Raju leads from the front

By Our Sports Reporter

KANPUR, APRIL 3. At the end of an engrossing five days of play the couple of hundred spectators, who had been coming to the Green Park Stadium, were a dejected lot.

Their `heroes' had committed `hara-kiri', losing outright to Hyderabad and depriving them of a chance to see the star-studded Karnataka team in the semifinals, which would have been played here had Uttar Pradesh qualified.

The crowd did have some moments to cheer early on, but slowly and steadily, Uttar Pradesh, displaying a lack of grit and determination, lost its hold. Chasing 311 for a win, the team was bowled out 92 runs short. Leading the charge was none other than Hyderabad skipper Venkatapathy Raju, who got vital breakthroughs and finished with a six-wicket haul.

The only time that Uttar Pradesh looked in control of the situation was when brothers Mohammad Saif and Mohammad Kaif were together in the middle. That was in the first session, when at 104 for one, the host looked comfortable. But Raju came on to push them against the ropes and Uttar Pradesh was left warding off the jabs for the rest of the day.

Makeshift opener Saif's knock of 57 (seven 4s), in which he executed some lovely square drives, had given a lot of hope, especially when his younger brother dug his heels in at the other end.

But Raju, who had gone wicketless in the first innings, came up with a couple of bursts that wrecked havoc. The left-arm spinner extracted quite some turn in contrast to the first innings, and also had the batsmen groping with his flight.

Raju removed Saif, caught at silly point, and also accounted for Rizwan Shamshad two deliveries later, the batsman coming out of the crease and failing to reach the pitch of the ball to be stumped neatly by Riaz Sheikh.

Suddenly, Hyderabad saw hope. And that hope was converted into a definite chance when Raju came up with another twin blow after lunch. He induced an edge from Saurabh Shukla and had Pandey caught at short leg off the second and fifth balls of the same over, and Uttar Pradesh was left struggling at 163 for five.

Even as Kaif waged a gritty battle, scoring 86 in 282 minutes, with the help of seven fours, the other end had become a problem. No one was able to plug it, and the story was virtually over when Kaif was ninth out, caught at short leg, off Kanwaljit Singh. The off-spinner, who had taken six wickets in the first innings, finished with three second innings wickets, including the first wicket of the day, that of Jyoti Yadav.

The last pair of Ratnesh Mishra and Shalabh Srivastava saw off some overs with the new ball, but medium-pacer Parth Satwalkar took the last wicket and the innings folded up after eight mandatory overs.

It was definitely a good opportunity lost for Uttar Pradesh, which had enjoyed a 71-run first innings lead. On the other hand, Hyderabad maintained its record of making the last four grade over the past few years.

Hyderabad had registered a similar come-from-behind win against Baroda in the super league. It may not have mastered that art, but an outright win would definitely give it a lot of confidence for the bigger matches ahead.

The scores:

Hyderabad - 1st innings: 291.

Uttar Pradesh - 1st innings: 362.

Hyderabad - 2nd innings: 381 for five declared.

Uttar Pradesh - 2nd innings: Mohammad Saif c (sub) Shivaji Yadav b Raju 57, Jyoti Yadav b Kanwaljit 18, Mohammad Kaif c Nandakishore b Kanwaljit 86, Rizwan Shamshad st Sheikh b Raju 0, Saurabh Shukla c Sheikh b Raju 27, Gyanendra Pandey c Nandakishore b Raju 0, Pradeep Yadav c (sub) Shivaji Yadav b Raju 2, Ashish Winston Zaidi c Raju b Kanwaljit 0, Musi Raza lbw b Raju 6, Ratnesh Mishra (not out) 3, Shalabh Srivastava c Sheikh b Satwalkar 1, Extras (b-5, lb-6, nb-7) 18, Total 218.

Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-104, 3-104, 4- 163, 5-163, 6-175, 7-225, 8-239, 9-208.

Hyderabad bowling: N.P. Singh 12-3-22-0, Parth Satwalkar 15-4-35- 1, Kanwaljit Singh 36-8-78-3, Venkatapathy Raju 37-15-57-6, Vanka Pratap 4-1-13-0, V.V.S. Laxman 1-0-2-0.

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