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Reddy, Patil and Harmanpreet help India overcome Pakistan
India’s net run rate (NRR) ahead of the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 game against Pakistan was -2.90. They had to win and win big against Pakistan for that to become positive and move up in the points table. On a hot afternoon in Dubai, though, India achieved only one of those tasks – beating Pakistan by six wickets to earn two points and open the account with a sluggish chase.
The win was set up by Arudhati Reddy and Shreyanka Patil who combined for five of the eight wickets Pakistan lost. Pakistan huffed and puffed to 105 on the back of Nida Dar’s 28. But on a slow, spin-friendly surface, Pakistan also used their spinners well and denied India the launchpad: they eventually got home in the 19th over with only five fours hit – three by Shafali Verma and one each by Harmanpreet Kaur and S Sajana, playing for the injured Pooja Vastrakar. Back at her familiar No. 4 spot after being promoted to one-down in the opening game, Harmanpreet was the only India batter with a strike rate over 100, in the top six.
On the eve of the contest, Pakistan captain Fatima Sana spoke about using the power game to hit hard at their rivals. The openers tried to use their feet in a bid to walk the talk after Pakistan opted to bat. Gull Feroza tried to use her feet to counter Renuka Singh’s swing but was undone in the opening over. Muneeba Ali also used the crease so much that the runs hardly justify those. She used even the slightest of width to go over the in-field, like she did twice against Renuka inside the powerplay.
In the absence of Vastrakar, who was out with a niggle, Reddy had to shoulder additional seam-bowling responsibility and was brought on in the fourth over of the game. Immediately she induced a false stroke, with Sidra Amin chipping one towards mid-off. In her next over, Reddy delivered the perfect blow, getting Muneeba to scoop one straight to short fine leg only for S Asha to grass a sitter. A couple of balls later, though, Reddy struck by having Omaima Sohail miscue one to mid-off.
A few quiet overs saw Muneeba being stifled, and Patil pounced on the chance to get among the wickets. Anticipating a charge from the Pakistan opener, she threw one wider outside off, past which Muneeba walked and Richa Ghosh did the rest. Dar found it slightly tough to keep the scorecard ticking on her own and losing partners regularly did not help.
Reddy first trapped Aliya Riaz in front – the DRS not coming to the Pakistan allrounder’s aid after Hawk-Eye showed it to be clipping leg – before Patil dismissed Tuba Hassan for a three-ball duck. Sana showed a bit of intent and struck successive fours off Asha but fell to a terrific catch by Ghosh. She looked to slog the legspinner out of the ground but Ghosh dived to her right to pluck a one-handed stunner. Reddy then bowled Dar to pick up her third.
For India to get their NRR in the positive, they had to overhaul the 106-run target in 11.2 overs. However, India endured a boundary-less powerplay, with Shafali and Smriti Mandhana struggling to put away spin. Mandhana hit some crisp strokes but found the fielders in nine of the ten balls leading to her dismissal. In a bid to break free, she chipped one tamely to backward point.
On cue, Sana kept spin on for 13 of the first 15 overs. They frustrated Shafali with lack of speed, as a result of which, she missed putting some of the juicy full tosses away. India ended their boundary drought in the eighth over when Shafali welcomed Tuba with a pull through midwicket. She hit a couple of more fours before holing out to long-on.
At the other end, Jemimah Rodrigues – batting at No. 3 ahead of Harmanpreet – kept manoeuvring the field and helping India inch closer. However, boundaries were hard to come by and, when India lost her and Ghosh off successive balls, it seemed Pakistan could do the unthinkable. Harmanpreet then almost saw India home in the company of Deepti Sharma. However, she sprained her neck while turning awkwardly to avoid being stumped and walked back retired hurt. Sajana then came out to hit the winning four that helped India maintain their upper hand over Pakistan in women’s T20Is.
