The Hindu : Sport : Rajat Bhatia dashes TN's hopes

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Friday, Jan 13, 2006

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Rajat Bhatia dashes TN's hopes

Sports Reporter

Nanda plays supporting role to perfection

Chennai: Backed into a corner, Delhi's Rajat Bhatia composed a magnificent, unbeaten 152 to help his side avert the follow-on and effectively end Tamil Nadu's hopes of qualifying for the semifinals.

On the third day of the seventh round Elite `A' encounter at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here, two crucial partnerships the 26-year-old forged, first with Mithun Manhas and then with Chetanya Nanda, helped the visitors finish on 366 for eight in response to Tamil Nadu's 481 for six declared.

When R. Jesuraj forced Kuldeep Rawat to nick an out-swinger to the wicketkeeper, the host scented victory. Delhi's lower order has been brittle this season and at 228 for seven, the end — it seemed — wasn't far.

Stubborn stand

But in the stodgy Nanda, Bhatia found just the man to pull his side out of the woods. Nanda made 24 — 12 of them from three balls and the other 12 from 130. The eighth wicket put on a stubborn 102 before being separated two runs from making Tamil Nadu bat again.

But Delhi skipper Amit Bhandari swung cleanly to ensure only a freak fourth day or a sudden breakout of ineptitude in the visitors will let Tamil Nadu sneak through. Off-spinner Aashish Kapoor, who finished with figures of three for 107, capped a forgettable and frustrating day for his team when he got involved in an altercation with Bhandari.

Positive start

Earlier, Manhas and Bhatia batted positively in the first session after Jesuraj removed Aditya Jain. Resuming on 85 for three, Delhi went to lunch at 207 for four. Manhas eventually departed for a stylish 89 (167b, 11x4, 1x6) — Sharath's drop on Wednesday proving costly.

Bhatia, a former trainee in the MRF pace academy, has ironically played for Tamil Nadu. His familiarity with the bowling attack showed. Many a time he skipped down the track and drove beautifully against Kapoor's off-breaks.

Tamil Nadu's last throw of the dice was to take the second new ball immediately after tea in the hope that extra bounce will dislodge the Bhatia-Nanda pair. But Nanda refused to budge, and Bhatia was having a day he could do no wrong.

Only once did his 237-ball stay, containing 19 fours and one six, look in danger of termination. He was caught close in; Kapoor and the Tamil Nadu fielders were convinced it came off the glove. The umpire thought otherwise. Delhi was on 242 for seven then, 90 runs from safety.

The scores: Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: 481 for six decl.

Delhi — 1st innings: A. Chopra c Kaarthick b Vignesh 1, S. Dhawan b Kapoor 16, M. Tehlan lbw b Kapoor 25, M. Manhas b Kapoor 89, A. Jain c Kapoor b Jesuraj 8, R. Bhatia (batting) 152, V. Kumar (run out) 1, K. Rawat c Kaarthick b Jesuraj 2, C. Nanda b Ramkumar 24, Amit Bhandari (batting) 10; Extras (b-7, lb-11, nb-20) 38. Total (for eight wickets in 122 overs) 366.

Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-34, 3-69, 4-117, 5-211, 6-213, 7-228, 8-330.

Tamil Nadu bowling: R. Jesuraj 21-7-35-2, G. Vignesh 12-1-53-1, A. Kapoor 44-5-107-3, R. Ramkumar 32-2-104-1, S. Vidyut 6-0-21-0, S. Badrinath 3-0-13-0, S. Sriram 4-0-15-0.

Other scores: Elite Group:

At Mumbai: Maharashtra 213 and 187 in 55.5 overs (Anupam Sanchlekar 45, Ramesh Powar five for 43) vs. Mumbai 175 and 155 for seven in 60 overs (Amol Muzumdar 46).

At Ahmedabad: Karnataka 163 and 226 in 81 overs (Robin Utthapa 56, B. Chipli 67, B. Akhil 41 not out, Siddharth Trivedi four for 57) vs. Gujarat 247 and 106 for three in 31 overs (Neeraj Patel 59 batting).

At Kolkata: Railways 259 and 140 for two in 40 overs (Amit Phagnis 76 batting) vs. Bengal 278 in 110.3 overs (Arindam Das 70, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala 55, J.P. Yadav four for 53, Harvinder Singh four for 75).

At Anantpur: Uttar Pradesh 365 vs. Andhra 208 in 69.1 overs (P. Kumar five for 73) and 292 for nine in 70 overs (A.T. Rayadu 49, K.S. Sahabuddin 84, A.S.K. Verma 58, P. Kumar four for 81).

At Vadodara: Baroda 229 and 272 in 81 overs (Connor Williams 86, Kiran Powar 94, Pragyan Ojha seven for 126) beat Hyderabad 131 and 150 in 44.2 overs (Yusuf Pathan five for 30). Points: Baroda 4, Hyd 0.

At New Delhi: Services 241 and 182 for three in 69 overs (M.P. Reddy 82 batting) vs. Haryana 282 in 99.3 overs (S. Rana 59, S. Verma 74).

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