The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Powar has South in a tangle

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Wednesday, Feb 23, 2005

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Powar has South in a tangle

By Our Special Correspondent

POWAR-PLAY: West Zone's Wasim Jaffer about to snap up Venugopala Rao, one of Ramesh Powar's seven victims in South Zone's first innings, on the opening day of their Duleep Trophy match in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

HYDERABAD, FEB. 22. Off-spinner Ramesh Powar came up with a career best haul of seven for 44 to restrict South Zone to a modest 187 in its first innings on the first day of the four-day Duleep Trophy match against West Zone at the Visaka Stadium here on Tuesday. In reply, West Zone had scored 71 for three by the close.

The stockily-built Powar kept the rival batsmen guessing by using clever variations of flight and pace. Moreover, on a pitch where the ball did not come onto the bat quickly enough, several of the South batsmen erred by essaying hasty shots and paid the penalty, thereby helping Powar to increase his tally.

South opted to bat and in the initial stages, West's Irfan Pathan was prone to overstepping.

His first spell of five overs had no less than six no balls. But when he got things right he posed problems for the openers.

In his fourth over, Pathan trapped Robin Uthappa leg before with a one that cut back off the seam.

Zaheer strikes

Later Zaheer Khan, who replaced Irfan at the far end, struck in his very first over when he had Roland Barrington leg before. Zaheer continued to bowl with determination and his willingness to bend his back paid off as he was able to work up a considerable pace and bounce to trouble all the batsmen.

Zaheer was unlucky to have two catches dropped off his bowling (Laxman and Kumble were the beneficiaries) and at the end of the day the hard-working Baroda paceman had only that solitary wicket in his bag.

Rahul Dravid became Powar's frst victim when he went for a lofted shot towards deep mid-wicket. Neeraj Patel, running back for about twenty yards, took a well-judged catch as the ball came over his shoulder.

Sriram departed when he drove a delivery from Powar and was brilliantly caught by Dheeraj Jadhav at cover.

Laxman, who was let off by Parab at third slip off Zaheer when on, began playing some good shots. He seemed set for a big score when his mistimed pull off Agarkar ended up as a easy catch to Pathan at square leg. At lunch South Zone was struggling at 84 for five.

In the afternoon session came the best stand of the innings when Anil Kumble and Venugopala Rao put on 54 for the seventh wicket. The partnership ended when Kumble was caught at slip as he tried to force a ball from Powar to the off side.

A Patient knock

Venugopala emerged as the top scorer, with a patient 37 off 96 balls, but most of the batsmen failed to deal effectively with Powar's guile. The innings ended when Balaji chanced his arm once too often and was caught at deep midwicket.

When West began its reply, Kumble struck in rapid succession to remove Parab and night-watchman Rajesh Pawar.

Going by his early success, Kumble could turn out to be the dangerman when play resumes on Wednesday. But perhaps a big knock from Sachin Tendulkar will please the spectators more.

The scores:

South Zone — 1st innings: R. Uthappa lbw b Pathan 5, R. Barrington lbw b Zaheer 8, V.V.S. Laxman c Pathan b Agarkar 29, R. Dravid c Neeraj Patel b Powar 1, S. Sriram c Jadhav b Powar 14, Venugopala Rao c Jaffer b Powar 37, D. Kaarthick c Jadhav b Powar 10, A. Kumble c Jaffer b Powar 28, Balaji c Pawar b Powar 35, R. Vinay Kumar lbw b Powar 1, R. Jesuraj (not out) 3, Extras (nb-16) 16, Total (in 65.5 overs): 187.

Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-25, 3-28, 4-57, 5-67, 6-88, 7-142 8-154, 9-156.

West Zone bowling: Pathan 9-1-29-1, Agarkar 13-5-38-1, Zaheer 12-2-42-1, Powar 22.5-6-44-7, Pawar 9-0-34-0.

West Zone — 1st innings: D. Jadhav (batting) 30, S. Parab lbw b Kumble 13, W. Jaffer c Sriram b Vinay Kumar 13, R. Pawar b Kumble 0, Extras (lb-11, nb-4) 15, Total (for three wkts. in 23.1 overs) 71.

Fall of wickets: 1-34, 2-67, 3-71

South Zone bowling: Balaji 7-3-24-0, Jesuraj 5-1-16-0, Kumble 6.1-1-14-2, Vinay Kumar 5-2-6-1.

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