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England captain Ben Stokes made a much-needed breakthrough for his side on Sunday’s final day of the fourth Test against India by dismissing KL Rahul despite appearing to be less than fully fit.The match had already been a personal triumph for the all-rounder after he became just the fourth England cricketer to score a hundred and take five wickets in the same Test.Stokes made 141 — his first Test century in more than two years — in England’s mammoth 669 following a return of 5-72 in India’s first-innings 358.This match has also seen Stokes become just the third cricketer in Test history to score 7,000 runs and take 200 wickets after West Indies Garry Sobers and South Africa’s Jacques Kallis.But Stokes, who suffered from cramp while batting, did not bowl at all during the 63 overs India faced their second innings on Saturday’s fourth day as they recovered from 0-2 to 174-2 at stumps, still a deficit of 137 runs.Rahul was 87 not out at Saturday’s close, with skipper Shubman Gill 78 not out.  Stokes was also seen repeatedly clutching the top of his leg, having had surgery on his left hamstring at the start of this year. But with England pressing for a win that would give them an unassailable 3-1 lead in this five-match series ahead of next week’s finale at the Oval, Stokes brought himself on to bowl at the start of Sunday’s play.Already the leading bowler on either side this series with 16 wickets at 24.75, Stokes almost had Gill caught for 81 by a leaping Ollie Pope at short cover.But the inspirational captain did separate India’s stubborn second-wicket duo when he had Rahul, in sight of his third century of the series, plumb lbw for 90 with a nip-back ball that kept a touch low.Rahul had batted for over five hours, facing 230 balls, but India were now 188-3.Fast-medium bowler Stokes, still grabbing the top of his left leg on occasion as well as his right shoulder, then somehow defied a docile surface when a rising delivery popped off a good length to rap Gill, then on 90, on the thumb before deflecting into the side of the batsman’s helmet.Gill, who has already scored three hundreds in his first series as India captain, needed several minutes’ on-field treatment before resuming his innings.Stokes bowled an unchanged spell of 1-12 in eight overs until the advent of the new ball. Chris Woakes, who had reduced India to 0-2 in the first over of the innings, then came back on with India 198-3 off 80 overs.

Former India captain Kapil Dev on Saturday said it is too early to judge new Test skipper Shubman Gill and his young team in England despite two defeats.Gill, 25, took over a team in transition after the retirements of stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli ahead of the five-Test tour of England.The visitors, who trail the series 2-1, lost the opener before they bounced back to level the series. They then went down in a closely-fought third Test at Lord’s.Ben Stokes’ England are in the box seat in the fourth Test and in sight of clinching the series.”The team came close to winning (at Lord’s) and then lost,” said Dev, who is the president of Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI), on the sidelines of the announcement of the second half of the national golf calender.”It’s a new team and it is getting an opportunity. In the coming days, these boys will come back with tournament victories. “Any new team needs time to adjust. The new captain has to learn a lot and this series will be a learning step (for him).”Gill, a top-order batter, leads the series batting with over 600 runs including three centuries and a career-best of 269 in the second Test in Birmingham.Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah has been India’s best bowler with 14 wickets in five innings despite the collective decision that he play just three Tests to manage his workload.Bumrah, a yorker specialist who bowls with an unusual slingshot action has more than 200 Test wickets in his injury-prone career of 48 Tests.But Dev, who never missed a Test due to injury in his 16-year-old career that ended in 1994 with 434 wickets, defended Bumrah’s decision to skip matches.”I think everybody is different,” the 1983 World Cup-winning captain told reporters.”Times have changed, bodies are different and they are working differently. “He is one of the finest bowlers we have. His action is so awkward, and to sustain it this far, I think it’s fabulous. “We never thought that someone would play so long (with this action) because he puts so much stress on his body. He is still delivering for the Indian team, hats off to him.”Dev said Indian golf is ready to take a leaf out of cricket’s set up in India and expand with the PGTI securing new sponsors and increased prize money for tournaments.

