The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Hyderabad needs innings lead

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Tuesday, Jan 02, 2007
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Sport - Cricket

Hyderabad needs innings lead

Principal Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Fresh from its first-ever Ranji Trophy win over Mumbai, a confident Hyderabad will begin its campaign against Bengal in the four-day Super League match at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium (Uppal) on Tuesday.

Hyderabad's primary objective will be to grab first-innings lead in order to stay in the race for a knockout phase berth.

Bowling coach Kanwaljit Singh expects the pitch to be friendly to the medium-pacers in the early stage. He is hoping for a much better performance from the tall and lanky P. Kaushik Reddy who has taken five wickets from four matches so far. Kanwaljit is delighted at the way debutant M.P. Arjun has shaped up against a 36-time champion Mumbai in the last match.

Once again Hyderabad is looking for a decent start from its openers. Though D.B. Ravi Teja emerged top-scorer so far with 325 runs, he has disappointed his captain by not converting the handsome knocks into centuries. So is the case with the other Hyderabad batsmen who failed to capitalise on good starts.

Onus on batsmen

Considering that this is the most crucial match, the onus is on its batsmen to give a solid total for the bowlers to defend. Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha (23 wickets from four matches so far) has been in his element. The injured Ambati Rayudu, who missed the match against Mumbai, has not recovered and Santosh Yadav has been recalled in his place.

On the other hand, Bengal, which like Hyderabad has eight points from four matches, knows that it has its task cut out. Manoj Tiwari, who scored a double century earlier, Avishek Jhjunjhawala, Rohan Gavaskar and the hard-hitting Laxmi Rattan Shukla are expected to provide the desired support to the bowling attack led by Ranadeb Bose, who had already claimed 21 wickets.

This encounter may decide the fate of the teams in the run-up to the knockout phase.

The teams (from):

Hyderabad: Anirudh Singh (capt.), T. Suman, D.B. Ravi Teja, Sashank Nag, N. Arjun Yadav, D. Vinay Kumar, Ibrahim Khaleel (wk), P. Pragyan Ojha, P. Kaushik Reddy, M.P. Arjun, Alfred Absolom, P. Indrasekhar Reddy, Shivshanker, Santosh Yadav and P.S. Niranjan. Coach: Vivek Jaisimha.

Bengal: Deep Das Gupta (capt., wk), Ranadeep Bose, Rohan Gavaskar, Saurashish Lahiri, S.S. Paul, L.R. Shukla, Avishek Jhunjhunwala, Manoj Tiwari, Ashok Dinda, Kamal Hassan Mondal, Arindam Das, Amitava Chakraborty, Subhomoy Das, Shibsagar Singh and Saurav Sarkar. Coach: Paras Mhambrey.

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