Report

Bengal take first innings points against Assam

Calcutta: Bengal got the all important first innings lead on the last day of their East Zone Ranji Trophy league match against Assam which ended in a draw at the Eden Gardens here yesterday

16-Nov-1999

Calcutta: Bengal got the all important first innings lead on the last day of their East Zone Ranji Trophy league match against Assam which ended in a draw at the Eden Gardens here yesterday. Bengal thus picked up five points while Assam had to be content with three points.

Resuming at the overnight score of 334-9 the last pair of Wrichik Majumdar and Jyotish Das took Bengal past Assam's first innings total of 347. They had added 64 for the last wicket when they were finally separated with the total at 351. Majumdar remained not out on 68.

The match meandered into an academic exercise after that with Assam notching up 228-5 in their second innings thanks to Tariquer Rehman's unbeaten 103. Bengal now plays Tripura from November 22 while Assam takes on Bihar from December 25.

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Haryana in command against Himachal

Rohtak: Haryana was in a commanding position against Himachal Pradesh at draw of stumps on the third day of their North Zone Ranji Trophy league match at the Vishwakarma stadium here on Monday

Anil Gulati

16-Nov-1999

Rohtak: Haryana was in a commanding position against Himachal Pradesh at draw of stumps on the third day of their North Zone Ranji Trophy league match at the Vishwakarma stadium here on Monday. After setting a victory target of 432 to be scored in 117 overs, they captured five HP wickets after for only 98 runs by stumps.

Haryana resumed its second innings with an overall lead of 192 runs with seven wickets in hand. Overnight not out batsman Rajesh Puri scored 56 before falling leg before to Shakthi Singh. He played just 55 balls and hit ten fours. Wicketkeeper Ajay Ratra top scored with 75 runs. Haryana declared at 361 for 9. Among the Himachal bowlers, medium pacer Shakthi Singh who had taken six wickets in the first innings took five wickets in the second.

Chasing a tough victory target, the Himachal batsmen succumbed to the psychological pressure, lost wickets steadily and were in a hopeless situation by close.

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Bihar defeat Tripura by 51 runs

Agartala: Bihar won their East Zone Ranji Trophy league match against Tripura at the Maharaja Bir Bikram College stadium here yesterday by 51 runs to pick up the maximum eight points

16-Nov-1999

Agartala: Bihar won their East Zone Ranji Trophy league match against Tripura at the Maharaja Bir Bikram College stadium here yesterday by 51 runs to pick up the maximum eight points.

Set 234 for victory, Tripura was bowled out for 182 in 78.3 overs on the last day. Resuming at 29-0 Tripura seemed to have the match under control at 108-2 with A Vilaskar (58) and V.Prajapati (22) putting on 62 runs for the third wicket in 23.3 overs. But they lost their last eight wickets for 74 runs. The men who did the damage for Bihar were left-arm spinners Avinash Kumar and Prasad Rao who bagged five wickets each for 47 and 65 runs respectively.

Tripura now goes on to play Bengal while Bihar next plays Orissa, both matches starting on November 22.

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Andhra make good score on opening day

Hyderabad: After opting to bat first on a placid batting track at the Gymkhana grounds, Andhra started quietly with no runs in the first over

Blessington Thomas

16-Nov-1999

Hyderabad: After opting to bat first on a placid batting track at the Gymkhana grounds, Andhra started quietly with no runs in the first over. Vanka Pratap, sharing the new ball with Narenderpal Singh, took a severe beating from the Andhra skipper Amit Pathak, with his first couple of overs costing him 20 runs, all scored in boundaries.

Soon after Amit turned his attention towards N P Singh and continued in the same vein, striking the bowler for 3 more fours to register the first 50 runs on the board in 51 minutes off 11.5 overs, Pathak contibuting 38 of them in the company of L N Prasad Reddy. Reddy [ 16 ] lived a charmed life when Kanwaljeet could not hold on to a return catch offered at 63 in the 19th over of the innings and 9th of the bowler.

Venkatapathi Raju drew first blood with an arm ball to deceive Amit Pathak who was clean bowled for an aggressive 56 off 73 balls in a stay of 89 minutes. Nagini Kumar accompanied Reddy who lofted Kanwaljeet over mid-wicket for a huge 6. Azharuddin replaced Raju at the pavilion end as both Kanwaljeet and Raju were no threat to the batsmen and struck immediately to trap Reddy in front of the wickets to get an LBW decision from umpire Giridharan standing at the Pavilion end.

Lunch was taken at 113 for 2 after 42 overs. Nineteen runs after the resumption Raju replaced Kanwaljeet and was successful in getting a verdict of LBW in the first over of his second spell, bowling from the pavilion end. Venugopal who came in at the fall of Reddy found an able partner in R V Ch.Prasad and the two repaired the innings to give solidity by adding 142 runs for the fourth wicket in less than even time.

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Butcher, Gough shine as England experience revival

Bloemfontein: England experienced their best day of their South African tour on Sunday as Darren Gough and Mark Butcher put a smile back onto the normally stern face of coach Duncan Fletcher

Michael Finch

15-Nov-1999

Bloemfontein: England experienced their best day of their South African tour on Sunday as Darren Gough and Mark Butcher put a smile back onto the normally stern face of coach Duncan Fletcher.

