Report

Haldipur, Gavaskar put Bengal in driver's seat

17-Feb-2000

A second wicket partnership of 123 runs off 175 balls between Nikhil Haldipur (92) and Rohan Gavaskar (53) placed Bengal in the driver's seat in their Ranji Trophy Super League match against Delhi at Calcutta on Thursday. Bengal finished the day at 194 for four wickets when play was called off 19.2 overs before the scheduled close of play due to bad light.

Earlier, the Bengal bowlers had restricted Delhi to 236 in the first knock with opener Akash Chopra being the top scorer with 95. It was a marathon knock that saw occupy the crease for 437 minutes. He faced 328 balls and hit 12 boundaries. He was the last batsman to be dismissed off Utpal Chatterjee, caught at slip by Saurav Ganguly. Laxmi Ratan Shukla took the wickets of Rahul Sanghvi and Sanjay Gill to finish with four wickets while Sumit Panda started the slide dismissing Nikhil Chopra in the third over of the morning.

Bengal were rocked early as Gill had Devang Gandhi caught behind for a duck. Then Haldipur and the junior Gavaskar took over. Both played freely in front of the wicket and never allowed the bowlers to dominate. Haldipur was severe on Robin Singh (jr) whom he hit for three fours in an over. Just when he looked set for his sixth Ranji Trophy hundred he holed out to mid on of the bowling of Rahul Sanghvi. It was a rash shot. His 92 was compiled off 118 balls with 16 boundaries. Gavaskar completed his 50 gliding Chopra to the fine leg fence. But he perished in the next over bowled by Sanghvi. He tried to loft him over mid off and was caught by Chopra.

In walked Ganguly. The 8000-odd crowd which had gathered to watch him however, were disappointed as he fell for five. He was not fully forward to a ball from Chopra and the resultant pad-bat was snapped up at silly point by substitute Gautam Gambhir for only five. At stumps Srikant Kalyani (23) and Syed Saba Karim (11) were taking Bengal towards their first target of five points for the first innings lead.

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Saurashtra have the edge in keen contest

Saurashtra had the better of the proceedings on Day 2 of their Super League match against Haryana at Rohtak today with the home team still 221 behind on first innings with six wickets in hand

17-Feb-2000

Saurashtra had the better of the proceedings on Day 2 of their Super League match against Haryana at Rohtak today with the home team still 221 behind on first innings with six wickets in hand. Resuming at 285/5 Saurashtra extended their first innings to 405 thanks in part to a 56 run 8th wicket stand between HJ Parsana (43) and MM Parmar (34). Haryana's V Jain took 4/96 but he also bowled 16 no balls as the home team gifted away 54 runs in extras of which 29 were no balls.

Haryana openers Jitender Singh (51) and Parender Sharma (43) added 99 for the first wicket in 30.1 overs but then followed a dramatic collapse as four wickets fell for the addition of just three runs in the space of 27 balls. Parsana was the chief wrecker as he ran out Jitender and dismissed Jasvir Singh and S Dalal cheaply. Rajesh Puri responded with a blistering counter attack, stroking an undefeated 62 off 59 balls, and along with wicket keeper Ajay Ratra (13 not out) put on 82 runs in an unbroken association for the 5th wicket. At close Haryana were 184/4 from 50 overs.

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Goud, Wankhede take Baroda apart

Railways' Y Goud and S Wankhade sent Baroda on a leather hunt with a 255 run 6th wicket partnership on the second day of their Super League game at the Karnail Singh stadium in Delhi today

17-Feb-2000

Railways' Y Goud and S Wankhade sent Baroda on a leather hunt with a 255 run 6th wicket partnership on the second day of their Super League game at the Karnail Singh stadium in Delhi today. Resuming at 194/5, Railways lost just one wicket during the day for the addition of 254 runs.

Goud batted through the day to remain unbeaten on a monumental 161 (641 minutes, 464 balls, 12 fours). Wicketkeeper Wankhede was dismissed in the 88th over of the day for 139 (397 minutes, 296 balls, 18 fours). Z Khan became Baroda's sole wicket taker during the day when he castled Wankhede. At stumps Railways were 448/6 from 180 overs with Z Hussain (11 not out) keeping Goud company.

