Balaji rocks Roofit XI with fiery spell

Roofit XI were bowled out for 263 runs on the first day in the final of the Coromandel Cement Cup tournament against Chemplast at the Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wodayar Sports Centre in Bangalore on Monday.

Jatin Paranjpe won the toss for Roofit XI and elected to bat. His team did well to reach 203 for two wickets. But then they lost their last eight wickets for just 60 runs. The day clearly belonged to the medium pace bowler Lakshmipathy Balaji who finished with figures of 24.4-2-73-7.

Balaji, who has been learning the trade at the NCA, ripped through the Roofit batting line up. He picked up the first two wickets. Satyajit Parab and Hrishikesh Kanitkar then put together a partnership of 108 runs for the third wicket. Baroda's Parab who was a prolific run getter in the previous Ranji season was in good form but was unlucky to miss out on a well deserved hundred by just two runs. His 98 came off 170 balls and was decorated with 13 boundaries.

Parab was caught behind by TR Arasu off the bowling of Balaji who bowled with a lot of fire. Kanitkar was in impressive mood striking the ball cleanly for eight boundaries in making 57 runs off 70 balls, before edging one to Arasu off the bowling of Ganesh Kumar. It was all Balaji after that, except for a brief fight put up by Aziz Sheikh who made a quickfire unbeaten 30 off 35 balls with the help of a six and five boundaries.

Chemplast did not have the best of starts. Ganesh Kumar was bowled by Aware for a duck. Sujit Somasunder on 35 and S Badrinath on 25 remained unbeaten as Chemplast made 67/1 off 22 overs at close of play.