NEWS
SCHEDULES
COLUMNS
PREVIOUS TOURS
OTHER SPORTS
STATISTICS
INTERVIEWS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Pawar, Powar power Bombay into semis

Bombay spinners Rajesh Pawar and Ramesh Powar turned magicians at the Eden Gardens, Calcutta, on Thursday, spinning a web of intrigue around the Bengal batsmen and drawing them to their doom.

Sharing all the ten wickets in the hosts' second essay equally between them, the duo bowled oft-champions Bombay to an emphatic 242-run victory in the Group A Ranji Trophy Super League encounter, and into the semi-finals of the competition.

The hosts, needing 381 for victory and resuming from the overnight four down for 67, failed to come to terms with the Bombay spin duo.

The dimunitive Pawar (5 for 60) and Powar (5 for 46), who shone with the bat as well, continued to torment the home team batsmen on a slow turner, and Bengal caved in for a paltry 138, the resistance on the final day lasting just 107 minutes.

Laxmi Ratan Shukla, opening the innings in place of Nikhil Haldipur, was the top scorer with 33 while Saba Karim (26) was the only batsmen to enter the 20's.

Bombay completed their group engagements with 32 points, winning all the four matches while Bengal failed to qualify for the knock-out stage managing just 13 points from four outings.

Even a die-hard Bombay fan would not have expected the match to get over when it did.

"We'll finish it off by tea time tomorrow,'' Powar had said at the end of day three. But the Bengal batsmen, having failed to get even on the turf, proved Powar wrong by finishing off the proceedings several hours before the tea break!

Bengal skipper Chatterjee accepted that Bengal was fighting a losing battle. "The match was over yesterday itself. So long as the players are not accountable for their performance, so long as they do not perform responsibly, I don't see an end to this sordid saga."

Compare that with Bombay skipper Amol Muzumdar's post-match comments: "The problem with our side is, we have such a strong reserve bench that choosing an eleven at times is really difficult."

Full marks to Powar and Pawar. While Powar's all-round performance had decisively snatched the match away from Bengal in the third day itself, on Thursday he was joined by Pawar as the two completed with five wickets apiece to pronounce Bengal's capitulation.

"Our search for an off-spinner batsman has ended with Powar. Truly, he has been the find of the season," said a visibly happy and proud Bombay coach Ashok Mankad at the end of the day. He then jokingly added: "We were a bit worried when the match ended well before lunch. But the CAB authorities have been kind enough to provide us with lunch!"

It was one lunch they would have surely enjoyed!

Scoreboard

Bombay (1st innings) 182

Bengal (1st innings) 117

Bombay (2nd innings) 315

Bengal (2nd innings; overnight 67 for 4): D Dasgupta lbw Powar 6; Laxmi Ratan Shukla c&b Rajesh Powar 33, Debang Gandhi lbw Rajesh Powar 14, Srikant Kalyani lbw Rajesh Pawar 0, Syed Saba Karim b Rajesh Powar 26, Rohan Gavaskar c Muzumdar b Rajesh Powar 13, Nikhil Haldipur lbw Rajesh Pawar 17, V Yadav b Rajesh Pawar 15, Utpal Chatterjee st Rane b Rajesh Pawar 6, S Lahiri c sub (Dani) b Rajesh Pawar 0, A masood not out 4.

Extras (b-4) 4. Total (all out in 54.1 overs) 138.

Fall of wickets: 1-35, 2-52, 3-53, 4-53, 5-81, 6-102, 7-124, 8-129, 9-129.

Bowling: Abey Kuruvilla 9-6-14-0; Santosh Saxena 1-0-10-0; Rajesh Pawar 19.1-5-60-5; Ramesh Powar 23-9-46-5; Nilesh Kulkarni 2-0-4-0.

BANGALORE: Chasing 175 for victory, hosts Karnataka, riding on Mithun Beerala's (101: 156m, 123b, 15x4) maiden Ranji Trophy century, made light of the target, romping home in 40.3 overs with eight wickets to spare, against Delhi in the Group A Ranji Trophy Super League encounter at the Chinnaswamy stadium, on Thursday.

The win boosted their points aggregate to 19 and assured the defending champions of a berth in the semi-finals.

