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By Venkat

The Fourth round of matches in the Elite League got underway on the 4th of December. Here is a review of the matches that took place on the 4th of December to the 7th of December at various venues across the country.

It was as though Mumbai re-asserted their dominancy over the Indian Domestic Circuit after their crushing win over a hapless Andhra at Mumbai in the previous round. But, the they had to take a forward step and carry all the good from that huge morale-boosting win to Bengal, who in the past have worried Mumbai a wee bit. Mumbai were perhaps disturbed by some off field events, especially Vinod Kambli's absence, but that did not in any way carry onto their on-field antics, as they won the toss and batted first on a good batting wicket. As usual, they were helped by a steady start from the openers Vinayak Mane and Wasim Jaffer, as they added a good 83 runs for the first wicket, before Mane got out. But that in no way stopped Wasim Jaffer from asserting himself over the relatively weak Bengal bowling. Wasim raced to his second century of the season, and at that stage, it did look as if it was going to be a big one. And indeed it was, as he amassed 162 crucial runs for Mumbai. Apart from Wasim Jaffer, replacement batsman Nishit Shetty made a brilliant century and Vinit Indulkar's 69 and Ramesh Powar's quickfire fifty did more good than harm to the Mumbai cause, as they declared their first innings at 552/7. Bengal always were in no position to get close to that huge first inning total of Mumbai. They looked totally out of sorts against some quality and guily spin bowling of offie Ramesh Powar, who wrecked the Bengal batting with 7 wickets. The recognizable contributions for Bengal came from the bats of opener Arindam Das (55), Sanjib Sanyal (53) and all rounder Sourashish Lahiri (59 not out). It was as though Bengal were clearly staring defeat on its face. They matched their poor effort of 239 in the first inning with yet another equally poor performance in the second innings, where Ajit Agarkar ripped the line-up apart with 4 wickets. Ramesh Powar also chipped in with 3 wickets to bag a 10-wicket match haul. Bengal's sole resistance came from skipper Rohan Gavaskar, who made a good unbeaten 70, but couldn't in any way prevent a massive defeat for his team in the hands of Mumbai. Mumbai take 5 points (a bonus point for an innings win) and are well placed for a semi-final spot, but Bengal have to put a better show if they have any chance of joining Mumbai in the last four.

After facing literal humiliation against Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium, the next stop for the young guns from Andhra was Bangalore against Karnataka. Skipper MSK Prasad won the toss and had no hesitation to bat first on a good batting wicket, but his batsmen did not respond to his call of the coin, as they were left reeling on 105 for 7. But some handy rear-guard action by youngster Andimani Pradeep and Mohammad Faiq who both scored fifties helped Andhra register a respectable score. For Karnataka, veteran left arm spinner Sunil Joshi picked 5 wickets as Andhra folded up for 237. The Karnataka batsmen were in fine form in the last game, but it was interesting to see if they could carry their good form into this game. The Karnataka batsmen did well to respond to a low 237 by Andhra, and their innings gained momentum thanks to a handy 120 by keeper Thilak Naidu, as Karnataka made 328. For Andhra, KS Sahabuddin was the most successful bowler with 4 wickets. But Andhra in their second innings, did not learn from the mistakes they committed in the previous attempt as they folded up for 245, with only notable contributions coming from ASK Verma and Y Venugopala Rao, who notched fifties respectively. Sunil Joshi found himself in the wickets tally yet again along with paceman NC Aiyappa who bagged 4 wickets each. With the victory target being 158, it was always not going to be easy for Karnataka, and it indeed was the case. They looked hesitant in their successful chase, and thanks to Venugopala Rao's 4 wicket haul, Andhra take some pride along. Karnataka are back in the league with 4 points going to their tally, but Andhra have to do many right things to survive the battle for survival.

