South Africa gained a crucial 77-run first innings lead after bowling India out for 209 in the post-tea session on day 2 of the opening Test at Newlands here on Saturday.

All-rounder Hardik Pandya (93) rekindled India’s hopes of a fightback with a classic counter-attacking half century but fell shy of seven runs to reach his second Test century.

Coming in at the fall of Ravichandran Ashwin when the Indians were tottering at 81/6, Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (25) not only steadied the ship but also reduced the deficit with a vital 99-run eighth wicket stand.

For the Proteas, pacers Vernon Philander (3/33) and Kagiso Rabada (3/34) shared six wickets while Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel contributed with two scalps each.

Brief scores:

South Africa 1st innings: 286 all out

India 1st innings: 209 allout in 73.4 overs (Hardik Pandya 93; Vernon Philander 3/33).

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday said the three-and-a-half-year jail sentence to party supremo Lalu Prasad in a fodder scam case will not lead to a split in the party.

The former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister also said an appeal will be filed in the Jharkhand High Court.

“There will be no trouble or any negative impact on the party. The RJD’s history has been that of struggle amid conspiracies against it. Laluji had to go to jail many times… but he came out every time. That time too, people said it (party) had split or predicted that it may split. Instead, it grew stronger,” Yadav, Lalu’s son, told the media.

Lalu Prasad, a former Chief Minister of Bihar, had support from across the country and he had indicated in a rally that there could be a conspiracy against him by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Yadav said.

“The Centre has misused the central agency (CBI),” Yadav, Leader of Opposition in the Bihar assembly, said.

He said the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leaders must understand their party had actually split, not the RJD.

“People are watching everything. Conspiracies are always hatched in order to suppress and scare Laluji. However, people gave a befitting reply every time,” he said.

He said the party had faith in the judiciary and they would get justice. “We are hopeful that Laluji will be among us very soon. We will try to address where we fell short. We will appeal in the High Court,” he said.

Lalu Prasad was on Saturday sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail in a fodder scam case. He was the Chief Minister of the undivided state from 1990 to 1997.

The special CBI court had on December 23 convicted Lalu Prasad and 15 others in the case relating to a multi-million-rupee scam.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) founder member Kumar Vishwas has hit out at party supremo Arvind Kejriwal, saying that the party does not belong to “a coterie of 2-3 persons” but to lakhs of its workers.

In open defiance of the party leadership, Vishwas, who was appearing in Rajat Sharma’s show “Aap Ki Adalat”, telecast on Saturday night on India TV, said: “AAP does not belong to a coterie of two or three persons, it belongs to lakhs of workers waiting outside.

“Two or three persons may be speaking out against me, the common party worker may be addressing any leader as ‘ji’, but he addresses me as ‘Kumar bhaiya’, and this is my strength in the party”.

On January 3 when the AAP named veteran leader Sanjay Singh, businessman Sushil Gupta and chartered accountant Narain Dass Gupta as its debutants for the Rajya Sabha, Vishwas had expressed his disappointment over not being considered for the Upper House and claimed he was being “punished” for speaking the truth.

Poet-turned-politician Vishwas in the TV show listed out several instances in the recent past when he was sidelined by the party leadership.

“In Punjab, I had written poems against drug trafficking. I requested our leaders at least five to six times to allow me to campaign there, but I was not allowed to campaign in Punjab. I was told that the ‘fanatic movement’ in Punjab was unhappy with me.”

In Delhi, AAP did not lose MCD polls because of me, there were deficiencies in the party’s policies and strategy, he added.

The dissident AAP leader said he had opposed Kejriwal when he had demanded that the Narendra Modi government must produce evidence of the surgical strike against Pakistan.

“I told him (Kejriwal) it was a question of our troops’ morale, and he (Kejriwal) replied, Modi should go first, then everything will be okay. This was his outlook….

The AAP leader said the question was not of (being denied ticket to) Rajya Sabha but for the last seven months, he had been reduced to “a mere pawn”.

