IPL Eliminator: Sunil Narine takes four as KKR pegs RCB back to 138/7
Sharjah, Oct 11: West Indies spinner Sunil Narine showed glimpses of his vintage past with a magical four-wicket haul as Kolkata Knight Riders restricted Royal Challengers Bangalore to a sub-par 138 for seven in the IPL Eliminator, here on Monday.
Narine (4/21) sent RCB's big guns back in the dug-out as Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell had no answer to his turning deliveries under pressure situation.
With Varun Chakravarthy (0/20) not conceding a single boundary and Shakib Al Hasan (0/24 in) also keeping the batsmen on a tight leash, the KKR's spin troika in their 12 overs gave away only 65 runs with four boundaries.
Devdutt Padikkal (21 off 18 balls) and skipper Virat Kohli (39 off 33 balls) got off to a great start by adding 49 runs in the first five Powerplay overs after Eoin Morgan started with left-arm spin of Shakib.
The opening duo attacked an under-pressure Shivam Mavi with as many as five boundaries coming in those first few overs.
However it was Lockie Ferguson (2/30), whose extra pace did Padikkal in as the left-hander, trying to cut, dragged a delivery, pitched well outside off-stump.
RCB's last league match hero Kona Bharat (9 off 15 balls) was clearly troubled because of the slowness of the track with spinners getting the ball to grip off the surface.
He was Narine's first of the four victims when he tried to loft the spinner over long-off but didn't reach to the pitch of the delivery and holed out in the deep by Venkatesh Iyer.
Kohli, who has had good starts in most games but lost the momentum post Powerplay overs with the field spread, once again went into a shell.
The shot that got him out had desperation writ large over it as the slog sweep to a fuller delivery from Narine was never on. The result was a pegged back leg-stump which also spelt doom for RCB.
AB de Villiers (11) has had his worst IPL season and it was a real beauty from Narine -- a classical off-break that went through the gate to embarrass the legendary Proteas.
RCB's best player of the season Maxwell (15) was supposed to have a bad day as per 'Law of Averages' and did catch up with him trying to slog sweep Narine's off-spinner which ballooned to short third-man to make it a dream day for the Trinidad man.
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Catholic Bishops' body slams Bhagwat's remarks
New Delhi: The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India on Thursday slammed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for his reported remark that Pranab Mukherjee, when he was President, had said tribals would turn "anti-national" if there is no "ghar wapsi"Catholic Bishops.'
In a statement issued here, CBCI, a body of Catholic Bishops, referred to reports which said Bhagwat, at an event on Monday, claimed that Mukherjee, while he was President had appreciated ghar wapsi and told him that had it not been for the Sangh's work on reconversion, a section of Adivasis would have turned "anti-national".The CBCI called the report "shocking".
"Fabricated personal conversation being attributed to a former president of India and its posthumous publication with the vested interest of an organization with questionable credibility raises a grave issue of national importance," the CBCI claimed.
"Is it not the violent ghar wapsi program of VHP and other similar organizations, curtailing the exercise of freedom of conscience of economically deprived tribals, the real anti-national activity?" it asked.
'Ghar wapsi' is a term used by the RSS and affiliated organisations to refer to reconversion of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism, based on the belief that they were originally Hindus before converting to other religions.
The CBCI also questioned why Bhagwat did not speak about it while Mukherjee was alive.
"We, the 2.3 percent of Indian citizens who are Christians feel extremely hurt by such manipulated and motivated propaganda unleashed," it said.
In a post on X following the statement issued by CBCI, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said, "Speak up. This is a start!"
"Bishops body have issued a statement condemning remarks made by Dr Mohan Bhagwat and RSS for defaming the Christian community," he said.
O'Brien added that they should ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi more questions, including why Christmas Day has been turned into "Good Governance Day".
The TMC leader, in a blogpost earlier this month, had said "hard questions" must be asked to the government with regards to the Christian community, including why the FCRA has been 'weaponised', and why has Manipur been 'ignored'.
