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Nervous Pakistan face Namibia with final Super Eight spot on the line
After the reality check of the India game, Pakistan have only one goal for this final group match against Namibia – do not lose.
Victory – or a washout – will secure them a Super Eight berth, which they famously failed to qualify for in 2024, at USA’s expense. Should Namibia spring a surprise, it will once more be USA that progress at Pakistan’s expense, and condemn them to a third straight first-round exit at a men’s ICC event.
Pakistan should comfortably have enough to overcome a Namibian side that is winless in Group A. But frayed nerves can play havoc should the Namibians find a way to turn this into a scrap. Against Netherlands in the tournament opener, Pakistan found themselves on the brink of defeat after a couple of wickets during a routine chase saw them dramatically lose their way.
But the loss against India, and the magnitude of the defeat, is likely to have shaken confidence. The one-dimensional bowling plans were clearly exposed by India, with Pakistan in possession of no credible seam option bar a struggling Shaheen Afridi. With the bat, the failure of the top order effectively killed off the game inside the first two overs.
There is likely to be a sweep of changes after the loss against India for Pakistan, with a tweak to their bowling combination that allows more pace. However, they will be aware they need to do a little more than was required of them against USA last week, when a clinical – if not overwhelming – performance proved too much for the Americans.
Namibia do not possess anywhere near the same quality, but, already eliminated, they go into the game with a level of freedom Pakistan do not possess. Their strength lies at the top of the batting order, where they caused discomfort to both the USA and the Netherlands, though not for long enough to convert it into points. They will need to play the perfect game, and for long enough, to cause the upset of the tournament and do their fellow Associates a big favour.
Saim Ayub has established his all-round T20 credentials, but as yet, a standout innings with the bat at an T20 World Cup remains elusive. He came into this tournament in imperious form, but three matches in Sri Lanka have seen him restricted to cameos at best, with 49 runs in three innings. That built on from the 2024 World Cup, where he couldn’t kick on in the two games he played. It has amounted to a T20 World Cup average of 14.40 at a strike rate just above 18, both well below his overall career numbers. Against Namibia, Pakistan may require him to settle nerves, whether it’s with a blistering start that bats the opposition out of the game, or breaks the back of a target. It is, after all, what Pakistan’s continued participation in the tournament could come down to.
Louren Steenkamp may be relatively new to the Namibian side, but he is already among their most explosive run-scorers. With a strike rate of just under 133, only Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton has scored at a higher rate through his Namibian career. A failure against Netherlands, he has taken charge of the Namibian innings, facing the first ball and getting them off to flyers against both India and the USA. He was particularly tough on Arshdeep Singh, taking 22 runs off nine balls against him, and following up with 58 off 39 against USA. Namibia will need him to bat through the powerplay, and possibly longer, against a Pakistan attack short on confidence, piling pressure on them in a game where the stakes are already high.
Pakistan are expected to ring in the changes after a widely panned performance against India. At least three are certain to happen, with quick bowlers Naseem Shah and Salman Mirza set to come in, while one, or even both, of Fakhar Zaman and Khawaja Nafay being called up for their first games this tournament would not be a surprise. Shaheen looks certain to drop to the bench, with Babar Azam similarly precarious.
Pakistan: Sahibzada Farhan (wk), Saim Ayub, Salman Agha (capt), Babar Azam/Khawaja Nafay, Shadab Khan/Fakhar Zaman, Usman Khan (wk), Mohammad Nawaz, Salman Mirza, Naseem Shah, Usman Tariq, Abrar Ahmed
Namibia made a couple of changes to their side for the game against USA, and may make one more here. Fast bowler Max Heingo has endured a difficult start, bowling four wicketless overs across three matches and conceding 52. Jack Brassell is the obvious replacement.
Namibia: Jan Frylinck, Louren Steenkamp, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Gerhard Erasmus (capt), JJ Smit, 6 Zane Green (wk), Dylan Leicher, Ruben Trumpelmann, Willem Myburgh, Bernard Scholtz, Jack Brassell
[Cricinfo]
Donald Trump has stressed that any deal with Iran must result in the country’s “unconditional surrender”, setting maximalist war objectives for the United States.
The US president’s remarks on his Truth Social platform on Friday appear to reject the prospect of a compromise amid Iranian confirmation of diplomatic mediation to end the conflict.
“There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” Trump wrote.
“After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before.”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had said earlier that some countries are engaging in mediation efforts to end the war, emphasising that Iran is committed to peace in the region but prepared to defend itself.
“Mediation should address those who underestimated the Iranian people and ignited this conflict,” Pezeshkian said in a social media statement.
The conflict has spread across the Middle East, igniting Iranian attacks across the Gulf and a war between Hezbollah and Israel, resulting in a mass displacement crisis in Lebanon.
Iran has been launching missiles and drones at Israel and US interests and assets across the region. Iranian forces have also targeted energy and civilian infrastructure in Gulf countries, straining ties with the Arab world.
The violence, which saw Iran largely succeed in closing down the Strait of Hormuz, has sent oil prices soaring globally.