“I did say in the past that I am not in politics for posts or power… but I did not say while joining politics that the fruits of my seven years of struggle will be handed over to ‘Ajgar chhap’ (python-like) Guptaji (Sushil Gupta).”

Asked what was his fault for not being considered for Rajya Sabha, he replied with this Urdu couplet: “Mere lahze mein ji-huzoor na tha, Isse zyada mera kasoor na tha (my only fault was that I was never sycophantic).”

Vishwas admitted that he had once said, that out of the top three (in AAP), one became the Chief Minister, the other Deputy Chief Minister, and he (Vishwas) was left out.

Asked by Sharma why he, as “a younger brother”, did not speak to Kejriwal, Vishwas replied: “I tried, but could not talk. Yogendra (Yadav) was his elder brother, Anna Hazare was like his father, and I his younger brother. I still wish that he remains a leader, and let the party expand.”

On being asked why Arun Shourie, Raghuram Rajan, and Yashwant Sinha were approached for Rajya Sabha tickets by AAP, but they declined, Vishwas replied: “There was a time when big leaders lent us support saying we were part of a big battle.”

“We should understand why as many as 18 leaders refused this time to accept our party’s ticket. Raghuram Rajan is a great man, but when his PA conveyed that he does not want the ticket, it was an insult to our party. An insult to the toil of lakhs of party workers.

The Indian team arrived in South Africa full of confidence and the backing from stars of the previous era as well as pundits of the game.

In the past there were two worries for the Indians: One, not enough firepower to hustle the South African batsmen, and two, the technical ineptitude of the batsmen to stand up to pace.

The first day’s play in the new series has shown that the Indian pacemen are on track even though they failed to press home the advantage after Bhuvaneshwar Kumar removed the three top-order batsmen even before they could get their eye in.

All that the fast bowlers now need is to be consistent with their line and length. They would have realised what they did wrong and the bowling coach would have taken them to task for conceding cheap runs by way of far too many boundary balls.

In shuffling the fast bowlers, Virat Kohli forgot that he has a spinner, too, in the playing 11. It is not in hindsight that one brings Ravichandran Ashwin into the discussion after he took the last two wickets to prevent the South Africans from getting to a 300-plus total to feel psychologically a lot better.

When a team plays with four fast bowlers, it is possible to get tempted to use them in rotation in helpful seaming conditions. Of the four, young Hardika Pandya is still trying to make his position secure as an all-rounder and the other, Jasprit Bumrah, is making his debut with a reputation of overstepping the line at critical times.

When Bhuvneshwar, Mohammad Shami, Bumrah and Pandya had decent spells and all of them got wickets, you can find fault with the captain. Yet, it is perplexing to find Ashwin being used barely for seven overs after being ignored for a good two sessions.

If the Indian team management can take heart from the fact that it got South Africa out for 286 runs on a pitch where Faf Du Plessis decided to bat first when everyone thought the skipper winning the toss might prefer to bowl to use the lively conditions, what happened in the handful of overs the way their top-order batted may not have pleased it at all.

It was a startling start by India, if not all that surprising after seeing how the top-order of the home team fared against the new ball. They lost their three top-order batsmen for almost nothing, two of these, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli, are proven stroke-makers and the third Murali Vijay is known for his monumental patience, and one who knows where the off-stump is.

The other batsman who can hold the innings is Cheteshwar Pujara and he saw through the first session on the second day, but the task was too much for the middle-order batsmen to stand up to the constant pressure of dealing with Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada.

Only the devil-may-care Pandya freely played his shots to take the India total past the hundred-mark with the tail in support. He is doing exactly what A.B. de Villiers did when he came in with his team tottering at 12 for three.

De Villers showed the other batsmen that there is no devil in the pitch or in the bowling by cracking 17 runs, including four fours in one Bhuvneshwar over. Pandya showed similar belligerence by hitting fours freely.

