Report
Zimbabwe in West Indies: Sarwan knocking hard
The West Indies Busta XI finished their four day match in Trinidad, against the touring Zimbabwe team this past Monday on a very strong note as Guyanese youngster, Ramnaresh Sarwan, slammed two centuries in a very comprehensive bid for West Indies
Zach Kenworthy
15-Mar-2000
The West Indies Busta XI finished their four day match in
Trinidad, against the touring Zimbabwe team this past Monday on a
very strong note as Guyanese youngster, Ramnaresh Sarwan, slammed
two centuries in a very comprehensive bid for West Indies
selection. Upon winning the toss, Zimbabwe captain, Alistair
Campbell, asked the home side to take first knock on a Guaracara
pitch that looked like a batsman's paradise. The decision must
have delighted the Busta XI batsmen for when they were finally
bowled out for 349, both Ramnaresh Sarwan and Sylvester `Bouncin'
Joseph had compiled two even centuries of extremely high class.
Both batsmen were perfect foils for the other as they were
relentless in their attack on the Zimbabwean attack. Henry Olonga
was the main sufferer as he was milked for 103 runs from his 18
overs. Bryan Strang was the pick of the bowlers with 4 for 36.
The Zimbabweans initially started badly as Trinidadian, Marlon
Black claimed two early wickets for just nine runs. However, the
middle order batsmen in Trevor Gripper (30), Murray Goodwin (30),
Alistair Campbell (158) and Stuart Carlisle (86) pulled the fight
back together as they established a formidable total of 394 all
out. Campbell played a captain's innings as he and Carlisle
shared in a sixth wicket 160 run partnership. Marlon Black had a
strong return of 4 for 87 and was ably assisted by Cameron Cuffy
(3 for 70) who bowled with persistent aggression.
In their second innings, the Busta XI decided to bat out for some
much needed batting practice. At the close on the fourth and
final day the Busta XI were all out for a formidable total of
417. Sarwan once again played an innings of brilliance as he
accumulated his second century of the match, this time a
masterful 111. He was ably assisted, as in the first innings, by
Sylvester Joseph who put together a solid 51. Darren Ganga (41),
Rawl Lewis (62) and Cameron Cuffy (37) also aided the Busta XI's
cause as they constructed a massive second innings total.
Sarwan has obviously submitted a huge claim for selection, as the
selectors can obviously not ignore these centuries. Such a
situation is food for thought as the WICB announced that they
will not select outside of their 20-man squad, of which Sarwan is
not a member, for the two test series against the Zimbabweans. It
seems to be a poor move by the WICB as they are restricting
themselves to 20 players in a home series. Why restrict yourself
on home soil? Restriction should be avoided as much as possible,
especially ahead of a two test series, which starts this
Thursday, in which a new captain, manager and coach are to embark
on a mission to revive West Indies Cricket.
Full postPunjab knock out Railways and qualify for next phase
Railways were struggling even at the end of the second day's play
15-Mar-2000
Railways were struggling even at the end of the second day's
play. From a precarious position of 176 for 9 at stumps on Day 2,
Railways managed to push their score to 195 thanks to a timely 31 run
last wicket partnership between Murali Kartik and K Parida.
However, there was bad news all around for the Railways team as their
batting failed once more. The second essay was far worse than their
first and right arm off spinner Sharandeep Singh made the best of the
opportunity, running through the Railways side. Bowling a nine over
spell that yielded 5 wickets for 22 runs, Sharandeep scuttled out
Railways for just 96.
For Railways, just 4 batsmen reached double figures, and captain Rawat
with 23 was the top scorer. A rather dismal scorecard, one that no one
from the Railways team would like to look at again.
Winning the match by an innings and 64 runs, Punjab picked up a
valuable 8 points and took their tally to 24. This means that they
qualify for the knock out phase. In their group Hyderabad defeated
Baroda today and ended with 21 points.
Full postHyderabad qualify with an outright win
Hyderabad completed a 71 run out-right victory against Baroda in the Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match at the Gymkhana Ground in Secunderabad on Wednesday
15-Mar-2000
Hyderabad completed a 71 run out-right victory against Baroda in the
Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match at the Gymkhana Ground in
Secunderabad on Wednesday. Hyderabad, by virtue of this win, collected
the necessary 8 points to qualify for the knock-out stage of the
tournament. Thus, Hyderabad and Baroda ended their Super league
engagements with 21 points and 18 points respectively.
Earlier, Baroda resuming at 24 for 2, were allout for 163. There were
only three significant partnerships. First, Jacob Martin (30 runs of
94 balls) with Tushar Arothe (10 runs of 41 balls) added 40 runs of
16.4 overs for the fourth wicket. Then Atul Bedade (22 runs of 45
balls) and Nayan Mongia (34 runs of 123 balls) put on 32 runs in 14.5
overs for the sixth wicket. But after that Baroda lost three more
wickets with only 33 runs being added to the total. Baroda prolonged
the inevitable thanks to a last wicket stand between Valmik Buck and
Zaheer Khan who added 28 runs in 8.4 overs.
