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Dravid’s century in vain

Principal Correspondent

— Photo: AFP

Rahul Dravid.

HYDERABAD: Rahul Dravid’s masterly century (139, 138 balls, 13x4, 1x6) may have reminded the two national selectors present — Sanjay Jagdale and Bhupinder Singh Sr. — about his utility value in one-dayers even now. But that effort was still not good enough for South Zone as East recorded a 23-run win in a preliminary round match of the Deodhar Trophy limited-overs cricket tournament at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium (Uppal) here on Friday.

East had an ominous start when Sourav Ganguly was run-out after a mix-up with striker Arindam Das in the second over of the innings. Southpaw Saurabh Tiwary (73, 90 balls, 5x4, 2x6) and captain Laxmi Ratan Shukla (72 not out, 65 balls, 5x6) then put on 101 runs for the fifth wicket which helped East post a challenging 274 for five in 50 overs.

There was nothing in the pitch when South began the chase. But, East struck early blows sending back Dinesh Karthik (forced by Dheeraj Goswami to snick to wicketkeeper Wridhiman Saha), and then Uthappa (snapped up brilliantly by Arindam Das at slip off Ranadeb Bose).

Then, Dravid held centre-stage with a vintage display of strokes on either side of the wicket. That he scored his last 70-plus runs with the help of a runner was proof of his technical competence and class.

Dravid waged a lone battle as V.V.S. Laxman, who suffered an injury on his left finger while fielding, did not come out to bat. Coach Vivek Jaisimha later told that Laxman should be fit for the next match on March 20.

The scores: East Zone: A. Das (run out) 32, S. Ganguly (run out) 1, A. Mojumdar c R. Uthappa b Vinay 16, M. Tiwary c Laxman b Vinay 40, S. Tiwary c Ojha b Vinay 73, L.R. Shukla (not out) 72, W. Saha (not out) 21; Extras: (lb-1, w-15, nb-3) 19; Total: (for five wickets in 50 overs) 274.

Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-28, 3-98, 4-125, 5-226.

South Zone bowling: Sreesanth 10-1-61-0, Vinay 10-0-69-3, Bandekar 9-0-49-0, Ojha 10-0-37-0, Raghu 9-0-45-0, Badrinath 2-0-12-0.

South Zone: D. Karthik c Saha b Goswami 3, R. Uthappa c A. Das b Bose 16, R. Dravid c Ganguly b Goswami 139, S. Badrinath b Ganguly 20, N. Arjun Yadav c Shukla b Goswami 42, C. Raghu (run out) 7, Vinay Kumar b Bose 18, S. Bandekar (not out) 2, S. Sreesanth (run out) 0, P. Ojha (run out) 0, V.V.S. Laxman (did not bat); Extras: (lb-1, w-3) 4; Total: (for nine wkts. in 48.3 overs) 251.

Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-36, 3-89, 4-172, 5-191, 6-243, 7-249, 8-249, 9-251.

East Zone bowling: Bose 9.3-0-40-2, Goswami 9-0-42-3, Ganguly 10-0-42-1, Shukla 6-0-39-0, Saxena 7-0-38-0, Mukherjee 3-0-19-0, M. Tiwary 4-0-30-0.

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