Ranji Trophy: Saurashtra beat Karnataka by 5 wickets to move into finals
Bengaluru, Jan 28 : The Cheteshwar Pujara juggernaut continued to roll and the 'Run Machine' steered Saurashtra to the Ranji Trophy finals with a five-wicket victory over Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy semi-finals here Monday.
Saurashtra will now meet defending champions Vidarbha in the final of the national championship to be played from February 3-7 in Jaipur.
This is the third time that Saurashtra will be playing the finals.
Pujara remained unbeaten at 131 off 266 balls and added 214 runs with senior player Sheldon Jackson (100) to anchor another successful run-chase for Saurashtra.
Needing 55 runs on the final day, it was a mere formality as Jackson duly completed his 16th first-class century.
Although they had seven wickets in hand, Pujara didn't take any undue risks and it took 17.4 overs for Saurashtra to score the remaining 55 runs.
Vinay Kumar (3/75), who bowled his heart out and was unlucky after Pujara was ruled not out by the on-field umpire despite a clear edge when he was on 32, got the consolation wicket of Jackson. However, the match was as good as over by then.
Pujara's innings had 17 boundaries while Jackson struck 15 hits to the fence.
The best part about Pujara's innings was his intensity. After his most defining away tour for India, the 31-year-old looked like continuing from his century in Melbourne.
His sequence of scores since the start of the Australia series now stands 123, 71, 24, 4, 106, 0, 193, 11, 67 not out, 45, 131 not out.
Pujara did get a couple of lucky reprieves in this match but it could be blamed on the umpiring standards which have been below par during the season.
Umpire Saiyed Khalid, who had a forgettable outing, is expected to get negative marking and will certainly be demoted to a lower grade during the next season if well placed sources in the BCCI are to be believed.
His howler did affect Karnataka's chances but to Pujara's credit, the controversy hardly perturbed him and it was business as usual for him.
His zen like approach was at a different level, his only mission being to take Saurashtra into the summit round.
A testimony to his unflappable temperament was that the "cheater cheater" boos by the home team supporters didn't unsettle him. In the end, it was 'Mission Accomplished' for Indian cricket's 'Man of the Moment'.
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Jharkhand horror: Man kills live-in partner, chops body into 40 pieces
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.