Brief scores:
India Women 108 for 4 in 18.5 overs (Shafali Verma 32, Harmanpreet Kaur 29*, Jemima Rodrigues 23; Fatima Sana 2-23, Sadia Iqbal 1-23, Omaima Sohail 1-17) beat Pakistan Women 105 for 8 in 20 overs (Nida Dar 28; Renuka Singh 1-23, Deepti Sharma 1-24, Arundhati Reddy 3-19, Shreyanka Patil 2-12, Asha Sobhana 1-24) by six wickets
[Cricinfo]
Foreign News
South Korean president sorry for controversies surrounding wife
South Korea’s president has apologised for a string of controversies surrounding his wife that included allegedly accepting a luxury Dior handbag and stock manipulation.
Addressing the nation on television, Yoon Suk Yeol said his wife, Kim Keon Hee, should have conducted herself better, but her portrayal had been excessively “demonised”, adding that some of the claims against her were “exaggerated”.
The president said he would set up an office to oversee the first lady’s official duties, but rejected a call for an investigation into her activities.
Yoon’s apology came as he tries to reverse a dip in his popularity among the South Korean public, linked to the controversies surrounding his wife.
Late in 2023, left-wing YouTube channel Voice of Seoul published a video that purportedly showed Kim accepting a 3m won ($2,200; £1,800) Dior bag from a pastor, who filmed the exchange in September 2022 using a camera concealed in his watch.
In February, Yoon said that the footage was leaked as a political maneuver and did not apologise.
South Korea’s Democratic Party, the opposition to Yoon’s conservative People Power Party, at the time labelled the president’s “shameless attitude” as “hopeless”.
The scandal also caused rifts within Yoon’s party, with one leader comparing Ms Kim with Marie Antoinette, the queen of France notorious for her extravagant lifestyle.
The opposition party has also long accused the first lady of being involved in stock price manipulation. Earlier in the year, Yoon vetoed a bill calling for his wife to be investigated over those allegations.
[BBC]
Latest News
Biden promises ‘peaceful transfer of power’ amid Democratic blame game
US President Joe Biden has vowed to ensure a “peaceful and orderly transition” to his Republican predecessor and now successor, Donald Trump.
“We accept the choice the country made,” the Democrat said, repeating that he believes “you can’t love your country only when you win”.
Biden also saluted Vice-President Kamala Harris as “a partner and a public servant” who ran an “inspiring” campaign after he dropped out.
His first public remarks after Tuesday’s election, in the White House’s Rose Garden, came as Democrats in Washington began seeking someone to blame for Harris’s large loss to Trump.
Much of the blame is being laid on Biden, with some saying that he should have dropped out of the race sooner and others that the 81-year-old should never have run for a second term at all.
The incumbent sought to balance a conciliatory tone with a message of reassurance, after a bleak campaign season where Harris frequently said that a Trump victory would threaten democracy and Trump often described the US as a “nation in decline” and a “failed nation”.
American democracy is “the greatest experiment in self-government in the world” and “the will of the people always prevails”, Biden said.
“We lost this battle,” he said. “The America of your dreams is calling for you to get back.”
In the comments before a crowd of White House staff and top members of his administration, Biden took on an issue that may have cost Harris the White House: the economy.
Voters in the swing states that decided the election listed the economy as a top issue driving them to the polls, and Trump in his rallies cast Biden as directly responsible for inflation spiking to a 40-year high in June 2022.
While Harris pointed to the steep recession when Trump was in office and significant improvements in inflation, she could not win over Trump voters who said they felt better about the economy during his first term.
But Biden said supporters should be proud of his “historic” term that had left behind “the strongest economy in the world” and “over $1tn worth of infrastructure work done”.
“I know people are still hurting, but things are changing rapidly,” he said.
Promising to work with Trump’s transition team without delay, Biden said it was time to “bring down the temperature” in the country.
“I also hope we can lay to rest the question about the integrity of the American electoral system,” he said, a a nod to the president-elect’s unproven allegations of fraud after his defeat in 2020, which led many to riot on 6 January 2021.
