Arjun Tendulkar, son of India batting icon Sachin Tendulkar, failed to open his account while batting as he departed for a duck in his maiden Under-19 appearance during the first Youth Test match against the Sri Lankan U-19 team at the Nondescripts Cricket Club in Colombo. Arjun Tendulkar was dismissed by Shashika Dulshan. The 18-year-old all-rounder played 11 deliveries but failed to score a single run.

Coincidentally, Sachin Tendulkar was also dismissed for a duck in his ODI debut against Pakistan in 1989.

Tendulkar Jr had hogged the limelight after he claimed his first international wicket on Tuesday. Arjun needed only 12 balls to claim his maiden international wicket. He had trapped Kamil Mishara lbw to bag his first India Under-19 wicket.

Arjun, a left-arm pacer, bowled an in-swinging length delivery and the left-handed Mishara failed to read the line of the ball and departed for a paltry 9.

Arjun bowled 11 overs, taking one wicket and conceding 33 runs. He bowled two maiden overs in his spell. After bowling out Sri Lanka U-19 team for 244, India U-19 team led by Anuj Rawat piled 589 runs on the scoreboard.

Opener Atharwa Taide scored 113 off 160 balls, while Ayush Badoni smashed an unbeaten 185 off 205 balls for India. For Sri Lanka, Kalhara Senarathne returned with figures of 6 for 170.

Arjun was selected in India's under-19 squad for the tour of Sri Lanka in July. He also attended a U-19 camp at the National Cricket Academy under the supervision of WV Raman and Sanath Kumar ahead of the tour of Sri Lanka.

courtesy : ndtv.com

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New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking to revert to ballot paper voting in elections in the country.

"What happens is, when you win the election, EVMs (electronic voting machine) are not tampered. When you lose the election, EVMs are tampered (with)," remarked a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and P B Varale.

Apart from ballot paper voting, the plea sought several directions including a directive to the Election Commission to disqualify candidates for a minimum of five years if found guilty of distributing money, liquor or other material inducement to the voters during polls.

When petitioner-in-person K A Paul said he filed the PIL, the bench said, "You have interesting PILs. How do you get these brilliant ideas?".

The petitioner said he is the president of an organisation which has rescued over three lakh orphans and 40 lakh widows.

"Why are you getting into this political arena? Your area of work is very different," the bench retorted.

After Paul revealed he had been to over 150 countries, the bench asked him whether each of the nations had ballot paper voting or used electronic voting.

The petitioner said foreign countries had adopted ballot paper voting and India should follow suit.

"Why you don't want to be different from the rest of the world?" asked the bench.

There was corruption and this year (2024) in June, the Election Commission announced they had seized Rs 9,000 crore, Paul responded.

"But how does that make your relief which you are claiming here relevant?" asked the bench, adding "if you shift back to physical ballot, will there be no corruption?".

Paul claimed CEO and co-founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, stated that EVMs could be tampered with and added TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, the current chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, and former state chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had claimed EVMs could be tampered with.

"When Chandrababu Naidu lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with. Now this time, Jagan Mohan Reddy lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with," noted the bench.

When the petitioner said everybody knew money was distributed in elections, the bench remarked, "We never received any money for any elections."

The petitioner said another prayer in his plea was the formulation of a comprehensive framework to regulate the use of money and liquor during election campaigns and ensuring such practices were prohibited and punishable under the law.

The plea further sought a direction to mandate an extensive voter education campaign to raise awareness and importance of informed decision making.

"Today, 32 per cent educated people are not casting their votes. What a tragedy. If democracy will be dying like this and we will not be able to do anything then what will happen in the years to come in future," the petitioner said.