The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Karnataka looks to salvage lost pride

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 31, 2004

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Karnataka looks to salvage lost pride

By Our Sports Reporter

BANGALORE, DEC. 30. Railways is staying focussed on the remote possibility of sneaking into the semifinals while Karnataka is hoping to salvage dented pride as the teams gear up for their Ranji Trophy Elite Group-A match that will commence at the IAF Ground here on Friday.

Railways (8 points) requires an outright victory with a bonus point and would then hope that Delhi (12) and Gujarat (10) fare badly in their last round matches while Karnataka (6) is eager to come out of its recent bad patch and will draw strength from the presence of Rahul Dravid in the team.

Railways led by Sanjay Bangar, has remained undefeated in the league and with a 133-run victory against Andhra in its last match it would hope to repeat its performance against Karnataka.

Though Railways has not lost any match, repetitive draws, triggered by batsmen who failed to cash in on the good work done by the bowlers led by seamer Harvinder Singh and off-spinner K. Parida, has only lowered its points tally.

Skipper Bangar after a string of low scores has finally found a semblance of his form while the consistent Amit Pagnis, T.P. Singh and all-rounder J.P. Yadav have all contributed in a batting line-up that has also suffered the intermittent absence of Yere Goud in its playing eleven. Yere Goud is back and he might have a role to play in a match being held in his hometown.

Host Karnataka has been affected by the vagaries of form and the constant changes within the team has affected the side's momentum. Skipper Sujith Somasundar has been plagued by a batting order that has increasingly banked on openers Barrington Rowland and Robin Uthappa to not only ward off the new ball but also score heavily as the middle-order has failed too often for comfort. Repeatedly, the rescue job has been left to Thilak Naidu with the lower-order like Sunil Joshi and Dodda Ganesh to bail out Karnataka.

Dravid adds fillip

The team has got a tremendous fillip with the presence of Rahul Dravid in its last league match. Dravid's calm assurance will hopefully steady the Karnataka innings. The bowling led by Dodda Ganesh and Sunil Joshi and supported by young seamers Vinay Kumar and N.C. Aiyappa has delivered despite its batsmen failing to put up good scores. With a semifinal berth out of the reckoning, Karnataka would possibly be under less pressure and look to salvage lost pride.

The teams:

Karnataka: Sujith Somasundar (captain), Barrington Rowland, Robin Uthappa, Thilak Naidu (wicketkeeper), Rahul Dravid, S. Shinde, Deepak Chougule, Sunil Joshi, Dodda Ganesh, Vinay Kumar, N.C. Aiyappa, Udit Patel, Stuart Binny, C. Raghu and Raghavendra. Coach: K. Jeshwanth. Physio: Ramakanth.

Railways: Sanjay Bangar (captain), A. Pagnis, T.P. Singh, S. Verma, J.P. Yadav, Raja Ali, Siddarth Joshi (wicketkeeper), Yere Goud, Harvinder Singh, K. Parida, Madan Yadav, Shankar Rao, S. Khanolkar, S. Wankhede and S. Saxena. Coach: Vinod Sharma. Physio: Jeet Devaiah.

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

Sport