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WWC 2025: Bowlers, Haider propel Bangladesh to second win at World Cup

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7 months ago

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Bangladesh bowlers rattled Pakistan in their opening game [Cricinfo]

Bangladesh recorded their second ever win at a Women’s World Cup against the same opposition as their first – Pakistan.

In the first of 11 group games in Colombo, the two teams that came through the qualifiers fought a low-scoring battle, despite good batting conditions, as the attacks took centre stage.

The headlines belonged to Bangladesh’s bowlers. Sole seamer Marufa Akter set the tone with two wickets in the first over, before their five-pronged spin attack caused all sorts of problems for Pakistan. Bangladesh’s three leg spinners, Fahima Khatun, Rabeya Khan and Shorna Akter claimed six wickets between them with Shorna finishing with career-best figures of 3 for 5.

The result means Pakistan have only won one of their last 22 World Cup matches and three out of their 31 overall, and will be disappointed with the way they started this competition. After opting to bat first, only two Pakistan batters – Rameen Shamim and Fatima Sana – got past 20 and they had a highest partnership of 42. In contrast, Bangladesh’s debutant opener Rubya Haider batted through the innings and scored a half-century to back up their strong performance in the field.

A visibly more conditioned Marufa found swing immediately and success soon after. The penultimate ball of her first over pitched outside off and shaped back into Omaima Sohail, who stayed on the back foot, left a gap between bat and pad and was bowled. The final ball was even better, hooped in and took Sidra Amin’s inside-edge on its way to leg stump. That was Amin’s first golden duck in ODIs, and first since 2019. Left-handed Muneeba Ali faced Marufa’s hat-trick ball at the start of the next over, and it angled in and straightened on her but she was able to keep it out, only to be beaten next ball.

At the other end, the tournament’s youngest player, offspinner Nishita Akter took the other new ball. The first boundary came off her, when Muneeba clipped Nishita fine and then swept her away to deep backward-square. The sweep quickly became Pakistan’s go-to shot as they scored 20 of their first 45 runs with it.

Left-arm spinner Nahida Akter was introduced in the eighth over, with Muneeba and Shamim, batting at No.4 for the first time, starting to settle. Nahida removed both. Muneeba chased a wide Nahida delivery and cut it to Nishita at point, ending the third-wicket partnership at 42. In Nahida’s next over, she tossed it up to Shamim, who chipped it straight back for the simplest of return catches. Pakistan were 47 for 4 in the 14th over.

Aliya Riaz and Sidra Nawaz launched a mini counterattack when Aliya brought up the team’s fifty with a slash through backward point and Nawaz hit back-to-back boundaries off Fahima. But Nawaz’s stay at the crease was troubled. She was given out lbw to Fahima on 0 and reviewed. UltraEdge showed she had hit the ball. Three overs later, Nawaz was given not out off Rabeya Khan and Bangladesh reviewed a close call. Replays showed the ball close to both the bat and the pad as it spun back in and third umpire N Janani ruled it had hit the pad first. Nawaz was out for 15.

Sana came in at No.7 and hit the sixth ball she faced for four. She was the only batter to get Marufa to the boundary, when she creamed her through point. But Bangladesh soon applied the squeeze again. Pakistan scored six runs off the next 24 balls and pressure told: Aliya tried to hit Nishita over long-off but didn’t get enough on it and Marufa ran in from the rope to take a good catch. Sana didn’t last much longer. Two overs later, she played down the wrong line against Fahima, was hit on the front pad and given out. Sana reviewed immediately, thinking both bat and pad were close to the ball, but umpire Janani upheld the on-field decision.

Legspinner Shorna found bounce and turn and had Natalia Pervaiz caught behind in her first over. Pakistan were in danger of being bowled out inside 35 overs. They avoided that, but only just and still lost their ninth wicket in bizarre fashion. Nashra Sandhu left a full ball from Shorna and as her bat came down, she struck her own stumps to become only the second batter to be dismissed hit wicket in Women’s World Cups.

No runs were scored off Shorna’s first three overs before Diana Baig swept her for four but the fun was short lived. Sadia Iqbal holed out to mid-on halfway through the 39th over to end the innings with 69 balls remaining.

