The Hindu : Sriram scores century

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 22, 2003

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Sport - Cricket

Sriram scores century

By Our Sports Reporter

S. Sriram of Elite-A pulls Nilesh Kulkarni of Elite-C to the fence in the Duleep Trophy match in Hyderabad on Friday.

HYDERABAD MARCH 21. An impressive century by S. Sriram (109, 201b, 14 x 4) was the highlight on the second day as Elite-A scored 287 for seven in 96 overs against Elite-C in the four-day Duleep Trophy cricket championship match at the Gymkhana Grounds here on Friday.

Sriram once again demonstrated the art of scoring runs even on a rain-affected pitch which saw the first day's play washed out yesterday.

Put in to bat, Sriram, the stand-by captain for the injured Reetinder Singh Sodhi, put behind the early circumspection to come up with some classy strokes on either side of the wicket. He was particularly severe against left-arm spinner Nilesh Kulkarni, the only genuine spinner on view today. Even the pace bowlers, Amit Bhandari, Laxmi Ratan Shukla and S.K. Trivedi were treated with disdain as the innings progressed.

Though he was expected to carry on and on after reaching the magical three-figure mark, Sriram was bowled round the legs trying to sweep Nilesh Kulkarni.

It was a sad end to a brilliant knock. For someone who played in six one-day internationals the last one being against the Zimbabweans about three years ago, this MRF batsman is hoping to be back in the reckoning by virtue of his consistency in domestic cricket. And he looks upto V.V.S. Laxman as the role model in this regard.

If Elite-C camp entertained any smiles after having the rivals in a spot of bother at 140 for five, then the 99-run stand for the sixth wicket in 30.4 overs between Sriram and D. Vinay Kumar (66 batting, 212 min, 152 balls, 10 x 4) pushed them on the defensive as the longest day at Gymkhana (total 440 minutes of play) progressed into fading light.

Play had to be finally called off by the umpires due to bad light at 5.45 pm as poor over-rate saw Elite-C fall well short of the minimum number of 105 overs for the day (15 overs more were added to the stipulated 90 overs per day for the next three days to make up for the first day's play which was abandoned).

Ironically, the local star Vinay Kumar was not even in the original squad but had to be summoned due to injuries to Sodhi and Mithun Manhas. And what a knock he played. Slow to start, his innings gained in momentum as Vinay unleashed some stand-out cover-drives and the flicks.

Quite ironically, even as the pace bowlers were expected to dominate, it was Nilesh Kulkarni, who kept his cool despite being roughly treated, to return with a highly respectable five-wicket haul.

The scores:

Elite-A: Daniel Manohar lbw b Amit Bhandari 26, S.Ramesh c (sub) K.Pawar b Nilesh Kulkarni 42, S.Sriram b Nilesh Kulkarni 109, Deep Das Gupta b Nilesh Kulkarni 2, Devang Gandhi lbw b Amit Bhandari 3, Y.Venugopal Rao c Yere Goud b Nilesh Kulkarni 6, D.Vinay Kumar (batting) 66, R.Kanwat c S.S.Das b Nilesh Kulkarni 11, Irfan Pathan (batting) 7. Extras: (b-5, lb-2, w-5, nb-3) 15. Total: (for seven wkts.) 287.

Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-105, 3-107, 4-129, 5-140, 6-239, 7-263.

Elite-C bowling: Bhandari 23-3-75-2, L.R.Shukla 16-6-58-0, S.K.Trivedi 21-8-49-0, Nilesh Kulkarni 35-7-93-5, Yere Goud 1-0-5-0.

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