Report
Rain halts Northerns recovery battle
Centurion: It was not quite the provincial captaincy debut Neil McKenzie had in mind yesterday when he took over as Northerns new leader
Trevor Chesterfield
04-Dec-1999
Centurion: It was not quite the provincial captaincy debut Neil
McKenzie had in mind yesterday when he took over as Northerns new
leader.
What we had was a belly landing after attempting to scramble what was
dodgy single and then looking up at umpire Cyril Mitchley signalling
he had been run out. The result was McKenzie being one of four
Northerns wickets to fall in a truncated first session as they put
only 55 runs on the board.
Not at all a great start to the Super Eights in the SuperSport Series
as the tougher part of the first-class domestic programme began at
home on a decidedly damp, chilly afternoon more in keeping with
England in May than sunny South Africa in December.
McKenzie had been looking good too, and from all accounts, would
decided to bat first anyway had he won the toss. Boland?s skipper
Louis Koen got the call right instead and decided, with so much cloud
cover around and a touch of moisture on the pitch, the best option was
to bowl first.
Full postEntertaining final day in store
An entertaining final day is in store at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday, with New South Wales needing 222 to defeat the touring Indians with nine wickets in hand
Rick Eyre
04-Dec-1999
An entertaining final day is in store at the Sydney Cricket Ground on
Sunday, with New South Wales needing 222 to defeat the touring Indians
with nine wickets in hand.
Saurav Ganguly and Ajit Agarkar were the stars of the third day
Saturday as India made 331 in their second innings, a vast improvement
on their uninspiring first innings total of 185 on Thursday.
Given the challenging target of 286 to win from 109 overs, the Blues
were 64 for one at stumps.
Beginning the third day on 110 for two in their second innings in
cooler conditions than had been experienced in the past two days,
India lost three wickets in the morning session.
Full postGallant unbeaten 149 by Sharath not enough
North Zone are virtually through to the semifinals of the Duleep Trophy championship
Partab Ramchand
04-Dec-1999
North Zone are virtually through to the semifinals of the Duleep
Trophy championship. Already strongly placed at stumps on the third
day, they consolidated their position on the penultimate day of their
quarterfinal against South Zone at Agartala on Saturday. They got a
first innings lead of 165 runs and then scored 77 for one in their
second innings at close of play. With an overall lead of 242 runs,
nine wickets in hand and only a day left, North Zone are in a no lose
situation.
The day's honours however were cornered by South Zone left hander
Sridharan Sarath. On 36 overnight, the Tamil Nadu batsman went on to
make 149 not out before South Zone were all out for 424 in reply to
North Zone's first innings total of 589.
Resuming at 207 for four, South Zone lost skipper Robin Singh
early. The 36-year-old Indian all rounder was caught by Dharmani off
Chopra for 28. South Zone lost a sixth wicket, that of Shiraguppi who
was held by Dahiya of Navdeep Singh for four runs.
At 222 for six, South Zone were well on the chopping block. But Sarath
and Sunil Joshi now came together in a seventh wicket association that
revived South Zone's faint hopes. The two left handers put the North
Zone attack to the sword and Joshi was in a particularly aggressive
mood. Sarath passed his century, Joshi got to his 50, the two posted
the century stand. Finally at 366, Joshi was caught by Dahiya off
Sodhi for 75. Joshi batted 139 minutes, faced 96 balls and hit 12
fours and a six. The seventh wicket stand had put on 144 runs from
34.3 overs.
Full postWest Indies lose mis-Max
Christchurch, New Zealand - West Indies lost their tour opener - a two-innings-per-side One-Day match - by eight wickets to the Max Blacks at Jade Stadium yesterday
04-Dec-1999
Christchurch, New Zealand - West Indies lost their tour opener - a
two-innings-per-side One-Day match - by eight wickets to the Max
Blacks at Jade Stadium yesterday.
It was the Caribbean sides introduction to a new version of the game,
called Cricket Max.
Playing under the name Caribbean Calypsos, Brian Laras men made 99
for five in ten overs in the first innings and 92 for five off seven
overs in the second.
They were no match for the Kiwis, who have perfected this new form of
the game. The home side rattled up 145 for five off ten overs in the
first innings and easily reached 47 for two off 5.1 overs in the
second.