Hyderabad saw some disciplined bowling by their spinners Venkatapathy
Raju and Kanwaljit Singh as they picked up three wickets each. But the
man of the moment for Hyderabad was Satwalkar (4 for 41) as he
dismissed three of Baroda's top order batsmen in the morning to set
Hyderabad on the course to victory.
Full postInzamam hits 138 as Pakistan take control
Karachi, March 14: Master batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq returned to his majestic best when he smashed a commanding century - the ninth of his career, third against Sri Lanka and first at the National Stadium - which brightened Pakistan hopes of ending a
Samiul Hasan
15-Mar-2000
Karachi, March 14: Master batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq returned to his
majestic best when he smashed a commanding century - the ninth of his
career, third against Sri Lanka and first at the National Stadium -
which brightened Pakistan hopes of ending a five-Test win drought.
Inzamam, promoted as vice-captain 24 hours earlier, belted a
superlative 138 as Pakistan put a stranglehold over Sri Lanka when
they finished the third day's play in the third and final cricket Test
at 375 for seven for an overall lead of 404. The home team resumed
their second innings on Tuesday at 88 for three.
Pakistan have never lost a Test here in 33 matches. As things stand at
present, the home team looks well set to notch up its 17th victory
here which would give them a much-needed consolation and
morale-boosting win after defeats in the three one-dayers and two
Tests.
The highest Sri Lanka ever scored in the fourth innings to win a Test
was 326 which they achieved against Zimbabwe at Colombo in
1997-98. The record fourth innings score to win a Test is 406 by India
who beat the West Indies at Port-of-Spain in 1975-76.
Full postWarne claims the record as Australia claims the win
Shane Warne wrote himself even further into Australian cricket history as the visitors bowled out New Zealand 40 minutes after lunch on the fifth day of the first test at Eden Park to prevail 62 runs
Chris Rosie
15-Mar-2000
Shane Warne wrote himself even further into Australian cricket history as the visitors bowled out New Zealand 40 minutes after lunch on the fifth day of the first test at Eden Park to prevail 62 runs. Warne had to wait until the last wicket of the match but when he had Paul Wiseman caught behind he advanced from the 355 he had shared for two days with Dennis Lillee.
Warne's record-breaking effort overshadowed Colin Miller's best figures in test cricket, five for 55, and Craig McMillan's defiant 78 for the home team.
After a day lost to rain and an hour-and-a-half delay on the fifth morning to allow the outfield to recover, New Zealand, on151, set out in search of the 130 runs still needed for victory with McMillan on 57 and Chris Cairns 20. For the Australians, the target was simple: five wickets to maintain their winning streak, at least one of them to Warne.
Runs were never going to be easy to come by. Glenn McGrath bowled the first over of the morning under passing dark clouds and in a cooling southerly, attacking with just two slips, defending with a third man and fine leg and adding to the tension with a maiden.
Full postTamil Nadu seal domination of Uttar Pradesh
Tamil Nadu chose not to enforce the follow on after a solid batting display was backed by a good bowling performance
15-Mar-2000
Tamil Nadu chose not to enforce the follow on after a solid batting
display was backed by a good bowling performance. Resuming on 599/4,
Tamil Nadu declared their innings closed after they had reached
696/5. Sridharan Sharath playing confidently reached his double
hundred off 320 balls. Adding another 5 runs to that mark, Sharath was
run out.
After a side has made nearly seven hundred runs for the loss of just
five wickets, one would think the wicket was good for
batting. However, the wicket certainly was not good for Uttar
Pradesh. The Tamil Nadu bowlers all plugged away, chipping in and
sharing the wickets as Uttar Pradesh were dismissed for 228.
Only S Shukla in the middle of the innings resisted the Tamil Nadu
attack. He helped himself to 102 runs, a large percentage of the Uttar
Pradesh total. The fact that the next highest score was 26 from young
medium pacer Mrithyunjay Tripathi spoke volumes of the inability of
the Uttar Pradesh batsmen to deal with the Tamil Nadu bowling.
Tamil Nadu leading by over four hundred runs chose not to enforce the
follow on. Whether there was a need to get more batting practice after
almost all batsmen had made runs in the first innings is a question
only the Tamil Nadu captain can answer.
Full postHaryana crawl to 279/8
The encounter between Haryana and Orissa at Cuttack took an interesting turn on Day 3
15-Mar-2000
The encounter between Haryana and Orissa at Cuttack took an
interesting turn on Day 3. Resuming on 95/3 the visitors could muster
only 279 at the end of the day. Middle order batsmen Jasvir Singh
(82), I Gainda (40) and S Dalal (62) all batted with extreme caution,
not taking any risks at all. There was not much the bowlers could do
in terms of dislodging the batsmen. However, Orissa with just 3 points
do not have a realistic chance of qualifying for the next phase of the
tournament. Having reliquished the advantage to Orissa by conceding a
first innings lead, only an outright win is of any use to the Haryana
side. What approach they adopt tomorrow remains to be seen.
Full postMumbai 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 post