Jasprit Bumrah takes five as India claim slight edge over Proteas
Cape Town, Jan 12: Jasprit Bumrah shut his critics with one of his best five-wicket hauls in the traditional format as the Indian fast bowling unit gave the team slight edge over South Africa on an exhilarating second day of the third and final Test here on Wednesday.
Bumrah (23.3-8-42-5) was at the heart of India's swift and brutal counter-attack as he got his seventh five-wicket haul with fine complementary acts from Mohammed Shami (16-4-39-2) and Umesh Yadav (16-3-64-2) that helped them bundle out the Proteas for 210.
The lead of 13 that India managed was less about the quantum and more about the psychological advantage that they gained and despite losing Mayank Agarwal (7) and KL Rahul (10) cheaply, the visitors scored runs at a fair clip to reach 57 for 2 at stumps.
Skipper Virat Kohli (14 batting) and Cheteshwar Pujara (9 batting), with a cumulative experience of 194 Tests, have the responsibility of taking the team to a winning total.
And while statistics at times are of little or no relevance but Kohli wouldn't be too unhappy to know that India have never lost a Test match in which his premier strike bowler has taken a five-wicket haul.
It was a day when Kohli's captaincy acumen was worth praising as he made relevant bowling changes at the right time, juggled with subtle field placings and also took his 100th catch in Test cricket.
But someone who would be really smiling at the end of the day is Bumrah, who had a forgettable game at the Wanderers and copped a fair amount of flak for bowling too short and not depending on his strengths.
There were analytics showing how his strike-rate (wickets per deliveries) had doubled since a back injury but on Wednesday, he showed that he is skipper Kohli's real X-factor, the man who makes the difference between a good and a world-class side.
The delivery that got Aiden Markram was pitched just a shade outside off-stump and it seemed to be going straight but suddenly jagged back embarrassing the South African opener, who had shouldered arms.
Whenever Markram sees the replay, he would know that Bumrah made him feel inadequate when it came to knowing where his off-stump was.
On the day, Bumrah slightly altered the length making it slightly fuller on the off-stump and the off-stump channel line. The length and bounce was such that batters seemed confused about whether it would bounce above stumps or come at the stumps.
One such delivery got South Africa's best performer Keegan Petersen (72 off 166 balls) as it kicked up awkwardly from length but enough for the batter to have a jab at it and Cheteshwar Pujara accepted the offering at second slip.
But credit should also go to Shami, who in the post lunch session, got two wickets in three balls to unsettle the Proteas after Petersen and Rassie van der Dussen (21) had added 67 for the fourth wicket.
If Umesh set up the session with a conventional outswinger that saw Van Der Dussen edging one to Kohli at second slip, Shami removed the dogged Temba Bavuma (28) and Kyle Verreynne (0) with two ideal Test match deliveries in the 56th over.
The deliveries had everything, upright seam and pitched fuller on the off-stump with just about adequate movement.
Bavuma was caught low by a diving Kohli while Rishabh Pant had a smart take to remove his opposite number.
At stroke of tea, Bumrah settled his scores with Marco Jansen sending his off-stump for a walk.
The best part of the session was skipper Kohli's adjustment when he, at second slip, decided to stand a few steps ahead of the first slip after realising that the ball was not carrying in full.
There were a couple of times when Shardul Thakur (6-1-21-0) found the outside edge of Petersen's bat but on both occasions, the ball died down in front of skipper Kohli at first slip.
The bounce available on the Newlands track isn't as steep as it was at the Centurion and the Wanderers which belong to the Highveld region.
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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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