Nagpur, Mar 5: Skipper Virat Kohli's resolute 40th hundred under pressure steered India to a competitive 250 despite a middle-order collapse in the second One-day International, here Tuesday.

Australia's spin troika of Adam Zampa (2/62 in 10 overs), Glenn Maxwell (1/45 in 10 overs) and Nathan Lyon (1/42 in 10 overs) bowled well in the middle obvers although it was Pat Cummins who had the best figures of 4 for 29.

Kohli came in after Cummins sent back opener Rohit Sharma (0) in the very first over. The Indian skipper was in good touch and played some delightful drives whenever the ball was pitched up.

In conditions which tested the fitness of each and every player, Kohli struck only 10 boundaries and ran a lot of singles and twos in his 116-run knock.

He was at the crease till the 46th over, faced 120 balls in an innings which will rank among one of his top ODI knocks in recent times.

Kohli steadily build the Indian innings even as he saw the fall of colleagues Shikhar Dhawan (21) and Ambati Rayudu (18).

Dhawan looked in good touch as he too hit some crushing boundaries before being trapped by part-timer Glenn Maxwell.

Rayudu struggled to rotate strike as the ball was not coming on to the bat and was eventually adjudged leg before off Nathan Lyon.

Kohli got a good ally in Vijay Shankar (46 off 41) with whom he added 81 runs for the fourth wicket but the latter was unfortunately run out when he backed up too far at the non-striker's end to a Kohli straight drive.

Leg-spinner Adam Zampa then got rid of Kedar Jadhav (11) and M S Dhoni (0) off successive balls but Kohli held one end up.

He completed his hundred by cutting one from Nathan Coulter-Nile to the square boundary.

The innings approaching the end, acceleration was required but Ravindra Jadeja could only manage 21 off 40 balls and was soon removed by Cummins. Kohli was finally dismissed while trying to pull Pat Cummins.

Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah too perished in a jiffy and India could not even bat for full 50 overs.

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Ranchi (PTI): A 25-year-old man, who works as a butcher, allegedly strangled to death his live-in partner and chopped her body into 40 to 50 pieces in a forested area in Jharkhand’s Khunti district, police said on Wednesday.

The accused, identified as Naresh Bhengra, was arrested.

The matter came to light after around a fortnight after the killing when a stray dog was found with human body parts near Jordag village in Jariagarh police station on November 24.

Bhengra was in a live-in relationship with the deceased, a 24-year-old woman also from Khunti district, in Tamil Nadu for the past couple of years. Sometime back, he returned to Jharkhand, got married to another woman without telling his partner anything and went back to the southern state without his wife to join her.

"The brutal incident occurred on November 8 when they reached Khunti as the accused who had married another woman did not wish to take her home. Instead, he took her to a forest near his house at Jordag village in Jariagarh police station and chopped the body into pieces. The man has been arrested," Khunti Superintendent of Police Aman Kumar told PTI.

Inspector Ashok Singh who investigated the case said the man worked in a butcher shop in Tamil Nadu and was expert in slicing chicken.

“He admitted chopping the body parts of the woman into 40 to 50 pieces before leaving those in the forest for wild animals to feast on. The police recovered several parts on November 24 after a dog in the area was seen with a hand," Singh told PTI.

Singh said that the woman, who was unaware of his marriage, pressured him to return to Khunti. After reaching Ranchi, they boarded a train on November 24 and headed to the man's village.

"Under a plan, the man took her to Khunti in an autorickshaw near his home and asked her to wait. He returned with sharp weapons and strangulated her with her dupatta after raping her. He then cut the body into 40 to 50 pieces and left for his home to live with his wife," Singh said.

The woman, however, had informed her mother that she had boarded a train and would be living with her partner, the police officer said.

Following the recovery of body parts, a bag was also found in the forest with the murdered woman's belongings including her Aadhaar card. The mother of the woman was called at the spot and she identified her daughter's belongings.

"The mother suspected the man behind the crime who after being nabbed by the police admitted to chopping the woman into pieces," the official added.

The incident has sent shockwaves among people in the region, with the Shraddha Walker murder case of 2022 still fresh in their memory.

Walker was killed by her live-in partner who chopped her body into pieces before dumping them in the jungle in South Delhi’s Mehrauli.