The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Tough contest on the cards

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 03, 2006

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Tough contest on the cards

Special Correspondent

Bengal aims at last four berth; Tamil Nadu fighting to stay in Elite group

KOLKATA: The host aiming for a semifinal berth; the visitors fighting to stay in the Elite zone. And it is expected that the Ranji Trophy Elite group `A' match between Tamil Nadu and Bengal, which begins at the Eden Gardens here on Tuesday, will be a keenly contested one.

Bengal, with nine points from five games, will go all out to collect as many points from the match, while Tamil Nadu, still not out of danger with five points from as many matches, will look for at least two points.

With S. Badrinath, who replaced Hemang Badani as captain, leading the Tamil Nadu side and the inclusion of a couple of young fast bowlers, especially V. Yo Mahesh who is trying to make it to the Indian under-19 side for the upcoming Sri Lanka World Cup, will certainly add a lot of motivation to the side which lost two matches outright and landed in soup.

Bengal, lucky to get the services of an experienced Sourav Ganguly, will certainly be a tough team to beat at home. A green top, on the advise of Ganguly, is likely to greet the visitors.

The dropping of two TN pacers R. Naresh and G. Vignesh on fitness ground and the non-inclusion of Hemant Kumar means S. Sriram will accompany S. Vidyut to open the batting.

Both the teams will, however, decide the playing XI after having a look at the pitch.

The teams (from): Bengal: Deep Dasgupta (captain, wk), Arindam Das, Subhajit Pal, Avishek Jhunjhunwala, Rohan Gavaskar, Sourav Ganguly, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Sourashish Lahiri, Ashok Dinda, Sib Sankar Pal, Ranadeb Bose, Manoj Tewari, Subhamoy Das, Shiv Sagar Singh and Murtaza Lodhgar.

Tamil Nadu: S. Badrinath (captain), Dinesh Kaarthick (wk), S. Vidyut, H. Badani, S. Sriram, S. Sharath, Aashish Kapoor, R. Ramkumar, V. Yo Mahesh, S. Aniruddh, R. Jesuraj, R. Sathish, M.R. Shrinivas, M.K. Sivakumar and K. Sri Vasudevadas.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport