International
T20 World Cup: Want to take consistency from the tournament with us, says Craig Ervine

Coming into the Men’s T20 World Cup, not many had predicted that Zimbabwe would enter the Super 12 stage of the tournament, though they were riding on a new wave of results since July. After all, they were placed in a tough Group A of the first round which included two-time champions West Indies, Ireland and Scotland.
But Zimbabwe scraped through to defeat Ireland and Scotland to top the table and enter the Group 2 of the Super 12s. With confidence brimming and the goal of making Super 12s achieved, Zimbabwe were now in the pursuit of making life tough for the big teams clubbed alongside them.
Though their match against South Africa was washed out, Zimbabwe managed to stun Pakistan by successfully defending 130 and winning by one run. They had some disappointments too, losing by three runs to Bangladesh and comprehensively beaten by the Netherlands in a five-wicket defeat.
Now, looking back at their campaign ahead of their final match against India at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday, captain Craig Ervine wants to build upon the consistency shown by his team in the tournament for achieving bigger goals in the future.
“We knew that coming into this tournament, we had really good momentum. We got some great results leading into the tournament. The confidence and everything was up for us coming into the tournament and our main goal was to qualify for the Super 12s as well as still performing against some of the bigger teams.
“Going away from the World Cup, we want to take that sort of consistency with us. We know that the cricketing schedule is very busy going forward, so we want to keep this momentum that we have created. We have created a good support base now that many people are following Zimbabwe cricket. We want to try keep it that way and build on it going forward,” said Ervine in the pre-match press conference.
Against Bangladesh, Zimbabwe were close to making an upset victory and spice up the tournament. But their inability to score even a single run off the last two balls of the game, especially after no-ball was called when teams were already back in the dugout, was a pinching loss for Ervine and Zimbabwe.
“The loss to Bangladesh was very disappointing, especially to come so close. More so from the position that we were in, we were pretty much looked out of the game. But then Sean Williams and Ryan Burl together almost took us over the line.
“Then the last ball being a no-ball, and to come back on the field, you sort of sit back and think maybe we weren’t destined for it. It’s such a quick turnaround in this tournament. You can’t really sit and think if we had done this or that as there’s a next game which is few days away. So, we have to just kick on and look at the next game,” expressed Ervine.
With India coming into the match after surviving a scare against Bangladesh to win by five runs, Ervine is aware that with matches in the tournament going down the wire, no team can be ruled out of winning the game. Zimbabwe know it very well too, having stunned India by three runs in the 1999 ODI World Cup in England.
“For a lot of games, the World Cup has been really exciting because there’s been a lot of close games. One thing that we’ve learnt is you’re never out of it. If you can try and stay in the game and try and take it as deep as possible, you never know where it might take you.
“There’s a lot of different pressures that are at play in various games, so especially just trying to take the game as deep as possible and letting the other side panic before you do.”
Ervine signed off by hoping Zimbabwe can make improvements in fielding and losing wickets in a heap, especially in the power-play, in future. “There’s a few areas that we’d like to improve on. One is especially the fielding over the last couple (of) games, has let us down quite a bit. Also the powerplay, we’ve struggled a little bit on the powerplay.”
“We’ve lost a lot of early wickets and it puts quite a bit of pressure on the middle order. Losing those wickets in clusters has been our Achilles heel in the batting department, and then in the fielding department it’s mainly been our dropped catches and missed fields we need to tidy up on.”
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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