South Zone-East Zone tie interestingly poised

By S. Sabanayakan

AGARTALA, JAN. 26. The Duleep Trophy league game between South Zone and East Zone was interestingly poised at the end of the second day of the four-day at the Maharaja Bir Bikram Stadium here on Friday.

After having taken a 11-run first innings lead over South, East ended at 71 for two wickets in 34 overs at stumps. The host needs 96 more runs to win the contest. At close, skipper Shiv Sundar Das was unbeaten on 49 and his senior Orissa statemate Sanjay Raul on 15. South needs to dismiss the eight remaining East batsmen to win.

The match saw as many as 20 wickets falling on the opening day yesterday. Today 12 wickets fell for the addition of 245 runs in 91.3 overs. South, resuming its second innings this morning at three for no loss, was all out for 177 in 57.5 overs just 12 minutes before tea, thanks to a fine 40 by Venkatsai Laxman and a splendid 66 by skipper Rahul Dravid.

If medium pacer Debasish Mohanty was the lone hero of yesterday's play capturing 10 for 46, today he teamed up with Assam left-arm spinner Sukhvinder Singh to demolish the South batting. Mohanty ended the second essay at four for 45, and Singh, with nagging line, length and variation of flight, returned his best Duleep figures of six for 57 to bring back East into the game.

Though East lost two quick wickets that of opener P. Jayachandra and No. 3 Reshmi Ranjan Parida cheaply, it was lucky to find a determined Das and a resolute Raul to bail it out of a tight situation.

The pitch, the most focussed aspect of the game, continued to play lower. The odd ball jumped especially at the pavilion end making the job of the batsmen increasingly difficult. The first hour on the morrow would decide the outcome of the match what with Javagal Srinath and B.K. Venkatesh Prasad having recharged their batteries after a good night's rest.

Das tackled the famed attack of South with technique par excellence. The diminutive opener was rarely beaten by the pace or movement of Srinath and Prasad. He was never troubled by the four-man spin attack in which two current India bowlers, left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi and off-spinner Aashish Kapoor, operated. For variety, South had a leg-spinner in W. D. Balaji Rao and fastish off-spinner in Vijay Bharadwaj.

Das played his shots freely during his 139-minute, 108-ball unbeaten stay at the wicket. He smashed seven fours as well. Raul was shaky at the beginning especially against the pace of Srinath but settled down to give his captain a very good support. The duo put on 63 for the unfinished third wicket in 29.3 overs. East would depend on this pair to deliver the goods.

Poor application against an inspired East bowling put South in a spot of bother. After openers S. Sriram and A. Nandakishore scored 14 and 18 runs respectively, Laxman and Dravid put on 67 effortless runs for the third wicket. This partnership was the best phase of the South innings. As ill luck would have it, Singh, who had a couple of deliveries turn sharply initially, made one turn and jump. Laxman, committed to the front-foot, saw the ball hitting his bat and ballooning to Zakaria Juffri at silly-point for an easy catch to leave at 40 (100m, 66b, 7x4).

From three for 109, South collapsed inexplicably to 138 for eight by the 50th over. Dravid, still unbeaten, and new man W.D. Balaji Rao, put on 35 valuable runs for the ninth wicket before Dravid made the cardinal mistake of playing back to an accurate spinner on a low bounce track. Dravid's 66 (189m, 143b, 8x4) was the foundation on which South's second innings was built.

The scores:

South Zone - 1st innings: 113.

East Zone - 1st innings: 124.

South Zone - 2nd innings: S. Sriram lbw b Mohanty 14; A. Nandakishore c Juffri b Mohanty 18; V.V.S. Laxman c Juffri b Singh 40; R. Dravid lbw b Singh 66; V. Bharadwaj lbw b Mohanty 1; Thilak Naidu lbw b Singh 8; S. Joshi lbw b Mohanty 4; A. Kapoor c Dasgupta b Singh 2; J. Srinath c & b Singh 0; W.D. Balaji Rao (not out) 12; B.K. Venkatesh Prasad c Zaman b Singh 4; Extras (b- 4, lb-2, nb-2): 8; Total (all out in 57.5 overs): 177.

Fall of wickets: 1-31, 2-42, 3-109, 4- 113, 5-122, 6-129, 7-138, 8-138, 9-173.

East Zone bowling: D. Mohanty 16-2-45-4, J. Zaman 10-3-23-0, P. Jayachandra 1-0-13-0, U. Chatterjee 16-5- 33-0, S. Singh 14.5-2- 57-6.

East Zone - 2nd innings: S.S. Das (batting) 49; P. Jayachandra b Prasad 3; R.R. Parida b Srinath 0; S. Raul (batting) 15; Extras (b-2, nb-2): 4; Total (for two wickets in 34 overs): 71.

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-8.

South Zone bowling: J. Srinath 7-2-15-1, Prasad 9-1-20-1, S. Joshi 8-4-9-0, A. Kapoor 5-1-10-0, Rao 3-0-10-0, Bharadwaj 2-0-5- 0.

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