Report
Mumbai take firm grip against Bengal
Calcutta, March 15: Mumbai, took a stranglehold in their match against Bengal on the third day of their Ranji Trophy encounter here today
15-Mar-2000
Calcutta, March 15: Mumbai, took a stranglehold in their match against
Bengal on the third day of their Ranji Trophy encounter here today.
Chasing a victory target of 380 in their second innings, Bengal were
67 for the loss of four wickets at stumps. It would now take a superhuman effort on the part of the remaining batsmen to bat out the
entire day tomorrow on a pitch that is helping the bowlers.
Bengal have themselves to blame for such a position now. Losing the
match outright would mean the failure to add anything to their tally
of 13 points. A situation they are facing because of a decision to
play on an under-prepared wicket. It means that Karnataka who have 11
points will be able to make it to last eight stage even if they fail
to get the first innings lead against Delhi. They would get three
points which would be sufficient enough to take their tally to 14 and
pip Bengal to the second spot in the group. The Bengal think tank
should have realised that on a pitch that would help bowlers, the
Mumbai team would be better off as they have more variety in their
attack.
It was the day of Romesh Powar. The 21-year old playing in his second
Ranji Trophy match blasted the Bengal attack after they had done well
to reduce Mumbai to 172 for six at lunch. Powar, in a 77-ball blitz,
raced to 92 then finally put the match out of Bengal's reach. He hit
14 boundaries and six over midwicket of Sourashis Lahiri and looked
a strong player of the back foot. In the process he added 104 runs for
the eighth wicket with Rajesh Pawar who scored 30. The latter was
finally dismissed by Lakshmi Ratan Shukla who had the batsman caught
behind. Powar on the other hand fell trying to force the pace. He
tried to cut the other Bengal medium pacer Abdul Masood only to be
caught by Chatterjee at point.
For Bengal Vishal Yadav finished with four wickets, while Shukla,
Masood and off-spinner Sourashis Lahiri finished with two apiece. When
Bengal batted, it was Powar's turn to strike with the ball. He
dismissed the first three Bengal batsmen mixing up his off-spin with
the one that straightens up. Deep Dasgupta and Devang Gandhi both
failed to read it and were caught plumb in front. Bothe however, made
the cardinal sin of going on to the back foot on a pitch where the
ball kept low. Powar then tempted Shukla into a drive. The batsman
failed to keep the ball down and was caught by the bowler himself. At
the period, Powar spell was 8-2-15-3. The other wicket went to Rajesh
Pawar, who had Srikkanth Kalyani leg before. At stumps Saba karim and
Rohan Gavaskar on seven apiece were trying to save a match that had
already slipped from their grasp.
Full postKarnataka poised for victory
Karnataka have set up a good victory platform against Delhi at the end of the third day
15-Mar-2000
Karnataka have set up a good victory platform against Delhi at the end
of the third day. Though they lost wickets early on in the day, the
home side managed to squeeze past the Delhi total, posting 359 in
response to 342 in the first innings.
This broke the spirit of the Delhi team and they were reeling at 182
for 7 when stumps was called. Apart from a half century from opener
Ashu Dani (52) none of the Delhi batsmen got going.
While Delhi would have liked to wrap up the Karnataka innings as soon
as possible, Akhil and Ganesh denied the Delhi bowlers further success
with a fifty run partnership for the seventh wicket before Ganesh was
dismissed by seamer Akash Malhotra. Karnataka skipper Venkatesh Prasad
and Akhil then had a useful 38 run eighth wicket partnership before
Mehra trapped Akhil in front for a well made 59. The innings came to a
close soon after and Karnataka ended at 359.
A despondent Delhi, more or less out of the reckoning for a
pre-quarter final slot, began its second innings with honour to play
for. They were off to a sound start with Akash Chopra and Ashu Dani
putting on 81 in quick time for the first wicket The first to fall was
Chopra, bowled by Vadiaraj for 36. Soon, Ashu Dani was dismissed by
the same bowler. The innings faltered from there on with Vadiaraj and
Prasad picking up wickets at regular intervals.
