The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Spinner-friendly track promises decisive battle

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 09, 2005

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Sport - Cricket

Spinner-friendly track promises decisive battle

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Yet to open the account after two home matches, a desperate Railways has decided to take a gamble by preparing a spinner-friendly pitch for its crucial Ranji Trophy Elite Group `A' match against Gujarat beginning at the Karnail Singh Stadium here on Friday.

The defending champion, which did not put sufficient runs on the board after batting first against Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in the past fortnight, is keen to make amends and stay alive in the race for a place in the semifinals.

No pushover

On the other hand, Gujarat is no longer considered a pushover after its performance last season. "It's a good wicket only if it lasts four days," said Gujarat coach Vijay Patel and added that Gujarat had not played at this venue. "After all, preparing the pitch is the prerogative of the host and we have no complaint. We have the spinners to do the job," said the Railways captain Sunjoy Bangar and coach Vinod Sharma, too, agreed that a decisive match looked on cards.

The teams (from): Railways: Sunjoy Bangar (captain), Amit Pagnis, Vineet Saxena, J.P. Yadav, Raja Ali, Yere Goud, Shreyas Khanolkar, Sudhir Wankhede, Harvinder Singh, Kulamani Parida, Madan Yadav, Shankar Rao.

Gujarat: Mukund Parmar (captain), Parthiv Patel, Nilesh Modi, Akash Christian, Niraj Patel, Bhavik Thakkar, Kirat Damani, Hemal Watekar, Siddharth Trivedi, Lalit Patel, Hitesh Majmudar, Salil Yadav, Ashraf Makda, Kalpesh Patel and Azhar Bilakhia.

Umpires: Messrs K. Murali and V.N. Kulkarni. Match Referee: Mr. Thomas Mathews.

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