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Joshi spins web around Rajasthan batsmen

Sunil Joshi upstaged his more illustrious partners in the Karnataka bowling attack as the home side grabbed an overall lead of 109 with nine second innings wickets standing at close on Day 2 of their Super League match against Rajasthan at the RSI

17-Feb-2000

Joshi's 6/48 from 26 overs helped Karnataka extinguish Rajasthan's challenge for 211 and claim a first innings lead of 32. Srinath, Prasad, Kumble and Ganesh all picked up a wicket apiece. Rajasthan's one-drop N Doru top scored with 66 (153 balls, 8 fours). Karnataka openers Beerala and Barrington then put on 52 in 14 overs before the latter fell for 22. At stumps the hosts were 77/1 with Beerala on 37 and Dravid on 11.

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Nandakishore, Laxman lead strong Hyderabad reply

Hyderabad openers A Nandakishore and VVS Laxman took the fight to the Bihar camp with an unbroken opening stand of 140 in 129 minutes off 30 overs after allowing their opponents to post a first innings total of 381 on the second day of their Super

17-Feb-2000

Resuming at 225/6 Bihar lost Vikash Kumar cheaply for 3. But Mihir Diwakar joined Manish Kumar to forge a 126 run 8th wicket stand before Manish fell for 63. Diwakar was last out for 86 (161 balls, 9 fours, 4 sixes) as the innings terminated in the 149th over. Hyderabad opening bowlers NP Singh and Parth Satwalekar helped themselves to three wickets apiece.

Hyderabad's 50 came in the 14th over and 100 in the 20th over as both openers launched into the Bihar attack. At stumps Nandakishore was on 74 (103 balls, 12 fours) and Laxman on 59 (79 balls, 11 fours).

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UP call the shots on second day

Uttar Pradesh took control of their Super League match against Orissa at the Green Park, Kanpur today after an unfinished 196 run 4th wicket collaboration between Rizwan Shamshad and Gyanendra Pandey had taken the hosts to the relative security of

17-Feb-2000

Resuming at 8/0, openers Manoj Mudgal and Jyoti Yadav took the score to 70 before off spinner Sanjay Satpathy took three quick wickets to reduce UP to 103/3. After Mudgal was third out for 62 (115 balls, 8 fours), Shamshad and Pandey took centre stage. The former made an unbeaten 106 (161 balls, 13 fours) while Pandey, who took four wickets yesterday, was still there on 90 (192 balls, 14 fours). Satpathy finished with figures of 3-92 from 33 overs. At close UP were 58 runs ahead of Orissa's first innings effort of 241.

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Sri Lanka clinch one-day series against Pakistan

Gujranwala, Feb 16: Sri Lanka took an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-match one-day international cricket series against Pakistan after winning the second game by 34 runs at the Jinnah Stadium here on Wednesday in front of a capacity crowd

Ilyas Beg

17-Feb-2000

Skipper Sanath Jayasuriya led from the front with a superb all-round performance which earned the Man-of-the-Match award. He struck a splendid 65 to lay foundation of Sri Lanka's impressive score of 263 for six in 50 overs, and then took two wickets for 30 as Pakistan were bowled out for 229 in 45.1 overs.

The last match of the one-day series, at the Qadhafi Stadium in Lahore on Saturday (Feb 19), will now only be of academic interest.

Benefiting from the first use of the wicket when Pakistan captain Saeed Anwar won the toss and opted to field for the second time running, the Sri Lankan batsmen prospered against some wayward bowling.

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Drumm leads from the front

New Zealand captain Emily Drumm was the difference between the two teams as her aggressive 59 steered the home side to a third straight victory over the touring England side at Auckland with two matches left in the five-match series

Chris Rosie

17-Feb-2000

England won the toss and captain Clare Connor set the visitors off to a slow start with fellow opener SC (Claire) Taylor against the tight bowling of the New Zealand opening attack of Katrina Keenan and Rachel Pullar. They took until the seventh over to get into double figures and it was not until the first bowling change in the 11th over, the 15-year-old Munokoa Tunupopo replacing Keenan at the city end, that the first boundary came, a Connor drive through extra cover. drumm made it a double change with medium pacer Haidee Tiffen replacing Pullar at the scoreboard end, and immediately going for another Connor specialty through extra cover.

