Mooney guides Australia to fighting 156 against South Africa in final
Cape Town, Feb 26: Beth Mooney struck a fine unbeaten half-century to guide five-time champions and title holders Australia to 156 for 6 against hosts South Africa in the final of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup here on Sunday.
Mooney remained unbeaten on 74 off 53 balls during which she struck nine boundaries and one hit over the fence.
Electing to bat, Australia lost Alyssa Healy (18) early, caught at covers by Nadine De Klerk off the bowling of Marizanne Kapp (2/35) in the fifth over.
Then Ashleigh Gardner (29 off 21) joined hands with Mooney and the pair's 46 runs for the second wicket stabilised the innings before the former was brilliantly caught at long-off by South Africa skipper Sune Luus off the bowling of left-arm spinner Chloe-Lesleigh Tryon.
But Mooney went about her business in blistering fashion and dispatched the bad deliveries to the fence to keep the scoreboard ticking.
Grace Harris tried to up the scoring rate but was cleaned up by left-arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba in the 14th over as the batter went for a wild heave over the square-leg boundary.
Next in, skipper Meg Lanning showed intent from the word go, scoring her first runs from a boundary through the point region before being brilliantly caught by Tyron at deep backward square leg off the bowling of Kapp.
Mooney, however, remained unperturbed as she kept consolidating the Australia innings, picking up boundaries with ease.
Even as Mooney held one end up, wickets kept tumbling at the other side as Australia tried to find boundaries towards the end of the innings.
South Africa brilliantly pulled things back towards the end of the innings by picking up wickets at regular intervals with Mooney remaining stranded at the other end.
South African pacer Shabnim Ismail (2/26) had a big role to play in restricting Australia to an achievable total, claiming the wickets of Ellyse Perry and Georgia Wareham off consecutive balls. She was on a rare hat-trick in the final over but Tahlia McGrath denied Ismail the feat, managing a single off the last delivery of the innings.
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India imposes port restrictions on import of select Bangladeshi goods
New Delhi: India has announced new restrictions on the import of certain goods from Bangladesh, allowing them to enter the country only through specific seaports. According to a notification issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the new rules take immediate effect.
Under the revised guidelines, products such as readymade garments, processed food items, fruit-flavoured drinks, carbonated beverages, cotton and cotton yarn waste, plastic and PVC finished goods (excluding raw materials like pigments and granules), and wooden furniture can now only be imported via the Nhava Sheva and Kolkata seaports.
The notification explicitly states that these items will not be permitted through any Land Customs Stations (LCSs) or Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) in the northeastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram, as well as through LCSs at Changrabandha and Fulbari in West Bengal.
However, the DGFT clarified that these port restrictions will not apply to Bangladeshi goods transiting through India en route to Nepal or Bhutan.
Certain essential goods, including fish, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), edible oil, and crushed stone are exempt from the new restrictions and can continue to be imported through land ports.
The development comes amid rising tensions between India and Bangladesh. Last month, on April 13, Bangladesh halted the export of Indian yarn through land routes. Two days later, it also stopped Indian rice exports via the Hili and Benapole ICPs in West Bengal.
Diplomatic ties further strained after Bangladesh’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, made remarks in China suggesting strategic dominance over India’s northeastern states. “The eastern part of India, known as the Seven Sisters, is landlocked. They have no access to the ocean. We are the only guardians of the ocean in this region,” Yunus said, hinting at regional cooperation with Chinese industries.
