The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Teja scores century; U.P. wins

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Saturday, Dec 29, 2007
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Teja scores century; U.P. wins

Principal Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Hyderabad’s D.B. Ravi Teja held the centre-stage with a belligerent century but it was Uttar Pradesh which qualified for the knock-out phase with an emphatic 132-run win on the final day in the crucial final round super league match of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group ‘B’ at Rajiv Gandhi stadium (Uppal) here on Friday.

The host one stage seemed to be headed for abject surrender with Praveen Kumar coming up with a splendid spell of quality fast bowling to finish with six for 65. One of the highlights of the afternoon session was a great reflex catch at gully by Ravikant Shukla, leaping to his left, to send back Arjun Yadav (42, 57 balls, 7x4) off Sudeep Tyagi.

Hyderabad was 221 for nine at one stage before Teja established his authority. He never showed any ill effect of a road accident he was involved in, which saw him miss Wednesday’s play completely. He batted with such freedom and essayed such unbelievable strokes — off both fast and spin bowling — that UP captain Mohd. Kaif was forced to hit the panic button. The diminutive right-handed opener who batted at No. 7 was so dominant (133 not out, 118 balls, 21x4, 3x6) that UP wilted.

Growing in stature

Clearly demonstrating his growing stature in domestic cricket, Teja finished his Ranji season — which he began with 99 against Maharashtra — with his second century, amassing 653 runs in the tournament. The way he farmed the strike in the company of tail-ender Vishal Sharma to put on a defiant 84-run stand for the last wicket was a terrific exhibition of his strokeplay and temperament. In one over from Sudeep Tyagi, he flicked, whipped through the on-side, square drove for a six and then cover-drove on the rise for another four which left the visitors stunned.

Uttar Pradesh, by virtue of this victory and five points from this match, finished at the top (19 points) on better quotient though Baroda also completed their engagements with 19 points. Hyderabad, with 10 points, finished second from the bottom, thanks to Andhra’s victory over Bengal, pushed the latter to last place.

“It is always good to qualify finishing at the top. Our first objective when we came here was to pick three points but as equations change, we were aware of the importance of an outright win,” said Kaif.

Hyderabad coach Kanwaljit Singh was relieved at avoiding the ignominy of being relegated to the Plate Group. “But there are quite a few positives like Ravi Teja’s batting. We are in the re-building process and there is plenty of talent around. We should be a much better side next time around, considering we missed seven players straight away because of desertions to ICL,” he explained.

The scores:

Uttar Pradesh — 1st innings: 336

Hyderabad — 1st innings: 193

Uttar Pradesh — 2nd innings: 294 for three declared.

Hyderabad — 2nd innings: S.D. Manohar c Khan b Praveen 33, A. Kumar lbw b Praveen 2, S.A. Pai c Praveen b Gupta 24, S.M. Shoaib c P. Chawla b Praveen 1, N.S. Arjun Yadav c Shukla b Tyagi 42, A. Shinde c Khan b Praveen 43, D.B. Ravi Teja (not out) 133, Md. Shakir b Gupta 0, M.P. Arjun c Raina b Praveen 7, P. Ojha c Raina b Praveen 0, Vishal Sharma lbw b Tyagi 12, Extras (b-3, lb-1, nb-3, w-1): 8; Total (in 82.2 overs): 305.

Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-55, 3-61, 4-81, 5-121, 6-199, 7-202, 8-221, 9-221.

Uttar Pradesh bowling: Praveen 23-3-65-6, Bhuvneshwar 3-1-13-0, Tyagi 14.2.3-76-2, Gupta 20-4-66-2, Chawla 17-4-62-0, Raina 2-0-12-0, Kaif 3-0-7-0.

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