The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Hyderabad scores an unimpressive, one-wicket win

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 13, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Hyderabad scores an unimpressive, one-wicket win

Principal Correspondent

Both Punjab and the host fail to enter the semifinals

SCRAPING THROUGH: Ibrahim Khaleel (left) and Pragyan Ojha are ecstatic after Hyderabad's narrow win. — PHOTO: P.V. SIVAKUMAR

HYDERABAD: Hyderabad made heavy weather of a simple target — that of taking the bonus point and staying in the race for a slot in the semifinals of the Ranji Trophy — and eventually ended up recording an unimpressive, one-wicket win against Punjab on the third day of the Super League Group `B' tie at Visaka Ground (Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Uppal) here on Friday.

Consequently, both Hyderabad and Punjab are now out of the race for the last-four stage.

This, despite medium-pacer M.P. Arjun striking the first blow when he had the well-set Punjab captain Pankaj Dharmani in front of the wicket to leave Punjab in trouble at 170 for six in the morning session.

Controversy

This was immediately after the ball was changed. A decision, which made Punjab lodge a written complaint later with the match referee as the ball subsequently used was not the brand suggested by the BCCI.

Punjab southpaw and wicketkeeper Uday Kaul (61, 146b, 7x4) and Harbhajan Singh (29, 37b, 2x4, 2x6) ensured that Hyderabad had to get 137 for a win.

Hyderabad needed a 10-wicket win to clinch the vital bonus point to stay in contention for the semifinal spot. But, its hopes vanished off the third ball of the innings when Gagandeep Singh trapped opener T. Suman leg before for a duck. Then he had Sashank Nag in front. Soon, captain V.V.S. Laxman was baffled by the pace and bounce Love Ablish generated. He fended off a good length ball, which kicked up and gave a simple catch to Harbhajan Singh at point to leave Hyderabad struggling at 12 for three.

Vital stand

Anirudh Singh (40, 70b, 1x4) and Arjun Yadav (25, 29b, 4x4) took the fight to the rival camp. But V.R.V. Singh turned on the heat on with a fiery spell and the batsmen were all at sea against his pace. When Arjun pulled Ablish straight to the square-leg fielder, a defeat loomed as V.R.V. Singh also cleaned up Alfred Absolom and forced Anirudh Singh to snick to Mongia in the slips. Gagandeep chipped in with the wicket of D. Vinay Kumar to leave Hyderabad at 95 for seven.

But then there was a phase when the Punjab fielding became shoddy and the main culprit was wicketkeeper Uday, who even missed an easy stumping chance against Ibrahim Khaleel off Harbhajan.

The Indian off-spinner was unfortunate to see M.P. Arjun dropped earlier by Mongia at slip off his very first ball of the innings with the score at 118 for eight. The two lapses denied Punjab a sensational win.

Thereafter Ibrahim Khaleel (21 not out, 56 balls, 2 x 4) kept his cool in the company of last man Pragyan Ojha to pull off a one-wicket victory though it did not mean much in the final analysis.

The scores:

Punjab — 1st innings: 142.

Hyderabad — 1st innings: 251.

Punjab — 2nd innings: R. Ricky c Khaleel b M.P. Arjun 0, K. Goel c Vinay b Absolom 4, D. Mongia c Suman b M.P. Arjun 8, P. Dharmani lbw b M.P. Arjun 78, G. Gupta b Absolom 6, R.S. Sodhi c Khaleel b Absolom 11, Uday b Ojha 61, Harbhajan c Sashank bt Kaushik 29, Gagandeep (not out) 2, L. Ablish b Kaushik 2, V.R.V. Singh c Laxman b Ojha 16; Extras: (b-5, lb-5, nb-18) 28; Total: (in 69.4 overs) 245.

Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-10, 3-30, 4-41, 5-74, 6-170, 7-222, 8-225, 9-228.

Hyderabad bowling: Absolom 19-0-88-3, M.P. Arjun 21-4-53-3, Kaushik 19-2-53-2, Ojha 10.4-0-41-2.

Hyderabad — 2nd innings: T. Suman lbw b Gagandeep 0, S. Nag lbw b Gagandeep 2, Anirudh c Mongia b V.R.V. Singh 40, V.V.S. Laxman c Harbhajan b Ablish 4, A. Yadav c Sodhi b Ablish 25, A. Absolom b V.R.V. Singh 5, D. Vinay b Gagandeep 3, I. Khaleel (not out) 21, P. Kaushik c sub (Varun Khanna) b Gagandeep 6, M.P. Arjun b Harbhajan 9, P. Ojha (not out) 4; Extras: (b-9, lb-5, nb-4) 18; Total: (for nine wkts. in 38.4 overs) 137.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-3, 3-12, 4-72, 5-87, 6-93, 7-95, 8-105, 9-127.

Punjab bowling: Gagandeep 11-3-27-4, Ablish 11-2-42-2, V.R.V. Singh 13-1-45-2, Harbhajan 3.4-0-9-1.

Other scores:

Super League: At Rohtak: Delhi 382 bt Haryana 113 in 48.2 overs (S. Rana 54) & 251 in 59.2 overs (M. Rawat 73, Joginder Sharma 44, V. Sehwag four for 63, C. Nanda six for 112).

At Rajkot: Karnataka 570 vs. Saurashtra 352 for eight in 113 overs (K.M. Vaghela 101, S.D. Jogiyani 80, C.A. Pujara 62).

At Nasik: Mumbai 515 for eight decl. Vs. Maharashtra 190 in 71.2 overs (H.H. Khadiwale 54, A. Agarkar five for 41) & 148 for six in 54.1 overs (Y.V. Takawale 52, S. Sriram 52).

At Kolkata: Rajasthan 193 & 202 for four in 63 overs (N.S. Doru 60 batting, R.B. Jhalani 62 batting) vs. Bengal 583 for six decl. in 144 overs (S.G. Das 82, A. Jhunjhunwala 115, M. Tiwary 181, S. Ganguly 122).

At Chennai: Baroda 263 & 191 (R. Ashwin six for 64) vs. Tamil Nadu 342 & 26 for one in nine overs.

Plate League semifinals: At Dharamsala: Railways 229 vs. Himachal Pradesh 346 for seven in 177 overs (Sandeep Sharma 161, Mukesh Sharma 44 batting).

At Cuttack: Assam 235 & 100 for six in 56 overs (P. Aziz 50) vs. Orissa 233 in 97.3 overs (N. Behera 57, H. Das 40, P. Das five for 65).

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

Sport