Cautious South takes on buoyant Central

By Vijay Lokapally

LUCKNOW, DEC. 20. Central Zone is buoyant and South Zone cautious. A nice setting for a cricket contest which offers a lot of intrigue and promises to attract spectators on a big scale in this noisy city as news spreads of some top players arriving for the Deodhar Trophy final at the K.D. Singh `Babu' Stadium here on Thursday. Lucknow may not boast of any great tradition for cricket but it is a vibrant place and a welcome change for the cricketers from the dusty and polluted Kanpur, which hosted three matches of this tournament.

The venue has been given a facelift since the match also happens to be a benefit for Neeru Kapoor, a former first- class cricketer from Uttar Pradesh. As far as the locals are concerned, the match means a lot, what with Central Zone making the final and matching its opposition man to man.

The sensational batting of Central skipper Amay Khurasiya was the talking point among the South players. ``Dangerous batsman'' was the common conclusion as they assessed the extent of damage that Khurasiya's attacking instincts inflicted upon the West Zone bowlers.

Khurasiya gave West no chance and literally finished the match in the first 15 overs. ``Our strength has been the fact that each player knows he has to contribute. We don't have stars but we have performers'' Central manager, Mr. Vinod Sharma pointed out.

Mr. Sharma was all praise for the pair of Khurasiya and Jai Prakash Yadav, who carved a splendid century. ``The bowlers also did their job pretty well. If anything, we can do with some better fielding'' he observed.

South will have to draw on its bowling strength to stop a motivated opposition which boasts of a strong batting line up with Murali Kartik slotted at number nine. Batsmen such as Khurasiya, Yadav, Gagan Khoda, Raja Ali and Devendra Bundela have the capability of raising their game at this level and can also swing the contest with their scoring prowess. Sanjay Bangar may miss the final owing to a hamstring injury.

South, in both its matches, has relied a lot on the experience of Robin Singh, the all-rounder who loves to be in the thick of action. Robin has batted and bowled with purpose and on both the occasions ensured the job was finished. His unbeaten 63 against East Zone was a matchwinning performance and the unbeaten 28 against North Zone a priceless essay in testing conditions.

Robin has been the inspiring figure for South which has a couple of dashing batsmen who have in the past proved their credentials in a thumping manner. Karnataka opener J.Arun Kumar should be keen to make up for the cheap dismissal against North while Amit Pathak of Andhra knows how best to play within limitations. A good start from them should put South on the right course, what with stylish Hyderabadi V.V.S. Laxman's towering presence a constant worry for the opposition.

South's experiment with Vanka Pratap in the middle order did not bring the desired thrust to the batting and there were indications to bring back S.Sharath, dropped for the match against North. The presence of Vijay Bharadwaj allows South the comforting thought of having a hard-working cricketer in the middle-order, capable of making an impact with his utility in all departments.

Thiru Kumaran has bowled well in patches while Dodda Ganesh has impressed with his commitment. His double strike - Vikram Rathour and Yuveraj Singh - proved quite valuable in the match against North where he also came up with a spectacular catch to dismiss Harbhajan Singh at deep midwicket, flinging himself and latching on to the ball even as he went tumbling.

It was a class act even though it will be his bowling, with a lot of variety to fox the batsmen, that Robin will be looking forward to. Balaji Rao could also play a major role in South's fortunes after his performance in the last match.

It will be in fitness of things if the tournament witnesses a grand finale. The teams could pay a glowing tribute to a former cricketer by producing a tight contest to make it a memorable benefit for Kapoor with live telecast scheduled on Doordarshan Sports Channel from 9 a.m.

The teams (from):

South: Robin Singh (Capt.), V.V.S. Laxman, J. Arun Kumar, Amit Pathak, S.Sharath, Vanka Pratap, Vijay Bharadwaj, Prasad Reddy, Dodda Ganesh, T. Kumaran, Balaji Rao, Venktapathy Raju, S. Mahesh, Sreekumar Nair, Y. Venugopal Rao and N. Madhukar.

Central: Amay Khurasiya (Capt.), Jai Prakash Yadav, Mohammad Kaif, Gagan Khoda, Sanjay Bangar, Raja Ali, Devendra Bundela, Ankit Srivastava, Murali Kartik, Tejinder Pal Singh, Shalabh Srivastava, Amit Pagnis, Nikhil Doru, Rajesh Kanwat, Amit Deshpande and Zakir Hussain.

Umpires: Messrs M.S. Mahal and Devendra Sharma; Match observer: Mr. G.J.S. Raju.

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