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Commanding centuries from Steve Smith and Alex Carey gave Australia a dominating lead at stumps on day two of the second Test against Sri Lanka in Galle on Friday.Australia, leading by 73 runs at 330-3, were poised to post a mammoth first-innings total, with Smith and Carey stitching together an unbroken 259-run stand for the fourth wicket.Sri Lanka’s bowlers showed some early flair but the spinners struggled to get the same fizz off the surface once the ball lost its bite, and Smith exploited the gaps.The Australian skipper made a scratchy start and his innings could have been cut short on 24, when he was judged lbw to Nishan Peiris.However, a timely review saved him and Smith never looked back.Smith tightened his grip on the contest with elegant cover drives and precise pull shots.He took a few calculated risks and, with Sri Lanka lacking a substantial total to defend, the field was soon spread out to cut off boundaries rather than hunt for wickets.That didn’t deter the Australian captain, who pierced the gaps with ease in dispatching nine fours and a six.He brought up his 36th Test hundred in style, pulling part-timer Kamindu Mendis to the mid-wicket boundary.- ‘Raring to go’ -Carey was promoted to number five in place of Josh Inglis, who was off the field nursing a sore back, and grabbed his chance, racing to his half-century in 68 deliveries.His hundred came with a well-timed sweep to the boundary, taking just 118 balls to reach the milestone, and finished with a career-best 139 off 156 balls that included 13 fours and two sixes.Carey said his partnership with Smith was a “great experience”.”We are in a commanding position and we want to score as many as possible in the first innings, as batting can get tricky later,” Carey said.Sri Lanka were earlier bowled out for 257, having resumed on their overnight score of 229-9.Kusal Mendis played a lone hand with a spectacular 85 not out but he ran out of partners as the Australian bowlers wrapped up the innings after some late resistance.Mendis praised the Australians.”Australia were superb,” he said. “They bowled well and they took on our spinners well.”Sri Lanka must look to “create a few chances” on Saturday, he said. “We need to keep their first innings total to as little as possible,” he said.”The bowlers will be fresh tomorrow and they will be raring to go. We want to get back into the game.”The visitors have already put the Warne-Murali Trophy beyond Sri Lanka’s reach, having taken an unassailable 1-0 lead with a crushing victory in the first Test.The innings and 242-run humiliation stands as Sri Lanka’s worst defeat in Test history.

Commanding centuries from Steve Smith and Alex Carey gave Australia a dominating lead at stumps on day two of the second Test against Sri Lanka in Galle on Friday.Australia, leading by 73 runs at 330-3, were poised to post a mammoth first-innings total, with Smith and Carey stitching together an unbroken 259-run stand for the fourth wicket.Sri Lanka’s bowlers showed some early flair but the spinners struggled to get the same fizz off the surface once the ball lost its bite, and Smith exploited the gap.The Australian skipper made a scratchy start and his innings could have been cut short on 24, when he was judged lbw to Nishan Peiris.However, a timely review saved him and Smith never looked back.Smith tightened his grip on the contest with elegant cover drives and precise pull shots.He took a few calculated risks and, with Sri Lanka lacking a substantial total to defend, the field was soon spread out to cut off boundaries rather than hunt for wickets.That didn’t deter the Australian captain, who pierced the gaps with ease in dispatching nine fours and a six.He brought up his 36th Test hundred in style, pulling part-timer Kamindu Mendis to the mid-wicket boundary.Carey was promoted to number five in place of Josh Inglis, who was off the field nursing a sore back, and grabbed his chance, racing to his half-century in 68 deliveries.His hundred came with a well-timed sweep to the boundary, taking just 118 balls to reach the milestone, and finished with a career-best 139 off 156 balls that included 13 fours and two sixes.Sri Lanka were earlier bowled out for 257, having resumed on their overnight score of 229-9.Kusal Mendis played a lone hand with a spectacular 85 not out but he ran out of partners as the Australian bowlers wrapped up the innings after some late resistance.The visitors have already put the Warne-Murali Trophy beyond Sri Lanka’s reach, having taken an unassailable 1-0 lead with a crushing victory in the first Test.The innings and 242-run humiliation stands as Sri Lanka’s worst defeat in Test history.

