Bell, Vincent, Marshall grind MRF attack

It was an agonising day for the bowlers, spin and pace alike, at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai on Monday. While MRF toiled hard, after having lost the toss and being put out on the field, the New Zealand A batsmen took their time milking the bowling. At the end of the day, the visiting team's skipper Matthew Bell could be nothing but pleased, both for his 111 and for the side's 303/4 off 101 overs.

Having won a close first round encounter against Mumbai Cricket Association, New Zealand A took no chances. On a wicket that can best be described as a featherbed, the spinners toiled ceaselessly with little reward. A look at the bowling analysis tells the tale - left arm spinner Babloo Kumar 0/65 from 22 overs, Ashish Kapoor 0/68 from 27 overs, Tanseer Jabbar 0/43 from 22 overs.

Having said all this, it would be unfair to the extreme to take anything away from the Kiwi batsmen. Having played out the best part of the day with extreme care, pushing, nudging and stroking the ball into the gaps for ones and twos, the New Zealand batsmen really cashed in, just after tea, when the wicket was at its best and the bowling tired.

Earlier in the day, Mark Richardson (0) and Mathew Horne (4) missed out on a good chance to get some good scores as New Zealand A slumped to 20/2. From there on however, the pair of Bell and Lou Vincent shut the door on the MRF bowlers. Adding 156 runs for the third wicket, the pair blunted the bowling. Playing the sweep with aplomb, both Bell and Vincent were positive without being aggressive. Bell in particular was keen to play a long innings and outlasted Vincent (85 runs, 165 balls, 11 fours). The departure of Vincent saw young Hamish Marshall have a go at the batting. Easily the most comfortable batsman at the crease, Marshall took the attack to the spinners, striking 11 boundaries and two sixes, one that clattered into the sight screen, on the way to making an unbeaten 84 (123 balls).

It took a long while, 377 minutes in all at the wicket, before Bell was dismissed on 111. Coming off nearly 300 balls, Bell's knock included 11 hits to the fence. At the end of the day, Marshall had Jacob Oram (1 not out) for company.

Railways are on track for a huge first innings lead at the end of day one of their three-day MRF Buchi Babu tournament quarter-final against the National Cricket Academy at the Southern Railway Grounds in Chennai on Monday. At close of play, the Railway men had reached 116-2 after dismissing the NCA for a paltry 158.

It was the left-arm spin of India discard Murali Kartik that played a big part in destroying the NCA wards in just 47.5 overs. An unbeaten 81-run partnership between Dheeraj Sharma and Railways captain Yere Goud then placed the Railways in a comfortable position at close. Goud and his team will be seeking to build on the solid foundations that they have laid when play resumes on Tuesday

NCA got off to a good start with openers Vinayak Mane and Gautam Gambhir (21) putting on 59 runs off 14.5 overs. Thereafter batsman after batsman succumbed to Kartik. And those who slipped from his hands promptly fell to the two off-spinners in the Railways squad - Sanjay Satpathy and Kulamani Parida. Mane, who plays in the Ranji Trophy for Mumbai, top scored with 52 off 92 balls with seven fours and one six. Raza Ali who made 34 off 46 was the only other batsman to make a mark in an innings that lacked direction.

The 25-year-old Kartik returned impressive figures of 14.5-2-45-6 while Satpathy and Parida claimed two wickets each.

The Railways reply did not get to the best off starts with opener Amit Pagnis guiding a delivery from left-arm seamer Salabh Srivastav into wicket-keeper Deep Das Gupta's hands with just three runs on the board. But No. 3 Dheeraj Sharma, who made a patient unbeaten 55 off 139 balls, added 42 runs in the company of the other opener Vineet Saxena before the latter was out.

The arrival of 29-year-old Goud, the bulwark of the Railways batting for many years now, then ensured that his team smoothly chugged along to 116-2. Goud was batting on 38 off 63 balls with four fours and a six.

Vijay Bharadwaj stood tall amongst the ruins scoring a defiant hundred for Karnataka State Cricket Association XI in their quarter-final match against the Cricket Association of Bengal in the MRF Buchi Babu tournament at the Guru Nanak College Grounds in Chennai on Monday.

KSCA XI were bowled out for 232 in 93.2 overs. By close of play CAB had scored six runs and lost the wicket of opening batsman Subhnoy Das for a duck.

KSCA XI skipper Anil Kumble won the toss and elected to bat on a pitch with some moisture in it. The start of the play was delayed by 30 minutes because the umpires were not happy with the condition of the pitch.

The tall and well-built 20-year-old fast bowler, Shib Sankar Paul created a flutter in the KSCA XI camp by striking two early blows. The pace and bounce was what did the opening batsmen Mithun Beerala (4) and Rowland Barrington (8) in.

Meanwhile, Laxmi Ratan Shukla claimed the wicket of Shyam Ponnapa (7). The young Deepak Chougule made just 12 before he was bowled by Paul. KSCA were in deep trouble at 64/5 when they lost Sunil Joshi (12), who fell to veteran left arm spinner Utpal Chaterjee.

Bharadwaj and wicket-keeper batsman Rajashekar Shanbal set out to repair the innings and went on to play sensibly. Bharadwaj who played well to get to his nineties, played a couple of cut shots in the air past the ropes at third-man fence to get to his hundred.

Bharadwaj's vigil came to an end when he chanced his arm against the off spinner Sourashish Lahiri, to sky a catch to Shukla at deep midon. He made 105 runs off 237 balls with the help of 16 boundaries. Bharadwaj and Shanbal added 159 runs off 61.1 overs for the sixth wicket. In the space of 51 balls KSCA lost their remaining wickets, scoring just eight more runs. Lahiri was the pick of the bowlers taking 4/52.

CAB had to bat for the remaining 20 minutes in fading light as David Johnson and NC Iyyappa went hunting for early breaks. Iyyappa generated good pace and beat the bat a few times. He had a confident shout for lbw against Das turned down and claimed the wicket with the following ball, given out lbw.

The pitch is a cause of concern as it has started breaking up at the good length area. Skipper Anil Kumble could prove a handful on this under-prepared pitch for the CAB batsmen led by Rohan Gavaskar.

A good performance by Jolly Rovers' bowlers meant that All India Associated Banks could only score 247 runs in their first innings in the MRF Buchi Babu tournament quarter-final between the two sides at the Chemplast grounds in Chennai on Monday. Jolly Rovers were eight for no loss at close of play.

In the morning, Banks captain B Akhil won the toss and decided that he would back his strong batting line-up to put up a huge total on board, But things din't go quite according to plan as opener Daniel Manohar, who also plays for Hyderabad, got out without troubling the scorers.

The other opener Jyoti Yadav was in good nick and gaining in confidence. After the loss of No.3 M Srinivas for 12, Yadav, who made 52 off 135 balls and Pankaj Dharmani (39) began rebuilding the innings. Next man Thilak Naidu smashed a quickfire 39 off 42 balls as the Railways innings enjoyed their best period of the match.

The rest of the batsman though couldn't make any significant contribution as the bankmen lost their way. Akhil made 25 off 79 balls.

For Jolly Rovers, opening bowler Ramkumar and Ganesh Kumar claimed three wickets each.