Ben Stokes ended his more than two-year wait for a Test hundred as England pressed for a series-clinching win against India at Old Trafford on Saturday.The England captain started the fourth day of the fourth Test on his overnight score of 77 not out.He went to his century with a leg-glanced four off fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah — his ninth boundary in 164 balls faced.It was all-rounder Stokes’ first Test hundred in over two years following a whirlwind 155 against Australia at Lord’s in June 2023.The 34-year-old celebrated his 14th century in 115 Tests by clenching his fist, looking to the sky and making a crooked finger gesture in honour of his late father Ged Stokes before raising his bat to a cheering crowd.England, already 2-1 up in this five-match series, were now 593-8 — a commanding first-innings lead of 235 runs.His hundred capped a brilliant display with both bat and ball by Stokes, England’s leading bowler this series, after the lively fast-medium bowler had taken 5-72 in India’s first-innings 358.Stokes is just the fourth England player to take five wickets and score a hundred in the same Test after Tony Greig, Ian Botham and the currently sidelined Gus Atkinson.With the pressure of getting to a hundred no longer an issue, Stokes then straight drove Washington Sundar for six — although his expression at the crease suggested he thought he had mishit the delivery — and next ball he reverse swept the off-spinner for four.England resumed in the commanding position of 544-7, already a lead of 186, after Joe Root had become the second-highest run-scorer in Test history during his majestic 150 on Friday.Stokes who had briefly retired with cramp before returning on Friday after completing his first fifty this series, was in excellent touch early Saturday.The left-handed batsman twice cover-drove Mohammed Siraj for superb fours as he went to 88.But at the other end Liam Dawson, playing his first Test since 2017 after replacing the injured Shoaib Bashir, had added just five runs to his overnight 21 when he was bowled by a Bumrah delivery that kept a touch low — a worrying sign for India’s batsmen.Stokes charged down the pitch to drive Bumrah for three to go to 99 and then spent several deliveries one run short of three figures, with the world’s top-ranked Test bowler beating the England skipper on the outside edge.

A bus crash in central Vietnam killed 10 people early Friday, the government said, a week after dozens were killed in a boat accident in the tourist site of Ha Long Bay.The overnight sleeper bus was travelling on a national highway from Hanoi to the central city of Da Nang when it veered off the road, hit the roadside markers and overturned, the government said in a statement.The crash killed 10 people, including two children — all of them Vietnamese. Another 12 people were injured and taken to hospital, the statement said.Five of those killed were domestic tourists travelling to Da Nang for holidays, state media said.”The bus overturned… I couldn’t sit up as my body and my hands were smashed into the side of the bed,” a passenger told the Dan Tri news site.Several of those killed and seriously injured had been occupying the bunks towards the front of the bus and “suffered from the strong impact”, the passenger said.Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh called for an investigation into the accident.The crash comes a week after a boat capsized in the UNESCO-recognised Ha Long Bay, killing 38 Vietnamese tourists and crew members.Rescuers are still searching for one missing victim. Only 10 passengers survived the country’s worst boat accident in the popular tourist destination.

Special prayers were held across Bangladesh on Friday, as the death toll from a fighter jet crash into a school building in Dhaka rose to 32.Most of the dead were children — the youngest aged nine — after the Chinese-made F-7 BJI aircraft slammed into the Milestone School and College on Monday following a mechanical failure. The authorities earlier said 31 people were killed and 170 injured in the deadliest aviation disaster in the country in decades.The latest to succumb to her injuries was 10-year-old Tasnim Afroz Ayman, hospital coordinator Sarkar Farhana Kabir told AFP.”She was undergoing treatment in the High Dependency Unit with 45 percent burns,” she said.Ayman’s uncle, Saiful Islam, said she remained calm and composed despite undergoing excruciating pain during her final hours.”Even last night, she consoled her mother. But God had other plans,” Saiful told AFP.As of Friday, 51 others were receiving treatment in various city hospitals. Following a government directive, all mosques across the country held special prayers during the Friday congregation.Ashraful Islam, who came to pray at a mosque close to the school, lost both his children — Tahia Ashraf Nazia, 13, and Arian Ashraf Nafi, 9.”I have nothing left,” Ashraful told reporters.Nazia kept asking about her younger brother Nafi until her last breath, he added.Her final request was for an ice cream, said her aunt Naznin Akhter.”I’m burning inside. Give me some ice cream… and don’t let go of my hand,” were her last words, she told a local TV channel.India and Singapore have sent doctors specialising in burn care to assist their Bangladesh colleagues.A military investigation has been opened to determine the cause of the accident.