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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RBI keeps policy rate unchanged amid inflationary pressure
Mumbai (PTI): The Reserve Bank on Wednesday expectedly kept interest rates unchanged amid hopes of a global recovery on the back of ceasefire in the six-week-long US/Israel-Iran conflict.
The policy decision comes as a month and a-half-long West Asia conflict has disrupted energy supplies, shot up crude oil prices and created fiscal and inflationary pressures for import-dependent nations like India.
This is the first monetary policy review after the government announced a fresh inflation target for the RBI last month. The government has asked the RBI to maintain retail inflation at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side for another five years ending March 2031.
Announcing the first bi-monthly monetary policy for the current fiscal, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has unanimously decided to retain short-term lending rate or repo rate at 5.25 per cent with a neutral stance.
The rate cut pause comes on the back of the consumer price index (CPI) based headline retail inflation that moved closer to the RBI's medium-term target of 4 per cent at 3.21 per cent in February.
Additionally, the rupee has depreciated by over 4 per cent since the war, which has consequences for pushing up import inflation.
However, the rupee has appreciated by 50 paise to 92.56 against US dollar following announcement of the ceasefire by the US and Iran.
Based on the recommendation of the MPC, the RBI reduced the repo rate by 25 bps each in February, April, and December 2025 and 50 basis points in June amidst easing retail inflation.
India's retail inflation dropped to a historic low of 0.25 per cent in October 2025, marking the lowest level since the Consumer Price Index (CPI) series was introduced.
However, the rupee declined to historic low and crossed 95 against a dollar last month making imports costlier, raising fears of rise in inflation. Rupee touched a record low of 95.21 on March 30, 2026.
