Hindustan Times (Bathinda)
Reforms, delivery, W Asia in focus as PM meets ministers
NEW DELHI: The call for Viksit Bharat (developed India) by 2047 is not just a slogan but the government’s commitment and therefore the focus of the administration should be on reforms and delivery, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told his council of...
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Rome, Delhi dial up ties during Modi’s Italy visit
India and Italy on Wednesday elevated their ties to a special strategic partnership and pledged to expand bilateral trade to €20 billion by 2029, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni held talks on strengthening...
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SC stays firm on stray dogs curbs in public places
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to modify its November 2025 directions ordering all states and Union territories to remove stray dogs from institutional areas such as schools, hospitals, sports complexes, bus depots and railway...
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Stalemate stays as Iran, US reject new peace moves
WASHINGTON: A deal to end the Iran war remains elusive after Washington and Tehran rejected fresh proposals as insufficient to secure an agreement. The stalemate continued even as oil prices edged up about 2% to a twoweek high in volatile trade amid...
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UAE N-plant attacked by drone, testing Iran truce
ABU DHABI: A drone strike targeted the United Arab Emirates’ sole nuclear power plant on Sunday, sparking a fire on its perimeter. There were no reports of injuries or radiological release, but it highlighted the risk of renewed war as the Iran...
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CBI closes in on NTA paper-setting group
NEW DELHI: A second member of the National Testing Agency’s (NTA) paper-setting committee has been arrested in the NEET-UG 2026 question paper leak case — a senior botany teacher from Pune who allegedly disclosed botany and zoology questions at...
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Petrol, diesel retail prices hiked by ₹3/l as war bites
NEW DELHI: State-run oil companies raised pump prices of petrol and diesel by ₹3 per litre each across the country on Friday, while Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL) increased compressed natural gas (CNG) rates by ₹2 per kg in and around Delhi — the first...
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Satheesan gets CM post, ending Kerala suspense
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Vadassery Damodaran Satheesan staked his claim to form the next government in Kerala on Thursday after the 61-year-old was elected leader of the Congress legislative party, breaking 10 days of suspense over the party’s pick for the...
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In first step after PM’S appeal, gold, silver duty raised to 15%
NEW DELHI: The government on Wednesday raised customs duty on precious metals including gold and silver to 15% from 6% to curb their imports and save foreign exchange for essentials such as energy and fertilizers amid a protracted war in West Asia that...
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NEET mess: NTA orders retest as CBI probes leak
NEW DELHI/JAIPUR: The National Testing Agency cancelled NEET-UG 2026 on Tuesday, nine days after 2.27 million students sat for the examination across 551 cities, after central agencies confirmed that the question paper had been compromised. Questions...
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Trump says truce with Tehran on ‘life support’
WASHINGTON/DUBAI: President Donald Trump said on Monday that a ceasefire with Iran was “on life support” after he rejected Tehran’s response to a US peace proposal, fuelling concerns of a resumption of hostilities in the 10-week-old conflict that has...
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Cut fuel use, gold buys: Modi as Iran war bites
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged Indians to adopt austerity measures ranging from cutting fuel consumption and postponing foreign travel to reducing edible oil use and chemical fertiliser dependence, as the government grapples...
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ED arrests Punjab minister Sanjeev Arora under PMLA
CHANDIGARH: The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday arrested powerful Punjab minister Sanjeev Arora following raids in connection with an alleged GST fraud-related money laundering case involving certain entities linked to him. The arrest of...
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Dada to replace Didi in West Bengal; Vijay meets guv again, left on hold
KOLKATA: Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday declared Suvendu Adhikari the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’S) West Bengal legislative party, paving his way to become chief minister of the eastern state after sweeping to power in a...
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Guv keeps Vijay waiting as TN deadlock deepens
CHENNAI: The political churn in Tamil Nadu intensified on Thursday as actor-turned-politician Vijay met governor Rajendra Arlekar for a second time in two days even as Lok Bhavan defended its decision not to invite the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) to...
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No invite yet for Vijay as Guv seeks legal opinion
NEW DELHI: Actor-turned-politician C Joseph Vijay met Tamil Nadu governor Rajendra Arlekar on Wednesday to stake claim to power but wasn’t invited to form the next government as officials said Lok Bhavan was seeking legal opinion to ensure the Tamilaga...
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Iran offers conditional deal to US on Hormuz
CAIRO: Iran offered to end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts its blockade on the country and ends the war in a proposal that would postpone discussions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, two regional officials said...
