World Cup: Shahidi, Omarzai push Afghanistan to 272/8, Bumrah stars for India
New Delhi (PTI): Hasmatullah Shahidi's dogged 80 and the young Azmatullah Omarazai's gutsy 62 took Afghanistan to 272 for eight in their World Cup contest against India here on Wednesday.
Skipper Shahidi walked the talk as Afghanistan put up a much-improved effort with the bat compared to what they had managed in their tournament opener against Bangladesh.
His 121-run stand for the fourth wicket with 23-year-old Omarzai allowed Afghanistan to post a fighting total.
At 211 or four in 40 overs, Afghanistan looked likely to get close to 300 but India bowlers did well to stem the flow of runs. Jasprit Bumrah was by the far the best bowler for the home team, delivering in both the powerplay and the death overs to end with figures of 4 for 39 in 10 overs. This is Bumrah's best figures in a World Cup game.
The ball did not turn much but Kuldeep Yadav ended with tidy figures of one for 40 in 10 overs.
Considering the batting friendly conditions at Feroz Shah Kotla, India would fancy themselves to chase down the target with little difficulty.
It wasn't the smoothest of starts for Afghanistan, who reached 48 for one in the opening Powerplay.
While Bumrah got the ball to talk in his first spell of four overs, Mohammed Siraj leaked 28 runs off his first 24 balls. Siraj ended up conceding 76 runs off his nine overs.
The opening duo of Ibrahim Zadran (22) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (21) collected five boundaries off Siraj, whose ploy of consistently targeting the stumps did not pay off.
Bumrah got the breakthrough with a short of length ball on the off-stump that straightened a shade to take the outside edge off Zadran's bat.
Gurbaz and Rahmat Shah (16) falling in a space of three balls brought Shahdi and Omarzai in the middle.
The much younger Omarzai, promoted up the order, found the odd boundary while Shahidi played second fiddle.
The highlight was Omarzai's innings was the ease with which he played the Indian spin duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav. He dispatched Kuldeep for two sixes on either side of the straight boundary in the 25th over.
His third six off Kuldeep came in the 34th over when he picked the Indian spinner's wrong 'un and deposited it over long on.
Shahidi, on the other hand, was good with cut against the pacers and his stand out shot was the ramp off Hardik Pandya.
Rashid Khan did come up with some crisp blows towards the end but Afghanistan only managed 61 runs in the last 10 overs with the loss of four wickets. PTI
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Los Angeles county wildfires could be costliest in US history, early estimates say
Los Angeles, Jan 11: The wildfires that erupted this week across Los Angeles County are still raging, but already are projected to be among the costliest natural disasters in US history.
The devastating blazes have killed at least 11 people and incinerated more than 12,000 structures since Tuesday, laying waste to entire neighbourhoods once home to multimillion-dollar properties.
While it's still too early for an accurate tally of the financial toll, the losses so far likely make the wildfires the costliest ever in the US, according to various estimates.
A preliminary estimate by AccuWeather put the damage and economic losses so far between USD 135 billion and USD 150 billion. By comparison, AccuWeather estimated the damage and economic losses caused by Hurricane Helene, which tore across six southeastern states last fall, at USD 225 billion to USD 250 billion.
“This will be the costliest wildfire in California modern history and also very likely the costliest wildfire in US modern history, because of the fires occurring in the densely populated areas around Los Angeles with some of the highest-valued real estate in the country,” said Jonathan Porter, the private firm's chief meteorologist.
AccuWeather factors in a multitude of variables in its estimates, including damage to homes, businesses, infrastructure and vehicles, as well as immediate and long-term health care costs, lost wages and supply chain interruptions.
The insurance broker Aon PLC also said Friday that the LA County wildfires will likely end up being the costliest in US history, although it did not issue an estimate. Aon ranks a wildfire known as the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, in 2018 as the costliest in US history up to now at USD 12.5 billion, adjusted for inflation. The Camp Fire killed 85 people and destroyed about 11,000 homes.
The LA County wildfires, which were fuelled by hurricane-force Santa Ana winds and an extreme drought, remained largely uncontained Saturday. That means the final tally of losses from the blazes is likely to increase, perhaps substantially.
“To put this into perspective, the total damage and economic loss from this wildfire disaster could reach nearly 4 per cent of the annual GDP of the state of California,” AccuWeather's Porter said.
In a report Friday, Moody's also concluded that the wildfires would prove to be the costliest in US history, specifically because they have ripped through densely populated areas with higher-end properties.
While the state is no stranger to major wildfires, they have generally been concentrated in inland areas that are not densely populated. That's led to less destruction per acre, and in damage to less expensive homes, Moody's noted.
That's far from the case this time, with one of the largest conflagrations destroying thousands of properties across the Pacific Palisades and Malibu, home to many Hollywood stars and executives with multimillion-dollar properties. Already, numerous celebrities have lost homes to the fires.
“The scale and intensity of the blazes, combined with their geographic footprint, suggest a staggering price tag, both in terms of the human cost and the economic toll,” Moody's analysts wrote. The report did not include a preliminary cost estimate of the wildfire damage.
It could be several months before a concrete tally of the financial losses from the wildfires will be possible.
“We're in the very early stages of this disaster,” Porter said.
