Pollard hits six sixes in an over as Windies beat Sri Lanka
Coolidge (Antigua): Sri Lanka leg-spinner Akila Dananjaya experienced the precipitous highs and lows of Twenty20 cricket when he claimed a hat trick which included the wicket of West Indies star Chris Gayle for a first-ball duck, then was hit for six sixes in an over b y Keiran Pollard in the first international in Antigua.
The West Indies on Wednesday won the match by four wickets with 41 balls in hand, finishing with 134-6.
Dananjaya became only the 15th player and the fourth Sri Lankan to take a T20 international hat trick when he dismissed Evin Lewis (28), Gayle and Nicholas Pooran (0) with consecutive deliveries in the fourth over.
He had little time to reflect on his new-found fame when it turned to notoriety: in his next over he was hit to all parts of the ground by Pollard, who become only the second player after Yuvraj Singh to hit six sixes in an over in a T20 international and the third player to achieve the feat in all international formats.
Yuvraj did so from England's Stuart Broad in the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007 and had to wait 14 years for company. Pollard said he thought six sixes was a possibility "after the third one."
"I just had to come out and back myself," he said.
"It was something the team needed. I didn't see the hat trick, I only heard. But I still had to come out and do what the team required at that point in time."
Dananjaya's see-sawing fortunes he was hit for a seventh consecutive six by Jason Holder in his next over and had two catches dropped from his bowling turned the West Indies'' seemingly easy chase for 132 to take a 1-0 lead in the series into a thrilling spectacle.
Sri Lanka managed only 131-9 in its 20 overs after being sent in to bat. It had been 86-3 but fell apart after a short rain break and lost six wickets for 45 runs.
Captain Angelo Mathews (5) fell in the first over after play resumed and Dinesh Chandimal (11) was out three balls later. Thisara Perera (1) fell in the 17th over and Sri Lanka slumped further to 106-6, then 111-7 when Hasaranga de Silva was out for 12.
Two runouts in the final over saw Sri Lanka fall well short of a competitive total.
The West Indies seemed likely to rapidly run down the Sri Lanka total when Lewis hit the last three balls of the first over for six. But Dananjaya's hat trick saw the home side slip from 52-0 to 52-3, losing Gayle to the first ball of his first T20 in two years.
Pollard's barrage in the sixth over lifted the West Indies from 62-4 on the dismissal of Lendl Simmons to 92-4 and again had the home side coasting to victory.
Another twist was in store when de Silva dismissed Pollard (38) and Fabian Allen with consecutive deliveries in the 7th over, denied a hat trick by Dwayne Bravo who defended the next delivery.
The West Indies were 101-6 and were seen home by Bravo and captain Jason Holder, who made an unbeaten 29. Holder hit a six, the 15th of the innings, to take West Indies past Sri Lanka's total.
Pollard’s 6*6
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How lucky are we to have @irbishi in the comm box ?#WivSL #SLvWi #Pollard #KieronPollard https://t.co/BhdliaYRap pic.twitter.com/1jmLXIHiwD
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EC begins phased publication of post-SIR rolls in Bengal; 1.18L names deleted in Bankura
Kolkata (PTI): The Election Commission (EC) on Saturday began publishing the post-SIR electoral rolls in West Bengal in phases, with figures from Bankura district indicating that around 1.18 lakh names have been deleted since the exercise commenced.
Hard copies of the updated rolls were put up in districts including Bankura and Cooch Behar, even as the lists were yet to be made available online on the designated EC portals and mobile application till reports last received.
In Bankura, where the electorate stood at 30,33,830 when the SIR exercise began on November 4 last year, the number in the draft rolls published on December 16 had come down to 29,01,009.
Following hearings and scrutiny during the subsequent phase of the SIR, around 4,000 more names were deleted. However, a few thousand fresh applications under Form 6, meant for the inclusion of new voters, were approved.
As a result, the final electoral roll of Bankura, considered a turf where both BJP and TMC have equal political dominance, now stands at approximately 29,15,000, indicating a net deletion of around 1.18 lakh names since the commencement of the SIR, a senior district official said.
Election Commission officials said the deletions were primarily due to death, migration, duplication and untraceability, while additions were processed after due verification.
Reports from other districts are still awaited.
The publication of the rolls is being carried out in phases across districts, and supplementary lists are expected to be issued as adjudication of pending cases continues.
According to officials, the publication classifies 7.08 crore electors, whose names appeared in the draft rolls issued on December 16, into three categories -- 'approved', 'deleted' and 'under adjudication/under consideration'.
Commission sources also indicated that in parts of north Kolkata, nearly 17,000 names were found missing from the approved rolls, further fuelling political reactions from rival parties.
The draft rolls published on December 16 had already seen the state's electorate shrink from 7.66 crore -- the figure based on names appearing in the rolls till August 2025 -- to 7.08 crore, with over 58 lakh names deleted during the first phase of scrutiny.
The SIR process, the first such statewide revision since 2002, began on November 4 last year with the distribution of enumeration forms. The commission took 116 days to provisionally complete the exercise and publish what officials described as a "final but dynamic" list, as adjudication in several cases is still underway.
The second phase involved hearings for 1.67 crore electors -- 1.36 crore flagged for 'logical discrepancies' and 31 lakh lacking proper mapping.
Around 60 lakh voters continue to remain under adjudication, meaning their inclusion or exclusion will be determined in supplementary rolls to be issued in phases.
Meanwhile, long queues were seen outside district election offices and cyber cafes across the state as anxious voters thronged centres to check their names in the updated rolls.
In districts such as Bankura, North 24 Parganas and parts of Kolkata, hard copies of the lists were put up on notice boards, drawing steady streams of residents since morning. Many were seen scanning page after page of printed sheets, some taking photographs on their mobile phones, while others sought help from officials to trace their entries.
At several district magistrate and sub-divisional offices, voters waited in serpentine queues for their turn to verify whether their names figured under the 'approved', 'deleted' or 'under adjudication' categories.
With the updated rolls yet to be fully accessible online, cyber cafes reported a sudden surge in footfall. In many neighbourhoods, small computer centres witnessed lines of people waiting outside, clutching voter ID cards and enumeration slips, reflecting both public anxiety and the high political stakes surrounding the revision exercise ahead of the assembly elections due in April.
