Jadeja's all-round heroics propel CSK to 28-run win over PBKS
Dharamsala, May 5: Ravindra Jadeja orchestrated a masterclass all-round show as Chennai Super Kings regained their winning touch with a comprehensive 28-run win over Punjab Kings in a low-scoring IPL fixture here on Sunday.
Wily leg-spinner Rahul Chahar (3/23) and seamer Harshal Patel (3/24) put up a spirited show but Jadeja made a crucial 43 that came off just 26 balls to prop CSK to a par 167/9 after they were sent in to bat by Sam Curran.
The left-arm spinner then returned to grab three for 20 in four overs in the crucial middle-over phase to derail PBKS' chase, which ended at 139 for nine.
Comeback pacer Tushar Deshpande (2/35) and impact sub Simarjeet Singh (2/16) also featured among wickets.
Mitchell Santner, who was playing his first match of the season, was brilliant during his tidy 1/10 from three overs.
Eyeing to secure a sixth successive win over CSK in the IPL, PBKS found themselves at 78 for seven against Jadeja's match-turning spell.
Having lost three of their last four matches, the five-time champions CSK thus returned to winning ways and jumped to third place in the standings.
CSK now have 12 points with three more matches left to secure their playoff spot.
PBKS – eight points from 11 matches – slumped to eighth spot after enduring their seventh loss of the season.
Kiwi left-arm spinner Santner set it up early for CSK. Bowling with the new ball, he gave away just four runs from his two overs and took the key wicket of Shashank Singh (27; 20b, 4x4) against the run of play.
Deshpande inflicted a twin blow, cleaning up Jonny Bairstow (7) and Rilee Rossouw (0) in three balls.
PBKS found some rhythm going as Prabhsimran Singh and the in-form Shashank took the attack to CSK bowlers and collected 31 runs to end the power play on a high.
Prabhsimran smashed Richard Gleeson for one four and a six in a 15-run over, while Prabhsimran took on Deshpande, smacking him for two fours and one six.
It seemed a one-way traffic for the home side before Santner cleverly varied his pace as Shashank holed out to long-on.
Cruising in top gear at 62/2, PBKS went on to lose half of their side in 9.4 overs.
It brought an end to a rollicking 53-run partnership from 36 balls between Shashank and Prabhsimran. Jadeja soon opened his account dismissing Prabhsimran.
Prabhsimran was looking at ease but the opener was enticed by Jadeja’s full ball at the stump.
The right-hander looked to go inside out but lack of pace meant he could not clear the long-off where substitute fielder Sameer Rizvi took an easy catch.
Simarjeet chipped in with a wicket in his first over, dismissing Jitesh Sharma for a first-ball duck.
Jadeja gave away just three runs in his next over, and completed a decisive spell ousting Curran (7) and the in-form Ashutosh Sharma (3) in the 13th over.
As runs dried up, Curran started to feel the heat and took on Jadeja's widish delivery but he slapped it straight to Santner at long-off.
Ashutosh then perished after mistiming his big hoick to be caught by Simarjeet at third-man to give Jadeja a three-for.
Earlier, at 60/1 in Power Play, CSK were going great guns with skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad (32) and Daryl Mitchell in the middle during an entertaining 57-run partnership when Chahar triggered a collapse taking two wickets in two balls.
The partnership was halted as CSK went on to lose three wickets in 11 balls with Harshal taking the dangerous-looking Mitchell (30; 19b, 2x4, 1x6) in a controversial DRS call.
Harshal returned at the death to dismiss Shardul Thakur (17) and MS Dhoni for a golden duck as CSK's hopes for a revival went up in smoke.
First, he cleaned up Thakur with a slower off-cutter as the CSK fans in Dharamsala waited for yet another piece of Dhoni magic with eight balls to go.
But the Yellow Army left in disbelief as the talismanic Dhoni departed in the very first ball, unable to counter Harshal's impeccably executed slow yorker.
With no time to bring his bat down, Dhoni's off-stump was knocked over.
Punjab kept chipping away at wickets but it was Jadeja who remained firm, quietly going about his ways picking the odd boundaries and sixes to take them to a par-score.
After a silent penultimate over that yielded just two runs for two wickets, Jadeja held his nerves and took on Arshdeep in the final over hitting him for a boundary and a six.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Netanyahu recommends his Cabinet approve Hezbollah cease-fire proposal
Beirut, Nov 26: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that he would recommend his cabinet adopt a United States-brokered ceasefire agreement with Lebanon's Hezbollah, as Israeli warplanes struck across Lebanon, killing at least 23 people.
The Israeli military also issued a flurry of evacuation warnings — a sign it was aiming to inflict punishment on Hezbollah down to the final moments before any ceasefire takes hold. For the first time in the conflict, Israeli ground troops reached parts of Lebanon's Litani River, a focal point of the emerging deal.
In a televised statement, Netanyahu said he would present the ceasefire to Cabinet ministers later on Tuesday, setting the stage for an end to nearly 14 months of fighting.
