Markram fifty helps SRH beat CSK by six wickets
Hyderabad, Apr 5: Chennai Super Kings fluffed their lines during their batting innings and then were struck by a tornado named Abhishek Sharma whose 37 off 12 balls put Sunrisers Hyderabad on course of their comfortable six wicket victory against the defending champions in an IPL match here on Friday.
The SRH bowlers were very disciplined while restricting CSK to 165 for 5 in 20 overs with only 37 being scored off last five overs.
If 37 off last five was a poor effort from CSK, young southpaw Abhishek, who is having a great tournament, also scored 37 but off only 12 deliveries with four sixes to lay the platform.
Aiden Markram then anchored a run chase with a 36-ball 50 as SRH knocked off the runs in just 18.1 overs.
His 60-run stand with opener Travis Head (31 off 24 balls) for the second wicket in seven overs after Abhishek pummeled a listless Mukesh Chaudhary, playing his first game, for 27 runs. The match as a contest ended then and there as CSK lost two away matches on trot while SRH have now won both their home games.
CSK had a chance first up but Moeen Ali dropped Head off the second delivery bowled by Deepak Chahar.
After that it was mayhem as 23-year-old Abhishek hit two fours and three sixes off Mukesh, who was forced selection in absence of Mustafizur Rahaman, who has taken a one-match break to go home and submit his US visa application.
Playing his first competitive game after 16 months, Mukesh was all over the place in his only over and will again warm the benches from next game when Mustafizue comes back.
There was no let up from the Abhishek as he also hammered 'IPL specialist' Chahar for a boundary and a six in the third over but his pyrotechnics ended there as his lofted shot was taken by a diving Jadeja.
Head and Markram consolidated the innings without taking too many risks, reaching 78 for 1 after six overs. SRH brought up their 100 runs in the ninth over with Markram hitting a massive six off the bowling of Ravindra Jadeja in the ninth over.
Head, the Impact Sub for T Natarajan, was out in the 10th over off Maheesh Theekshana but not before he added 60 runs with Markram. Pressure had eased out by then as SRH needed just 59 runs from the final 10 overs with eight wickets in hand.
Markram made his first fifty of the season in the 14th over as CSK bowlers toiled to get the wickets. But the South African batter who captained SRH last season got out in the same over bowled by compatriot Moeen Ali (2/23) who won an LBW review taken by SRH.
The Hyderabad-based side did not need to press panic button as they needed just 34 runs from the last five overs. Moeen got his second wicket in the form of Shahbaz Ahmed (18) but Heinrich Klaasen (10 not out) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (14 not out) took SRH home.
Earlier, CSK batters failed to capitalise on their starts as they were restricted to a below-par 165 for 5.
In-form Shivam Dube top-scored with a 24-ball 45 while veteran Ajinkya Rahane contributed a sedate 35 off 30 balls after CSK were asked to bat on a pitch that didn't seem like a proverbial belter. The duo's 65-run partnership for the third wicket from just 6.3 overs was the only highlight of the CSK innings.
CSK added only 37 runs in the last five overs and that could be the turning point in the match.
But credit must be given to CSK's all-season's man Ravindra Jadeja, whose unbeaten 31 off 23 balls was the added fillip that the defending champions needed at the end.
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Special court in Pune sentences two to life imprisonment, acquits three in Dabholkar murder case
Pune (PTI): A special court for UAPA cases in Maharashtra’s Pune on Friday convicted and sentenced two men to life imprisonment and acquitted three, including key accused Virendrasinh Tawde, in the murder of well-known rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar.
Dabholkar (67), an anti-superstition crusader, was shot dead while on a morning walk on Omkareshwar Bridge here on August 20, 2013.
Reading out the order in a packed courtroom, Additional Sessions Judge (Special Court) P P Jadhav said that the prosecution had proved the charges of murder and conspiracy against Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar and they have been awarded life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5 lakh.
According to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Andure and Kalaskar had shot Dabholkar.
The court acquitted accused ENT surgeon Tawde, Sanjeev Punalekar and Vikram Bhave for want of evidence.
The prosecution examined 20 witnesses while the defence examined two witnesses during the trial. The accused were opposed to Dabholkar's crusade against superstition, it had stated in its final arguments.
Pune police initially probed the case. The CBI took over the probe in 2014 following a Bombay High Court, order and arrested Tawde linked to the Hindu right-wing organisation Sanatan Sanstha, in June 2016.
According to the prosecution, Tawde was one of the masterminds of the murder.
Sanatan Sanstha, to which Tawde and some of the other accused were linked, was opposed to the work carried out by Dabholkar's organisation, the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (committee for eradication of superstition, Maharashtra), it claimed.
The CBI first named fugitives Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar as the shooters in its charge sheet. But later it arrested Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar, and claimed in a supplementary charge sheet that they had shot Dabholkar.
Subsequently, the central agency arrested advocate Sanjeev Punalekar and Vikram Bhave as alleged co-conspirators.
During the trial, advocate Virendra Ichalkaranjikar, one of the defence lawyers, had questioned the CBI's flip-flop over the shooters' identity.
The accused were booked under Indian Penal Code sections 120 B (conspiracy ), 302 (murder), relevant sections of the Arms Act, and section 16 (Punishment for terrorist act ) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA.
While Tawde, Andure and Kalaskar are in jail, Punalekar and Bhave are out on bail.
Dabholkar's murder was followed by the murders of three other rationalists/activists in the next four years: communist leader Govind Pansare (Kolhapur, February 2015), Kannada scholar and writer M M Kalburgi (Dharwad, August 2015) and journalist Gauri Lankesh (Bengaluru, September 2017).
It was suspected that the culprits in these four cases were linked to each other.