 

If any team looks in a position to challenge for the ultimate honours as of now, it has to be Punjab. They have surely been transformed by foreign coach-cum-manager Inthikhab Alam, but how much of a transformation did we see in the game against Maharashtra? Time to find that out. After skipper Dinesh Mongia won the toss, he did what many captains would do at Mohali - field first. After their batting looked totally wrecked against Hyderabad in the previous round, it was time for a ONCE MORE performance. Their batsmen looked in no position as they were bundled out for a cheap score of 123. For Punjab, young paceman Vikram Singh picked top honours with 4 wickets and all-rounder Reetinder Singh Sodhi chipped in with 3 wickets. As all the aces were in the Punjab hands, it was time for them to dictate terms. And that is what they exactly did. An opening partnership of 270 is good enough to describe what Punjab really wanted to do to the opposition. Ravneet Ricky looked steady in his fine century (119), Yuvraj Singh also kept the gas on when he made a quickfire 66. But the star of the show was the makeshift opener Reetinder Singh Sodhi, who answered all critics with his classy batting, as he marched towards a mammoth individual score of an unbeaten 251. It was as though another opener had thrown the cat among the pigeons in the selector's diary. Punjab's heavy run machines declared their first inning at 566/4, with leaving the game of survival to Maharashtra. But, they did not seem to want to survive the game, as they meekly surrendered to the strong hands of Punjab as they folded up for 205, with only two good contributions to talk about - Kaushik Aphale (83 not out) and skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar with 53. For Punjab, it was a good bowling performance as everyone who bowled seemed to chip in with useful wickets, with Navdeep Singh emerging as the most successful bowler. Punjab with the virtue of these 5 points also have staked strong claim to the top four and it will be interesting to see if Maharashtra seem to be the victims of the sorry tale for this season too!

After chasing leather almost entire game at Bangalore, the youngsters from MP had their next workout against Delhi at Delhi. On the other hand the Ajay Jadeja led-Delhi had to just settle for a draw against Railways. So lets see what's in store for them in Round 4 of the Ranji Trophy. After skipper Ajay Jadeja won the toss, he chose to bat first and his batsmen seemed to have justified some faith in the skipper's call as they put on some steady partnerships. Aakash Chopra made a rock-solid 37 while others contributed with some useful 20s as Delhi put 239 runs on the board. For MP, yet again it was the young bowling duo of Sanjay Pandey and Sunil Dholpure doing well as they picked 4 wickets each. The MP batsmen weren't any different from the ones their opponents had as they looked lackluster against some quality bowling from Delhi. It was only thanks to a great knock by Devendrasingh Bundela, that MP managed to edge Delhi vis-à-vis the first inning lead. Bundela's knock of 87 made all the difference as MP gathered a handy total of 294. For Delhi, it was Ajay Jadeja's inspired 3 wicket haul and Rahul Sanghvi's 3 wicket haul that shared the limelight. In the second innings too, Delhi repeated the follies of the first essay and apart from Shikhar Dhawan, other batsmen provided little resistance. Dhawan's 88 guided Delhi to 227 runs, hence setting a target of 172 for MP to win. Yet again, in the Delhi 2nd innings, the wreckers in chief for MP were Sanjay Pandey and Sunil Dholpure, who picked 4 and 3 wickets respectively. The ball was in the MP court, and they chose to play it. So, with 172 to win, they played some aggressive cricket with some risk, and losing wickets at regular intervals did hamper their chances, but did not prevent them from fighting hard to take those 2 crucial points from the draw. MP take yet another draw into their hands, while Delhi have to really play well from here on to get through to the semis.

