The Hindu : Railways restricts Tamil Nadu

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 15, 2004

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Railways restricts Tamil Nadu

By Our Sports Reporter

Siddarth Verma snaps up S. Ramesh as Sanjay Bangar exults.

CHENNAI, MARCH 14. Railways' approach to cricket is all about perseverance. The Central Zone side is admittedly short on flair, but it more than makes up for this deficiency with commitment and the ability to stay focussed for long hours.

Railways is miserly when it comes to conceding runs, and its patience paid dividends on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy semifinal against Tamil Nadu at the Chidambaram Stadium here on Sunday, as it restricted the home side's strong batting line-up to 244 for six at stumps, on a square that has already begun to aid spin.

It is probably easier to put it across Railways — the 2002 champion — by riding on individual brilliance. But if the approach is to play session by session — which was what Tamil Nadu chose to do after opting to bat — then you will certainly have to draw from deep within.

If Tamil Nadu got this far, it was largely due to the enterprise of southpaw S. Sriram (batting 81, 270m, 195b, 8x4) and his half-century partnerships with left-handers S. Sharath and debutant K.S. Vasudeva Das for the fourth and fifth wickets respectively.

Opening bowler Harvinder Singh displayed aggression, but the trickiest of the lot was his new-ball partner J.P. Yadav, whose subtle change of pace and the ability to move the ball either way had batsmen in two minds. No wonder then, Bangar had him bowl 25 overs in four spells. S. Suresh and left-hander S. Ramesh provided the side with a 54-run start in 20.4 overs.

Things moved nicely with Suresh and Sriram taking the score to 95 just short of lunch, before the former edged the ball to the 'keeper.

New man S. Badrinath was almost immediately held at second slip.

Both wickets went to Yadav. In the larger picture, it looks a wrong decision by Railways to play an extra bowler in left-arm spinner Madan Yadav in the place of a batsman like, say, the capable Amit Pagnis. For one thing, five of Tamil Nadu's top eight batsmen are left-handers and moreover, Yadav just bowled two overs. Off-spinner Kulamani Parida came up with a better second spell; but his first go of 12-3-45-0 was enough for Sriram to get into his groove. On the stocky southpaw lies the home side's hope of achieving a challenging score. Keeping him company is the combative Dinesh Kaarthick, who struck a six off Parida in the last ball of the day, as if to signify the battle isn't over.

The scores:

Tamil Nadu: S. Suresh c Wankhede b J.P. Yadav 44, S. Ramesh c Verma b Kanolkar 23, S. Sriram (batting) 81, S. Badrinath c Goud b J.P. Yadav 1, S. Sharath c M. Yadav b Harvinder 26, K.S. Vasudeva Das c T.P. Singh b Parida 25, S. Vidyut (run out) 22, K.D. Kaarthick (batting) 13; Extras (lb-5, nb-4) 9. Total (for six wkts., 90 overs) 244.

Fall of wickets: 1-54, 2-95, 3-99, 4-149, 5-205, 6-229.

Railways bowling: Harvinder Singh 13-0-49-1, J.P. Yadav 25-8-47-2, S. Bangar 14-3-38-0, S. Kanolkar 10-2-25-1, K. Parida 26-7-72-1, M. Yadav 2-0-8-0.

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