1st T20I: Rookie keeper Seifert smashes 84 as New Zealand score 219/6 vs India
Wellington, Feb 6: Unheralded wicketkeeper-batsman Tim Seifert took the Indian bowling attack to cleaners with a scintillating 84 off 43 balls as New Zealand scored a commanding 219 for 6 in the first T20 International here Wednesday.
Seifert, whose previous best score in T20 Internationals happens to be 14, was promoted to open alongside Colin Munro (34 off 20 balls) and they added 86 runs in only 8.2 overs in a whirlwind start.
Seifert's knock had seven fours and half a dozen of sixes, setting the tone for a big total.
Seifert showed the intent straightaway as he gave Bhuvneshwar Kumar the charge as he picked the knuckle ball early, dispatching it over mid-wicket for a six. The next shot was a four as he stood and hammered past the bowler.
With Munro hitting Khaleel Ahmed (1/48 in 4 overs) for two successive sixes, New Zealand were off to a blazing start scoring 44 off the first four overs.
Seifert was lucky to survive when Mahendra Singh Dhoni dropped a sharp chance as the batsman had edged one off Krunal Pandya (1/37 in 4 overs).
But he promptly put the next delivery into the stands moving across towards off and sweeping it over backward square leg.
There wasn't signs of overt footwork but he shuffled enough inside the crease to make room for the big shots and in the process disturb the line and length of the bowlers.
When Hardik Pandya (2/51 in 4 overs) drifted on the leg stump, he was flicked behind the square and when he pitched wide outside off-stump, he lofted him cover point region.
In Hardik's next over, he again hit the bowler for a boundary and a flicked six. In between, his elder brother Krunal was switch hit for a boundary.
The elder Pandya finally got a breakthrough as Munro was caught in the deep off Vijay Shankar.
But Seifert never let the momentum drop as he hit two more sixes off Krunal, who just kept on pushing the ball through a flatter trajectory.
The normally dependable Yuzvendra Chahal (1/35 in 4 overs) also was slog swept over mid-wicket for the sixth maximum apart from being hit over extra cover for a boundary.
Just when it looked that a century was there for the taking, Khaleel bowled one in the block hole coming wide off the crease to clean Seifert up.
Once Seifert was gone, skipper Kane Williamson (34 off 22 balls) took charge and Scott Kuggeliejn (20 no off 7 balls) finished with a flourish. PTI KHS.
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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.
