Harbhajan Singh celebrated his comeback with a superb all-round show to guide India to a 39-run victory over England in the first one-dayer in New Delhi on Tuesday. The offspinner, who missed a one-day series in Pakistan last month due to a finger injury, finished with 5-31 as India defended their modest total of 203 by dismissing England for 164.
India’s ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi resigned from Parliament on Thursday following opposition allegations that she had breached parliamentary regulations by holding other salaried posts. "I have done this because I think it is the right thing to do," she told reporters.
Andrew Flintoff and Shaun Udal made a mockery of India’s famed batting line-up as a depleted England squared the series with a crushing 212-run victory in the third and final Test in Mumbai on Wednesday. It was England’s first Test win in India since 1985. India were shot out for a pathetic 100 off just 48.2 overs in their second innings.
James Anderson celebrated his comeback with four wickets as England seized the initiative in the must-win third and final Test against India here on Monday. The 23-year-old fast bowler, playing his first Test in more than a year, also brought off a crucial run-out to strengthen his team’s chances of squaring the series.
A century from opener Andrew Strauss and an unbeaten 50 by Test rookie Owais Shah helped a depleted England reach a solid 272 for three on the first day of the third and final cricket Test against India. Strauss batted with authority as he drove, pulled and swept the Indian bowlers fluently after Indian skipper Rahul Dravid asked England to bat first after winning the toss.
Munaf Patel bagged seven wickets in his debut game and Virender Sehwag regained his form with a blazing 76 not out as India shattered England’s dreams with an emphatic nine-wicket win in the second Test on Monday. England go into the third and final Test at Mumbai on Saturday hoping to square the series.
India leg-spinner Anil Kumble moved closer to the 500-wicket mark by clean bowling England batsman Paul Collingwood before poor visibility disrupted play on Friday in the second Test match. England were 200-5 in their first innings when umpires Darrell Hair and Simon Taufel decided to call off play.
A hard-hitting Kevin Pietersen, along with Ian Bell, pulled England out of early trouble with an 81-run stand on the opening day of the second Test against India in Mohali on Thursday. England were struggling on 36-2 following seamer Irfan Pathan’s twin strike, before reaching 118-3 at tea.
The city of Varanasi, reeling from a deadly triple bomb attack, is India’s holiest Hindu site where pilgrims flock to wash away their sins in the sacred River Ganges and to die. Millions of devotees each year visit the ancient temple-studded town targeted late on Tuesday by what police called ”suspected terrorists” — a usual official term for Islamic extremists.
Sipping a tumbler of Johnnie Walker whisky as he chats with his friends in a hotel bar in Mumbai, Kunal Doshi, a smartly-dressed young solicitor, appears an unlikely warrior. But in the increasingly bitter "whisky war" being fought between the Indian industry and traditional Scottish producers, Doshi (21) has become an unknowing frontline soldier in a foreign assault on the world’s largest whisky market.
India opener Wasim Jaffer marked his comeback with a half-century after Paul Collingwood hit his maiden hundred to revive England in the evenly-balanced opening Test in India on Thursday. Jaffer, returning to the team after three years, scored an unbeaten 73.
The United States and India have reached an understanding on the implementation of a ”historic” civilian nuclear-energy cooperation deal and sealed agreements in other key areas, Indian Premier Manmohan Singh and US President George Bush announced at a joint press briefing on Thursday.
India’s cricket coach Greg Chappell may be taken to task over comments, in a British newspaper, that Sourav Ganguly wanted to remain captain for financial reasons, an official said on Thursday. Chappell said that he wanted Ganguly out as captain because his batting form was being affected.
Snake charmers have given the all clear for United States President George Bush to go ahead with plans to deliver a speech from a medieval fort in New Delhi during his three-day India visit, officials said on Wednesday. Police roped in the charmers over concerns that reptiles would gatecrash Bush’s scheduled address on Friday.
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/ 28 February 2006
India is aiming for annual economic growth of 10% in the next few years, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Tuesday while delivering a ”common man’s Budget” that focused on rural areas, social security and infrastructure. ”I believe that growth is the best antidote to poverty,” Chidambaram said while presenting the government’s 2006-2007 Budget to Parliament.
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/ 28 February 2006
At least 20 people died on Tuesday when Maoist rebels in central India blew up a truck packed with anti-Maoist activists. ”Until now, we know that 20 people have died. Around 35 to 40 people are injured. It was a landmine attack,” said police additional director general of intelligence SK Paswan in Raipur, capital of Chattisgarh state.
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/ 27 February 2006
England captain Michael Vaughan has been ruled out of Wednesday’s first Test against India after failing to recover from a knee injury, dealing a big blow to the tourists already battling form and fitness problems. ”He [Vaughan] is ruled out of this Test, but is not out of the series at this stage,” England media manager Andrew Walpole told reporters on Monday.
