The Hindu : Sriram (140), Vinay Kumar hogs limelight in drawn encounter

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Saturday, Mar 30, 2002

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Sriram (140), Vinay Kumar hogs limelight in drawn encounter

By Our Sports Reporter

South Zone's Vinay Kumar (left) and S. Sriram, who were involved in a match-saving partnership of 237 in their Duleep Trophy match against West Zone in Chennai on Friday.

Chennai March 29. Puzzling questions abound in Indian domestic cricket. Here's another teaser. Why is a Duleep Trophy encounter, a contest between Zones, a four-day affair, while battles in the Ranji Trophy knockout phase, where States duel it out, stretch to five days? There can be no logical explanation.

The names are bigger, the stakes, often higher, yet the playing hours are fewer! In the end, the aspirants are the biggest sufferers, some of them never receiving a second chance.

Had there been a fifth day, the West-South Duleep clash at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium might have taken an interesting turn. Instead, the match ended in a dull draw on Friday, South trailing by 204 in the first innings, finishing at 266 for three, opener S. Sriram's 140, and No. 3. D. Vinay Kumar's 96 being the highlights.

West pressed hard in the first session, but the breakthrough was not forthcoming, and the competitive element gradually fizzled out of the match on a pitch that got slower as the game progressed. So much for the talk of preparing lively surfaces for the Duleep Trophy.

West's strike bowlers, pacemen Ajit Agarkar and Irfan Pathan (jr), sent down only ten overs between them for the day, and except 'keeper Connor Williams - Nayan Mongia, nursing a stiff neck, did not take the field - and Kaushik Aphale, all the available West players had a bowl. This tells the story for the day.

There indeed were times when the West cricketers appeared to be just going through the motions, content with the first innings lead and the five points that went with it.

West, the clear favourite to regain the Duleep Trophy, has 21 points from three games, and South, six from two. Kanitkar's men have only got to avoid an outright defeat against East in the last league game to be crowned the champion.

The day was dominated by a massive second-wicket 237-run partnership in 73.2 overs between Sriram (140, 232b, 14 x 4) and D. Vinay Kumar (96, 250b, 8 x 4). Yet, there would have been a feeling of deja vu in the South Zone camp; once again, the side had to pay the price for its first innings failure. Both against North at Faridabad and West here, the South batsmen had failed to apply themselves when it mattered.

Sriram, with a well-made 82 in the first innings here, preceding his hundred in the second essay here, was an exception though. He may not be the most flamboyant of southpaws around, but his hunger for runs has to be admired.

Before a smart throw from substitute Amol Muzumdar at point to 'keeper Williams caught Sriram short of the crease, 39 minutes after tea, he had notched up yet another three-figure knock in first class cricket.

Essentially a grafter whose game revolves around a sound defense, Sriram was more aggressive this time around; especially severe on Ramesh Powar and Ajit Bhoite, cutting and pulling whenever the off-spinners erred in length. Sriram also swept well and used his feet to drive in front of the wicket.

The Tamil Nadu opener, got to his 50 in 89 balls, and reached his century in 159, 30 minutes before tea, lofting Bhoite to the cover fence. Incidentally, the South score was 106 for one at lunch and 208 for one when the players went in for tea.

Vinay Kumar missed a century by a whisker when he failed to keep a drive off seamer Niranjan Godbole down; Powar at covers snaffled the catch. The Hyderabad batsman may have been lucky though to receive the benefit of doubt to a vociferous caught behind shout from leg-spinner Sairaj Bahutule. On 28 then, he went on to produce some pleasing on-side strokes.

A strong bottom-handed player, Vinay Kumar has a tendency to turn the spinners from the front foot, picking the ball from the off-stump on occasions, and this habit also landed him in trouble more than once when Bahutule got his leg-breaks to spin sharply.

South now takes on East in Bangalore on April 2. And the West players will earn a well-deserved breather before travelling to Kolkata in the second week of April for their last game against East.

The scores:

South Zone — 1st innings: 292.

West Zone — 1st innings: 496.

South Zone — 2nd innings: S. Sriram (run out) 140; M. S. K. Prasad b Agarkar 0; D. Vinay Kumar c Powar b Godbole 96; Rowland Barrington (not out) 12; H. Watekar (not out) 0; Extras (b-4, lb-2, w-5, nb-7) 18; Total (for three wickets) 266.

Fall of wickets: 1-6; 2-243, 3-265.

West bowling: Irfan Pathan (jr) 9-3-18-0; Agarkar 6-5-1-1; Powar 19-2-59-0; Bahutule 14-2-51-0; Bhoite 18-0-71-0; Kotak 6-1-17-0; Kanitkar 6-1-17-0; Godbole 10-3-26-1.

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