International
All-round Delhi keep Covid-19 scare aside to thrash Punjab by nine wickets

In the run-up to their match against Punjab Kings, Delhi Capitals didn’t get adequate practice. They had to spend time in hotel rooms, put through rounds of testing, saw a change of venues and six members of their camp, including Mitchell Marsh and then Tim Seifert testing positive for Covid-19 on the morning of the match, bringing a cloud of uncertainty over them taking the field for a crucial game.
In spite of all the off-field troubles, Delhi set aside feelings of confusion as well as nervousness to put up a sterling all-round performance, save for some fielding fumbles, to thrash Punjab Kings by nine wickets at the Brabourne Stadium on Wednesday. For everything that went wrong for them off-field, every single thing, right from the toss to scoring the winning run worked in Delhi’s favour.
After the bowlers put up an impressive show to bowl out Punjab for just 115, David Warner and Prithvi Shaw’s fourth consecutive fifty-plus stand, leading to an opening partnership of 83, made short work of the chase, completed with 57 balls to spare. Punjab would rue their aggressive batting approach causing them to self-implode spectacularly to register the lowest score of IPL 2022.
Warner and Shaw came out all guns blazing by bringing up the half-century of their partnership in 3.3 overs, the fastest fifty by a team in IPL 2022. Shaw had initial difficulty against in-swing from Vaibhav Arora but took three boundaries in the opening over.
The dynamic duo then took a boundary each off Kagiso Rabada to pile more misery on Punjab. Arora came under further attack as Warner carted him for back-to-back boundaries while Shaw swung him hard over long-on for six. Warner took two more boundaries off Rabada before amassing 17 runs with Shaw off Arshdeep Singh’s opening over to effectively seal the fate of the match in power-play.
Post power-play, Rahul Chahar broke the 83-run opening stand as Shaw slog-swept, only for long-on to balance himself and take the catch over his left shoulder. Warner continued to deal in boundaries, whacking a pull over deep mid-wicket fence off Rabada followed by clearing the same region with a slog-sweep.
Warner registered a hat-trick of fifties in the tournament with a four steered through third man off Nathan Ellis before finishing off the innings with another four through mid-wicket off Chahar to seal a thumping win for Delhi.
Earlier, from 33/0 in 3.3 overs, Punjab’s batting went nowhere as Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Kuldeep Yadav and Mustafizur Rahman picked two wickets each. Mayank Agarwal began the innings with an uppish cut through point off Shardul Thakur. He then picked three more fours off Thakur’s second over, two on the off-side followed by a leg glance as Punjab raced to 27/0 in three overs.
Lalit provided the breakthrough for Delhi, breaking the 33-run opening stand as Shikhar Dhawan was strangled down leg while trying to pull and Rishabh Pant grabbing an excellent catch. In the next over, Agarwal chopped on to his stumps off Rahman while trying to dab through third man.
Punjab were dealt with another big blow in power-play when Liam Livingstone danced down the pitch to loft straight down the ground but missed the ball completely and was stumped by Pant off Axar. In the next over, Jonny Bairstow pulled a short ball from Ahmed straight to long leg.
Jitesh Sharma tried to steady Punjab’s innings with some boundaries off Ahmed, Rahman and Kuldeep. But he was trapped lbw on 32 off 23 balls by Axar while moving across to sweep. With Kuldeep castling Kagiso Rabada and Nathan Ellis on consecutive deliveries in his final over after going wicketless in first three and Shahrukh Khan nicking behind a short and wide off cutter from Ahmed in the next over, the end was inevitable for Punjab.
Rahul Chahar struck a four and six to take Punjab past 100 with his run-a-ball 12. But Lalit took him out by sweeping straight to deep backward square leg. Arshdeep Singh’s run-out on the final ball of the innings through a comical mis-up brought curtains on a very strange innings from Punjab.
Brief Scores: Punjab Kings 115 all out in 20 overs (Jitesh Sharma 32, Mayank Agarwal 24; Axar Patel 2/10, Lalit Yadav 2/11) lost to Delhi Capitals 119/1 in 10.3 overs (David Warner 60 not out, Prithvi Shaw 41; Rahul Chahar 1/21) by nine wickets
International
Murder of Hindu leader: India slams Bangladesh, says killing follows pattern of systematic persecution of Hindu minorities

