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World Cup Semi-final Preview – Australia v England: Clash of the Titans

Ritesh
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World Cup Semi-final Preview – Australia v England: Clash of the Titans

The oldest cricketing rivals will meet again in World Cup semi-final, but not for the first time in a World Cup knock out game. In 1987, these two teams played against each other in the finals of the World Cup at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Australia won the title for the first time, and they went to win four more, England, on the other hand, won no title, can they win this time?

Australia has been in great form despite losing their last game against South Africa at Old Trafford. They always deliver their best on the biggest stage. A few months back everyone wrote them off for World Cup favorites and on this day they are the most favorite team to win the World Cup. Although they are having an issue with injuries, they are still the favorites to win the title. Their only concern would be their middle order, just like India has not able to cope up with the top-order collapse, Australia also has an issue in this department, and it will be visible when they have to chase a modest target.

England won their last two games against the two strong teams, India and New Zealand, but they had lost to Australia in the group stage. England is to Australia what Pakistan is to India in World Cup clashes. They look strong on paper, but on the game day, something happens to them that they can’t deliver their best against the arch-rivals. Can they change history, can they win this time and reach the finals of the World Cup. All will be clear by Thursday night.

Rain is forecasted for the day, but it will be in the second half of the game as per weather reports.

Players to watch out for

David Warner (638) must be eyeing to become the highest run-scorer in a world cup edition. Its a knockout game and English bowlers would be ready to go after him. Warner needs to stay at wicket as much time as possible. The others can play around him. If he gives an excellent start to the team, Australia will have a great chance to knock out their arch-rivals.

Jofra Archer, England’s primary weapon in their bowling line up, needs to pick early wickets. Australia’s openers have always started well in the tournament, so Jofra has to break their opening partnership in the first few overs. It would put pressure on the middle order which has not done anything significant so far in this World Cup.

Australia v England in ODIs:

Overall: Matches 148, Australia Won 82, England Won 61, Tie 2, No Result 3

World Cup: Matches 8, Australia Won 6, England Won 2

Recent Form (most recent first): Australia  L W W W W, England W W L L W

ICC Rankings: Australia (4), England (1)

Upcoming Records:

David Warner (638) needs 36 more runs to become the highest run-scorer in a World Cup edition, Sachin Tendulkar scored 673 runs in 2003 World Cup is the highest at the moment.

David Warner has scored 4,981 runs and needs 19 more to become the fifteenth Australian to reach the 5,000 runs milestone.

Mitchell Starc has taken 48 World Cup wickets and needs two more to become the second Australian player to reach the 50 wickets milestone.

Jos Buttler has taken 199 dismissals and needs one more to become the first England player to reach the 200 dismissals milestone.

Pat Cummins has taken 95 wickets and needs five more to become the seventeenth Australian player to reach the 100 ODI wickets milestone

Squads:

Australia: Aaron Finch (capt), Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey (wk), Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa.

England: Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Jos Buttler (wk), Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.

Delhi DCP Madhur Verma transferred to Arunachal Pradesh

OpIndia Staff
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Delhi DCP Madhur Verma transferred to Arunachal Pradesh

The DCP of Delhi and PRO, Madhur Verma has been transferred to Arunachal Pradesh. He has been relieved from his service in Delhi with effect from today to join his new place of posting.

Transfer order of Madhur Verma, IPS

 

Fact Check: No, the government did not ‘fudge’ revenue numbers in the union budget

OpIndia Staff
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Fact Check: No, the government did not ‘fudge’ revenue numbers in the union budget

There is no end to false, baseless allegations against the Modi government by a section of media and self-styled intellectuals using selective data. The latest example of the same is the allegation that there is a mismatch of revenue numbers of the central government in the union budget and the economic survey.

Lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan went on to allege that government has fudged revenue numbers by ₹1.7 lakh crore. He was quoting a report by controversial journalist Sreenivasan Jain of NDTV, where it is alleged that the numbers do not match in the two documents produced by the same ministry in the same government.


In a report published on 9th July, NDTV had said that there is a mystery of ‘missing ₹1.7 lakh crore’ in India’s budget. The report by Jain is based on an article written by Rathin Roy, director of National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, on Business Standard on July 6. Roy is also the member of Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. As the BS article is behind a paywall, we are using the NDTV article as a reference for everyone’s convenience.

