The Hindu : Central bowlers now at the receiving end

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 17, 2004

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Central bowlers now at the receiving end

By Our Special Correspondent

GURGAON, FEB. 16. It was the turn of the Central Zone bowlers to curse the pitch on the third day of this dull Duleep Trophy encounter at the Devi Lal Stadium here.

West Zone, with batsmen brought up on the firm belief of placing immense value on their wicket, paid back in the same coin and finished the day at 163 for one — 386 runs in arrears. The chances of the teams splitting points are bright unless West sheds the wise path of batting with patience on a pitch that has turned out to be an eye sore for everyone associated with this contest. Such playing surfaces do not help anyone and as rightly pointed out by various players from both the teams it was time the authorities looked into this aspect of domestic cricket with greater concern and purpose.

The pace on this pitch has remained true, and the bounce too, barring a couple of deliveries that just crawled. Luckily for West it had the right men in the middle, Maharashtra left-handers Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Dhiraj Jadhav, to foil every trick the Central bowlers tried after Mumbai opener Vinayak Mane became Sanjay Bangar's victim early in the innings, nicking the ball behind.

Resuming at 532 for seven, Central fell to medium-pacer Munaf Patel's burst of three wickets.

The partnership between Kanitkar and Jadhav was built on the sound foundation that the two have enjoyed on placid tracks in their state. Kanitkar is experienced enough to realise the significance of batting straight and Jadhav, with two centuries under his belt this season, did not lag behind. The two tackled the Central attack with lot of skills and grit, given the threat of the ball shooting through.

The aim of the West batsmen was to deny Central a breakthrough even though the number of appeals on Monday may present a different story. But umpires V. K. Ramaswamy and A. V. Jayaprakash have been consistent in their rulings and firm too, not bowing to any pressure tactics by either camp.

The scores:

Central — 1st innings: S. Bangar b R. Patel 3, G. Khoda b R. Patel 156, R. Prakash c Mane b Bahutule 73, D. Bundela b Bahutule 72, J. P. Yadav c Martyn b Bahutule 80, G. Pandey b Kulkarni 12, A. Deshpande c Kanitkar b Kulkarni 18, V. Saxena b M. Patel 69, H. Singh c Aphale b M. Patel 26, K. Parida (not out) 10, N. Hirwani c Mongia b M. Patel 4, Extras 26, Total 549.

Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-186, 3-294, 4-336, 5-370, 6-438, 7-479, 8-534, 9-535.

West bowling: M. Patel 31.5-6-82-3, R. Patel 40-7-112-2, N. Kulkarni 40-6-102-2, S. Bahutule 40-10-111-3, R. Powar 35-5-107-0, H. Kanitkar 5-0-13-0.

West — 1st innings: V. Mane c Deshpande b Bangar 10, D. Jadhav (batting) 64, H. Kanitkar (batting) 78, Extras 11, Total (for one wkt) 163.

Fall of wicket: 1-13.

Central bowling: Harvinder 13-5-24-0, Bangar 18-8-23-1, Yadav 13-5-23-0, Parida 17-6-28-0, Hirwani 18-3-49-0, Pandey 2-1-5-0, Khoda 1-0-1-0.

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