Report

Hyderabad struggle for runs

It was generally a struggle for Hyderabad to get runs on the opening day of their Coca Cola Trophy (under-25) tournament game against Tamil Nadu at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Tuesday

Partab Ramchand

26-Apr-2000

It was generally a struggle for Hyderabad to get runs on the opening day of their Coca Cola Trophy (under-25) tournament game against Tamil Nadu at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Tuesday. Winning the toss, Hyderabad, off 91 overs, scored only 242 for eight at stumps.

Hyderabad were on the backfoot right from the time they lost openers Karthik Ramaswamy (1) and JRK Yadav (0) with only two runs scored. Both the wickets were taken by opening bowler Ravinder John. Sanjay Patel (51) and the captain Anirudh Singh (89) however put the innings back on track with a third wicket stand of 136 runs off 48.5 overs. The other opening bowler Srinivas however rocked Hyderabad again by dismissing Patel and Radhakrishna off successive deliveries. Patel who faced 177 deliveries hit only four boundaries in a rather sedate knock.

Anirudh and Joy Prakash (19) performed a bit of a rescue act by adding 51 runs for the fifth wicket off 14.2 overs before the captain finally fell to the last ball of the 72nd over after having come in midway through the second over. Anirudh batted 275 minutes, faced 196 balls and hit 14 fours and a six during his gallant innings. Wickets then fell at regular intervals but Amresh played with gay abandon and by close was unbeaten with 38 off 55 balls. His innings included three fours and two sixes. Ravinder John and Shrinivas had only those two wickets to show for their efforts while spinner Raghuram was the most successful bowler with three for 38.

Full post

Yohannan rips through Karnataka

Partab Ramchand

26-Apr-2000

Kerala's medium pace bowler Tinu Yohannan was in devastating form on the opening day of the three day Coca Cola Trophy (under-25) tournament game against Karnataka at the Maharaja Jayamajaendra Wodeyar Sports Complex in Bangalore on Tuesday. Yohannan, who has been selected as one of the trainees for the National Cricket Academy, took seven for 65 off 20.3 overs as Karnataka were all out for 264. In reply, Kerala were 68 for no loss at close of play.

Winning the toss, Karnataka were in trouble early when they they lost two wickets for 32. Their hopes revived with a third wicket partnership of 138 runs off 32 overs between Prajwal Raj (63) and SP Shinde (76). While the former faced 88 balls and hit seven fours and three sixes, Shinde faced 106 balls and hit nine of them to the ropes. Yohannan dismissed both batsmen in successive overs but Karnataka's hopes of a good total were maintained with N Mulky (37) and MS Vinay (29) adding 50 runs for the fifth wicket off six overs. Vinay, who had opened the batting retired hurt in the seventh over after scoring only one run when the score was 20 for one. He re-entered at the fall of the third wicket at 170.

Once Vinay was out however at 223, there was a sharp slump and the last six wickets fell for 41 runs off 22.3 overs. Yohannan took four of these and was well supported by Rajesh who took the other two. Mulky's was a valuable contribution under the circumstnaces. He faced 66 balls and hit five boundaries.

In the remaining 17 overs, Kerala's in form openers V Girilal (23) and MP Sorab (33) survived till stumps even though Karnataka captain SK Susanth made some quick bowling changes in the closing stages. Girilal has hit five fours and Sorab, who carried his bat for 255 in the previous game, has hit seven.

Full post

Zimbabwe frustrations threaten to boil over

On an extremely hot and humid day at welegedara stadium in kurunegala sri lanka's opening batsmen responded to the zimbabwean first innings score of 306 in emphatic fashion, reaching 231for the loss of just one wicket at the close

Charlie Austin

25-Apr-2000

This was a frustrating day for this young zimbabwean side. Not only did their opening bowler have retire to the dressing room for treatment of a back strain after just five overs, but they appeared unlucky to have three confident appeals turned down by umpire b.c. Cooray during the afternoon session. So convinced were the fielding side that hewage had touched the deliveries from matambanadzo and price, that for the first time in the series, frustrations threatened to boil over.

