Clinical KKR outplay RCB, win by nine wickets
Abu Dhabi(PTI): An authoritative Kolkata Knight Riders bossed Royal Challengers Bangalore from the beginning to the end to record a convincing nine-wicket win in their Indian Premier League match here on Monday.
Showing serious intent after their mediocre outing in the first phase of the league earlier this year, the Knight Riders bowlers fired in unison to bundle out Royal Challengers Bangalore for a paltry 92.
Then, the opening duo of Shubman Gill and debutant Venkatesh Iyer played some breathtaking shots and made light work of the chase of 93, completing the formality with as many as 10 overs to spare.
The supremely-talented Gill got out for a 48 off 34 deliveries while Iyer, who could have been a successful management professional after finishing his MBA in finance and giving up a placement as a tax consultant, was looking good on a 27-ball 41 not out when the winning run was hit.
The result will not just boost their morale immensely but also improve KKR's net run rate going ahead.
Opening the bowling, architect-turned-mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy (3/13) did the star turn with three wickets in an excellent four-over spell. Star all-rounder Andre Russell (3/9 in three overs) also bagged three wickets, including AB de Villiers' golden duck, while there were two for Lockie Ferguson.
Devdutt Padikkal was the highest scorer with 22 runs in a forgettable outing in skipper Virat Kohli's 200th game for RCB.
Bowling the day's second over, right-arm medium pacer Prasidh Krishna dealt RCB a big blow when he had Virat Kohli trapped in front of wicket with his fourth delivery that jagged in and hit him above the knee-roll.
Having completed a double century of matches for RCB, Kohli went for a review but the ball-tracking technology confirmed that it was going on to hit the stumps. This was immediately after Kohli sent a Krishna delivery in front of square on the off-side for a lovely four.
New Zealand fast bowler Lockie Ferguson replaced Chakravarthy and the gifted Devdutt Padikkal smashed the pacer straight over his head to get things moving for RCB.
Krishna bowled back-to-back no balls (one front foot and one beamer) in the next over and while debutant Srikar Bharat failed to break the shackles, Padikkal capitalised on the extra delivery with a boundary.
KKR skipper Eoin Morgan made another bowling change by bringing in Sunil Narine and while the Trinidadian spinner could not get a breakthrough in his first over, Ferguson succeeded in his second when he had Padikkal caught behind when the batsman tried to play the ball fine past the keeper despite hardly getting any room to execute the ramp shot.
Russell ended Bharat's stay in the middle as the pressure mounted on the batsman.
And then came the biggest blow for RCB when Russell bowled AB de Villiers for a first-ball duck with a top-notch yorker targeting the leg-stump.
RCB were in all sorts of trouble at 52 for four in the ninth over and it became only worse for them with the departure of Glenn Maxwell, who brought his own downfall with a needless heave against Chakravarthy's tossed-up delivery, and Wanindu Hasaranga, the team's another debutant, getting out cheaply.
Both the batsmen were dismissed off successive balls on a surface that was on the slower side, something that Kohli talked about after opting to bat at the toss.
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South African police arrest suspect in mass shooting that killed 12, including 3 children
Johannesburg (AP): A 32-year-old suspect has been arrested in connection with a mass shooting which claimed the lives of 12 people including three children at an unlicensed pub earlier this month, South African police said on Monday.
The man is suspected of being one of the three people who opened fire on patrons in a pub at Saulsville township, west of South Africa's capital Pretoria, killing 12 people including three children aged 3, 12 and 16.
At least 13 people were also injured during the attack, whose motive remains unknown.
According to the police, the suspect was arrested on Sunday while traveling to Botlokwa in Limpopo province, more than 340 km from where the mass shooting took place on Dec 6.
An unlicensed firearm believed to have been used during the attack was recovered from the suspect's vehicle.
“The 32-year-old suspect was intercepted by Limpopo Tracking Team on the R101 Road in Westenburg precinct. During the arrest, the team recovered an unlicensed firearm, a hand gun, believed to have been used in the commission of the multiple murders. The firearm will be taken to the Forensic Science Laboratory for ballistic analysis,” police said in statement.
The suspect was arrested on the same day that another mass shooting at a pub took place in the Bekkersdal township, west of Johannesburg, in which nine people were killed and 10 wounded when unknown gunmen opened fire on patrons.
Police have since launched a search for the suspects.
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world and recorded more than 26,000 homicides in 2024 — an average of more than 70 a day. Firearms are by far the leading cause of death in homicides.
The country of 62 million people has relatively strict gun ownership laws, but many killings are committed with illegal guns, according to authorities.
According to police, mass shootings at unlicensed bars are becoming a serious problem. Police shut down more than 11,000 illegal taverns between April and September this year and arrested more than 18,000 people for involvement in illegal liquor sales.
