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KL Rahul’s conservative approach in Eliminator piques Manjrekar, Shastri

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KL Rahul’s conservative approach and the Lucknow Super Giants’ skipper batting till the 19th over of the Eliminator against Royal Challengers Bangalore has prompted the likes of former India chief coach Ravi Shastri, Sanjay Manjrekar and New Zealand legend Daniel Vettori to say that the cricketer seriously erred in the must-win game at the Eden Gardens.

LSG, chasing a mammoth 207, were eliminated from IPL 2022 after losing to RCB by 14 runs.

Manjrekar was the most scathing of the former cricketers, saying that Rahul is “temperamentally not suited to take this kind of a responsibility (captaincy)”.

“We have seen enough of KL Rahul to now know that when he becomes the captain, the key player of the side… Virat Kohli loved that kind of responsibility, (MS) Dhoni loved it, Rohit Sharma, barring this season, generally likes that kind of responsibility. Maybe, KL Rahul temperamentally is not suited to take this kind of a responsibility, where he is the man who has got to get the job done. They (captains) are made of different mettle, and maybe KL Rahul isn’t,” opined Manjrekar on Espncricinfo’s T20 Time:Out.

Rahul opened the innings and was out at the fag end of the 19th over but could manage just 79 runs off 58 balls at at strike rate of 136.20. Till the 16th over, his strike rate was a dismal 120, which really did not go down well with Manjrekar.

“So as a coach, I would drill that into his head and tell him that I am not expecting you to win the game (bat all through). You just go and have fun, and funnily enough you will see the results start coming. I believe, he has a much better strike rate at the international level than at the IPL level, because he is just one of the many batters playing alongside Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and the others… so he just goes out there and expresses himself. His strike rate of 120 until the 16th over, that’s dangerous; that’s leaving too much even for a player like himself,” added Manjrekar.

“Every time (in the Eliminator) he decided to play the big shots it came off. He played a couple of terrific shots against (Josh) Hazlewood, and he can do it when he wants to. But he just has this very deep-rooted belief or an attitude or approach that he wants to bat longer rather than quicker. And if I were his coach, I would take that decision out of his hand even if he is captain,” added Manjrekar.

Former New Zealand skipper Vettori said that the conservative approach in IPL is fraught with risks.

“The conservative approach leans to having to be ultra-risky at the end, and so when you have a player of that skill, and we have seen KL Rahul take down teams time and again, you always wonder ‘why don’t you go earlier… you sort of de-risk the back-end in chasing. 14-15 (runs) can be done on this (Eden) ground.

“So, a couple of risks through the powerplay and that 60 off 42 looks so much better, and it takes so much pressure off the deep end,” opined Vettori.

Former India chief coach Ravi Shastri too was unimpressed with Rahul’s approach in the Eliminator.

“They should have gone a little earlier. Sometimes, you wait too long but here, between the ninth and the 14th over, there should have been someone who should have been targeted, especially in that partnership,” Shastri said on Star Sports.

“When (Deepak) Hooda and Rahul were going, I think even though he did as well as he did, KL could have taken a little more chances there because Hooda was going. Take a little more chances, and he could have targeted someone between the ninth and the 13th over because Harshal Patel was going to come back in the end with his full quota of overs. If they had got the required rate down at the stage, that would have made RCB a little nervous,” added Shastri.

International

Murder of Hindu leader: India slams Bangladesh, says killing follows pattern of systematic persecution of Hindu minorities

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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.

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Death toll from US airstrikes on Yemeni fuel port rises to 38: Houthis

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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.

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Houthis say 123 civilians in Yemen killed in one month of US airstrikes

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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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