Earlier, Delhi, trailing by 17 runs on first innings and 182 for seven overnight in their second essay, could add just nine more runs to their aggregate as the Karnataka skipper Venkatesh Prasad cut short the resistance. Prasad scalped the last three wickets in a spell of 2.3 overs to bring down the curtains on the Delhi innings, 20 minutes into the day's play.

Prasad thus finished with a match-haul of 10 wickets, his second in Ranji Trophy. He had earlier achieved the feat in 1993-94 against Kerala at the same venue. Beerala then made shortwork of the target, adding 66 runs for the first wicket with J Arun Kumar (32) and 77 in an unbroken third wicket association with Vijay R Bharadwaj (28).

Karnataka thus qualified for the semifinals of the Ranji Trophy for the 25th time. They have progressed to the title-clash on 11 occassions and have crowned themselves champions six times.

Scoreboard

Delhi (1st innings) 342

Karnataka (1st innings) 359

Delhi (2nd innings): A Chopra b S Vadayaraj 36, A Dani c Arun Kumar b S Vadayaraj 52, G Gambhir c S Vadayaraj b Vijay Bharadwaj 30, A Malhotra c T Naidu b S Vadayaraj 20, V Sehwag c B Akhil b S Vadayaraj 1, M Minhas c T Naidu b V Prasad 17, V Dahiya c T Naidu b V Prasad 2, A Nehra c B Akhil b V Prasad 18, H Choudhary b V Prasad 10, Robin Singh Jr b V Prasad 0, Rohit Mehra not out 0.

Extras (lb-2, nb-3) 5. Total (all out, 63.3 overs) 191.

Fall of wickets: 1-81, 2-94, 3-133, 4-134, 5-159, 6-161, 7-164, 8-190, 9-191.

Bowling: Venkatesh Prasad 16.3-6-36-5; D Ganesh 10-2-34-0; G N Umesh 5-0-17-0; S Vadayaraj 25-5-73-4; A Vijay 3-0-16-0; Vijay Bharadwaj 4-0-13-1.

Karnataka (2nd innings): J Arun Kumar c V Sehwag b H Choudhary 32, M Beerala not out 101, Barrington run out 5, Vijay Bharadwaj not out 28.

Extras (lb-2, nb-7) 9. Total (for 2 wickets, 40.3 overs) 175.

Fall of wickets: 1-66, 2-98.

Bowling: A Nehra 3-0-19-0; Robin Singh 0.4-0-8-0; A Malhotra 0.2-0-9-0; Rohit Mehra 10.3-1-41-0; N Choudhary 15-2-52-1; G Ghambhir 2-0-6-0; V Sehwag 9-1-38-0.

PRADIP: Hosts Orissa, chasing 340 for victory, held off for a draw against Haryana in the Group C Ranji Trophy Super League encounter at the Gopabandhu stadium in the port town of Paradip.

At draw of stumps on Thursday, the last day of the four-day tie, the hosts, propped by a 81-run fourth wicket partnership between Rashmi Ranjan Parida (49) and Prabhanjan Mullick (39), managed to reach 210 for six at the close.

Orissa gained three points while Haryana got five for the first innings lead but both the teams were already out of the rat-race for the quarterfinal berths.

Scoreboard

Haryana (1st innings) 206.

Orissa (1st innings) 165.

Haryana (2nd innings, overnight 279 for eight): Padamjit Singh c sub b Jayachandra 1, Jitender Singh lbw Satpathy 40, Parinder Sharma lbw Satpathy 11, Jasvir Singh c Das b Roul 82, Ishan Ganda c Das b Dash 40, Sanjay Dalal lbw Mullick 62, Satish Olhan lbw Mullick 12, Pradeep Jain lbw Mohanty 9, Vineet Jain not out 9, Feroz Ghayas not out 16.

Extras (b-7, lb-6, nb-3) 16. Total (for eight wickets decl) 298.

Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-46, 3-77, 4-169, 5-201, 6-222, 7-255, 8-273.

Bowling: Debasis Mohanty 22-9-41-1, P.Jayachandra 6-1-21-1, Jagannath Dash 26- 9-64-1, Sanjay Satpathy 38-12-90-2, Sanjay Roul 26-8-42-1, Pradeep Das 1-0-1-0, Prabhanjan Mullick 9-1-26-2.

