New Zealand beats Bangladesh by an innings to tie series
Christchurch, Jan 11: A courageous century by wicketkeeper Liton Das made Bangladesh a hard nut to crack but New Zealand finally broke through on Tuesday to win the second cricket Test by an innings and 117 runs to tie the two-match series.
Das batted almost one-handed for much of his innings after being struck on the glove. He weathered a barrage of short-pitched bowling from New Zealand to post his second Test century from only 106 balls.
Bangladesh rallied around his resilient example to force a match which many thought would be over quickly on Tuesday into the final session of the third day before the last wicket fell 20 minutes from scheduled stumps.
Das finally was out for 102 and the end came swiftly afterwards with Bangladesh losing its last wickets in dimming light at Hagley Oval. When the ninth wicket fell the crowd began baying for the veteran batsman Ross Taylor who will retire from Test cricket after his 112th Test to be given a chance to bowl.
When the light became too poor for the quicks to continue, captain Tom Latham bowed to the crowd's demand and Taylor's third ball of gentle off breaks brought a false shot from Ebadot Hossain who skied the ball to Latham. That brought the curtain down on Taylor's 15-year Test career in the most unusual fashion and to the reverberating cheers of the crowd.
Taylor had bowled only 16 overs in all of his previous Tests for two wickets, the last time eight years ago. But fate conspired to bring his career to an extraordinary end. First mobbed by his teammates and presented the match ball, he walked from the field through a honour guard formed by Bangladesh, providing one last rich memory of an outstanding career.
"We needed to win this game to stay in the series and I thought we played fantastically well," Taylor said.
"Bangladesh put us under pressure at various times and that was probably a fair reflection of where the series was at.
"I wanted to finish with a win and the guys obviously gave that to me."
It was significant that the final catch was taken by Latham as the New Zealand captain had an outsized influence on this match. He scored 252, his second Test double century, in New Zealand's first innings of 521-6 declared, then took six catches as New Zealand bowled out Bangladesh for 126 and 278 after enforcing the follow-on.
In doing so, Latham became the first player in Test history to score 250 and take six catches in the same match.
"We came here 1-0 down after losing the first test and putting a performance like this on the board was very pleasing," Latham said.
"We talked about it in the days before the match that we had to improve on a number of areas and I thought we did that well.
"I guess getting put in on day one on a wicket we know does a little bit on day one, to get through that first session, to build partnerships throughout the innings was ideal. I guess we know first innings scores here are very important."
The result appeared a reversal for Bangladesh who made history when they won the first Test by eight wickets for their first win in any format in New Zealand. The win by the world's ninth-ranked team over the World Test Champion, especially in New Zealand conditions, was regarded as one of Test cricket's great upsets.
The tourists struggled to recover in the second Test after New Zealand's mammoth first-innings total but the fight they showed on the final day was impressive and they eventually will be pleased with a drawn series.
"I'm really happy with the first Test but the first innings of the second Test was disappointing," Bangladesh captain Monimul Haque said.
"I think it was very challenging for us after winning the first Test to keep our momentum for the second."
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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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