The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Captain’s knock by Parthiv

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 11, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Captain’s knock by Parthiv

Special Correspondent

— Photo: Janak Patel

LEADING FROM THE FRONT: Parthiv’s century propped up Gujarat on the first day of the Super League match against Tamil Nadu.

Ahmedabad: Parthiv Patel turned out to be a stumbling block for Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy Super League match against Gujarat here on Tuesday.

The plucky left-hander showed the full face of the bat in defence and the flashy blade for nearly five and a half hours at the Sardar Patel stadium to play a captain’s knock (130 batting) — his fifth century in Ranji Trophy and 11th in first class cricket. Tamil Nadu used all the resources at its disposal — right-arm seamers and right and left-arm finger spinners, but Parthiv did not falter.

Rescue act

Following his half-centuries (83 and 76) in the previous week against a weak Orissa attack at the same venue, Parthiv came to Gujarat’s rescue at 15 for two in the morning session after electing to bat. That his contribution off 231 balls with 19 fours was fractionally lower than fifty per cent of Gujarat’s total of 275 for five on the opening day was ample expression of the admirable manner in which he dealt with the crisis situation demonstrating a neat package of skill, courage and efficiency.

However, Parthiv’s nerves will be tested when he dons the big gloves at some point of time on Wednesday and begins to deploy his bowlers. He went for the toss with a team sheet that had the names of Siddharth Trivedi and Mohnish Parmar — both on the BCCI’s suspect action list.

The Gujarat openers perished by the 10th over. Parthiv put the innings back on track in the company of another left-hander Niraj Patel.

Thaker chips in

It was however when right-hander Bhavik Thaker became his ally that Gujarat began to exert pressure on the Tamil Nadu spinners and take command.

The fourth wicket stand had added 148 when teenaged left-arm spinner Srinivas trapped Thaker (72, 116b, 8x4, 3x6) in front and claimed his maiden first class wicket.

Srinivas went on to pick up the wicket of Rujul Bhatt, bowled neck and crop.

The scores: Gujarat — 1st Innings: H. Joshipura c Anirudha b Ganapathy 7, J. Desai c Jesuraj b Ganapathy 4, N. Patel c Karthik b Balaji 36, Parthiv (batting) 130, B. Thaker lbw b Srinivas 72, R. Bhatt b Srinivas 13, T. Patel (batting) 7; Extras (b-1, lb-1, nb-4): 6. Total (for five wkts. in 90 overs): 275.

Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-15, 3-61, 4-209, 5-241.

Tamil Nadu bowling: Balaji 14-5-39-1, Ganapathy 14-4-35-2, Ashwin 31-7-84-0, Jesuraj 11-2-30-0, Suresh Kumar 3-0-13-0, Srinivas 15-1-58-2, Badrinath 2-0-14-0.

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

Sport