Ravindra Jadeja fastest left-arm bowler to 200 Test wickets
Visakhapatnam: India spinner Ravindra Jadeja picked up his 200th Test wicket at the ACA-VDCA Stadium on Friday and in the process became the fastest left-arm bowler to reach the milestone. He eclipsed the feat of Sri Lanka spinner Rangana Herath, who had reached the landmark in his 47th Test match, by reaching the feat in his 44th game - the first of the ongoing three-match series against South Africa.
Jadeja could have reached the feat in the first session of the third day itself, but Wriddhiman Saha dropped Dean Elgar. And it was Elgar who turned out to be his 200th scalp as the Proteas opener was caught brilliantly at the square-leg boundary by Cheteshwar Pujara.
While Herath had taken 47 Tests to reach the 200-wickets mark, he was followed by Australia's Mitchell Johnson (49), Mitchell Starc (50) and Bishan Singh Bedi and Wasim Akram - both taking 51 Tests to reach the milestone.
The 30-year-old cricketer from Saurashtra had made his Test debut against England back in 2012. Jadeja has also scalped 178 ODI wickets from 156 games and 33 wickets in 44 T20Is. In fact, he has been India's first-choice spinner in recent times in away games, as was witnessed in the series against West Indies in the Caribbean Islands.
200 Test wickets for @imjadeja ??
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 4, 2019
He is the quickest amongst the left-arm bowlers to reach the mark ?? pic.twitter.com/ihilr9kkWM
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Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
