” he said.

“We’re talking a very rough, steep, single lane road into the site. We can get four-wheel drives in there, but not a lot else.”

Rough conditions meant returning the animals to the sea at the location they stranded was impossible, so an expert team tried to relocate two and refloat them, but were unsuccessful.

“The animals just can’t get past the break to get out. They just keep turning around and coming back towards the beach,” said Shelley Graham, from Tasmania’s Parks and Wildlife Service.

With conditions for the next two days forecast to be similar, expert wildlife veterinarians made the “tough” and “confronting” decision to euthanise the remaining whales.

“The longer these animals are out stranded, the longer they are suffering. All alternative options have been unsuccessful, euthanasia is always a last resort,” Dr Carlyon said.

That grim task – which involves shooting the animals – is expected to begin on Wednesday but continue on Thursday.

Authorities are still working out how to dispose of the carcasses. The site has important cultural heritage for Aboriginal people so a department spokesperson earlier suggested “it may be a case of… letting nature run its course”.

Authorities have asked members of the public to avoid the site, with bushfires burning nearby and limited road access.

More than 80% of Australian whale strandings take place in Tasmania – often on its west coast.

Around 40 pilot whales were stranded further south at Macquarie Harbour in 2020 and about 350 of them died despite rescue efforts. Another 200 became standed in the same harbour in 2022.

Whales are highly social mammals and are well known for stranding in groups because they travel in large, close-knit communities which rely on constant communication.

There are a range of theories for why beachings occur. Some experts say the animals can become disoriented after following fish they hunt to the shore.

Others believe that one individual can mistakenly lead whole groups to shore.

[BBC]

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Gill and Theekshana are the new No. 1s in ODI rankings

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Maheesh Theekshana became the seventh Sri Lanka bowler to bag an ODI hat-trick during the Australia series [Cricinfo]

Shubman Gill and Maheesh Theekshana have become the new No. 1 men’s ODI batter and bowler respectively in the ICC rankings update released on the opening day of the Champions Trophy. Gill has gone past Babar Azam on his list, while Theekshana has gone past Rashid Khan on his.

Gill had an excellent time of it in the home ODI series against England, which India won 3-0, with scores of 87, 60 and 112, which made him the top run-getter in the series, his 259 runs coming at an average of 86.33 and a strike rate of 103.60. The next highest scorer, Shreyas Iyer, was 78 behind Gill with 181 runs.

This is the second time Gill has gone to the top of the pile in ODI cricket – the previous occasion was during the ODI World Cup in 2023.

Gill’s rise has pushed Babar to second place. Gill has 796 rating points, while Babar has 773.

They are followed in the top five by Rohit Sharma, Heinrich Klaasen and Daryl Mitchell, who has moved up two places after the tri-series in Pakistan where he scored 81, 10 and 57.

Following the two-ODI series against England, Sri Lanka captain Charith Asalanka has moved up eight spots to No. 8, while Mohammad Rizwan,  the Pakistan captain, has reached 15th place.

Sri Lanka are not a part of the Champions Trophy, having missed out on qualification, but along with Asalanka, Theekshana made the most of the two-ODI series at home against Australia, returning 4 for 40 and none for 11.

Rashid, who hasn’t played an ODI since last December, has slipped to the second spot, but isn’t too far behind Theekshana – he has 669 ratings points to the table-topper’s 680, and a good Champions Trophy campaign can take him back to the top.

Behind Theekshana and Rashid on the bowlers’ table is Namibia’s Bernard Scholtz followed by India’s Kuldeep Yadav and Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi in the top five. Mitchell Santner the New Zealand captain, has made big moves too, his five wickets in the three ODIs in the Pakistan tri-series giving him a five-spot boost and putting him at No. 7.

[Cricinfo]

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Babar’s form in focus as Pakistan begin title defence

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The New Zealand players warm up with their game of choice [Cricifo]

We live in a time when the ODI is starved for attention, with the older sibling commanding instant respect for its age and wisdom and the younger one bawling at full lung capacity if you dare to look away while it cartwheels around the room. For all that, the middle child never fails to remind us how captivating it can be whenever a global tournament comes along. The last two ODI World Cups produced so many classics between them, and so many passages of play that showcased the variety of skills that this format can both compress and give breathing room to.

Given how little we’ve seen of it over the last year-and-a-half or thereabouts, then, our appetite for the ODI should be at its peak, even if the Champions Trophy remains an awkward fit in the calendar and the interests of the ICC’s member boards. So much has happened since Sarfaraz Ahmed lifted this trophy eight years ago, enough for everyone to forget that it even exists, but here we are now, and here it is once again.

We have Pakistan, the defending champions and (co-ish) hosts, to start us off, and they’ll face familiar foes in the tournament-opener. No visiting team has played more ODIs in this country than New Zealand’s 11 since the start of 2019, and they begin this Champions Trophy a mere five days after beating Pakistan in the final of an ODI tri-series.  Karachi hosted that match, and will host this one too.

It says something about the two teams that New Zealand and Pakistan finished fourth and fifth – just inside and just outside the knockouts spots – on the league tables of both the 2019 and 2023 World Cups, and that Pakistan won the head-to-head meetings both times. It speaks of two teams with potentially title-winning strengths as well as title-squandering flaws, and this, perhaps, makes it the ideal contest to kick things off.

He’s gone 21 innings without an ODI hundred, and while this wouldn’t be abnormal for most batters, Babar Azam isn’t most batters. That sequence only includes two single-digit scores, so it isn’t as if he’s been struggling, but few things will bring as much joy to Pakistan at the start of a global event on home soil as a big score from their until-recently-irreproachable run machine. He’s batting at the top of the order now rather than No. 3, so a score of significance will also ease any doubts Pakistan may have about the structure of their line-up.

In the recently concluded tri-series, New Zealand’s spinners finished with a combined economy rate of 4.41, which was remarkable considering their Pakistan and South Africa counterparts went at 5.67 and 5.94 respectively. It speaks to the quality of Mitchell Santner and Michael Bracewell,  who picked up five wickets apiece during the tri-series at near-identical averages and economy rates. They form as enviable a spin combination as any in this tournament: a left-arm fingerspinner and an offspinner, both extremely handy with the bat.

Haris Rauf played no part in the recent ODI tri-series after going off the field with a side strain during the opening game against New Zealand. He has been bowling in the nets in the lead-up to the Champions Trophy, though, and Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan was confident he would be fit to start the tournament-opener. This should leave Pakistan able to pick a full-strength XI.

New Zealand go into the Champions Trophy with two of their original fast-bowling selections – Lockie Ferguson and Ben Sears – out of the tournament. There’s also doubt over whether Rachin Ravindra – who hasn’t played a game since being struck on the head by the ball while fielding during the first match of the tri-series – will be fit to start, but the opener has been batting during training sessions in the lead-up to this tournament. New Zealand will take a call on him after their training session on Tuesday, with Will Young likely to open alongside Devon Conway should they decide not to risk Ravindra. Ferguson’s replacement Kyle Jamieson will not arrive in Karachi in time to be available for the first game.

Pakistan (possible): Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam,  Saud Shakeel,  Mohammad Rizwan (capt & wk), Salman Agha,  Tayyab Tahir,  Khushdil Shah,  Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah,  Haris Rauf,  Abrar Ahmed.

New Zealand: Rachin Ravindra/Will Young, Devon Conway,  Kane Williamson,  Daryl Mitchell,  Tom Latham (wk),  Glenn Phillips,  Michael Bracewell,  Mitchell Santner (capt),  Matt Henry,  Jacob Duffy, Will O’Rourke.

[Cricinfo]

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