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Sadeera, Matheesha and Asalanka star in big win

Rex Clementine at Pallekele
There were doubts about how Sri Lanka’s depleted bowling attack will go about things in the Asia Cup, but the backup bowlers came up with a splendid performance in their opening encounter yesterday at Pallekele helping Sri Lanka to a seven wicket win over Bangladesh.
Hometown boy Matheesha Pathirana was sensational finishing with four wickets providing early breakthroughs and then coming back for a last spell to destroy the tail as Bangladesh were bowled out for 164 runs with five overs to spare.
Sadeera Samarawickrama then smashed a half-century to help Sri Lanka to a comfortable win with 11 overs to spare. He was joined by Charith Asalanka, who posted an unbeaten 62.
Sri Lanka lost the top three wickets for 43 runs but Sadeera along with Asalanka added 78 runs for the fourth wicket to see Sri Lanka through without any alarms.
It was Sadeera’s fourth half-century in ODIs. He was stumped for 54 but by that stage, the job was nearly done. Asalanka completed his ninth ODI fifty.
Pathirana claimed the big wicket of Shakib-al-Hasan, who was well caught by Kusal Mendis for five. He then had the dangerman Mushfiqur Rahim for 13 in his second spell. The former captain cut one uppishly, but the pace was too much and was caught at third man boundary.
The tail had no clue when Pathirana came for one last spell with both Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman falling for ducks.
Shanaka held back Pathirana without going on the attack all out and perhaps had he used him earlier, Bangladesh would have folded early.
Things would have looked even worse for Bangladesh had Sri Lanka held on to their chances.
Matheesha was well backed up by Maheesh Theekshana, who picked up a wicket in his first over and ended with two for 19.
Opposition batters had no clue against Theekshana unable to pick his variations. Even the set Najmul Shanto, who top scored with 89 never looked comfortable against him and was eventually cleaned up triggering a sensational lower order collapse.
Shanto had been dropped on two by skipper Dasun Shanaka off the unlucky Kasun Rajitha, who bowled so well but failed to pick up a wicket. He was also lucky to survive on 64 as the umpire turned down a caught behind appeal off Pathirana. Sri Lanka had exhausted their reviews.
Sri Lanka’s fielding apart from the odd flaw looked sharp and a lot of effort seemed to have gone into this aspect, an area that has been pretty ordinary in the recent past.
Scorecard:
Bangladesh innings
Mohammad Naim c Nissanka b de Silva 16
Tanzid Hasan lbw b Theekshana 0
Najmul Shanto b Theekshana 89
Shakib-al-Hasan c Mendis b Pathirana 5
Towhid Hridoy lbw b Shanaka 20
Mushfiqur Rahim c Karunaratne b Pathirana 13
Mehidy Miraz run out 5
Mahedi Hasan lbw b Wellalage 6
Taskin Ahmed c Theekshana b Pathirana 0
Shoriful Islam not out 2
Mustafizur Rahman lbw b Pathirana 0
Extras: (lb 3m w 4, nb 1) 8
Total: (all out) 164
Overs: 44.5
Fall of wickets: 1-4 (Hasan), 2-25 (Naim), 3-36 (Shakib), 4-95 (Hridoy), 5-127 (Mushfiqur), 6-141 (Miraz), 7-162 (Mahedi), 8-162 (Shanto), 9-164 (Taskin), 10-164 (Rahman).
Bowling: Kasun Rajitha 7-0-29-0 (w 1), Maheesh Theekshana 8-1-19-2, Dhananjaya de Silva 10-0-35-1, Matheesha Pathirana 7.4-0-32-4 (w 3), Wellalage 7-0-30-1 (nb 1), Shanaka 3-1-16-1.
Sri Lanka innings
Pathum Nissanka c Mushfiqur b Shoriful 14
Dimuth Karunaratne b Taskin 1
Kusal Mendis b Shakib 5
Sadeera Samarawickrama st Mushfiqur b Hasan 54
Charith Asalanka not out 62
Dhananjaya de Silva b Shakib 2
Dasun Shanaka not out 14
Extras: (b 2, lb 4, w 7) 13
Total: (for five wickets) 165
Overs: 39
Fall of wickets: 1-13 (Karunaratne), 2-15 (Nissanka), 3-43 (Mendis), 5-121 (Samarawickrama).
Did not bat: Dunith Wellalage, Maheesh Theekshana, Kasun Rajitha and Matheesha Pathirana.
Bowling: Taskin Ahmed 7-1-34-1 (w 3), Shoriful Islam 4-0-23-1 (w 2), Shakib-al-Hasan 10-2-29-2 (w 1), Mustafizur Rahman 3-0-12-0 (w 1), Mehidy Miraz 5-0-26-0, Mahedi Hasan 10-0-35-1.
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Pope Francis leaves hospital after five weeks of treatment

Pope Francis has arrived home at the Vatican after leaving the Gemelli University Hospital in Rome, shortly after making his first public appearance following a five-week hospitalisation for a life-threatening bout of pneumonia.
The 88-year-old, who was admitted on February 14 after a bout of bronchitis worsened, greeted his well-wishers on Sunday from a balcony of Gemelli hospital before his discharge.
Using a wheelchair, as he has for several years, the pope smiled, waved, and made a sign of a thumbs up at a group of well-wishers gathered outside below.
The pope, whose face looked swollen, appeared only for a few moments.
Pope Francis spoke briefly, with a feeble voice, to thank an elderly woman among the crowd below who had brought yellow flowers.
A car carrying the pope left the hospital shortly after noon and was accompanied through Rome by a convoy of police vehicles.