Orissa (2nd innings): Shiv Sundar Das b S.Sharma 19, Pradeep Das lbw S.Sharma 17, Rashmi Ranjan Parida lbw P.Jain 49, Sanjay Roul c J.Singh b P.Jain 4, Prabhanjan Mullick b S.Dalal 38, P. Jayachandra b S.Dalal 19, Rashmi Ranjan Das not out 11, Yashpal Mohanty not out 26.

Extras (b-11, lb-2, nb-14) 27. Total (for six wickets) 210.

Fall of wickets: 1-44, 2-50, 3-63, 4-144, 5-160, 6-166.

Bowling: Feroz Ghayas 5-0-32-0, Vineet Jain 11-2-25-0, Sonu Sharma 29-9-66-2, Pradeep Jain 16-5-31-2, Sanjay Dalal 17-7-30-2, Ishan Ganda 4-1-13-0.

Hemang Badani struck a century as former champions Tamil Nadu claimed five points by virtue of their first-innings lead over Uttar Pradesh in the Group C Super League encounter at Green Park, Kanpur, which ended in a dull draw on Thursday.

With both the teams already assured of the quarterfinal berths, the match lost all competitive interest after Tamil Nadu skipper S Sharath did not enforce the follow-on after bundling out the hosts for a mere 228 in their first innings in reply to the visitors' massive first essay of 696.

Scoreboard

Tamil Nadu (1st innings): 696 for 5 decl.

Uttar Pradesh (1st innings): 228.

Tamil Nadu (2nd innings): Ashish Kapoor b zaidi 1, Sridharan Sriram retd 0, Hemang Badani c Parvinder b Rizwan 104, S. Mahesh b Zaidi 4, Ruben Paul c Parvinder b Zaidi 47, J.R. Madangopal lbw Shamshad 19, Sridharan Sharath c&b Raza 12, Sadagoppan Ramesh lbw Raza 9, Rajat Bhatia c Tyagi b Raza 6, D.J. Gokulkrishanan lbw Zaidi 43, V. Shiva Ramkrishanan not out 0.

Extras: 19. Total: 264.

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-1, 3-10, 4-86, 5-105, 6-123, 7-158, 8-168, 9-264.

Bowling: Shalabh Srivastava 10-2-23-0, A.W.Zaidi 17.2-1-69-4, Musi Raza 28-10-80-3, Rizwan Shamshad 14-4-37-2, Mrityunjaya Tripathy 7-1-37-0.

Uttar Pradesh (2nd innings): Mrityunjay Tripathy not out 19, Musi Raza not out 7.

Extras: 2. Total: 28.

Bowling: S. Mahesh 3-1-2-0, D.J. Gokulkrishanan 3-0-6-0, S Ramesh 4-1-6-0, Sridharan Sharath 2-0-13-0, J.R.Madangopal 1-1-0-0, Ruben Paul 1-0-1-0.

The curtains finally came down on the 30-match Ranji Trophy Super League on Thursday, with six teams progressing from the three Groups of five teams each.

Defending champions Karnataka and Bombay (the team with the most points among qualifiers) got a direct seeding into the semis while Punjab, Hyderabad (both Group B), Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh (both Group C) clinched the quarterfinal berths.

In the two quarter-finals, scheduled from March 30 to April 3, Hyderabad will take on Uttar Pradesh in Kanpur while Tamil Nadu will face Punjab at Madras.

The winners of the quarter-finals will take on Karnataka and Bombay in the semifinals from April 8 to 13.

The exact semifinal pairings will be determined on the placements of the teams in the draw to be made by the fixtures committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

The final will be played from April 19 to 23.

Final Super League standings:

Group A: 1. Bombay (32), 2. Karnataka (19), (both qualify) 3. Bengal (13), 4. Delhi (8), 5. Rajasthan (8).

Group B: 1. Punjab (24), 2. Hyderabad (21), (both qualify) 3. Baroda (18), 4. Railways (14), 5. Bihar (3).

Group C: 1. Tamil Nadu (26), 2. Uttar Pradesh (22), (both qualify) 3. Orissa (14), 4. Saurashtra (8), 5. Haryana (8).

Knockout line-up:

March 30-April 3: Quarter-finals: UP vs Hyderabad at Kanpur; Tamil Nadu vs Punjab at Madras.

April 9-13: Semifinals.

April 19-23: Final.

Yesterday's summary