Day: January 12, 2021

Dubai:Captain Kane Williamson’s epic 238 in the second Test against Pakistan in Christchurch has helped him reach the best ever-rating points by a New Zealand player while consolidating his position at the top of the list of batsmen in the ICC Men’s Test Player Rankings.

Williamson, named player of the series after leading his side to an innings and 176 runs win and a 2-0 victory in the two-Test series, has reached 919 rating points, bettering his own mark of 915 in December 2018. ICC Cricket Hall of Famer Richard Hadlee is the only other player from New Zealand to go past the 900-point mark, reaching a career-high 909 rating points in bowling in December 1985.

In the latest rankings update that includes the second Test between South Africa and Sri Lanka in Johannesburg and the third Test between Australia and India in Sydney, Steve Smith has leapfrogged Virat Kohli to second position after scores of 131 and 81 while Dean Elgar has moved to 13th position with knocks of 127 and 31 not out.

In other movement for New Zealand players, Henry Nicholls has gained three places to reach ninth among batsmen after his knock of 157 while fast bowler Kyle Jamieson’s match haul of 11-117 has lifted him seven places to a career-best 21st place. With 36 Test wickets so far, Jamieson is also fifth among all-rounders after only six Tests.

Azhar Ali’s knocks of 93 and 37 have helped him advance him seven places to 18th position and his compatriot Mohammad Rizwan’s first-innings half-century has helped him gain 10 places to reach 37th position.

The drawn Sydney Test saw Marnus Labuschagne consolidate the fourth position with a career-best 866 rating points after scores of 91 and 73 while fast bowler Josh Hazlewood has gained three places to reach fifth position with four wickets in the match.

For India, Cheteshwar Pujara’s knocks of 50 and 77 have taken him from 10th to eighth position and Rishabh Pant’s scores of 36 and 97 have helped him gain 19 places to reach 26th position. Hanuma Vihari and Ravichandran Ashwin too have gained after their fighting knocks, as has Shubman Gill.

The Centurion Test saw Anrich Nortje (up 10 places to 38th), Wiaan Mulder (up 22 places to 45th), Lutho Sipamla (up 23 places to 47th) and Lungi Ngidi (up seven places to 49th) make huge gains among bowlers while for Sri Lanka, captain Dimuth Karunaratne (up two places to 15th) and Kusal Perera (up four places to 56th) have moved up in the list of batsmen.

ISLAMABAD:The Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Raja Muhammad Farooq Haider Khan has strongly denounced the unprovoked firing on civilian population from Indian forces across the Line of Control (LoC).

In a statement over the frequent incidents of violation of ceasefire in form of unprovoked firing by the Indian troops at the LoC, he said Indian brute forces have crossed all the limits of humanity and have engaged to target the civil population of Azad Kashmir.

ISLAMABAD:As many as 2,408 new COVID-19 cases surfaced in the country with 41 deaths reported over the last twenty-four hours.

According to the latest statistics of National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), there are now thirty seven thousand and seven active cases of coronavirus in the country. As many as 461,977 people have so far recovered from the disease.

ISLAMABAD:Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz has said Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) is adopting undemocratic move against the democratically elected government.

Talking to a private news channel, he said PDM Chief Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman has announced to stage a sit-in in front of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in a bid to pressurize the national institutions.

He said the tactics being used by the PDM leaders to pressurize the NAB and ECP for casting aside corruption and money laundering cases, would fail soon. The Minister categorically said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government will never grant national reconciliation ordinance to the leaders of opposition at any cost.

ISLAMABAD:Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar has said protection of life and property of minority communities, and their religious places is among top priorities of the government.

He stated this during his visit to Mariamabad Church in Sheikhupura on Tuesday. The Governor announced establishment of a Religious Tourism and Heritage Committee for Christian community of Sheikhupura.

KARACHI:As many as 41 more patients died of coronavirus in Pakistan during the last 24 hours while 2,408 new virus cases emerged. The country-wide death toll from the virus has surged to 10,717 so far since the outbreak of the disease in February.

According to a Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation, and Coordination report issued on Tuesday a total of 506,701 people have been tested positive for the coronavirus disease in the country since its outbreak in February 2020, out of which 227,885 cases were in Sindh, 146,016 in Punjab, 18,429 in Balochistan, 61,648 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 39,340 in Islamabad, 4,882 in Gilgit-Baltistan, and 8,501 in Azad Kashmir. However, 461,977 patients have recovered from the disease so far.

ISLAMABAD:Meeting of the Federal Cabinet was held here on Tuesday with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair.

The meeting discussed overall political and economic situation of the country. The meeting also dilated upon steps taken to check the spread of second wave of Covid-19.