WPL: Ecclestone, Deepti help UPW bowl out RCB for 138
Mumbai, Mar 10: UP Warriorz spinners Sophie Ecclestone and Deepti Sharma gave away very little while striking at regular intervals to bowl out Royal Challengers Bangalore for 138 in the Women's Premier League here on Friday.
This was after Ellyse Perry top-scored for RCB with a blazing 39-ball 52.
Seasoned English left-arm spinner Ecclestone finished with incredible figures of 4/13 in her full quota of four overs, while Deepti ended with 3/26.
Sophie Devine started the RCB innings by hitting Grace Harris for a four and a six off the match's second and third deliveries, collecting 13 runs in the opening over at the Brabourne Stadium.
The maximum was a super shot as Devine, seeing the ball in the slot, positioned herself perfectly and smoked it over the deep mid wicket boundary.
Sharing the new ball with Grace, left-arm seamer Anjali Sarvani ran into an in-form Devine as the versatile New Zealander scored two fours off the India bowler.
With RCB going very well at 29 for no loss after three overs, UP Warriorz skipper Alyssa Healy effected a bowling change and brought on Rajeshwari Gayakwad into the attack, and it paid dividends straightaway as the bowler sent back RCB captain Smriti Mandhana (4) with her first ball.
It was a length delivery outside off stump, and Mandhana failed to time it and ended up giving an easy catch to Sarvani at extra cover, continuing her below-par outing in the inaugural WPL.
Given the situation, it was an excellent first over from Rajeshwari as she conceded just one run while taking the big wicket of Mandhana.
Australian star Ellyse Perry wasted little time in finding her groove, scoring two boundaries off Sarvani to maintain RCB's fine run rate. Then there was a four -- which came off a mishit -- and a six straight down the ground against Rajeshwari's bowling after beautifully getting to the pitch of the ball.
Despite losing Mandhana, RCB racked up 54 runs in the six powerplay overs.
Ecclestone bowled an economical seventh over before Perry struck two successive fours off experienced off-spinning all-rounder Deepti Sharma.
Ecclestone was rewarded for her fine bowling as she bowled Devine, who struck five fours and a six in her 24-ball 36.
Perry continued with her attacking ways before Deepti took her out, much to the UP team's relief. RCB lost the plot after that, as the duo of Deepti and Ecclestone kept taking wickets regularly.
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.
Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
_vb_22.jpeg)