When umpire, b.c. Cooray, refused to uphold their appeal their was visible disbelief on the faces of the fielders and a delay in play as they took time to register their feelings. Words were exchanged from various quarters and the tension eventually compelled cooray to speak to gus mackay.

Whether cooray's decision was correct or not the real root of the zimbabwean's frustration was undoubtedly the fine batting of the sri lankan openers and their own inability to maintain a tight line and length. The sri lankan's scored their runs at nearly four runs an over. Whilst praising the quality of the batsmen's strokeplay, kevin curran pointed to the lack of concentration shown by the bowlers.

Full post

UP women continue winning streak

The tour by the Uttar Pradesh's women cricketers to Sri Lanka is turning out to be a successful one

Charlie Austin

25-Apr-2000

The tour by the Uttar Pradesh's women cricketers to Sri Lanka is turning out to be a successful one. They have now won three matches out of three, with one abandoned due to heavy rain. At the NCC Grounds in Colombo on Monday, they defeated a Colts CC XI by 71 runs.

Unlike the other two games, which were really tense affairs, UP ran away with the match after batting first and scoring 130 in 40 overs. In the context of a low scoring tour, this was a large total, certainly too much for this Colts side who were bundled out for just 59 in 35 overs.

Priyanka Shally continued her fine form this tour with a useful 21, an innings that rescued the visitors who had slumped to 2-2 after having been put in to bat by the home side. Her efforts were ably supported by Shikha Jaingran, who went on to top score with 26. The pair put on 59 runs for the fourth wicket and effectively won the match for their team. The pick of the bowlers was Hiroshini who finished with 3-16 off her eight overs. Unfortunately for the Colts, her teammates were a little too generous with the extras, donating the visitors a very useful 30 runs.

In reply, the home side never looked like reaching the target. Indika was the only batsmen to settle with a useful 20 runs but even she found it difficult to cope with the bowling of Varsha Paphael who picked up 5-9 off eight overs.

Full post

Kenyans score first victory

The touring Kenyan team scored the first victory of their fortnight long tour of India when they defeated Mumbai CA XI by seven wickets at the Brabourne stadium on Monday

Partab Ramchand

25-Apr-2000

The touring Kenyan team scored the first victory of their fortnight long tour of India when they defeated Mumbai CA XI by seven wickets at the Brabourne stadium on Monday. The visitors had earlier lost to Tata SC in a one day match at Mumbai and then drew with Maharashtra CA XI in a two day game at Pune.

Put in to bat, the Mumbai side were dismissed for 153 in 47.1 overs. They never really recovered after opening bowlers Suji and Odoyo got rid of the first four batsman - A Rane, skipper Amit Pagnis, Sushant Manjrekar and Kiran Powar - with only 46 runs on the board. The middle order boosted the score a bit with A Dani at No 7 getting 32 and Mussavir Khote at No 8 scoring 26. The two put on 39 runs for the seventh wicket from 13 overs after six wickets had gone for 93 - the highest stand of the innings. Odoyo, Suji, Tikolo and Odumbe all took two wickets each.

It was far from smooth sailing for Kenya as they commenced their reply. Openers KO Otieno and RD Shah were out midway through the fifth over with only nine runs on the board. However HS Modi (19) and Steve Tikolo weathered the early storm by adding 50 runs for the third wicket off 13.4 overs. It was then left to the experienced duo of Tikolo and skipper Maurice Odumbe to apply the finishing touches with an unbeaten fourth wicket partnership of 97 runs off 16 overs. Tikolo hit 84 off 89 balls with nine fours and two sixes while Odumbe's 34 was compiled off 48 balls and included two hits to the ropes.

Full post

Sri Lankan Fast Bowlers Lead the Way

Contrary to popular opinion it was the Sri Lankan fast bowlers and not the spinners that worried the Zimbabwean batsmen at Welegadera Stadium in Kurunegala today

Charlie Austin

24-Apr-2000

Indika Gallage and the young Kaushalya Weereratne from Kandy troubled all the batsmen. Extracting movement off the seam, especially with the new ball, and surprising the batsmen with occasional lift, they reduced the Zimbabweans to 51-4 in the morning session. Then when they returned to the attack in the evening they took the second new ball and struck again. Zimbabwe having recovered to 235-5 slipped to 244-7 at the close.