Full postKumble, Ramesh keep Indian hopes alive
India will go into the third day of their four-day tour match against New South Wales on Saturday with a lead of 64 runs and eight second innings wickets in hand
Rick Eyre
03-Dec-1999
India will go into the third day of their four-day tour match
against New South Wales on Saturday with a lead of 64 runs and
eight second innings wickets in hand. Despite conceding the
first innings lead to the Blues, Anil Kumble and Sadagopan Ramesh
have kept the tourists' hopes alive in this game.
Play began today with New South Wales 35 for one in reply to
India's 185 all out on Thursday. India claimed two NSW wickets
in the first hour. Corey Richards, who has gone for the bleached
blond look this season, looked confident against the bowling
of Srinath and Prasad, until he was struck on the hip by Srinath.
Greg Hayne acted as runner for Richards with the batsman on 48.
He brought up his fifty out of 72 scored by NSW, but was obviously
continuing in pain. His innings came to an end on 51 when he edged
Prasad to Ganguly at second slip.
Michael Bevan lasted just five deliveries before popping the ball
to Vijay Bharadwaj at short square leg for an easy catch to give Srinath his first wicket of the innings. The NSW captain made 2.
Full postThrilling one wicket victory for Bihar
Bihar turned the tables on Uttar Pradesh for an exciting one wicket victory to enter the quarterfinal of the Cooch Behar Trophy at the Keenan stadium in Jamshedpur on Friday
Partab Ramchand
03-Dec-1999
Bihar turned the tables on Uttar Pradesh for an exciting one wicket
victory to enter the quarterfinal of the Cooch Behar Trophy at the
Keenan stadium in Jamshedpur on Friday.
It was a creditable victory for Bihar who had conceded a first innings
lead of 25 runs. UP, 143 for nine in their second innings overnight
were all out for 152. This set Bihar a victory target of 178 runs. A
second wicket stand of 54 runs between S Vig (25) and F Khan (34) put
them on the road towards the target but thereafter wickets fell at
regular intervals and Bihar were 102 for six. A seventh wicket stand
of 46 runs between M Diwakar (43) and MS Dhoni (27) retreived their
hopes but both batsmen fell within the space of seven runs. The ninth
wicket fell at 169 with Bihar still nine runs short of their
target. Amidst a lot of excitement, wicketkeeper V Kumar (20) and A
Yadav (1) steered the side to victory with two deliveries to spare.
Full postOrissa beat Andhra to enter Quarterfinal
Orissa defeated Andhra by 47 runs to enter the quarterfinals of the Cooch Behar Trophy at the Telco Club ground in Jamshedpur on Friday
Partab Ramchand
03-Dec-1999
Orissa defeated Andhra by 47 runs to enter the quarterfinals of the
Cooch Behar Trophy at the Telco Club ground in Jamshedpur on Friday.
Orissa which always seemed to have the upper hand finally scored over
Andhra. With a lead of 23 runs, Orissa who resumed their second
innings at 86 for three were all out for 183. Skipper RR Das (34) and
S Rath (44) added 58 runs for the fourth wicket but M Faiq who
finished with five wickets for 61 caused a sharp collapse and Orissa
lost their last seven wickets for only 48 runs. But Andhra requiring
207 runs for victory were never in the hunt after they lost their
first three wickets for only 14 runs. They were brief contributions
from skipper YV Rao (32), Asadullah Khan (31), Shaikh Hussain (25) and
M Faiq (35). But these were not enough to give Andhra victory and the
Southern state were all out for 159. S Mohanty who took six for 50 in
the first innings was again the wrecker-in-chief with four for 40 to
end with match figures of ten for 90.
Full postNorth Zone take their time to score 213-4
The Duleep Trophy commenced today with North and South Zones playing each other at the MBBC Stadium in Agartala for a place in the semifinal
Sankhya Krishnan
02-Dec-1999
The Duleep Trophy commenced today with North and South Zones
playing each other at the MBBC Stadium in Agartala for a place in
the semifinal. North had the better of the day's exchanges as
they trudged patiently to a score of 213-4 with the help of a
cautious fifty from Pankaj Dharmani and a carefree one from
Virender Sehwag.
