The Hindu : South Zone manages to take lead

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Friday, Apr 05, 2002

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South Zone manages to take lead

By Our Sports Reporter

Sanjay Raul of East Zone pouches South's S. Sharath at first slip while wicket-keeper Z. Zufri and bowler S. Lahiri look on, in the Duleep Trophy match in Bangalore on Thursday.

BANGALORE April 4. Hemang Badani had the last word. And rightly so. The southpaw turned Utpal Chatterjee to square leg to take South Zone past East's 398 in the Duleep Trophy match at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Thursday. At close, East was 25 for one in its second essay after the host was dismissed for 419 in the first innings.

Badani had guided South while making 65 on the second day before a back spasm forced him to retire hurt. And he spent most of Thursday watching his team inch its way to the first innings lead.

Skipper M.S.K. Prasad banked on patience while notching up his century (228b, 14x4, 2x6) before succumbing to a miscued hit. Bharadwaj (48) and S. Sharath (49) came up with cameos to help South march towards the lead until their strengths proved their nemesis. Bharadwaj's attempt to cut and Sharath's belated square drive kept the slip cordon busy.

The scoreboard read 358 for seven when Dodda Ganesh walked in to join M.R. Shrinivas. And the next 81 minutes witnessed the duo bat patiently to show that the middle-order batsmen had frittered away good starts. Meanwhile, in the dressing room, Badani picked a smattering of Kannada while egging on Dodda Ganesh (24) during his innings.

Ganesh cut seamer Mark Ingty for four and then defended soundly while Shrinivas (30) needed 50 deliveries to give himself the privilege of punching off-spinner Lahiri past covers. The eighth-wicket partnership realised 38 with Shrinivas' big hits ruining East's hopes.

However, the stand terminated with Ganesh waving at an Utpal Chatterjee teaser outside the off-stump. In walked Hemang Badani with a runner in tow — S. Sriram. It was obvious that the southpaw could not strain his back playing his favourite drives. The deft flick of the wrist that sent the ball past square-leg was the only thing he could afford, and he made the most of it while scoring the runs . And he made the most of it while scoring the runs that mattered. Badani finally perished to a catch at mid-wicket.

For East, off-spinner Sourasish Lahiri was the only one to impress, and that too only in phases. He gave the ball air while Utpal struck to a flat trajectory.

South, with a slender 21-run lead, tasted success when Ganesh trapped Parag Das in the very first ball of the East second innings. However, Rashmi Ranjan Parida and S. Lahiri prevented further alarms and helped East breathe easy at close.

The scores:

East Zone — 1st innings: 398.

South Zone — 1st innings: S. Sriram c Zufri b Shukla 34, M.S.K. Prasad c Lahiri b Utpal 104, Vinay Kumar c Zufri b Parag 23, Hemang Badani c Debang b Raul 68, Vijay Bharadwaj c Raja b Shukla 48, S. Sharath c Raul b Lahiri 49, Kiran Powar c Zufri b Ingty 15, Watekar st. Zufri b Utpal 8, M.R. Shrinivas c Utpal b Lahiri 30, Dodda Ganesh c Raul b Utpal 24, Madhukar (not out) 0; Extras (b-8, lb-1, nb-7) 16; Total: 419.

Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-92, 3-284, 4-284, 5-311, 6-358, 7-358, 8-396, 9-405.

East Zone bowling: Ingty 25-6-87-1, Shukla 24-9-57-2, Parag 17-4-71-1, Utpal 43-16-87-3, Lahiri 30.5-10-86-2, Raul 7-1-22-1.

East Zone — 2nd innings: Parag Das lbw b Ganesh 0, R.R. Parida (batting) 13, S. Lahiri (batting) 11; Extras (nb-1) 1; Total (for one wkt.) 25.

Fall of wicket: 1-0.

South Zone bowling: Ganesh 4-1-14-1, Shrinivas 2-1-10-0, Watekar 1-0-1-0.

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