Rathour and Akash Chopra put North in command

By V.V. Subrahmanyam

VIJAYAWADA, JAN. 4. North Zone captain Vikram Rathour did everything right for his team on Thursday. First, he won a very good toss, then scored a near, flawless 143, batting almost till the end of the day, and most importantly put on 237 runs for the first wicket with another century maker of the day, Akash Chopra (110), as North finished the first day in the four-day Duleep Trophy match against South Zone at an impressive 336 for three at the Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation Stadium.

On a pitch which offered virtually no assistance to any bowler, both Chopra and Rathour displayed the right blend of caution and aggression. While Rathour meant business very early in the innings with some classy cover-drives and pull strokes off the medium-pacers Dodda Ganesh and T. Kumaran, Chopra was content to play the second fiddle initially before he too opened out with some pleasing pulls and cuts off the slow bowlers.

South Zone captain V.V.S. Laxman shuffled his bowlers around desperately to get the early breakthroughs, but Rathour and Chopra were in no mood to throw away the wonderful chance to score on an absolute batting beauty. Their technique and temperament coupled with good footwork against the spinners effectively dashed whatever hopes Laxman might have entertained.

The way Rathour walked into an off-drive for a six off Sunil Joshi was a treat to watch. Soon after the lunch break, it was pretty obvious that the bowlers were resigned to the mercy of the batsmen and were just waiting for the latter to make mistakes. And once when Akash Chopra (then on 52) edged trying to cut Sunil Joshi, Laxman was slow to react at slip to latch on to a sharp chance with North being 129 for no loss in 38th over. That was the least South wished for and paid a heavy price as Chopra too demonstrated that he was not far behind in essaying some delectable strokes, particularly against off-spinner Ashish Kapoor, who was the least impressive of all the bowlers and more busy in giving free-of- cost advice to almost everyone on the field. In fact, in the final session, one got the impression that there were far too many `captains' on the field.

Raju displays his class

It required the intelligence and accuracy of left-arm spinner Venkatapathi Raju, clearly the pick of the bowlers today, to strike a double blow in his 16th over. If national selector Chandu Borde (his colleague Madan Lal didn't turn up as expected) needed any proof of Raju's class it was quite evident today.

First, Raju virtually lured Chopra (110, 253 minutes, 206 balls, 16 x 4) to sweep with a tempting line on leg-stump and saw him top-edge his intended shot to silly-point and within two balls drew the dangerous Yuveraj Singh (4) out of the crease only to be stumped by a mile by Tilak Naidu to leave North at 241 for two in 62 overs.

If South thought it had bounced back into the game, it was a misplaced belief, for, Rathour and Dinesh Mongia (60 batting, 89 balls, 12 x 4) put on 88 runs for the third wicket. Mongia was particularly severe on the spinners Joshi and Ashish Kapoor- picking nine boundaries off them.

Finally, there some consolation for the hopeless South camp when Dodda Ganesh got the big wicket of Rathour (143, 350 minutes, 238 balls, 16 x 4 1 x 6) whose intended on-drive ended in a snick down leg-side to wicketkeeper in the dying minutes of the day's play.

Earlier, North camp suffered a setback of sorts as an indisposed Ritender Singh Sodhi pulled out of the team.

The scores:

North Zone (1st innings): Akash Chopra c (sub) Nandakishore b Venkatapathi Raju 110, Vikram Rathour c Tilak Naidu b Dodda Ganesh 143, Yuveraj Singh st. Tilak Naidu b Venkatapathi Raju 4, Dinesh Mongia (batting) 60, Virender Sehwag (batting) 4. Extras: (10nb, 5lb) 15. Total: (for three wkts in 90 overs) 336.

Fall of wickets: 1-237, 2-241, 3-329.

South Zone bowling: Dodda Ganesh 12-2-37-1, T. Kumaran 10-2-45-0, Venkatapathi Raju 28-3-86-2, Robin Singh 9-2-25-0, Sunil Joshi 16-2-72-0, Ashish Kapoor 15-1- 66-0.

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