According to the report, Rathin Roy has detected a massive anomaly in the revenue estimates shown in the Economic Survey and the Budget presented by the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman earlier this month. Reportedly, the Budget shows government’s revenue earning as budget estimate, which is ₹17.3 lakh crore for the FY 2018-19, while the Economic Survey shows a ‘more accurate’ provisional account at ₹15.6 lakh crore. Thus, there is a mismatch of ₹1.7 lakh crore in revenue amount, a ‘shortfall’, according to the report.

But a cursory glance at both the document will show this is a mischievous baseless allegation, and there is absolutely no difference in numbers presented in the Economic Survey and the Budget.

Let’s have a look at the relevant data from both the documents.

The Revised Estimate for revenue receipts for the FY 2018-19 is 17,29,682 crore in the budget document, shown above.

Now, look at the receipt data from the Economic Survey given above. Here we can see that the numbers like actuals for 2017-18 (₹14,35,233 crore), budget and revised estimates for 2018-19 (₹17,25,738 and ₹17,29,682) match exactly with the numbers in the budget document. There is no difference in the numbers under the same columns in both documents.

But as we can see, the Economic Survey has an additional column which is not present in the budget, a PA, or Provisional Actual number. It is indeed a lesser amount, ₹15,63,170 crore, but the important fact is that it is a different data, which is not mentioned in the budget. What the Rathin Roy and Sreenivasan Jain did was compared this PA number in Economic Survey with the RE number of the budget, which is wrong and misleading. The Economic Survey already mentions the RE number, which was conveniently ignored by them.

Moreover, it is not that this Provisional Actual figure was introduced in this year’s Economic Survey, it was there in the earlier reports too. For example, here are the relevant pages from the Economic Survey of 2010-11, and the budget for 2011-12.

Economic Survey 2010-11
Budget 2010-11

If we see both the documents from earlier years, it becomes evident that the Provisional Actual numbers are always mentioned in the Economic Survey, but it is absent from the budget document. And, the PA always tends to be lower than the BE and RE numbers. Just because the PA and RE revenue numbers are different, it does not mean that there is a mismatch between budget and economic survey. The numbers under the same headings are the same in both the documents. And if the ‘mismatch’ means the government ‘fudged’ the numbers, then it was done by earlier governments also, which is, of course, a totally baseless allegation.

There is nothing new in this, but two different numbers were compared from the two documents to paint the government in a bad light.

Disappointed but you can’t rely on Rohit And Kohli all the time, says Tendulkar

OpIndia Staff
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Disappointed but you can’t rely on Rohit And Kohli all the time, says Tendulkar

Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar said he is disheartened and disappointed with India’s loss, but a team can not rely on one or two batsmen to win the matches every time.

Speaking to India Today, Sachin Tendulkar said, “I am disappointed because we should have chased 240 without any doubt. It wasn’t a big total. Yes, New Zealand got off to a dream start by picking those three wickets upfront.”

“But I feel that we can’t be all the time relying on Rohit (Sharma) to give a good start or Virat (Kohli) to come and make sure that a solid foundation is built. Players around them also will have to take more responsibility,” Tendulkar continued.

Tendulkar also questioned the tactics behind sending Dhoni so late at number 7. Tendulkar believed that Dhoni’s best position is number 5 in the middle order. Also, he said that the middle order was equipped with enough experience to tackle the situation if the top order fails.

“It’s not fair all the time to expect Dhoni to come and finish the game. He has done it time and again,” Tendulkar said.

Tendulkar also says that fans shouldn’t be harsh on players for losing the semi-final, “We cannot be so critical with one failure. We cannot forget that we won 7 out of 8 games (in the league stage). Yes, all the teams have bad games, England also lost. They lost to Sri Lanka. We can’t be harsh on our team, it is a disappointing day, but it’s a bitter pill to swallow,”

Tendulkar praised New Zealand’s bowling display and tactical moves by Kane Williamson.

“I felt Kane Williamson’s captaincy was incredible. There came a stage where New Zealand kept things simple. If you saw their fast bowlers, they didn’t try too much upfront. They just bowled in the right areas, right channels, and got those wickets.”

New Zealand will play their second World Cup final on Sunday at Lord’s.

No lessons learnt: Rahul Gandhi lies profusely the first time he speaks in Parliament after 2019 elections

Jhankar Mohta
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No lessons learnt: Rahul Gandhi lies profusely the first time he speaks in Parliament after 2019 elections

Whenever the Congress party’s supremo, Rahul Gandhi speaks, the song which immediately strikes your mind is a song by Mike Jagger from the 2004 movie Alfie: “old habits die hard”. The path Rahul followed throughout the recently concluded election season was that of lies and falsities. Rahul Gandhi had turned lying almost into an art form and a force of habit.

Now, almost after two-month-long solitary confinement, Rahul, today, gave his first speech in the 17th Lok Sabha. This time again, Rahul was seen slipping back into his familiar pattern.

During his first speech in the 17th Lok Sabha, the Wayanad MP once again chose to speak about the loan waiver for farmers. A topic, which the grand old party has been advocating like the one-stop solution for all problems in the agriculture sector.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFCX0mEQcmw]

This time again Rahul Gandhi spread lies and slammed the Modi government by reiterating that Modi has waived lakhs of crore of loans of few big industrialists, while refused to waive loans of farmers. In his speech, he mentions that in the last 5 years the BJP government gave 4.3 lakh crore tax concessions and waived off 5.5 lakh crore tax for rich businessmen. He called out Modi government’s “shameful double standards”.

He asks, “why does the government act as if our farmers our inferior to the rich?” However, Rahul once again chooses to forget that most of the bad debt owed by the corporate sector are from the UPA era. In fact, the Modi government has brought in revolutionary reforms in resolving NPAs. The government had introduced the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) to resolve the issue, and it had already recovered Rs 3 lakh crores in just two years.

Firstly, Rahul Gandhi still doesn’t seem to understand the different between ‘waive off’ and ‘write off’. A ‘write off’ doesn’t mean a loan has been ‘waived’ and is liable to be recovered by the banks. It is a purely accounting term.

Read also: Don’t fall for propaganda: ‘Write off’ of loans is not ‘Loan waiver’

Secondly, many times in the past, Rahul Gandhi has repeated his lies, but interestingly, it has always been with a twist. Every time Rahul reiterates his lies, he keeps changing the amount. According to the Congress president, Modi government has waived loans of 5.50 lakh crore / 3.50 lakh crore / 3.00 lakh crore / 2.50 lakh crore / 1.50 lakh crore / 1.40 lakh crore / 1.30 lakh crore / 1.10 lakh crore owed by richest industrialists.

In November 2016, Rahul Gandhi spread lies and claimed that the Modi government had then waived off loans worth Rs 1.1 lakh crores of big industrialists. During campaigning for Gujarat assembly polls in 2017, Rahul Gandhi repeated the same trite, He inexplicably increased this figure by 20,000 Crores to Rs 1.3 lakh crores. In Karnataka, he went a step ahead and conjured up another grand figure- Rs 2.5 Lakh crores that were waived off.

After that, there has been no restriction on the amount that has been waived off for industrialists according to Rahul Gandhi, although the number of beneficiaries of this ‘waiver’ remains mostly the same, 15 richest industrialists in the country.

Meanwhile, as Gandhi scion drums into the same myth over and over again, it will be pertinent to note here that, that Anil Ambani’s Reliance Telecommunication was not given any leniency by the government in settling its dues. On the contrary, the government opposed the asset sale of Reliance Telecommunication to Jio, which would have helped the company in settling the dues. Moreover, Ambani was about to go to jail for failing to pay dues, and he was saved at the last moment by his elder brother Mukesh Ambani, who had endorsed the Congress party in these elections.

Moreover, fugitive Vijaya Mallya keeps whining that the Modi government has confiscated more assets than what is due to banks by him, which shows the extent of efforts put by the current government in recovering the corporate debt.

No, he hasn’t told us anything as of now, Kohli on Dhoni’s retirement plans

OpIndia Staff
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No, he hasn’t told us anything as of now, Kohli on Dhoni’s retirement plans

After being knocked out of World Cup 2019, the Indian captain said in the post-match press conference that he has no idea about Dhoni’s retirement plans. Kohli also talked about Jadeja’s innings; Pant’s shot, team’s mental state after the defeat and structure of the World Cup.

India lost to New Zealand in the semi-final, which means they are coming home now. This was Dhoni’s last world cup and many believed that Dhoni would retire once the World Cup is over. Although Dhoni has already cleared that he isn’t retiring soon from International cricket but this question kept arising.

When asked if Dhoni is retiring 

“No, he hasn’t told us anything as of now.”

On Jadeja’s batting

“In my watching Jadeja for ten years, this according to me, was his best knock because of the amount of pressure and the stage we were at. We were almost out of the tournament, and then he produces that. He was motivated.”

On the team’s mental state after the defeat

“I don’t think I’d like to break things down immediately, but in time we’ll have to sit down and analyze where we went wrong and the things that we could have done right, particularly in this game.”

On Pant’s reckless shot

“He’s still young. I made many errors when I was young in my career, and he will learn. He will look back and think yes, he could have chosen a different option in that situation, and he realizes that already.”

On tournament’s structure

The defeat was India’s second of the competition – England only beat them in the league stage, Kohli was asked whether the structure of the World Cup should be squeezed.

“Who knows in the future maybe, If topping the table means anything then I think these things can come into consideration, looking at the magnitude of the tournament it’s a valid point, I guess.”

On Knockout games

“The challenge and the different kind of the fun of these games are that you have to be precise. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done before that. It’s a new day, a fresh start and if you’re not good enough, you go home.”

India has lost back to back 4 ICC knock out games in the last 4 years.

Modi government’s bill to amend POCSO Act gets Cabinet nod, child rapists to be awarded the death penalty

OpIndia Staff
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Modi government’s bill to amend POCSO Act gets Cabinet nod, child rapists to be awarded the death penalty

On Wednesday, the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved amendments to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). The new amendments will include more stringent punishments including the death penalty in cases of aggravated sexual assault against a minor girl or boy, reports Times of India.

According to the reports, the Centre had earlier introduced a bill to amend the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO) in May earlier this year. But the bill had lapsed following the dissolution of the Lok Sabha. The government will reintroduce the bill which provides for the death penalty for rape along with jail terms to check child pornography.

The section 4, 5 and 6 of the POCSO Act are proposed to be amended to include the provision of the death penalty for child rapists, committing brutal sexual assault on a child. The government also intends to amend sections 2, 9, 14, 15, 34, 42 and 45 to add more legal muscle against the rapists.

Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar said that the modification is made to address the need for stringent measures required to deter the rising trend of child sex abuse in the country. The bill will address the menace of relatively new kind of crimes on the other hand.

“Section 14 and 15 of the POCSO Act are also proposed to be amended to address the menace of child pornography. It is proposed to levy fine for not destroying or deleting or reporting the pornographic material involving a child with an intention to share or transmit it,” the government said.

The cabinet has also decided to amend Section 9 of the POSCO act to protect children from sexual offences in times of natural calamities and in other situations where children are administered hormone or any chemical substance to attain early sexual maturity for the purpose of penetrative sexual assault.

Mumbai Police blocks Payal Rohatgi on Twitter. Here is why is it in poor taste

Editorial Desk
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Mumbai Police blocks Payal Rohatgi on Twitter. Here is why is it in poor taste

Mumbai Police is one of the most social-media friendly police accounts. Not only does it make the best use of the platform to educate the citizens on being responsible online it also proactively reaches out to distressed citizens on its own to help. However, Mumbai Police has reportedly blocked film actor Payal Rohatgi on Twitter.


Payal Rohatgi took to Twitter to voice out her grievances against Mumbai Police. She said that with the ‘biased behaviour’ of Mumbai Police, she is scared of living in India. Without really getting into her allegations, the fact that a police twitter account has blocked a citizen is not a good thing.

Mumbai Police is duty bound to protect citizens, including Payal Rohatgi

As a citizen of India, the Police is duty bound to protect the citizens, including Payal Rohatgi whether or not they agree to their views or not, including the Mumbai Police. And while the police accounts mention that their social media accounts may not be monitored 24×7 and they should call 100 for an emergency, blocking someone on Twitter is wrong precedence. What if the citizen, Rohatgi or anyone, they have blocked, is indeed in an emergency? What if tweeting is a safer option than calling? Some followers may amplify such tweets such that the Police gets intimated but what if it is too late?

And not just Mumbai Police, any public entities especially politicians and police accounts should ideally not be blocking citizens, even if they disagree with them. Should the behaviour of citizens tweeting to them is unruly and they feel threatened, they should file a police complaint or take a legal course of action.

UPDATE: Mumbai police responded to Payal Rohatgi and said her getting blocked was unintentional and the ‘technical team’ is looking into it.