Pandya’s knock of 93 is remarkably creditworthy as he was facing the four top pacemen of the world to bring the Indian team back in the Test to fight it out.

Now it is easy to have a Didn’t-I-Say-So look on some faces after the batting debacle, one look at the team compositions and their record says something different. Most of the players in the team have played in South Africa in the past and some even with Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and V.V.S Laxman. They did well to win a Test and came close to winning a series, too.

It is debatable whether Alan Donald, Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini were superior to the present lot. The Indian batsmen have also done as well as their predecessors and the present lot of their fast bowlers are as good as Zaheer Khan and Shantakumaran Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma, who is not playing in the New Lands Test this time.

The problem with a three-Test series is coming back losing the first Test. Seeing how the team bounced back on the last two tours, the players can keep their chins up.

The Jammu and Kashmir government on Saturday announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 4 lakh each to the next of kin of those killed in a snow avalanche near Sadna top in Kupwara district, an official spokesperson said.

The government also announced a compensation of Rs 12,600 each to two other people who were injured condition in the accident, he said.

Ten people were killed and two were injured after a snow avalanche hit two vehicles in Kupwara yesterday.

Minister for Disaster Management, Relief Rehabilitation Reconstruction and Floriculture Javaid Mustafa Mir announced the compensation under the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) for the victims’ families, the official said.

The minister expressed his deepest condolences with the bereaved families and assured them of every possible support from the state government, he added.

Mir also issued directions to provide better medical facilities to the injured, the spokesman said.

Elina Svitolina of Ukraine on Saturday became this season’s first WTA title winner, defeating Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus 6-2, 6-1 at the Brisbane International tennis tournament.

This trophy was the 10th title for World No. 6 Svitolina in her professional career, after winning five titles in 2017, reports Efe.

The third-seeded Ukrainian needed 61 minutes to beat world No. 88 Sasnovich, .

Svitolina was a semi-finalist in Brisbane in 2017, when she lost to Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, but the Ukrainian star improved her performance in this year’s edition.

On her way to the final, Svitolina, age 23, also defeated Carla Suarez of Spain, Ana Konjuh of Croatia, Johanna Konta of the United Kingdom and second-seeded Karolina Pliskova.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Saturday criticised the madarsas in the state for their refusal to put up a portrait of Prime Minister Narendra Modi inside their premises, asking them to give up their “conservatism” on the issue.

“Installing the prime minister’s portrait in all government institutions and those being run on government grants has been an established practice. The madarsas should give up their conservatism on the issue,” he told reporters here.

“Madarsas are also educational institutions. They should not have any objection to installing a portrait of the prime minister. They should view the issue from the Indian point of view,” Rawat added.

The madarsas in the BJP-ruled state have refused to comply with a state government order, asking the state-run educational institutions to install a portrait of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on their premises, on religious grounds.

“The madarsas in the state have not installed pictures of the prime minister because of religious beliefs as Islam prohibits installation of pictures of living beings inside mosques and madarsas,” Deputy Registrar of Uttarakhand Madarsa Board Akhlaq Ahmad had told PTI on Friday.

However, he had also said that the refusal to install the picture of the prime minister inside the madarsas should not be interpreted as their opposition to an individual.

“They are not opposed to any individual in particular. It is purely due to religious beliefs. Islam does not permit us to install pictures of living things or individuals, including those of religious leaders, inside the mosques or madarsas,” Ahmad had said.

The order was issued to all the government-run educational institutions soon after the Independence Day last year, asking them to install a portrait of Modi inside their premises and take a pledge to implement his vision of building a new India by 2022.

After Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress party in Himachal Pradesh (HP) has picked up a younger face, Mukesh Agnihotri (55) to head Congress Legislature Party (CLP) with six-time former CM octogenarian, Virbhadra Singh also a member.

