Felicitation by President, HM Amit Shah and teammates' guard of honour mark Ishant's 100th Test
Ahmedabad, Feb 24: India's veteran fast bowler Ishant Sharma was on Wednesday accorded a guard of honour by his teammates after being felicitated by President Ram Nath Kovind and Home Minister Amit Shah ahead of his landmark 100th Test match here.
The 32-year-old Ishant is only the second Indian fast bowler after former captain Kapil Dev to play 100 Test matches.
Before the start of the day-night third Test against England, the pacer received a memento from President Kovind while Shah handed him a commemorative 100th Test cap at the Narendra Modi Stadium here.
As he made his way into the ground after England opted to bat, captain Virat Kohli's men lined up to honour his longevity and service to Indian cricket.
"@ImIshant was felicitated by the Honourable President of India Shri Ram Nath Kovind & Honourable Home Minister of India Shri Amit Shah before the start of play here in Ahmedabad," the BCCI tweeted.
Besides the President and home minister, also present during the inauguration of the world's largest cricket stadium were sports minister Kiren Rijiju and BCCI secretary Jay Shah.
In his landmark game, Ishant provided the home team a perfect start as he removed Dominic Sibley in the third over.
Though he has had many memorable moments in his career so far that has nearly spanned a decade and a half, Ishant struggled to name one while speaking to reporters ahead of the game.
"If your career is 14 years long and you are still playing, you cannot name just one highlight. It is difficult to pinpoint just one highlight, every sportsperson has the graph going up and down," Ishant said.
During the first Test against England earlier this month in Chennai, Ishant became the sixth Indian and third pacer from the country to take 300 wickets in Test cricket, joining legendary former captains Kapil and Anil Kumble.
Ishant, who has 11 five-wicket hauls and picked up 10 wickets in a match once, made his Test debut back in 2007 against Bangladesh.
Prior to the start of the match, Ishant was hailed by the likes of Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Ashish Nehra.
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Interstate cyber-fraud racket busted in UP's Baghpat, 7 held
Baghpat (PTI): An interstate cyber-fraud racket involved in duping people on the pretext of providing bank jobs was busted by police in this Uttar Pradesh district on Sunday with the arrest of seven people, including two women, officials said.
Police said the accused were running a fake call centre and luring job seekers from several states by issuing forged appointment letters and fabricated agreements in the name of bank recruitment, collecting large sums of money in return.
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Twelve mobile phones, two laptops, two SIM cards on fake names, several forged appointment letters and agreements, 15 bank passbooks, two chequebooks, UPI QR codes, ATM cards and 11 other cards were seized from the possession of the accused, police said, adding that the data of around 6,450 people from different states was found stored in the laptops.
According to the officials, the gang misused information obtained from online platforms, such as OLX and job-related websites, to target unsuspecting victims.
The racket was uncovered following complaints received on the Union home ministry's "Pratibimb" portal and subsequent technical surveillance.
Investigations revealed at least 20 complaints from various states, including Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Assam and Meghalaya.
The arrested accused were identified as Mohit Kumar, Puneet Kumar, Vardaan, Anuj Kumar and Akshay, besides the two women.
They were arrested at around 11:30 am from under the Eastern Peripheral Expressway in the Kotwali Baghpat area.
A case has been registered at the cyber crime police station under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and section 66D of the Information Technology Act, police said.
