Mohammad Shami sizzles in four-wicket over as India edge out Australia in warm-up
Brisbane(PTI): Mohammad Shami put the concerns over his fitness to rest with a sensational 20th over as India pulled off a six-run win over Australia in their first warm-up fixture of the T20 World Cup here on Monday.
K L Rahul (57 off 33) and Suryakumar Yadav (50 off 33) smashed entertaining half-centuries to power India to 186 for seven after Australia opted to bowl at the Gabba.
Needing 16 runs off the last 12 balls with six wickets in hand, Australia were on course for a comfortable win before Shami, Harshal Patel and Virat Kohli the fielder scripted a turnaround for India.
Shami, who last played a competitive game in July and landed here after suffering a long bout of COVID-19, turned up to bowl the last over of the game and made a decisive impact on the game.
He landed yorker after yorker and ended up with three wickets in the over besides a run out. Shami was drafted into the squad as a replacement for the injured Jasprit Bumrah.
In the penultimate over, under-fire Harshal Patel delivered after being hammered early on, as he conceded only five runs in an over that also included a brilliant run out off a Kohli direct hit.
The star India batter had also plucked a stunning one-handed catch out of thin air at the boundary line to dismiss Pat Cummins.
However, concerns over India's bowling remains ahead of their tournament opener against Pakistan on October 23.
"There is room for improvement, but I want more consistency from the bowlers. You need to keep things simple and hit the deck hard. Overall a good game for us, they had a decent partnership and that put us under pressure," said skipper Rohit Sharma.
On Shami's match-winning effort, he said: "He is coming back after a long time, so we wanted to give him an over. Wanted to give him a challenge and let him bowl the final over, and you saw what he did."
Earlier, the Indian batters enjoyed the pace and bounce of the wicket, especially Rahul who scored the bulk of the runs in the powerplay, taking his team to 69 for no loss.
Rohit (15 off 14) was a mere spectator at the other end as Rahul came up with one classy hit after another. During a 78-run stand between the openers, Rohit hardly got to bat and could open his account only in the fifth over.
Rahul, whose strike rate has been questioned in the past, looked like he was back to his best after coming back from an injury lay off.
His innings comprised delightful cover drivers off the pacers while his standout shots were the two sixes off Cummins, one was a crisp pull while the other was a whip off a good length ball, which sailed over deep midwicket.
Barring Hardik Pandya (2), who was outdone by a slower ball from Kane Richardson, all the Indian batters got to spend some valuable time in the middle.
The bigger boundaries in Australia are already making an impact with Kohli (19 off 13), Dinesh Karthik (20 off 14), Rohit and Rahul getting caught in the deep.
Karthik walked across the stumps to dispatch Kane Richardson over deep mid-wicket but was caught by Glenn Maxwell just inside the boundary ropes. It would have been a six at a ground in India.
Kohli was bounced out by Mitchell Starc to be caught at fine leg while Rohit's slog sweep landed in the safe hands of Maxwell.
After a high-quality knock, Rahul could not give a long hop from Maxwell due punishment and was caught at deep midwicket. With the start India got, they should have reached 200 but could not do so.
There was also another fine knock from Suryakumar, who had also scored a fifty against Western Australia in Perth. He and Rahul also got the taste of the extra bounce as they both were hit on the helmet.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Congress not just removed clothes at AI Summit but exposed its intellectual bankruptcy: PM Modi
New Delhi (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday came down heavily on the Congress for the shirtless protest by its youth wing members at the AI Impact Summit recently, saying the opposition party can tear as many clothes as it wants, but his government will continue to work for the country's progress.
Addressing the News18 Rising Bharat Summit, Modi also said that the Congress did not just remove its clothes in front of foreign guests but also exposed its intellectual bankruptcy, asserting that the millennials have already taught the country's oldest party a lesson, and now Gen-Z is ready to do the same.
In an apparent jibe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Modi said the opposition was unhappy seeing the statue of "Babbar Shers" (lions) installed atop the new Parliament building, but their own “Babbar Shers" were running away after facing the "shoes" of the general public.
Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, had said on February 24 that he was proud of the "Babbar Shers" of the Indian Youth Congress, who "fearlessly" raised their voice at the AI Summit.
"Congress ke Babbar Sher logon ki jute kha ke bhaag gaye (The 'lions' of Congress ran away after being hit by shoes by the public)," Modi said.
