India on course for crushing win after enforcing follow-on
Rajkot, Oct 6 : Spinner Ravichandran Ashwin produced a brilliant spell as India enforced the follow-on against the West Indies after bowling out the hapless visitors for 181 in their first innings on day three here on Saturday.
At lunch, the West Indies were 33 for one in nine overs in their second innings with Ashwin removing skipper Kraigg Brathwaite (10) for his fourth wicket of the day.
The visitors still trail by 435 runs and face a herculean task of saving the game. Kieran Powell (21) and Shai Hope (0) were in the middle when lunch was taken.
The West Indies, resuming their first innings at 94 for six, lasted only an hour and 10 minutes, mainly due to efforts of Roston Chase (53) and Keemo Paul (47) who ended up sharing a 73-run stand.
Ashwin ran through the tail on a pitch offering plenty of turn, ending with four for 37 in 11 overs as the West Indies were all out in 48 overs.
India started with spin-pace combination of Kuldeep Yadav and Mohammad Shami. Surprisingly, Chase and Paul had little difficulty in picking the chinaman, who bowled the first over the day.
Paul went on the offensive straight away, sweeping Kuldeep for two crisp boundaries.
Paul was the aggressor in the partnership but Chase also came up with a few attractive shots.
Paul was comfortable against Kuldeep but had issues dealing with the short ball. Umesh Yadav set the West Indian up nicely before getting rid of him with a perfectly placed bouncer as he mistimed a pull to be caught at midwicket.
Ashwin then removed Chase with a beauty, a flighted ball that turned in viciously to create a big gap between bat and pad before crashing into the stumps, leaving the West Indies at 159 for eight.
Number 10 and 11 were easy meat for Aswhin who sent them back with the away turning ball. With a huge 468-run lead, India expectedly enforced the follow-on with less than an hour to go for lunch.
Like Paul at the start of the day, Powell too went for his strokes and dispatched Ashwin for a straight four and six in the second over of their second innings.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
'Low-quality' catheters supplied to West Bengal govt hospitals at high price, probe ordered
Kolkata (PTI): The West Bengal health department has launched a probe into the supplies of allegedly low-quality and locally made catheters at a high price to several government hospitals, posing a risk to the lives of patients undergoing treatment in these facilities, officials said.
Such central venous catheters (CVCs) were allegedly supplied to at least five medical colleges and hospitals in the state, defying allocation of international standard-compliant CVCs, they said.
The distribution company, which has been accused of supplying these catheters to government hospitals, admitted to the fault but placed the blame on its employees.
"We started checking stocks some time back and found these locally made CVCs in my hospital store. These catheters are of low quality as compared to those allocated by the state. We have informed the state health department," a senior official of the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital told PTI.
Low-quality catheters were also found in the stores of other hospitals, which indicates "possible involvement of insiders in the scam", a health department official said.
The low-quality CVCs were supplied by a distributor in the Hatibagan area in the northern part of Kolkata for the last three to four months, he said.
"Such kinds of local CVCs are priced around Rs 1,500 but the distributor took Rs 4,177 for each device," the official said.
A CVC is a thin and flexible tube that is inserted into a vein to allow for the administration of fluids, blood, and other treatment. It's also clinically called a central line catheter.
"An initial probe revealed that the distribution company Prakash Surgical had supplied the low-quality and locally manufactured catheters to several government hospitals instead of the CVCs of the government-designated international company.
"All the units will be tested and a proper investigation is on to find out who benefited from these supplies," the health department official said.
The distribution company blamed its employees for the supply of inferior quality catheters.
"I was sick for a few months. Some employees of the organisation made this mistake. We are taking back all those units that have gone to the hospitals. It's all about misunderstanding," an official of the distribution company told PTI.
According to another state health department official, a complaint was lodged with the police in this connection.
Asked about how many patients were affected by the usage of such low-quality CVCs, the official said, "The probe would also try to find that out".
According to sources in the health department, some of the staff of the hospitals' equipment receiving departments and some local officials of international organisations might be involved in the alleged irregularities.
