A strong reply by the Mumbai Cricket Association XI ensured that their
MRF Buchi Babu cricket tournament first round match against the New
Zealand A remained evenly poised at the end of the second day’s play at the Guru Nanak grounds, Chennai on
Staff Reporter17-Aug-2001A strong reply by the Mumbai Cricket Association XI ensured that their
MRF Buchi Babu cricket tournament first round match against the New
Zealand A remained evenly poised at the end of the second day’s play at the Guru Nanak grounds, Chennai on Friday.With a day’s play remaining, the men from Mumbai, who were 198 for
four at close, need another 132 runs to gain the first innings lead
and effectively win the match. Their hopes will be pinned on opener
Nilesh Patwardhan, who is batting on a patient 95 made off 210 balls
during a relentless 330-minute vigil in the middle.In a well-paced innings, the Mumbai opener hit eleven fours.
Patwardhan’s innings meant that his team made a fitting reply despite
the other top-order batsmen failing to get good scores against a fullstrength New Zealand A attack led by two former New Zealand new ball
bowlers, Chris Drum and Kyle Mills.Patwardhan’s most significant partnership was with No.3 batsman Sachin
Sawant who made 18 off 114 balls. The two added 62 runs for the second
wicket. The unbeaten 52-run fifth wicket stand between Patwardhan and
Sushant Manjrekar, who was batting on 21 off 80 balls, was the other
highlight of the innings.Earlier, Paul Valthathy while making 22 off 63 balls had provided the
Mumbai innings the right direction by putting on 47 runs for the
opening wicket with Patwardhan. Saket Adhikari, the No.4 batsman, was
out for a duck after scratching around for 16 balls while Kiran Powar,
who followed him, made 17 off 29 balls.In the morning, the New Zealand A last wicket pair of Shane Bond, a
last-minute inclusion, and Chris Drum added 54 runs to guide their
team to a healthy 329 in their first innings.While Bond went ballistic, hitting six fours in his 45-ball innings of
37, Drum was the steadying influence making 16 off 42 balls.The partnership ended when left-arm spinner Rajesh Pawar, who plays
for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy, snared Bond. The wicket also
completed a five-wicket haul for Pawar. Paras Mhambrey who claimed two
New Zealand A wickets and Nilesh Kulkarni and Aziz Shaikh, both of
whom claimed one each, were the other successful bowlers. India
discard Ajit Agarkar went wicketless despite bowling 12 overs.On Thursday, former New Zealand opener Matthew Horne, batting at No.3,
made a stroke-filled 111 runs off 141 balls studded with 20 rasping
hits to the boundary while guiding his team to 277 for nine at close
of play. Another New Zealand opener Matthew Bell who made 47 and
Hamish Marshall who made 33 were the other significant contributors.
Horne and Bell added 144 runs for the second wicket off 47.4 overs but
thereafter the New Zealand team lost wickets at regular intervals.* Batsmen make merry as MRF pile up big scoreCracking tons by Rajat Bhatia (151) and Hrishikesh Kanitkar (101) put
MRF in a commanding position against Hyderabad Cricket Association in
the MRF Buchi Babu invitation cricket tournament first round tie at
the Southern Railway Stadium, Chennai, on Friday. MRF were 448/8 at
close of play in reply to the HCA first innings score of 256.Resuming on 65/2, Bhatia and Tanveer Jabbar went on accumulating runs,
putting together a third wicket partnership of 231 runs off 64.2
overs. Jabbar’s long vigil at the crease lasted 289 minutes and he was
dismissed by Vishnuvardhan after making 82 runs off 230 balls with the
help of eight fours and a six. Rashmi Ranjan Parida (7) failed with
the bat.Bhatia’s big innings came to an end when he was caught by Ghouse Baba
off the bowling of Vishnuvardhan. His innings lasted 319 minutes in
which he played 238 balls, striking 15 fours and two sixes. Kanitkar
was in no mood to give away the advantage as he went on to smash a run
a ball hundred which included 14 boundaries and three sixes. Thiru
Kumaran (24) gave Kanitkar good support and added 55 runs for the
sixth wicket. Kanitkar’s explosive knock came to an end when he was
bowled by the off spinner Noel David. At close of play, the tall Tamil
Nadu player MR Shrinivas (16) was at the crease with Dinesh Kaarthick
(4).* Stage set for keen first innings duelThe stage is set for a keen battle for the all important first innings
lead in the MRF Buchi Babu invitation cricket tournament first round
match between Karnataka State Cricket Association XI and the Tamil
Nadu Cricket Association XI at the MA Chidambaram stadium on Saturday.
At stumps on the second day on Friday, TNCA XI were 248 for three in
reply to KSCA’s 385.KSCA, who were 322 for seven overnight, did well to get to their final
total. RC Shanbal, who was 43 overnight, was out for 52. But former
Indian paceman David Johnson kept the innings going before he was last
out for a bright 47 off 55 balls. He hit two fours and three sixes.