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/ 24 February 2006
England will not be asking for immediate reinforcements ahead of next week’s Test series against India despite the 16-man touring squad being wrecked with injuries and illness. Captain Michael Vaughan was given a cortisone injection to speed up the recovery of a recurring knee injury in time for the first of three back-to-back Tests starting in Nagpur on March 1.
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/ 23 February 2006
Health officials sealed off an Indian town hit by bird flu for a week-long ”quarantine” on Thursday as immediate fears began easing that the deadly virus may have spread to humans. Checkpoints were set up on all roads in and out of the town of Navapur and trains passed through its station without stopping.
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/ 23 February 2006
England received a major scare on Thursday when captain Michael Vaughan was forced to miss a first-class match on the India tour due to a knee injury. Vaughan experienced pain and soreness in his right knee, which was operated on in December, and was rested for Thursday’s three-day match against the Indian Board President’s XI team.
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/ 22 February 2006
A seven-year-old girl wed a stray dog as part of a ritual to ward off the ”evil eye” on her and her family in eastern India, a news agency reported on Wednesday. Shivam Munda’s upper teeth appeared before her lower teeth — considered a bad omen by members of the Santhal ethnic group to which she belongs.
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/ 20 February 2006
Indian health officials went door-to-door on Monday searching for people possibly sickened by the deadly H5N1 bird-flu virus, while hundreds of German troops disposed of dead chickens in a desperate attempt to contain the fast-moving disease. The European Union’s agriculture ministers met to discuss ways to combat bird flu.
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/ 20 February 2006
State-run Indian, formerly Indian Airlines, signed an agreement on Monday for the purchase of 43 Airbus planes worth $2,5-billion, marking the domestic carrier’s first expansion in 15 years. The deal was inked by Indian chairperson Vishwapati Trivedi and Airbus Vice President Kiran Rao at a ceremony overseen by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and visiting French President Jacques Chirac.
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/ 2 February 2006
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday officially launched what he called a ”landmark” anti-poverty plan that promises 100 days of work a year to every rural family in the country. ”The main focus of the scheme is the poorest of the poor,” Singh said, calling the initiative ”revolutionary”.
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/ 2 February 2006
Striking Indian airport workers broke windows and scuffled with security staff as they stayed off the job for a second day on Thursday to protest privatisation plans, officials said. Most flights took off, although passengers were greeted by the smell of garbage and clogged toilets at main airports across the nation.
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/ 1 February 2006
A nervous Rohit Kohli (30) listens in rapt attention as his mentor guides him on how to channel positive energy. He has been advised to make weekly donations and pray to the Hindu monkey god Lord Hanuman to fight off the malevolent factors in his planetary charts, which are apparently blocking his career at the stockbroking firm where he works.
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/ 27 January 2006
Indian newspapers hit out on Friday at the United States envoy to New Delhi, who warned a landmark nuclear deal could be scuppered if India votes against referring Iran’s nuclear programme to the United Nations Security Council. <i>The Hindu</i> newspaper said US ambassador David Mulford had "outrageously crossed the line of diplomatic propriety".
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/ 25 January 2006
While India celebrates Republic Day on Thursday, for many in western Gujarat state the date will bring back terrifying memories of an earthquake that struck with savage force five years ago. The quake levelled buildings across the state of Gujarat, killing more than 25 000 people.
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/ 23 January 2006
India’s struggling shipbreakers fear doom for their industry if tighter laws are introduced in the wake of the controversy over an asbestos-laden French aircraft carrier. A court-appointed panel has questioned French officials and environmental activists over the amount of toxic chemicals in the decommissioned <i>Clemenceau</i>.
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/ 18 January 2006
Judges at India’s busiest courthouse have ordered New Delhi’s municipal authorities to rid the bustling complex of monkeys or face serious action. Judges at Tis Hazari courthouse ordered the corporation to respond to a petition filed by a lawyer and shoo away the monkeys within a month from the three-storey complex.
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/ 16 January 2006
Is Raju Raghuvanshi alive or dead? Believed by his friends and family to have died in prison, Raghuvanshi returned home earlier this month from his short jail stint to shouts of ”Help! Ghost!” and the sounds of neighbours locking their doors in his home village of Katra.
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/ 13 January 2006
Sourav Ganguly was included in the Indian team for the first Test against Pakistan in Lahore on Friday due to pressure from cricket board chiefs, said a team source. Coach Greg Chappell and captain Rahul Dravid did not want Ganguly to open the innings and could not fit him in the middle-order either without disturbing a trusted combination.