Full postLate rally by India fails after Kirsten, Cronje lay victory platform
South Africa tried hard to make a simple task look difficult as they beat India by 2 wickets with an over to spare in the third match of the one-day series at the Nahar Singh Stadium in Faridabad today
Sankhya Krishnan
15-Mar-2000
South Africa tried hard to make a simple task look difficult as they
beat India by 2 wickets with an over to spare in the third match of
the one-day series at the Nahar Singh Stadium in Faridabad today.
Having been set a very competitive target of 249 in 49 overs after
being docked one over due to a slow over rate, the visitors were
cruising at 204/3 with more than 11 overs left when they began a
steady procession to and fro the crease, leaving the victory to be
completed by their ninth wicket pair. And Mark Boucher delivered the
coup the grace in style as he lashed Rahul Dravid over midwicket with
a full over to spare. Having pulled one back, the South Africans go
into the fourth match at Baroda two days from now with everything to
play for.
Cronje fortuitously won the toss for the third time in a row and in a
change of strategy opted to bowl first. The liberal sprinkling of
grass on the pitch would have had the South African quicks licking
their lips in anticipation. But although the odd ball bounced off a
length the batsmen were relatively untroubled by the wicket. Saurav
Ganguly set a scorching pace from the beginning leaving Tendulkar a
silent spectator as the fifty came up in just the ninth over.
Tendulkar failed again and after Ganguly (56 in 54 balls) and
Azharuddin fell in quick succession, the innings was fizzling out.
Dravid and Jadeja shored up the innings in the middle overs and Sunil
Joshi played a sweet cameo of 23 in 16 balls. Dravid had a life early
when he was put down by Gibbs at point and he did not always time the
ball with the felicity that we have known him to but it was an knock
of character and he nursed the innings through a period before falling
for 73, the third run out victim of the innings. Samir Dighe made a
run a ball 17 to lift the score to 248/8 and the Indians would have
had reason to believe that the series could be closed out here.
The seamers had a torrid time in their opening spells leading Ganguly
to quickly bring on the spin troika of Kumble, Joshi and Tendulkar.
They all shared a wicket apiece as South Africa were left in a
delicate position at 91/3 in 18 overs although they batted pretty deep
with Elworthy the only one without any batting pretensions. The turn
of events brought two hardened campaigners in Kirsten and Cronje
together and they took up the gauntlet with a no-nonsense display that
took the game away from the Indians. They applied themselves
professionally to their task, calmly rattling off the singles as they
focused on keeping the asking rate manageable for the strokemakers
later in the order.
Full postSonu Sharma leads Haryana fightback
A strong fight back from Haryana after they were dismissed were for 206 in their first innings saw them take an all important first innings lead against Orissa
14-Mar-2000
A strong fight back from Haryana after they were dismissed were for
206 in their first innings saw them take an all important first
innings lead against Orissa. 23 year old left arm spinner Sonu Sharma
bowling the spell of his life captured 7/32 off 26.5 overs and
scuttled out Orissa for just 165.
Resuming on a shaky 17 for 3, Orissa lost their way completely. Though
Sonu Sharma did not pick up a wicket on the first day, he more than
amply made up by dismissing the remaining seven Orissa batsmen. Sanjay
Raul was the only batsman to offer any sort of resistance. Even Raul
could manage just 51 before he was undone by the guiles of Sonu
Sharma.
Though Raul's innings took 151 balls, it was studded with 9
boundaries.
The fact that Sonu Sharma got six of his seven wickets either LBW or
bowled spoke a lot about the discipline with which he sent down his
overs.
Full postBaroda struggling against Hyderabad
Chasing a target of 235, Baroda were struggling at 24 for 2 at stumps on the third day of the Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match against Hyderabad at the Gymkhana Ground in Secunderabad on Tuesday
14-Mar-2000
Chasing a target of 235, Baroda were struggling at 24 for 2 at stumps
on the third day of the Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match
against Hyderabad at the Gymkhana Ground in Secunderabad on
Tuesday. Hyderabad thus placed themselves in a comfortable position to
try and force a victory to qualify for the knock-out stage of the
tournament.
