The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Arjun props up Hyderabad

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 03, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Arjun props up Hyderabad

Principal Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Nandlal Arjun Yadav held the Hyderabad innings together after the top-order frittered away an excellent start, and took the home team to a score of 258 for six on the first day of the four-day Ranji Trophy Super League Group `B' match against Bengal at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium (Uppal) here on Tuesday.

An exception

The Hyderabad batsmen seemed to have mastered the art of throwing wickets away after looking steady. But Arjun, who after his brilliant century in the Duleep Trophy earlier this season, was an exception on Tuesday. He batted with authority and class. There was a touch of elegance in the wonderful strokes he essayed, particularly on the offside.

The way Arjun swung off-spinner Sourashish Lahiri over mid-wicket spoke of his disdain against the slow bowlers on a pitch which played rather easy on this day.

Arjun's knock (79 batting, 162 balls, 9x4, 2x6) came after the openers T. Suman (44, 74 balls, 7x4) and D.B. Ravi Teja (57, 64 balls, 9x4) put on 91 runs for the first wicket before throwing their wickets away.

Teja in good touch

Ravi Teja continued to baffle Hyderabad brains trust.

Once again after having the bowlers at his mercy with some excellent strokes, he slashed one straight to the third-man fielder after completing his fifth half-century in as many matches this season.

Suman holed out to the only fielder in the deep off the harmless off-spinner Sourashish Lahiri, despite looking good enough for a bigger knock.

Captain Anirudh Singh played on in his attempt to square drive medium-pacer A. Dinda, who was easily the pick of the bowlers for the pace he generated on an unhelpful wicket and the nagging off-stump line he stuck to.

Top order

Hyderabad badly needed a big score but there was virtual harakiri by the top order, and it almost relinquished the advantage of batting first.

Even D. Vinay Kumar had only himself to blame for trying to steal a non-existent single after driving Ranadeb Bose straight to Rohan Gavaskar at mid-on. He was sent back by non-striker Arjun Yadav and was eventually run out.

The onus of Hyderabad posting a challenging total lies heavily on Arjun Yadav.

The scores:

Hyderabad — 1st innings: T. Suman c L.R. Shukla b S.S. Lahiri 44, D.B. Ravi Teja c S.S. Lahiri b A. Dinda 57, P. Sashank Nag lbw b A. Dinda 1, Anirudh Singh b A. Dinda 18, N.S. Arjun Yadav (batting) 79, D. Vinay Kumar (run out) 23, Ibrahim Khaleel lbw b A. Dinda 12, M.P. Arjun (batting) 12; Extras: (b-5, lb-2, nb-5) 12. Total: (for six wkts., in 90 overs) 258.

Fall of wickets: 1-91, 2-103, 3-105, 4-159, 5-201, 6-229.

Bengal bowling: Ranadeb Bose 15-3-26-0, S.S. Sarkar 12-3-58-0, A. Dinda 30-10-66-4, S.S. Lahiri 24-5-85-1, Tiwary 5-2-3-0, L.R. Shukla 3-1-8-0, Rohan Gavaskar 1-0-5-0.

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

Sport