The Trump administration has begun using military aircraft to underscore its determination to deport undocumented migrants. But while the optics make for good political theatre, the flights are expensive — as much as $1 million in the case of a recent deportation to India, according to an AFP analysis.In fact military flights can end up costing more than three times as much as a civilian trip, data shows.President Donald Trump was elected on a promise to carry out the biggest deportation “in the history of America.” While most of the migrants being targeted for expulsion come from Latin America, some are also being sent back much further across the globe.On Wednesday, a US Air Force cargo plane landed in Amritsar, India, carrying 104 Indian nationals who had entered the United States illegally, according to a US government statement.The flight is believed to be the first use of a military aircraft to deport people to India.Images captured by an AFP photographer show that the plane used is a C-17A Globemaster III, a large military aircraft capable of transporting troops, vehicles and supplies.The Globemaster is a workhorse of the US Air Force, and has been used in military theatres worldwide since it was first added to the fleet in 1995.But military flights are much more costly to operate than the charter flights that are also used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportations.According to information released by ICE in 2021, the cost of a charter flight is $8,577 per flight hour, although flights transporting high-risk migrants may cost more. The use of C-17 aircraft in transport operations is charged at $28,562 per hour, according to documents published by US Air Mobility Command.Military flights also take flight paths that are different to commercial aircraft, due to the sensitivity of operating in the airspace of another sovereign nation. They also generally refuel at military air bases instead of commercial hubs.Data from flight tracking site Flightradar24 shows that the deportation flight took off from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California, at around 1330 GMT on Monday. It then flew west to Hawaii, crossed the Pacific to the Luzon Strait near the Philippines, flew between Indonesia and Malaysia, then took a large detour south into the Indian Ocean where there is a US air base located on the tiny island of Diego Garcia.From there it flew thousands of miles (kilometers) north to India, landing at an airport in the northwestern Indian state of Punjab on Wednesday afternoon local time — more than 43 hours after takeoff from California.Accounting for the return journey to a US air base, the flight cost is likely to be more than $1 million even by the most conservative estimates of time spent airborne, equating to more than $10,000 per detainee.By comparison, a one-way ticket from San Francisco to New Delhi on an American commercial airline can be bought for around $500, or $4,000 in business class.

England will play Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy later this month despite calls from British politicians to boycott the match over the Taliban regime’s curtailment of women’s rights.The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed on Thursday that the fixture would go ahead in Lahore on February 26 after consulting with the UK government, the International Cricket Council (ICC) and England players.More than 160 British politicians had called for a boycott as female participation in sport has effectively been outlawed since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.That puts the Afghanistan cricket board at odds with ICC rules, though the men’s team are allowed to compete.ECB chairman Richard Thompson described the situation in Afghanistan as “gender apartheid” but said the match would take place.”We remain of the view that a coordinated international response by the cricketing community is the appropriate way forward, and will achieve more than any unilateral action by the ECB in boycotting this match,” he said.”We have also heard that for many ordinary Afghans, watching their cricket team is one of the few remaining sources of enjoyment. As such, we can confirm that we will play this fixture.”Afghanistan have become a greater force in white-ball cricket in recent years, rising to eighth in the one-day international world rankings, just one place below England.Both sides will also face Australia and South Africa in Group B of the 50-over tournament, which will be hosted in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates from February 19 until March 9.