As he was being discharged, the Vatican released the pope’s Angelus prayer calling for an “immediate” end to Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, and for the resumption of dialogue for the release of captives and a “definitive ceasefire”.
“I am saddened by the resumption of the intense Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, with so many deaths and injuries,” Francis wrote.
“I ask that the weapons be silenced immediately and that the courage be found to resume dialogue so that all the hostages can be freed and a definitive ceasefire reached,” said Francis, who was set to return to the Vatican on Sunday.
“The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is once again very serious and requires the urgent commitment of the conflicting parties and the international community,” he added.
Pope Francis had only been seen by the public once before during his hospital stay, in a photo the Vatican released last week, showing the pontiff at prayer in a hospital chapel.
In the moments before the pontiff’s appearance on Sunday, the crowd of hundreds of well-wishers called out for the pope, chanting “Francis, Francis, Francis”.
On Saturday, one of the doctors treating him said the head of the Roman Catholic Church would be discharged from hospital on Sunday and would need two months of rest at the Vatican.
[Aljazeera]
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Kishan’s 106* ensures Sunrisers Hydarabad ease to 44 run win

In IPL 2024, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) took batting to dizzying heights. With Ishan Krishan’s addition to an already power-packed line-up, everyone wondered if they might be the first team to hit 300 in the IPL. In their opening fixture of IPL 2025, they seriously threatened to get there, thanks to Kishan’s 45-ball hundred on franchise debut and Travishek’s opening salvo. They eventually fell 14 short of 300, and just one short of the IPL record they had set last season, but it was another emphatic statement of their high intent and power.
Kishan is an upgrade over their previous No. 3 Rahul Tripathi. He seamlessly slotted into SRH’s line-up, clattering an unbeaten 106 off 47 balls, his first IPL ton. After Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma had helped SRH take 94 in the first six overs, the fifth-highest powerplay total, Kishan launched from there.
Rajasthan Royals (RR) made a decent fist of the chase, with Sanju Samson and Dhruy Jurel matching the intent and power of SRH’s batters with half-centuries. Late blows from Shimron Hetmyer, the only overseas batter in RR’s squad, contributed to a match aggregate of 528, the second highest in the IPL, but such a mammoth target was always going to unchaseable.
Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 286 for 6 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 24, Ishan Kishan 106*, Travis Head 67, Nitish Kumar Reddy 30, Heinrich Klassen 34; Maheesh Theekshana 2-52, Sandeep Sharma 1-51, Tushar Deshpande 3-44) beat Rajasthan Royals 242 for 6 in 20 overs (Dhruv Jurel 70, Sanju Samson 66, Nitish Rana 11, Shimron Heytmeyer 42, Shubnam Dubey 34*; Mohammed Shami 1-33, Simarjeet Singh 2-46, Adam Zampa 1-48, Harshal Patel 2-34) by 44 runs
[Cricinfo]
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Israeli air strike kills top Hamas official in Gaza

An Israeli air strike on the southern city of Khan Younis in Gaza has killed top Hamas political leader Salah al-Bardaweel, a Hamas official has told the BBC.
Locals say the air strike killed both Bardaweel, regarded as Hamas’s highest-ranking political leader, and his wife. Israeli officials had no immediate comment.
The total death toll in Gaza since the war began surpassed 50,000 on Sunday, its Hamas-run health authorities said, with least 30 people killed in Khan Yunis and Rafah so far on Sunday.
Israel resumed heavy strikes on Gaza earlier this week – in effect ending the first phase of a ceasefire that lasted almost two months. It blamed Hamas for rejecting a new US proposal to extend the truce.
Hamas, in turn, accused Israel of abandoning the original deal – mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the US. It envisaged the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the subsequent release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners – in addition to negotiations to end the war entirely and reconstruct Gaza.
In a statement on Sunday, Hamas said Bardaweel, 66, had been praying along with his wife when an Israeli missile struck their tent.
A father of eight, Bardaweel was one of Hamas’s most prominent political figures.
Born in Khan Younis refugee camp, he was known to be close to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and is considered part of the second generation of Hamas leadership, following the movement’s founders.
He headed the political wing of Hamas’s parliamentary bloc and was re-elected to the group’s political bureau in 2021.
Following the killing of Sinwar and Rawhi Mushtaha during the ongoing war, Bardaweel was regarded as Hamas’s highest-ranking political leader.
The air strike that killed Bardaweel was part of one of the most intense waves of aerial bombardment in southern Gaza since the collapse of the ceasefire agreement last Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society told the BBC that Israeli forces were surrounding several of the organisation’s ambulances as they attempted to reach an area hit by an Israeli strike in Rafah.
He added that several paramedics were wounded, and contact had been lost with one of the trapped teams, which has been besieged for hours.

The Israeli military issued evacuation orders for residents of the Tel al-Sultan neighbourhood in western Rafah after the area was hit by heavy shelling and a limited ground assault.
The attack included tank fire from Israeli forces positioned along the Philadelphi Corridor on the border with Egypt, and helicopters also took part in the assault.
Alaa al-Din Sabah, a resident of the neighbourhood, said in a voice message to the BBC: “Bullets are raining down on us like it’s pouring. A woman was shot and is bleeding. Ambulances couldn’t reach her. I can see one of the paramedics lying on the ground, screaming.”
The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
More than 49,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since then, the Hamas-run health ministry says, and there is large-scale destruction to homes and infrastructure in the Strip.
[BBC]
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