South Zone spinners fail to make a match of it

By G. Viswanath

SURAT, JAN. 21. South Zone's spin trio failed to click on a wearing pitch at the Lalbhai Contractor stadium. The fourth and final day's proceedings in the Duleep Trophy league match between South and West Zone was a tale of less skillful bowling by the slow bowlers, one of whom, Sunil Joshi, played the last three Tests for India and Aashish Kapoor, got an out-of-the-blue recall for the one-dayers against Zimbabwe.

In the course of the last day's play, South's skipper Rahul Dravid, used the specialist spinners for 77 overs, but none of them threatened to run through the side or take wickets in a clutch. The question is why the South selectors did not pick Tamil Nadu leg spinner Balaji Rao. There was the instance of Mumbai offspinner Ramesh Powar becoming a casualty to the whims of the selectors; Rao should be another.

The result of a pedestrian bowling by South's spinners was the match ended in a draw. West Zone made 330 for the loss of six wickets after which both captains agreed to call of play.

If someone made any point, it was West skipper Nayan Mongia. He defied the South attack for nine minutes short of five hours. His partnerships - from the first to fourth wicket - was vital in as much as it helped his team to save the match. Baroda's Jacob Martin made an attractive 47 with eight fours and Vinod Kambli hit some elegant and powerful shots in his 65 ball 66 which had eleven hits to the fence and two over it.

After Kambli's dismissal, Maharashtra's middle order, Abhijit Kale helped himself with a half century in one and a quarter hours. Thereafter Wasim Jaffer - who did not field on Saturday because of a hamstring injury - made 17 in 101 minutes, a barndoor defence chore that was a disappointing event after the likes of Martin, Kambli and Kale had played in all 30 boundary shots.

South, thanks to Doda Ganesh's fine burst last Friday, got five points from the match and West three, which is virtually out of the running for the title. Ganesh who persevered in two spells met with solitary success, as a result of a super delivery he bowled to Martin. South has two more matches against East and Central. West will play East in Rajkot from February 1 to 4.

The scores: West Zone - 1st innings: 376.

South - 1st innings: 595.

West Zone - 2nd innings: C. Williams c Sriram b Kapoor 43, N. Mongia b Joshi 60, H. Kanitkar c Badani b Joshi 23, J. Martin c Naidu b Ganesh 47, V. Kambli c Ramesh b Joshi 66, A. Kale c Dravid b Raju 52, W. Jaffer not out 17, S. Bahutule not out 9, Extras (b-5, nb-8) 13, Total (for 6 wkts in 104 overs) 330.

Fall of wickets: 1-64, 2-114, 3-168, 4- 221, 5-264, 6-310.

South Zone bowling: Ganesh 17-2-73-1, Shahabuddin 4-0-17-0, Kapoor 26-3-91-1, Raju 23-8-51-1, Joshi 21- 6-62-3, Sriram 7-3-25-0, Ramesh 4-2-3-0, Badani 2-1-3-0.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : McGarry's early strikes put Indians on backfoot
Next     : Japan storms into semifinals