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Friday, Sep 08, 2006

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Sport - Cricket

Mumbai seizes the initiative

Principal Correspondent

Sourav Ganguly and Laxmi Ratan Shukla's efforts not good enough

HYDERABAD: Former India captain Sourav Ganguly, playing for Cricket Association of Bengal, held the centrestage briefly during his innings of 43 (148m, 80b, 5x4) but neither that effort nor the century stand between Laxmi Ratan Shukla (68, 131b, 6x4, 1x6) and Manoj Tiwari (32, 93b, 2x4) could stop Mumbai from seizing the initiative.

At stumps on the second day, Bengal was struggling at 191 for eight in 75 overs in reply to 286 for seven in 90 overs in the first innings, in the second round of the All-India Moin-ud-Dowla Gold Cup invitation (knock-out) cricket tournament at Gymkhana Grounds here on Thursday.

Ganguly who walked into the middle with his team reeling at eight for three in the ninth over, had a close shave when his awkward defensive jab off medium-pacer Avishkar Salvi flew just over the second slip fielder when Ganguly was on two.

Trademark drives

But after that, he was more determined and slowly started playing his trademark drives on either side of the wicket. He even played the pull stroke with ease against the pace bowlers. Just when he looked good for a big score, Ganguly was beaten on a backfoot defensive push off Rajesh Varma and saw his stumps rearranged. A dismissal which stunned the big crowd which was lustily cheering the `Prince of Kolkata'.

Though Shukla and Manoj Tiwari batted fluently to put on 100 runs for the sixth wicket in 107 balls, their departure in quick succession led to a collapse of sorts in the final session.

International umpire I. Sivaram called off play at scheduled close after 75 overs with Bengal scheduled to play 15 more. A decision which saw Ganguly, Rohan Gavaskar and captain Deep Das Gupta in animated debate and seeking clarification from the umpire who pointed out that as per the rules, if an innings is completed, play need not be extended on the second day and will only be resumed on the third day.

The scores:

At Uppal: Hyderabad 138 and 184 in 38.5 overs (T. Suman 59, V.V.S. Laxman 52, Samir Khan six for 48) vs Vidarbha 133 in 59.4 overs (N.P. Singh four for 43) and 51 for one in 14 overs.

At NFC: HCA President's XI 228 vs Chemplast 347 in 74.3 overs (Hemang Badani 70, Avinash 65, Satish 62, Parida, 46 not out, Alfred Absolom four for 99, M.P. Arjun five for 131).

At Gymkhana: Mumbai 286 for seven in 90 overs (Shail Kukreja 55, Bhavin Thakkar 77, Prashanth Naik 76) vs Cricket Association of Bengal 191 for eight in 75 overs (L.R. Shukla 68, Sourav Ganguly 43).

At AOC Centre: Maharashtra 276 vs Karnataka 353 for nine in 90 overs (Bharat Chipli 58, Sri Raghu 100, Deepak Chougule 64, Devraj Patil 40).

At RRC-I: Railways 243 and 64 for two in 16 overs vs MRF 299 for nine in 87.4 overs (Sri Vasu Deva Das 87 retd. hurt, Gautam Gambhir 51, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan 60, Ritham Kundu six for 106).

At HMWSSB: Andhra 142 and 137 for five in 31 overs vs TNCA 190 in 74 overs (Ashwin 51 not out, C. Hemanth Kumar 52).

At ECIL: USA Colts 193 in 71.2 overs (Amir Afzaluddin 76, Asela Jhayusingle 44, Jayanth Debnath five for 51) vs Tripura 82 for one in 24 overs (Bappa Das 63 batting).

At RRC-II: India Cements 247 in 85.4 overs (R. Prasanna 59, Arlen Konwar four for 69) vs Assam 113 for four in 43 overs.

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