However, in the 14th over, just when the England pair were looking to build on their foundation, the grand dame of New Zealand cricket, Debbie Hockley, produced the necessary magic, scoring a direct hit from short mid-wicket at the bowler's end, leaving a backing-up Connor just short of her ground. The captain gone for 16 with the score at 41.

New arrival Charlotte Edwards punished a wild full toss from Tunupopo through mid-wicket but otherwise Connor's departure put a brake on the scoring. It was also helped by Catherine Campbell's off spin replacing Tunupopo, whose three overs had cost 17 runs.

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West Indies Domestic: Leewards romp into finals

The Leeward Islands cricket team romped into the finals of the 2000 Busta Cup after narrowly missing a well deserved victory against Barbados at Kensington Oval this past weekend

Zach Kenworthy

16-Feb-2000

The Leeward Islands cricket team romped into the finals of the 2000 Busta Cup after narrowly missing a well deserved victory against Barbados at Kensington Oval this past weekend. However, winning first innings against a strong Barbados side in Barbados was more than enough to ensure a spot in the finals for the Leewards.

Upon winning the toss, Barbados captain felt that his best option was to take the field. This initially proved a good decision as Anguillian Alex Adams and Sylvester Joseph (who both registered noughts) were both out early as the Leewards stumbled to 10 for 2. The Leewards were unable to put together any real partnerships of substance as Runako Morton (60) and Warrington Phillip (34) top scored for the visitors as they accumulated a total of 190. Morton once again mixed aggression with some sensible strokeplay as he again announced to selectors that he should seriously be considered for the upcoming Cable and Wireless Test Series. Phillip on the other hand played a cameo innings that seriously aided his teams cause. When Barbados took to the crease they surrendered to 148 all out. Griffith (18), Holder (18), Hinds (24), Hurley (18) and Bradshaw (18) all got starts but failed to produce any noteworthy scores against a persistent Leeward Islands bowling attack. Ambrose was once again the pick of the bowlers with 5 for 39 from just 23 overs. His trainee, Kerry Jeremy also bowled well as he claimed 2 for 47.

With a first innings lead of 42 the Leewards did not allow themselves to feel too comfortable as they amassed one of the largest totals of the tournament. Again Adams (4) lost his wicket early, but this time it was to a brilliant forward short leg catch by Marshall. However, this early loss was compensated by a sensible partnership between Dave Joseph (39) and Keith Arthurton (88). Arthurton played some brilliant cover drives and punches off the back foot as Joseph ably cemented himself at the other end while battling his way to one of his better scores in a difficult season. Jacobs also batted well for his 39 as he and Tuckett (59 not out) accumulated a 50 run partnership. The late order heroics, however, came from Warrington Phillip (45) who again contributed a meaningful innings to his team's cause. He and Tuckett shared in a stoic 84 run partnership that stunted all hopes that Barbados had for saving the match and their season.

With an impossible fourth innings target of 403 from two sessions, Barbados attempted to salvage some pride and barely just did as they were 167 for 9 at the close. Holder played a responsible innings as he fought his way to 66 not out, but it was not enough to save his country's season. Wilden Cornwall added to his 2 first innings wickets with remarkable figures of 6 for 53 from 23 overs.

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Bengal bowlers push Delhi on the defensive

Bengal restricted Delhi to 200 for six on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Super league tie at the Eden Gardens today

Sakyasen Mittra

16-Feb-2000

Bengal restricted Delhi to 200 for six on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Super league tie at the Eden Gardens today. A dour unbeaten 79 by opener Akash Chopra in 367 minutes enabled Delhi to reach the 200 mark in the last over of the day, as the Bengal bowlers bowled a tidy length and line. At one point of time, it had appeared that Delhi would not reach even this figure as Saurav Ganguly, Laxmiratan Shukla and Utpal Chatterjee had them tottering at 137 with half the side back in the pavilion. But the three did not have any other bowler to really back them up.