The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Sharath shows his class

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 10, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

Sharath shows his class

By Our Sports Reporter

SCORCHING DRIVE: S. Sharath was on song in the Ranji Trophy encounter against Hyderabad in Chennai on Tuesday.

CHENNAI, NOV. 9. S. Sharath scored a classy century as Tamil Nadu took a huge first innings lead of 298 over Hyderabad in its Ranji Trophy Elite B match at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here on Tuesday. Bad light ended play on the third day with Hyderabad on 63 for one in its second innings.

S. Badrinath bowled opener Nanda Kishore in the last over of the day with a classic off-break that whizzed through the chasm between bat and pad, as the right-hander leaned forward to play an ambitious cover-drive.

Kishore and left-hander Daniel Manohar had put on 63 to deny Tamil Nadu the opportunity to run through the batting line-up, on a pitch that has so far not eased out.

Both openers batted well, although a diving Vidyut dropped a difficult chance when Manohar edged mediumpacer S. Suresh towards second slip. Manohar also drove-flicked Ramkumar for a six over midwicket.

Career-best effort

Earlier, in the morning session, Vidyut carried on from his unbeaten 97 to post his second century for Tamil Nadu in Ranji Trophy. His career-best 130 was studded with 12 fours and a six. His overnight partner, Badrinath, looked solid in defence but was caught at silly point off left-arm spinner Inder Sekhar Reddy for 67.

Sharath was in terrific form. His innings had a motley mix of pulls, flicks and some sublime cover-drives. No. 5 Sridharan Sriram, meanwhile, sensibly chose to rotate the strike with Sharath. The remarkably consistent Sriram had an early reprieve on 19 when he mistimed a shot off Shivaji Yadav and the ball ballooned up in the air.

The batsman turned around and started walking towards the pavilion, not daring to hope that the sun would get into Nanda Kishore's eyes — which it precisely did.

As it happens so often Sriram took off from there, hitting Shivaji inside-out, soon after, for an awesome six over long-off. He also managed some nice square-drives and late cuts; even a few reverse sweeps. The left-handed duo put on 136 for the fourth wicket before Sriram was out lbw to Venkatapathi Raju, attempting another reverse sweep and getting trapped in front.

Sizzling start

Captain Hemang Badani walked in and promptly smashed the second ball he faced four rows into the stands.

With the score on 423, Sharath was finally caught at wide mid-on after making an elegant 105 (11x4, 194b), his 20th Ranji century.

Badani crossed over, and by the time Raju had completed his over, 18 runs had been added. A swept four was followed by a straight six and an audacious reverse sweep for four.

Tamil Nadu declared at tea on 461 for six with Badani unbeaten on 55. It will look to inflict an innings defeat on the opposition, which trails by 235 runs with nine wickets in hand.

The scores:

Hyderabad — 1st innings: 163.

Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan lbw b Reddy 130, S. Ramesh lbw b Raju 29, S. Badrinath c (sub) b Reddy 67; S. Sharath c Manohar b Reddy 105, S. Sriram lbw b Raju 57, Hemang Badani (not out) 55, S. Suresh c Khaleel b Manohar 7, Dinesh Kaarthick (not out) 1; Extras (b-7, lb-3) 10; Total (for six wkts. decl.) 461.

Fall of wickets: 1-77, 2-214, 3-241, 4-377, 5-423, 6-458.

Hyderabad bowling: N.P. Singh 19-5-49-0, Manohar 6-0-32-1, Shivaji Yadav 40-4-129-0, Reddy 37-2-130-3, Raju 23-2-90-2, Arjun Yadav 3-0-13-0, Anirudh Singh 3-0-8-0.

Hyderabad — 2nd innings: Nanda Kishore b Badrinath 32; D. Manohar (batting) 31; Inder Sekhar Reddy (batting) 0; Total (for one wkt.) 63.

Fall of wicket: 1-63.

Tamil Nadu bowling: Shrinivas 5-1-21-0, Suresh 4-4-0-0, Ramkumar 6-2-15-0, Raghuram 5-1-14-0, Vidyut 3-0-13-0, Badrinath 1-1-0-1.

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