1000th ODI: Rohit bosses easy chase after spinners set up India's 6-wkt victory over West Indies
Ahmedabad, Feb 6: Skipper Rohit Sharma brought in a sense of calm with a sizzling 60 after India's new spin combination of Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar laid the platform for an easy six-wicket victory over West Indies in the first ODI which also happens to be country's 1000th.
First the hosts bundled out West Indies for a meagre 176 in 43.5 overs as spinners Chahal (4/49 in 9.5 overs) and Washington (3/30 in 9 overs) ran through their listless line-up and then skipper smashed 60 off 51 balls with hosts chased down the target in just 28 overs.
It is the 10th time in last 16 games that West Indies have failed to bat full 50 overs despite presence of senior players like Darren Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Jason Holder, Shai Hope, Nicholas Pooran to name a few.
After a brief middle-order wobble, Suryakumar Yadav (34 no) and debutant Deepak Hooda (26 no) added 62 runs without much pressure to take the team home.
Just like the skipper, India also missed batter Rohit in South Africa in equal measure and on his comeback, there were no signs of any hamstring niggle as he smashed 10 fours and a six, adding 84 with stand-in opener Ishan Kishan (28).
Virat Kohli (8) also started with two boundaries but was holed out in the deep while Rishabh Pant was unfortunately run-out at the non-striker's end.
But Rohit was in his element, while young Kishan, played second fiddle to perfection.
The former toyed with the West Indies attack, as the hosts were on course for a comfortable chase with the team fifty coming up in the ninth over.
Rohit, who made a comeback to the team after an injury, was brutal on veteran Kemar Roach, hitting him for two fours and a maximum his trademark pull shot, as India fetched 15 runs off the 10th over and raced to 67/0.
By the time Alzarri Joseph (2/45) trapped him leg-before, India were on their way towards an easy win in a milestone game.
Earlier, Chahal and Sundar wreaked havoc on slow track as the West Indies batters made a beeline to the pavilion, save Jason Holder (57; 4x6) and Fabian Allen (29), whose 78-run stand for the eighth-wicket helped the team go past the 160-run mark.
Put into bat, West Indies lost opener Shai Hope (8; 2x4) cheaply after he was castled by Mohammed Siraj (1/26) in the third over as the visitors lost their first wicket for 13.
Hope had hit Siraj for two successive boundaries, but on the next his inside edge, while attempting a drive, shattered the middle and leg stump.
Brandon King (13;2x4) started with a boundary, and then was joined by one-down Darren Bravo (18 off 34 balls; 3x4), as the two tried to resurrect the innings, but could only add 31 runs for the second wicket.
Bravo struck two boundaries off pacer Prasidh Krishna (2/29) in the sixth over, as the visitors crawled to 28/1 after six overs. The duo mixed caution and aggression as West Indies was poised at 39/1 after 10 overs.
But Sundar pegged back the visitors by removing King and Bravo in the 12th over as the visitors slipped to 45/3.
Sundar first sent back King, who chipped it to short mid-wicket where Suryakumar Yadav took an excellent catch. And then he trapped Bravo in front of the wicket, using his straight and flat delivery.
Then it was Chahal, who took two wickets in two successive deliveries in the 20th over as he removed both hard-hitting batters Nicholas Pooran (18; 3x4), whom he trapped in the front. This was Chahal's 100th ODI wicket.
Off the next ball, he cleaned up Kieron Pollard (O) with his googly that knocked the rival skipper's off-stump. West Indies were in a spot of bother as they lost half the side for just 71.
Chahal was on a rampage as he then removed Shamarh Brooks (12), who edged to stumper Rishabh Pant, as West Indies was teetering at 78/6.
However, Holder and Allen tried to take the game deep. While Holder struck four sixes, Allen hit two boundaries, before Sundar lobbed a return catch of his bowling to send Allen back.
The team eventually was bundled out in 43.5 overs with Chahal removing last man Alzarri Joseph, to take his fourth.
The second ODI will be played at the same venue on February 9.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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