The Hindu : West regains Duleep Trophy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 13, 2002

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Sport - Cricket

West regains Duleep Trophy

By Our Sports Reporter

KOLKATA April 12. Paceman Irfan Pathan (jr) fired them in accurately, and Ramesh Powar harried the East batsmen with his flight and turn. A potent pace-spin punch it was, performances symbolic of West Zone's victorious campaign, that saw it dismissing a side on six occasions in four matches. A great achievement as far as domestic cricket is concerned where bowlers are often relegated to the backstage.

Indeed, the young Irfan Pathan (jr), 22 scalps in four matches, leg-spinner Sairaj Bahutule (19) and offie Ramesh Powar (15) comprised the sword arm of the West as the team charted its victory path.

At the Eden Gardens, on Friday, West regained the Duleep Trophy after three years, topping the table with 26 points, picking up another five here for the first innings lead. East, adding just three, concluded with 17.

Hrishikesh Kanitkar's team completed the formalities at the Eden Gardens on the fourth day, yet, before signing away, provided East a fright. Irfan's four-wicket haul (four for 43) was followed by Powar's surprisingly teasing off-spin (six for 35) and East was shot out for 162, conceding a massive lead of 367.

However, with not much time remaining, West chose not to enforce the follow-on and though there was a rather surreal end to the match, with the otherwise dominant West losing four wickets for one run (46-47) right at the finish, it did not matter really.

The last occasion West clinched this prestigious domestic title on its own was way back in 1985-86 in Bangalore, a different era really. In 1997-98, the team had only shared the trophy with Central in Chennai.

Not surprisingly, there were plenty of smiles in the West camp at the conclusion. Said skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar - "It was a wonderful team effort and it is a nice feeling to win the trophy back. The boys were magnificent.''

Kanitkar had himself shown the way with knocks of 192 and 197 at Chennai and here, that apart from enhancing his own chances of an India recall, put his team in impregnable positions. Yet the captain had words of praise for the bowlers: "They responded to the challenge well.''

Once again the West bowlers called the shots when play got underway today. With the sun out, the pitch had dried up, yet, the rain had left the surface soft and loose. And when application was required to survive on a pitch where the ball tended to stop and come, the West batsmen erred in reaching out to drive, rather than playing the ball late.

Debang Gandhi was the first to go, done in by an Irfan delivery that straightened. The left-arm pacemen then removed opener Parag Das, who returned at the fall of the first wicket; Das attempted to drive, and was picked up at point by Kaushik Aphale.

Reshmi Ranjan Parida did not last too long either, pouched at short-leg by Nilesh Modi, Irfan again being the bowler. And the Baroda paceman struck soon, getting East skipper Sanjay Raul to drive straight into the hands of Amol Muzumdar at short covers. Irfan's first spell read 10-2-25-4, a burst in which he swung the ball in, apart from angling it away from the right-hander.

Powar, who settled into an impeccable line straightaway, then assumed centrestage. Shubhumoi Das (18) appeared to be settling down when his ambitious lofted drive off Powar only resulted in Irfan completing a wonderful running catch at cover. Soon Rajiv Kumar, foxed by a flighted delivery from the off-spinner, drove too soon to be caught by that man Irfan again, at short cover this time. It was now 51 for six.

Laxmi Ratan Shukla joined wicket-keeper batsman Z. Zufri and the two took the fight to the West with positive strokeplay. Shukla (48, 64b, 8x4, 1x6), who batted with refreshing freedom, repeatedly struck Bahutule through the covers and once danced down the track to hit the leg-spinner for a straight six.

He was, finally snared by Powar, who had him turning an off-break into short-leg's hands. Zufri (44, 89b, 5x4, 1x6), twice put down by Bahutule off his own bowling, produced some forcing strokes as well before knocking one back for Powar to hold. The East innings concluded soon with Powar scalping six for only the second time in his career.

Even as the dust settled on another edition of the tournament, it was sad that the Duleep Trophy could not actually be presented to the West Zone. Considering the winner was only going to emerge from the Kolkata encounter, this shouldn't have been a problem at all.

The scores:

West Zone (1st innings): 529 for six declared.

East Zone (1st innings): P. Das c Aphale b Pathan (jr) 12; D. Gandhi lbw b Pathan (jr) 7; R.R. Parida c Modi b Pathan (jr) 8; S. Raul c Muzumdar b Pathan (jr) 0; S. Das c Pathan (jr) b Powar 18; R. Kumar c Pathan (jr) b Powar 5; Z. Zufri c & b Powar 44; L.R. Shukla c Modi b Powar 48; S. Lahiri c Aphale b Powar 0; U. Chatterjee (not out) 19; M. Ingty c Agarkar b Powar 0; Extras (b-1) 1; Total (all out) 162.

Fall of wickets: 1-8; 2-26; 3-27; 4-30; 5-51; 6-51; 7-115; 8-117; 9-160.

West bowling: A. Agarkar 9-3-14-0; I. Pathan (jr) 16-3-43-4; Bahutule 20-5-69-0; R. Powar 13-4-35-6.

West Zone (2nd innings): N. Modi c Parida b Raul 19; N. Godbole c T. Chandra (sub) b Lahiri 27; S. Kotak (not out) 0; K. Aphale c R. Kumar b Raul 0; I. Pathan (jr) b Lahiri 1; A. Muzumdar (not out) 0; Total (for four wickets) 47.

Fall of wickets: 1-46; 2-46, 3-46, 4-47.

East Zone bowling: M. Ingty 5-2-5-0; L.R. Shukla 3-1-8-0; S. Lahiri 10-4-22-2; S. Raul 8-2-12-2.

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