The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Andhra meets Maharashtra for the first time

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 10, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Andhra meets Maharashtra for the first time

Special Correspondent

Nashik: Andhra’s young captain Gnaneswara Rao smartly stumped local reporters on the eve of Andhra’s first clash with Maharashtra in the history of the Ranji Trophy championship when asked if he was busy trying to gather valuable information about the Maharashtra team from his elder brother Venugopala.

Gnaeshwara’s straight forward reply was that calls from his mobile are not going through to his brother who led Maharashtra last year in national championship and has sought a transfer to Rajasthan this season.

Though looking fresh after a second net session, Gnaneswara, coach M.V. Narashimha Rao and manager M.S. Kumar were probably concerned about keeping the team fit, physically and mentally. It was after a 16 hour road-air-road air journey that the Andhra team arrived here around midnight on Friday after its first round match against Uttar Pradesh at Meerut.

Decent show

Though it conceded three points in the opening match, Andhra enjoyed a decent hit against the last season’s runner-up that had a number of star players.

“It was a batting pitch at Meerut and A.G. Pradeep (102 not out), H. Watekar (34 and 69) and L.N.P. Reddy (94 and 45) made the most of it. He (Gnaneswara) is due for runs. We are not anywhere near the top of the national ladder, the best way is to give opportunities to the under-19 players rather than employing foreign players. That’s our policy, the other officials will realise this once they shed their egos. India has a big population and talent, not like England. We have a good system in place for scouting talent and coaching,” said Narashima.

Young side

Maharashtra is down to 13 players, with four players away in Pune for the under-22 competition. “We played well in the first game against Tamil Nadu which was a strong side. We batted for 226 overs and played positive cricket. The bowling was not up to the mark. It’s a very young side and they are all learning.” said Shaun Williams, coach of the Maharashtra team.

The host may bring in seamer Wahid Sayyad or leg-spinner Digambhar Waghmare and may also look at Vishant More for wicketkeeper Rohit Motwani.

The teams (from): Maharashtra: N. Paradkar (capt.), H. Khadiwale, R. Bhosale, A. Shrikande, K. Jadhav, A. Bawne, R. Motwani, A. Dole, S. Fallah, Enamul Haque Jr., W. Sayyad, D. Waghmare, V. More.

Andhra: Gnaneswara Rao (capt.), A.G. Pradeeep, Manoj Sai, H. Watekar, A.S.K. Varma, M. Suresh, G.V. Sarath Babu, P. Vijay Kumar, L.N. Prasad Reddy, D. Kalyan Krishna, N. Israel Raju, B. Sumanth, A. Veera Babu, S. Ravi Shankar, T. Atchuta Rao.

Umpires: Vishwas Nerurkar and Milind Patak.

Match Referee: Sanjay Patil.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport