Date:18/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/18/stories/2008121851841800.htm

Sport - Cricket

Railways takes on confident TN

Sports Reporter

Chennai: Tamil Nadu and Railways go into the final group match of their Ranji Trophy Super League campaigns on Thursday at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, with agendas shaped by differing fortunes.

The host sits atop Group ‘B’ with 20 points from five games, its quarterfinal berth assured. This scenario has materialised thanks to a veritable contagion of peak form among its players which even the loss of S. Badrinath and M. Vijay to national duty hasn’t contained.

Abhinav Mukund’s triple hundred against Maharashtra, K.B. Arun Karthik’s century on debut against Karnataka and Dinesh Karthik’s match-winning third-innings hundred against Baroda are cases in point. The frontline bowlers — seamers L. Balaji, P. Amarnath and C. Ganapathy, and spinners R. Ashwin and C. Suresh — have all been among the wickets, each averaging under 30 for the season.

Need to maintain momentum

“What’s important for us is to not lose momentum,” said Tamil Nadu skipper Dinesh Karthik, after his team’s practice session on Wednesday morning. “Our intensity will be high, as will that of Railways. It will be good to play a team that’s coming hard at us to push for a quarterfinal berth.”

For Railways, sealing the final quarterfinal berth depends heavily on the Karnataka-Maharashtra result. Karnataka is currently third in the group with 14 points, three points ahead of Railways. Of the possible scenarios, the most straightforward way for Railways to go through would be with an outright win, with Karnataka either losing or drawing without first innings lead.

“We aren’t thinking about the permutations,” said Railways skipper Sanjay Bangar. “We’re going in with our normal preparation, concentrating on playing good cricket, and focussing on what’s in our hands…It’s also a good opportunity for some of our younger players; we’re looking to rebuild, having lost a few players to the ICL.”

Already, three Railways youngsters have had stand-out seasons. Medium-pacer Anureet Singh and leg-spinner Karan Sharma have 18 and 14 wickets respectively, at sub-25 averages, while 23-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman Mahesh Rawat, the oldest of the trio, has crossed 300 runs for the season.

The teams (from): Tamil Nadu: Dinesh Karthik (capt./w.k.), K.B. Arun Karthik, Abhinav Mukund, R. Prasanna, S. Vidyut, R. Srinivasan, S. Suresh Kumar, R. Ashwin, C. Suresh, L. Balaji, Ganapathy Chandrasekar, P. Amarnath, V. Yomahesh, N. Einstein. Coach: W.V. Raman.

Railways: Sanjay Bangar (capt.), Sanjib Sanyal, Murali Kartik, Yere Goud, Prosenjit Das, Cheluvaraj, Karan Sharma, Harshad Rawle, Mahesh Rawat (w.k.), Anureet Singh, Harvinder Singh, Sabeer Ali, Kulamani Parida, Dipak Yadav, Madan Yadav. Coach: Abhay Sharma.

Umpires: Shavir Tarapore and K.N. Anantapadmanabhan. Third umpire: B. Ajit Kumar. Match referee: B. Ragunath.

Hours of Play: 9.30 a.m. onwards (9.15 on the final day).