Yuveraj stamps his class

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, MARCH 20. Mumbai would contemplate why it chose to invite Punjab to bat. It did not have its three main bowlers. At best it had Ajit Agarkar watching the match from the dressing room for some time in the day and the two spinners Nilesh Kulkarni and Sairaj Bahutule far away in Chennai.

By any measure, Paras Mhambrey and Santosh Saxena or the offspinner Ramesh Powar and left hand spinner Rajesh Pawar cannot be deemed as match winners. The result of a wrong decision was Punjab built an impressive score of 299 for four wickets on the first day of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal at the Wankhede Stadium here on Tuesday.

The pick of the Punjab batsman was Yuveraj Singh. He has already seen the ups and downs at a young age. Only six months ago he was the darling of Indian cricket, hailed as the new wonderkid. He made a match winning 84 that knocked out Australia from the first round of the ICC Knock out in Nairobi, but in the next eleven one-day internationals he did not even make a single half century. The national selectors did not pick him in the Indian team for the first three one-day internationals against Australia. It must have come as a rude shock to him.

In the circumstances Yuveraj made a determined effort against a persevering Mumbai bowling on Tuesday. He looked a class apart from the rest reaching 14 runs short of a century in three hours and nine minutes. Patient batting in the first session on Wednesday should take him past his first first class century at the Wankhede Stadium.

Punjab's batting looked quite pedestrian after the exit of Vikram Rathour and when Ravneet Ricky and Ankur Kakkar laboured in the middle during the second wicket stand. Pankaj Dharmani looked assured, but still took nearly three hours to make 68 before he was trapped leg before by Mhambrey. Dharmani and Yuveraj put on 100 runs for the fourth wicket, the arrival of Yuveraj having an immediate effect on the Mumbai bowling and the score board.

Yuveraj played outstanding shots off Pawar and Powar. He stood up on his backfoot toe to punch the left arm spinner through forward of point, the shot played against the spin. Then he stepped out a yard and whipped the same bowler wide of long on and then immediately lifted him effortlessly over long on for a six. He had served sufficient warning to the Mumbai captain that he was going to target the diminutive left hand spinner. Santosh Saxena replaced him and Yuveraj at once dispatched him to the point fence.

Minutes before stumps Yuveraj had a stroke of luck, dropped when he was on 84. Jatin Paranjape represented the token presence of a slip fielder, Yuveraj and Reetinder Singh Sodhi's belligerent strokeplay forcing Amol Muzumdar to scatter the field. Paranjape got both hands, turning to his left and yet spilled the catch. One more catch - a sitter by comparison to the one dropped by Paranjape - was put down by Rajesh Pawar at point off Sriram Kannan when Sodhi (on 17) failed to keep the cut shot down.

The fifth wicket pair has added 63 runs in 81 minutes and Sodhi was the smart batsman in this partnership. He made an undefeated 53 the last one-day international India played against Zimbabwe in Rajkot eleven days before Christmas and still does not find a place in the India fourteen. The selectors have now picked Robin Singh. Sodhi did not waste time. He gave an impression he had a lot of catching up to do with Yuveraj. It appears there is a healthy rivalry between the two.

The scores:

Punjab - 1st Innings: R. Ricky lbw b Rajesh Pawar 24, V. Rathour b Mhambrey 14, A. Kakkar st. Rane b Ramesh Powar 46, P. Dharmani lbw b Mhambrey 68, Yuveraj Singh batting 86, R. S. Sodhi batting 35, Extras (b-2, lb-7, nb-17) 26, Total: (for 4 wkts in 90 overs) 299.

Fall of wkts: 1-32, 2-68, 3-136, 4-236.

Mumbai bowling: Mhambrey 15-1-61-2, Saxena 13-1-41-0, Kannan 13-2-40-0, Powar 23-7-51-1, Pawar 26-5- 97-1.

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