With a modest score to defend, Pakistan had to strike a balance between taking wickets and keeping Bangladesh quiet – Sana and Baig got it right early on. They found movement and teased the edge and Bangladesh had only scored seven runs off the first 22 balls of their reply. And then Baig struck. She beat Fargana Hoque with a ball that seamed in and hit her on the knee roll. Pakistan reviewed and Ultra Edge confirmed there was no bat and the ball would have hit legstump. Baig delivered a five-over spell upfront, through the powerplay, with an analysis of 5-3-2-1.

Pakistan went for double spin after the fielding restrictions were lifted and offspinner Shamim got the next wicket. She had Sharmin Akter out lbw as she was hit on the back pad.

Bangladesh captain Nigar Sultana took ten balls to get off the mark but when she did, it was in some style. She advanced down the pitch to turn a Sadia Iqbal delivery into a half-volley and hit it down the ground for four. The tension was broken in the next over when Shamim’s first ball beat everyone for four byes and then Sultana swept and reverse swept her way to two more fours.

Haider then got in on the action. She cleared the front leg to hit Shamim wide of mid-on for four, and then took on Sandhu, in an over that cost 14 runs. Haider swung Sandhu over mid-on, carved her through backward point and then charged down the pitch to hit her over mid-off. Sana brought Baig back on and Haider sent her over mid-on too as Bangladesh took control.

Pakistan kept fighting as Baig and Sana tried their best to remove Haider and Sultana. Sana thought she had found Haider’s outside edge and had her caught behind and sent it upstairs but the ball hit her thigh pad on the way through. Soon Baig thought she had Sultana lbw and called for a review but ball tracking showed it was sliding down leg. Eventually, the Pakistan pair combined when Sultana tried to short-arm jab Sana through short mid-wicket but bottom-ended to Baig.

Haider reached fifty off her 64th ball when she sent Ramim between point and cover for four. Bangladesh needed 29 runs from the last 24 overs and got there with 113 balls to spare.

Brief scores:
Bangladesh Women130 for 3 in 31.1 overs (Rubya Haider 54*, Nigar Sultana 23, Sobhana Mostray 24*; Fatima Sana 1-30, Diana Baig 1-14, Rameen Shamim 1-23) beat  Pakistan Women  129 in 38.3 overs  (Rameen Shamim 23, Fatima Sana 22; Shorna Akter  3-05, Nahida Akter 2-19, Marufa Akter 2-31)  by six wickets

[Cricinfo]


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Advisory for Severe Lightning issued For Western, Sabaragamuwa and North-western province

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4 hours ago

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2026/04/25

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Advisory for Severe Lightning
Issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre
Issued at 12.00 noon 25 April 2026 valid for the period until 11.30 p.m. 25 April 2026

Thundershowers accompanied with severe lightning are likely to occur in the  Western, Sabaragamuwa and North-western provinces and Galle, Matara, Kandy and Nuwara-Eliya
districts after 1.00 p.m.

There may be temporary localized strong winds during thundershowers. General public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimize damages caused by lightning
activity.

ACTION REQUIRED:
The Department of Meteorology advises that
people should:
• Seek shelter, preferably indoors and never under trees.
• Avoid open areas such as paddy fields, tea plantations and open water bodies during thunderstorms.
• Avoid using wired telephones and connected electric appliances during thunderstorms.
• Avoid using open vehicles, such as bicycles, tractors and boats etc.
• Beware of fallen trees and power lines.
• For emergency assistance contact the local disaster management authorities.

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Kohli, Padikkal hit fifties as Royal Challengers Bengaluru ace the chase against Gujarat Titans

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11 hours ago

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2026/04/25

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Virat Kohli hit eight fours, to go with four sixes [Cricinfo]

An exhibition of clean hitting by Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal ensured Sai Sudarshan’s measured 100 off 58 balls ended in a losing cause as Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) beat Gujarat Titans (GT) by five wickets at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

After winning the toss, RCB captain Rajat Patidar had no hesitation in putting GT in. Sudharsan laid a strong foundation on a pitch he described as “two-paced and sticky to start with”. But even when the surface became easier to bat on, GT could not get into overdrive. They scored only 35 in the last four overs and finished on 205 for 3.

In response, Kohli, who was dropped on zero, smashed 81 off 44 balls and Padikkal blasted 55 off just 27. They put on 115 in 9.5 overs for the second wicket, and despite a bit of wobble towards the end, RCB romped home with seven balls to spare.

