Virat Kohli bats for IPL-style playoffs in World Cup
Manchester: Favourites going into the semifinals, one bad day in office ruined India's World Cup hopes, and Virat Kohli suggested the ICC to consider introducing IPL-style playoffs in the knockout stages in future to ensure a level-playing field.
By his own admission, India lost the match in the first 45 minutes of their chase of 240, shattering a billion hopes days after the team finished on top of the league stage.
Asked whether IPL-style playoffs should be an option in future, Kohli said, "Who knows in future. Maybe. If topping the table means anything. I think these things can come into consideration, looking at the magnitude of this tournament."
"That is a really valid point. You never know when that is going to be implemented."
The Indian skipper, however, said the semifinal format has its own charm as it completely negates a team's previous performances in the event.
"But I think that's the challenge and different kind of fun of these games as well that you have to be precise. It doesn't matter what you have done before that. It's a fresh day, fresh start, and if you are not good enough, you go home," Kohli said.
"So you have to accept that, as I said. It's a different challenge for all the teams to turn up on that day and be absolutely at the top of their game and whoever does that they get the result, as you saw today."
Kohli was effusive in his praise for Ravindra Jadeja (77 off 59 balls), who, in the company of Mahendra Singh Dhoni (50), stitched 116 runs for the seventh wicket to keep India in the hunt.
Jadeja's knock came after his tiff with former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar, who had called the all-rounder a "bits and pieces player".
"I don't think we, any of us had to say anything to Jadeja after what happened over the last one week. He was quite ready to just get on to the park, to be honest (smiling)," said the India skipper.
"And you saw the passion with which he played and we have seen it in Test cricket a few times, he's played knock under tremendous pressure and he's got three triple hundreds in first class cricket if I'm not wrong, so the talent has obviously always been there."
Kohli rated Jadeja' rear-guard knock as one of the best he has ever seen of the left-hander, which raised visions of an improbable win for India.
"And in my watching Jadeja for 10 years, me playing with him as well, this is probably his top quality, like best knock according to me because the kind of pressure, the stage we are at, almost out of the game and then he produces that. So he was very motivated," he said.
"Yes, at that stage, we all felt like in the changing room the game can be closed out, it can be done, but then again he played so well and then a mistake can happen at any stage -- I don't think it was even a mistake, it was lack of execution which in one-day cricket you have to take a risk here and there," he said.
"I'm really happy for him because he's been a very understated cricketer but a top quality cricketer for India in the field, with the ball, with the bat, priceless."
Kohli was also full of praise for the Black Caps, saying he wasn't at all surprised by the way they came out fighting while defending the modest total.
"I wasn't surprised with how New Zealand played, to be honest. If there is a low total, we knew there's probably only one or two sides in world cricket that will put seven fielders in the ring and that was always going to be New Zealand," he said.
"We knew they were going to attack more and not let the game go to the end, they won't take it deep, they will go all out and play the game that way because I have seen them play that way.
"Today also third man was up in the ring. In the one-day game you had five catching fielders. So they know how to put pressure because they play very consistent cricket and today was an example of that," he added.
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