Netanyahu said the vote was expected later Tuesday. It was not immediately clear when the ceasefire would go into effect, and the exact terms of the deal were not released. The deal does not affect Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, which shows no signs of ending.
The evacuation warnings covered many areas, including parts of Beirut that previously have not been targeted. The warnings, coupled with fear that Israel was ratcheting up attacks before a ceasefire, sent residents fleeing. Traffic was gridlocked, and some cars had mattresses tied to them. Dozens of people, some wearing their pajamas, gathered in a central square, huddling under blankets or standing around fires as Israeli drones buzzed loudly overhead.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, kept up its rocket fire, triggering air raid sirens across northern Israel.
Lebanese officials have said Hezbollah also supports the deal. If approved by all sides, the deal would be a major step toward ending the Israel-Hezbollah war that has inflamed tensions across the region and raised fears of an even wider conflict between Israel and Hezbollah's patron, Iran.
The deal calls for a two-month initial halt in fighting and would require Hezbollah to end its armed presence in a broad swath of southern Lebanon, while Israeli troops would return to their side of the border. Thousands of Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers would deploy in the south, and an international panel headed by the United States would monitor all sides' compliance.
But implementation remains a major question mark. Israel has demanded the right to act should Hezbollah violate its obligations. Lebanese officials have rejected writing that into the proposal. Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz insisted on Tuesday that the military would strike Hezbollah if the U.N. peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, doesn't provide “effective enforcement” of the deal.
“If you don't act, we will act, and with great force,” Katz said, speaking with UN special envoy Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.
The European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said Tuesday that Israel's security concerns had been addressed in the deal also brokered by France.
“There is not an excuse for not implementing a ceasefire. Otherwise, Lebanon will fall apart,” Borrell told reporters in Italy on the sidelines of a Group of Seven meeting. He said France would participate on the ceasefire implementation committee at Lebanon's request.
Bombardment of Beirut's southern suburbs continues
Even as Israeli, US, Lebanese and international officials have expressed growing optimism over a ceasefire, Israel has continued its campaign in Lebanon, which it says aims to cripple Hezbollah's military capabilities.
An Israeli strike on Tuesday levelled a residential building in the central Beirut district of Basta — the second time in recent days warplanes have hit the crowded area near the city's downtown. At least seven people were killed and 37 wounded, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.
Three people were killed in a separate strike in Beirut and three in a strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon. Lebanese state media said another 10 people were killed in the eastern Baalbek province. Israel says it targets Hezbollah fighters and their infrastructure.
Earlier, Israeli jets struck at least six buildings in Beirut's southern suburbs. One strike slammed near the country's only airport, sending plumes of smoke into the sky. The airport has continued to function despite its location on the Mediterranean coast next to the densely populated suburbs where many of Hezbollah's operations are based.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee issued evacuation warnings for 20 buildings in the suburbs, as well as a warning for the southern town of Naqoura where UNIFIL is headquartered.
UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told The Associated Press that peacekeepers will not evacuate.
Other strikes hit in the southern city of Tyre, where the Israeli military said it killed a local Hezbollah commander.
The Israeli military also said its ground troops clashed with Hezbollah forces and destroyed rocket launchers in the Slouqi area on the eastern end of the Litani River, a few kilometres from the Israeli border.
Previous ceasefire hopes were dashed
Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah would be required to move its forces north of the Litani, which in some places is about 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the border.
A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, the strongest Iranian-backed force in the region, would likely significantly calm regional tensions that have led to fears of a direct, all-out war between Israel and Iran. It's not clear how the ceasefire will affect the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Hezbollah had long insisted that it would not agree to a ceasefire until the war in Gaza ends, but it dropped that condition.
Hezbollah began firing into northern Israel, saying it was showing support for the Palestinians, a day after Hamas carried out its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, triggering the Gaza war. Israel returned fire on Hezbollah, and the two sides have been exchanging barrages ever since.
Israel escalated its campaign of bombardment in mid-September and later sent troops into Lebanon, vowing to put an end to Hezbollah fire so tens of thousands of evacuated Israelis could return to their homes.
More than 3,760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon the past 13 months, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The bombardment has driven 1.2 million people from their homes. Israel says it has killed more than 2,000 Hezbollah members.
Hezbollah fire has forced some 50,000 Israelis to evacuate in the country's north, and its rockets have reached as far south in Israel as Tel Aviv. At least 75 people have been killed, more than half of them civilians. More than 50 Israeli soldiers have died in the ground offensive in Lebanon.
After previous hopes for a ceasefire were dashed, U.S. officials cautioned that negotiations were not yet complete and noted there could be last-minute hitches that delay or destroy an agreement.
“Nothing is done until everything is done,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.
While the ceasefire proposal is expected to be approved if Netanyahu brings it to a vote in his security Cabinet, one hard-line member, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, said he would oppose it. He said on X that a deal with Lebanon would be a “big mistake” and a “missed historic opportunity to eradicate Hezbollah.”