Review by B.V.Swagath

A tough match was on at the Gymkhana Grounds, Secunderabad with the hosts Hyderabad after their resounding success over Maharasthra took on a strong Baroda side. Hyderabad's skipper Venkatapathy Raju won the toss and elected to bat first on a seamer friendly track. His batsmen continued to fail in piling up the big totals and this time the hosts were shot out for 170. Only experienced Daniel Manohar and wicket keeper Ibrahim Khaleel played good knocks. Rakesh Patel, the fast bowler who made it to the Indian reserves a few years back and the little Rakesh Pawar took 7 wickets among themselves to put Baroda in front. However it wasn't to be as Hyderabad were well served by macho man Narender Pal Singh who skittled through the Baroda innings to pick 7 wickets. Make that 8 with N.P.Singh knocking off Nayan Mongia with a vicious delivery that got onto the latter's thumb. N.P.Singh picked up his 14th five wicket haul in his 85th match according to our HCA Scorer Blessington Thomas. The visitors were bundled out for 93 with Mongia not able to take any further part in the match. Hyderabad got the all-important lead of 77 runs and were well on course to put up a stiff target in the 2nd innings for Baroda. But then came the sparkling moment of the match with the former Mumbai left arm spinner Rajesh Pawar picking up an unbelievable hat trick on Day 3. Pawar's victims were Khaleel, N.P.Singh and Raju. Juts like in the first innings, Daniel Manohar and Ibrahim Khaleel were the only batsmen who could get any good scores. It wasn't an easy target at all chasing 276 with N.P.Singh in top form and with good support from other bowlers. Baroda stayed in the hunt thanks to the two Parabs who put on a brave show to see Baroda just 95 runs short of their victory on Day3. Day 4 was a nervous start for both the teams as the match could go either way but it was Rajesh Pawar who seems to have been blessed with a Midas touch this match and Rishikesh Parab who knocked off the remaining 95 runs in grand style. Baroda were the unlikely winners after being bowled out for 93 in their first innings!

Tamil Nadu travelled all the way to the North East to take on Assam at the Nehru Stadium, Guwahati. Prior to this match Tamil Nadu had a well deserved break after their win against Uttar Pradesh. Assam were playing this match with their bruises not yet healed after their defeat in the hands of Uttar Pradesh last week. Tamil Nadu won the toss and all their batsmen got going with the exception of Sadagoppan Ramesh who was run out without facing a ball. Hemang Badani top scored with a dazzling 146 and was well supported by Sriram (82), Badrinath (73) and Sharath (60). Tamil Nadu declared their innings at 485/6. In reply, Assam were of to a poor start at 47/2 and were looking down and out. Assam's innings was repaired by their skipper Zuffri (49) and Saravanan (50). For Assam the hero was Rajgopal Satish, yet another import from Tamil Nadu as Satish scored a marvelous 204 to keep Tamil Nadu at bay. Medium pacer M.R.Srinivas took 6 wickets in the 34 overs that he bowled. The match was heading towards a tame draw although Tamil Nadu picked up 2 crucial points owing to its first innings lead. In their second essay, Tamil Nadu promoted left hander Vikram Kumar up the order and he showed his mettle with a well compiled 81. The visitors were at 224/4 before the umpires signaled the end of the game. Tamil Nadu take on Punjab next week at the M.A.Chidambaram Stadium and that's going to be one heck of a match. Assam take on Maharasthra at Pune.

Gujarat’s Captain Mukund Parmar won the toss and decided to bat first at the Sardar Patel Stadium. Gujarat’s innings got going thanks to the 2^nd wicket partnership between opener Nilesh Modi (72) and Niraj Patel (121), one of the heroes in the Under 19 World Cup in Sri Lanka, 2000.  After these two batsmen had departed, Gujarat’s plans of putting up a massive first innings score started to look pale and the home team ended up at 384. All rounder Sidharth Trivedi scored almost a run-a-ball 51. “Little Hearts” Parthiv Patel fell cheaply. For Railways, J.P.Yadav with his medium pace picked up 3 wickets and off spinner Kulamani Parida contributed with 3 wickets as well. Railways had a disastrous start and never could really recover to challenge Gujarat’s first innings total of 384. The scorecard was infact filled with the Patels, with 27 year old pace bowler Lalit Patel picking up 5 wickets and Parthiv Patel taking 4 catches. Niraj Patel and Timil Patel also made their presence felt in the scorecard. Railways were skittled out for 200 to give Gujarat a slight opportunity of winning the match. However time wasn’t available in the match with both the Gujarat and the Railways’ innings going on for almost 3 full days. Gujarat had to be content with just the first innings lead and the match ended in a draw with Gujarat scoring 227/5. Opener Nilesh Modi played a snail paced 68 which took as many as 255 balls and he was well matched by his skipper who played 148 balls to score his 61. Railways take on Madhya Pradesh next week and Gujarat would be taking a break.

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