The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Rain threat over Ranji tie

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 17, 2010
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Rain threat over Ranji tie

Special Correspondent

VISAKHAPATNAM: Rain threat looms large over the Ranji Trophy plate group B match between Andhra and Maharashtra scheduled to start at the ACA-VDCA stadium here on Wednesday.

Both teams had nets in the morning under bright sun but by afternoon it started raining. Thick clouds were hovering over the city till late in the evening, putting a question mark over the match starting on time at least.

The pitch always helps batsmen more and good totals can be seen if the weather does not interrupt. The ground staff were busy all through the day protecting the pitch and outfield.

Andhra, with just four points from two matches and in third spot in the group, needs to win or at least gain first innings lead to be in race for the knockout berth.

Though the team had failed to force a win in its last match against Services, it was in a good frame of mind, said assistant coach Amit Pathak. Y. Venugopala Rao, who had an ankle problem in the last match, is fit and would play on Wednesday.

The young Maharashtra team is leading the table with 12 points and its manager Pandurang Salgaonkar said it would win here too. He was impressed with the pitch and the lush green outfield and appreciated the ground staff for their work.

The teams (from):

Maharashtra: Romit Motwani (capt.), Harshad Khadiwale, Sangram Atitkar, Ankit Bawne, Kedra Jadhav, Nikhil Paradkar, Digamber Waghmare, Ganesh Gaikwad, Akshay Darekar, Samad Fallah, Kishore Bhikane, Ameya Srikhande, Sajin Sureshnath, Sanjay Paradeshi and Srikant Mundhe. Coach: Shaun Williams. Manager: Pandurang Salgoankar.

Andhra: K.S. Shahbuddin (capt.), H. Vatekar, L.N. Prasada Reddy, V. Manoj Sai, A.S.K. Varma, Y. Venugopal Rao, Y. Gnaneswara Rao, G. Sankara Rao, B. Sumanth, A.G. Pradeep, G.V.S. Prasad, T. Atchuta Rao, P. Vijay Kumar, D. Kalyan Krishna and V. Lenin. Coach: Vincent Vinay Kumar. Manager: V. Umamaheswar.

Umpires: Umesh L. Dubey (Mumbai) and Y.C. Barde (Goa). Match referee: Jodh Singh (Jharkhand) .

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

Sport