England beat big rival Australia by 2 runs in T20 thriller
Southampton: England beat great rival Australia by two runs in a Twenty20 thriller that went down to the final ball to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series here.
Chasing 163 to win at the empty Rose Bowl on Friday, Australia collapsed from 124-1 after 14 overs to fall short on 160-6 in its first match of international cricket in six months because of the coronavirus pandemic.
After losing four wickets for nine runs off 14 balls, the Australians needed 26 runs off the final three overs, 19 off the final two and then 15 off the last, bowled by Tom Curran.
Marcus Stoinis hit a huge six over cover off the second ball to leave the tourists needing nine runs off four, but couldn't hit another boundary.
Australia was handed a brilliant start to the chase as captain Aaron Finch (46) and David Warner (58) shared a 98-run opening stand. Things started going downhill, though, after the loss of Steven Smith for 18 to make it 124-2 and Glenn Maxwell four balls later for 1, both falling to the spin of Adil Rashid.
"We knew England would keep coming hard," Finch said, "and we probably struggled to find the boundary in that 12- to 18-over mark. That's something to work on."
England eked out a total of 162-7 mainly thanks to Dawid Malan (66) and Jos Buttler (44). No other player reached double-figures, with Kane Richardson having figures of 2-13 and Maxwell getting 2-14.
"I thought we were 15 runs light," Malan said, "probably one partnership away from getting to 175-180."
It was the first time England has defended a target under 180 since 2016.
The top-ranked Australians hadn't played since mid-March when their scheduled ODI series against New Zealand was abandoned. England can wrap up the series by winning the second match back at the Rose Bowl on Sunday.
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Central Myanmar shaken by new quake in one of biggest aftershocks since March 28 temblor
Bangkok, Apr 13 (AP): A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck on Sunday morning near Meiktila, a small city in central Myanmar, according to the US Geological Survey.
The quake came as Myanmar is engaged in relief efforts following a massive 7.7 magnitude temblor that also hit the country's central region on March 28.
The epicentre of the latest quake was roughly hallway between Mandalay, Myanmar's second-biggest city, which suffered enormous damage and casualties in last month's earthquake, and Naypyitaw, the capital, where several government offices were then damaged.
There were no immediate reports of major damage or casualties caused by the new quake, one of the strongest of hundreds of aftershocks from the March 28 temblor. As of Friday, the death toll from that quake was 3,649, with 5,018 injured, according to Maj Gen Zaw Min Tun, a spokesperson for Myanmar's military government.
Myanmar's Meteorological Department said Sunday's quake occurred in the area of Wundwin township, 97 kilometers (60 miles) south of Mandalay, at a depth of 20 kilometers (12 miles). The U.S. Geological Survey estimated the depth at 7.7 km (4.8 miles).
Two Wundwin residents told The Associated Press by phone the quake was so strong that people rushed out of buildings and that ceilings in some dwellings were damaged. A resident of Naypyitaw also reached by phone said he did not feel the latest quake. Those contacted asked not to be named for fear of angering the military government, which prefers to closely control information.
The United Nations last week warned that damage caused by the March 28 quake will worsen the existing humanitarian crisis in Myanmar, where a civil war had already displaced more than 3 million people.
It said the quake severely disrupted agricultural production and that a health emergency loomed because many medical facilities in the quake zone were damaged or destroyed.
Sunday's quake occurred on the morning of the first day of the country's three-day Thingyan holiday, which celebrates the traditional New Year. Public festivities for the holiday had already been cancelled.
