Dhawan's solidity, middle-order bravery take PBKS to 176 for six over RCB
Bengaluru, Mar 25: The pragmatism of captain Shikhar Dhawan was the bedrock on which Punjab Kings built their 176 for six as Royal Challengers Bangalore bowlers found their bearings on a Chinnaswamy Stadium pitch that offered them springboard bounce here on Monday.
Dhawan (45, 37b), Jitesh Sharma (27, 20b) and Prabhsimran Singh (25, 17b) were the main contributors for the Kings after Royal Challengers opted to bowl first on a track that had a smattering of green.
For RCB, Mohammed Siraj and Glenn Maxwell took wickets apiece.
The Kings made a shaky beginning as Jonny Bairstow got out early as his outings on these shores, which is stretched back to last year's World Cup, has now become more barren than the Indian summer.
In the latest instance, the Englishman's poorly-executed close-to-the-body pull of pacer Siraj was taken by Virat Kohli inside the covers.
But from 17 for one, the visitors found some runs through Dhawan and Prabhsimran who tackled the pitch and the RCB bowlers with aplomb, milking 55 runs off 38 balls.
Dhawan was not precisely smooth during his stay but showed enough pluck to cash in on the loose deliveries, such as a length ball on the off-stump from left-arm spinner Mayank Dagar which he lofted over long-on for a six.
In fact, the RCB bowlers, especially impressive left-arm seamer Yash Dayal (1/23), did well to tie him down with deliveries that darted in to him from just short of good length.
Prabhsimran also occasionally vented his aggressive instincts, and the most telling piece was his flicked six off Cameron Green that sailed 90 meters over mid-wicket for a maximum.
But just as the alliance was blossoming, Prabhsimran tried to pull Maxwell but a feeble top edge was easily grabbed by stumper Anuj Rawat.
Rawat soon doubled the number of his catches when he latched on to a wild heave outside the off-stump by Liam Livingstone off Alzarri Joseph in the last ball of the 12th over.
But the Punjab side suffered a heavier blow as Dhawan got in the very next ball.
The left-hander's attempt to hoist Maxwell out of the ground ended in the hands of Kohli at long-on as the Kings slipped to 98 for four in 12.1 overs.
It wasn't an ideal situation for Kings as they needed a few more runs on the board to give a meaningful challenge to the home side.
They found those from Jitesh, who hammered Dagar for two sixes in a row, and Sam Curran, who added 52 runs for the fifth wicket off 34 balls to push the PBKS past the 150-run mark, that was swelled by a couple of beefy hits by Shashank Singh, who carted Joseph for 20 runs in the final over.
But they would have liked a heavier looking scoreboard in pursuance of their second successive victory.
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Delhi doctor cheated of ₹22.7 lakh in fake stock trading app scam; two arrested
New Delhi: Delhi Police have busted a cyber fraud racket involving a fake stock trading application and arrested two men from Haryana for allegedly cheating a Delhi-based Doctor of ₹22.7 lakh, The Times of India reported.
The case came to light after the Doctor filed an online complaint on November 13, stating that she was duped through a fraudulent stock market investment scheme. According to police, she was added to a messaging group where several members posed as experienced stock market experts and discussed investment opportunities related to demat shares.
One of the group administrators, identifying herself as Yalini Guna, convinced the complainant to invest through a trading application shared via a link. Believing it to be genuine, the victim initially invested ₹2.7 lakh in multiple transactions. When she later attempted to withdraw the money, she was pressured to invest additional amounts under various excuses.
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Over time, the total amount invested rose to ₹22.7 lakh. Soon after, the victim was blocked from the application and removed from the group, following which she realised she had been cheated. A case was then registered and a special team was formed to investigate the matter.
During the investigation, police tracked the money trail and identified that part of the defrauded amount had been transferred to a bank account belonging to Sameer (22), a resident of Hisar in Haryana. Analysis of call detail records further revealed the involvement of another accused, Dev Singh (22).
Based on the findings, police conducted raids in Hisar on November 10 and arrested both accused. “During interrogation, Sameer disclosed that he opened 5 to 6 bank accounts in different banks and handed them over to Dev Singh in exchange for Rs 4,000 per account, which were then used for routing the fraud money,” DCP Gautam said.
Police seized 2 mobile phones and 3 SIM cards from the accused. Both were sent to judicial custody.
Police said the accused targeted victims through social media platforms by posing as financial experts and luring them with promises of guaranteed high returns. Victims were initially shown small profits to gain trust and were later coaxed into investing larger sums. Once the money was transferred, the fraudsters cut off all communication.
Further investigation is underway, police said.
