Dubai: Fast bowler Karthik Tyagi bowled a sensational last over as Rajasthan Royals pulled off an incredible two-run win over Punjab Kings in an Indian Premier League (IPL) thriller here on Tuesday.

Punjab required four runs off the last six balls but Tyagi dismissed Nicholas Pooran (32) and Deepak Hooda (0) and gave away only one run to snatch the win for his team from the jaws of defeat.

Punjab ended their innings at 183 for four, chasing 186 to win.

Sanju Samson’s side was seemingly down and out when KXIP opening pair Mayank Agarwal (67) and KL Rahul (49) put on 120 runs in 11.5 overs.

With Aiden Markram (26 not out) and Nicholas Pooran (32) going strong, it looked like it would be only a matter of time when Punjab would wrap up the match.

But in the end, Punjab made a mess in the last over to suffer their sixth defeat from nine matches.

With this win, the Royals moved to the fifth spot after four wins from eight matches.

Earlier, the 22-year-old Arshdeep Singh (5/32) complemented his senior pro Mohammed Shami (3/21) well as the duo shared eight wickets to help Punjab bowl out Rajasthan for 185 in exactly 20 overs after they were going strong at 169 for 5 in 17 overs.

Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (49) and Mahipal Lomror (43) scored bulk of the runs for Rajasthan.

Chasing the total, Mayank and KL Rahul looked in good touch. KL Rahul, who was dropped thrice, smashed 4 fours and 2 sixes in his 33-ball innings. He also crossed 3000 IPL runs during his knock.

Mayank too produced seven hits to the fence and also clobbered two sixes in his 43-ball knock.

Once the Punjab skipper was caught off Chetan Sakariya (1/31) in 12th over, Agarwal too was removed by Rahul Tewatia (1/23).

Markram and Pooran then played some delightful shots to keep their chase on track before they were undone by a brilliant last-over by Tyagi.

Earlier, opener Jaiswal was part of two vital partnerships, adding 54 with his new opening partner Evin Lewis (36) and then sharing another 48 off 28 balls with Liam Livingstone (25).

Lomror then smashed his way to a 17-ball 43, studded with four sixes and two fours.

However, in the last three overs, Shami claimed three wickets and Arshdeep completed his five-for to wrap up the RR innings.

Put in to bat, Jaiswal and Lewis gave RR a flying start with the former smashing two successive fours off Shami in the first over and the latter smacking Ishan Porel, also playing his first match, for a six.

The West Indies batsman punished Porel for bowling short and wide, blasting four boundaries in the fourth over. Deepak Hooda was then taken to the cleaners as he bled 13 runs.

Arshdeep then produced the breakthrough, deceiving Lewis with a slower ball as Mayank Agarwal took a fine low catch as RR were 57 for one after the powerplay.

Jaiswal then reverse swept England spinner Adil Rashid for a six, before depositing him over long off for another maximum.

RR skipper Sanju Samson failed to make any impact as a terrific one-handed catch by KL Rahul ended his stay and gave Porel his maiden wicket.

Livingstone then joined Jaiswal, who picked up another maximum off Rashid in the 9th over.

Jasiwal raised the team hundred with another four off Harpreet Brar in the 11th over.

Livingstone also tried to match his partner as he scooped one fine over KL Rahul and then smacked one over mid-wicket off Arshdeep.

A sensational catch at deep midwicket by Fabian Allen sent Livingstone back to the hut with RR slipping to 116 for 3.

Jaiswal couldn’t complete his fifty as his leading edge was held on to by Mayank at short cover.

New man Lomror then went on a six-hitting spree, blasting two maximums off Rashid before sending Hooda for a couple more in the 16th over as RR crossed the 150-mark.

Lomror also smashed two fours as Hooda conceded 24 runs off his second over.

However, RR lost the plot after that as Shami and Arshdeep restricted their opponent to a competitive score in the end.

New Delhi: Amid talk of his infrastructure conglomerate venturing into the media space, billionaire Gautam Adani on Tuesday said media coverage cannot be biased under the garb of press freedom and criticism should not be at the cost of national dignity.

Addressing the JP Morgan India Investor Summit, the head of the port-to-energy Adani Group defended India’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying in a rush to lay blame and find fault, it was ignored how well a nation with people more than Europe, North America and Oceania handled the crisis.

“Perhaps we could have done some things better and, of course, every life lost is a tragedy. But the sheer size of our population arguably makes the challenge posed by COVID in India greater than in any other major nation,” he said.

