News Analysis India

Tag: South Africa

  • Afghanistan Stuns Cricket World By Qualifying For T20 World Cup 2024 Semi-Finals After Defeating Bangladesh, Australia Knocked Out | Cricket News

    T20 World Cup 2024: Afghanistan has stunned cricket experts by reaching the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup 2024 after defeating Bangladesh by 8 runs (DLS) in their Super 8 match on Tuesday, June 25, at the Arnos Vale Ground in Kingstown, St.Vincent. This victory knocked Australia, the 2021 champions, out of the tournament following their losses to India and Afghanistan. Despite rain interruptions in the second innings, Afghanistan kept their cool.

    Finishing second in the table with 4 points and a net run rate of -0.267, Afghanistan secured two wins from three games. After a heavy 47-run loss to India, Rashid Khan’s team made a strong comeback. They will now play against Aiden Markram’s South Africa in the first semi-final on June 27 at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba, Trinidad.

    Afghanistan chose to bat first but struggled, posting 115 for 5 in 20 overs. Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran added 59 runs for the first wicket but couldn’t accelerate. Rishad Hossain dismissed Ibrahim, who scored a slow 18 from 29 balls. Gurbaz managed 43 runs with a strike rate of 78.18.

    The middle-order batsmen, including Azmatullah Omarzai, Gulbadin Naib, and Karim Janat, also struggled. Skipper Rashid Khan’s unbeaten 19 off 10 balls, including three sixes, gave the innings some late momentum.

    Bangladesh’s chase was interrupted by rain, but with their score at 31 for 3 in 3.3 overs, they had a challenging target. Soumya Sarkar and Towhid Hridoy scored 10 and 14 runs respectively before falling to Rashid Khan. Despite Litton Das’s fighting 54 not out from 49 balls, Bangladesh fell short, being bowled out for 105 in 17.5 overs, chasing a revised target of 114 in 19 overs.

    Naveen-ul-Haq Gets Emotional

    Afghanistan’s pacer Naveen-ul-Haq, named Player of the Match, expressed his emotions, saying, “We have worked so hard over the past few years and we were dreaming and working for this day. I’m lost for words. (On his spell) We always knew that they were going hard in the powerplay to chase the total down in 12.1 overs so we knew we were in the game as long as we kept picking wickets. We had confidence that these wickets are not high-scoring wickets. As long as we don’t give easy runs we knew we would have a chance.”

    Afghanistan vs South Africa T20 WC 2024

    Group 2 winners South Africa will play against Afghanistan in the first semi-final, while Group 1 leaders India will face England in the second semi-final. South Africa vs. Afghanistan match will start at 8:30 PM local time on Wednesday, June 26, at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba. The India vs. The England match will be at 10:30 AM local time on Thursday, June 27, at the Providence Stadium in Guyana.

  • Six passengers who arrived in Maharashtra from SA and other high-risk nations test coronavirus positive: Health department

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Six passengers, who arrived in Maharashtra from South Africa and other high-risk countries, have tested positive for coronavirus and their samples have been sent for genome sequencing, the state health department said on Tuesday amid the scare over Omicron, the new variant of SARS-CoV2.

    Of those who have come from South Africa and other countries, one each has been found in the municipal corporation limits of Mumbai, Kalyan-Dombivali, Mira-Bhayandar and Pune.

    Two passengers who arrived from Nigeria have been found in the Pimpri-Chinchwad corporation area neighbouring Pune.

    “Currently, there are six passengers who arrived from South Africa or other high-risk countries in the state who have tested positive. The samples of all of them have been sent for genetic sequencing and their contact tracing exercise is underway. All these passengers, although tested COVID-19 positive, are either asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic,” the health department said.

    On November 26, the World Health Organisation (WHO) named the coronavirus variant detected in South Africa and some other countries as Omicron. The WHO has also classified the Omicron variant as a ‘Variant of Concern’.

    Experts have expressed possibilities that owing to the genetic modification in the virus, it may possess some specific characteristics.

    While the transmissibility of infection seems to have increased because of this new variant, there is still not enough clarity on whether or not it will cause severe disease and whether it will evade immunity.

    More information is expected in the next two weeks’ time or so, it said. Additionally, those passengers who are found RT-PCR negative will also be quarantined for seven days before testing again, it said.

    “If they are found positive this time around, their samples too will be sent for genomic sequencing,” the health bulletin said.

    According to the Centre’s guidelines, RT-PCR test will be done randomly for 5 per cent of the passengers arriving from countries other than the listed ones, and positive samples found will be sent for genomic sequencing.

  • South African President reiterates call for equal access to vaccines at BRICS Summit

    By PTI

    JOHANESSBURG: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday reiterated his call for an equal access to COVID-19 vaccines, saying the coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating impact on human life, livelihoods, economies and communities around the world.

    Addressing the 13th BRICS summit presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi via video link, Ramaphosa said as the BRICS countries, “we must continue to safeguard people’s lives and livelihoods, support global economic recovery and enhance the resilience of all our public systems.”

    “We must ensure equal access to COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics,” he said.

    He said that the leaders of the BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — are meeting in unprecedented times.

    The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on human life, livelihoods, economies and communities around the world, he said.

    “As much as we have known sorrow and hardship, we have also known solidarity and cooperation,” Ramaphosa said as he lauded the cooperation of the BRICS partners in fighting the pandemic.

    “Our collective response has demonstrated what can be achieved when we work together. All tracks of our BRICS cooperation have been orientated towards concrete responses to the pandemic.

    “We each need to contribute our fair share to the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator and support the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) waiver at the WTO to ensure a rapid expansion of COVID-19 vaccine production across the world,” the President said.

    ALSO READ: Russia ready to continue cooperation with BRICS countries in all fields, says President Putin

    Ramaphosa and Prime Minister Modi had first proposed the temporary waiver on patents for COVID-19 vaccines’ waiver in May this year and rapidly got support from more than 60 countries.

    Ramaphosa welcomed both the decisions by the Health Ministers of BRICS nations to start a virtual BRICS Vaccine Research and Development Centre and the foreign ministers’ joint statement on strengthening and reforming the multilateral system.

    “The pandemic has reinforced our belief that representative multilateralism is key to a sustainable future for all,” he said.

    Ramaphosa also urged members to pursue reform at the UN Security Council.

    “We call on BRICS to be equally bold and determined in seeking reform of the United Nations Security Council, among other things to enable Africa to take its rightful place among the collective of nations in this crucial body,” he said.

    Ramaphosa concluded his address with a plea for BRICS members to remain focused on the attainment of better health outcomes, while also pursuing the goals of quality education, decent work, action on climate change, peace and justice.

    “We are now in the final decade towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.

    We must strengthen our cooperation, deepen our partnership and actively strive towards a world of better health, better opportunity and shared prosperity for all,” the president added.

  • Researchers from BRICS nations to study impact of severe Covid on TB patients

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: BRICS countries are working on a programme to study the impact of severe COVID-19 conditions on tuberculosis (TB) patients, the Department of Biotechnology said on Monday. 

    The SARS-CoV-2 NGS (Next Generation Sequencing)-BRICS consortium is an interdisciplinary collaboration to advance COVID-19 health-relevant knowledge and to contribute to improvements in health outcomes, it said.

    The consortium, comprising researchers from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS), will accelerate translation of genomic data from clinical and surveillance samples, the government’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT) said.

    This will be done utilising high-end genomic technologies, and epidemiologic and bioinformatics tools and this information will be used in diagnostic assays and tracking transmission dynamics of COVID-19 and other viruses, as well as lead to clinical and public health research and interventions, it said.

    “The Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, in collaboration with BRICS countries is implementing the SARS-CoV-2 NGS-BRICS consortium and multi-centric programme to study the impact of severe COVID-19 conditions on TB patients,” the DBT said.

    The Indian team has members from the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (Prof. Arindam Maitra, Prof. Saumitra Das, Dr. Nidhan K Biswas), the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (Dr. Ashwin Dalal) and the Indian Institute of Science (Dr. Mohit K Jolly), it said.

    Dr. Ana Tereza Ribeiro de Vasconcelos of Brazil’s National Laboratory for Scientific Computation, Prof. Georgii Bazykin of Russia’s Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Prof. Mingkun Li of China’s Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Prof. Tulio de Oliveira of South Africa’s University of KwaZulu-Natal are the other members of the consortium, the DBT said.

    In a second multi-centric programme, an interdisciplinary team of researchers from India, Brazil and South Africa will investigate the impact of severe COVID-19 on transient peripheral immunosuppression and lung hyperinflammation conditions in TB patients for epidemiology and comorbidity, the department said.

    This team consists of members from the India’s National Institute of Research in Tuberculosis (Dr. Subash Babu, Dr. Anuradha Rajamanickam, Dr. Banurekha Velayutham and Dr. Dina Nair).

    Besides them, the members from Brazil are Dr. Valeria Cavalcanti Rolla and Dr. Adriano Gomes da Silva of the Lapclin-Tb/ INI-FIOCRUZ, Dr. Maria Cristina Lourenço of the LBB/INI-FIOCRUZ and Dr. Bruno de Bezerril Andrade from IGM-FIOCRUZ; and from South Africa are researchers Dr. Bavesh Kana, Dr. Bhavna Gordhan, Dr. Neil Martinson and Dr. Ziyaad Waja of the University of the Witwatersrand, the DBT said.

    “This collaborative study is expected to provide valuable co-morbidity data pertaining to pulmonary TB patients with or without COVID-19 co-infection that is expected to be generated for better disease management,” it said.

    Secretary in the DBT Renu Swarup said the department has taken small steps in the right direction towards collaboration with BRICS countries.

  • Babar Azam revels in his top order conquering South Africa

    It was the responsibility of the top order to take our innings deep, which we did,” he said. “Throughout the tournament, our batsmen did well, especially Fakhar [Zaman] and Imam[-ul Haq], and we wanted to continue our momentum. We wanted to finish the innings off and I was happy to be there till the end.

    “I’m very confident with the side. I’m very happy with the top order performing in a difficult place like South Africa. It gives us a lot of confidence, and we want to keep this momentum going.”

    While it might be churlish to play down the ODI success, Pakistan will acknowledge South Africa were severely hampered by the absence of players who have flown off to the IPL, as well as the late injury to Rassie van der Dussen which meant the hosts were forced to make seven changes to their starting XI. Pakistan, meanwhile, have problems of their own in the middle order, which Azam openly acknowledged, revealing the surprise inclusion of Sarfaraz Ahmed for the first time in 15 months was an attempt to mitigate that.

    “I accept our middle order struggled, but I don’t think it was as bad as people made out. There’s a gap in our middle order where we are missing a particular kind of player we are trying to fill, which is why we brought Sarfaraz in to try and plug that weakness. We wanted to utilise the experience that was on the bench, so that’s why we brought Sarfaraz in.”

    Babar went on to give Sarfaraz a complete vote of confidence, and suggested he could be involved more regularly in future. “Sarfaraz is with us because we trust him,” he said. “In ODI cricket, we’ll try and utilise him as much as we can as wicketkeeper and batsman, because at No. 5, you need to move the game along, which we believe he can do. The middle order was struggling, and while it didn’t come off for Sarfaraz today, everyone played a part in a very good series deciding win.”

    It was a day of personal achievement for Azam, too, whose innings of 94 ensured he pipped Indian batsman Virat Kohli to top spot in the ICC ODI rankings. Azam has enjoyed a fruitful series, finishing as the second-highest run-getter over the three ODIs, behind only Zaman. He insisted, however, that his focus remained squarely on the side, and the four-match T20I series that follows.

  • IPL 2021: David Miller on his way to link up with Rajasthan Royals squad in Mumbai

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: South Africa opening batsman David Miller is on his way to link up with the Rajasthan Royals squad in Mumbai ahead of the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021.

    Miller posted a photo of himself on Twitter on Monday and he captioned the post as: “Good start to April with #PROTEAS now off to India @rajasthanroyals.”

    Good start to April with #PROTEAS now off to India @rajasthanroyals pic.twitter.com/a1FupdyZNP
    — David Miller (@DavidMillerSA12) April 5, 2021

    Rajasthan Royals will play their first match on April 12 against Punjab Kings.

    The left-handed batsman was seen in action in the first two ODIs against Pakistan, in which he managed to score 100 runs, going past the 50-run mark in both the ODIs.

    Cricket South Africa (CSA) had agreed to release all IPL-bound players before the third ODI and as a result, the likes of Miller, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje will be missing the last ODI and three-match T20I series against Pakistan.

    On Sunday, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had also confirmed that everything will go on as per schedule in the upcoming IPL 2021. His confirmation came after it was announced that Maharashtra would be entering weekend lockdown from Friday 8 pm to Monday 7 pm to curb the spread of Covid-19.

