India 51/4 at lunch on Day 1 of opening Test against Australia
Perth (PTI): Electing to bat, India reached 51 for 4 at lunch on the first morning of the opening Test against Australia here on Friday.
Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and one-down Devdutt Padikkal failed to open accounts in their first Test outings in Australia while star batter Virat Kohli was dismissed for 5 after facing 12 balls.
The other opener, KL Rahul got out just before lunch for 26 off 74 balls.
Rishabh Pant was batting on 10 along with Dhruv Jurel (4 batting) at the break. The first morning session saw 25 overs being bowled.
Josh Hazlewood accounted for Padikkal and Kohli while pace colleague Mitchell Starc took the wickets of Jaiswal and Rahul.
Earlier, India captain Jasprit Bumrah won the toss and elected to bat first as pacer Harshit Rana and all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy made Test debuts.
For Austraia, opener Nathan McSweeney also made his debut.
Brief Scores:
India: 51 for 4 in 25 overs (Virat Kohli 5, KL Rahul 26, Rishabh Pant 10 batting; Josh Hazlewood 2/10, Mitchell Starc 2/10).
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Vinod Tawde seeks apology from Kharge, Rahul through legal notice, warns of defamation lawsuit
Cash-for-vote row
New Delhi, Nov 22: BJP leader Vinod Tawde has demanded an apology from Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi for making "false and baseless" allegations against him in the cash-for-votes incident in Maharashtra, saying if they don't he would sue them for defamation.
Tawde was accused by Bahujan Vikas Aghadi, a regional party, of distributing Rs 5 crore to woo voters, with its members barging into a hotel room on November 19 in a Mumbai suburb, where the BJP leader was present.
The former Maharashtra minister and BJP national general secretary claimed innocence, saying the alleged amount was not recovered in the probe by the Election Commission and police.
"The Congress only believes in spreading lies, and this incident is a proof of the party's low level politics to dent me and my party's image," Tawde said.
The two Congress leaders and the party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate seized on the row to accuse the BJP of using money power to influence the November 20 assembly polls in the state.
The legal notice sent to the three claimed that they were aware that they were pushing a "totally false story fabricated" by them.
"You all have deliberately, mischievously with the sole intention of damaging the reputation of our client intentionally fabricated the story distribution of money. You all have published false, baseless allegations against our client on various media for tarnishing his image in the eyes of right thinking people in the society," the notice read.
The Congress leaders were in a "great hurry" to damage Tawde's reputation, they did not bother to check the fact and or despite knowing the entire fact they made the false, baseless allegations, it said.
"The entire imputation made by you all are totally false, baseless, malicious and mala fide and as our client is in no way involved in any such illegal activity and as a responsible office bearer of the national political party he is aware of his duties," it added.
The notice demanded an "unconditional apology" to Tawde within 24 hours from the time the receipt of the notice, which was sent on November 21, and published in newspapers and X.
If they do not offer apology, then Tawde will initiate criminal proceedings under Section 356, which covers defamation, of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and also civil proceedings for the damages of Rs 100 crore against the three Congress leaders, the notice said.
