Day 4: Another flop show by Rahane, Pujara as India in trouble at lunch
Kanpur, Nov 28: Stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane and his temporary deputy Cheteshwar Pujara's saga of failures continued as India were put on the mat by New Zealand bowlers, primarily Tim Southee, reducing the hosts to 84 for five at lunch on the fourth day of the opening Test here on Sunday.
First innings centurion Shreyas Iyer (18 not out off 51 balls) and the experienced Ravichandran Ashwin (20 not out off 35 balls) were trying to stem the rot as India's overall lead extended to 133. They have so far added 33 runs for the sixth wicket.
While the pitch is still not an unplayable one, India's spinners might be able to defend anything in the range of 180 as it is expected that a lot of balls will keep low even if there won't be much turn on offer.
However on the fourth morning, Southee, a practitioner of conventional swing bowling, took a master-class on how to bowl on an unresponsive Indian track classically setting up batters.
But before Southee got into the act, Kyle Jamieson (8-3-21-2) targeted Cheteshwar Pujara's (22 off 33 balls) ribcage, getting one to rear up on this dead track and it brushed India no 3's gloves into the hands of keeper Tom Blundell.
Rahane (4 off 15 balls) is out of form and the world knew that. The best way to create pressure was to cut down on singles and for 13 balls, he struggled to get a run.
Then a gorgeous inside out cover drive off Ajaz Patel (9-2-29-1) seemed like helping him break the shackles.
However Patel, who has looked way below Test class, produced his best delivery of the match. An arm ball that was fired in with the angle caught Rahane plumb in-front trying to play a forward defensive prod.
Mayank Agarwal (17) did all the hardwork in the first hour but then Southee (10-2-27-2) set him up with deliveries that came into him from good length spot as he played with a closed bat-face.
Then he pitched on on the same spot only to Agarwal's horror, it shaped slightly away and he had committed to a closed bat face. The result was a regulation catch to Tom Latham in the second slip.
For Ravindra Jadeja (0), Southee used width of the crease with an angular delivery that wrapped him on the pads.
At 51 for five, Ashwin joined Iyer and played some attacking strokes including a straight drive off Southee to calm the tense dressing room.
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SC imposes Rs 5 lakh costs on Centre for filing frivolous petition
New Delhi, Apr 25: The Supreme Court has imposed costs of Rs 5 lakh on the Centre for challenging a Meghalaya High Court order, holding it was "sheer abuse" of the process of law.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Satish Chandra Sharma said there was no occasion or justification for the Union of India to have challenged the order by way of a Special Leave Petition.
"The present petition is sheer abuse of the process of law. The petitioners are cautioned not to file such frivolous petitions in future.
"We are not inclined to interfere with the impugned judgment(s) and order(s) of the High Court. Accordingly, the Special Leave Petition is dismissed with costs for the reason that before the High Court counsel for the petitioner (UoI) submitted that the matter was squarely covered by a previous decision and, accordingly, the High Court had disposed of the matter on the statement of the counsel for Union of India," the bench said.
The top court was hearing an appeal against the High Court order which upheld a Central Administrative Tribunal judgement.
The High Court had disposed of the matter after noting the Central government's submission that a similar plea had been rejected earlier.
"We, accordingly, impose a fine of Rs.5,00,000 to be paid by the petitioners which shall be deposited in Account of the Armed Forces Battle Casualties Welfare Fund, Canara Bank, Branch South Block, Defence Headquarters, within eight weeks...
"After depositing the said amount in the aforesaid fund, the petitioners to file proof of such deposit with the Registry of this Court within a week thereafter," the bench said.
