The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : All eyes on Laxman, Mongia

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Wednesday, Jan 10, 2007
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All eyes on Laxman, Mongia

Principal Correspondent

HYDERABAD: V.V.S. Laxman and Dinesh Mongia will be under scrutiny when Hyderabad takes on Punjab in a crucial Super League Ranji Trophy match at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium (Uppal) here from Wednesday.

In the 2003 World Cup, it was Mongia who was preferred to Laxman. The Hyderabad skipper is aware that every game is important from now on in the run-up to the World Cup.

Venkatapathi Raju will be watching the first two days here before the selectors name the 30 World Cup probables on January 12 at Rajkot.

With the contenders more than keen to prove a point or two, the Ranji game should be an exciting one as it also features off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and V.R.V. Singh.

"We preferred a seaming wicket and have to play positively to pick up maximum points, and book a slot in the knock-out phase," Laxman said. "It is important that we bat the full four sessions to set up a challenging score.

The Hyderabad skipper said that the team would miss Ambati Rayudu, who is still nursing an injury.

V.R.V. Singh said Punjab would prefer to bowl since it has a very good bowling attack. "It is a big challenge for all of us to win this very important match," he said. "The pitch is similar to the one in Mohali and we should enjoy bowling on this."

Both teams have eight points and need an outright win to stay in the race.

The teams (from): Hyderabad: V.V.S. Laxman (Capt.), Anirudh Singh, T. Suman, Shashank Nag, N. Arjun Yadav, D. Vinay Kumar, Ibrahim Khaleel, Pragyan Ojha, P. Kaushik Reddy, Alfred Absolom, M.P. Arjun, A. Shivshanker, P. Indrasekhar Reddy, P.S. Niranjan and Santosh Yadav; Coach: Vivek Jaisimha; Bowling coach: Kanwaljit Singh; Manager: E. Gopal (Telecom).

Punjab: Pankaj Dharmani (Capt.), Dinesh Mongia, Harbhajan Singh, V.R.V. Singh, Reetender Singh Sodhi, Karan Goel, Ravneet Ricky, Gagandeep Singh, Gaurav Gupta, Uday Kaul, Love Abhilish, Ishan Malhotra, Gaurav Marwah, Varun Khanna and Rahul Sharma; Coach: Daljit Singh; Manager: Sushil Kapoor.

Umpires: S.K. Sharma (Mumbai) and S. Dendapani (Kochi); Match referee: Padam Shastri (Rajasthan).

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