The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Arjun’s spell rocks Andhra

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Tuesday, Dec 11, 2007
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Arjun’s spell rocks Andhra

Principal Correspondent

HYDERABAD: A dream spell by 21-year-old fast bowler Munagala Praveeth Arjun, who returned with his career-best figures of six for 25, scripted a dramatic comeback for Hyderabad and raised hopes of an improbable win against Andhra on the second day of the four-day Ranji Trophy Elite Group B cricket match here on Monday.

For a team which looked despondent after conceding the first innings lead of 27 runs, Arjun provided the silver lining with a splendid opening spell when he took all the six wickets to fall in the space of seven overs.

Andhra batsman were clueless with the huge inswing he generated in the post-tea session.

Arjun, who works with India Cements, triggered off the slide trapping Hemal Watekar with one that came back sharply. He then cleaned up L.N. Prasad Reddy (9), A.S.K. Verma (0), A.G. Pradeep (0) and M.S.K. Prasad (9) with some great inswingers.

Special one

“The one which get rid of Verma was special for I forced him on the backfoot and pitched one up that swung back to knock the stumps,” said the delighted medium-pacer, who was dropped for a couple of matches this season.

In between, Arjun saw the wicketkeeper Habeeb Ahmed pull off a brilliant catch to his left to send back Shankar Rao.

Arjun hit the deck hard repeatedly and bowled a perfect line and length. “I just told him to stick to a good line and length on a pitch which was unpredictable. It was a great spell by any standards,” acknowledged the captain Arjun Yadav.

However, Y. Gnaneshwar Rao and B. Sumanth batted sensibly to pull Andhra to some respectability at 72 for six in 29 overs at close after it was reeling at 29 for six in 14th over.

Earlier, Andhra bowlers stuck to the task once they got the breakthrough when Amol Shinde was surprised to be given caught behind off his attempted hook off D. Kalyankrishna.

Captain N.Arjun Yadav (49, 294 minutes, 188 balls, 2 x 4, 2 x 6) held on grimly before Kalyankrishna clean bowled him. Hyderabad was eventually bowled out for 132.

The scores:

Andhra — 1st innings: 159.

Hyderabad — 1st innings: D.D. Prince lbw D. Kalyankrishna 8, D.B. Ravi Teja c M.S.K. Prasad b Vijaykumar 0, Daniel Manohar c A.G. Pradeep b Vijaykumar 7, S. Anoop Pai c MSK Prasad b Vijaykumar 0, N. Arjun Yadav b D. Kalyankrishna 49, M.P. Arjun c Sumanth b Kalyankrishna 9, A. Shinde c M.S.K. Prasad b D. Kalyankrishna 21, H. Ahmed b Shankar Rao 2, P. Ojha lbw b H. Watekar 16, S.M. Shoaib lbw b Shankar Rao 10 Aswin Yadav not out 4; Extras (w-1, nb-5): 6; Total (in 78.3 overs): 132.

Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-8, 3-8, 4-18, 5-29, 6-87, 7-94, 8-117, 9-117.

Andhra bowling: Kalyankrishna 25-8-42-4, Vijaykumar 23-9-35-3, Gynaneshwar Rao 10-2-20-0, Shankar 12.3-5-13-2, Watekar 7-2-10-1, Md. Faiq 1-0-12-0.

Andhra — 2nd innings: H. Watekar lbw b M.P. Arjun 4, L.N.P. Reddy b M.P. Arjun 9, A.S.K. Verma b M.P. Arjun 0, A.G. Pradeep b M.P. Arjun 0, Shankar Rao c H. Ahmed b M.P. Arjun 0, M.S.K. Prasad b M.P. Arjun 9, Y. Gnaneshwara Rao batting 22, B. Sumanth batting 24; Extras (lb-2, nb- 2): 4; Total: (for six wkts in 29 overs) 72.

Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-8, 3-8, 4-8, 5-24, 6-29.

Hyderabad bowling: Shoaib 7-2-15-0, M.P. Arjun 10-3-25-6, Daniel 5-1-8-0, Ashwin 3-0-9-0, Ojha 3-0-12-0, Shinde 1-0-1-0.

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