Rohit closing in on ton as India reach 151/3 at lunch
Nagpur (PTI): Skipper Rohit Sharma showed a lot of composure to inch towards his ninth Test hundred with India reaching 151 for 3 at lunch against Australia on the second day of the opening Test, here on Friday.
At the break, Rohit was batting on 85 off 142 balls with 12 boundaries and two sixes to his credit. Virat Kohli (12 batting), giving him company, also looked in ominous touch as the Australian bowling didn't look threatening despite getting a couple of wickets -- Ravichandran Ashwin (23) and Cheteshwar Pujara (7) -- during the session.
The idea will be bat the next two sessions and build a sizeable lead to finish the match inside three days. The pitch, however, hasn't shown signs of any further deterioration from what it was on the first day.
Australia captain Pat Cummins (0/41 in 8 overs) had set the bait for his opposite number with a deep fine leg and deep mid-wicket fielder but bowled fuller during his morning spell.
Rohit brought his favourite pull shot out of the closet during the Australian skipper's second spell when a delivery was dug in short.
In fact, the low bounce made it easier to defend as both Rohit and Ashwin, during their 42-run stand, often plonked their front foot to frustrate the bowlers.
However, the slowness of the track did affect the Australian bowlers as both off-spinners, Nathan Lyon (0/66 in 20 overs) and Todd Murphy (3/35 in 15 overs), had to bowl quicker in order to get some purchase from the track.
The slowness could be best gauged from the fact that Australia's second pacer Scott Boland (0/7 in 9 overs), who normally bowls upward of 135 clicks, asked wicket-keeper Alex Carey to keep up to him in order to prevent the batters from using their feet. Boland, though, bowled like a workhorse and kept the batters quiet at one end.
Against spinners, there was no problem in easily rocking onto the back foot and playing on both sides of the wicket.
Ashwin looked confident as he slog swept Lyon for a six and finally it was Murphy, who came round the wicket, bowled one that pitched on the leg-middle line and straightened enough to find the batter's pads.
Cheteshwar Pujara, would curse himself for bringing about his downfall to a Murphy delivery which was anything but a wicket-taking one.
It was a tossed-up delivery on the imaginary 'fifth leg-stump' and Pujara swept it for Boland, standing at '45', to take an easy catch.
Kohli came and immediately made his presence felt with a drive for four off Murphy. He also played a bowler's back-drive off Lyon during the session.
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Top Cong leaders attend CWC meet, discuss further action against govt on G RAM G law
New Delhi (PTI): Top Congress leaders on Saturday are attending a crucial meeting of the working committee, the party's highest decision-making body.
They are deliberating on the current political situation in the country and the party's further action against the government after it replaced the UPA-era rural employment scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA) with the new Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act (VB-G RAM G).
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The extended meeting of the Congress Working Committee is being attended by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and former party president Rahul Gandhi, besides chief ministers of the Congress-ruled states of Karnataka, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh.
Presidents of Pradesh Congress Committees (PCC) are also present at the meeting.
The meeting comes ahead of next year's assembly polls in Assam, Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, and the leaders are expected to deliberate on the party strategy.
The opposition party is set to finalise its action plan to counter the government after it repealed the MGNREGA, 2005.
The Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill that replaced the UPA-era MGNREGA was passed during the recently concluded winter session of Parliament. President Droupadi Murmu has already given her assent to it.
The Congress and other opposition parties have taken strong exception to the new law replacing MGNREGA, stating that it is an insult to Mahatma Gandhi as his name has been removed from its title.
The new law makes a statutory guarantee of 125 days of wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work.
However, instead of being a Central scheme, the new law provides that the Centre and the states will have to share a 60:40 per cent ratio funding for the scheme.
आज कांग्रेस मुख्यालय इंदिरा भवन में कांग्रेस वर्किंग कमेटी (CWC) की बैठक हुई।
— Congress (@INCIndia) December 27, 2025
इस बैठक में कांग्रेस अध्यक्ष श्री @kharge, CPP चेयरपर्सन श्रीमती सोनिया गांधी जी और नेता विपक्ष श्री @RahulGandhi समेत वर्किंग कमेटी के सदस्य मौजूद रहे।
📍 दिल्ली pic.twitter.com/59tNp0qawD
संविधान विरोधी BJP pic.twitter.com/YA2kBGIW1E
— Congress (@INCIndia) December 27, 2025
