Date:05/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/05/stories/2008120561571800.htm

Sport - Cricket

Teja sparkles; Hyderabad follows on

Special Correspondent

Mumbai: Ravi Teja’s stunning shots in the post tea session on Thursday at the Bandra-Kurla complex saw him race to an 85-ball century and bring some cheer to the distraught Hyderabad camp after being asked to follow-on by Mumbai on the third day of the Ranji Trophy super league tie.

Dismissed for a first ball duck on Wednesday steering Dhaval Kulkarni to Ajinkya Rahane at gully, the Hyderabad opener demonstrated remarkable powers in the second innings. He attacked the seamers and spinners and held centrestage for over two hours as Hyderabad, trailing by 351 runs, reached 166 for four wickets at stumps. In spite of Teja’s commanding display (107 batting, 15x4, 4x6), Hyderabad has been cornered and it may concede five full points and also a bonus point to the home team on Friday.

Though his powers have declined, off-spinner Ramesh Powar displayed enough guile, mixing his high and low flighted deliveries and took five wickets in the Hyderabad first innings. He was chiefly responsible for Mumbai gaining the upper handHe got adequate support from the fielders, especially wicketkeeper Vinayak Samant and also from seamers Usman Malvi, who was the quickest among the Mumbai seamers.

T. Suman (67) and Anoop Pai (66) batted untroubled to raise 130 runs for the third wicket, before Powar induced Suman to make an error and offer Amol Muzumdar a high catch at cover. Once Mumbai achieved the breakthrough, the Hyderabad innings fell away, though Ahmed Quadri made an aggressive undefeated 50.

The scores: Mumbai — 1st Innings: 602 for six decl.

Hyderabad — 1st Innings: T. Suman c Muzumdar b Powar 67, R. Teja c Rahane b Kulkarni 0, R. Raj c Samant b Kulkarni 2, A. Pai c Samant b Powar 66, A. Kumar c Samant b Malvi 1, Arjun Yadav c Mane b Powar 29, A. Quadri (not out) 50, M.P. Arjun c Jaffer b Powar 0, S.M. Shoaib b Powar 2, Ashwin Yadav lbw b Agarkar 7, L. Mohan b Malvi 6; Extras (b-8, lb-1, w-2, nb-10) 21.Total (in 84 overs): 251.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-6, 3-136, 4-150, 5-172, 6-195, 7-195, 8-215, 9-229.

Mumbai bowling: Agarkar 12-3-31-1, Kulkarni 17-5-36-2, Malvi 16-3-79-2, Powar 28-11-67-5, Bahutule 10-2-29-0, Sharma 1-1-0-0.

Hyderabad — 2nd Innings: T. Suman lbw b Kulkarni 5, R. Teja (batting) 107, R. Raj c Mane b Malvi 4, A. Pai c Jaffer b Kulkarni 2, Arjun Yadav c Jaffer b Bahutule 22, A. Kumar (batting) 18; Extras (w-2, nb-6) 8. Total (for four wkts. in 34 overs): 166.

Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-13, 3-38, 4-126.

Mumbai bowling: Kulkarni 9-1-28-2, Malvi 6-1-45-1, Agarkar 3-0-34-0, Powar 7-1-34-0, Bahutule 7-0-18-1, Sharma 1-0-7-0, Muzumdar 1-1-0-0.