Oval, Sept 11: India's opening batsman KL Rahul notched up his fifth Test century in the fifth and final Test between India and England at The Oval on Tuesday.

KL Rahul stood strong when India's top order failed to accumulate runs. After missing out on a half-century in the first innings, KL Rahul withstood England's pace attack in India's mammoth 464-run chase to the Test. With his century, KL Rahul is now second in the list of Indian batsmen who have the highest scores as openers in 4th innings in England. Legend Sunil Gavaskar leads the chart for his 221 at The Oval in 1979. Chetan Chauhan is third on the list for his 80 at The Oval in 1979.

India were struggling on the fourth day when they were three down for two runs. Shikhar Dhawan (1), Cheteshwar Pujara (0) and skipper Virat Kohli (0) succumbed to the England bowlers. It was Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane (37) who stitched together a 117-run partnership for the fourth wicket.

Rahul hit 17 fours and a solitary six en route his century. He was ably supported by Rahane who unluckily missed out on his fifty after getting dismissed by Moeen Ali.

Earlier on the fourth day, England opener Alastair Cook (147) scored a fine century along side skipper Joe Root (125) to pile pressure on India. The duo ground the Indian bowling into submission with 259-run stand. Courtesy the twin hundreds by the former and current skipper, England declared their second innings on 423/8 with a massive target of 464 for the Indians.

Courtesy: ndtv.com

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Mumbai (PTI): The Bombay High Court on Wednesday dismissed gangster Abu Salem’s plea for immediate release, claiming he had served 25 years in jail in India mandated under the terms of his extradition from Portugal.

In his plea, Salem had contended that if remission for good behaviour is included, then his 25-year jail term is complete and hence he ought to be freed.

A bench of Justices A S Gadkari and Kamal Khata said it cannot hold that the 25-year jail term is complete, as it would be premature to say anything at this stage on the point of remission.

The court relied on a Supreme Court judgment wherein it was held that remission of a prisoner would need to be calculated a month before the applicant’s release.

“Therefore, the present petition (filed by Salem) is dismissed,” the court said.

A copy of the detailed order is yet to be made available.

Salem’s plea, filed through advocate Farhana Shah, had said that when he was extradited from Portugal in 2005, India had assured that he would not be handed over the death penalty in any case and that he would not be imprisoned for more than 25 years.

The government had opposed his plea, noting that Salem has spent only 19 years in jail and that a decision on his premature release was pending.

Salem was convicted in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case and sentenced to life imprisonment.