“It is honest, it is fair, it is transparent and it can be trusted, win or lose.”
Biden was the first incumbent to not compete for re-election since Lyndon Johnson in 1968.
His approval rating as president has been in negative territory for more than three years – since his administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. On top of that, a majority of voters, including most Democrats, have expressed concerns over his advanced age in a steady stream of polls.
But the Democrat launched his re-election bid in April 2023 with a promise to “finish the job”.
Typically, political parties do not follow a strenuous primary process when they control the White House and Biden did not have to face campaigns from serious rivals or debates to become the 2024 Democratic nominee. More than 14 million Americans voted for him during the Democratic primaries.
Then, in June 2024, Biden frequently lost his train of thought and meandered through several responses in a debate with Trump watched by millions on live television.
A month later, after a public push from Democratic heavyweights, he withdrew his candidacy and endorsed his vice-president. The election was a little more than three months away.
Democrats are trying to make sense of how they could win in 2020 and then lose four years later to the same opponent. Biden is not the only person being put at fault.
Some are saying Harris was a weak candidate who struggled with media appearances. Others say her campaign was heavy on celebrity involvement but light on policy substance.
One-time Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and others have suggested Harris erred in picking Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, an older progressive, as her running mate instead of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a more youthful, Jewish-American moderate.
Independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who ran for president as a Democrat in 2016 and 2020, blasted the party itself, putting out a lengthy statement that accused it of abandoning working people.
“While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change,” he wrote. “And they’re right.”
But Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison responded on X that the accusation was “straight up BS”, saying Biden was “the most-pro worker President of my life time”.
Ritchie Torres, a moderate New York congressman, blamed “the far left, which has managed to alienate historic numbers of Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and Jews from the Democratic Party with absurdities like ‘Defund the Police’ or ‘From the River to the Sea’ or ‘Latinx’”.
[BBC]
Latest News
Kanpur outfield earns ‘unsatisfactory’ rating and demerit point
The outfield at Green Park Stadium in Kanpur, which hosted the rain affected second Test between India and Bangladesh from September 27 to October 1, has earned an “unsatisfactory” rating from the ICC. The rating comes with one demerit point for the venue.
Only 35 overs of play were possible on day one of the Test match, and there was no play possible on days two and three – this was despite no rain falling during the scheduled playing hours on day three. In the lead-up to the Test match, the state’s public works department had deemed one of Greek Park’s stands unsafe, and had instructed the stadium authorities to open up only a limited number of its upper-level seats to spectators.
The Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) uses the Green Park Stadium on the basis of an MoU it has signed with the UP government. The government owns the land but as per the MoU, the stadium and its upkeep are the responsibility of the UPCA.
BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla, who hails from Kanpur, defended the venue after it came in for widespread criticism following the washout of day three but conceded that the ground, which has hosted Test cricket since 1952, was in need of refurbishment.
After more than two-and-a-half days of the Test match were washed out, India put in a concerted effort to force a victory, picking up 20 Bangladesh wickets in the space of 121.2 overs, and scoring 383 runs in just 52 overs across two innings, at an unprecedented 7.36 runs per over.
The pitch for this Test match, meanwhile, earned a “satisfactory” rating.
The ICC rates pitches and outfields for all international games on a scale of very good to unfit: very good, satisfactory, unsatisfactory and unfit. One demerit point is awarded to venues for an unsatisfactory rating, and three for an unfit rating. If any ground receives five or more demerit points in a five-year rolling period, it is suspended from hosting any international cricket for 12 months.
The rest of the venues that hosted India’s 2024-25 international season did not come in for any censure from the ICC. Of the pitches on which India played their five Tests, four – including all three that hosted the recently concluded series against New Zealand, in Bengaluru, Pune and Mumbai – earned “satisfactory” ratings, while the surface at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium, which hosted the first Test against Bangladesh, earned a “very good” tag.
[Cricinfo]
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