www.expressindia.com - Weather | Horoscope | Stocks | RSS
expressindia web city
HomeBlogsCricketAstrology TendersClassifieds Reader Comments Hotels
Sign In / Register | Archive
Expressindia » Story

Giving a different spin to the battle of nerves

Font Size

Saikat Sarkar

Posted: Dec 02, 2008 at 0204 hrs IST

A third-day wicket is perhaps the best one for spinners to have a ball. On Monday, Piyush Chawla and Kulamani Parida shared six of the nine wickets to fall, with the former bowling Railways out for 200 and the latter restricting Uttar Pradesh to 118 for 4 at the Karnail Singh Stadium.

All strategies by fast bowlers, especially RP Singh, failed. They bowled short of good length and around the leg-stump line with all possible close-in fielders. But nothing worked.

Chawla, who had a single wicket to his name on Sunday, bagged four more to complete his 10th first-class five-wicket haul and, more importantly, the first of the season. But it was Bhuvnesh Kumar who opened the floodgates by castling Mahesh Rawat for 39 to break the 72-run stand between the Railways keeper and Yere Goud.

It had an immediate effect as Railways lost their last four wickets for 28 runs — the last three for mere 4 runs — all falling to Chawla. Raja Ali edged one to wicket-keeper Amir Khan, Murali Kartik and Anureet Singh handed Kaif easy catches at slip while Parida saw his off-stump disturbed by a googly. At the non-strikers’s end Goud, nursing a thumb injury, couldn’t accelerate, but remained unbeaten on 78 to stave off follow-on by just three runs.

For the hosts, Anureet Singh, who has been most successful pacer with 16 wickets this season from three matches, started the process. As has been the routine, there was a dropped catch-Parida grassed Srivastava in the very first over and he scored an unbeaten on 51-before two hard earned wickets came his way.

Shivakant Shukla’s off-stump went for a walk while Suresh Raina failed to negotiate the low bounce as the ball sneaked through his defence. Parida, fighting a knee injury, bowled tight and his first break came off a viciously turning delivery that found Mohammad Kaif’s edge. Harshad Rawle’s took him at slip while Parvinder Singh, caught in two minds to a full-pitched delivery, saw his timber being disturbed. The batsman was deceived in flight.

But Murali Kartik was a bit disappointing; he even got a good purchase from the wicket but could not strike. Similarly, Kaif only managed to better his first-innings nought, but could not make a big impression on their rivals.

At this stage, the game is nicely poised with UP leading by 274 runs. Railways have no option but to go for full points, unless of course the light forces an early curtain on the match.

Brief scores: UP 346 and 118/4 (Tanmay Srivastav 51 batting, Kulamani Parida 2/7) vs Railways 200 (Yere Goud 78 no, Mahesh Rawat 39; Piyush Chawla 5/33, RP Singh 3/81)

Discuss this story on expressindia forums
Post Comments
Name* Email ID*
Subject* Country*
Message*
Characters remaining
 
TERMS OF USE: The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s).
I agree to the terms of use.

Latest News

Business

Showbiz

Sports

Rushdie cancels India visit, says 'paid assassins' out to kill him

Narendra Modi takes Sadbhavna Mission to Godhra

Age row: SC dismisses appeal supportive of Army chief's view

Law Commission for making honour killings non-bailable offence

Oz MP tells immigrants to learn English to stop racism

Uma Bharti's comments on Rahul not important: Azad

Digvijay rubbishes reports of quitting as UP poll in-charge

More
© 2011 The Indian Express Limited. All rights reserved
Advertise With Us | Privacy Policy | Feedback | Express Group | Site Map