Forced to follow on, India Women 29/1 at lunch on Day 3
Bristol: India Women were left with a mountain to climb in the one-off Test against England as they were forced to follow on after being shot out for 231 in their first innings during the morning session of the third day here on Friday.
After a dramatic collapse on the second day on Thursday, India's batting woes continued as they lost five wickets for the addition of just 44 runs in 21.2 overs, undoing the tremendous effort by 17-year-old Shafali verma (96) and Smriti Mandhana (78).
Debutants Deepti Sharma (29 not out) and Pooja Vastrakar (12) put up a 33-run stand for the ninth wicket but could not save the team from follow on in response to England's first innings of 396 for 9 declared.
Trailing by 165 runs, India were 29 for 1 at lunch after Mandhana was dismissed for 8. India still trail by 136 runs with nine second innings wickets in hand.
Debutant Verma was batting beautifully on 20 off just 14 balls, with the help of 5 boundaries.
The Indian batters struggled in their first innings against the England spin duo of Sophie Ecclestone (4/88), who was the main tormentor, and Heather Knight (2/7) for most part before pacers Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole took the last two wickets.
India scored their first runs of the day after 20 balls and by then had lost two wickets including the crucial one of vice captain Harmanpreet Kaur.
Harmanpreet was out after an England review in the second over of the day without adding anything to her overnight score of four. She was ruled leg before off Ecclestone.
Tanya Bhatia fell two overs later without disturbing the scorer after facing six balls. She too was dismissed by Ecclestone, who then dismissed Sneh Rana (2) with a turning delivery to reduce India to 197 for 8.
England took the new ball after 80 overs and the Indian first innings ended 1.2 overs after that with the dismissal of Pooja Vastrakar (12) and Jhulan Goswami.
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Gold worth Rs 4.35 cr seized at IGI Airport in two smuggling cases; three arrested
New Delhi (PTI): Customs officers at the Indira Gandhi International Airport have busted two separate gold smuggling attempts, seizing a total of over 3.17 kilograms of gold worth about Rs 4.35 crore and arresting three foreign nationals, officials said on Monday.
In the first instance, Customs registered a case of smuggling on February 26 against a 39-year-old Chadian woman who arrived from Addis Ababa a day before, an official statement said.
Acting on specific profiling and surveillance, officers intercepted the passenger for a detailed examination.
During the search, gold articles of high purity weighing 1,843 grams were recovered from her baggage. The seized gold was assessed at a tariff value of Rs 2.37 crore, officials said.
The passenger admitted that the gold had been smuggled into India without payment of duty, officials said, adding that the recovery was made after she confessed the concealment was done "to evade Customs detection and payment of applicable duty".
The gold was seized under Section 110 of the Customs Act, 1962, and the woman was placed under arrest under Section 104 of the Act for her alleged role in smuggling.
In a separate incident, Airport Customs Preventive officers booked two Myanmar nationals in a gold smuggling case on February 23. The duo had arrived from Yangon, another statement said.
The passengers were intercepted while crossing the green channel at the international arrival hall of Terminal-3.
On thorough personal search and baggage examination, the two men admitted that they had concealed gold bars inside their rectum.
"Further, four gold bars were ejected by each of the passengers," the Customs statement said, adding that eight rectangular gold bars were recovered.
The total net weight of the recovered gold was 1,329 grams, which was appraised at a tariff value of Rs 1.98 crore.
Both passengers were arrested under Section 104 of the Customs Act, 1962 for their involvement in the offence of smuggling, officials added.
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