Spot-on MI bowlers restrict RCB to 131/6 in WPL
Bengaluru, Mar 2: Royal Challengers Bangalore batters struggled to force pace against an efficient group of Mumbai Indians bowlers, settling for 131 for six in their Women's Premier League match here on Saturday.
RCB would have been in deeper trouble had Elysse Perry (44 not out, 38b, 5x4) and Georgia Wareham (27, 20b, 3x4) not added 52 runs for the sixth wicket after MI decided to bowl first.
Mumbai were without their regular skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and premier pacer Shabnim Ismail, who have been nursing injuries, for the second match on the trot, but that did not affect their intensity on the field.
The RCB top-order batters did not have the required amount of patience to weather the storm when the MI bowlers struck a fine line early on.
Skipper Smriti Mandhana (9, 11 balls) grew impatient and looked to smash pacer Issy Wong out of park. But the shot neither had power nor timing as Nat-Sciver Brunt completed a simple catch inside the circle.
It was a similar case with some other RCB top-order batters such as Richa Ghosh and S Meghana who tried to break the shackles by force, not the best approach when the bowlers are on top.
Ghosh fell to pacer Pooja Vastrakar, drilling a drive straight to Sanjana Sajeevan to mid-off, and Meghana's weak pull off Brunt ended in the hands of Keerthana Balakrishnan near backward square leg.
But Perry showed how to score runs here, selecting her balls to perfection to punish the bowlers. She pulled and cut Amelia Kerr for boundaries in successive balls when the leg-spinner erred in her length.
She found an able ally in Wareham, who complemented Perry with good rotation of strike and occasional hits to the fence.
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Neutrality of polls can't be assured if EC dependent on contestants: Justice Nagarathna
New Delhi (PTI): Supreme Court judge Justice BV Nagarathna, while highlighting that the Election Commission is the primary institution entrusted with maintaining the integrity of polls, has said if those who conduct elections are dependent on those who contest them, the neutrality of the process cannot be assured.
The apex court judge raised a critical concern regarding the structural independence of those tasked with overseeing the ballot while delivering the Rajendra Prasad Memorial Lecture at the Chanakya Law University in Patna on Saturday.
Citing a 1995 verdict where the Supreme Court recognised the Election Commission as a constitutional authority of high significance, entrusted with ensuring the integrity of elections, she said, "The concern, once again, was structural: if those who conduct elections are dependent on those who contest them, the neutrality of the process cannot be assured."
Justice Nagarathna said elections are not merely periodic events but a mechanism through which political authority is constituted.
"Our constitutional democracy has amply demonstrated smooth changes in government due to elections being held on a timely basis. Control over that process is, in effect, control over the conditions of political competition itself," she said.
The Supreme Court judge said power is not exercised only through formal institutions but also through the processes that sustain them, including elections, public finance, and regulation.
"A constitutional structure that seeks to restrain power must therefore go beyond its classical forms and address these fourth-branch institutions. A set of institutions, while not always fitting within the classical tripartite scheme, is nonetheless central to the maintenance of constitutional order," she said.
Justice Nagarathna said the unmistakable lesson of history is that constitutional collapse occurs through the disabling of its structure, and the violation of rights merely follows.
"The dismantling of structure, in turn, occurs when institutions stop checking each other. At that moment, elections may continue, courts may function, laws may be enacted by Parliament, and yet, power is effectively not restrained because the structural discipline no longer exists," she said.
The apex court judge also urged the Centre to view states as "coordinates and not subordinates" and asserted that the separation of powers was a "constitutional arrangement of co-equals."
Justice Nagarathna also called for keeping aside "inter-party differences" in the matter of "Centre-state relations", underscoring that governance must not depend on "which party may be ruling the Centre and which other party may be ruling at the state level".