India’s Shreyas Iyer on Thursday said star batsman Virat Kohli’s late injury call cut short his movie night before he turned hero in the team’s opening ODI win over England.Iyer replaced Kohli in India’s XI at the start of the three-match series in Nagpur and smashed 59 off 36 deliveries to help pull off a 249-run chase with four wickets and 11.2 overs to spare.”It’s been outstanding,” Iyer told broadcasters. “I wasn’t supposed to play the first game as we all know. Virat unfortunately got injured and I got the opportunity. But I kept myself prepared.”He added: “So, funny story. I was watching a movie last night. I thought that I could extend my night. Then I got a call from the skipper saying that you may play because Virat has got a sore knee. And then I hurried back to my room, went off to sleep straight away.”Iyer walked into bat with skipper Rohit Sharma out for two and India 19-2 when the IPL-winning captain smashed the opposition bowlers to all parts of the ground.He put on 94 runs with Shubman Gill, who made 87.The batsman’s blitz was studded with nine fours and two sixes as he set-up India’s 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Shubman Gill led India to a four-wicket victory over England in the first one-day international on Thursday after a strong bowling performance from the hosts in Nagpur.Chasing just 249 for victory without Virat Kohli, who missed the start of the three-match series due to a sore right knee, India lost their openers early on.But Shreyas Iyer, who hit 59, counter-attacked in a 94-run stand with Gill, who made 87, as India chased down their target with 11.2 overs to spare.”Pretty happy because we knew we were coming after a long time to this format,” skipper Rohit Sharma said. “We wanted to quickly regroup and understand what is to be done.”The ODIs come ahead of the Champions Trophy, starting February 19, and Rohit believes his team are in good shape ahead of the tournament in Pakistan and Dubai.”Nothing specific, overall as a team I want to make sure we keep on doing the right things,” he said. “Try and tick every boxes there is to be ticked in bowling and batting.”Gill also put on 108 runs with Axar Patel, who hit 52 after being promoted up the order, to continue India’s strong form after they also clinched the preceding T20 series 4-1.Fast bowler Saqib Mahmood denied Gill a century as he and leg-spinner Adil Rashid took two wickets each to give England some late positives in an otherwise comfortable chase.India’s bowlers set up the victory, with debutant Harshit Rana and spinner Ravindra Jadeja claiming three wickets each to help bowl out a stuttering England for 248 in 47.4 overs. England’s new-ball pair came out firing in their bid to defend the low total and Jofra Archer had ODI debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal caught behind for 15.- Struggling Rohit -Rohit fell, on two, five balls later after his mis-timed flick went high up and into the hands of Liam Livingstone at mid-on off Mahmood.A struggling Rohit, who averages just 10.37 in his 16 innings across formats in the 2024-25 season, walked back to stunned silence with India on 19-2.Iyer soon turned the tide with a flurry of boundaries and raced to his 50 in 30 balls to raise the spirits of the home crowd.Jacob Bethell trapped Iyer lbw after he had smashed nine fours and two sixes in his 36-ball blitz.England opted to bat first on a hot and sunny afternoon, but lost regular wickets and failed to bat out their 50 overs — despite skipper Jos Buttler’s 52 and 51 from Bethell.Phil Salt hammered Rana for three sixes and two fours in a 26-run sixth over but a mix-up with fellow opener Ben Duckett saw him run out for 43.- Momentum shift -“I think Salt and Duckett came out and played brilliantly in that powerplay, put the opposition under a lot of pressure and then an unfortunate run-out changed the momentum and we lost four wickets quite quickly, which set us back,” Buttler told reporters.”We were probably another 40 or 50 runs (short) on that total — with the way the wicket was turning at the end, we would have been in a good position to try to win the game.”Rana came back from that pasting with two wickets in one over including Duckett, for 32, and Harry Brook, for a duck, to leave England at 77-3.Buttler attempted to pull things back, first with Joe Root, who made 19 on his ODI return, and then Bethell, but England collapsed.The second ODI is on Sunday in Cuttack.Brief scores:England 248 all out in 47.4 overs (J. Buttler 52, J. Bethell 51; H. Rana 3-53, R. Jadeja 3-26) v India 251-6 in 38.4 overs (S. Gill 87, S. Iyer 59, A. Patel 52; S. Mahmood 2-47, A. Rashid 2-49)Result: India won by four wicketsToss: EnglandSeries: India lead the three-match series 1-0

