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Friday, Dec 31, 2004

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A big challenge ahead of Delhi

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, DEC. 30. As captain of Delhi Ajay Jadeja is all set to face a big challenge, hopes to catch the big fish around New Year time and ensure his team's entry into the national championship semifinal.

Not long ago a fine hitter, handy bowler, a brilliant fielder and catcher in limited over internationals, Jadeja knows the enormity of the task his team will have to grapple with against the Ranji Elite Group `A' leader, Mumbai, but he did not appear to be overwhelmed by anxiety.

Describing his promotion — of course in jest — from player to captain was akin to `a nalayak (useless fellow) made monitor', a chirpy-looking Jadeja said it's been a matter of fact for many years that aspiring teams had to beat Mumbai to win the Ranji Trophy and that his team, as a first step, has an opportunity to do so in order to qualify for the semifinals.

Captaincy was offered to him once it was known that Virender Sehwag would be busy with the national team right through the league phase. Jadeja accepted it and since November has marshalled the available resources sufficiently well, but dropped the big points against Gujarat to start with and also in the course of the seven match preliminary stage.

Like coach Madan lal, he pointed out a combination of factors — notably not able to play at its home ground Ferozeshah Kotla — has placed Delhi in a plight wherein it has to beat Mumbai (either on the first innings or outright) and keep itself abreast of the proceedings of the match between Gujarat and Andhra and between Railways and Karnataka. Theoretically Gujarat and Railways have a chance to progress further should the results and final numbers come up differently.

Nehra returns

For the crucial match, Delhi has been bolstered by the return to the ranks by left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra, who grabbed a bagful in the first match against Gujarat in early November, but since has spent time on rehabilitation. Sehwag saying `yes' would have boosted Delhi's chances, but even without the dashing batsman, Delhi has gifted batsmen to make merry. Left hander Gautam Gambhir who will open the innings with Akaash Chopra played his part with a match-winning knock of 126 that brought a first win for Delhi against Bengal at the Eden Gardens.

According to coach Madan Lal, there are no batting concerns, but said his team will have to make do with Varun Kumar as wicketkeeper in the absence of Vijay Dahiya who has withdrawn citing personal reasons. "We have to get our bowling attack right. We might as well play four international bowlers (Nehra, Amit Bhandari, Rahul Sanghvi and Sarandeep Singh).''

Mumbai's coach Chandrakant Pandit said he would like his team to maintain the winning tempo. Mumbai will be without leg spinner Sairaj Bahutule, who took part in the team meeting, but has not recovered from a hamstring pull suffered in the last match against Karnataka.

The teams (from):

Mumbai: Nilesh Kulkarni (captain), Wasim Jaffer, Vinayak Mane, Vinit Indulkar, Amol Muzumdar, Nishit Shetty, Ramesh Powar, Vinayak Samant, Wilkin Mota, Santosh Shinde, Usman Malvi, Abhijit Shetye, Bhavin Thakkar, Praful Waghela.

Delhi: Ajay Jadeja (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Akaash Chopra, Shikar Dhawan, Mithun Manhas, Ashish Nehra, Amit Bhandari, Rahul Sanghvi, Sarandeep Singh, Chetanya Nanda, Varun Kumar, Sanjay Guill, Yogesh Sachdeva, Rajat Bhatia, Kunal Lal.

Umpires: Messrs. I. Sivaram and S.V. Ramani.

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