U-19 Test: India thrash Sri Lanka by innings and 147 runs
Hambantota (Sri Lanka), July 27 : A brilliant all-round show helped India Under-19 thrash Sri Lanka Under-19 by an innings and 147 runs in the second and final Youth Test to seal the series 2-0 here on Thursday.
In this Test, first the Indian batters put up a clinical show to post a mammoth score of 613/8 and then the bowlers did a fantastic job to bundle out the hosts twice in the four day match.
Continuing day four for 47/3, overnight batsmen Nuwanidu Fernando (28) and S. Senarathne (3) could not stop the fall of wickets as the latter was dismissed after adding 10 odd runs to the score with Fernando.
Next to depart was Pasindu Sooriyabandara (10). He was dismissed by in-form bowler Siddharth Desai when the scoreboard was reading 76.
With the top five players back in the hut, the onus fell on Fernando who was playing well at the other end. But soon he was also dismissed by Siddharth.
The lower-order batsmen Sonal Dinusha (26) T Mendis (0) and Nipun Malinga (16) also could not contribute and got out cheaply.
For India, Siddharth was the most successful among the bowlers, scalping four wickets in the second innings. Yatin Mangwani and Ayush Badoni took two wickets each.
Earlier, in the first innings, Sri Lanka were dismissed for 316. Pasindu Sooriyabandara (115) played handsomely and he was also supported by Sonal Dinusha (51) but lack of support from other players cost them.
Mohit Jangra took four wickets in the first innings.
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Supreme Court rejects plea for reverting to ballots in elections
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking to revert to ballot paper voting in elections in the country.
"What happens is, when you win the election, EVMs (electronic voting machine) are not tampered. When you lose the election, EVMs are tampered (with)," remarked a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and P B Varale.
Apart from ballot paper voting, the plea sought several directions including a directive to the Election Commission to disqualify candidates for a minimum of five years if found guilty of distributing money, liquor or other material inducement to the voters during polls.
When petitioner-in-person K A Paul said he filed the PIL, the bench said, "You have interesting PILs. How do you get these brilliant ideas?".
The petitioner said he is the president of an organisation which has rescued over three lakh orphans and 40 lakh widows.
"Why are you getting into this political arena? Your area of work is very different," the bench retorted.
After Paul revealed he had been to over 150 countries, the bench asked him whether each of the nations had ballot paper voting or used electronic voting.
The petitioner said foreign countries had adopted ballot paper voting and India should follow suit.
"Why you don't want to be different from the rest of the world?" asked the bench.
There was corruption and this year (2024) in June, the Election Commission announced they had seized Rs 9,000 crore, Paul responded.
"But how does that make your relief which you are claiming here relevant?" asked the bench, adding "if you shift back to physical ballot, will there be no corruption?".
Paul claimed CEO and co-founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, stated that EVMs could be tampered with and added TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, the current chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, and former state chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had claimed EVMs could be tampered with.
"When Chandrababu Naidu lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with. Now this time, Jagan Mohan Reddy lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with," noted the bench.
When the petitioner said everybody knew money was distributed in elections, the bench remarked, "We never received any money for any elections."
The petitioner said another prayer in his plea was the formulation of a comprehensive framework to regulate the use of money and liquor during election campaigns and ensuring such practices were prohibited and punishable under the law.
The plea further sought a direction to mandate an extensive voter education campaign to raise awareness and importance of informed decision making.
"Today, 32 per cent educated people are not casting their votes. What a tragedy. If democracy will be dying like this and we will not be able to do anything then what will happen in the years to come in future," the petitioner said.
