Tejinder takes centrestage

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 22. For a better part of the opening day, Railways looked poised for a formidable first innings total. But the fall of four wickets, two each on either side of the tea- interval, helped Karnataka snatch the advantage in its Ranji Trophy quarterfinals at the Karnail Singh Stadium here on Thursday.

Opting to bat on a pitch which offered slow turn, Railways finished the day at 237 for six. The score looks far less impressive since Railways was 160 for two at one stage.

If Tejinder Pal Singh's career-best 80 and his second- wicket stand of 107 with Sanjay Bangar were the high-points for Railways, the twin blows effected by left-arm spinner Santosh Vadeyaraj and part-time off-spinner Vijay Bharadwaj brought the smiles back on the faces of the Karnataka players.

Tejinder, despite living dangerously on a couple of occasions, treated the Karnataka medium-pacers with disdain during his 148- minute, 117-ball stay. This 22-year-old from Amritsar, who moved to Railways last season after making his one- day league debut for Punjab in the 1998-99 season, did enough to reinforce the faith of coach Vinod Sharma in sending him up the order.

Fresh from the breezy knocks of 77 and 42 in the pre- quarterfinals against Maharashtra, Tejinder drove with aplomb and found the gaps with ease. Reputation failed to intimidate him as he made Venkatesh Prasad look most ordinary. Out of Tejinder's 14 boundaries, seven - including two pleasing straight drives - came off Prasad and five off the other medium-pacer, B. Akhil. Dodda Ganesh, the other seamer on view, too, was far from impressive.

However, just when Tejinder was looking set for his first three- figure score in the championship, left-arm spinner Santosh won a leg-before decision despite making a half-hearted appeal.

If Tejinder missed a deserving century, Bangar fell four runs short of his half-century. During his 225-minute stay, Bangar proved a perfect foil to Tejinder and hit five boundaries and a six. Off-spinner Anand Yalvigi, who was hit for a six by Bangar, had his revenge off the very next ball.

Thereafter, Yere Goud and skipper Abhay Sharma, who scored 221 not out and 188, respectively, against Maharashtra just eight days back, became Bharadwaj's victims after being needlessly aggressive. Yere Goud offered a catch in the slip at the stroke of tea and Abhay Sharma's miscued shot landed at point. At this stage, Railways was 187 for five. A little later, Vadeyaraj, added the scalp of Raja Ali with Anil Kumar taking the catch at forward short leg.

Earlier, it was the freak dismissal of opener Amit Pagnis which gave Karnataka an early breakthrough. The first ball from Akhil kissed the handle of Pagnis's bat, ricocheted off wicketkeeper Thilak Naidu's left glove and then deflected off first-slip fielder Vijay Bharadwaj for Arun Kumar to complete the dismissal at second slip.

The scores:

Railways - 1st innings: A. Pagnis c Arun Kumar b Akhil 20, S. Bangar c Anil b Yalvigi 46, T.P. Singh lbw b Yadeyaraj 80, Y. Goud c Akhil b Bharadwaj 26, A. Sharma c (sub) b Bharadwaj 5, Raja Ali c Anil b Vadeyaraj 10, S. Khonalkar (batting) 28, S. Sahu (batting) 12, Extras (lb-3, nb-7) 10, Total (for six wkts in 90 overs) 237.

Fall of wickets: 1-27, 2-135, 3-160, 4- 186, 5-187, 6-210.

Karnataka bowling: Prasad 17-2-58-0, Ganesh 13-5-34-0, Akhil 6-1- 24-1, Yalgivi 21-4-59-1, Vadeyaraj 23-7-42-2, Bharadwaj 10-1-17- 2.

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