Stating he wasn’t implying that there cannot be any criticism, he said in democracy accountability has to be fixed.

“But in the rush to lay blame and find fault, it is possible that we failed to acknowledge another, more positive side to the story of how we handled and continue to handle the COVID crisis,” he said, adding “criticism cannot be at the cost of national dignity. It cannot be at the cost of degrading a nation.”

Adani, who a couple of days back hired a senior journalist to head his group’s media venture, said media coverage cannot be biased under the garb of press freedom.

“There is always another side of the story which unfortunately was not told,” he said.

Adani Group appointed Sanjay Pugalia, who previously worked with BBC radio, Navbharat Times, Zee News, Star News, CNBC and Quint, as the chief executive officer and Editor in Chief.

The appointment has triggered speculations of the Adani group’s possible launch of a TV and digital media venture.

The Group has so far not commented on the speculations.

At the JP Morgan Summit, Adani said India has more people than Europe, North America, and Oceania put together, which also means that India’s vaccination effort is larger than the combined efforts of 87 other countries.

“For comparison, while the daily vaccination count in the US is currently around 800,000, India is vaccinating 12 times that number or around 10 million people every day.

“Even if the United States and other countries have completely vaccinated a greater percentage of the population, the pace at which India has accelerated its vaccination programme, despite all the hurdles, is unmatched,” he said.

India, he said, has suffered some of the most drastic consequences of COVID.

“Whatever our views, we can all agree that India had nothing to do with the virus, yet has suffered some of its most drastic consequences,” he said, adding the pace at which the country has accelerated its vaccination programme, despite all the hurdles, is unmatched.

New Delhi: Senior Journalist and executive editor of NDTV, Ravish Kumar on Tuesday slammed media reports of his resignation from the channel after several media houses reported that he has parted ways with NDTV.

Taking to his official Facebook page took a dig at Jan Satta, who reportedly published a report of his resignation and asked the media house, who submitted his resignation to NDTV on his behalf.

In a hindi post, Ravish asked “I am trying to figure out who submitted my resignation? Whether I submitted it or the ones who are trying to gain hits on their websites by publishing such reports.”

“I think people who are throwing such rumors around, do not have money to throw. Please don’t seek clarification from me on this, first they spread such rumors and then they seek clarification from me if it is true,” he wrote in the post.

He further asked if Jan Satta actually published any such report about him and added that what is the website doing by publishing anything about him to gain hits.

Adding that he has not resigned, he urged people to “relax” and took a sly dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“The state of employment in the country is very bad. Hon’ble PM has ruined the economy of the country. Neither there are jobs in this country like before nor salaries” he added.

He then urged people to not be disappointed with the state of affairs in the country and gave them a insight of what they should be doing when they feel disappointed.

“But unemployment doesn’t mean you should feel disappointed about it. When it feels like things won’t get better in the future, start working on repairing the mistakes of the past. Your time will pass.

“If you still feel disappointed and let down, look at the meme on internet that theorize Nehru being a Muslim and ponder on what Muslims should do. It will make you so happy that you will not be able to handle it” he further wrote.

Addressing Muslims and “Mahapurush” he added that they have two factors for feeling happy and added that they need not feel disappointed only because they don’t have a job.

Farmers’ leader Rakesh Tikait

Bahraich (UP): BJP MP from Bahraich Akshayvar Lal Gond has termed farmers’ leader Rakesh Tikait a dacoit and alleged that the farmers’ agitation is receiving funds from abroad.

The farmers have been protesting at Delhi borders against the three farm laws, which they fear will do away with the minimum support price (MSP) system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporations.

Speaking to reporters here on Sunday on the completion of BJP’s four-and-half-years of being in power in the state, Gond said, “(Rakesh) Tikait is a dacoit. There is no agitation by farmers. The protestors are not farmers, they are people from political parties who are motivated by ‘Sikhistan’ and Pakistan.

Money is coming from foreign countries including Canada. This money is for terror funding and agencies are probing it,” he added.

Gond said people know the reality of the protesters.

“If the real farmers were protesting, then there would have been a shortage of food items. Vegetables, milk, foodgrains, and fruits would not have reached the markets,” he said.

