Saurashtra defeated Bengal by nine wickets to clinch its second Ranji Trophy title at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on February 19.
Led by Jaydev Unadkat, Saurashtra reduced the home side to a paltry 174 after winning the toss before posting a daunting 404 on the board. Fifties from opener Harvik Desai (50) and Saurashtra’s strong middle-order trio comprising Sheldon Jackson (59), Arpit Vasavada (81) and Chirag Jani (60) helped the visitor gain a 230-run first-innings lead.
Saurashtra’s maiden title win came in the 2019-20 season when it beat the same opponent in the final at home in Rajkot.
Bengal’s wait for the red-ball title continued as it finished runner-up for the 13th time in 15 finals.
Border-Gavaskar Trophy
India has taken a 2-0 lead in the ongoing four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series. If India manages to win the series, this will be their fourth consecutive win in the series.
India hammered Australia by an innings and 132 runs as Ashwin and Jadeja spun a web around the Aussies. Jadeja picked up 5, with the visitors folding for 171. Ashwin did the same in Australia’s second innings, as he became the fastest Indian bowler to pick 450 Test wickets, as India bundled Australia over for 91 runs.
In the second match too, Indian spinners continued their domination of Australian batters. Jadeja picked up his second 10-wicket haul in Tests as India beat Australia by 6 wickets.
12 more cheetahs for India, this time from South Africa
Twelve cheetahs – five of them female – have been flown in from South Africa, three years after India first mooted the idea. Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan are scheduled to will release the cheetahs into their quarantine enclosures in the Kuno National Park, spread over 750 km in the state’s Chambal region.
Under the ambitious cheetah reintroduction programme Prime Minister Narendra Modi had released the first batch of eight spotted felines including five females – from Namibia into a quarantine enclosure at Kuno on September 17 last year.
Aero India 2023
Several MoUs were signed at the 14th edition of India’s biennial air show ‘Aero India’ at Air Force Station Yelahanka, Bengaluru.
The United States Air Force’s latest fifth-generation fighters, the multirole F-35A Lightning II and F-35A Joint Strike Fighter landed on Indian soil for the first time to take part in the show where around 100 countries were represented and more than 5 lakh visitors came through.
Over 800 exhibitors, including 110 foreign exhibitors, participated in this edition. The five-day event themed ‘the runway to a billion opportunities’ focussed on indigenous aerospace and defence technologies.
Pak in deep trouble
Pakistan is in a severe economic crisis with foreign exchange reserves down to around just $3 billion and inflation at approximately 28 per cent. Reports suggest a high probability of a breakdown of the supply chain, which will potentially worsen inflation in the coming months.
Fuel prices have been hiked by Pakistani Rs 35 a litre and the currency has declined to a historic low against the US dollar. The IMF loan it was hoping for is has also been delayed, putting the country in dire straits.
