England win by 150 runs against Afghanistan in World Cup
Manchester, Jun 18: England captain Eoin Morgan smashed a world record 17 sixes in his blistering 71-ball-148 as the hosts crushed Afghanistan by 150 runs in a World Cup encounter here on Tuesday.
England scored their highest World Cup total 397 for 6 riding on brilliant batting performances of Morgan, Joe Root (88 off 82) and Jonny Bairstow (90 off 99).
The Afghans were never in the contest and managed only 247 for 8 with Adil Rashid picking up 3 for 66 and the talented Jofra Archer taking 3 for 52.
With this win, England moved a step closer to the semi-final qualification with four wins from five matches while Afghanistan are out of the competition, having lost all five games.
Tuesday's game belonged to England captain, who enroute his career-best knock also hit the fourth fastest hundred in World Cup history, getting his 13th ODI hundred off only 57 balls. Apart from 17 sixes, the left-hander also hit four boundaries.
Morgan broke the record which was jointly held by Rohit Sharma (vs Australia 2013), AB de Villiers (16 vs West Indies, 2015) and Chris Gayle (16 vs Zimbabwe 2015).
Opener Bairstow and Root also played their part but were overshadowed by the skipper, who pulverised the hapless Afghan bowling attack.
Afghanistan's T20 superstar Rashid Khan got a reality check as he also had the ignominy of being hit for a '100'. His bowling figures read a pathetic 9-0-110-0 with 11 sixes being hit off his bowling.
Rashid's figures were the worst by any bowler in a World Cup game beating New Zealand's Martin Snedden's 0/105 off 12 overs (60 overs per side) against England in the 1983 World Cup .
Morgan primarily targeted the arc between long-on and long-off and repeatedly dispatched the length balls in between these areas with a few straight sixes. He was particularly severe on Rashid, who till date has never been hit for more than two sixes in his innings.
The other IPL star Mohammed Nabi (0/70 in 9 overs) also got a pasting and so did Gulbadin Naib as Morgan and Root added 189 runs in 16.5 overs. In all, the English batsmen hit 25 sixes.
Even Moeen Ali had a little feast towards the end of the innings, scoring 31 off 15 balls with four sixes.
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Telangana CM urges Amit Shah to increase sanctioned strength of IPS officers in state
Hyderabad (PTI): Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi on Wednesday night and urged him to increase the sanctioned strength of IPS officers to the state in view of its growing administrative and security needs.
The two leaders also discussed the recent surrender of several senior Maoist leaders before the Telangana Police and other issues.
"During the meeting, the two leaders discussed the issue of Maoist surrenders and their rehabilitation. The chief minister informed Shah that significant improvements in policing have taken place in Telangana over the past two years," an official release here said.
Highlighting that 591 Maoists have laid down their arms and joined the mainstream of society during this period, the chief minister said the state government was providing them compensation and rehabilitation assistance as per the rules.
He requested the Union home minister to extend financial support from the central government for development works in the backward regions of the state.
Reddy also urged Shah to increase the sanctioned strength of IPS officers to the state from 83 to 105 in line with the state's growing administrative and security needs, the statement said.
The first cadre review after the formation of Telangana was conducted in 2016, while the next review, due in 2021, was delayed and finally carried out in 2025. Even then, only seven additional IPS officers were allocated to the state, the chief minister informed Shah and requested that the third cadre review be conducted in 2026 as per the schedule.
Reddy explained that Telangana, like the rest of the country, is facing several modern challenges, including cybercrime, drug trafficking, white-collar crimes, and other emerging security threats.
He highlighted the reorganisation of the Hyderabad, Cyberabad, and Malkajgiri Police Commissionerates, the proposed formation of the Future City Commissionerate and the rapidly growing population in Hyderabad to underline the increasing administrative requirements of the state.