The prime minister was apparently referring to the protesting Youth Congress workers being heckled by some people at the AI Summit.
On February 20, a group of Indian Youth Congress (IYC) workers staged a dramatic protest inside Hall No. 5 of the summit venue in Delhi by removing their shirts to reveal T-shirts printed with anti-government slogans, triggering a political slugfest between the BJP and the Congress.
“Congress can tear as many clothes as it wants, but we will continue to work for India's development. Congress not just shed clothes at the AI Summit, it also exposed its incapabilities in front of foreign guests,” Modi said in his nearly 45-minute speech.
He said the AI Summit was a moment of pride for the entire nation, but unfortunately, Congress attempted to tarnish this national celebration.
"When the frustration and despair of failure weigh on the mind, and arrogance makes one's head spin, such a mindset emerges to defame the country," he said.
The prime minister also alleged that the Congress always takes refuge in Mahatma Gandhi to hide its failures, but tries to give credit to one family for anything good.
"People of our country welcomed every good step taken by our government, but the Congress only knows how to oppose everything. The votes of Congress are not stolen; rather, people do not consider Congress worthy of their votes. Millennials first taught a lesson to Congress, now Gen-Z is ready to do the same," he said.
Modi also said that in a democracy, the role of the opposition is not just about blindly opposing every move of the government, but presenting an alternative vision, and that is why the "enlightened public" of the country is "teaching a lesson" to Congress now.
In 1984, the Congress got 39 per cent of the votes and more than 400 seats. But its votes declined consistently in the subsequent elections, Modi said.
"Today, the condition of the Congress is such that it has more than 50 MLAs in just four states. Over the past 40 years, the number of young voters in the country has increased, but the Congress has clearly diminished," Modi said.
On the recent trade deals that India signed with foreign countries, Modi said the country has discovered its inherent strength and strengthened its institutions, which prompted developed nations to come forward and sign deals with India.
He also said that even after Independence, some people ensured that the colonial mindset remained for their own benefits.
"No country would have done trade deals with us had we not discovered our inherent strength and strengthened our institutions. Because of this, developed nations have come forward to sign trade deals (with India)," he said.
Modi also said that even after Independence, India was unable to break free from the mentality of slavery, for which the country is still paying the price.
"The latest example of this can be seen in the ongoing discussions on trade deals. Some people are shocked – ‘what has happened, how did this happen? Why are developed countries so eager to do trade deals with India?’ The answer is – a confident India is emerging from despair and frustration," he said.
Over the long span of history, centuries of slavery had instilled a feeling of inferiority, while the ideology imported from other countries deeply ingrained in society the notion that Indians were uneducated and subservient, the prime minister said.
"If the country was still mired in the despair of the pre-2014 era, counted among the 'Fragile Five', and gripped by policy paralysis, who would strike a trade deal with us?
"Over the past 11 years, a new surge of energy has flowed into the nation's consciousness. India is now striving to reclaim its lost potential," Modi said.
The prime minister also said that due to the recent series of reforms initiated by his government, the world's most powerful nations are now coming forward to sign trade deals with India.
"There was a time when India was only a consumer of new technology. But now we are not just developing them, but also setting standards," he said.
The prime minister also said that India's digital public infrastructure has become a subject of global discussion today, and every move India makes is closely watched and analysed across the world.
"The AI Summit was a clear example of this," he said.
The government's 'Viksit Bharat by 2047' is not a political slogan but an effort to correct the mistakes of the previous Congress governments by making India self-reliant, he said.
“So far, in every industrial revolution, India and the Global South largely remained followers, but in this age of artificial intelligence (AI), India is not only participating but is also shaping it. India now has its own AI startup ecosystem,” Modi said.
He also said the world is astonished that India, where around 30 million families lived in darkness until 2014, has now risen to become one of the top countries in solar power capacity.
India, where many cities had no hope of improving their public transport system, has now become the country with the world's third-largest Metro network, Modi said.
“The Indian Railways was known only for chronic delays and sluggish speeds, yet semi-high-speed connectivity like Vande Bharat and Namo Bharat has now become possible,” he said.
Nation-building never happens through short-term thinking; it is shaped by a long-term vision, patience and timely decisions, the prime minister added.
