Shikar Dhawan's 98 and Krunal's sensational fifty on debut fire India to 317/5
Pune, Mar 22: Shikhar Dhawan delivered under pressure with a solid 98 before Krunal Pandya smashed the fastest fifty by a debutant to fire India to 317 for five in the first ODI against England here on Tuesday.
After Dhawan and Virat Kohli (56 off 60) shared 105 runs for the second wicket, Krunal (58 not out off 31) and K L Rahul (62 not out off 43) sent England on a leather hunt with their unbeaten 112-run stand off 57 balls.
Dhawan hammered 11 fours and two sixes in his 106-ball knock while Krunal plundered seven fours and two maximums in his entertaining innings.
Rahul also got welcome runs after a lean run in the T20 series.
Put into bat here, Rohit Sharma (28 off 42) and Dhawan shared 64 runs for the opening wicket.
Dhawan hammered two successive fours, a square-cut and drive, in the seventh over, while Rohit struck two successive boundaries in the ninth over.
Dhawan, who has lost his place in the playing eleven for T20s, got a life' when hooked over fine-leg to get his fourth boundary.
India were placed at 64/0 after 15 overs. However, Rohit soon perished, after getting an outside edge to wicket-keeper Jos Buttler off Stokes.
Skipper Kohli joined Dhawan and the two rallied the innings.
Kohli got his first boundary, a cover drive, on the 17th ball and was in his elements as he relied on drives and pulls. Dhawan brought up his fifty, with a maximum, a slog-sweep, off 68 balls, in the 24th over, and then changed gears.
Dhawan got another life after Moeen Ali dropped a sitter at deep-mid-wicket off Adil Rashid.
Kohli and Dhawan took on Ali, as the 29th over fetched India 15 runs. Kohli, who raced to his 61st ODI fifty in 50 balls, was dismissed, after he was caught in the deep off pacer Mark Wood (2/75).
India lost their way in the middle overs before Krunal and Rahul went on the offensive. Dhawan pulled one straight to Eoin Morgan at mid-wicket to miss out on a hundred.
INJURY TO BILLINGS, MORGAN
Sam Billings went off the field after hurting his shoulder while trying to save a boundary.
There was another injury scare for England when skipper Eoin Morgan was hit on his finger.
ECB in its update said both batsmen should be able to bat.
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Indian-origin Catholic priest shot dead in Kansas
Seneca (US), Apr 4 (AP): An Indian-origin Catholic priest was shot and killed by a man who approached him at his parish rectory in the town of Seneca, Kansas, church officials said.
An Oklahoma man is being held on suspicion of the killing.
Officers called to the Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Seneca on Thursday afternoon found Arul Carasala with gunshot wounds outside the rectory, the Nemaha County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post. The 57-year-old priest was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he died.
“I am heartbroken to share the tragic news of the death of Fr. Arul Carasala, who was fatally shot earlier today," Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas said in a Facebook post on Thursday.
"This senseless act of violence has left us grieving the loss of a beloved priest, leader, and friend.”
Carasala had been the pastor at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Seneca since 2011, according to his profile on the parish website.
Sheriff's deputies and officers with the Seneca Police Department later arrested Gary Hermesch of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Authorities say Hermesch, 66, is being held in the Nemaha County Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder.
The Associated Press left a phone message with county prosecutor Brad Lippert seeking additional information.
Authorities have not released a possible motive for the shooting or said whether the suspect and the priest knew each other.
Kris Anderson, the parish's director of religious education, told the AP on Thursday through tears that she knew few details.
“From what we know, an older man walked up to him (Carasala) and shot him three times,” she said.
The priest's death left people in shock in Seneca, a city of about 2,100 where Carasala had been the pastor at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church since 2011, according to his profile on the parish website. He was ordained as a priest in 1994 in his native India and had served in Kansas since 2004. He became a US citizen in 2011.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas said in a Facebook post that there was no ongoing threat to the community, but that he recognised the “pain and shock” the priest's death had brought to the community.
“Fr. Carasala was a devoted and zealous pastor who faithfully served our Archdiocese for over twenty years, including as dean of the Nemaha-Marshall region,” he wrote.
“His love for Christ and His Church was evident in how he ministered to his people with great generosity and care. His parishioners, friends, and brother priests will deeply miss him.”
Seneca is about 60 miles (97 kilometres) north of Topeka, about 90 miles (145 kilometres) northwest of Kansas City and about 300 miles (480 kilometres) north of Tulsa.