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett got England off to a flying start in their first innings of the fourth Test on Thursday, before India ensured both openers fell agonisingly short of centuries.England were 225-2 at stumps on the second day at Old Trafford, a deficit of 133 runs, after they dismissed India for 358, with captain Ben Stokes taking five wickets and an injured Rishabh Pant making a gutsy fifty for the tourists.The hosts are 2-1 up in this five-match series, and a win in Manchester would see England take an unassailable lead ahead of next week’s finale at the Oval.Crawley (84) and Duckett (94) shared an opening stand of 166  — just the duo’s fifth century partnership in 53 Test innings together.”We were happy to get India 358 all out,” Crawley told Sky Sports. “We are happy with the state of the game right now. Batting last could be tricky.”Crawley, reflecting on his partnership with Duckett, added: “I just try to stay with him and hit a few nice drives! He’s the leader of that partnership and a phenomenal player.”The inconsistent Crawley, who 2005 Ashes-winning captain Michael Vaughan has said is “lucky” to have won so many England caps, played some trademark stylish shots but also survived a confident lbw appeal on 26 after offering no stroke to Mohammed Siraj.Crawley, however, fell frustratingly short of what would have been just his sixth century in 58 Tests — and second in Manchester following a majestic 189 against Australia two years ago — when he nicked left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja low to KL Rahul at slip.  It was the end of a sparkling 113-ball stint featuring 13 fours and a superb straight six off Jadeja, with Crawley’s innings a reminder of why England think he will do well on the firm pitches they are likely to encounter in Australia when they bid to regain the Ashes in a 2025/26 tour.”There is a bit more pace and carry here (Old Trafford) which suits my game,” said Crawley.Duckett was no slouch either, taking three fours off debutant Anshul Kamboj’s first over in Test cricket.Kamboj was only included after fellow paceman Nitish Kumar Reddy was ruled out due to a knee injury suffered during England’s dramatic 22-run win at Lord’s last week.But Duckett also flicked Jasprit Bumrah, the world’s top-ranked Test bowler, off his pads for two fours in three balls.The left-hander was eyeing his second hundred of the series, following a brilliant 149 in England’s win in the first Test at Headingley, when he edged an intended cut off Kamboj to reserve wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel, deputising for the injured Pant.As Kamboj celebrated his maiden Test wicket, a crestfallen Duckett trudged off having faced exactly 100 balls, including 13 fours, with England 197-2.- Battling Pant -Pant returned to action earlier Thursday after a severe foot injury.The vice-captain had to retire hurt on 37 during Wednesday’s opening day when struck a painful blow attempting an audacious reverse-sweep off a Chris Woakes yorker.After Shardul Thakur fell to Stokes for 41, Pant slowly made his way out into the middle.The left-hander’s movements were restricted but runners are no longer allowed in international cricket.However, there was nothing Pant could do as Stokes cleaned up the tail at the other end. When Kamboj was caught behind off the England skipper for a duck it meant Stokes had his first five-wicket haul in a Test since a career-best 6-22 against the West Indies at Lord’s in 2017.The all-rounder finished with 5-72 in 24 overs, a fine return after his future as a lively medium-pacer was threatened by repeated hamstring trouble.Pant reached his half-century in 69 balls, including a pulled six off Jofra Archer despite his lack of mobility, before he was bowled by the express quick for 54.Stokes went against history by sending India into bat on Wednesday. No team winning the toss and bowling first has ever won a Test at Old Trafford.But India need to make history of their own if they are to maintain hopes of a series victory as they have never won a Test at Old Trafford.

Nearly two decades lost, a family fractured and a city still without closure — the scars of the 2006 Mumbai train bombings remain, even as the men once blamed for the deadly attacks walk free.After 19 years behind bars, Mohammad Sajid Margub Ansari can finally hold his daughter in his arms.Ansari, now 48, was one of 12 men convicted in 2015 for murder, conspiracy and waging war against India over the 2006 train blasts.The evening rush-hour attacks, carried out with pressure-cooker bombs hidden in bags beneath newspapers and umbrellas, killed 187 people and wounded hundreds more.Five of the accused were sentenced to death, while the other seven — including Ansari — were given life imprisonment.At the time of the blasts, Ansari was just 29, running a modest mobile and computer repair shop. He was arrested soon after the explosions, reportedly accused of assembling the bombs and sheltering two Pakistani nationals.But this week, a two-judge bench of the Bombay High Court overturned the convictions, ruling that the prosecution had “utterly failed” to prove the men were responsible.The prosecution appealed to the Supreme Court to halt their release, but it declined to intervene.”It feels amazing to be free,” Ansari told AFP. “We are innocent.”- ‘Youth gone’ -Freedom, however, feels bittersweet for Ansari.”My whole youth is gone. My family had to face financial troubles,” he said. His wife was pregnant when Ansari was arrested, leaving him to miss his daughter’s entire childhood. In her early years, she wouldn’t even come near him.”As a dad that felt terrible, that I could not hold my own daughter,” he said.”I used to feel very helpless and think why do we have to go through all this when I am innocent.” The 2006 attacks were initially blamed on the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, although a little-known outfit, Lashkar-e-Qahhar, later claimed responsibility. Pakistan denied the allegations.For survivor Chirag Chauhan, who was paralysed from the waist down in one of the blasts, the acquittal of the men felt like being dragged “back to square one”.”We don’t know what to do and where to start from. The entire system is hopeless,” he told AFP.- ‘Back to square one’ -In 2006, Chauhan, now 40, was returning home from chartered accountancy training when the train he boarded was hit by an explosion.Prosecutors said the explosives were deliberately placed in first-class coaches to target the city’s wealthy Gujarati community. They also said the bombings were intended as revenge for riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002, which left around 2,000 people dead, most of them Muslims. A spinal cord injury left Chauhan requiring the use of a wheelchair.”After 19 years if the accused are let free, who carried out the blasts then?” he asked.But he also said there should be a “fair investigation”, noting that the now freed men could have been framed.”All are equally to be blamed, the judiciary, the investigative agencies, everyone,” he said.For Ansari, his years behind bars demand more than an acquittal.”The agencies should be ashamed of what they did and should definitely apologise to us,” he said. While his old mobile and computer repair shop is no longer an employment option, given the advances in technology since he was imprisoned, Ansari is aiming to rebuild his life.He plans to finish the undergraduate law degree which he enrolled in while in prison. “I hope to put it to good use,” he said.

The United Nations said Thursday that Taliban authorities were committing human rights violations, including torture and arbitrary detention, against Afghans forced to return by Iran and Pakistan.Large-scale deportation campaigns launched by Iran and Pakistan have forced millions of Afghans to return to Afghanistan, including more than 1.9 million this year, the overwhelming majority from Iran.”People returning to the country who were at particular risk of reprisals and other human rights violations by the de facto (Taliban) authorities were women and girls, individuals affiliated with the former government and its security forces, media workers and civil society,” the UN said in a statement accompanying the release of a report.”These violations have included torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary arrest and detention, and threats to personal security.”The UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) recently estimated that up to three million people could return to Afghanistan, which is facing a severe humanitarian crisis, in 2025.The report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN Human Rights Office was based on interviews with 49 returned Afghans.It said violations have been committed against Afghans “based on their specific profile”, including women, media workers, and members of civil society, as well as people affiliated with the former foreign-backed government that fell in 2021.The Taliban government rejected the findings, accusing the UN of spreading propaganda and rumours.”The people cited in this report may have been inaccurate, may be opposed to the system, or may want to spread propaganda or rumours and are therefore using the UNAMA for this purpose,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP on Thursday.Taliban authorities have previously said they declared an amnesty against those who worked for NATO forces and the former government during the two-decade conflict against the Taliban’s insurgency.”Nobody should be sent back to a country where they face risk of persecution on account of their identity or personal history,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement this month.”In Afghanistan, this is even more pronounced for women and girls, who are subjected to a range of measures that amount to persecution on the basis of their gender alone,” he added.Over the past four years, women have been increasingly isolated from public life by the Taliban authorities, which have banned them from universities, public parks, gyms and beauty salons, in what the UN has denounced as “gender apartheid”.- ‘Gender apartheid’ -Millions of Afghans have fled Afghanistan during decades of successive wars but neighbouring countries have grown hardened against hosting such large migrant populations.After crossing back into Afghanistan from Iran at the Islam Qala border on Thursday, Wahid Ahmad Mohammadi told AFP that he had no money to rent and would have to “set up a tent” in the nearest city, Herat. Although he had worked in Iran over the past 15 years, he said the “conditions were very bad, we were treated badly because we were Afghan”.Russia is the only country that has recognised the Taliban government since it seized power in 2021 following the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country.Neighbouring Tajikistan has followed Islamabad and Tehran’s example by announcing its intention to expel Afghans.Since July 8, at least 377 have been deported, the UNHCR told AFP.Germany, meanwhile, deported 81 Afghan men last week who had committed crimes and the United States announced it would revoke the temporary protection status for thousands of Afghans.According to the UN, the recent increase in the number of returnees has created a “multi-layered human rights crisis” and the organisation called last week for an “immediate halt” to forcible returns.

Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter once called India a “sleeping giant” of football, but the sport is mired in fresh crisis in the country and faces problems from the top down to grassroots.The men’s national team are without a coach and the Indian Super League (ISL) — India’s top competition — is in danger of collapsing over a dispute between the federation and its commercial partner.”Everybody in the Indian football ecosystem is worried, hurt, scared about the uncertainty we are faced with,” Sunil Chhetri, the celebrated veteran striker, wrote on X about the fate of the ISL.The former national skipper unwittingly summed up one of the issues facing Indian football when he came out of international retirement in March aged 40.The striker has 95 goals for his country and is only behind Cristiano Ronaldo (138), Lionel Messi (112) and Ali Daei (108) in the all-time international scoring charts.His best days are well behind him, but with no younger replacements coming through he returned to the national side.India’s men are 133rd in the FIFA rankings — their lowest placing in nearly a decade — and have won just one of their last 16 matches.They have never reached the World Cup and Spaniard Manolo Marquez stepped down this month as head coach after just one year and one win in eight games.His last act was to oversee a 1-0 defeat in Asian Cup qualifying to Hong Kong, population 7.5 million to India’s 1.4 billion.- Disarray -The ISL is usually played between September and April.But a rights agreement between the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), the company which runs the ISL, ends on December 8 and is yet to be renewed.The league is now paralysed ahead of the new campaign and the uncertainty has affected over 5,000 players, coaches, staff and others.National football team director and former captain Subrata Paul is confident the sport in India — a country obsessed with cricket — will come out stronger.”Indian football, like any growing ecosystem, will face its share of challenges and transitions,” Paul, regarded as one of India’s best-ever goalkeepers, told AFP.”I see this as a time to pause, reflect and refocus. Yes, the recent results and the uncertainty around the ISL are difficult for all of us who love the game, but I see a silver lining as well.”It’s an opportunity to strengthen our foundation by investing in youth development, infrastructure and quality coaching.” The franchise-based ISL started in 2014 as a league that brought global stars including Italy’s Alessandro Del Piero to India, and aimed to promote the game in a new avatar.Bur rather than boom, the ISL has seen dwindling TV ratings and falling sponsor interest.- Wenger help and hope -Football’s global bosses have long been keen to tap the potential that India has as the world’s most populous country.Arsene Wenger, the former Arsenal manager and now FIFA’s chief of global football development, visited in 2023 to inaugurate an academy.AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey — who is also a politician with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party  — last month met Wenger, who has backed India’s football development, particularly at grassroots level.Chaubey said Wenger believes starting football at 13 years of age, as is the norm in India, is too late. Players should start by eight, he said.While India have never reached the World Cup and again will be absent in North America next year, there has been modest success in the distant past.India qualified for the Olympics four times between 1948 and 1960. At the 1956 Melbourne Games India came fourth after losing the bronze-medal match to Bulgaria.Blatter in 2007 called India a “sleeping giant” — but it remains in a deep slumber. – ‘Own benefit’ -Football is a distant third in popularity in India after cricket and hockey, with the eastern city of Kolkata and the southern state of Kerala hotspots for the sport.Compounding that, there has long been mismanagement by Indian football chiefs, said veteran sports journalist Jaydeep Basu.”The fact that the team which was ranked 99 in September 2023 has come down to 133 basically shows poor management,” Basu told AFP.”There is a caucus working in the AIFF of two or three people who are running the show for their own benefit,” added Basu, who recently authored a book, “Who stole my football?”.AFP has contacted the AIFF for comment.