Hundreds of Bangladeshi protesters smashed down buildings connected to ousted former leader Sheikh Hasina on Thursday, hours after students with excavators began demolishing a museum to her father.The museum and former of home of Hasina’s late father, Bangladesh’s first president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, had been set on fire last year during the student-led revolution that ended her 15 years of autocratic rule.Late Wednesday, six months to the day since Hasina fled by helicopter to old ally India on August 5, crowds carrying hammers and metal rods began beating down the walls of the building in the capital Dhaka.At least two people, accused of being members of Hasina’s Awami League, were beaten by the crowd, according to witnesses.Protests were triggered in response to reports that 77-year-old Hasina — who has defied an arrest warrant to face trial in Dhaka for massacres — would appear in a Facebook broadcast from exile.The interim government blamed Hasina for the violence.”The recurrence of such incidents can be avoided only if Sheikh Hasina, against whom the government has issued warrants and who is accused of crimes against humanity, refrains from making speeches,” a government statement read.”Hasina… insulted the people who sacrificed their lives by making irrelevant, absurd, and hateful comments”.Dhaka’s foreign ministry said it had written to New Delhi demanding Hasina be barred from making “false, fabricated, and incendiary statements” while she is their guest.- Vandalised homes -On Thursday morning, diggers were being used to knock down the remaining fire-blackened walls.Protesters also vandalised and torched other houses across the country linked to Hasina, including an arson attack on the Dhaka house of Hasina’s late husband.Prothom Alo, the largest Bengali daily, reported crowds used government-owned excavators to smash down a building owned by Hasina’s family in the city of Khulna.In the western city of Kushtia, protesters vandalised the house of a leader of Hasina’s Awami League party, Mahbubul Alam Hanif.In Chittagong, protesters held a torch procession and smashed a mural of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.Security forces stood by allowing protesters to storm the buildings. Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), a leading Bangladeshi human rights organisation, condemned the violence. A shopkeeper living near Rahman’s former home said he was worried at the chaos.”This vandalism is not a good sign,” he said, asking not to be named as he was fearful of reprisal for speaking out. 

A Pakistani who drowned along with 12 compatriots when a boat carrying dozens of migrants capsized off northwest Africa was buried in his hometown on Thursday.Each year thousands of Pakistanis pay large sums to traffickers to launch risky and illegal journeys to Europe, where they hope to find work and send funds to support families back home.Pakistanis are frequently among those drowned on crammed boats which sink on the Mediterranean Sea separating North Africa from Europe — the world’s deadliest migrant route.Islamabad’s foreign ministry this week said 13 of its citizens were among the dead recovered from a boat which went down in the Atlantic.Around 80 passengers were aboard the vessel, which left Mauritania and sailed north towards Spain’s Canary Islands before it capsized near the Western Sahara port of Dakhla, the ministry said on January 16.On Thursday the village of Mirza Virkan in eastern Punjab province buried Arslan Khan — one of four bodies from the shipwreck repatriated a day earlier.”We sent Arslan to build a better future, and the trafficker assured us that he would send him legally,” his 34-year-old brother Adnan Khan told AFP.”We sold our property and animals for Arslan’s future, but the trafficker betrayed us — he sent back our brother’s dead body.”Pakistan has one of the highest rates of emigration in the world, according to the United Nation’s International Organization for Migration.Many migrants depart from Punjab and the northeastern region of Pakistan administered Kashmir because their communities have historic ties to the country’s diaspora in Europe.An official from the Federal Investigation Agency, speaking anonymously to AFP in 2023, estimated Pakistanis attempt 40,000 illegal trips every year.In June that year the Mediterranean witnessed one of its worst migrant shipwrecks when a rusty and overloaded trawler sank overnight.It was carrying more than 750 people — up to 350 of them Pakistanis according to Islamabad — but only 82 bodies were ever recovered.burt-jts/