With last man U Chaitra (8 not out), Johnson added 29 runs off just
3.5 overs. Off spinner Dhandapani took all the three wickets to fall
on Friday morning to finish with six for 118 off 30.5 overs.TNCA XI were given a good start with openers B Attavar (18) and S
Suresh (67) putting on 58 runs off 18.2 overs. Suresh and Hemanth
Kumar maintained the momentum with a second wicket partnership of 69
runs off 19.3 overs. At this stage, Suresh was out to Kumble for 67.
In his stay of about 2-1/2 hours, he faced 123 balls and hit six fours
and a six. Hemanth Kumar and JR Madanagopal were then associated in a
third wicket stand of 85 runs off 21 overs before the latter fell for
a well compiled 51 off 73 balls, inclusive of six hits to the ropes.
The left handed Hemanth Kumar came through unbeaten with 88 at stumps.
He has so far played 163 balls and hit ten fours and a six. Keeping
him company is Sridharan Sarath (7). Play was stopped 34 minutes early
because of bad light.* CAB take big lead, set to enter quarterfinalsCricket Association of Bengal batsmen did well to notch up 392 runs in
their first innings against Oil and Natural Gas Commission in the MRF
Buchi Babu invitation cricket tournament first round tie at the Sri
Ramachandra Medical College ground, Chennai, on Friday.Resuming on 118/5, CAB required another 71 runs to go past the ONGC
first innings total of 188. CAB lost Saikat Mukherje (36) to the off
spinner Sarandeep Singh and were in some trouble at 151/6. With the
vital first innings lead still in balance, Sanib Sanyal and Laxmi
Ratan Shukla took CAB past their first goal.The two batsmen added 130 runs for the seventh wicket before Shukla
gave a catch to Pradeep Jain at mid-wicket off the bowling of Mohd
Saif. Shukla’s whirlwind knock of 83 off 108 balls included nine
boundaries and two sixes.Sanyal (68) was caught by Amit Sharma at mid-wicket off the bowling of
Sarandeep Singh. Sanyal struck seven boundaries and a six in his 232-
minute stay at the crease, facing 165 balls.Pradipta Mazumdar (39 off 74 balls) struck five fours in his knock and
added 73 runs for the ninth wicket with Sourashish Lahiri. Sibsankar
Paul (4) was the last man to be dismissed in the 115th over leaving
Lahiri unbeaten on 46 made in 74 balls with the help of half a dozen
boundaries. Sarandeep Singh was the best of the ONGC bowlers, claiming
4/83.After allowing CAB to accumulate a massive lead of 204 runs in the
first innings, ONGC got off to a good start in their second essay.
Gagan Khoda and Sandeep Sharma sent CAB on a leather hunt adding 115
runs off just 12.3 overs. Khoda made 39 runs off 32 balls, striking
six boundaries before falling to Lahiri. Mitun Minhas and Sharma added
50 runs to take ONGC to 165/1 off 18 overs by close of play on second
day.Sharma is unbeaten on a whirlwind 86 off 58 balls, which includes five
sixes and eight boundaries. Minhas has struck two sixes and a four in
his unbeaten effort of 26 runs off 18 balls. In spite of these
pyrotechnics, CAB look well set to make the quarterfinals.* Balaji sends Indian Airlines crashing to 94 all outThe picturesque IIT-Chemplast ground played host to the MRF Buchi Babu
cricket tournament first round clash between Indian Airlines and Jolly
Rovers Cricket Club. Boasting a number of stars including skipper
Vijay Dahiya and opening batsman J Arun Kumar, the Airlines team would
have hoped to put up a better showing than their eventual 94 all out,
especially after winning the toss and electing to bat first. Cashing
in on Indian Airlines’ plight Jolly Rovers notched up 171/3 in 57
overs.In the recently concluded Coromandel Cement Cup, mediumpacer L Balaji
was in lethal form, taking 12 wickets in the final, which Jolly Rovers
won. On Saturday, Balaji was once again in devastating mood, scalping
6/34 from 13 scalding overs. The Indian Airlines team had no answer to
his mediumpace, with Arun Kumar (23), Ishan Ganda (35) and Dahiya (13)
being the only three players to make it to double figures. In just
35.1 overs, the Airlines side were dismissed for their sub-100 score.If there was some thought that the wicket had devils in it, S
Badrinath dispelled it immediately. Coming to the wicket at the fall
of Sujith Somasunder’s wicket with the score on 16, Badrinath
proceeded to compile an unbeaten 82. Striking 11 of the 193 balls he
faced to the fence, Badrinath boldly attacked the bowlers. Ajay Kudua
with 25 provided some support to Badrinath, but at the end of the day
it was J Hariesh, unbeaten on 29 who was Badrinath’s best companion.
The pair added an unbeaten 91 for the fourth wicket and Jolly Rovers
are well placed on 171 after 57 overs.