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Trump in crosshairs again as shooter targets DC function
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump and officials in his administration were the likely targets of a suspect who fired on a security agent guarding the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, US acting Attorney General Todd Blanche...
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Iran officials leave, US envoys call off trip to Pak for parleys
ISLAMABAD: The latest ceasefire talks between the United States and Iran appeared to fail Saturday before they began, as Tehran’s top diplomat left Pakistan and President Donald Trump soon afterward said he had told envoys not to travel to...
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Aap-heaval: 7 Rajya Sabha MPS revolt, desert Kejriwal
NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was jolted on Friday after Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha announced that seven out of 10 parliamentarians from the Upper House were quitting the party and joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),...
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Trump’s ‘shoot, kill’ order sharpens Strait standoff
DUBAI: President Donald Trump has ordered the US military to “shoot and kill” small Iranian boats that deploy mines in the Strait of Hormuz, he said on Thursday, a day after Iran again displayed its ability to thwart traffic through the...
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Iran attacks 3 ships in Strait day after ceasefire extended
DUBAI: Iran fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz and seized two of them on Wednesday, intensifying its assault on shipping in the key waterway. The attacks came a day after US President Donald Trump extended a ceasefire while maintaining an...
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TN, Bengal set to vote as campaign winds up
High-decibel campaigns for the Tamil Nadu assembly polls and 152 seats in West Bengal ended on Tuesday, with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) making a strong push to breach the Opposition’s bastions in the southern and eastern parts of...
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Mixed signals as Pak talks hang in balance
DUBAI/WASHINGTON: Iran is considering attending peace talks with the United States in Pakistan, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday, following moves by Islamabad to end a US blockade of Iran’s ports, a major hurdle for Tehran to rejoin...
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Trump announces new peace talks in Pakistan
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said his negotiators will head to Pakistan on Monday for talks with Iran, lifting hopes of extending a ceasefire set to expire this week even as Washington and Tehran remain locked in a standoff over the Strait of...
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Indian ships come under fire as Iran closes Hormuz again
NEW DELHI: Iran’s Revolutionary Guard fired at two Indianflagged merchant vessels in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, prompting the external affairs ministry to call in the Iranian envoy to lodge a formal protest over the incident. This was the first...
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Delimitation divide defeats bill to raise LS seats for women’s quota
NEW DELHI: A Constitution amendment bill to expand the size of the Lok Sabha and fasttrack 33% reservation for women failed to garner the required two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha on Friday, marking the first defeat of a government bill since the...
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LS expansion will be fair, says govt; Oppn wants it in writing
NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday attempted to convince the Opposition that the proposal to increase the Lok Sabha’s strength and fast-track 33% reservation for women would involve a proportional 50% rise in each state’s seats, thereby not hurting...
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Trump hints at end to Iran war, fresh talks take shape
DUBAI/WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said the war he launched with Israel on Iran was close to over, as the army chief of mediator Pakistan reached Tehran to try to prevent a renewal of the conflict. The diplomatic push came as US and Iranian...
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Women’s quota: Bills seek to take LS seats up to 850 based on 2011 census
NEW DELHI: The government’s legislative push to reserve a third of the seats in Parliament and state legislative assemblies involves raising the cap on seats in the Lok Sabha from 550 to 850, with the allocation of seats to states, the reserved...
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US cuts off Iranian ports; Tehran vows to hit back
WASHINGTON/DUBAI: The US military began a blockade of ships leaving Iran’s ports on Monday, President Donald Trump said, and Tehran threatened to retaliate against ports of its Gulf neighbours after weekend talks on ending the war broke down. Oil...
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Talks fail, Trump says US will block Hormuz
ISLAMABAD: President Donald Trump on Sunday said the U.S. Navy would “immediately” begin a blockade of ships entering or leaving the Strait of Hormuz, after Us-iran ceasefire talks in Pakistan ended without an agreement or next diplomatic steps in...
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Iran-US direct talks begin in Pak amid fragile truce
ISLAMABAD: The US and Iran began historic face-to-face negotiations Saturday in Pakistan, days after a fragile, two-week ceasefire was announced, as the war that has killed thousands of people and shaken global markets entered its seventh week. The...
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Iran lays down red lines ahead of talks with US in Islamabad
DUBAI/BEIRUT/CAIRO/ISLAMABAD: Iran said on Friday that Iranian assets must be unblocked and a ceasefire take hold in Lebanon before peace talks with the United States can proceed, throwing last-minute doubt over negotiations scheduled for Saturday in...