Andy Blignaut will be particularly disappointed with himself. Having done all the hard work and with only three overs remaining in the day, he took the attack to the Sri Lankan bowlers. Taking 13 off Weereratne's 17th over he got carried away and was bowled by Gallage whilst trying another expansive drive. Nevertheless he deserves praise for a fantastic innings. Positive from the start he hit the ball cleanly and powerfully throughout. Most importantly he played straight, the majority of his 13 fours and two sixes being hit between cover and wide mid-on.

Coming to the wicket with his team in dire straits at 91-5 he turned around the innings for the Zimbabweans with the assistance of Daniel Peacock. Peacock was the more conservative of the two. Slightly open chested and awkward looking in his stance he worked extremely hard for his 62 runs, facing 213 balls and occupying the crease for nearly five hours. Peacock's conservatism did not matter however because of the positive strokeplay of his partner. Blignaut was never afraid to hit the ball over the top and did so on numerous occasions. Whilst the pair batted throughout the afternoon the spinners were made to look pretty ordinary. Neither of the trio of Bandara, Samaraweera and Herath extracted much turn from the pitch.

Full post

South Zone U-25 Tourney: Sorab carries bat for 255

Partab Ramchand

24-Apr-2000

Kerala opening batsman MP Sorab covered himself with glory as he carried his bat for 255 on the final day of the Coca Cola Trophy South Zone (under-25) tournament at the Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar Sports Complex in Bangalore on Sunday. With batsmen dominating, the match ended in a tame draw with Kerala getting five points and Andhra three.

Resuming at 311 for five in reply to Andhra's first innings total of 355, Kerala were all out for 471. Sorab who was 157 overnight, simply carried on from where he left off. First with S Ramakrishnan (34) he added 79 runs for the sixth wicket off 23 overs, reaching his double century in the process. Then with P.Manoj (14) he added 41 runs for the ninth wicket off 11 overs. He reached 250 in the company of last man T Yohannan. Sorab's innings stretched for ten hours. He faced 402 balls and hit 35 fours. Off spinner Vatekar finished with five wickets for 118 runs.

In arrears by 116 runs on the first innings, Andhra were 130 for two in their second innings when stumps were finally drawn with bad light cutting short play.

Andhra have completed their engagements in group A with eight points from two games. Kerala play Karnataka from Tuesday. Group B comprises of only two teams, Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad and the winner of that match will go through to the final.

Full post

Windies make 'mush' of it

Port-of-Spain - While Christians around the world celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ, nearly 20 000 at the Queen's Park Oval and many more around the region mourned the West Indies' death in the Caribbean's first-ever triangular

24-Apr-2000

Unpredictable Pakistan, beaten twice by the same opponents in the preliminary phase of the competition, were the ones who rose to the occasion to complete a hard-fought victory by four wickets in the third and decisive final.

It was complete misery for West Indians watching their side capitulate to their lowest total in 33 One-Day Internationals at the ground, an inadequate 114 which the Pakistanis overhauled for the loss of six wickets.

'I think we were about 60 runs short of having a competitive total. We tried our best to defend it, but in the final analysis, we didn't get enough runs,' captain Jimmy Adams admitted.

Full post

Pakistan clinch tri-series

Karachi, April 23: Pakistan beat the West Indies by four wickets in a low scoring thriller to clinch the tri-nation one-day series in Port-of-Spain

24-Apr-2000

Karachi, April 23: Pakistan beat the West Indies by four wickets in a low scoring thriller to clinch the tri-nation one-day series in Port-of-Spain.

Pakistan made heavy weather of a modest victory target of 115 and lost six wickets before winning the decisive match of the best-of-three finals with 29 balls to spare.

Pakistan lost half the side at 73 and plunged into further trouble when Moin Khan departed with 22 runs still needed.

But Wasim Akram gave a good helping hand to Inzamam-ul-Haq who finished the match with an exquisite cover-drive for his fifth boundary in his unbeaten 39.