Mumbai Indians beat Punjab Kings by 6 wickets in IPL
Abu Dhabi, Sept 28: Hardik Pandya finally showed glimpses of his destructive self as he brought Mumbai Indians back in play-off contention with the defending champions beat Punjab Kings by six wickets in an IPL encounter on Tuesday.
Hardik smashed two fours and a six in the penultimate over bowled by Mohammed Shami as his 40 not out off 30 balls saw MI snap a three-match losing streak successfully chasing down a target of 136 in 19 overs.
Pollard who took two wickets in Punjab innings hit a six and four off young left-armer Arshdeep Singh taking 13 off the 18th over which helped Hardik go for the jugular against Shami. It only helped that his final shot which ended as a maximum was a regulation catch which Deepak Hooda dropped at the fence.
After this victory, MI reached the fifth spot with 10 points from 11 matches, while Punjab slipped to sixth spot.
Defending the total, leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi got rid of Rohit Sharma (8) and Suryakumar Yadav (0) in successive deliveries to leave MI toterring at 16 for two.
Tiwary and Quinton de Kock (27) took the team to 30 for 2 in the powerplay.
Tiwary eased the pressure with a boundary at the cover-point area, before picking up another four off Nathan Ellis.
Dropped by Aiden Markram at the boundary line in 8th over, Tiwary danced down the wicket and deposited Harpreet over mid-wicket for a maximum to bring up the 50.
De Kock, who was looking good, lost his bearing in the 10th over as he dragged one on to his stumps, immediately after pulling Mohammed Shami for a four as MI slumped to 62 for 3.
Tiwary and Hardik Pandya kept MI in hunt but runs dried up with Arshdeep Singh taking the pace off but Harpreet dropped the India allrounder to add to his frustration.
Needing 52 off 36, Tiwary clobbered Bishnoi over mid-wicket but he was soon removed by Nathan Ellis.
Hardik then unleashed a four and six in two balls off Shami to keep MI in the hunt.
Needing 29 in the last three overs, Pollard blasted one across the at extra cover and then deposited the next one over long-off.
Hardik then exploded in the 19th over bowled by Shami as he sent a wide delivery across the boundary and then pulled one across the midwicket before heaving one over long-on to end the contest.
Earlier, Markram shared a 61-run partnership with Deepak Hooda (28) to lift their score after they were reduced to 48 for 4 in 7.3 overs.
However, once the South African was back in the hut in the 16th over, Punjab couldn't score a single boundary, managing a meagre 23 runs in the last four overs.
Pollard (2/8) and Bumrah (2/24) were the pick of the bowlers but they were supported well by Krunal Pandya (1/24), Rahul Chahar (1/27) and Nathan Coulter-Nile (0/19).
earlier, Mandeep Singh (15) was the first to go as Krunal Pandya dealt the first blow. Pollard then removed Chris Gayle.
Two balls later, Pollard picked up Rahul for his 300th wicket in T20s after the batsman pulled a short of length delivery straight to Bumrah at short fine leg.
Bumrah then produced his famous dipping yorker to trap Nicholas Pooran in front of wicket as Punjab slipped to 48 for four in 8th over.
Markram and Hooda then kept the scoreboard ticking, picking up singles of Chahar and occassional boundaries to take Punjab to 90 for 4 in 14 overs.
Punjab never got the momentum going as new man Harpreet Brar struggled to negotiate the variations of Bumrah and Coulter-Nile in the death overs.
Hooda, in desperation, then sent one up in the air only to be caught by Pollard as PBKS ended with a below-par score.
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3 US troops killed, 5 seriously wounded during Iran attacks, military says
Washington (AP): Three American service members have been killed and five others seriously wounded during the US attacks on Iran, the military said Sunday, marking the first American casualties in a major offensive that has sparked retaliation from the Islamic Republic.
US Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, announced the deaths in a post on X but did not say when and where they occurred. The statement said “several others sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions” and were going to return to duty.
Central Command described the situation “as fluid” and said it would withhold the identities of the service members who were killed for 24 hours after their families were notified.
The US military also denied Iranian claims that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier was struck with ballistic missiles, saying on X that the “missiles launched didn't even come close.”
President Donald Trump had warned that American troops could be killed or injured in the operation.
“The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties,” the Republican president said in a video address released early Saturday. “That often happens in war. But we're doing this not for now. We're doing this for the future.”
Following the US-Israeli strikes that killed Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other leaders, Iran's counterattacks have struck US bases in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has threatened to launch its “most intense offensive operation” ever targeting Israeli and American military installations.
Before the strikes, Trump had built up the largest US military presence in the Middle East in decades. The arrival of the Lincoln and three accompanying guided-missile destroyers at the end of January bolstered the number of warships in the region.
The world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and four accompanying destroyers later were dispatched from the Caribbean Sea to head to the Middle East.
The Ford was part of the US raid in Venezuela that captured leader Nicolás Maduro, who was brought to New York to face drug trafficking charges. The operation in January claimed no American lives but left seven US troops with gunshot wounds and shrapnel-related injuries.
One of those injured received the Medal of Honor during Trump's State of the Union address last week. Trump said Army Chief Warrant Officer 5 Eric Slover piloted the lead CH-47 Chinook helicopter that descended on the “heavily protected military fortress” where Maduro was staying.
Trump has launched several military operations during his second term, including strikes on members of the Islamic State group in Syria in retaliation for an ambush attack that killed two US troops and an American civilian interpreter in December.
The US military has also struck IS forces in Nigeria, after Trump accused the West African country's government of failing to rein in the targeting of Christians.