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Israel pushes for Lebanon talks as Iran truce teeters
JERUSALEM/BEIRUT/ISLAMABAD: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he is seeking direct talks with Beirut, a day after the worst bombardment of the war killed more than 300 people in Lebanon and placed Donald Trump’s Us-iran...
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Conflicting claims cloud nth-hour ceasefire
Iran closes Strait of Hormuz again in response to Israeli attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon Iran accuses US of violating three deal clauses, White House contests Tehran’s 10-point plan Vance to lead US team to Pakistan on Saturday to hold talks on a...
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Trump raises the stakes to civilisational levels
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump threatened Iran with civilisational destruction as the US attacked military targets on the country’s key oil export hub, ramping up pressure on Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by his Tuesday morning (Tehran...
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Trump threatens Tehran with night of destruction
TEHRAN: Iran on Monday rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal and said it wants a permanent end to the war, while President Donald Trump appeared to widen his threat from civilian targets to the whole Islamic Republic as his ultimatum ticked...
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US aviator rescued after tense search, Trump vows ‘hell’ if Strait stays closed
TEHRAN: US President Donald Trump on Sunday made expletiveladen new threats to escalate strikes on Iran and its infrastructure if it doesn’t open the Strait of Hormuz by his deadline, after American forces rescued an aviator whose Iran-downed plane...
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Trump gives new ultimatum, hunt for US pilot intensifies
TEL AVIV: The US military on Saturday searched for a missing pilot shot down over a remote area in Iran, while President Donald Trump remained silent on the incident but reminded Tehran of his Monday deadline to open the Strait of Hormuz: “48 hours...
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US F-15 downed, Gulf energy sites hit as talks go nowhere
WASHINGTON: Iran shot down a US fighter jet for the first time in the war and targeted more sites, including energy facilities, in Arab Gulf states even as a handful of ships transited the Strait of Hormuz by using a new route hugging the Omani...
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Trump dashes hopes of quick end to war as Iran continues Gulf strikes
DUBAI: Iran fired more missiles at Israel and Gulf Arab states Thursday, demonstrating Tehran’s continued ability to strike its neighbours even as US President Donald Trump claimed in a televised address the threat from the country was nearly...
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Trump signals Iran, Nato exit, Tehran denies ceasefire claim
WASHINGTON/TEL AVIV/CAIRO: The United States will end its war on Iran fairly soon and could return for “spot hits” if needed, President Donald Trump told Reuters on Wednesday, hours before he was scheduled to make a primetime address to the...
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Trump slams allies, Iran seeks guarantees for truce
TEHRAN/WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump expressed frustration Tuesday with allies who have been unwilling to do more to support the US war effort, telling them to “go get your own oil” as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country had the...
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Trump threatens to destroy Iran’s civilian infrastructure
DUBAI: US President Donald Trump on Monday threatened widespread destruction of Iran’s energy resources and other vital civilian infrastructure, potentially including desalination plants that supply drinking water, if a deal to end the war is not...
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Iran warns US on ground war as regional diplomats huddle
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Sunday that it will soon host talks between the US and Iran, though there was no immediate word from Washington or Tehran, and it was unclear whether the talks would be direct or indirect. “Pakistan is very happy that both...
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A month on, truce hopes dim, war inches closer to Red Sea
DUBAI: Iranian-backed Houthi rebels entered the month-old war in the Middle East on Saturday, claiming a missile launch that Israel said it intercepted. Pakistan said regional powers plan to meet Sunday to discuss how to end the fighting, while Iran...
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Israel strikes Iran N-sites after Trump extends Hormuz date
DUBAI: Iran’s nuclear facilities came under attack on Friday, state media reported, just hours after Israel threatened to “escalate and expand” its campaign against Tehran. Iran quickly threatened to retaliate and Israel claimed responsibility for the...
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Iran, US stick to their guns, Trump says unsure of deal
DUBAI: Iran and the US appeared at an impasse on Thursday, hardening their positions over ceasefire talks and setting the stage for another potential escalation in the West Asia conflict. A US proposal for ending nearly four weeks of fighting is...
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Iran shoots down US plan, says will end the war when it decides
DUBAI: Iran on Wednesday dismissed an American plan to pause the war in the Middle East and launched more attacks on Israel and Gulf Arab countries, including an assault that sparked a huge fire at Kuwait International Airport. Iran’s defiance came as...
