De Kock dazzles as Super Giants slay Delhi Capitals
Navi Mumbai, Apr 7: Quinton de Kock showed imperious form in his 80 off 52 balls as Lucknow Super Giants outplayed Delhi Capitals by six wickets for their third successive win in their debut IPL season here on Thursday.
Delhi Capitals lost their way after a sizzling knock from Prithvi Shaw (61 off 31) to end at 149 for 3 after Lucknow predictably decided to field first.
With the resources that Lucknow possess, 150 should have been a comfortable chase and the K L Rahul-led side made sure it was, getting home with two balls to spare on a tricky surface.
De Kock was at his destructive best as he shared a 73-run stand with his opening partner Rahul (24 off 25).
The South African wicketkeeper-batter was particularly harsh on compatriot Anrich Nortje who was playing his first game since November. The fit again pacer, playing his first IPL game in India, was smashed for three fours and a six by de Kock in an over leaking 19 runs.
In what turned out to be a forgettable night for Nortje, the South African pacer had to be taken off the attack later after bowling two waist-high no balls.
After Rahul's fall, his team needed 76 off the last 10 overs. De Kock, who collected nine fours and two sixes, put the team on the cusp of victory with his second 50-plus score of the tournament.
With the pitch not the easiest one to bat on, Lucknow struggled to finish the game with even the in-form Deepak Hooda and experienced Krunal Pandya not finding the big hits.
Lucknow eventually managed to get the job done with the young Ayush Badoni hitting the decisive four and a six off Shardul Thakur in the final over.
Earlier, Shaw's knock was all class before Lucknow bounced back in the game with an impressive bowling performance. Young leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi (2/22) was the standout performer for the new IPL entrants.
David Warner (4 off 12), returning to the franchise where he made his IPL debut back in 2009, struggled in his first innings of the season.
Off-spinner K Gowtham (1/23) was given the ball in the second over and Shaw did not let him settle, dispatching a full ball over cover for his first four of the innings.
Jason Holder was at the receiving end in the following over when Shaw pulled him for a six over mid-wicket. Then came the turn of pacer Avesh Khan who was hammered for three consecutive fours in the fourth over.
It seemed Shaw was batting on a different surface while the others struggled around him. He used his quick hands to cut the ball and was equally quick to drive anything full over cover.
It was a promising powerplay for Capitals who reached 52 for no loss in six overs. However, Lucknow fought back after the powerplay with wickets of Shaw, Warner and Rovman Powell (3 off 10) in a space of 18 balls.
Shaw was caught behind off Gowtham after he hit him for a straight six. Warner fell to a poor shot off Bishnoi and Powell saw his stumps disturbed as he went for the slog-sweep off a googly from the young leg-spinner, leaving Capitals at 74 for three in the 11th over.
The onus was on skipper Rishabh Pant (39 not out off 36) to take the team to a respectable total and he did that in the company of Sarfaraz Khan (36 not out off 28) who was playing his debut game for the franchise.
Pant mainly targeted the straight boundaries and Sarfaraz, without taking much risks, showed skills that has fetched him a bagful of runs in domestic cricket.
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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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