Iranian officials have expressed defiance since the start of the war, stressing that they are ready for a long conflict and prepared to fend off a US ground invasion should it occur.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a message to Trump on Thursday that the US plan for a “clean rapid military victory failed”.
“Your Plan B will be even a bigger failure,” Araghchi wrote on X.
On Friday, Iran’s top diplomat posted a photo of the coffins of a mother and child, the apparent victims of US-Israeli attacks. “Our Brave and Powerful Armed Forces will avenge each and every Iranian mother, father, and child who has been targeted by hostile forces,” Araghchi wrote.
The war has killed at least 1,332 people in Iran, among them 181 children, according to UNICEF.
The deadliest incident was a strike on a girls’ primary school in the southern city of Minab on the opening day of the conflict, which Iranian authorities said killed about 180 pupils and staff.
The Trump administration has pushed to project confidence and dominance over Iran, with top officials saying that the US would “rain missiles”, “death and destruction” on the country.
In recent days, Trump has repeatedly said that he would like to replicate the Venezuela playbook in Iran – keeping the governing system in place but installing a leader who is friendly to US interests.
On Wednesday, Trump said he has to be “involved” in choosing the successor of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated in a US-Israeli attack on Saturday.
Trump told CNN later on Thursday that the situation in Iran is going to work “easily” like it did in Venezuela when Delcy Rodigues replaced President Nicolas Maduro after he was abducted by US forces in January.
Rodriguez, who previously served as Maduro’s vice president, has allowed Washington to sell Venezuela’s oil and cut off petroleum supplies to Cuba under the threat of further US strikes.
Trump said he does not mind of the next leader of Iran is a religious figure.
“I’m saying there has to be a leader that’s going be fair and just. Do a great job. Treat the United States and Israel well, and treat the other countries in the Middle East — they’re all our partners,” he told CNN.
The supreme leader of Iran must be a Shia Muslim religious scholar.
Khamenei’s successor will be selected by an elected council of 88 members known as the Assembly of Experts.
[Aljazeera]
A tiny possum with one extra-long finger on each hand is one of two species thought to have been extinct that have been discovered in West Papua, in what’s been called an “exceptional” scientific discovery.
The other is a a ring-tailed glider with a tail that can grasp branches. Both have been found living in remote rainforests after they were thought to have disappeared 6,000 years ago.
Finding living examples of a lost species is rare, but discovering two is “remarkable,” say scientists who published their findings in the Records of the Australian Museum journal on Friday.
Such discoveries are known as “lazarus taxon”, a term inspired by a biblical figure who was raised from the dead.
“The discovery of one lazarus taxon… is an exceptional discovery,” said Prof Tim Flannery, a prominent Australian scientist best known for his 2005 The Weather Makers book about climate change.
“But the discovery of two species, thought to have been extinct for thousands of years, is remarkable.”
The first rediscovered species was the pygmy long-fingered possum, a striped marsupial weighing about 200g, which is understood to have vanished from Australia during the Ice Age.
A distinguishing feature is that on each hand, the possum’s fourth finger is twice the length of other digits, which scientists say help it dig out wood-boring insect larvae, it’s main source of food.
The second species is the ring-tailed glider, and just like its Australian cousin the greater glider, it lives in the hollows of tall trees.
The discoveries were made by piecing together parts of a puzzle with scientists combing through decades-old fossils, rare photos and old specimens to gather clues before making visits to remote New Guinea locations.
Flannery, along with another of the paper’s co-authors Prof Kris Helgen and researchers from the University of Papau, spoke to local elders from the Tambrauw and Maybrat clans – some of whom have only had contact with the modern world since the 1960s.
Identification of the species would not have been possible without their help, according to Rika Korain, a Maybrat woman and another co-author.
“They’re very traditional people,” Flannery added, and regard the glider as so sacred that “not only won’t they hunt it, they won’t mention its name”.
But the gliders habitat was increasingly coming under threat from logging in the area, Flannery said.
This, in part, has prompted efforts by scientists and wildlife groups to try secure native title for the forests to ensure logging cannot be carried out without consent from locals, he said.
(BBC)
The death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon this week has risen to at least 123 people, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health says, as a new wave of strikes pounded the country and Hezbollah warned Israeli residents to evacuate towns within 5km (3 miles) of their northern border, in one of the fiercest fronts in the wider United States – Israel war on Iran.
“The toll from the Israeli aggression on Monday, increased to 123 martyrs and 683 wounded,” a ministry statement said on Thursday.
Lebanese state media said early on Friday that Israel had launched air strikes on several towns in southern Lebanon.
“Enemy warplanes launched nighttime strikes on the towns of Srifa, Aita al-Shaab, Touline, as-Sawana and Majdal Selem,” the official National News Agency (NNA) reported.
Another strike hit the eastern Lebanese town of Douris at dawn, the NNA said.
The Israeli army also reported a new attack on the suburb of Dahiyeh in Beirut.
It has also continued attacks in southern Lebanon with raids on the area’s biggest city Sidon, according to sources on the ground.
NNA also reported Israeli warplanes over the southern towns of Tyre and Bint Jbeil.
(Aljazeera)
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