Railways on track for big score

Wed, Nov 4 05:41 AM

Bangar hits unbeatean 111 as hosts end Day One of the Ranji opener against TN at 242/4

The arrival of Krishnamachari Srikkanth among those watching the action at the Karnail Singh stadium on Tuesday appeared to bring a stroke of luck to the Tamil Nadu Ranji side. The chairman of the selection committee walked in at a time when Railways were well-placed at 135 for one, but as soon as he entered, off-spinner R Ashwin struck with two wickets in the space of four deliveries to bring Tamil Nadu back into the mix on Day One of the Elite division match.

One of those victims was Faiz Fazal, who looked set for a big one after having completed his maiden half-century in his first Ranji match for Railways. He was stumped, and in the same over, Ashwin got another wicket — this time TP Singh giving a catch to Murali Vijay.

Before this stutter, both Fazal and Sanjay Bangar had worked their way up to an 80-run partnership for the second wicket. While the former wasted his chance, Bangar went on to complete his 10th century, going past 7,000 first-class cricket runs in the process. At stumps, Railways had scored 242 for the loss of 4 wickets, with Sanjib Sanyal giving company to Bangar, who was unbeaten on 111. Bangar's innings included two sixes and 11 hits to the fence.

Bangar walked in to bat after V Cheluvaraj had thrown his wicket away to the part-time spin of Abhinav Mukund. He began finding the boundaries while also rotating the strike with Fazal, who was well set by then. The former skipper then saw off the difficult period in the middle with another important partnership of 76 with Yere Goud.

Changing gearsA circumspect Goud had scored only six runs in the 66 minutes that he played before the tea-break and added another eight in the post-tea session before falling to a smart catch by Abhinav Mukund off S Suresh Kumar at short leg. Unlike Goud, Bangar was in no mood to scratch his way to the three-figure mark. If he took 142 balls to get to his first milestone, he completed his ton in the next 56 deliveries.

Earlier, Fazal justified his inclusion in the team with a well compiled half-century. The left-hander was precise in his stroke-making and disciplined in his shot selection. The only chance that came Tamil Nadu's way before his dismissal was an edge off a C Ganapathi delivery, which S Badrinath thought he had caught cleanly. Umpires Suresh Shashtri and Anil Chaudhary thought otherwise.

Job well doneNot surprisingly, the Railways team management were a satisfied lot with the way things turned out. Skipper Murali Kartik was happy with the way Bangar and Fazal batted. "Overall it was a good day for us. We threw a couple of wickets away after doing the hard work. It wasn't easy for our batsmen with the kind of wicket here and the fact that they bowled well is encouraging. Sanjay did a good job. Things were going well before Faizi threw his wicket away."

Coach Abhay Sharma said both teams were on an even footing and added that the day could have been better if not for the rash strokes the youngsters chose to play. "He shouldn't have gotten out the way he did. He should have scored more runs after putting on 50 for the opening wicket."

Tamil Nadu didn't do all that bad as they kept the hosts under check. Apart from snaring two in the same over, Ashwin bowled continuously for 31 overs from the pavilion end either side of lunch to stop the Railways middle order from surging ahead. Even debutant left-armer spinner Aushik Srinivas was economical, giving away only 29 runs in his 15 overs.

Scorecard Railways 1 st innings: F Fazal st D Karthik b Ashwin 70, V Cheluvaraj c Srinivas b Mukund 13, S Bangar batting 111, TP Singh c Vijay b Ashwin 4, Y Goud c Mukund b Suresh 14, S Sanyal batting 6, Extras (b 6, lb 10, n 3, w 5) 24, Total (for four wickets; 94 overs) 242; FoW: 1-55 (20.6, Cheluvaraj), 2-135 (53.2, Fazal), 3-139 (53.6, Singh), 4-215 (85.4, Goud);

Bowling: L Balaji 16-5-37-0, R Jesuraj 18-3-48-0, C Ganapathi 8-3-18-0, A Mukund 2-0-4-1, R Ashwin 33-8-84-2, A Srinivas 15-5-29-0, S Suresh Kumar 2-0-6-1

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