Debutant fast bowler Harshit Rana and spinner Ravindra Jadeja claimed three wickets each Thursday as India dismissed England for 248 in their first one-day international in Nagpur.India suffered an early blow with star batsman Virat Kohli out due to a sore right knee at the start of the three-match series.The ODIs come ahead of the Champions Trophy starting February 19 in Pakistan and Dubai.England opted to bat first on a hot and sunny afternoon, but lost regular wickets and were bowled out in 47.4 overs — despite skipper Jos Buttler’s 52, and 51 from Jacob Bethell.Pace spearhead Mohammed Shami started with a maiden before Phil Salt launched a brutal attack against Rana, hitting the bowler for three sixes and two fours in a 26-run sixth over.England lost their first wicket on 75 with a mid-pitch mix-up between Ben Duckett and Salt, who was run out for 43.Rana made a comeback after a stunning backward running catch from fellow debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal gave the bowler his first ODI wicket and the left-handed Duckett departed on 32.Rana struck again three balls later, with Harry Brook caught behind for a duck, edging a rising delivery to be caught by wicketkeeper KL Rahul.England slipped to 77-3 in 10 overs.Joe Root and Buttler attempted to rebuild with a 34-run stand, but Jadeja broke through with his left-arm spin.Jadeja trapped Root, who is playing his first ODI since the 2023 World Cup, lbw for 19.Buttler stood firm and put on 59 runs with the left-handed Bethell as the two batted patiently to wade through a disciplined attack.Buttler reached his fifty, but soon fell as he mistimed a pull and spooned a catch to Hardik Pandya at short-fine leg off Axar Patel.Wickets kept tumbling as Rana sent back Liam Livingstone, caught behind for five, and Shami bowled Brydon Carse for 10.Bethell reached his half century before Jadeja had him lbw.Number ten Jofra Archer added to the total with an unbeaten 21 off 18 balls but England, who lost the preceding T20 series 4-1, failed to play out their 50 overs.Brief scores: England 248 all out in 47.4 overs (P. Salt 43, J. Buttler 52, J. Bethell 51; H. Rana 3-53, R. Jadeja 3-26) v IndiaToss: England

Australia snared four wickets in the space of a chaotic hour to leave Sri Lanka reeling at 144-5 at tea on day one of the second Test in Galle on Thursday.Sri Lanka had looked to be in control at 93-1, putting behind them the loss of the first Test by an innings and 242 runs last week.But the cream of Sri Lanka’s batting order crumbled to hand the initiative to Australia.Dinesh Chandimal, Sri Lanka’s standout performer in the first Test amid the wreckage, was once again a rock in the middle, holding firm with an unbeaten 70.Playing the spinners with soft hands and nimble footwork, the former captain put on a masterclass in how to bat on a surface with plenty to offer for the slow bowlers.Chandimal was proactive, keeping the scoreboard ticking with sharp running between the wickets and dispatching loose deliveries with authority.His 70-run stand with Dimuth Karunaratne was steadying the ship when Nathan Lyon struck, breaking the partnership.Karunaratne — in his 100th and final Test — was slow to bring his bat down, dragging the ball onto the stumps and handing Australia a crucial breakthrough.The middle order offered little resistance.Angelo Mathews, normally the man for a crisis, played a rash stroke, chasing a wide delivery from Lyon.Kamindu Mendis then threw his wicket away, falling to part-timer Travis Head, with Steve Smith pouncing at slip.Skipper Dhananjaya de Silva produced the most baffling dismissal, attempting an extravagant square drive off Mitchell Starc’s first ball, only to be snapped up at gully.Kusal Mendis joined Chandimal in an attempt to rebuild, but with Australia attacking relentlessly and their spinners extracting turn and bounce, the damage was done.The afternoon collapse left Sri Lanka playing catch-up, with Australia in the driver’s seat.Sri Lanka made three changes to the side that slumped to their heaviest Test defeat in the series opener, bringing in Pathum Nissanka, Lahiru Kumara and Ramesh Mendis.Australia handed a debut to 21-year-old all-rounder Cooper Connolly, who can bat in the lower middle order and bowls left-arm spin. Off-spinner Todd Murphy was left out from the side that easily won the first Test.