Date:10/11/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/11/10/stories/2004111006162000.htm

Sport - Cricket

Mumbai halts Railways in its tracks

By Our Special Correspondent

IN OR OUT? Sairaj Bahutule (left) and wicketkeeper Vinayak Samant appeal in vain for a stumping against Sudhir Wankhede.

NEW DELHI, NOV. 9. The Railway players prepared for an anticipated all-day leather hunt slated for Wednesday by indulging in a friendly game of football after the third day's play of their Ranji Trophy Elite group match against Mumbai here on Tuesday.

Having gained a comfortable lead of 77 runs, Mumbai was expected to use the final day at the Karnail Singh Stadium for some useful batting practice. Mumbai's coach Chandrakant Pandit would not want to give Railways any chance to make a match of it like the one at the Wankhede Stadium last year. Since the final day's proceedings are not expected to produce any great excitement, the choice of the Railwaymen to enjoy a game of football was understandable.

High points

On a day when Railways allowed Vinod Kambli the pleasure of hurting them by delivering two crippling blows in the space of 13 deliveries in the first hour, Ajit Agarkar added three scalps to finish with five wickets. Also notable were the efforts of wicketkeeper Vinayak Samant, who took five catches, and Vinayak Mane, three.

Railways, despite the last four wickets adding 104 runs, never really threatened to come close to Mumbai's first innings total of 361. After Railways was halted at 284, Mumbai finished the day at three without loss.

Kambli, who had bowled off-spin but never medium pace in a Ranji Trophy match, was asked to bowl after speedster Avishkar Salvi sprained his shoulders and left for a precautionary MRI scan. Once Kambli had overnight batsmen T.P. Singh and Shreyas Khanolkar caught behind, Railways struggled for the remainder of the day to reach within respectable range of the Mumbai total.

Agarkar, who addressed Kambli as "Thommo" after his surprise strikes, also struck at regular intervals to curb partnerships. But all credit to J.P. Yadav (48, 6x4), Harvinder Singh (34 not out, 4x4), G. Shankar Rao (25) and Sudhir Wankhede (22) who took turns to show to their frontline batsmen that it was, after all, possible to stand up to the Mumbai attack. The most frustrating phase for Mumbai was the hour-long last-wicket stand between Harvinder and Kulamani Parida. It ended with an ambitious pull attempted by Parida. To his credit, he `walked'.

The scores:

Mumbai — 1st innings: 361

Railways — 1st innings: Amit Pagnis c Samant b Agarkar 22, Sanjay Bangar b Agarkar 16, T.P. Singh c Samant b Kambli 44, Sidharth Verma c Mane b Kulkarni 8, Shreyas Khanolkar c Samant b Kambli 23, J.P. Yadav c Samant b Agarkar 48, Raja Ali c Samant b Agarkar 16, G. Shankar Rao lbw b Bahutule 25, Sudhir Wankhede c Mane b Bahutule 22, Harvinder Singh (not out) 34, Kulamani Parida c Mane b Agarkar 8, Extras (b-3, lb-3, nb-11, w-1) 18, Total (in 130.1 overs) 284.

Fall of wickets: 1-42, 2-53, 3-82, 4-117, 5-129, 6-180, 7-204, 8-236, 9-254.

Mumbai bowling: Ajit Agarkar 35.1-8-96-5, Avishkar Salvi 14.1-4-32-0, Nilesh Kulkarni 24-7-40-1, Ramesh Powar 22-7-37-0, Sairaj Bahutule 26-7-58-2, Vinod Kambli 8.5-4-15-2.

Mumbai — 2nd innings: Vinayak Mane (batting) 3, Wasim Jaffer (batting) 0, Total (for no loss) 3.

Railways bowling: Harvinder Singh 2-0-3-0, G. Shankar Rao 1-1-0-0.