New Delhi: The West Bengal government Monday alleged before the Supreme Court that “shocking things” have happened in the state and cases were being transferred “en masse” to CBI including the dacoity cases.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the state, told a bench comprising Justices Vineet Saran and Aniruddha Bose that whenever there is an allegation that a probe is not being carried fairly, the court takes the facts into account and then transfers the case to CBI after a prima facie conclusion.

“In this case, en masse the cases were given to the CBI. Some of the most shocking things have happened. In one case, the man is alive. In the meantime, CBI is also investigating dacoity cases. All kinds of things are happening,” Sibal told the bench.

The top court was hearing a special leave petition filed by the state government alleging that it did not expect fair and just investigation by the central agency which is busy foisting cases against the functionaries of ruling Trinamool Congress Party.

As the hearing commenced, Sibal told the top court that he would need two-three hours to make submissions but the bench said that it won’t be able to hear the matter today due to lack of time and would take it up next week.

“By consent of the learned counsel for the parties, list on September 28, 2021 as a first case. The parties are permitted to file documents/additional documents by September 24, 2021 after serving the copy of the same on the other side,” the bench said.

Earlier, the state government had cast aspersions on the members of a committee formed by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to investigate the incidents of post-poll violence in the state.

The state government had said that the panel chief Rajiv Jain has served as Director of the Intelligence Bureau under the BJP-led government at the Centre.

It had also said that “Jain was subsidiary intelligence bureau chief, Ahmedabad from 2005 to 2008 when the honourable Prime Minister was the chief minister of Gujarat.”

Contending about another member, Sibal had said that Atif Rasheed served as Delhi State Prabhari BJP Minority Morcha and still tweets in support of BJP.

“Can you imagine these people have been appointed to collect the data? Is this a BJP investigating committee my Lords?” Sibal had said.

Commenting on Sibal”s submission, the bench said,” “If somebody had a political past and if he lands up in an official position by that very fact will we treat him to be biased?”

Earlier, lawyer Anindya Sundar Das, one of the PIL petitioners on whose plea the High Court August 19 verdict came, had filed a caveat in the apex court urging that no order be passed without hearing him if the state or other litigant move appeals.

A five-judge bench of the High Court, headed by Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal, had ordered a CBI investigation into all alleged cases of heinous crimes in West Bengal after the assembly poll results this year in which the ruling TMC came back to power.

As regards other criminal cases related to post-poll violence, the high court had directed that they be investigated by a Special Investigation Team under the monitoring of the court.

The high court bench, which also comprised justices I P Mukerji, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen and Subrata Talukdar, had observed that there were “definite and proved” allegations that complaints of the victims of violence in the aftermath of the West Bengal assembly polls were not even registered.

Ordering the setting up of an SIT to probe all other cases, it had said that it will include Suman Bala Sahoo, Soumen Mitra and Ranveer Kumar, all IPS officers of the West Bengal cadre.

“All the cases where, as per the report of the Committee, the allegations are about murder of a person and crime against women regarding rape/attempt to rape, shall be referred to CBI for investigation, it had said.

The high court has also directed the NHRC committee, constituted by its chairman on a direction by the five-judge bench, and any other commission or authority and the state to immediately hand over the records of the cases to the CBI to carry forward the probe.

The bench had said it will monitor the investigations by both the CBI and the SIT and asked the two agencies to submit status reports to the court within six weeks.

It had said that the working of the SIT will be overseen by a retired Judge of the Supreme Court for which a separate order will be passed after obtaining his/her consent.

In its ruling, the bench had said heinous crimes such as murder and rape “deserve to be investigated by an independent agency which in the circumstances can only be Central Bureau of Investigation”.

The bench had said the state failed to register FIRs even in some cases of alleged murder.

“This shows a pre-determined mind to take the investigation into a particular direction,” it had said.

“Under such circumstances investigation by an independent agency will inspire confidence in all concerned,” it had noted.

It had said allegations that the police had not registered a number of cases initially and that some were registered only after the court had intervened or the committee was constituted were found to be true.

It had observed that the facts in relation to the allegations made in the PILs are “even more glaring” as the incidents are not isolated to one place in the state.

The NHRC committee had on July 13 submitted its final report to the court.

An interim report of the NHRC committee had mentioned that Atif Rasheed, a member of the committee, was obstructed from discharging his duty and he and his team members were attacked by some undesirable elements on June 29 in Jadavpur area on the southern fringe of the city, the court noted.

The PILs had alleged that people were subjected to assault, made to flee homes and properties were destroyed during the violence in the wake of the assembly elections and sought impartial probe into the incidents.