5th Test: India Quell England's Fightback To Reach 473/8, Take 255 Run Lead

by Hemanta Pande

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav put up an unbeaten 45-run stand after England fought back in the last session to extend India's lead to 255 runs as the hosts reached 473/8 at stumps on Day 2 of the fifth and final Test at the HPCA Stadium here on Friday.

Dharamshala, Mar 8: Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav put up an unbeaten 45-run stand after England fought back in the last session to extend India's lead to 255 runs as the hosts reached 473/8 at stumps on Day 2 of the fifth and final Test at the HPCA Stadium here on Friday.

After debutant Devdutt Padikkal (65) and Sarfaraz Khan (56) steered India to a dominating position at the stroke of tea after skipper Rohit Sharma (103) and Shubman Gill (110) had laid the foundation, England staged a fightback in the last session of the day with 5 wickets for 52 runs.

Shoaib Bashir came to break the deadly-looking partnership, giving some reprise to the England camp by dismissing Sarfaraz for 56. Then came a special moment for Padikkal, who brought up his half-century on debut, becoming the fifth member of India's top five to reach 50 in this innings.

Soon after a ripper of a ball from Bashir dismissed Padikkal for 65, who was looking to defend from the crease. Then, another steady partnership seemed to be taking shape for India as Ravindra Jadeja and Dhruv Jurel collaborated to extend the lead beyond 200. However, Jurel's dismissal, caught at long-on, handed Bashir his fourth wicket.

Later, Tom Hartley got his first wicket of the match, trapping Jadeja LBW. The batter took a review and the ball-tracking showed that the ball crashed into the leg-stump. In the same over, he bowled Ravichandran Ashwin for a duck in his 100th Test. Following a brief surge from the English spinners, Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah showcased composed batting to thwart England's efforts. As a result, India stretched their lead past 450 runs.

At tea, Padikkal and Sarfaraz, who have just four caps between them, raised a 97-run fourth wicket stand following the dismissals of skipper Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill, both of whom notched up centuries. Rohit and Gill both cruised to hundreds during the morning session as India tightened their grip on the final Test. England finally made a breakthrough when captain Ben Stokes made the difference by introducing himself into the attack.

Stokes, who had refrained from bowling since the Lord’s Test in June due to a persistent knee problem that necessitated surgery before Christmas, removed Rohit for 103. Then, Padikkal came to join another centurion of the day Gill. James Anderson soon got another big fish, Gill on 110, for his 699th Test scalp as England got rid of both the set batters shortly after lunch. Sarfaraz walked out at No.5 for India, joining Padikkal. The pair steadied things for India and grabbed the momentum back after England's double-strike post-lunch.

Earlier, resuming at the overnight score of 135/1, Rohit (102 off 160) and Gill (101* off 142) dominated the opening session of the day and put up a 160-run stand at lunch, India's second consecutive hundred partnership in the series. Rohit was the first to reach the three-figure mark. He notched his second hundred of the series and 12th overall with a clip-through midwicket off Tom Hartley.

In the next over, he handed the strike back to Gill, who slog-swept Shoaib Bashir to bring up his second century of the series and fourth in Tests.

Brief scores:

At stumps, Day 2: England 218 trail India 473/8 in 120 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 57, Rohit Sharma 103, Shubman Gill 110, Devdutt Padikkal 65, Sarfaraz Khan 56, Jasprit Bumrah 19 not out, Kuldeep Yadav 27 not out; Shoaib Bashir 4-170, Tom Hartley 2-126) by 255 runs (IANS)

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IPL 2024: PBKS Win Toss, Elect To Bowl First Against CSK

by Hemanta Pande

Dharamsala, May 5: Punjab Kings have won the toss and elected to bowl first against Chennai Super Kings in match 53 of IPL 2024 at the picturesque HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala on Sunday afternoon.

PBKS are placed at eighth position on the points table, while CSK are sitting at fifth place. The last time these two teams met in IPL 2024, PBKS beat CSK by seven wickets at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on May 1.

