The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Dogra, Mannu come to HP’s rescue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 05, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Dogra, Mannu come to HP’s rescue

Special Correspondent

— Photo: K. Ramesh Babu

GOTCHA! Hyderabad’s Alfred Absolom is excited after picking up the wicket of Bhavin Thakkar.

HYDERABAD: Himachal Pradesh, reeling at 75 for three at one stage, recovered to close day two of their Ranji Trophy super league cricket match against Hyderabad at 166 without further damage at the Gymkhana grounds here on Wednesday.

Paras Dogra (54 batting) and Ajay Mannu (52 batting) put on 91 runs in their unbroken fourth wicket partnership to haul the chestnuts out of the fire, after the visitors found themselves in a spot following Hyderabad’s dismissal for 328, just before lunch.

The visitors used the early morning moisture to good effect — Vikramjeet Malik engineering Abhinav Kumar’s exit in tandem with stumper Ajay Mannu. Abhinav’s partner M.P. Arjun soldiered on nonetheless, taking care to ward off the first hour blues before stroking freely.

Helping himself to a six off Sarandeep, Arjun grew in confidence, lofting the bowlers over their heads. His end, after a three and a half hour vigil in the middle studded with two sixers and eight boundaries, brought the curtains down on the Hyderabad essay.

The home side’s spearhead Alfred Absolom accounted for both of HP’s openers, trapping Sangram Singh leg before and lopping off Bhavin Thakkar’s bails shortly after.

Paras Dogra then took charge, cautious to wait for the loose ball to play his strokes. He saw his side cross the 150 milestone, posted his half century presently and then combined well with Mannu, the latter getting past 50 as well.

The scores:

Hyderabad — 1st innings: T. Suman c Ajay Mannu b Mohinder Sharma 45, D.B. Ravi Teja c Mannu b Vikramjeet Malik 0, A.T. Rayudu run out 1, Anoop Pai c&b Ashok Thakur 15, Arjun Yadav c Paras Dogra b Malik 19, Abhinav Kumar c Mannu b Malik 73, Ahmed Quadri lbw b Abhinav Bali 47, M.P. Arjun c Thakur b Malik 71, Alfred Absolom c Mukesh Sharma b Sarandeep 8, P. Ojha c Mukesh b Thakur 10, Ashwin Yadav (not out) 0, Extras (b-16, lb-4, nb-18, w-1) 39; Total (in 118.3 overs) 328.

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-12, 3-31, 4-74, 5-121, 6-198, 7-247, 8-278, 9-322.

Himachal Pradesh bowling: Vikramjeet Mallik 31.3-7-67-4 (nb-8), Ashok Thakur 27-8-71-2, Mohinder Sharma 19-5-55-1 (nb-10, w-1), Sarandeep Singh 22-3-71-1, Abhinav Bali 19-6-44-1.

Himachal Pradesh — 1st innings: Bhavin Thakkar b Absolom 16, Sangram Singh lbw b Absolom 24, Paras Dogra (batting) 54, Vinit Indulkar b Ojha 10, Ajay Mannu (batting) 52, Extras (lb-4, nb-6) 10; Total (for three wickets in 59 overs) 166.

Fall of wickets: 1-43, 2-45, 3-75.

Hyderabad bowling: A. Absolom 16-3-48-2, M.P. Arjun 12-3-20-0 (nb-2), Ashwin Yadav 9-1-32-0 (nb-2), P. Ojha 17-5-38-1, A. Quadri 4-0-20-0, T. Suman 1-0-4-0.

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

Sport