Cong wiped out, vote for BJP, exhorts PM
PUNE: India’s home superiority and ability to play spin was laid bare as they crashed to 105 all out in their first innings to be left staring at defeat in the first Test against Australia on Friday.
Unfancied left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe was the chief wrecker, capturing 6/35 as India suffered a batting collapse which saw them lose seven wickets for 11 runs in a manic post-lunch session on Day 2, which saw nine wickets fall.
In all, 15 wickets tumbled in the day on a dry MCA Stadium pitch tailor-made for Indian spinners to dominate.
Replying to Australia’s modest first innings 260, things looked ominous for India after pace spearhead Mitchell Starc struck twice in an over, dismissing skipper Virat Kohli for only his fifth duck in Tests --- first after 44 innings --- caught at slip edging a rank wide delivery angled across.
Opener KL Rahul braved a shoulder injury to hit 64, but his dismissal triggered a batting collapse as O’Keefe ran through the line up with many Indian batsmen floundering in their bid to hit out.
SEE ALSO PAGE 17 LUCKNOW: A day after the BJP sailed through in the municipal council elections in Maharashtra, Prime Minister Narendra Modi lost no time in cashing in on civic poll results as an endorsement of his government and an indication that the Congress had been decimated throughout the country.
“Odisha, where there is so much poverty, starvation, unemployment and where the BJP did not even have foothold to place its flag, people have given so much support that everyone is taken aback...even the poor of Odisha have come with the BJP,” Modi said.
“Yesterday (Thursday), Maharashtra gave its verdict and the Congress has been wiped off. Be it civic body polls in Odisha, Maharashtra, Chandigarh or panchayat polls in Gujarat, in three months wherever there were polls, whether BJP had any presence or not, people used their third eye and ensured its victory. This means that my responsibility has increased,” he said.
“There should not be any mistake in these elections...be it the SP or the BSP, not a single seat should go to them...100% seats should be won by the BJP,” Modi said.
Invoking Lord Shiva on the festival day of Maha Shivratri, Modi said people, with their third eye, can see what is good for them and what is bad.
BJP had scored an emphatic win in the Maharashtra civic polls, emerging as the largest
CONTINUED ON P 5