The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Keen tie on cards

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 10, 2006

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Keen tie on cards

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: Railways is facing, perhaps, its most crucial moment of the season. On the eve of the final Elite group `A' league match against Bengal at the Eden Gardens, the defending champion will certainly hope to gather four points from this game to retain its place among the elite teams. Bengal, on the other hand, could lack motivation to do well, for the defeat against Tamil Nadu had sealed its fate of making it to the semifinals of the Ranji Trophy.

With just four points from the lone victory against Gujarat in its kitty, Railways will have to go full throttle to defeat Bengal. The host, however, will not like to taste another loss at home and has prepared a slow turner for the game.

Bengal's progress further in the National championship will depend on how Karnataka and Tamil Nadu will perform over the next four days. Karnataka is the best placed to make it to the last four. Mumbai is already in semifinals from this group.

Bengal is likely to make three changes. Manoj Tewari will come in place for Sourav Ganguly. Ashok Dinda will make way for either Shiv Sagar Singh or Murtaza Lodhgar, the two left-arm spinners. Subhamoy Das, who was dropped for the last game, is likely to replace debutant Subhajit Pal in the top-order.

For Railways, Murali Kartik is back after missing the last match against Maharashtra and could hold the key for the team's success.

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

Railways: Sanjay Bangar (captain), Amit Pagnis, Vineet Saxena, Raja Ali, J.P. Yadav, Yere Goud, Shreyas Khanolkar, Sudhir Wankhede (wk), Harvinder Singh, Kulamani Parida, Murali Kartik, Madan Yadav, Santosh Saxena, G. Shankara Rao, Santosh Sahu and Rahul Dev.

Umpires: A.V. Jayaprakash (KSCA) & T.R. Kashyappan (TNCA). Match Referee: Manu Nayar (DDCA).

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

Sport