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Monday, February 19, 2018

Super rats at Johannesburg and Indian win in T20


“Super rats” are multiplying at a rapid rate across Johannesburg, according to a report by the Sunday Times. The report stated that the rats are becoming bigger and smarter, and a record 661g “Ratzilla” was recently caught by a rat expert in the city.  Johannesburg’s environmental health department said it is concerned by how quickly the rats are breeding, while the report stated an abundance of food for the rodents means their numbers are thriving. “There is evidence that rat-bite incidents in the city are increasing and that is an indication that there are more rodents, which is a huge concern,” the city’s environmental health department told the Sunday Times.  “Reports from city officials show that the rodents were biting residents at a rate of at least a dozen incidents a day,” stated the report. This puts people at risk of contracting rat-bite fever and other diseases.

A Johannesburg man who pretended to be an employee of Johannesburg Water‚ has been arrested for allegedly scamming and soliciting bribes from residents for water services. He was arrested by the Hawks after allegedly attempting to solicit a R2‚000 bribe from a resident in Westdene. “The suspect‚  has been operating for quite some time and extorting monies from residents whose water bills were in arrears in places like Brixton‚ Westdene‚ Aucklandpark‚ Sophiatown‚ Bosmont‚ Riverlea‚ Westbury and Newlands. He reconnected water supply to houses that were cut off after being paid by the residents‚” said a statement from the mayor’s office.  The suspect allegedly approached a chairperson of a sectional title building which houses students after services to the building were cut off due to late or non-payment‚ indicating to the resident that the water supply would be reconnected if he was given R4‚500‚ which the resident paid.

On to the field for first T20 match between India and South Africa, it has been good – unbelievably good run extending from that Test win – to 5-1 in ODIs to win in T20. Christiaan Jonker, Junior Dala and Heinrich Klaasen are the three new faces in South Africa's squad for the three-match T20I series; JP Duminy  is the Captain.  Jonker was not in the squad – other two made their debut – Suresh Raina made a comeback after long years – incidentally India played their first ever T20 at Johannesburg in Dec 1 2006 and do you know the man of the match, who is in the squad now ???

Back home, the Honorable Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators (COA) announced cash rewards for the victorious India U19 team that won the ICC U19 World Cup in New Zealand after beating Australia in the final.   Mr Rahul Dravid, Head Coach India U19 – INR 50 lakhs ; Members of India U19 team – INR 30 lakhs each and Members of the Support Staff, India U19 – INR 20 lakhs each

At Johannesburg, the score card reads :  India 203 for 5 (Dhawan 72, Dala 2-47) beat South Africa 175 for 9 (Hendricks 70, Behardien 39, Bhuvneshwar 5-24) by 28 runs.  On a flat pitch, in the thin air of the Highveld, India's batsmen piled up 203 for 5, and that total proved more than adequate against a South African line-up missing a number of its biggest names. A 28-run win, with starring roles for Shikhar Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, gave India a 1-0 lead in the three-match T20I series, but they may not have left the Wanderers entirely thrilled about their performance, particularly with the bat.

India's batting in T20s often seems more risk-averse than the format demands, built on a platform-setting template borrowed from ODIs. This innings was different. Short and wide bowling from Dane Paterson to Rohit Sharma allowed them to plunder 18 from the first over, but they kept going after the bowling even when it wasn't so charitable. Suresh Raina took it to an extreme, exposing all his stumps and slogging at everything to score a chancy 15 off 7 at No. 3. Dhawan also kept going hard, his top-edged hoicks over the keeper making the same impact on the scorecard as his pristinely-timed flicks over square leg and slaps either side of point.  When SA batted and when there were some hopes of their reaching the target, the prime difference was the class of Bhuvaneswar kumar who had a flattering figure of 4-0-24-5 and naturally winning the Man of the Match.

Back to that India’s first T20 which was won – the team was Virendar Sehwag©;  Sachin Tendulkar, Dinesh Mongia, MS Dhoni †, KD Karthik, Suresh Raina,  Irfan  Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Z Khan, AB Agarkar &  S Sreesanth. It was not a tall score – still 9 were required off the last with Dinesh Karthik and Raina batting.  DK hit the first ball of Peterson for a 6 – then it was 0,1,1,1 – India winning with a ball to spare.  Though not the top scorer, DK was the Man of the match .. 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
19th Feb 2018.

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