The Hindu : Martin, Dharmani frustrate Elite-A

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Sunday, Mar 23, 2003

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Sport - Cricket

Martin, Dharmani frustrate Elite-A

By Our Sports Reporter

HYDERABAD MARCH 22. Jacob Martin and Pankaj Dharmani of Elite-C demonstrated the importance of staying at the crease in their unbroken 177-run stand for the fourth wicket which effectively put Elite-A out of contention in the four-day Duleep Trophy match at Gymkhana Grounds on the third day here.

Resuming at 287 for seven, Elite-A made 369. And in reply, Elite-C was 263 for three.

Martin and Dharmani came together when Elite-C was in a spot of bother at 86 for three in 27 overs.

If Elite-A skipper S. Sriram thought that this was going to be his day, after middle-order batsman D. Vinay Kumar scored an unbeaten 125 (328m, 230b, 18x4, 1x6) and also held a brilliant diving catch to his right at gully to send back the dangerous S.S. Das (40) off medium-pacer Gill, he was badly mistaken.

On an easy-paced track, Martin (91 batting, 211m, 166b, 11x4) and Dharmani (83 batting, 189m, 142b, 7x4, 1x6) came up with good knocks.

They took time to settle down, particularly during the post-lunch session, when left-arm medium-pacer Irfan Pathan and Ranadeb Bose bowled a tidy spell.

Once Martin and Dharmani settled down, strokes flowed effortlessly. The way Dharmani stepped out to loft Sriram straight (and out of the ground) and Martin pulled and cut, it was obvious that the Elite-A bowlers had a tough time in the final session.

Sriram must have cursed himself for missing a simple chance to run out non-striker Martin (on 52) when the latter charged too far down after Dharmani played straight to point fielder Vinay.

Though Vinay quickly threw to Sriram, he failed to collect the ball with Martin well stranded. That was the luck the pair needed. Their stand has already given enough worries for the Elite-A bowlers who have to come up with something special to deny Elite-C first innings points.

Vinay hits unbeaten hundred

The morning session belonged to Vinay who hit his maiden Duleep century. He reached the landmark in style, swinging Nilesh Kulkarni over mid-wicket for a six.

For the second day in succession, play was extended till 5.50 pm and had to be called off due to bad light as the slow over-rate saw the teams fail to bowl the stipulated quota.

The scores:

Elite-A — 1st innings: Daniel Manohar lbw b Bhandari 26, S. Ramesh c (sub) K. Pawar b Kulkarni 42, S. Sriram b Kulkarni 109, Deep Dasgupta b Kulkarni 2, Devang Gandhi lbw b Bhandari 3, Venugopala Rao c Goud b Kulkarni 6, Vinay Kumar (not out) 125, R. Kanwat c Das b Kulkarni 11, Irfan Pathan c Dharmani b Bhandari 20, S. Gill c & b Trivedi 3, Ranadeb Bose b Trivedi 0; Extras (b-6, lb-2, nb-3, w-11) 22; Total 369.

Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-105, 3-107, 4-129, 5-140, 6-239, 7-263, 8-313, 9-341.

Elite-C bowling: Bhandari 31-4-107-3, Shukla 19-6-70-0, Trivedi 29.1-10-75-2, Kulkarni 40-7-104-5, Goud 1-0-5-0.

Elite-C — 1st innings: Satyajit Parab b Bose 27, S.S. Das c Vinay b Gill 40, Yere Goud lbw b Pathan 8, Jacob Martin (batting) 91, Pankaj Dharmani (batting) 83; Extras (b-2, lb-5, w-1, nb-6) 14; Total (for three wkts.) 263.

Fall of wickets: 1-53, 2-71, 3-86.

Elite-A bowling: Pathan 22.1-3-62-1, Gill 16.4-2-68-1, Bose 13-0-51-1, Kanwat 10-0-28-0, Manohar 4-1-15-0, Sriram 8.2-1-30-0, Venugopala Rao 1-0-2-0.

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