Rohit Sharma becomes second fastest to complete 11,000 runs in ODI cricket
Dubai, Feb 20 (PTI): India captain Rohit Sharma on Thursday became the second fastest batter after compatriot Virat Kohli to complete 11,000 runs in One-day Internationals during their Champions Trophy clash against Bangladesh here.
Rohit is only the fourth Indian and 10th batter overall to reach the mark in the 50-over format.
The skipper achieved the feat in the fourth over of India's chase of 229 in their Group A match when he hit Mustafizur Rahman over mid-on for a boundary.
The seasoned opener reached the mark in his 270th game, and is the second fastest behind Kohli to cross 11,000 runs in terms of innings.
Kohli had crossed the 11,000-run mark in 222 innings while Rohit has brought up that many runs in 261 innings. In this list, they are followed by the legendary Sachin Tendulkar (276 innings), Ricky Ponting (286) and Sourav Ganguly (288).
Rohit is now placed behind former India captain Ganguly (11,363 runs) in the list of overall highest run-scorers in ODI cricket, with Tendulkar cemented firmly at the top position with 18,246 runs in 463 matches.
Kohli, who has 13,963 runs in his 299 ODIs, entered this game only 37 short of becoming only the third player in the history to make 14,000 runs in 50-overs cricket.
In terms of most ODI runs, former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara is placed second with 14,234 runs in 404 matches.
One of the most successful batters in the format at the top of the order, Rohit is also second in the list of hitting most sixes with 338 hits over the fence behind Pakistan's Shahid Afridi (351).
Rohit averages nearly 50 in the format with 32 centuries and 52 half-centuries.
In the list of highest run-scorers, Rohit is followed by former captains Rahul Dravid (10,889 runs) and MS Dhoni (10,773), with India having as many as six batters in an overall list of 15 batters to have crossed the coveted 10,000-run mark in ODI cricket.
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.
Former railway minister Mukul Roy dies at 71
Kolkata (PTI): Former railway minister Mukul Roy, once regarded as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's most trusted lieutenant and the TMC's principal strategist, died of cardiac arrest at a private hospital here early on Monday.
He was 71, and is survived by his son, Subhranshu Roy.
He breathed his last around 1.30 am at the hospital in Salt Lake, Subhranshu Roy said.
He had been suffering from multiple ailments and was in and out of the hospital over the past two years. Family members said he had also been diagnosed with dementia and had recently gone into a coma.
His body will be taken to his residence before the last rites are performed later in the day, they said.
A former Union minister and two-time Rajya Sabha member from West Bengal, Roy's four-decade-long political journey saw his stints in the Congress, TMC and the BJP.
His political career began with the Youth Congress, before he joined hands with Banerjee when she broke away from the grand old party to form the Trinamool Congress in 1998.
As a founding member, he quickly emerged as one of the key organisational pillars of the fledgling party and went on to serve as its general secretary.
He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2006 and became the party's leader in the Upper House in 2009, turning into TMC's principal troubleshooter in Delhi. In the UPA-2 government, when the TMC was a constituent, Roy first served as Minister of State for Shipping before taking over as the railway minister in 2012.
In West Bengal's political circles, Roy earned a reputation as a backroom operator deft in organisational work. Following the TMC's historic victory in 2011 that ended 34 years of the Left Front rule, he played a significant role in consolidating the party's hold in several districts, overseeing defections from the CPI(M) and the Congress, strengthening the new regime's political base.
However, his career was not without controversy. His name had surfaced in the Saradha chit fund case and the Narada sting operation.
By 2017, relations between Roy and the TMC leadership had deteriorated. In November that year, he joined the BJP in a move that altered the state's political equations. Tasked with strengthening the BJP's organisation in West Bengal, Roy was credited by party leaders with helping engineer defections from the TMC and expanding the saffron party's base ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, in which the BJP won 18 of the state's 42 seats.
He was elected as a BJP MLA from the Krishnanagar Uttar constituency in the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections. Within months, however, he returned to the TMC, triggering legal and political wrangling. Subsequently, a court disqualified him as an MLA under the anti-defection law for switching parties after being elected on a BJP ticket.
Though he rejoined the TMC, Roy never regained the political centrality he once enjoyed. As his health declined, he gradually withdrew from active politics.
Often described as the 'Chanakya' of West Bengal politics during his prime, Roy remained a pivotal figure in the state's turbulent political landscape -- a strategist who operated as comfortably in Delhi's power corridors as in the backrooms of Kolkata's party offices.
Leader of the opposition in the state assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, condoled Roy's death.
In an X post, he wrote, "Deeply disheartened to learn about the sad demise of senior politician, Shri Mukul Roy. My sincere condolences to his family. Praying that his soul attains eternal peace. Om Shanti."