After winning the toss, PBKS captain Sam Curran said his playing eleven is unchanged. "Day game, try and see how it plays and chase it down. We've had two really good wins with the same team. Conditions should be fairly even throughout, it's about batting, bowling and fielding well," he said.

CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad said left-arm spin all-rounder Mitchell Santner comes into the playing eleven in place of left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman, who is in Bangladesh for T20I series against Zimbabwe. Tushar Deshpande is also back in the playing eleven after missing the last game due to flu and comes in place of Deepak Chahar, who is down with a hamstring injury.

"We've just stuck to our process and doing little things right. We don't look at the track record of the opposition, we focus on ourselves and see what we can do right. This season there have been a lot of injuries, flus and forced changes so we've had to tinker with our team. I'd say losing 10 tosses but winning 5 games is a positive," he said.

Playing XIs-

Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Daryl Mitchell, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali, MS Dhoni (wicket-keeper), Mitchell Santner, Shardul Thakur, Tushar Deshpande and Richard Gleeson

Substitutes: Sameer Rizvi, Simarjeet Singh, Shaik Rasheed, Prashant Solanki, and Mukesh Choudhary

Punjab Kings: Jonny Bairstow, Rilee Rossouw, Shashank Singh, Sam Curran (captain), Jitesh Sharma (wicket-keeper), Ashutosh Sharma, Harpreet Brar, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Harshal Patel and Arshdeep Singh

Substitutes: Prabhsimran Singh, Harpreet Bhatia, Tanay Thyagarajan, Vidwath Kaverappa and Rishi Dhawan (IANS)

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PM Modi’s 10 Years Of Reign Has Set India Firmly On Path Of Viksit Bharat

by Hemanta Pande

Bhubaneswar, May 5: External affairs minister Dr. S. Jaishankar on Saturday said the past ten years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a phase of laying a strong foundation for making India a “strong nation” and the next five years will be dedicated to achieve the goal of Viksit Bharat in the next 25 years which is now known as ‘Amrit Kaal.’

“In 2014, Narendra Modi sought five years for BJP to serve the nation. As Prime Minister he delivered on all fronts – starting from salvaging the nation from an utter state of despair to hope and aspiration. People of all sections were taken up. Country made progress on all sectors and an economy boomed. People appreciated PM Modi’s performances and blessed him with another term in 2019. Now, after 10 years, people’s trust in him has doubled and they have reposed faith in his leadership to take the country on the path of progress to reach our goal of Viksit Bharat,” he said during an interaction with editors of different newspapers and television channels.

Speaking on the foreign policy of India, Jaishankar said India is playing the role of a peace-broker across the globe as the world leaders trust the country's leadership.

“Now, you see turmoil in different parts of the world. The Russia-Ukraine war, the tension in Gaza following the terrorist attack on Israel and the more recent Israel-Iran conflicts have created tensions in those regions, besides affecting the world order. However, during such critical times, whenever leaders of all these countries have looked to India to play its role to ease the tension, our country has obliged in the best possible manner,” said the minister.

Stating that India’s foreign policy was on the right track, Jaishankar said the country had succeeded in asserting itself in the global platform as one of the forward-looking countries.

On the strained relationship with Canada, Jaishankar said, “Our relationship with Canada and its Prime Minister is not the same as with other nations. You can see Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as an exception. What’s the reason? Some people who profess Khalistani ideology have made use of that democracy and formed a lobby and vote bank. Some parties in Canada, some parties in that country feel that if they maintain good relationships with these people, it will benefit. It’s all about vote bank politics in Canada. Now, the matter is more serious because the Trudeau government lacks a majority in the parliament. The leaders of other political parties on whom Trudeau is dependent are pro-Khalistani.”

The minister said though India wrote to Canada for extradition of 25 Khalistani leaders, the latter did not take any action on that.

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To a query, Jaishankar said Odisha should have a BJP government to carry forward the development of the Narendra Modi government.

“I concur what Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently said that Odisha has not progressed much in the past two decades despite it having huge mineral resources. We need to have a young person with a sharp outlook to lead the state,” he observed.