Date:23/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/23/stories/2008112355831400.htm

Sport - Cricket

Upbeat Hyderabad meets Rajasthan

Principal Correspondent

HYDERABAD: A confident Hyderabad, bolstered by the presence of V.V.S. Laxman, takes on a dispirited Rajasthan in the four-day Ranji Trophy super league match at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium (Uppal) here on Sunday.

Rajasthan, led by former Andhra Ranji star and India discard Y. Venugopala Rao, has only one point from three matches while Hyderabad has seven.

Laxman is hopeful that Hyderabad will keep up the good work, especially taking the first innings lead against Orissa and Delhi and then salvaging a creditable draw against Gujarat thanks to Arjun Yadav’s century.

Strong batting

“We have a very strong batting line-up from No. 1 to No. 7 and there are quite a few capable of getting big scores,” he said. Not keen to hazard a guess on how the pitch will behave, the Hyderabad captain said that he would decide on the team composition only after the team meeting on Sunday morning.

Hyderabad coach Kanwaljit Singh believes that the toss can be crucial. The home team selectors showed some courage in including the leg-spinning all-rounder Paramveer Singh in the squad, even though it is not clear whether he will be in the playing eleven or not. For a long period, the Hyderabad Ranji squad missed the services of a genuine leg-spinner. Paramveer, who is rated very highly by Mahendra Kumar (well known Ranji leg-spinner of yesteryear), may provide the much needed variety to the bowling attack. He is also a very useful bat.

Rajasthan skipper Venugopala Rao said the pitch looked very sporting and being familiar with the way the Hyderabadis play their game, he should be able to spring a surprise or two.

“Having played with most of them in the IPL, or against them for Andhra earlier, I have a fair bit of knowledge of what to expect from them,” he said.

The teams (from):

Hyderabad: V.V.S. Laxman (Capt.), N. Arjun Yadav, D.B. Ravi Teja, T. Suman, S. Anoop Pai, Abhinav Kumar (wk), S.M. Shoaib, M.P. Arjun, Ashwin Yadav, Ahmed Quadri, A. Lalith Mohan, Ronland Rodrigues, Paramveer Singh, Vishal Sharma and Mohd. Shakeer.

Rajasthan: Y. Venugopala Rao (Capt.), Gajendra Singh, Rajesh Bishnoi, Robin Bist, Nikhil Doru, Shailender Gehlot, Gagan Khoda, Sumit Mathur, Ashok Meenaria, Pankaj Singh, Vikran Singh, Vineet Saxena, Shubhanshu Vijay, Vikranth Yadav and Vivek Yadav.

Umpires: B. Ajit Kumar and Subrata Das; Match referee: B. Raghunath.