The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Railways in sight of a victory

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 26, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Railways in sight of a victory

Sports Reporter

— Photo: V.V. Krishnan

GOTCHA: Railways’ Karan Sharma ends the stay of Andhra captain Ganeshwara Rao in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: Andhra’s batting woes spilled over as the Railways attack played a pivotal role in guiding its team closer to victory on the third day of the Ranji Trophy super league cricket match at the Karnail Singh Stadium, here on Tuesday.

Railways took a 19-run first innings lead and shot out Andhra for only 108 in the second essay to have a modest target of 90 runs. At stumps, the home side was 53 for two and needs another 47 runs to record its first win.

Young pacer Anureet Singh bowled with discipline to wreck the Andhra top order. His opening spell proved decisive as the visitor never got the chance to stage a comeback after a bad start.

The right-armer got enough movement to have opener L.N. Prasad Reddy caught behind. Off the next ball, he castled A.S.K. Varma to be on a hat-trick, though it eluded him.

Anureet made Hemal Watekar play an outgoing delivery and edge it to the wicket-keeper as the tourist struggled at 15 for three. Later, the paceman captured another wicket.

The other star performer was veteran off-spinner Kulamani Parida, who landed the ball on the rough to stifle the Andhra middle order. Parida showed his old craft to wrap A.G. Pradeep in front and find the stumps of V. Manoj Sai and D. Kalyankrishna. Soon, the off-spinner had A. Veera Babu caught behind.

Sanjay Bangar doffed his cap at both the heroes. “Anureet’s first spell did the trick. Then Parida reminded us of the older days and showed that with a little assistance from the pitch he can be dangerous,” the Railways captain said.

The home side regained balance after stumbling initially. At two for seven, Railways needed to steady its innings and Milind Tamhane and Harshad Rawle did just that to put their team back on track.

Andhra coach M.V. Narasimha Rao blamed his batsmen for the poor show. “We batted badly. Even a target of 150 would have been good,” he said.

The scores: Andhra — 1st innings: 208.

Railways — 1st innings: Milind Tamhane c H. Watekar b P. Vijaykumar 6, Sanjay Bangar lbw b D. Kalyankrishna 0, Karan Sharma c A.G. Pradeep b P. Vijaykumar 5, Harshad Rawle st. V. Manoj Sai b M. Suresh 23, Sanjib Sanyal (run out) 70, Yere Goud c L.N. Prasad Reddy b A.S.K. Varma 13, Mahesh Rawat lbw b M. Suresh 18, Raja Ali c & b H. Watekar 39, Murali Kartik c V. Manoj Sai b P. Vijay Kumar 22, Kulamani Parida lbw b M. Suresh 10, Anureet Singh (not out) 2, Extras (b-9, lb-4, nb-6): 19; Total (in 110.2 overs): 227.

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-13, 3-16, 4-69, 5-121, 6-122, 7-162, 8-199, 9-219.

Andhra bowling: D. Kalyankrishna 24-12-26-1, P. Vijay Kumar 23-5-63-3, M. Suresh 33.2-9-62-3, Y.G. Rao 2-1-4-0, S. Veera Babu 11-2-18-0, H. Watekar 12-3-30-1, A.S.K. Varma 5-1-11-1.

Andhra — 2nd innings: Hemal Watekar c M. Rawat b A. Singh 9, L.N. Prasad Reddy c M. Rawat b A. Singh 5, A.S.K. Varma b A. Singh 0, B. Sumanth lbw b M. Karthik 25, Y. Gnaneswara Rao c H. Rawle b Karan Sharma 13, M. Suresh b A. Singh 23, A.G. Pradeep lbw b K. Parida 11, V. Manoj Sai b K. Parida 9, D. Kalyankrishna b K. Parida 0, P. Vijay Kumar (not out) 5, A. Veera Babu c M. Rawat b K. Parida 0, Extras (lb-6, nb-1, wd-1): 8; Total (in 44.3 overs) 108.

Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-12, 3-15, 4-52, 5-64, 6-87, 7-99, 8-99, 9-103.

Railways bowling: S. Bangar 6-1-16-0, Anureet Singh 12-2-29-4, Sanjib Sanyal 3-1-5-0, M. Karthik 10-0-26-1, Karan Sharma 6-1-16-1, Kulamani Parida 7.3-3-10-4.

Railways — 2nd innings: Sanjay Bangar c M. Suresh b P. Vijay Kumar 1, Yere Goud c V. Manoj Sai b D. Kalyankrishna 4, Milind Tamhane (batting) 27, Harshad Rawle (batting) 17, Extras (lb-3, nb-1): 4; Total (for two wkts. in 23 overs): 53.

Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-7.

Andhra bowling: D. Kalyankrishna 7-2-18-1, P. Vijay Kumar 5-1-8-1, M. Suresh 6-2-9-0, S. Veera Babu 4-0-13-0, H. Watekar 1-0-2-0.

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

Sport