Underdogs to winners: Australia finally break T20 World Cup duck

News Network
November 15, 2021

 

It took Australia seven attempts but under Aaron Finch they finally laid their hands on a maiden Twenty20 World Cup title on Sunday with an eight-wicket triumph over New Zealand.

The 20-overs trophy drought for one-day cricket's most successful team was an aberration for Finch, who had oozed confidence that Australia would be "rectifying" the wrong.

Mitchell Marsh and David Warner combined for a 92-run stand to trump New Zealand captain Kane Williamson's side after his masterly knock had taken them to a competitive total.

Williamson capitalised on an early reprieve to fire his team to 172-4 which they failed to defend in the end.

It was a stunning turnaround for an Australia team which had lost five T20 series on the trot heading into the World Cup.

They came into their own only in the semi-finals when they stunned former champions Pakistan, the tournament's only unbeaten team until then.

Awaiting them in the final were reigning test champions New Zealand, easily the game's best cross-format side, who have made a habit of reaching the finals of global events.

Six years after beating New Zealand to win a fifth ODI World Cup, Australia lifted their first men's 20-overs world title.

Fireworks lit up the sky to celebrate the success of a team which had been written off after their wretched build-up.

Before that, Warner and Marsh had treated the crowd at the Dubai International Stadium with their batting pyrotechnics.

Warner's best

Warner's own performance reflected his team's extraordinary journey in the tournament.

His place in the side was debated after his Indian Premier League franchise dropped the left-hander from their squad.

Warner struggled in the warm-up matches but regained his mojo and strung together scores of 89 not out, 49 and 53 in their last three matches.

He walked away with the man-of-the-tournament and Finch was not surprised.

"You didn't expect that? I certainly did," the Australia captain told reporters.

"He's someone who when his back is against the wall, that's when you get the very, very best of David Warner."

Marsh was adjudged man-of-the match for his unbeaten 77 not out off 50 balls, which trumped Williamson's 85 off 48 balls.

Thirty four years after his father Geoff helped Australia win their maiden ODI World Cup, Marsh played a key role in helping his country win their first 20-overs world crown.

For New Zealand, who finished runners-up to England in the 2019 ODI World Cup, it was yet another white-ball heartbreak.

Graceful as ever, the 31-year-old Williamson was fulsome in his praise for Australia while proud of his team's display.

"If you look at the campaign as a whole, and the type of cricket that we have been able to play, I can say that we are very proud of our efforts throughout this period of time.

"You get to a final and anything can happen," he added. 

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News Network
November 12,2024

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The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement says its fighters have killed at least 20 Israeli soldiers in northern parts of the besieged Gaza Strip in just two days, in retaliation for the occupying regime’s genocidal war on the Palestinian territory.

In a statement on Monday evening, Hamas said that fighters of its military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, “killed at least five occupation soldiers” in northern parts of the coastal territory earlier in the day.

It added that Hamas fighters also killed 15 Israeli soldiers in the war-ravaged region on Sunday.

The resistance movement’s “qualitative operation … confirms once again the failure of the criminal Zionist entity to suppress and eradicate the Palestinian resistance, which continues to direct qualitative strikes against its terrorist soldiers,” Hamas further said on its Telegram channel.

Palestinians have increased their resistance operations in the face of intensified Israeli aggression in northern Gaza that has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 over the past weeks.

“Our valiant resistance is waging a war of attrition with the criminal enemy, inflicting daily losses on its soldiers and vehicles, and all of [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s bets and dreams of achieving any of his goals are failing,” the Gaza-based resistance movement added.

Hamas also vowed that Israel’s ongoing crimes and aggression against Gaza would be met with increased resistance and painful strikes, which will continue until the aggression against Palestinians ends and the regime fully withdraws from the blockaded territory.

As the war in Gaza enters its 14th month, the Health Ministry reports that Israeli attacks have killed at least 43,603 Palestinians and wounded 102,929 others.

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News Network
November 21,2024

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Hamas says the Israeli regime’s sole objective lies in “erasing” the entirety of the Palestinian population from across the Palestinian territories.

Khalil al-Hayya, a ranking official with the Gaza Strip-based Palestinian resistance movement, made the remarks to the Palestinian al-Aqsa TV on Wednesday.

“The occupation targets everyone—it strikes hospitals, civil defense, women, children, and the elderly,” he said, adding that the regime sought to “empty Gaza of its residents, and displace the Palestinian people to fulfill its dreams of building a Zionist Jewish state across all of Palestine.”

The remarks came amid the regime’s October 2023-present war of genocide on the coastal sliver that has so far claimed the lives of nearly 44,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

“This unprecedented aggression in modern times evokes scenes from the dark ages of human history, having crossed all red lines and exceeded every expectation of brutality in the modern era,” the Palestinian official lamented.

He also regretted that the regime had added “systematic and dangerous starvation to its aggression, falsely claiming before the world that it allows 250 [aid] trucks into Gaza daily. In reality, the number of trucks is far fewer.”

Hayya, meanwhile, regretted that “scenes of children torn apart, women screaming over their children, and heart-wrenching destruction have failed to stir enough humanity to stop these crimes.”

He decried the United States for vetoing the United Nations Security Council’s resolutions that are aimed at bringing about a potential ceasefire in the war, saying this indicated Washington’s “partnership in the aggression” and a simultaneous siege that the Israeli regime has been enforcing on Gaza.

Addressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the official asserted that, despite what the Israeli official is after, Hamas would not hand over the regime’s captives “without [the regime’s] stopping the war.”

He called Netanyahu “the main obstacle” in the way of cessation of the aggression, saying the Israeli premier “blocks any progress for political reasons,” and citing his preventing conclusion of a ceasefire agreement in July.

Hayya also warned that the regime sought to expand the war beyond Gaza, but asserted that its goals are “impossible and will never happen.”

“Today, the enemy exposes its true intentions of extermination and displacement, but it will fail,” he stressed.

“The Palestinian people are resilient and will not surrender, as they believe in their humanitarian and political cause. The enemy and its allies will not succeed in achieving their goals. This steadfast people will endure, and the occupation will not prevail against them.”

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News Network
November 15,2024

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Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has killed or captured 69 terrorists linked to the Israeli spy agency Mossad during a major counterterrorism drill in the country's southeast, its spokesman says.  

General Ahmad Shafaei, the spokesman for the “Martyrs of Security” drill, said Friday that a total of 23 terrorists have been killed and another 46 arrested in various clean-up operations ever since the IRGC Ground Force launched it in the Sistan and Baluchestan province on November 1.

Seven terrorists have also turned themselves in during the period.

“The undeniable fact about terrorists is that they rely on arrogant powers, particularly the intelligence service of the wicked and vicious Zionist regime," Shafaei said.

“Unfortunately, weapons and munitions at terrorists’ disposal are among the most sophisticated ones in the world. This accounts for their heavy dependence.” 

The official stated that several members of the disbanded terror teams were non-Iranian nationals, who had been hired by foreign intelligence agencies to carry out acts of sabotage and terror inside Iran.

In a most recent operation, six terrorists were arrested and four others were eliminated, three of whom were non-Iranians, he added. 

On October 26, ten members of Iran's law enforcement forces were killed in a terrorist attack in the Gohar Kuh district of Taftan in the Sistan and Baluchestan province.

The so-called Jaish al-Adl terrorist group claimed responsibility for the assault, which was one of the deadliest in the province in recent months.

The group has carried out numerous terrorist attacks in Iran, primarily in Sistan and Baluchestan.

Its tactics include the abduction of border guards as well as targeting civilians and police stations within the province to incite chaos and disorder.

In January, Iran launched a military operation during which the headquarters of the Pakistan-based terrorist group was targeted in missile strikes, destroying its infrastructure.

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