The Hindu : It's celebration time for Mumbai

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 09, 2003

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Sport - Cricket

It's celebration time for Mumbai

By G. Viswanath

BRILLIANT BADANI: Though Mumbai had the last laugh, Hemang Badani had the crowd on its feet with some superb shots. Here he sweeps Sairaj Bahutule en route to his century.

Mumbai May 8. Hemang Badani's fall after a classic 109 enabled Mumbai record its 35th Ranji Trophy triumph by 141 runs at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday afternoon. For some strange reason, the host did not believe it could achieve victory without getting rid of a batsman who has been its scourge for some years now.

Badani made the home team wait agonisingly for nearly four hours before hitting the ball down Nishit Shetty's throat at long-on, half an hour before tea. This wicket virtually sealed the final for Paras Mhambrey's team which had no stars.

The jubilation in the home side's ranks was spontaneous and prompted by the well-judged catch by Shetty who was strategically placed at long-on for a dual purpose — preventing boundaries and hoping for the batsman to make a silly mistake.

Considering that the batsman in the middle was Badani, the stroke he attempted off leg-spinner Sairaj Bahutule was expected to beat the man near the fence. But the timing went awry and provided a real chance for Mumbai to see the back of a man whose performance in the final was akin to his dashing batting three seasons ago at the same venue.

Badani's sedate and stoical display, dotted with some spanking drives and cuts, also brought to the fore the truth that cricket is a team game and even a great deal of character shown by one man is not enough to take it across the finish line. Badani stood like a rock — unshakeable in his belief that he had the wares to tackle the Mumbai attack and unwavering in concentration. Unfortunately, he did not have the necessary support from his teammates to pull it off.

Poor strategy

Protecting the slender first innings lead of 11 was the option Tamil Nadu chose when set an imposing target of 377 in the fourth innings. The visitor boasted of being one of the strongest batting sides in the country, but its thinktank felt that the best way to go about things, when facing a minimum of 132 overs, was to consume time, save the match and win through first innings honours.

The pitch was Tamil Nadu's best ally on the fifth day; it had not got worse to make the batsmen's life miserable. The time spent by at least four batsmen, including Badani, showed that there was no demon in the pitch. S. Badrinath's dismissal off a ball that turned and bounced might have given an impression that the area around the good length spot for a righthander had become bad. Actually off-spinner Ramesh Powar's ability to get bounce did the trick in this case, but even he did not pose too many problems to Badani and S. Sharath.

The responsibility of carrying out Tamil Nadu's plans rested largely on the shoulders of Badani. He looked in total control of himself and the Mumbai attack in the first innings while making a half-century before umpire Vijay Chopra ruled him out as he did not attempt to play a delivery from Ajit Agarkar.

Even on Wednesday, after Ramesh had thrown his wicket and Sriram fell to Bahutule, Badani did not appear to be perturbed. This morning he did not add a run to his overnight 23 for 40 minutes and 23 balls.

Badrinath is a fine batsman to watch. Play for time was the order and all the Tamil Nadu batsmen, without exception, tried hard to adjust and looked quite adept while doing so. Getting his front foot well forward to defend Agarkar, Badrinath showed courage and technique and gave Badani company for almost an before being defeated by the turn and bounce Powar extracted after being called to replace Agarkar.

Powar struck in his very first over of the day, but every minute contributed to the uphill struggle as Sharath was determined to make amends for his poor shot in the first innings.

Mumbai became desperate while searching for another breakthrough. The bowlers failed to crack Badani's nerve and were lucky to win an appeal for leg-before against Sharath. Things looked promising for Mumbai at lunch, but it was not before the second new ball was claimed immediately after the 80th over that it managed to send back another Tamil Nadu batsmen. M.R. Shrinivas was in front for umpire Vijay Chopra to adjudicate in favour of Avishkar Salvi.

Shrinivas' dismissal came soon after a catch at slip was turned down by Chopra in consultation with square-leg umpire Narendra Menon. This prompted Agarkar to remonstrate before umpire Menon. But things calmed down after Salvi send Shrinivas back.

Gokulakrishnan lost his patience after defending for 29 minutes and swept straight into the hands of Shetty. In between, Badani reverse swept Bahutule to reach his century, a feat he celebrated by acknowledging the cheers. However, showing the handle of the bat towards an unknown person was in poor taste indeed.

Bahutule won two more decisions from umpire Menon that did not go down well with R. Raaju and D. Dhandapani, but Mumbai had sewn up the match after Badani (109, 326m, 220b, 10x4) holed out to long-on. Bahutule's five-wicket haul took his tally to 40 in eight matches.

Mumbai skipper Paras Mhambrey said it was team work that produced the results and admitted that his captaincy was tested. "We failed to take control on the third day morning,'' said Tamil Nadu coach Arun.

The Mumbai Cricket Association announced a bonus of Rs. six lakhs to the team.

The scores:

Mumbai — 1st innings: 260.

Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: 271.

Mumbai — 2nd innings: 387 for seven decl.

Tamil Nadu — 2nd innings: S. Suresh b Mhambrey 44, S. Ramesh c Jaffer b Agarkar 6, S. Sriram lbw b Bahutule 5, S. Badrinath c Mane b Powar 20, H. Badani c Shetty b Bahutule 109, S. Sharath lbw b Bahutule 9, M. R. Shrinivas lbw b Salvi 4, D. J. Gokulakrishnan c Shetty b Powar 5, R. Raaju lbw b Bahutule 0, L. Balaji (not out) 3, D. Dhandapani c Jaffer b Bahutule 0; Extras (b-8, lb-13, nb-9) 30; Total 235.

Fall of wickets: 1-27, 2-62, 3-62, 4-121, 5-151, 6-199, 7-217, 8-225, 9-235.

Mumbai bowling: Agarkar 19-6-44-1, Salvi 13-3-23-1, Bahutule 30.4-4-70-5, Mhambrey 14-5-20-1, Powar 24-4-57-2.

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