At stumps after the third day of the four-day tour match against a Free State/Griqualand West Combined XI, the tourists found themselves in a winning position as the Combined XI finished the day on 10 without loss still 366 runs short of their winning target.

The day had belonged completely to England and was sparked off by a remarkable bowling spell by 29-year-old Yorkshire paceman, Darren Gough, bowling in only his second competitive match since injury ruined his English summer in mid-July.

Bowling with plenty of pace and hostility, Gough grabbed the prize wicket of local hero Gerhardus Liebenberg for 92 in the 12th over of the day on his way to an impressive haul of four for 60 off 21 overs.

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Railways bat entire day for 83 runs, break world record

Partab Ramchand

15-Nov-1999

In a remarkable display of stonewalling, Railways thwarted Madhya Pradesh's hopes of an outright victory by batting right through the last day of their Central Zone Ranji Trophy match at the Maharani Usha Raje ground in Indore on Sunday. In an entire day's play comprising 104 overs, they scored just 83 runs losing five wickets in the process to finish at 86 for five off 109 overs when stumps were drawn.

MP, which opened the attack with the right arm off breaks of Rajesh Chauhan and the slow left arm orthodox of Sunil Lahore on the third evening when Railways had followed on 322 runs behind pressed into service three more spinners in Manish Majithia (slow left arm orthodox), Narendra Hirwani (right arm leg break and googly) and Abbas Ali (right arm off break). But the five man spin attack could only prise the door half open.

Some of the statistics associated with the Railways batsmen make for astonishing reading. PS Rawat, the captain, played 110 balls for two runs. Y Gowd, who came in at No 4, played 181 balls for 13 runs. Opening batsman Sanjay Bangar for the top score of 39 played 208 balls. But easily the most amazing statistic was associated with Majithia, the MP spinner. He sent down 20 overs without conceding a run, picked up the wicket of Gowd and in the process finished with the amazing analysis of 20-20-0-1.

The 83 runs that Railways scored in an entire day constituted a world record for the least number of runs made in a day's uninterrupted play. The previous record was 95 by Australia (80 all out) and Pakistan (15 for two) in their one off Test match at Karachi in 1956.

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Railways bat entire day for 83 runs, break World record

Indore: In a remarkable display of stonewalling, Railways thwarted Madhya Pradesh's hopes of an outright victory by batting right through the last day at the Maharani Usha Raje ground here yesterday

15-Nov-1999

Indore: In a remarkable display of stonewalling, Railways thwarted Madhya Pradesh's hopes of an outright victory by batting right through the last day at the Maharani Usha Raje ground here yesterday. In an entire day's play comprising 104 overs, they scored just 83 runs losing five wickets in the process to finish at 86 for five off 109 overs when stumps were drawn.

Some of the statistics associated with the Railways batsmen make for astonishing reading. PS Rawat, the captain, played 110 balls for two runs. Y Gowd, who came in at No 4, played 181 balls for 13 runs. Opening batsman Sanjay Bangar for the top score of 39 played 208 balls. But easily the most amazing statistic was associated with Majithia, the MP spinner. He sent down 20 overs without conceding a run and he picked up the wicket of Gowd in the process.

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Keen tussle for first innings lead

Calcutta: Consistent batting down the order saw Bengal get to within 13 runs of Assam's first innings total on the third day of the East Zone Ranji Trophy league match here yesterday

15-Nov-1999

Calcutta: Consistent batting down the order saw Bengal get to within 13 runs of Assam's first innings total on the third day of the East Zone Ranji Trophy league match here yesterday. Replying to Assam's 347, Bengal were 334 for nine at close.

Resuming at 137 for two, overnight not out batsmen Rohan Gavaskar and Srikant Kalyani both got half centuries. While Gavaskar got 63, Kalyani was out for 59. Gavaskar faced 112 balls and hit seven fours while Kalyani faced 153 balls and hit nine boundaries. Safi Ahmed (21) and A Das (28) came up with valuable contributions and then WP Majumdar kept the latter half going with an unbeaten 54. In an aggressive mood, Majumdar hit five fours and three sixes while facing 94 balls. He and last man Jyotish Das (8) carry Bengal hopes of snatching first innings points. Sukhwinder Singh was the most successful bowler capturing five wickets for 111 from 46 overs.

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Ranji match poised for keen finish

Agartala: The East Zone Ranji Trophy league match between Bihar and Tripura is poised for a keen finish

15-Nov-1999

Agartala: The East Zone Ranji Trophy league match between Bihar and Tripura is poised for a keen finish. At stumps on the third day here yesterday, Tripura chasing a target of 234 were 29 without loss at close of play.

After a close tussle for the first innings lead which Bihar finally won by two runs, the visitors were all out for 231 in their second innings. Opener N.Ranjan (51) and V.Kumar (42) added 95 runs for the second wicket from 28 overs before falling in successive overs. Rajib Kumar then got a valuable 45 but wickets fell at regular intervals before V.Saxena and AV Kumar added 43 runs for the eighth wicket off 13 overs. However the last three Bihar wickets fell in ten balls without the addition of a run.

In their quest of a victory target of 234, Tripura openers R. Chowdhuri (12) and S Roy (15) came in unbeaten after batting nine overs by close.

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Services take first innings lead against J & K