The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Ganguly, the bowler, performs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 24, 2005

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Sport - Cricket

Ganguly, the bowler, performs

PUNE: Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly picked up five wickets as Maharashtra, put in by Bengal, was 307 for nine at close on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group `A' tie at the Nehru Stadium here on Wednesday. Bowling first change, Ganguly rattled the top-order to claim the wickets of opener M.R. Nigde, H. Kanitkar, A. Kale, D. Mohan and Suiyash Gorkole. Maharashtra's Munaf Patel, who top-scored with 78, was selected to play for the Board President's XI against Sri Lanka in a three-day match beginning on November 26 at Bangalore but has preferred to stay on and play in this match.

Railways crawls

Defending champion Railways, put in, crawled to 186 for five against Karnataka on the opening day in the Elite Group-A match in Delhi. It was only opener Amit Pagnis (39) and Raja Ali (59) who showed grit and determination which enabled the host to reach 186.

Unbeaten 206 by Jaffer

Opener Wasim Jaffer (206 not out), partnering Amol Muzumdar (93 not out), milked the host attack as Mumbai, electing to bat, cruised to 329 for two on the inaugural day in the Elite Group A match at the Ferozshah Kotla Stadium, Delhi. Jaffer took 175 balls to reach the 100-run mark and then stepped on gas to race to his double century, which came off 262 balls, after almost six hours at the crease. Besides 27 hits to the fence, his knock had three sixes — two off Sarandeep Singh and one off Abhinav Bali.

It was bowler's day as 17 wickets fell for 277 runs on the first day of the Elite Group B contest between host Punjab and Services at Mohali. Medium pacers Ishan Malhotra (five for 24) and Amit Uniyal (three for 50) helped Punjab dismiss Services, after Punjab opted to bowl first, for 147. Striking back, Services sent Punjab reeling with host at 130 for seven, before bad light stopped play.

The scores:

Elite matches: Group A:

Maharashtra 307 for nine in 90 overs (Satyajit Satbhai 47, Munaf Patel 78, Sourav Ganguly five for 64) v Bengal, at Pune.

Mumbai 329 for two in 85 overs (Wasim Jaffer 206 batting, Amol Muzumdar 93 batting) v Delhi, in Delhi.

Railways 186 for five in 90 overs (Raja Ali 59) v Karnataka, in Delhi.

Group B: Services 147 in 46.4 overs (Malhatra five for 24) v Punjab 130 for seven in 33 overs (R.S. Sodhi 41) v Services, at Mohali.

Haryana 250 for eight in 89.3 overs (S. Verma 48, Joginder Sharma 67, Praveen Kumar four for 86) v U.P., at Kanpur.

Baroda 13 for two in nine overs v Andhra, at Anantapur. Rain stops play.

Plate matches: Assam v Kerala, at Guwahati. No play due to rain.

Tripura 106 in 71 overs (K.R. Makvana five for 27) v Sourashtra 36 for no loss in 11 overs, at Agartala.

Madhya Pradesh 241 for five in 90 overs (Abbas Ali 98, Devendra Bundela 92) v Rajasthan, at Indore.

Himachal Pradesh 163 in 60.4 overs (Sandeep Singh four for 28, Alind Naidu four for 50) v Vidarbha 68 for six (Ashok Thakur four for 22), at Nagpur.