A former journalist, Agnihotri had switched to politics in 2003 and has won four Assembly elections in a row since then from Haroli segment in Una. He was Industries and Parliamentary Affairs minister in the previous Congress government.

“I will put in my best in the new role,” Agnihotri said.

Congress insiders said he got the support of Virbhadra Singh and majority MLAs, following which the party high command declared his name as the CLP leader.

It is for the first time that the CLP is headed by a leader from merged area. All as Congress CMs and CLP leaders have so far come from old HP.

Agnihtori will give a fresh look to the CLP with 21 MLAs to match young BJP Chief Minister, Jai Ram Thakur, 53, who was elevated to the top post after party’s CM face, Prem Kumar Dhumal, 73, lost the Assembly poll.

Even for Congress, the change of CLP leadership is seen as a generation and regional shift. The party has 21 MLAs in the Assembly of 68 members.

After RJD chief Lalu Prasad was sentenced to three-and-a-half- years in jail in a fodder scam case on Saturday, the party has decided to reach out to people in Bihar with his message against fascist forces.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) will reach out to people with Lalu’s message “not to fear and bow before fascist forces and will fight against them”.

Lalu’s wife and former Chief Minister Rabri Devi along with her son Tejashwi Yadav, Leader of Opposition in Bihar assembly, said “Laluji has asked us to reach out with his message to villages across the state. He has sent a message from the jail for people”.

“Now, RJD will reach out to people with Laluji’s message. We will go to all villages across Bihar with his message,” Tejashwi Yadav, the former Deputy Chief Minister, told the media here.

He said RJD will decide its strategy in a meeting that is underway with senior party leaders and party legislators here to deal with the court verdict against Lalu.

Meanwhile, all RJD leaders and workers have expressed full faith in the party in the absence of Lalu Prasad. They have made it clear in the party meeting that they are united behind the party.

According to RJD leaders, the party will use Lalu Prasad’s jail sentence as a tool to consolidate its grip on the ground in the name of social justice.

India’s women’s tennis squad for the Fed Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group 1 event was announced on Saturday.

Ankita Raina, Karman Kaun Thandi, Pranjala Yadlapalli and Prarthana Thombare are part of the squad that will compete in the event, to be held between February 7 to 10 at the RK Khanna Tennis Stadium.

Rutuja Bhosle and Zeel Desai have been kept as reserves.

Ace doubles specialist Sania Mirza is not part of the group as she is bogged down by a right knee injury, due to which she will also miss the Australia Open.

Ankita Bhambri will play the role of captain and coach.

A total of eight teams will compete in the event. The teams will be divided in two pools. The two pool winners will face a play-off to determine the nation advancing to the World Group II Play-offs.

The four nations finishing last and second last in their pools took part in relegation play-offs, with the two losing nations being relegated to Group II for 2019.

Apart from India, other teams are Kazakhstan, Chinese Taipei, Japan, China, Thailand, Hong Kong, South Korea.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend a top-level police conference on January 7-8 at the Border Security Force (BSF) Academy at Tekanpur in Gwalior.

An official release said that the “Annual Conference of Director General of Police (DGPs) and Inspector General of Police (IGPs) of states” is an event where top police officers share and discuss security-related issues.

The PM has earlier addressed the conference in Guwahati in 2014, in Dhordo in Gujarat’s Rann of Kutch in 2015 and at the National Police Academy in Hyderabad in 2016.

“During the last meeting, issues such as cross-border terrorism and radicalization were discussed in detail. The Prime Minister emphasized the importance of leadership, soft skills and collective training. He specifically mentioned the importance of technology and human interface for the police force,” the release stated.

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh arrived in Gwalior today to take part in the annual conference.

Army films have always turned tables around in Bollywood and many B-Town actors have tried their hand at playing an army man on screen.

As January is the month of Republic day, Here’s a list of actors who have nailed the act of Army officers in their dotting uniforms.

