Bridgetown, Jun 20: Suryakumar Yadav played fearlessly on a testing surface before India tightened the noose around Afghanistan with a clinical bowling performance to script a commanding 47-run win in their opening Super 8 fixture of the T20 World Cup here on Thursday.
Rashid Khan (3/26) improved his ordinary record against India before Suryakumar (53 off 28) played like he only can to take his team to 181 for 8 after India decided to bat on a surface where it was difficult to hit through the line.
Afghanistan were never in the run chase and folded up for 134 in exactly 20 overs. The questionable shot selection from the Afghan batters contributed to their downfall, extending their winless run against India.
Jasprit Bumrah (3/7 in four overs) was too good for the opposition again while Kuldeep Yadav (2/32), playing his first game of the tournament, also made an impact.
India’s next Super 8 fixture against Bangladesh will take place in in Antigua on Saturday.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (11 off 8), who announced his intent with a six and four off Arshdeep Singh, went for a rash shot against Bumrah in the second over of the innings to be caught behind.
Hazratullah Zazai, brought into the squad in place of the injured Mujeeb Zadran, was Bumrah’s next victim as his attempted flick off a cutter from the Indian pace spearhead went straight into the safe hands of Ravindra Jadeja at backward point.
Kuldeep, who replaced Mohammed Siraj in the playing eleven, operated in the middle overs and sent back Gulbadin Naib (17) with a wrong one in the 11th over.
Azmatullah Omarzai (26 off 20) was the top-scored for Afghanistan.
The fall of wickets through the innings did not allow Afghanistan to get back in the game.
Earlier, Suryakumar was back to his nonchalant best and picked the boundaries at will on a track where the other batters struggled to get going. The other notable contributions came from Rishabh Pant (20 off 11), who too found the boundaries from the word go and Hardik Pandya (32 off 24).
Virat Kohli (24 off 24) got into the double digits for the first time in this tournament but was dismissed just when he was getting set.
Rashid (3/26), who had not picked up a wicket against India prior to this game, struck in his first three overs to put pressure on the opposition.
India expectedly opt to bat at the Kensington Oval and the way the ball held up on the pitch early one, it seemed playing through the line will be tough.
Skipper Rohit Sharma (8) tried to push the scoring rate in third over from Fazalhaq Farooqi (3/33) but was caught at mid-on after finding the toe end of his bat.
Rashid brought himself on right after the Powerplay with India reaching 47 for one. The star spinner sent back the dangerous Pant in the seventh over. The southpaw once again was not afraid to employ the sweep and audacious reverse sweep against the spinners before eventually falling to Rashid.
After Kohli was caught at long-off in Rashid’s second over, India felt the heat. Suryarkumar eased the tension with a flurry of sweeps against Rashid before the spinner got his third scalp in the form of Shivam Dube (10), who was trapped in front after the ball turned back in sharply and crashed into his back leg.
Surya kept finding the big hits from the other end. He outrageously whipped a wide full toss from Azmatullah Omarzai to deep square-leg before a six and four off Farooqi took him to a well made half-century.
After Surya’s departure, Hardik then got into the act and hammered the ball into the stands on couple of occasions. His straight six off left-arm spinner Noor Ahmed was all brute power, almost shattering the window of the press box. In the end, India did well to post their highest total at the historic venue which in the end proved to be unassailable.
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Moscow, Dec 25: An Azerbaijani airliner with 67 people onboard crashed Wednesday in the Kazakhstani city of Aktau, leaving at least 32 survivors, according to officials. More than 30 people are likely dead.
Kazakhstan's Emergency Ministry said in a Telegram statement that those on board included five crew. At least 29 have been hospitalized, the ministry told Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti.
Russian news agency Interfax quoted medical workers as saying that four bodies have been recovered and emergency workers at the scene as saying that both pilots, according to a preliminary assessment, died in the crash.
The Embraer 190 aircraft made an emergency landing 3 km from the city, Azerbaijan Airlines said earlier.
Kazakhstan's Emergency Ministry initially said 25 people survived the crash, later revising that number to 27, 28, and then 29 as the search and rescue operation continued at the site of the crash, bringing the supposed death toll down.
Prosecutor General's Office in Azerbaijan later reported that at least 32 people survived the crash, adding that the number wasn't final.
The number of survivors could mean that over 30 people may be dead.
The plane was originally scheduled to travel from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus. According to Azerbaijan Airlines, 37 passengers were Azerbaijani citizens. There were also 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhstani and three Kyrgyzstani citizens, it said.
RIA Novosti quoted Russia's civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, as saying that preliminary information showed that the pilot had chosen to divert to Aktau after a bird strike on the aircraft led to “an emergency situation on board”.
Mobile phone footage circulating online appeared to show the aircraft making a steep descent before smashing into the ground in a fireball. Other footage showed part of its fuselage ripped away from the wings and the rest of the aircraft, lying upside in the grass. The footage corresponded to the plane's colors and its registration number.
Some of the videos posted on social media showed survivors dragging fellow passengers away from the wreckage of the plane.
Flight-tracking data from FlightRadar24.com showed the aircraft making what appeared to be a figure-right once nearing the airport in Aktau, its altitude moving up and down substantially over the last minutes of the flight before impacting the ground.
FlightRadar24 separately said in an online post that the aircraft had faced “strong GPS jamming” which “made the aircraft transmit bad ADS-B data”, referring to the information that allows flight-tracking websites to follow planes in flight. Russia has been blamed in the past for jamming GPS transmissions in the wider region.
Embraer did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Wednesday morning. In a statement, Azerbaijan Airlines said it would keep members of the public updated and changed its social media banners to solid black.
Azerbaijan's state news agency, Azertac, said that an official delegation consisting of Azerbaijan's emergency situations minister, the country's deputy general prosecutor, and the vice president of Azerbaijan Airlines had been dispatched to Aktau to conduct an “on-site investigation”.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who had been traveling to St Petersburg, returned to Azerbaijan on hearing news of the crash, the president's press service said. Aliyev was due to attend an informal meeting of leaders of Commonwealth of Independent States, a bloc of former Soviet countries founded after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Aliyev expressed his condolences to the families of the victims in a statement on social media. “It is with deep sadness that I express my condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to those injured,” he wrote.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to Aliyev on the phone and expressed his condolences, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Both Kazakhstani and Azerbaijani authorities were investigating the crash. Embraer told The Associated Press in a statement that the company is “ready to assist all relevant authorities.”
Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane flying from Baku to Grozny crashed in Aktau, Kazakhstan. pic.twitter.com/EnicqHcTGM
— Clash Report (@clashreport) December 25, 2024