Earlier, openers A Nandakishore (30 runs of 57 balls) and D Vinay
Kumar (33 runs of 97 balls) gave Hyderabad a good start, putting on 49
runs in 15.5 overs. Then, VVS Laxman(48 runs of 75 balls) joined
Vinaykumar in a partnership worth 65 runs off 19.4 overs for the
second wicket. After that P Satwalkar and JS Yadav (10 runs of 39
balls ) put on 55 runs in 17.3 overs for the seventh wicket. But when
P Satwalkar (56 runs of 79 balls) was out at 211, NP Singh (20 runs of
24 balls) and Kanwaljit Singh (15 runs of 31 balls) took the score to
246.
VN Buch was the pick of the Baroda bowlers, taking 5 for 79 with a
match analysis of 8 for 139. While Swaroop and Z Khan picked 2 for 46
and 39 respectively.
Full postMumbai in command against Bengal
Bengal's hope of making it to the quarter-finals of the Ranji Trophy took a back seat as Mumbai bundled them out for 117 only to take a first innings of lead of 65 runs
14-Mar-2000
Bengal's hope of making it to the quarter-finals of the Ranji Trophy
took a back seat as Mumbai bundled them out for 117 only to take a
first innings of lead of 65 runs. As a result, Bengal will get only
three points from this match if it ends in a draw. That would take
their tally to 16 and if Karnataka manage a first innings lead against
Delhi then it would also make their tally same. In that case, last
year's champions will qualify as they have one outright victory
against Bengal's none.
However, as far as a draw is concerned, it is a distant proposition in
this match. On a pitch where the ball is jumping and turning square it
will require tremendous technique and courage to survive even a full
day. Mumbai failed to do it in the first innings and the Bengal
batsmen were no exception today. Except for skipper Utpal Chatterjee
who was the highest scorer with 27 with a fractured right thumb and
Rohan Gavskar (23) none of the other batsmen were able to cross
15. Mumbai in their second innings were 102 for the loss of Amol
Rane's wicket.
Even though there was appreciable turn for the bowlers it was
slow. However, the Bengal batsmen were not ready to play a waiting
game. Devang Gandhi, who was the main hope for the home side perished
early on, falling leg before to Abey Kuruvilla. He made the mistake of
going back to a ball which he should have played forward to. Gavaskar
batted against his father's team with a lot of grit. His 23 came in
120 minutes. However, both he and Srikkanth Kalyani got out trying to
cut balls that they could have well avoided. For Mumbai, Kuruvilla
took three wickets while Nilesh Kulkarni, Rajesh Pawar and Romesh
Powar finished with two wickets apiece.
Whatever hopes Bengal had of making a comeback were dashed by
Jaffer. He is unbeaten with 64 of 97 balls. Of the 12 boundaries that
he has so far struck, seven have been hit off Chatterjee. The Bengal
left-arm spinner looked a demoralised bowler today. Maybe, the
performance of his batsmen had influenced his bowling. Mumbai now are
in a very healthy position leading by 167 runs with nine wickets
remaining.
Full postPunjab consolidates as Railways crumble
Railways were staring at the prospect of surrendering the first innings lead to Punjab as they were reduced to 176 for 9 at stumps on the third day of the Ranji Trophy Super League group B match at the Karnail Singh Stadium at New Delhi on Tuesday
14-Mar-2000
Railways were staring at the prospect of surrendering the first
innings lead to Punjab as they were reduced to 176 for 9 at stumps on
the third day of the Ranji Trophy Super League group B match at the
Karnail Singh Stadium at New Delhi on Tuesday.
Earlier, some good batting by tail-enders Sharandeep Singh (44 not
out) and Navdeep Singh (42) saw Punjab push their score to 355. Ending
day one on 246 for 7 there was very little chance that Punjab could
salvage the situation. However, the two Singhs combined well, adding
65 runs for the eighth wicket. While 355 is not the score they would
have been looking at when they began their innings, it is a score they
would settle for given the fact that they were 164 for 5.
