The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : A formality for Central

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 23, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Cricket

A formality for Central

Principal Correspondent

East looks to salvage some pride

HYDERABAD: East Zone, which has three points from two matches, may lack the motivation when it takes on Central Zone, now at the top of the table with 15 points from three matches, in the Prof. D.B. Deodhar Trophy limited-overs cricket championship at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium (Uppal) here on Sunday.

This and the fact that the first Test against South Africa is just three days away, is the reason Sourav Ganguly (East Zone) and Piyush Chawla (Central zone) are skipping the final round of this championship.

Success story

The success story of Central Zone has been the efficacy of its bowling attack with Praveen Kumar (six wickets from three matches), Piyush Chawla (seven from three matches) and Rudra Pratap Singh (six from two matches).

R.P. Singh however, is out of action with an injury. Only two batsmen — opener Naman Ojha (164) and Faiz Fazal (148) — have been among the runs for Central, while captain Mohd Kaif (58) and Suresh Raina (62) have failed to get going.

The key to Central’s impressive run has been the early breakthroughs the fast bowlers have been giving leaving the slow bowlers to take charge later on.

Effectively, East would be looking to salvage some pride, even as the focus would be on the consistent southpaw Saurav Tiwari and captain Laxmi Ratan Shukla.

For Central, this match would just be a formality as it will be crowned champion irrespective of the result.

Lost cause

Technically, West Zone can still catch up with Central on points, but it cannot prevent the Mohammad Kaif-led side from lifting the trophy as West had lost when the two teams had met in the earlier round.

Heavy rains on Saturday evening resulted in the ground being water-logged and a start on schedule on Sunday is almost ruled out.

According to the groundstaff, play is unlikely to start even in the afternoon in case of further rains.

The teams (from):

East Zone: L.R. Shukla (captain), Sourav Ganguly, Anustup Majumdar, Arindam Das, Manoj Tiwary, Ranadeb Bose, Wriddhiman Saha, Shib Shankar Paul, Ireash Saxena, Haladhar Das, P.R. Sinha, Sourav Tiwary, Ishank Jaggi, Manish Vardhan, S.S. Rao, Dheeraj Goswami, S. Purkayasha.

Coach: B. Arun.

Central Zone: Md. Kaif (captain), Murali Kartik, S. Raina, Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla, Tanmay Srivastava, Faiz Fazal, Praveen Gupta, Sandeep Singh, R.P. Singh, Deepak Yadav, Naman Ojha, Himalaya Sagar, Ravi Jangid and Rajesh Kanojia.

Coach: Abhay Sharma.

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

Sport