CHENNAI, January 18: It will be East Zone's batting versus Central's bowling in the Deodhar Trophy match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Monday.East's depth in batting became conspicuous when they contrived a victory over a strong South Zone at Vijayawada. The only worry to the East management would be the failure of Nikhil Haldipur.
Central Zone's batting has not been up to the expectations with Gagan Khoda failing yet again. The management appears wary of using their bench strength. An all-rounder like Sanjay Bangar is cooling his heels. The gamble of bowling Gyanendra Pandey recoiled on them badly. Zakir Hussain, a MRF Pace Foundation trainee whom Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson declared as the next one from the stable to carry the torch, showed he can be a mean businessman in the One-dayer.
The little grass on the Chepauk pitch might have delighted the young Rajasthani, who plays for the Railways. The pitch is likely to assist seamers in the morning and later in the afternoon when breeze sets
in.
The teams (from): East Zone: Saba Karim (captain), Nikhil Haldipur, Devang Gandhi, Robin Morris, Rohan Gavaskar, Sanjay Raul, Tariq-ur-Rehman, Subroto Bannerjee, Utpal Chatterjee, Goutham Dutta, Rajarishi Roy Choudhary, Joy Chandran, Rajib Raja and Subrajit Saikia.
Central Zone: Rizwan Shamshad (captain), Gagan Khoda, Manoj Mudgal, Amay Khurasiya, Jyoti Yadav, Abbas Ali, Gyanendra Pandey, Rajesh Chauhan, Zakir Hussain, Karthik Murali, Harvinder Singh Sodhi, Jai Prakash Yadav, Kulamani Parida, Saurabh Shukla and Sanjay Bangar.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
