International
IND v SA, 1st T20I: Miller, Van der Dussen, Pretorius make it an evening to remember for South Africa

On a belter of a pitch at Arun Jaitley Stadium, with some help for pacers and spinners, chasing 212 was going to be an enormous task for South Africa. But the impossible was made possible by the troika of Dwaine Pretorius, David Miller and Rassie van der Dussen unleashing knocks in contrasting ways to secure a seven-wicket win and take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
On the eve of the match, captain Temba Bavuma had said to reporters that the pitch had become better to bat as the game progressed, as seen from their intra-squad practice match. On match day, despite occasional fumbles and asking rate touching either 12 or 13, Pretorius, Miller and van der Dussen ensured that South Africa hunted down 212 with five balls to spare.
When Bavuma fell to a leg-cutter from Bhuvneshwar Kumar, South Africa sprung a surprise by sending Pretorius at three, whose career-best knock in the format, an unbeaten 77, laced with seven fours and three sixes, came at the same position against Sri Lanka in March 2019.
Though his stay was of just 14 balls against India, Pretorius justified his move by punching Bhuvneshwar crisply through cover on his second ball.
But it was a clean slog-sweep off Yuzvendra Chahal for a huge six over cow corner that signalled Pretorius’ intentions to go for the kill. He muscled Pandya for three sixes — one over fine leg, others over mid-wicket, as South Africa soared to 60/1 in five overs.
Though he was undone by a slower, dipping full toss from Harshal Patel, Pretorius’ clean strikes had done the job of giving the chase early impetus.
“Dwaine is probably one of the guys in world cricket who hits the ball hardest. If you look at his domestic as well as international statistics, number three has been the position where he’s been successful at. Tonight, there was a clear instruction to go in and put the bowlers under pressure.
“With a total of that nature, you gotta almost go hard for 20 overs,” said van der Dussen to reporters after the match.
“When Dwaine gets it right, it’s really, really tough to bowl to him as he’s a very powerful hitter of the ball. He played brilliantly and got out to a really good ball from Harshal, but he will take a lot of confidence from it going into the series and will definitely put the bowlers under pressure,” added the right-hander.
At the half-way mark, South Africa needed 126 runs off the last 10 overs. It was a gettable target, mainly due to Miller’s rich vein of form. Miller, coming after enjoying a prolific season in Gujarat Titans’ trophy run in IPL 2022, teed off with successive boundaries off Harshal before taking four and two sixes off Axar to pave the way for South Africa’s chase.
Bhuvneshwar tried to stop him with slower balls, but were duly dispatched by Miller for boundaries.
But the real game-changer for South Africa came when van der Dussen, who was struggling to time the ball, broke the toe-end of his bat and signalled for a new one. At that time, he was 22 off 25 balls and with the new bat, it seemed that the timing which deserted van der Dussen, had come back.
Luck also helped him as Shreyas Iyer spilled a catch at deep mid-wicket, giving van der Dussen life at 29 off 30 balls.
“I think I had put myself and the team under a bit of pressure by not being able to get boundaries early on in my innings. But it wasn’t through lack of intent, or lack of planning, or lack of clarity of mind. You know, sometimes it just doesn’t come off. When Shreyas dropped it, I knew I had to make them pay because I took the balls to get myself in,” revealed van der Dussen.
Miller and van der Dussen looted 22 runs from overs 17 and 18, slamming five gigantic sixes and three crisp boundaries off Harshal and Bhuvneshwar.
Fittingly, van der Dussen finished off the chase with a reverse sweep off Chahal on the first ball of the final over to secure the highest successful chase made by South Africa in the format, with the duo sharing an unbroken stand of 131 runs for the fourth wicket.
“When David came in, I said to him, ‘You can play it as you see it but I’m pretty happy to take between 12 and 13 an over in the last ten.’ Because if you were in on this wicket, you could really capitalise. So, we didn’t panic at all. We knew even if the asking rate got up to 14-15, we could use that one short boundary with the right-left combination. We knew we could target the bowlers,” signed off van der Dussen.
In an ideal world, Pretorius wouldn’t have been promoted to three if Aiden Markram wasn’t down with Covid-19 and van der Dussen could have batted at three. But on Thursday, the personnel on positions shuffled, with Pretorius, Miller and van der Dussen playing chief roles in making Thursday a memorable evening for the Proteas.
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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