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Missiles hit Tehran, Tel Aviv amid uncertainty over talks
DUBAI: Airstrikes battered Iran and Iranian missiles and drones targeted Israel’s Tel Aviv and sites across the Mideast on Tuesday, even as President Donald Trump said the US was in talks with the Islamic Republic to end the war. With thousands more...
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Trump presses pause, Iran denies talks claim
DUBAI: US President Donald Trump said Monday the U.S. was talking with a “respected” Iranian leader and claimed the Islamic Republic was eager for a deal to end the war. He also extended a deadline for Iran to reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz or...
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Iran threatens key infra after Trump’s Hormuz ultimatum
ARAD: The US and Iran threatened to target critical infrastructure Sunday as the war in the West Asia, now in its fourth week, puts lives and livelihoods at risk throughout the region. Iran said the Strait of Hormuz, crucial to oil and other exports,...
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Israel strikes Iran N-plant again, Tehran aims for British-us base
CAIRO: Iran targeted a joint UK-US base in the Indian Ocean, and Iran’s main nuclear enrichment site was struck again, as the war in West Asia entered its fourth week. Iran’s attack on the Diego Garcia air base — about 4,000km away — suggested Tehran...
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Bulk diesel, premium petrol prices up
NEW DELHI: State-run oil marketing companies (OMCS) raised the price of industrial diesel and premium petrol on Friday as surging global crude prices — driven by the West Asia conflict — piled pressure on retail margins. While pump prices steady for...
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Stakes rise as Gulf petrochem sites attacked; US eyes waiver for Iran oil
DUBAI: Iran intensified its attacks on oil and natural gas facilities around the Gulf on Thursday, raising the stakes in a war that is sending shock waves through the global economy. The strikes, in retaliation for an Israeli attack on a key Iranian...
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Iran warns 5 Gulf sites after its gas field struck
DUBAI: Israel kept up its campaign of targeting Iran’s leaders on Wednesday, killing the country’s intelligence minister, and an Iranian offshore natural gas field was struck in a sign of the war’s mounting pressure – from both sides — on the region’s...
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Iran rejects talks as Israel says killed security chief
DUBAI/JERUSALEM: Israel said on Tuesday it had killed Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani, the most senior figure targeted since the war’s first day, while a top Iranian official said the new supreme leader had rejected de-escalation offers conveyed by...
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4 states, 1 UT gear up for April poll battles; verdict on May 4
NEW DELHI: Roughly 174 million voters across four states and a Union Territory will vote in assembly polls next month, the Election Commission of India (ECI) declared on Sunday, setting in motion a crucial electoral cycle that will have deep...
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Wangchuk released as govt revokes NSA
NEW DELHI: Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk was released from Jodhpur Jail on Saturday after the Centre revoked his detention under the stringent National Security Act (NSA), six months after he was held following violence in Ladakh last September. In...
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Iran allows two LPG ships to transit Hormuz to India
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Iran has allowed two Indian-flagged liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers to sail through the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian officials said on Friday, a development expected to ease a cooking gas crisis in India. “The vessels have been...
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Mojtaba vows to keep Hormuz shut, continue attacks on Gulf
DUBAI/BEIRUT: Iran will fight on and keep the Strait of Hormuz shut as leverage against the United States and Israel, new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on Thursday in the first comments attributed to him since he succeeded his slain...
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Iran targets more merchant ships, warns of $200 oil, extended war
DUBAI: Iran said the world should be ready for oil at $200 a barrel as its forces hit merchant ships on Wednesday and the International Energy Agency recommended a massive release of strategic reserves to dampen one of the worst oil shocks since the...
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Govt invokes ESMA; gas for households, cars top priority
NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday moved to ration natural gas supplies, prioritising households receiving piped gas, vehicles running on compressed natural gas (CNG), and units producing cooking gas (LPG), as the conflict in West Asia disrupts...
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Khamenei’s successor, strikes on oil infra take Brent past $100
DUBAI: Oil prices surged and stock markets slid Monday after hard-line Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei was chosen to succeed his late father as Iran’s supreme leader. His appointment, and new strikes on regional oil infrastructure, signaled that Iran was...
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India make history, retain crown at home
AHMEDABAD: India scored just 12 runs in the first two overs of the Powerplay. There were some murmurs of nerves at the Narendra Modi Stadium. But then, they took off. In the next four overs, they smashed 80 runs. By the end of the sixth over, Abhishek...
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