The Hindu : Tamil Nadu gunning for bonus point

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 30, 2002

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Tamil Nadu gunning for bonus point

CHENNAI DEC. 29. The first hour on the morrow could decide whether Tamil Nadu will gain a bonus point, awarded for an innings or 10-wicket win. Considering that its final two Ranji Trophy elite group `B' matches are to be played away, and with the side wrestling with Punjab and Baroda for the top two slots, the extra point here could provide it with some cushion.

On an eventful second day's play against Gujarat at the Chidambaram Stadium here on Sunday, the host gained a lead of 99 and had the opposition down at 130 for six at stumps.

Actually, Gujarat staged a recovery through Mukund Parmar (47 batting) after being 45 for five, speedster L. Balaji (three for 45) ripping open the top order. The visiting captain put on 33 for the sixth wicket with Pallav Vora (16), before mediumpacer M.R. Shrinivas (two for 40) clean bowled the latter. Parmar has so far added 52 with the spunky Bhavin Mehta (23) for the unfinished seventh wicket.

It was the first hour in the morning that upset the host's calculations. Resuming at 100 for one, Tamil Nadu collapsed to 150 for five in the face of some consistently aggressive mediumpace bowling by Lalit Patel (five for 72) and Siddarth Trivedi (four for 75). Patel, who claimed Ramesh leg-before on the opening day, accounted for southpaws Sriram, Sharath and Hemang Badani and the gritty right-hander Dinesh Kaarthick, all leg-before.

Interestingly, 12 dismissals so far in the match have been leg-before, 10 of them given by umpire A.V. Jayaprakash and two by Narendra Menon.

In an elite group A encounter in Jaipur, Mithun Manhas' century and half centuries by Vijay Dahiya and Akash Chopra saw Delhi reply with 380 to Rajasthan's first innings score of 145.

At Vijayawada, defending champion Indian Railways was 91 without loss in reply to Andhra's first innings score of 371, thanks to I. Srinivas' 97.

Faisal, Kanitkar dazzle

In the Plate championship, Goa off-spinner Faisal Sheikh took nine for 29 and forced Services to follow-on at the Palam ground in Delhi. At Dhanbad, left-hander Hrishikesh Kanitkar slammed 290 while R. Khirid followed Abhijit Kale as the third centurymaker as Maharashtra declared its first innings at 653 for six against Bihar.

The scores:

Elite group A: Rajasthan 145 & 46 for no loss v Delhi 380 (Mithun Manhas 101, Vijay Dahiya 74, Akash Chopra 73, Arun Kumar 32), in Jaipur.

Bengal 190 v Mumbai 231 for five (P. Mhambrey 44, M. Tamhane 29, Nishit Shetty 82 batting, Vinayak Samant 41 batting), in Mumbai.

Andhra 371 (Amit Pathak 80, M. Suresh 46, Y. Venugopala Rao 39, I. Srinivas 97, K.S. Shahabuddin 31, J.P. Yadav three for 79, Kulamani Parida three for 73) v Indian Railways 91 for no loss (J.P. Yadav 62 batting, Amit Pagnis 27 batting), in Vijayawada.

Hyderabad 262 (Arjun Yadav 72 not out) v Himachal Pradesh 64 for two, in HP.

Group B: Gujarat 161 & 130 for six (Mukund Parmar 47 batting, L. Balaji three for 45) v Tamil Nadu 260 (S. Ramesh 41, S. Suresh 56, Hemang Badani 31, M.R. Shrinivas 28, Lalit Patel five for 72, Siddarth Trivedi four for 75), in Chennai.

Orissa 245 (Sukhwinder Singh 102, N. Behra 51, A.W. Zaidi six for 97) v Uttar Pradesh 162 for five (Rizwan 82, N. Chopra 30 batting), in Lucknow.

Assam 188 & 88 for seven (Tushar Arothe three for 20) v Baroda 237 (Rakesh Solanki 60, Tushar Arothe 64, Nayan Mongia 28, Sukhvinder Singh three for 33), in Vadodara.

Plate championship: Group A: Goa 278 (Mandar Phadke 128, Rohit Rane 34, Aditya Angle 32, Hari Prasad four for 60, Arun Sharma three for 61) v Services 119 (Aravind Kumar 30, Faisal Sheikh nine for 29) & 47 for no loss, in Delhi.

Tripura 263 (R. Jaiswal 53, Subal Chowdhary 38, Rajib Saha 60, T. Chanda 30, Jolly Jobanputra four for 61, Hitesh Goswami three for 48)) v Saurashtra 139 for four (Ashok Kamalia 84, Chetan Sachdev four for 26), in Rajkot.

Vidarbha 303 (A. Deshpande 43, A. Naidu 118, N. Gawande 41, K.N. Ananthapadmanabhan six for 45) v Kerala 275 for five (C.M. Deepak 116, Sujit Somasundar 50, Hemant Kumar 34, S. Oasis 28, Sreekumar Nair 26 batting), in Nagpur.

Group B: Karnataka 372 (J. Arun Kumar 28, Barrington Rowland 32, Robin Uthappa 40, Vijay Bharadwaj 53, T. Naidu 30, Deepak Chougule 66, Sunil Joshi 84, Amit Mishra four for 123) v Haryana 147 (Sumit Sharma 36, D. Ganesh seven for 36), in Faridabad.

Maharashtra 653 for six decl. (N. Godbole 54, Hrishikesh Kanitkar 290, Abhijit Kale 150, Ranjit Khirid 101 not out, Shashi Ranjan three for 170, Arun Pande three for 125) v Bihar 17 for no loss, in Dhanbad (Bihar).

Madhya Pradesh 562 for seven decl. (S. Dholpure 131, A. Khurasia 108, D. Bundela 102, A. Ali 48, N. Patwardhan 54 not out, B. Tomar 41) v Jammu & Kashmir 122 (S. Khajuria 35, N. Hirwani five for 51, Y. Golwalkar three for 31) & 11 for no loss, in Indore.

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