Positive Tamil Nadu takes on strong Mumbai

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, APRIL 10.This is the time of the year Mumbaites look forward to slip away to the nearest hill station to enjoy the pleasant surroundings and cool climate. It has been more than a month since summer arrived, but it has been only in the last week the metropolis began feeling the severity of the heat and humidity which is so oppressive these days leaving a tired body at the end of the day.

Mumbai's coach Ashok Mankad, who has guided his team two matches short of the national championship title, after a poor run in the last season, was not far off the mark when he said on Monday morning that the two teams here for the semifinal will have to ``fight nature'' than against each other for a place in the final of the Ranji Trophy. Mankad felt that the `span of concentration' of the players will be affected because of the scorching heat and high humidity.

Tamil Nadu's coach Bharat Kumar quite did not seem to agree with Mankad, regardless, he did not give an impression that he was posturing when he said, ``we are used to this climate. We know three seasons...hot, hotter and hottest. We have experienced this right through the season.'' Sridharan Sharath, an experienced batsman, who answered a few questions in the absence of captain Robin Singh, only nodded his head.

Mankad did not counter Bharat Kumar's statement, but said, ``it will be interesting to see how the players of the teams handle the weather over a period of five days. As coach of the Mumbai team, I would like my team to win. I am happily surprised by the players performances right from the West Zone league to the Super League. We won six matches. But the dream run has ended. Now we have to face the reality.

This will be a knock out match and the pressure will be different, unlike in the match against Rajasthan. Then, we knew that we have qualified for the knock out.''

The Mumbai team spent three hours and more at the `nets' on Monday morning (starting at 8 a.m.) without Vinod Kambli, whose mother died on Sunday night. At 7 p.m. Kambli told Mumbai Cricket Association officials that he would play the match.

The good news for Mumbai is that Sachin Tendulkar and Ajit Agarkar have returned for an important match as the Ranji semifinal. The first thing Tendulkar did after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI decided to reschedule the semifinal) was to step down as Mumbai captain, which did not really come as a surprise.

This will be his first match in two seasons. ``Well, he (Tendulkar) is very clear in his thoughts. He told us at the start of the season that we have to forget what had happened in the last season and that we should win it this time. Even when he was not playing, he was checking out Mumbai's scores,'' said Mankad.

Mumbai is likely to take the field with three seamers -- Ajit Agarkar, Santosh Saxena and Abey Kuruvilla -- and two spinners -- left arm spinner Rajesh Pawar and off spinner, Ramesh Powar. ``It'll be a very difficult decision to leave out Paras (Mhambrey). But he has not played after he met with a non- cricketing accident , '' said Mumbai's coach.

Tamil Nadu, Mankad said was a ``formidable side, heavy with left handers. I have been watching their progress and I had a premonition that we will play them at some stage of the tournament. It's nice blend of youth and experience. And many of them are India reckoning. But having said that they have to play much better to beat us here.''

The last time Tamil Nadu played here at the Wankhede Stadium, Tendulkar's team beat them. That was the 13th defeat for Tamil Nadu against Mumbai.

But four years ago Tamil Nadu tasted their first win against Mumbai at Tirunalveli. ``It was a five day match. Mumbai did not have Tendulkar. It was a bad pitch. But we had to really sweat it out to beat them,'' said Sharath.

Sharath will be one of the Tamil Nadu's key batsman. He is one run short of making 1000 runs in first class cricket this season. But a batsman who has come here with a bigger reputation than Test match opener Sadagopan Ramesh is, Sridharan Sriram.

The left hander who played the last one-day international against South Africa at Nagpur and was in the team that toured Sharjah, Sriram has an aggregate of 1063 runs in seven Ranji Trophy matches, 450 runs plus made in the last three innings against Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. The only right hander in the top six is J. Madanagopal.

Ashish Kapoor, who has taken 51 wickets this season (in all first class matches) said, ``the general feeling is that an off spinner finds it easy bowling to left handers. It's not so because all play differently.'' Apart from Kapoor, the other main wicket takers for Tamil Nadu in the season have been S. Mahesh (35 wickets) and J. Gokulakrishnan (25 wickets).

Tamil Nadu will be once again banking on them to make inroads into the Mumbai team. ``We have always played positive cricket this season. The pitch here has always been true. There is something for the seamers, batsmen and spinner,'' said Sharath, optimistic of defeating Mumbai in its own backyard.

The teams:

Mumbai(from): Sameer Dighe (Captain) Wasim Jaffer, Vinod Kambli, Sachin Tendulkar, Jatin Paranjpe, Amol Muzumdar, Abey Kuruvilla, Santosh Saxena, Ajit Agarkar, Rajesh Pawar, Ramesh Powar, Amit Pagnis, Amit Dani, Nilesh Kulkarni, Paras Mhambrey, Sriram Kannan.

Tamil Nadu (from): Robin Singh (Captain), S. Sriram, S. Ramesh, S. Sharath, Hemang Badani, J. Madanagopal, Reuben Paul, S. Mahesh, Ashish Kapoor, T. Kumaran, J. Gokulakrishnan, Rajat Bhatia, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, Vasant Saravanan, Tanveer Jabbar, Sarabjit Medappa.

Umpires: Messrs: K. Hariharan and K. S. Giridharan.

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