New Delhi, April 19: India on Saturday issued a sharp condemnation of the abduction and brutal killing of Bhabesh Chandra Roy, a prominent Hindu community leader in northern Bangladesh, calling it part of a “pattern of systematic persecution” of minorities under the country’s interim government.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal voiced India’s grave concern, stating that the incident reflects an alarming trend of targetted violence against Hindus and other minority groups in Bangladesh.
“We have noted with distress the abduction and brutal killing of Shri Bhabesh Chandra Roy, a Hindu minority leader in Bangladesh. This killing follows a pattern of systematic persecution of Hindu minorities under the interim government, even as the perpetrators of previous such events roam with impunity,” Jaiswal said in a post on social media platform X.
He added, “We condemn this incident and once again remind the interim government to live up to its responsibility of protecting all minorities, including Hindus, without inventing excuses or making distinctions.”
India has previously expressed similar concerns over rising attacks on minorities in Bangladesh, but this latest incident has drawn particular attention due to Roy’s prominence in the Hindu community.
Roy, who served as the Vice-President of the Biral unit of the Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad, was abducted from his residence in Dinajpur district on Thursday evening. According to police and family accounts, he received a phone call around 4:30 p.m., after which four unidentified men arrived on motorcycles and forcibly took him to Narabari village. He was reportedly assaulted and later found unconscious. He was rushed to a hospital in Dinajpur, where he was declared dead on arrival. His wife, Shantana Roy believes the attackers used the call to confirm his location before carrying out the abduction.
Opposition leaders in India also slammed the shocking incident in the neighbouring country.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge highlighted that religious minorities, especially Hindus, are being persecuted in Bangladesh.
“Attacks on other religious minorities are also continuing. Recently, the Chief Advisor of Bangladesh made a very condemnable and disappointing comment about the northeastern states of India. The persecution of religious minorities in Bangladesh, human rights violations, and the attempt to erase the memories of the 1971 Liberation War are efforts to weaken the relationship between India and Bangladesh. From 1971 till today, India has always wished for peace and prosperity for all the people of Bangladesh. This is in the best interest of the subcontinent,” he said.
International
Death toll from US airstrikes on Yemeni fuel port rises to 38: Houthis

Sanaa, April 18: The death toll from US overnight airstrikes on the Yemeni fuel port of Ras Isa has increased to 38, with 102 others wounded, Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported on Friday, citing Houthi-controlled local health authorities.
According to al-Masirah, the casualties include five paramedics who were killed upon arriving at the scene, when the US military launched another wave of airstrikes on the port just minutes after the first on Thursday night.
More than 14 airstrikes on the fuel port were reported during the two waves, igniting massive fires in tanks storing imported fuel. The fires were extinguished within hours, said the report.
The US Central Command said earlier in a statement that it struck and destroyed the Ras Isa port on Thursday to “eliminate this source of fuel for” and “degrade the economic source of power of” the Houthis, Xinhua news agency reported.
In mid-March, US President Donald Trump ordered “decisive and powerful military action” against the Houthis after the group announced plans to resume attacks on Israeli vessels in the Red Sea, citing Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza as the reason.
Earlier on April 17, Yemen’s Houthi leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi had said his group had launched 26 attacks against Israel and 33 strikes on the US aircraft carrier and warships in the Red Sea since March 15.
In a televised speech aired by the group’s al-Masirah TV on Thursday, the Houthi leader said the attacks on Israel were carried out using “30 ballistic missiles and drones,” while those targeting the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and its escorts involved “122 ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones”.
However, the Israeli military has reportedly intercepted many of the Houthi projectiles before they reached targets, Xinhua news agency reported.
The US Central Command dismissed the Houthi claims of daily attacks on the US aircraft carrier as “outlandish” in a post on the social media platform X.
Meanwhile, the Houthi leader noted that the US military had conducted more than 900 airstrikes against his group’s positions across northern Yemen during the past 30 days.
Tensions between the Houthi group and the US military have escalated since Washington resumed airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen on March 15 to deter the group from attacking Israel and US warships in the Red Sea.
The Houthis, which control much of northern Yemen, said their attacks aim to press US-backed Israel to stop the offensive against the Gaza Strip and allow humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave.
Israel’s Channel 12 News reported last Saturday that a Yemeni drone was intercepted near the Dead Sea within the Jordanian airspace before it could reach Israel.
The Jordanian army confirmed later last week that an unidentified drone entered Jordanian airspace and crashed in the Ma’in area of Madaba governorate, near the Dead Sea, and no casualties were reported.
Even since Israel renewed its intensive strikes in March across the Gaza Strip, the Houthis have been launching frequent attacks against Israeli and US targets.
Earlier last week, the Houthi military spokesperson claimed fresh attacks against the US aircraft carrier, USS Harry S Truman, and other US warships in the northern Red Sea.
International
Houthis say 123 civilians in Yemen killed in one month of US airstrikes

Sanaa, April 15: A total of 123 civilians have been killed and 247 others injured, mostly women and children, since the US military resumed airstrikes across Yemen in mid-March, Houthi-run health authorities said in an statement.
The statement was issued following US airstrikes against a ceramic factory on the western outskirts of Yemen’s capital Sanaa late on Sunday night, which killed seven people and injured 29 others.
The health authorities’ previous statement on April 9 put the death toll from the renewed US air raids at 107 and the number of injuries at 223.
The Houthi group rarely discloses casualties among its fighters. However, the US military has repeatedly said the strikes have killed dozens of Houthi leaders, which the group has denied, Xinhua news agency reported.
Earlier on Sunday, Yemen’s Houthi group announced that it had shot down another US MQ-9 drone, the 19th it has downed since November 2023.
“A US MQ-9 drone was shot down while carrying out hostile missions in the airspace of Hajjah province” in northwestern Yemen, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a statement aired by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.
Sarea added that the drone was downed by a locally manufactured surface-to-air missile, stressing “the ongoing US aggression” has not crippled the group’s military capabilities.
The statement affirmed the group’s support for the Palestinian people, saying its operations will continue “until the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip stops and the siege on it is lifted.”
The US resumed its air campaign against Houthi forces on March 15, stating that its strikes were aimed at deterring the group from launching attacks against Israeli and US naval assets in the Red Sea.
The Houthis, who control vast areas of northern Yemen, have been attacking Israeli targets since November 2023 to show solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip.
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