Five-star Starc overshadows hat-trick man Boult as Aus crush NZ
Australia beat New Zealand by 86 runs
London, Jun 30: Pace spearhead Trent Boult's historic hat-trick went in vain as Mitchell Starc's brilliant five-for helped Australia crush trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand by 86 runs in a World Cup match here and consolidate their spot at the top.
In what was a rematch of the 2015 final between the trans-Tasman rivals at Lord's on Saturday, Kiwi left-arm pacer Boult hogged the limelight with a sensational last-over hat-trick to stop Australia's rebuilding job at 243 for nine.
With his swinging full-pitched deliveries, Boult sent back the well-settled Usman Khawaja (88 off 129 balls), Micthell Starc and Jason Behrendorff, while giving away just two runs of the last over to become the first Kiwi to grab a hat-trick in the World Cup.
But New Zealand, who are yet to qualify for the semifinals, crumbled in front of Starc, tournament's best bowler so far, who returned with brilliant figures of 5 for 26, and were bundled out for 157 in 43.4 overs.
By virtue of the win, defending champions Australia, who are already through to the semifinals, have consolidated their position at the top with 14 points from eight games.
Australia will finish their league campaign against already-eliminated South Africa on July 6.
New Zealand have now dropped to the third spot with 11 points from eight games and are yet to confirm their berth in the knock-out round. They will take on tournament hosts England in their crucial last game on July 3.
Chasing Australia's total, the Kiwis were dealt early blows by Jason Behrendorff (2/31) as he removed both David Warner and Aaron Finch before Starc joined the party.
Skipper Kane Williamson (40) and Ross Taylor (30) tried hard but came out second-best as New Zealand suffered its second loss in the tournament.
Earlier, Boult (4/51 in 10 overs) struck after Khawaja and Alex Carey (71 off 72 balls) scored contrasting fifties to lift Australia from a disastrous start after opting to bat.
Australia lost half their side with less than 100 runs on the board, but a 107-run partnership for the sixth wicket between Khawaja and Carey helped them rebuild.
It was a rare occasion when the opening duo of Warner and Finch, in red-hot from entering this game, failed to fire.
While Finch (8) was the first to go, tapped in front by Boult, Warner departed after making 16 to leave Australia in a spot of bother at 38 for two in the 10th over, and it became worse when Steve Smith was sent back by Lockie Ferguson with the scorecard reading a precarious 46 for three in the 12th over.
Marcus Stoinis (21) and Khawaja attempted a recovery act before Jimmy Neesham derailed it.
Glenn Maxwell flopped again, this time failing to even open his account as Australia stared down the barrel.
Australia were in dire need of a partnership and Carey and Khawaja provided just that with a century stand.
Carey smashed 11 boundaries during his fluent knock, while Khawaja found the fence five times during his sedate innings.
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TVK falls short within touching distance; what next to ensure majority
Chennai (PIT): With TVK falling 10 short of a majority, its leader Vijay has the option of forming a minority government in Tamil Nadu without any outside support, analysts said on Tuesday.
Senior political analyst Sumanth Raman told PTI that the TVK is likely to opt to be a minority government with outside support.
"Since it is the single largest party, TVK has the option to go for that. I don't think he (Vijay) will opt for official support from other political party's MLAs", he said.
"If he opts for minority government, the only thing is that, Vijay will have to prove the support once again after six months".
Raman also pointed out that in 2006 when DMK won only 92 seats, the then party president, the late M Karunanidhi formed a minority government with outside support.
In a completely unexpected turn of events in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, the TVK has emerged victorious, putting an end to the almost six decade-long dominance of the two major Dravidian parties--DMK and AIADMK.
By clinching victory in its debut electoral contest, the party has elevated its status to that of a recognised political entity. However, the Vijay-led TVK did not secure a mandate large enough to form a government with an absolute majority on its own, requiring another 10 to cross the finish line. Experts have varied opinions.
Specifically, to attain a simple majority, a political party must win at least 118 out of the total 234 constituencies. The TVK, however, secured victory in 108 constituencies. Given that the TVK fell short of the majority mark, what might unfold next?
TVK leader Vijay has won in both constituencies he contested--Perambur in Chennai and Tiruchirappalli East. As per the election commission rule, he will have to resign from one of these seats. TVK sources said that the leader is likely to surrender the Tiruchirappalli assembly seat.
If Vijay does so, the party's total tally of seats will decrease by one. Then it will be 107. Adding to the number games, TVK appointed Speaker of the Assembly will be ineligible to cast a vote during a confidence motion and the party's effective voting strength will be reduced by yet another seat, which comes to 106.
Accordingly, the TVK requires the support of an additional 12 members to demonstrate its majority. As of now, within the DMK alliance, the Congress party has secured five seats, the two Communist parties have won two seats each (totaling four), while the DMDK has secured one seat, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has won two seats and the VCK has secured two seats.
Within the AIADMK alliance, the PMK has grabbed four seats, the BJP has won one seat, and the AMMK has secured one seat. Going by the calculations, if TVK gets the support of other parties within both alliances, it would gain an additional 21 seats.
TVK could potentially secure a total of 129 seats (108 + 21). However, the TVK does not require the support of all those parties, and the backing of just 12 members would suffice.
As Vijay is expected to visit Lok Bhavan on Wednesday (May 6) to meet the governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar to stake claim to form government, the governor is expected to offer the TVK two options.
First, he may summon the TVK chief and instruct him to demonstrate his majority on the floor of the legislative assembly. Alternatively, he might ask Vijay to gather letters of support from "allied" parties and submit them to him.
If the TVK secures support exceeding 118 seats, the governor would invite the party form the government. If TVK fails to garner support from other political parties, it will be denied the opportunity to form the government.
In such a scenario, the governor has the option to invite the DMK, the party holding the second-highest number of seats to form the government.
If DMK too is unable to form a government, the state of Tamil Nadu will come under governor's rule for the subsequent six months. Following this period, fresh legislative Assembly elections will be once again held across all 234 constituencies.
Another political analyst Durai Karuna ruled out that TVK will go for a minority government.
"If he (Vijay) gives an appeal, many political parties including Congress, VCK and left parties will join TVK", he claimed. "In addition, the AIADMK, which has decided to organise MLAs meeting on Wednesday, might also announce that it would support TVK unconditionally".
He said a clear picture on Vijay's decision will emerge in a couple of days.
Tharasu Shyam, political critic, claimed that Congress was "holding talks with Vijay."
"From now on, the DMK must change its approach and this applies equally to the AIADMK," he said in an apparent reference to some reported difference of opinion between allies DMK and Congress over seat-sharing and power-sharing ahead of the April 23 polls.
Incidentally, AICC in-charge for Tamil Nadu, Girish Chodankar, on Tuesday admitted that the Congress party leadership's decision to stick with the DMK alliance went against strong grassroots sentiment favouring the TVK.
"The local leaders, the grassroots level leaders, were suggesting if Rahul Gandhi, who has a large acceptance in Tamil Nadu, joins the campaign with Vijay, it will create a big impact and we can sweep the Tamil Nadu polls, and get somewhere around 180-190 seats," Chodankar told PTI Videos.
