India opening batsman Shubman Gill joined a select club of ODI double centurions as he decimated New Zealand's bowling attack in the first match of the series in Hyderabad, to set up what was ultimately a hard-fought 12-run win for his team.
Gill batted almost the entire innings on Wednesday and smashed 208 from 149 balls to become the fifth Indian and eighth overall to score a double century in 50-over cricket.
His imperious knock helped India score 349-8 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. Gill hit 19 fours and an incredible nine sixes during his innings, with the next best effort by an Indian batsman being just 34 by captain Rohit Sharma.
India seemed to be coasting towards a comprehensive win when they reduced New Zealand to 131-6 with a little more than 20 overs to go. But all-rounder Michael Bracewell launched a breathtaking counter attack as he smashed 140 from just 78 balls to take his team close to victory before he became the last man out in the final over.
Bracewell and fellow spinner Mitchell Santner (57) put together 162 runs for the seventh wicket to almost pull off a stunning win. Fast bowler Mohammad Siraj (4-46) and wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav (2-43) were the pick of the bowlers as the rest of the attack, especially the pace bowlers, lost the plot under pressure.
New Zealand needed 20 from the last over, bowled by Shardul Thakur. Bracewell hit the first ball for six before he was trapped lbw off a yorker from the third ball to end a valiant effort. New Zealand were bowled out for 337.
However, the day belonged to Gill.
The 23-year-old opening batsman was gifted a life twice in one ball when on 45 and he made the Kiwis pay for their mistake. Off-spinner Bracewell deceived him in the flight to induce an edge. Not only did wicketkeeper and captain Tom Latham miss the edge, he also fumbled the clear stumping chance.
From there, Gill pressed his foot on the gas. He timed his acceleration perfectly by smashing five sixes in the last three overs to reach his double ton and set a target of 350.
The other batsmen, however, did not contribute much. In-form star batsman Virat Kohli fell cheaply to Santner's left-arm spin after scoring eight runs, getting clean bowled while defending.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan scored only five runs before he fell to Lockie Ferguson's pace in a mini middle-order collapse for the hosts.
Santner, who took 1-56 runs in his 10 overs, and Daryl Mitchell, with 2-30 runs in his five overs, were the standout bowlers for New Zealand.
If India win the series 3-0, they will become the top-ranked team in ODI cricket, which will set them on the right track towards the 50-over World Cup at home later in the year.
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Transmission: Continuously variable tranmission
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Europa League final
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The biog
Family: wife, four children, 11 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren
Reads: Newspapers, historical, religious books and biographies
Education: High school in Thatta, a city now in Pakistan
Regrets: Not completing college in Karachi when universities were shut down following protests by freedom fighters for the British to quit India
Happiness: Work on creative ideas, you will also need ideals to make people happy
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Specs
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In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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THE BIO: Martin Van Almsick
Hometown: Cologne, Germany
Family: Wife Hanan Ahmed and their three children, Marrah (23), Tibijan (19), Amon (13)
Favourite dessert: Umm Ali with dark camel milk chocolate flakes
Favourite hobby: Football
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What sanctions would be reimposed?
Under ‘snapback’, measures imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council in six resolutions would be restored, including:
- An arms embargo
- A ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing
- A ban on launches and other activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, as well as ballistic missile technology transfer and technical assistance
- A targeted global asset freeze and travel ban on Iranian individuals and entities
- Authorisation for countries to inspect Iran Air Cargo and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines cargoes for banned goods
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
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Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
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Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
