Pandya takes four wickets as England post challenging 198/9
Bristol, July 8: Hardik Pandya returned with career best bowling figures (4/38) but England rode on their superb start to post a challenging 198/9 in 20 overs in the third and final T20I against India at the County Ground here on Sunday.
Pandya bowled 11 dot balls in the middle overs and accounted for the wickets of Alex Hales (30; 24b; 3x4; 2x6), skipper Eoin Morgan (6), comeback man Ben Stokes (14) and Jonny Bairstow (25; 14b, 2x4, 2x6) to not allow England to build on their solid start.
Pandya was taken for 22 runs in his first over with England's top-scorer Jason Roy (67; 31b; 4x4, 7x6) taking him to the cleaners.
But the all-rounder came roaring back to first remove Morgan and Hales in the same over and then repeating the same in the 18th over to send Stokes and Bairstow back on his fourth and sixth delivery.
Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav was dropped raising a few eyebrows as he had taken five wickets in the first game.
Veteran M.S. Dhoni was also at his best behind the stumps, taking five catches and effecting one brilliant run out in the last ball of England's innings to get the wicket of Chris Jordan.
Openers Jos Buttler (34; 21b; 7x4) and Roy gave England a flying start with poor fielding from the visitors helping in the cause too.
In the first six overs of Powerplay, England scored 73/0 with both in-form batters smacking 10 fours and four sixes in the process.
Deepak Chahar (1/43) -- making his international debut in place of injured Bhuvneshwar Kumar -- did not start off well, going for 13 runs with Buttler hitting him for three fours.
In the next over, Butler took Umesh Yadav (1/48) for two back-to-back fours to set the tone for his team before Roy turned on the heat.
The 27-year old hit the first six of the match in the fourth over, a princely down the ground shot at long off before tonking Siddharth Kaul (2/35) for another maximum in the next over to show his intent.
To make matters worse, Butler was dropped by Yuzvendra Chahal (0/30) just after Powerplay although it was a difficult chance.
In the next ball, Roy brought up his fifty in style, slapping Chahal for a six over long-on.
Kaul finally ended the carnage by rattling the stumps as Buttler tried to swipe across the line. Roy and Butler stitched together 94-run partnership for the first wicket.
Chahal followed it up with an economical over, giving away just three runs. Chahar then got his first international scalp with a slower delivery that the dangerous Roy flicked to Dhoni behind the stumps.
At the halfway stage, England were 111/2 with two new batsmen in captain Eoin Morgan and Alex Hales at the crease.
Pandya then dented England's surge as Morgan top-edged a back of a length delivery which Dhoni smothered, clattering the stumps in his follow through, and Hales was caught behind.
Later, Stokes holed out to Virat Kohli at mid off and once again in the same over Bairstow, who was looking good after smacking two fours and sixes, nicked a half volley to the keeper.
The rest of the batsmen could not take England past the 200-mark but still posted a more than par total.
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Woman declared foreigner gets Indian citizenship under CAA
Guwahati (PTI): A woman, who spent two years in detention after being declared a foreigner, has been granted Indian citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Assam's Cachar district, her lawyer said.
The woman, identified as 59-year-old Depali Das, a resident of the Hawaithang area under the Dholai assembly constituency, was declared an illegal migrant by a Foreigners' Tribunal (FT) in February 2019.
Depali is the first declared foreigner in Assam who had once been lodged in a detention centre and later released on bail to receive Indian citizenship under the CAA.
The police detained her after the tribunal's order and sent her to the Silchar detention centre on May 10, the same year, where she remained for nearly two years before being released on bail on May 17, 2021, following a Supreme Court order, her lawyer Dharmananda Deb said.
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Depali was originally a resident of Dippur village under Dhirai police station in Bangladesh's Sylhet district and had married Abhimanyu Das of Parai village under Baniachong police station in Habiganj district in 1987, he said.
A year later, in 1988, the couple entered India and moved to Cachar district, where they have been living since then.
Her citizenship came under scrutiny in 2013 when police initiated an inquiry against her, and a chargesheet was submitted by the police on July 2, 2013, stating that Depali was a resident of Baniachong in Bangladesh and had entered India illegally after March 1971, Deb said.
"The chargesheet later proved crucial in her application for Indian citizenship under the CAA because the applicant must provide documentary evidence showing migration from Bangladesh, Pakistan or Afghanistan," he said.
"In most cases, applicants fail to produce such documents, but in Depali's case, the chargesheet submitted by the police officer in 2013 clearly mentioned that she was from Bangladesh. The authorities accepted this document as valid proof," he added.
After her release on bail in 2021, she wanted to apply for citizenship under the CAA and had approached Deb for legal assistance once the rules of the Act were notified in 2024.
Her first hearing took place on February 24 last year at the office of the Superintendent of Post Offices in Silchar, which is designated to process such applications.
Two more hearings were held subsequently, after which all her documents were submitted online to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
"She was called to the office of the Superintendent of Post Offices in Silchar for a final appearance on May 25 last year after the field verification by Home Ministry officials, and on March 6, she received her Indian citizenship certificate," social activist Kamal Chakraborty said.
Her three children, a son and three daughters, can now rely on their mother's citizenship certificate if their own citizenship is ever questioned in the future, since all the children were born in India, he added.
The Citizenship Amendment Act, passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019, triggered widespread protests across the country, particularly in Assam.
The Act allows Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain and Parsi migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India between March 25, 1971 and December 31, 2014 to apply for Indian citizenship.
Before Das, four Bangladeshi nationals living in Assam were granted Indian citizenship under the CAA.
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