The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Ranji One-Day tournament from today

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Friday, Apr 08, 2005

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Sport - Cricket

Ranji One-Day tournament from today

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, APRIL 7. Ten teams, including host and holder Mumbai, would fight it out in the One-Day all-India knock-out tournament beginning here on Friday.

Debasis Mohanty will lead Orissa, which locks horns with Karnataka in one of the two pre-quarterfinals at the Brabourne stadium. In the other match, Delhi takes on Railways at the Wankhede stadium.

Mohanty, former India seamer who took over the reins from Shiv Sundar Das in the last two matches of the Ranji Trophy Plate Group, was not lucky enough to take his team into the knock-out stage. It was pipped by Jharkand on Net Run Rate.

"We, however, did very well in the East Zone qualifiers for the one-day tournament. We won all the four matches and have come here as the No. 1 team from the East. We are hopeful of delivering the goods.''

According to Mohanty, his team is experienced and would like to prove that it has the mettle to upset Karnataka.

Mohanty said the weather at home was unbearable and felt it was quite pleasant here, after having a training session at the Brabourne Stadium on Thursday.

Looking for revenge

Karnataka, the No. 2 team from South Zone, lost to Mumbai in the Elite Group Ranji Trophy clash and will be keen to settle scores against the home team in the short version of the game. It has to, however, get past Orissa first.

Removed as captain and player after the Ranji matches against Bengal and Gujarat, the Karnataka selectors recalled J. Arun Kumar for the Subbiah Pillai Trophy and retained him for the BCCI's One-Day knock-out tournament.

Fresh from its victory in the Ranji Trophy final against Punjab, Railways is keen to sustain its form and beat Delhi, and make it a double by winning the tournament too. It has players who are capable of contributing with both bat and ball.

The teams (from):

Karnataka: S. Somasunder (capt.), R. Uthappa, Barrington Rowland, J. Arunkumar, S. Binny, T. Naidu, C. Raghu, S. Joshi, D. Ganesh, N.C. Aiyappa, R. Vinaykumar, Udit Patel, B. Akhil, B. Chipli and G. Dhiman.

Orissa: D. Mohanty (capt.), S.S. Das, Niranjan Behra, S. Raul, P. Mullick, B.B.C.C. Mohapatra, R.R. Parida, S. Khatau, D. Mangaraj, P. Pradhan, S. Satpathy, P. Patel, P. Jayachandra and S. Biswal.

Railways: S. Bangar (capt.), A. Pagnis, T. P. Singh, J. P. Yadav, Raja Ali, S. Khanolkar, S. Wankhede, Harvinder Singh, G. Shankar Rao, K. Parida, Madan Yadav, S. Verma, S. Joshi, B. Upadhyay and O. Salvi.

Delhi: A. Jadeja (capt.), S. Dhawan, G. Gambhir, M. Manhas, R. Bhatia, Varun Kumar, M. Tehlan, R. Gupta, A. Bhandari, S. Gill, M. Deewan, Y. Sachdeva, V. Khurana, C. Nanda, K. Rawat.

The schedule:

April 8: Orissa vs Karnataka; Railways vs Delhi; April 9: Quarterfinals: Punjab vs Uttar Pradesh; Mumbai vs winner of Orissa-Karnataka; April 10: Bengal v winner of Delhi-Railways, Tamil Nadu v Baroda; April 12: Semifinals; April 14: Final.