The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Arjun Yadav to Hyderabad’s rescue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 20, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Arjun Yadav to Hyderabad’s rescue

Principal Correspondent

AHMEDABAD: Hyderabad captain Arjun Yadav responded in style to the team’s crisis with an unbeaten century to salvage a creditable draw against Gujarat in the Ranji Trophy Super League match at Sardar Patel Stadium (Motera) here on Wednesday.

Forced to follow-on and resuming at its overnight score of 45 for three, Hyderabad was desperately looking for someone to don the role of saviour and the 27-year-old Arjun arguably played his best Ranji innings (117 not out, 378 m, 301b, 14 x 4) to avoid the major embarrassment of an innings defeat.

The beauty of Arjun’s third Ranji century was the way he punished the erring bowlers with some flowing off-drives, even while showing the technical competence to weather the bowling attack on a pitch that did not show any signs of wear and tear.

Suman lends support

The Hyderabad captain found an able partner and opener Tirumalashetty Suman. The latter opened out to play some extravagant strokes in the morning session, of both pace and spin, to be with Arjun for important 90 minutes before lunch to provide a decent start today. Then, Suman (47, 171m, 104b, 9 x 4) walked down for an off-drive only to miss the line and bowled by off-spinner Mohnish Parmar.

When Parmar removed Rushi Raj to reduce Hyderabad to 147 for five, Gujarat had every every reason to scent victory. But, Arjun, in the company of a determined Ahmed Quadri (33, 4 x 4), put on an invaluable 80-run stand for the sixth wicket.

This forced Guajrat captain Parthiv Patel to opt for the second new ball and left-arm pacer Ashraf Makda removed Quadri in his very first to leave the visitors at 227 for six.

M.P. Arjun hit Parmar for four huge sixes, all over long-on, before the bowler had the last laugh. However, Arjun stayed on till the end to snatch a draw from a probable defeat.

Hyderabad now has seven points from three matches while Gujarat has nine from similar number of games.

The scores:

Gujarat — 1st innings: 520 for nine decl.

Hyderabad — 1st innings: 225.

Hyderabad — 2nd innings: T. Suman b Parmar 47, Ravi Teja lbw b S. Trivedi 13, S. Anoop Pai b Trivedi 0, Abhinav Kumar lbw b Trivedi 0, N. Arjun Yadav (not out) 117, Rushi Raj lbw b Parmar 18, A. Quadri b Makda 33, M. P. Arjun c Modi b Parmar 34, S.M. Shoaib (not out) 4; Extras (b-6, lb-13, w-1, nb-1) 21; Total (for seven wkts. in 106 overs) 287.

Fall of wickets: 1-24, 2-28, 3-32, 4-107, 5-147, 6-227, 7-281.

Gujarat bowling: Trivedi 21-5-64-3, Makda 19-2-65-1, Timil 16-7-15-0, Parmar 32-9-79-3, Amit Singh 14-5-33-0, S. Patel 2-0-6-0, Panchal 2-0-6-0.

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

Sport