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Dinesh Mongia:
The Sizzling Southpaw from Punjab |
- Karthik Narayan
Inflation
in cricket comes when a batsman increases his
flow of runs causing a gallop in his average,
and also of the opposition bowlers’. And Dinesh
Mongia knows that best as an ever-flowering,
free flowing batsman in the Indian Domestic
Circuit. Batsmen always inject and induce terror
in the minds of the bowlers, and one may ask any
of the bowlers who have bowled to this Left
Armed Run Machine.
Dinesh Mongia is a player that any team would
love to have; having played as many as 9
seasons, right from his debut season of 1995-96.
Mongia was one of those batsmen who was always
insatiable for runs. A Run Riot so to say; His
First Class record is really awesome. In 81
Matches, he has 5519 runs with 18 centuries at a
commendable average of 51.57. He has always one
of the top scorers in the Domestic circuit for
quite some time now.
Dinesh Mongia made his debut for Punjab in the
Ranji Trophy which came against Baroda in Feb
1996 at Mohali. By the next season, he had
already stamped his class; in just 8 games, he
scored 521 runs with 2 centuries including his
first century and a double century. The 1998-99
season kicked off his career into top gear, as
with each passing year, Dinesh Mongia was among
the top run aggregators in the First Class
Circuit. With 680, 790 and 1041 runs in the 3
seasons from 1998 to 2000, this Southpaw had
knocked on the doors for a place in the Indian
ODI team. He did not take much time to settle
into the Indian Team, as he was made to open
along with Ganguly in the absence of Tendulkar
against the touring Zimbabwe team. He turned out
to be India’s most successful batsman in that
series with a career best score of 159* which
came in the final One-Dayer at Guwahati.
Mongia is an aggressive batsman who thrives on
his attacking shots; he may not be a
connoisseur’s delight, but he is very good with
his off and on side strokes, especially the
lofted shots and the drives. He is an excellent
player of spin bowling, and relishes the
challenge of playing good spinners. One of his
great assets is his positive stroke play, ever
keen to take on the bowlers and amass runs at
will. He is a Run Plunderer in the real sense,
he scores runs freely.
This 27-year old player is a batsman who
aggregates runs with speed as well as in
volumes! One major good thing about Mongia is
that he does not give up his wicket immediately
after getting to a century. This was clearly
evident in his innings of a mammoth 308* against
Jammu and Kashmir at Jalandhar, in Nov 2000. In
that game, after bowling out Jammu and Kashmir
for a low score, Punjab were in a spot of bother
when Mongia came in to bat. He and Pankaj
Dharmani totally turned the tables on the
opposition with a great partnership of 388 runs
for the 4th wicket. That was a pure matchwinning
knock by all means, his massive scoring also
came off a very quick scoring rate; 409 balls
with 15 hits to the fence and 5 over the fence.
He made his Duleep Trophy debut for North Zone
against Central Zone in 1998 and he has played
very well there too, scoring 730 runs in just 9
games with 2 centuries at an average of 48.66.
This gifted left-hander represented Lancashire
at the English County level in the 2004 season.
He made his debut for Lancashire against
Warwickshire on 18th June 2004 at the Statford-Upon-Avon
Cricket Club Ground, just 2 months past his 27th
Birthday. He played 6 games scoring 470 runs at
a great average of 67.14; the highlight of that
stint was that he good great workout with the
bat with 2 centuries. Dinesh Mongia is also a
good outfielder who takes good catches in the
deep. His left arm orthodox bowling is quite
effective; he does pick up the odd wicket,
always a reminder to his captain that he is a
bowling option. He does boast of a best bowling
of 4-34 in the first class matches, which is
pretty good for a part time batsman.
With a classic knock of aggression with extreme
confidence of 148 for Board President’s XI
against the South Africans in the Tour game, he
has again given out a message to the Indian team
selectors that he is an option that one cannot
afford to avoid. Cricketfundas.com wishes this
run itchy batsman to etch his name in the
cricketing annals with greater ventures and
jauntily race along to win more laurels both at
First Class and International Level.
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