Punjab's Kulamani Parida bowled his off breaks to good effect and
ended with the more than respectable figures of 6/84 off his 36.2
overs.
In response, Railways were neck deep in trouble. Losing their top five
batsmen before tea was taken, Railways were reduced to 90 for 5.
Opening the bowling, Gagandeep Singh was both economical and effective
initially as he picked up 2/17 off his 9 overs. In the post tea
session Yere Goud (64 of 151 balls) and Kilamani Parida (34 of 46
balls) added 46 runs in 13 overs between them for the ninth wicket .
But Railways were to end the day with the score of 176 with only the
last pair at the crease, as Punjab consolidated on their first innings
total.
Full postSriram misses triple ton as Tamil Nadu amass 599/4
Resuming on 152, Sriram continued to be in solid touch
14-Mar-2000
Resuming on 152, Sriram continued to be in solid touch. Batting almost through the second day, he helped himself to another 136 runs before he was dismissed on 288, the third highest score by a Tamil Nadu batsman ever in the history of Ranji Trophy cricket. Helped along by a hundred from another Sridharan - Sharath Tamil Nadu ended the day on 599 for 4.
It was more hard work for the Uttar Pradesh bowlers on Day 2. There was no joy for the bowlers as almost all batsmen made merry. JR Madanagopal (85) added just 5 runs to his overnight score before he was dismissed by young medium pacer Shalab Sriwastava.
S Sharath who has been in national reckoning for a few years now, and scored consistently in the Challenger Trophy, joined the party. Batting fluently, the two southpaws took the game well away from Uttar Pradesh.
Nearing his triple hundred, Sriram slowed down considerably after tea. However, the triple hundred proved to be elusive. Falling just 12 runs short of the mark, Sriram was caught by Sriwastava off the bowling of Raza. His innings lasted just over eleven hours and included a mammoth 38 boundaries.
Full postArun Kumar stands tall as Karnataka slump to 254/6
After being reasonably placed at 308/5, Delhi could add just 34 runs to their total on the second day
14-Mar-2000
After being reasonably placed at 308/5, Delhi could add just 34 runs
to their total on the second day. A strong performance from national
discard Venkatesh Prasad cleaned up the Delhi tail. The last four
batsmen failed to reach double digits as Prasad ended with figures of
6/60.
In response, the hosts were in a position of relative strength thanks
to a century at the top of the innings from J Arun Kumar. Arun Kumar
who figured in Board President's XI team that took on the South
Africans in Mumbai recently, blasted 17 fours and 3 sixes in his 229
ball essay that yielded 127 runs.
However, there was very little support for Arun Kumar at the other
end. Only wicketkeeper Tilak Naidu with 36 managed a score worthy of
mention. Vijay Bharadwaj, whose presence in the side was to boost
Karnataka's chances of securing a positive result, managed only 14
runs before he was caught by Chaudhary off the bowling of left arm
seamer Ashish Nehra.
Nehra scalped two more, caught behind, and ended with figures of 3 for
65.
Full postFinal Test evenly balanced after Pakistan take lead
Karachi, March 13: Muttiah Muralitharan continued to be an enigma for the Pakistan batsmen as Sri Lanka pulled themselves back into contention of the third and final cricket Test being played here on Monday at the National Stadium
Samiul Hasan
14-Mar-2000
Karachi, March 13: Muttiah Muralitharan continued to be an enigma for
the Pakistan batsmen as Sri Lanka pulled themselves back into
contention of the third and final cricket Test being played here on
Monday at the National Stadium.
Muralitharan pushed Pakistan on the backfoot when he picked up two
crucial wickets on Monday evening after the home team appeared to run
away with the match after Shahid Afridi and Mohammad Naveed Qureshi
had provided them with the best opening start of the series by scoring
70 in 18 overs.
But Muralitharan trapped Naveed in front of the wickets and then
earned a controversial decision against Ijaz Ahmad to restrict
Pakistan to 88 for three at stumps on the second day.
Ravindra Pushpakumara had provided Muralitharan the inroad by sending
Shahid Afridi's off stump cartwheeling.
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