Manish Pandey takes India to 165/8 in fourth T20
Wellington: Manish Pandey led India's recovery with an unbeaten 50 off 36 balls, taking the visitors to 165 for eight against New Zealand in the fourth T20 International here on Friday.
Put into bat, India were struggling at 88-6 at one stage before Pandey's lonesome rescue act took them to a respectable total. KL Rahul contributed 39 runs off 26 balls, inclusive of three sixes and two fours.
This was after New Zealand won a fourth consecutive toss and opted to field. Kane Williamson didn't take part in the match owing to a shoulder niggle. Tim Southee is the stand-in skipper with the Black Caps making two changes.
India also made three changes with Rohit Sharma, Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja rested. Sanju Samson, Washington Sundar and Navdeep Saini came into the playing eleven respectively.
Samson (8) opened the innings with Rahul, but lasted only five balls before holing out. Virat Kohli (11) too was out cheaply, the ball looping up to extra cover and out caught off Hamish Bennett (2-41).
Ish Sodhi then got into the act and ran through India's batting order. First to go was Shreyas Iyer (1) and then Shivam Dube (12) was caught at mid-wicket.
India seemed intent on destroying this experimentation opportunity, while New Zealand fielded well and caught everything that came their way. The alarm bells came on when Rahul was caught off Sodhi at midwicket in the ninth over.
Sodhi finished with 3-26 while Santner dismissed Sundar for nought as the New Zealand spinners rounded up a good outing with 4-54 in eight overs.
Pandey came to India's rescue thereafter as he marshalled the innings along with Shardul Thakur (20 off 15 balls) and Navdeep Saini (11 not out).
He put on 43 runs with Thakur for the seventh wicket and then added another 22 with Saini. In doing so, Pandey brought up his half-century off 36 balls, inclusive of three fours, and helped put on a defendable score on the board.
India have an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series after consecutive victories in Auckland and Hamilton.
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8 dead, dozens wounded in Russian strike on Ukraine's Odesa port
Kyiv (AP): Eight people were killed and 27 wounded in a Russian missile strike on port infrastructure in Odesa, southern Ukraine, late on Friday, Ukraine's Emergency Service said on Saturday morning.
Some of the wounded were on a bus at the epicentre of the overnight strike, the service said in a Telegram post. Trucks caught fire in the parking lot, and cars were also damaged.
The port was struck with ballistic missiles, said Oleh Kiper, the head of the Odesa region.
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Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces hit a Russian warship and other facilities with drones, Ukraine's General Staff said in a statement on Saturday.
The nighttime attack on Friday hit the Russian warship “Okhotnik,” according to the statement posted to the Telegram messaging app.
The ship was patrolling in the Caspian Sea near an oil and gas production platform. The extent of the damage is still being clarified, the statement added.
A drilling platform at the Filanovsky oil and gas field in the Caspian Sea was also hit. The facility is operated by Russian oil giant Lukoil. Ukrainian drones also struck a radar system in the Krasnosilske area of Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
