Sanju Samson smashes fastest double hundred as Kerala maul Goa by 104 runs
Bengaluru, Oct 12: Kerala wicket keeper-batsman Sanju Samson made a case for himself for the upcoming T20s against Bangladesh by hitting a blistering double century as Kerala thrashed Goa by 104 runs in their Elite Group A game of the Vijay Hazare Trophy here on Saturday.
Riding on Samson's record-breaking unbeaten 212 off just 129 balls, Kerala posted a mammoth 377/3 on the board and restricted Goa to 153/3 after play was called off due to inclement weather.
Goa were 104 runs short of the revised target.
The cynosure of all eyes at the Alur Cricket Stadium II near here was Samson.
Opting to bat, Kerala lost openers skipper Robin (10) and Vishnu Vinod (7) cheaply and were in a spot of bother at 31-2.
But Samson, who struck 21 fours and 10 sixes in his knock, hammered the opposition bowlers.
With this knock, Samson holds the record for the highest Indian List A domestic score, after he went past Karn Kaushal's 202, scored for Uttarakhand.
Samson is the eighth Indian to score a double hundred in List A cricket. His is also the highest score by a wicket- keeper in List A matches, surpassing 209 by Abid Ali.
Also Samson hit the fastest List A 200 by an Indian, (in 129 balls). He also became the first Indian to score a list A 200 at number three position.
Samson and two-down Sachin Baby (127 off 135 balls) conjured a massive 338-run stand for the third wicket.
Baby struck seven boundaries and four sixes.
The partnership of 338 betweenSamson and Baby is a new List A record for the third wicket, as they went past the 309 run stand betweenTim Curtis and Tom Moody for Worcestershire in 1994.
Samson thus made a case for himself and played a timely knock, with Rishabh Pant struggling and the future of veteran stumper-batsman M S Dhoni uncertain.
The chase was always going to be uphill task for Goa, who fell way beyond the target.
Elsewhere, Jharkhand eked out a three-wicket win versus Andhra with middle-order batsman Virat Singh remaining unbeaten at 74.
Karnataka defeated Saurashtra by eight wickets to win full four points.
Brief Scores: Kerala 377/3 (Sanju Samson 212 not out, Sachin Baby 127; Lakshay Garg 1-73) beat Goa 153/3 (Tunish Sawkar 56, Aditya Kaushik 50 not out; Sandeep Warrior 1-22) by 104 runs.
Kerala 4 points, Goa 0 points.
Andhra 265/6 (Kranthi Kumar 72, Ricky Bhuvi 59; Varun Aaron 2-54 ) lost to Jharkhand 266/7 (Virat Singh 74 not out, Saurabh Tiwari 56; Prithvi Raj Yarra 2-58) by 3 wickets.
Jharkhand 4 points, Andhra 0 points.
Saurashtra 212 all out (Prerak Mankad 86, Chirag Jani 66; M Prasidh Krishna 5-19) lost to Karnataka 213/2 (Devdutt Padikkal 103 not out, Manish Pandey 67 not out; Prerak Mankad 2-33) by 8 wickets. Karnataka 4 points, Saurashtra 0 points.
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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."