    “Everything will go on as per schedule,” Ganguly told ANI. Wankhede Stadium is set to host 10 IPL games this season from April 10-25.

    The first match at the Mumbai stadium is slated to be played on April 10 between Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings.

    Four franchises — Delhi Capitals, Mumbai Indians, Punjab Kings, and Rajasthan Royals have set up their base in Mumbai as of now. The fifth franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) is also based in Mumbai currently, but they will soon move to Chennai to play their first match against SunRisers Hyderabad on April 11.

    The BCCI is also thinking of players’ vaccination ahead of the IPL with BCCI vice president Rajeev Shukla saying that the board will get in touch with the Health Ministry for players’ vaccination.

    “In order to cope with this coronavirus rise, I think the only solution is to get vaccinated. BCCI is also thinking on those lines that players should be vaccinated. Nobody knows when coronavirus is going to end and you can’t give a deadline that by this time frame, it will not be there so players can play easily. So, I think now will have to think over that. Vaccination should be done for the players also,” Shukla told ANI.

    When asked if BCCI has written to the Health Ministry regarding players’ vaccination, Shukla said the BCCI is mulling over the idea and they will definitely get in touch with the ministry that players should be vaccinated. 

  • South Africa’s Morris becomes most expensive IPL auction purchase, goes to RR for 16.25 crore

    By ANI
    CHENNAI: South African all-rounder Chris Morris on Thursday became the most expensive player at an IPL auction after he was bought by Rajasthan Royals for Rs 16.25 crore.

    At the ongoing mini-auction of the Indian Premier League (IPL) Morris entered with a base price of Rs 75 lakh. Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) both showed interest before Rajasthan Royals made a belated entry after RCB pulled out at Rs 10 crore.

    Bidding continued between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals and the South African all-rounder was finally sold to the Royals.

    IN PIC | Chris Morris to Glenn Maxwell, check out the cricketers who walked away with bank-breaking deals in IPL Player Auction 2021

    The fee smashed the record Rs 16 crore paid for Yuvraj Singh by Delhi Daredevils in 2015.

    India all-rounder Shivam Dube was also picked by Rajasthan Royals for Rs 4.4 crore during the auction while England batsman Dawid Malan was bought by Punjab Kings for Rs 1.5 crore.

    Also, Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan was picked up by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) while England’s all-rounder Moeen Ali was picked by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for Rs 7 crore.

    Follow IPL Player Auction 2021 Live here

    Shakib had his base price as Rs 2 crore, but both KKR and Punjab Kings made bids for him, and in the end, the Bangladesh all-rounder was sold to KKR for Rs 3.2 crore. All-rounder Kedar Jadhav went unsold in the auction as of now.

    Earlier, Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell was picked up by Royal Challengers Bangalore for Rs 14.25 crore. He had his base price as Rs 2 crore, but a bidding war unfolded between RCB and Chennai Super Kings.

    Karun Nair who had his base price as Rs 50 lakh did not find any takers and he went unsold quite early in the auction. England batters Alex Hales and Jason Roy who had their base price as Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 2 crore respectively also did not find any takers and he also went unsold.

    The IPL “mini-auction” this year is witnessing 291 players going under the hammer as England pacer Mark Wood withdrew from the auction at the end moment.

    All these cricketers have been shortlisted by the eight franchises. A total of 164 Indian players, 125 overseas players, and 3 players from associate nations are up for grabs in the mini-auction.

  • Gandhi, Mandela peace walk ends in South Africa

    A 1,200-km peace walk by an Indian group, retracing the footsteps of world peace icons Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela across three South African provinces, has ended at the birth place of the anti-apartheid activist in Mvezo.

    The Gandhi@150 to Mandela@100 Peace Walk South Africa – which ended on Friday – was conceptualised by serial long-distance walker Nitin Sonawane, who has walked in several countries to promote global peace.

    Sonawane set off with Yogesh Mathuria, Sangram Patil and Dilip Tambolker from his home town of Pune in India together with Jalandharnath Channole from the Gandhi Ashram and Japanese monk Nippozan Myohoji, who joined the team after being inspired by Sonawane during his walk through Japan.

    Undeterred by sceptics, who cautioned that the crime in South Africa was not conducive to the idea of walking the long distances with little support, Sonawane arrived in the country on September 21 to start planning. Their first stop was Nelson Mandela Museum in Mthatha, Qunu from where they proceeded to Mvezo, SABC news reported.