Pujara, rain thwart rampaging Sri Lanka in Kolkata

KOLKATA: India’s top order bulwark Cheteshwar Pujara resisted Sri Lanka’s charge with a gutsy unbeaten 47 before rain returned to wipe out more than two sessions of the second day’s play in the opening test on Friday.

Steady showers had allowed just 11.5 overs on the first day of the three-match series and the heavens opened once more on Friday to initially force an early lunch and then wash out the final two sessions with India reeling on 74 for five.

When play was called off, Pujara, a model of concentration, stood three runs short of a 16th test fifty, a knock he would be proud of considering the conditions at Eden Gardens.

Local favourite Wriddhiman Saha survived some anxious moments to remain six not out at the other end as the visitors continued to plunder wickets between the showers in search of a first test win against their hosts in India.

Sri Lanka’s first change bowler Dasun Shanaka dismissed Ajinkya Rahane and Ravichandran Ashwin, both for four, to compound India’s woes after the hosts had resumed on 17-3 under an overcast sky.

Suranga Lakmal had claimed three wickets on the opening day without conceding a run and the paceman eventually sent down 46 dot balls before Rahane hit a boundary to end the streak.

Shanaka struck in his third over when Rahane chased a wide delivery and nicked a catch to wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella.

Next man in Ashwin was hit on the thumb by a rising Lahiru Gamage delivery and needed medical attention, before he also fell victim to a very ordinary shot against Shanaka, slicing a delivery straight to Dimuth Karunaratne at point.

Saha looked tentative as well but Pujara batted with characteristic assuredness at the other end.

On a green track where the ball moved significantly, Pujara came up with a batting masterclass — playing late, close to his body with soft hands and leaving well.

India’s number three was his watchful self against anything outside the off stump and capitalised on the occasional poor delivery, as the nine boundaries in his 102-ball vigil would suggest.

Comments

US drone strike kills leader of Pakistan’s Jamaat-ul-Ahrar militants: spokesman

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: The leader of Pakistani militant group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, who planned some of the deadliest suicide bombings in Pakistan over the last year, died on Thursday of wounds sustained in a US drone strike in Afghanistan, a spokesman said. “Our leader, Omar Khalid Khorasani, was wounded in one of the recent drone strikes in Afghanistan. He was wounded badly, and today he was martyred,” Asad Mansoor, a Jamaat-ul-Ahrar spokesman, said by telephone.The killing comes ahead of American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit next week and is likely to further ease tensions between the often-wary allies, as Islamabad has been asking Washington for years to target militants who attack inside Pakistan and then hide over the border in Afghanistan. A splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar has in the past also backed Middle East-based Islamic State and has increasingly targeted religious minorities in Pakistan. The group clai

PM commits all kinds of support for upcoming elections

KATHMANDU: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has committed to hold the upcoming federal and provincial elections on stipulated time. He further said that government was committed to extend all kinds of essential support for the elections. According to Election Commission’s spokesperson Nawaraj Dhakal, in a meeting with Election Commission’s office bearers at PM’s official residence, Baluwatar today, PM Deuba committed to reach all kinds of support for elections to the commission. PM Deuba expressed happiness on the preparations going on for the elections and directed the EC officials to work in full speed for remaining preparations as well.Chief election commissioner Dr Ayodhee Prasad Yadav briefed PM Deuba about their preparations for elections. He informed PM Deuba that the political parties submitted their closed lists of candidates for the proportional system under the federal and provincial elections in the stipulated time with enthusiasm. On the occasion, PM and

‘Contractor’s negligence responsible for collapse of Jabdighat Bridge’

The government’s study panel has found that Pappu Construction — the contractor that built the Jabdighat Bridge over the Babai River in Bardiya — deviated from the design approved by the government during the construction process of the bridge, which resulted in its collapse during heavy floods on Babai River on August 21. The probe panel formed by the Department of Roads (DoR) has concluded that the contractor had not followed through on the design approved by the government during construction of the 425-metre-long bridge. According to Ayodhya Prasad Shrestha, coordinator of the probe panel and chief of Mid-western Regional Road Directorate Surkhet, the contractor’s negligence is one of the major reasons for collapse of the bridge even before it had been handed over to the government authority. “In our preliminary study, we found that the distance between the pillars of the bridge is inconsistent to the approved design. The gap between the pillars should have been 25 metres, b

Nepalinews

Search This Blog