The Hindu : Gandhi foils South's designs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 18, 2004

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Gandhi foils South's designs

By Our Special Correspondent

DHARAMSHALA (HP), FEB. 17. Devang Gandhi came up with a timely 87 to foil South Zone's designs of running East Zone close and ensured that his team gained two points, for snatching a first innings lead of 57 runs, as their Duleep Trophy encounter came to a farcical end at the Dharamshala cricket stadium here on Tuesday.

South, after being bowled out in the morning at 331, tried to make a match of it in the minimum remaining 77 overs. There was some excitement when East slipped to 33 for four in the 23rd over before Gandhi did his rescue act.

The East Zone skipper, who smashed a six and 10 boundaries while occupying the crease for 162 minutes, found an able ally in Rohan Gavaskar (37, seven 4s) and raised 76 runs for the fifth wicket. Equally important was the fact that they used up 15 overs.

After Gavaskar was caught behind, Laxmi Rattan Shukla joined Gandhi and put on 35 runs to keep South at bay. Shukla hit a six each off Y. Venugopal and R. Ramkumar during his 41-ball 22.

After tea, Gandhi's century looked on cards. However, he decided to give left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi the charge and was easily stumped. In order to do some good to its pride, South wanted to bowl out the opposition.

With the last East Zone pair in the middle and light not bright enough for tailenders to face the medium pacers, umpires Jasbir Singh and S.K. Sharma brought the facts to the attention of South skipper S. Ramesh. One over after Ramesh expressed his intention to bowl out East with the help of spinners, Gandhi declared the innings.

Left with no option, South commenced its second innings. Opener Rowland Barrington came out with last-man Sree Shant and the pair played out the remaining three overs.

Earlier, the South's overnight pair of R. Ramkumar (30, five 4s) and N.P. Singh (39 not out, two 4s) took the score from 304 to 330 before left-arm spinner Utpal Chatterjee bowled the former. One run later, Sree Shant departed to signal the end of South's first innings.

The scores:

East Zone_1st innings: 388

South Zone — 1st innings: R. Barrington c R. Kumar b Mohanty 15, S. Ramesh c Mohanty b Paul 57, S. Sriram (run out) 2; Y. Venugopal Rao c and b Lahiri 41, M.S.K. Prasad c Shukla b Lahiri 6, S. Sharath c Mohanty b Paul 48, S. Badrinath lbw b Chatterjee 9, S. Joshi c (sub.) V. Saravanan b Mohanty 51, R. Ramkumar b Chatterjee 30, N.P. Singh (not out) 39, S. Shant c Rajeev b Lahiri 0; Extras (b-19, lb-4, nb-10) 33; Total: 331.

Fall of wickets: 1-52, 2-56, 3-90, 4-119, 5-130, 6-159, 7-249, 8-258, 9-330.

East Zone bowling: Paul 34-11-72-2, Mohanty 20-5-49-2, Lahiri 35.2-11-70-3, Chatterjee 38-8-93-2, Gavaskar 7-1-24-0, Shukla 1-1-0-0.

East Zone _ 2nd innings: S.S. Das c Sriram b Joshi 15, D. Dasgupta lbw b N.P. Singh 0, A. Das (run out) 2, R. Kumar lbw b S. Shant 6, D. Gandhi st Prasad b Joshi 87, R. Gavaskar c Prasad b Ramkumar 37, L.R. Shukla c Prasad b Joshi 22, S. Lahiri c Badrinath b Ramkumar 2, U. Chatterjee b S. Shant 16, D. Mohanty (not out) 6, S.S. Paul (not out) 3; Extras (b-6, lb-5, nb-7, w-2) 20; Total: (for nine wickets declared) 216.

Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-15, 3-29, 4-33, 5-109, 6-146, 7-169, 8-196, 9-207.

South Zone bowling: N.P. Singh 8-4-11-1, Shant 17-4-47-2, Ramkumar 20-4-68-2, Joshi 19-4-48-3, Y.V. Rao 8-1-31-0.

South Zone _ 2nd innings: R. Barrington (not out) 1, S. Shant (not out) 4; Extras (lb-2) 2; Total: (for no loss) 7.

East Zone bowling: Lahiri 2-1-1-0, Gavaskar 1-0-4-0.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport