Despite Laxman & Kumaran's fine stand, South has an uphill task

By V.V. Subrahmanyam

VIJAYAWADA, JAN. 6. Poor stroke selection in the final overs of the day by South Zone captain V.V.S. Laxman, who dished out a classy 179 (356m, 256b, 29 x 4, 1 x 6), and southpaw Hemang Badani (44), effectively nullified all the good work done by them and earlier by night-watchman T. Kumaran, who carved out an impressive 106 (286m, 219 b, 14 x 4) in his maiden Duleep Trophy match.

Consequently, South Zone was badly placed at 372 for six at close on the third day in reply to North Zone's 708 for eight declared at the Vijayawada IGMC Stadium here on Saturday.

When Laxman and Kumaran were holding centrestage, it looked North was in for a real contest. The significance of Laxman's knock was that, in the company of Kumaran, he kept alive South's hopes of taking the first innings lead. During their 238- run stand off just 210 balls for the third wicket, it was the turn of the North bowlers to be at the receiving end.

Virender Sehwag almost brought to nought his contribution with the bat by dropping a simple chance at gully when Laxman, on 15, uppishly cut left-arm medium-pacer Surinder Singh. It was a costly let off as Laxman revelled in some extravagant strokes. Ironically, he picked Sehwag himself for special treatment by banging him for three fours and a six in one over as if to say `thank you'.

At the other end, Kumaran displayed good discipline and temperament. Though he took a bit too long to go from 90 to 100 (53 balls), he demonstrated the essence of staying at the crease on a pitch which is still full of runs. Not that he was afraid of strokes was evident in the way he hit medium-pacer Sudhakar Ghag for three exquisitely timed hits to the fence in one over.

Laxman realised very early that the stage was set perfectly for him to revel. One of the two lapses in his concentration was when his intended flick off off-spinner Harbhajan Singh just eluded the lone slip Vikram Rathour, in the fourth over after lunch, with team score reading 196 for two.

North got the big breakthrough when Surinder Singh was a bit lucky to get an leg before appeal upheld against Kumaran when ball looked to be going down the leg-side.

This saw the stylish Badani join his captain. The two put on 80 runs in quick time for the fourth wicket with Badani too unleashing some elegant cover-drives and pull shots off both spin and pace bowlers. In the final session, bad light stopped play for 10 minutes, 40 minutes after tea.

When play resumed, Rathour opted for the new ball and it worked wonders. If it was the question of displaying character and cricketing discipline in crunch time, then both Laxman and Badani let their team down badly.

Just when it looked the two would see the day through for South, Badani after cover-driving and pulling Surinder Singh with nonchalance, couldn't resist the temptation of slashing at an away going delivery from Surinder straight to Dinesh Mongia's hands at gully with four overs to go.

In the next over, Laxman played an unnecessary pull, off Sudhakar Ghag, into the deep square-leg's hands. off Sudhakar Ghag. This double blow was enough for North to be back on top. And much to its delight, night-watchman Dodda Ganesh perished of the last ball of the day.

It was a definitely a much better bowling display by a determined North, backed by high standard ground fielding. It was pretty obvious that the bowlers were willing to experiment a lot even if hit badly at times.

The scores:

North Zone - 1st innings: 708 for eight decl.

South Zone - 1st innings: S. Sriram c Rathour b Surinder 11, S. Ramesh c Rathour b Ghag 8, T. Kumaran lbw b Surinder 106, V.V.S. Laxman c Akash Chopra b Ghag 179, Hemang Badani c Mongia b Surinder 44, Dodda Ganesh lbw Surinder 6, Robin Singh (batting) 7, Extras: (b-2, lb-3, nb-4, w-2) 11, Total (for six wkts.): 372

Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-41, 3-279, 4- 359, 5-361, 6-372.

North bowling: Surinder Singh 19.5-5-95- 4, Sudhakar Ghag 21-1-80-2, Harbhajan Singh 16-0-54-0, Rahul Sanghvi 21-6-52-0, Sarandeep Singh 18-3-62-0, Dinesh Mongia 1-0-1-0, Virender Sehwag 4-2-23-0.

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