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Dewan dazzles with a double hundred for Haryana

Principal Correspondent

PALAKKAD: On a sleeping beauty of a wicket, Rahul Dewan played a dream innings on Tuesday.

The Haryana opener, in just his third first class match, struck an unbeaten 254 (416b, 28 x 4, 2 x 6) to lead a run feast on the third day of the Ranji Trophy Plate Group ‘A’ match against Kerala at the Fort Maidan.

With hundreds from Sunny Singh (124) and Sumeet Sharma (114), the visiting side declared its first innings at 581 for four — that’s a lead of 247.

Fighting to avoid a second straight defeat in the competition, the host ended the penultimate day at 36 for no wicket.

It may be a wicket a good batsman could bat on comfortably with one eye closed, especially against a toothless bowling attack like that of Kerala.

But, the way Dewan has played over the last couple of days was remarkable. He remained focussed for 561 minutes, never missed an opportunity to score, struck fluently, particularly in the region between cover and midwicket, and showed a lot of determination to convert his maiden first class hundred into a huge double hundred.

The 22-year-old had moved to Haryana from Delhi to seek better opportunities, as he wasn’t considered for the Capital’s Ranji squad despite scoring three hundreds, including a triple century, in last year’s North Zone Under-22 competition.

Dewan’s splendid effort put into shade two fine innings from his teammates.

Both Sunny and Sharma played really well to ensure that Kerala, which used 10 bowlers, was batted right out of this match. Dewan added 256 for the second wicket with Sunny and 254 with Sharma for the third. Haryana had resumed at its overnight 190 for one.

After taking a casual look at the wicket on the eve of the match, the Haryana coach Amarjeet Kaypee, convinced that one wouldn’t come across such batting wickets every day, had told his batsmen: “Those who don’t score will cry.”

Needless to say, very few tears were to be found in the Haryana dressing room.

Dewan said his team had a good chance of posting a victory on the final day.

“The wicket hasn’t deteriorated, but I feel our spinners, especially Amit Mishra, could cause a few problems for the Kerala batsmen,” he said.

The scores:

Kerala — 1st innings: 334.

Haryana — 1st innings: Nitin Saini c Sambasiva b Tinu 29, Rahul Dewan (not out) 254, Sunny Singh lbw b Yohanan 124, Sumeet Sharma st Vinan b Rohan 114, Sachin Rana c Rakesh b Rohan 2, Amit Mishra (not out) 23; Extras (b-1, lb-8, nb-20, w-6) 35; Total (for four wickets declared in 133 overs) 581.

Fall of wickets: 1-52, 2-308, 3-542, 4-546.

Kerala bowling: Yohanan 16-2-62-2, Prasanth 21-0-106-0, Sony 21-1-53-0, Rakesh 23-5-91-0, Sanuth 27-3-105, Sreekumar 15-4-62-0, Samabasiva 3-0-13-0, Raiphy 6-0-19-0, Jagadeesh 2-0-9-0, Rohan 8-0-52-2.

Kerala — 2nd Innings: Raiphy Vincent Gomez (batting) 6, Sambasiva Sarma (batting) 25, Extras (lb-4, nb-1) 5; Total (for no loss in 10 overs) 36.

Haryana bowling: Billa 4-1-11-0, Budwar 4-1-17-0, Mishra 2-1-4-0.

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