2nd T20I: India score 180/7 against SA before rain stops play with three balls to spare
Gqeberha (South Africa), Dec 12: Rinku Singh enhanced his credential as a finisher with a maiden half-century while skipper Suryakumar Yadav played in his inimitable way to take India to 180 for seven in the second T20 against South Africa here on Tuesday.
Put in to bat, India lost Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill for six runs before Surya (56 off 36) led front the front and forged fine partnerships with Tilak Varma (29 off 20) and then Rinku (68 not out off 39).
Rain arrived at St George's Park with three balls left in the innings and Gerald Coetzee on a hat trick having got rid of Ravindra Jadeja and Arshdeep Singh in consecutive balls.
Playing for the first time in South Africa, Rinku took his time initially before working the field beautifully. His square of the wicket shots stood out in his well paced innings including fours and two sixes off Aiden Markram.
Coming in at number three, Varma looked good in the middle before getting caught at deep third man in the sixth over.
What followed was a 70-run stand between Surya and Rinku. Surya played like he usually does, collecting a chunk of his runs behind the wicket.
His three sixes came as he got inside the line of the ball to send the ball over the ropes. Two were in the fine leg region and one over midwicket.
It was not the smoothest of starts for India, who lost Jaiswal and Gill in the first two overs.
Jaiswal could not control the cut short against Marco Jansen to be brilliantly caught by David Miller at backward point.
Despite the initial pressure, the Indian batters kept batting aggressively.
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Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
