New Zealand 'A' succumb meekly to Railways spin

Following their marathon batting performance in the quarter-final clash against MRF, New Zealand 'A' failed abysmally in their semifinal encounter against Indian Railways at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. On winning the toss and electing to bat, New Zealand 'A' were shot out for 129 in 57 overs by the spin duo of Sanjay Satpathy and Murli Kartik. In response, Indian Railways are a healthy 114/4 and in sight of the crucial first innings lead.

It was Mark Richardson, dismissed in the first over every time previously in this series who gave the innings a semblance of respectability. Carrying the bat with a patient 59, Richardson watched in dismay as his partners all failed to reach double figures when the luncheon interval was taken. New Zealand 'A' were teetering at the brink at 77/7. A late in the order 'recovery' from the last two batsmen, Shane Bond (14) and Paul Wiseman (10) saw New Zealand 'A' limp to 129 all out.

The heroes on the day for Indian Railways were without a shadow of doubt their spinners. Former India left arm spinner Murali Kartik scalped 3/34 from 18 overs and knocked the top order out. Once he opened the flood gates, off spinner Sanjay Satpathy took over, getting rid of the last six wickets. Satpathy's 6/55 off 21 overs was easily the highlight of the day.

In response, Indian Railways lost three quick wickets and were in a spot of bother at 23/3. Murali Kartik however, underlined his importance to the Railways team, spanking an unbeaten 54 that included 8 fours and 2 sixes. Yere Goud, unbeaten on 34 (97 balls, 6 fours) helped Railways get within striking distance of the New Zealand 'A' first innings total.

Half-centuries from three middle-order batsmen enabled Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) to post a healthy 273 for eight after winning the toss and electing to bat against Jolly Rovers at the end of day one of their three-day MRF Buchi Babu semi-final at the IIT-Chemplast grounds in Chennai on Friday.

Saikat Mukherjee, Sanjib Sanyal and Utpal Chatterjee were the men who helped CAB, 52 for four at one stage, to recover.

Bengal had lost their captain and last match centurion Rohan Gavaskar for no score at that stage. But first, Mukherjee and Sanyal, put on 104 runs, the best partnership of the day. Then Chatterjee, more known for his left-arm spin, played a patient knock of 57 not out to help CAB reach a competitive score. Chatterjee's ninth-wicket partnership with Saurashish Lahiri (21), which has already yielded 39 runs, was the next best partnership.

Mukherjee made an aggressive 66 off 76 balls with four fours while Sanyal made 59 off 120 balls. For Rovers, left-arm spinner R Ramkumar, who claimed three wickets each, was the most successful bowler. Opening bolwer L Balaji climed two wickets.

When play resumes on Saturday, the first thing CAB will be hoping for is to see Chatterjee guiding them beyond the psychological 300-run mark.