Abhishek Sharma skyrockets to second spot in T20 batters' ranking
Dubai, Feb 5 (PTI): In-form India opener Abhishek Sharma leapfrogged 38 places to the second spot in the ICC Men's T20I Player Rankings for batters while his teammate Tilak Verma dropped a rung to the third place on Wednesday.
Abhishek produced the best innings of his fledging international career when he smashed a quick-fire 135 in the fifth and final T20 against England in Mumbai, leading India to a thumping 4-1 series win.
Abhishek's innings came off just 54 deliveries and was adorned with 13 sixes. It was the highest score by an Indian men's player in the shortest format.
As a result, the 24-year-old zoomed to the second spot in the latest ranking.
Australia star Travis Head continues to lead the T20I batters' chart, but Abhishek is just 26 rating points behind him following his record-breaking effort at Wankhede.
Skipper Suryakumar Yadav is placed fifth and all within striking distance of Head, while his India teammates Hardik Pandya (up five rungs to equal 51st) and Shivam Dube (up 38 spots to 58th) also moved up the rankings chart following some good scores against England.
It's a similar story on the bowlers' rankings with spinner Varun Chakravarthy moving up three places to joint second with Adil Rashid on the back of his 14 wickets and player-of-the-series effort against England.
Fellow spinner Ravi Bishnoi (up four places to sixth) also climbed the list after taking five wickets in the series against England. Left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh also finds himself in top 10 at ninth place.
West Indies spinner Akeal Hosein re-claims his spot as the No.1 bowler after he lost the mantle to Rashid a week earlier.
A host of Australian players gained ground in the latest Test rankings following their impressive effort in defeating Sri Lanka by an innings and 242 runs during the recent first Test in Galle.
Stand-in skipper Steve Smith gained three places to move up to fifth following his 35th Test century, while opener Usman Khawaja climbed six places to 11th after contributing his highest Test score of 232 during the romp.
Yashavi Jaiswal remained on the fourth spot in the Test batters list, which is being headed by England's Joe Root, followed by Harry Brook and New Zealand's Kane Williamson.
Jasprit Bumrah, who is recovering from back spasm, maintained his top spot. He was recently named ICC Men's Cricketer of the Year and ICC Men's Test Cricketer of the Year.
Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja is the other Indian in top 10 at the ninth spot.
South Africa's Kagiso Rabada jumped a spot to the second while Australia captain Pat Cummins is at third position, followed by Josh Hazlewood and Noman Ali of Pakistan.
Veteran Australia spinner Nathan Lyon has improved two spots to jump to sixth overall and pacer Mitchell Starc is up two places to 12th following their efforts in Galle.
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Delhi court sentences Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia, associate to life imprisonment
New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi court has sentenced Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia and his associate to life imprisonment under MCOCA provisions, but refused the death penalty saying the offences did not fall under the category of 'rarest of the rare cases'.
Additional Sessions Judge Vandana Jain sentenced Gulia and Dhirpal alias Kana to rigorous imprisonment for life under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
In an order dated December 13, the judge said, "Death sentence can only be awarded in 'rarest of the rare cases' wherein the murder is committed in an extremely inhumane, barbarous, grotesque or dastardly manner as to arouse umbrage of the community at large."
The judge said that on weighing the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, it could be concluded that the present case did not fall under the category, and so, the death penalty could not be imposed upon the convicts.
"Thus, both the convicts are sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs 3 lakh each, for committing the offence under Section 3 of MCOCA," she said.
The public prosecutor, seeking the death penalty for both the accused, submitted that they were involved in several unlawful activities while they were on bail in other cases.
He argued that the accused had shown no respect for the law and acted without any fear of legal consequences, and therefore did not deserve any leniency from the court.
The court noted that both convicts were involved in offences of murder, attempt to murder, extortion, robbery, house trespass, and criminal intimidation. Besides, they had misused the liberty of interim bail granted to them by absconding.
It said, "The terror of the convicts was such that it created fear psychosis in the mind of the general public, and they lost complete faith in the law enforcement agencies and chose to accede to the illegal demands of convicts. Despite suffering losses, they could not gather the courage to depose against them."
The court noted that Gulia was involved in at least 18 criminal cases, while Dhirpal had links to 10 serious offences.
It underlined that MCOCA had been enacted "keeping in view the fact that organised crime had come up as a serious threat to society, as it knew no territorial boundaries and is fuelled by illegal wealth generated by committing the offence of extortion, contract killings, kidnapping for ransom, collection of protection money, murder, etc."
Both accused persons had been convicted on December 10 in a case registered at Najafgarh police station. The police filed a chargesheet under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) and 4 (punishment for possessing unaccountable wealth on behalf of member of organised crime syndicate) of MCOCA.