Fans from the cricketing backwaters of Agartala would have been
disappointed to learn yesterday that the top draw for today's
game, Mohammed Azharuddin, had withdrawn for undisclosed reasons.
This was the last straw for a South Zone side which was already
missing eight players away with the national side in Australia
and three more who were touring the Caribbean in the India A
colours. Indeed Sunil Joshi and Robin Singh are arguably the only
two South Zone players in Agartala who would have made a full
strength eleven. In contrast, North virtually had all hands on
deck except for Harbhajan Singh and Amit Bhandari.
Vikram Rathour bested Robin Singh at the toss and batted. The
North batting had a formidable look. South was playing a three
man spin attack in Joshi, Raju and Kapoor with Mansur Ali Khan
and Mahesh being retained to take the shine off the ball.
The top three in the North batting order, Dani, Rathour and
Sodhi, all failed to get going as North found itself at 90-3. It
was left to Dharmani to put his stamp on the game with a watchful
59 as he set about rebuilding the innings with the ultradefensive Rajiv Nayyar. After Dharmani left at 149, Sehwag
provided a late flourish with a 66 ball fifty as he scored 54 out
of a 64 run unbroken partnership with Nayyar. The latter had
crawled to 37 from 172 balls and seemed to be in the mood for a
long vigil.
Full postLacklustre batting by Indians
Lacklustre batting, combined with an uneven pitch, left India with an unimpressive score on the opening day of their four-day tour match against New South Wales at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Thursday
Rick Eyre
02-Dec-1999
Lacklustre batting, combined with an uneven pitch, left India with an
unimpressive score on the opening day of their four-day tour match
against New South Wales at the Sydney Cricket Ground on
Thursday. India were all out for 185 after stand-in captain Saurav
Ganguly won the toss and elected to bat. NSW, at stumps, were 35 for
one in reply.
The match was deprived of a lot of its potential drawing power earlier
in the week when the team selections were announced. New South Wales
chose to rest all four of their current Test players (Steve Waugh,
Mark Waugh, Michael Slater and Glenn McGrath), while Indian captain
Sachin Tendulkar chose to sit this match out.
New South Wales made the first breakthrough on the eleventh ball of
the match. Medium-quick Don Nash, he of the Ian Austin build, beat
Sadagopan Ramesh (2) with a delivery which kept low and struck the pad
in front of middle stump. It was an easy decision for umpire Simon
Taufel and India were 1/6.
With Laxman coming in at first drop, Devang Gandhi fell on 15 when
Brett Lee beat the batsman for pace, rapping the pad plumb in front
with a ball again keeping a little low, Darrell Hair giving the
out. India two for 22.
Full postShewag hauls South over the coals
Virender Shewag gave a friendly South Zone attack a fearful pounding on Day two of the Duleep Trophy quarter final between North and South Zones at Agartala today
Sankhya Krishnan
02-Dec-1999
Virender Shewag gave a friendly South Zone attack a fearful pounding
on Day two of the Duleep Trophy quarter final between North and South
Zones at Agartala today. North Zone finished the day at 551-6 of which
Shewag's share was a bellicose 274 off just 325 balls with 36 hits to
the fence and 4 hits over it. Shewag was the prime mover in a 381 run
fifth wicket partnership off 107.1 overs with the indefatigable Rajeev
Nayyar who was still undislodged at stumps at 115 with eleven
fours. Nayyar's runs have come off 456 balls and in 590 minutes;
having already played the longest innings in first class cricket
earlier in the season, he showed he has few peers in this respect with
another trademark knock of immense patience.
North resumed at their overnight 229-4 (and not 213-4 as mentioned
yesterday). Shewag, who played in one ODI for India last season,
against Pakistan at Mohali in the Pepsi Cup (he made a solitary run
and was also belted for 35 runs in three overs) has already displayed
an appetite for runs this season with 187 against Haryana and 165
against Himachal. He was finally stumped by Shiraguppi off a
persevering Venkatapathy Raju with the total at 530. Wicketkeeper
Vijay Dahiya fell cheaply for eight and Nikhil Chopra on four was
holding the fort with Nayyar when play ended for the day.
The three South spinners, Raju, Kapoor and Joshi, all toiled hard but
with little to show for their efforts as they posted a century apiece
in the runs column of their bowling analyses.
Full post