LONDON: Joe Root scored a record-equalling 33rd Test hundred as England established a strong position against Sri Lanka on the first day of the second Test at Lord’s on Thursday. England, 42-2 when Root came in to bat, reached stumps on 358-7, with the star batsman having made 143 — his sixth Test century at the ‘Home of Cricket’. No other England top-order batsman made more than Ben Duckett’s 40. But fast bowler Gus Atkinson was 74 not out at the close — his maiden Test fifty in just five matches at this level — after providing Root with excellent…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Thursday announced a 12-man squad for the Green Team’s second Test match against Bangladesh at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. Pakistan cricket’s nightmarish slide continued on Sunday, when Bangladesh recorded their first-ever Test triumph over the hosts, taking the opening fixture of the two-match series with a clinical 10-wicket win. A brilliant 191 by veteran batter Mushfiqur Rahim on a flat Rawalpindi pitch helped the visitors rack up their highest-ever total against Pakistan of 565 to take a crucial 117-run first-innings lead. The defeat marked Pakistan’s second upset loss this year after the T20 international…
LAHORE: With the start of the domestic season just around the corner, the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) is yet to finalise its decisions regarding the scheduling of the matches, pointing towards faulty governance and lack of professionalism within the organisation’s functioning. In yet another tweak of schedule on Thursday, the PCB postponed the start of the Inter-district Senior Cricket Championship, stating in a letter addressed to the district cricket associations that the delay was for an indefinite period due to the ongoing rainy season. Dawn understands the event’s commencement will be rescheduled to Sept. 8, a week later than its…
RAWALPINDI: Faced with a must-win challenge, Pakistan in a major move on Thursday axed their pace spearhead Shaheen Shah Afridi for the second and final Test against Bangladesh as the hosts look to avoid a series loss in Rawalpindi. A Shan Masood-led team with an all-pace bowling attack suffered a stunning 10-wicket loss to Bangladesh — the country’s very first against Bangladesh — on the final day of the first Test at the Pindi Cricket Stadium last Sunday and now face a must-win task in the second Test starting at the same venue on Friday. Bangladesh on the other hand are looking…
Heavy rain washed out the first day of the second and final Test between Pakistan and Bangladesh in Rawalpindi on Friday. Overnight downpours delayed the toss and after more monsoon rains, umpires abandoned play for the day shortly after midday. “The first day’s play has been called off due to persistent rain and wet outfield,” Pakistan Cricket Board said. Both teams were still in their hotel and umpires were to inspect the ground only after the rain stopped, with the met office forecasting intermittent monsoon rain. It was a bad omen for a Pakistan team desperate to square the two-match…
ISLAMABAD: Traders from Karachi have opposed the Rs3.09 per unit additional fuel cost adjustment (FCA) demanded by K-Electric, saying it would put them at a competitive disadvantage compared to the rest of the country. The traders pleaded this on Thursday during National Electric Power Regulatory Authority’s (Nepra) public hearing on KE’s request for permission to extract Rs6.2bn from its consumers for electricity used in July. The businesspersons, traders and political representatives from the city said the FCA for other ex-Wapda distribution companies was estimated to be negative Rs0.31 for July, the same month for which the power utility company was seeking an…
ISLAMABAD: The first month of the new fiscal year saw a surge of 68.72 per cent in the country’s trade deficit with nine neighbouring countries, taking it to $1.041 billion from $0.617bn over the last year. Experts attributed the jump mainly to an increase in imports from China and India. Since the rise in deficit remains unchanged from the previous fiscal year, it may cause big problems for policymakers. In FY24, the trade deficit was recorded at $9.506 billion, up 49pc from $6.382bn in the preceding fiscal. Exports to China, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka saw an upward trend in July, but…
LAHORE: As Punjab cabinet on Thursday approved a Rs14 per unit subsidy on August and September electricity bills for consumers in the province and Islamabad, using from 201 to 500 units, Finance Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman was conspicuous by his absence, sparking speculations that he was made to skip the meeting for his ‘controversial remarks’ on the issue. The finance minister earlier had claimed that the actual cost of the subsidy was Rs90 billion and not Rs45bn, as claimed by the Maryam administration, and that half of the amount to be spent on providing this relief to Punjab would be funded by the federal…
WASHINGTON: The nexus between power and plots in Pakistan has seriously affected the economy, says Princeton economist Atif Mian, while urging the government to shift its focus from non-reproducible to reproducible factors. In a Thursday commentary on the current economic situation in Pakistan, the Pakistani-American economist warned that the power-plot nexus has led to a high-consumption, low-productivity economy. Pakistan generates one of the lowest shares of revenue from land and property, which Mian describes as “inefficient.” He suggests increasing property tax to address this issue. Commenting on the proposed increase, Pakistani investor Maaiz Khan argues that raising property tax could be “an…
Shares at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued to trade in the green on Friday as the index climbed more than 400 points in intraday trade. The KSE-100 benchmark index climbed 446.50, or 0.57 per cent, to stand at 78,796.16 points from the previous close of 78,349.66 at 11:44am. Mohammed Sohail, the chief executive of Topline Securities, said that the market was rising due to expectations of Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) — a provider of global indices for passive investments —“rebalancing inflows”. Additionally, he said that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data — which measures household inflation and includes…