Karnataka Crisis: SC allows rebel MLAs to appear before Speaker, directs Assembly Speaker to decide on resignations by today

OpIndia Staff
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Karnataka Crisis: SC allows rebel MLAs to appear before Speaker, directs Assembly Speaker to decide on resignations by today

The 15 rebel MLAs of the Congress-JD(S) coalition in Karnataka have been told by the Supreme Court today to meet the Assembly Speaker and submit their resignations. The Speaker has been directed to decide on the matter today itself.


Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi told the Supreme Court that the rebel MLAs from Karnataka did not wish to defect but contest polls again for reelection. The SC bench was comprised of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose. Furthermore, the DGP of Bengaluru Police was directed to provide all necessary security to the MLAs. Further hearing in the matter will resume tomorrow.

The Karnataka government has been teetering on the brink of collapse ever since the resignation saga by rebel MLAs began. While DK Shivakumar initially insisted that no one was going to resign, he had to travel all the way to Mumbai to meet the disgruntled MLAs. However, the MLAs claimed that they felt threatened and consequently, Shivakumar was prevented from meeting them by the Police.

The alliance, as has become the norm, accused the BJP of buying its MLAs. With the rebel MLAs expected to meet the Speaker at 6 p.m. today, it remains to be seen whether HD Kumaraswamy is still sitting on the chair of Chief Minister when the dust has finally settled.

Video and stats highlights from India v New Zealand semi final

OpIndia Staff
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Video and stats highlights from India v New Zealand semi final

Shattered dreams, moist eyes, a shocker for every Indian fan as India lost to New Zealand in the semis of the World Cup.

Not for the first time in the last four years, India choked in the knock out rounds of an ICC tournament. They lost the semis of World Cup 2015, the semis of World T-20 in 2016, Champions Trophy final in 2017 and now this.

India dominated the first half of the game on day one of the match. Yes, a rare match in ODIs which got completed in two days, thanks to the rain. After winning the toss, New Zealand decided to bat first on a wicket which would go slow down as per pitch report. Bumrah and Bhuvi started well and bowled three maidens in a row. Guptill’s poor form continued in the semis as Kohli brilliantly caught him in the slips.

Henry Nicholas and Kane Williamson added 68 runs in the next 15 overs. The most experienced Ross Taylor and the man in super-rich form Kane Williamson put all their experience to tackle Indian bowling so that the team could reach a respectable total. Both Williamson and Taylor batted 31 overs of team’s innings and scored 67 and 74 respectively.

The match was halted due to rain with New Zealand 211 for 6 in 46 overs. They came out to bat on day 2 and added some vital runs in the team’s total. A score of 239 on a slow pitch and overcast condition was a fighting total.

India has the disastrous start of the tournament, and unfortunately for them, it came in the knockout game. India lost three wickets for five runs on board, and the batsman with best of form, Rohit, Rahul, and Kohli added one run each in the team’s total. The chief destroyer was Matt Henry who picked two out of three wickets.

Soon India lost Dinesh Karthik, and in bizarre tactics, India sent Hardik ahead of Dhoni to attack the Kiwi bowlers. With Pant, Hardik added 46 runs in 13 overs, and when it looked all settled, Pant played the worst shot of his career. He tried to hit a six against the spinner at deep mid-wicket where the fielder was placed. A few overs later, India lost another set batsman Hardik Pandya while trying to hit boundaries.

At 92 for 6, India was in deep trouble. But the bits and pieces player Ravindra Jadeja batted like a champion, he smashed 77 off 59 balls and added 116 runs with MS Dhoni for the seventh wicket. That brought the hope back in the Indian team and fans, but Jadeja wasn’t getting enough support from the other end in terms of boundaries and in the process of hitting boundaries as the required run rate was reaching beyond 10 in over, lost his wicket.

India’s last hope Dhoni kept taking singles and doubles which only added pressure on him. With 32 required off 12, Dhoni smashed six off the first ball of the penultimate over but was run out next ball off a brilliant throw by Martin Guptill. It was all over for Dhoni and India. India lost the game by 18 runs.

Video highlight

STATS

  • Kane Williamson scored 548 runs so far in the tournament, the most by any kiwi batsman in a world cup edition, previous best was 547 by Martin Guptill in World Cup 2015.
  • One hundred sixteen runs added by MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja, the most by any pair for the 7th wicket in World Cup history.
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