Manoj Bajpayee: This actor has time and again treated the audience with his amazing body of work. The actor has earlier played a role of army man and is now all set to play ityet again in Neeraj Pandey’s Aiyaary.

Sidharth Malhotra: The actor is all set to play an army officer for the very first time with Neeraj Pandey’s upcoming flick Aiyaary. Sidharth will essaying the role of Major Jai Bakshi in the film.

Akshay Kumar: The actor played a streetsmart army guy in AR Murugadoss’ ‘Holiday’.

John Abraham inarguably delivered the best performance of his career in Shoojit Sircar’s ‘Madras Cafe’ as an army man.

Shah Rukh Khan: He was born Fauji. Shah Rukh Khan’s uniforms are always a cut above whether it was the Air Force pilot blues in Veer Zaara or the uber-cool army guy in Yash Chopra’s final directorial ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’.

Ajay Devgn and Saif Ali Khan: In the sea of military fatigues in LOC Kargil, two men stood out. Ajay Devgn as Major Manoj Pandey and Saif Ali Khan as Captain Anuj Nayar

Sunny Deol: one Bollywood actor who’ll eternally be synonymous with the Indian army. Sunny Deol has still reminisced fondly for his knockout act in J.P. Dutta’s cult film, ‘Border’.

Hrithik Roshan: The actor has proven his versatility as an actor in Farhan Akhtar’s coming-of-age film, ‘Lakshya’, set to the backdrop of the army.

With Republic day coming around the corner, this is the perfect time to take a look at all the on screen jawans. .

Actress Shubhangi Atre, who is currently seen in TV show Bhabhi Ji Ghar Par Hai, says she would love to appear in a reality show.

“I’m open for being part of reality shows. Doing a show like ‘Bigg Boss’ in future will be fun. Even ‘Khatron Ke Khiladi’ or ‘Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa’ are interesting. I will be happy to introduce the real me to my fans,” Shubhangi said in a statement.

Bhabhi Ji Ghar Par Hai is aired on &TV.

Actress Gulfam Khan has hailed her Laado – Veerpur Ki Mardaani co-star Avika Gor and said she is adorable.

“Avika is really very hardworking and filled up with positive vibes. She brings a lot of happiness to the show. She surprises me everyday on the sets. She is really adorable,” Gulfam said in a statement.

The two actresses bond well on the sets of the show.

“Gulfamji is really very talented. I get to learn so many things from her. She is like a family. I get along with her very well on the sets. We enjoy our time while shooting,” Avika said.

The show is aired on Colors.

On former colleague and actor Om Puri’s first death anniversary on Saturday, veteran actors Anupam Kher and Paresh Rawal expressed their sadness on the loss of a “great actor and human being”.

After contributing to the world of cinema with projects like “Aakrosh”, “Arohan”, “Ardh Satya”, “Wolf”, “Maachis”, “Mrityudand” and “A Death in the Gunj”, Om Puri died at the age of 66 on January 6, 2017, due to heart attack at his residence in Andheri, here.

Remembering Om Puri on Saturday, Anupam tweeted: “Miss you my friend”.

Miss you my friend #OmPuri.🙏 pic.x.com/p0ZLIS1lhH

— Anupam Kher (@AnupamPkher) January 6, 2018

Actor Paresh Rawal also posted: “Remembering shri Om Puri on his first death anniversary. A great actor and a greater human being.”

Remembering Shri Om Puri on his first death anniversary. A great actor and a greater human being .

— Paresh Rawal (@SirPareshRawal) January 6, 2018

The National Award winning actor and recipient of Padma Shri, was also honoured at the 89th Academy Awards in memoriam segment for his contribution in Indian and world cinema.

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) should not succumb to political pressure while carrying out the demolition of illegal pubs and eateries in the megapolis.

Talking to reporters here, Thackeray said his party will be firmly in support of the BMC commissioner.

The Shiv Sena is in power in the BMC for the past two decades.