The GT openers prefer to take as few risks as possible and it was no different on Friday. Sudharsan was circumspect at the start and was on 17 off 16 after three overs. But he found his timing after that and moved to 41 off 27 by the end of the fifth. Gill had faced just three balls till then. GT finished the powerplay on 57 for no loss.

Sudharsan went inventive after the powerplay, scooping Romario Shepherd for a six. When Krunal Pandya bowled a bouncer, he uppercut him over deep third. Later in the over, he slog-swept the spinner for another six, reaching 2000 runs in the IPL. Taking 47 innings, he was the fastest to get there, bettering Chris Gayle’s record by one.

He and Gill added 128 in 12.4 overs, with Gill contributing 32 off 24 balls. The GT captain was starved of strike throughout his stay and holed out to long-on off Suyash Sharma. Sudharsan brought up his hundred off 57 balls, the slowest of the six so far this season. There was no cutting loose after reaching the milestone either. He was out on the very next ball he faced.

GT were 170 for 2 after 16 overs but Suyash, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Hazlewood gave away only 17 in the next three. At 187 for 3, Rasikh Salam ran in to bowl the final over but he stopped even before he could bowl a delivery. It looked like cramps and despite the physio working on him, he had to walk off the field. Krunal replaced him and was hit for a six by Jason Holder off the first ball. After another ball, Krunal too pulled out of his delivery stride holding his groin. But after a bit of medical attention, he completed the over, but ended up leaking 18 runs.

With Phil Salt injured, Jacob Bethell finally got a chance to play this season. Opening the innings after coming in as Impact Player, he had a close shave in the second over. He got an inside edge to a length ball from Kagiso Rabada but it missed the stumps and beat Buttler for four. In the next over, he shuffled across and hit Mohammed Siraj for a four on either side of the wicket. But when he tried the same trick later in the over, he hit it straight to the backward point. He made 14 off ten.

Kohli was dropped off the first ball he faced. It was a length delivery from Siraj that he flicked uppishly towards short midwicket but Washington Sundar grassed a regulation chance. Kohli made his intentions clear in the following over when he hit Rabada over mid-on for a four.

Padikkal was even more ruthless. He opened his account with a first-ball six, picking up a 153.6kph length ball from Rabada over square leg. The GT bowlers didn’t help themselves by bowling onto his pads, and he kept flicking them fine for boundaries.

Rashid Khan wasn’t spared either. He dropped one short to Kohli and the batter duly pulled it over deep midwicket for a six before cutting the following delivery for four. In the spinner’s second over, Padikkal hit him for two sixes, the second one taking him to his fifty off just 20 balls. It made Kohli’s 30-ball fifty look pedestrian.

Rashid bowled Padikkal with a googly from around the wicket, and Kohli played Holder on but not before hitting the allrounder for back-to-back sixes.

Rajat Patidar and Jitesh Sharma kept the attack going. They hit a six each off Rashid but fell in quick succession. Suddenly, RCB were five down with 31 required from four overs. Krunal, though, bashed Manav Suthar for two fours and a six in the 18th over, bringing the equation down to seven needed from 12. In the penultimate over, he swatted Holder through midwicket for four before wrapping up the game with a gentle pull to fine leg.

Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 206 for 5 in 18.5 overs (Jacob Bethell 14, Virat Kohli 81, Devdutt Padikkal 55, Jitesh Sharma 10, Tim David 10*, Krunal Pandya 23*; Mohammed Siraj 1-25, Jason Holder 1-35, Rashid Khan 2-49, Manav  Suther 1-19) beat Gujarat Titans 205 for 3 in 20 overs (Sai Sudharsan 100, Shubman Gill 32, Jos Buttler 25, Washington Sundar 19*,Jason Holder 23*; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 1-31, Josh Hazelwood 40, Suyash Sharma 1-36) by five wickets

[Cricinfo]

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Heat Index at Caution Level in the Northern, North-central, North-western, Western, Sabaragamuwa and  Eastern provinces during the day time

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12 hours ago

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2026/04/25

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Warm Weather Advisory
Issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre
Issued at 3.30 p.m. on 24 April 2026, valid for 25 April 2026.

Heat index, the temperature felt on human body is likely to increase up to ‘Caution level’ at some places in Northern, North-central, North-western, Western, Sabaragamuwa and
Eastern provinces during the day time.

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 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.

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