“The civic authorities should first thoroughly confirm that the premises they are going to demolish are not complying with rules and regulations and then take action no matter how influential the owners are. Shiv Sena will be in support of the civic administration,” Thackeray said.

“BMC should not succumb to political pressure while carrying out the demolition of illegal pubs and eateries,” the Sena President said.

The Mumbai civic body has started demolition of illegal constructions or alterations at pubs and eateries after a deadly fire at the rooftop pub 1 Above in Kamala Mills compound claimed 14 lives on December 29.

The Mumbai Police yesterday announced reward of Rs 1 lakh for those providing information about whereabouts of three absconding owners of 1 Above pub.

Thackeray said it reflects poorly on the police and the state’s home department (which is headed by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis).

“Why the accused can’t be traced and arrested yet,” Thackeray questioned.

The Mumbai police on Saturday arrested Yug Pathak, the son of a retired IPS officer and one of the owners of the Mojo’s Bistro pub, in connection with the deadly fire at the Kamala Mills compound in Mumbai on 29 December, which had claimed 14 lives.

Officials from the N M Joshi Marg police station arrested Pathak, the son of retired director general of police and former Pune police commissioner K K Pathak, the police said.

On Friday, the Mumbai Fire Brigade, in its preliminary probe report on the fire, which had engulfed Mojo’s Bistro and the adjacent “1 Above” pub at the Kamala Mills compound in Lower Parel on 29 December, had said the fire possibly started at Mojo’s Bistro due to the flying embers from a hookah.

The police on Saturday booked Pathak and his partner, Nagpur-based businessman Yug Tulli, under IPC sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life and personal safety of others) and other relevant provisions.

The police had recorded Pathak’s statement in the case earlier.

The names of Pathak and Tulli were added to the FIR, which was lodged on 29 December against the owners of “1 Above” — Kripesh Sanghavi, Jigar Sanghavi and Abhijeet Mankar — said a police official.

“As of now, we have arrested Pathak, while his partner Tulli has been summoned as he is also wanted in the case,” senior police inspector, attached to the N M Joshi Marg police station, Ahmed Pathan said.

“We will produce Pathak before a court soon,” he added.

Earlier, Mumbai Police arrested two managers of the ‘1 Above’ pub, where a fire claimed 14 lives last week, an official said on Monday .

Managers Gibson Lopez (34) and Kevin Bawa (35) were arrested by a team of sleuths from the N M Joshi Marg police station, he said.

Both Lopez and Bawa were working as the managers of the pub, located at the Kamala Mills compound in Lower Parel area.

They were present in the pub when the blaze occurred in the early hours of December 29, but fled without helping the guests, the official said.

“We have arrested both the managers,” said senior police inspector Ahmad Pathan.

They have been booked under IPC sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 337 (causing hurt by an act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), the police said.

Both the accused will be produced in a court later in the day, the police said.The massive fire that swept through the pub left 14 people dead and 21 injured.

Arrest so far:

Police had booked the pub owners, Hitesh Sanghvi and Jigar Sanghvi, co-owner Abhijeet Manka and others under IPC sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others).

Lookout notices were issued against the Sanghvi brothers on Saturday.

Owner’s uncle Rakesh Sanghvi and cousin Aditya Sanghvi were arrested on Sunday, senior police inspector, Byculla, Avinash Shingthe said. A search is underway for their another relative, Mahendra Sanghvi, he said.

The three relatives, all residents of the Mazgaon area in Byculla, were booked under IPC section 216 (harbouring an offender who has escaped from custody or whose apprehension has been ordered), another police official said.

BMC actions:

Earlier, The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) suspended five of its officials in connection with the fire accident at a restaurant in Central Mumbai’s Kamala Mills complex, that claimed 14 lives. The BMC also carried out demolition drive around Mumbai city against errant pub-restaurantowners.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had promised action against errant civic officials and the owners of a pub in central Mumbai where a massive fire claimed 14 lives.

(With agency inputs)