Slipshod West find some succour at end of the day

Slipshod West find some succour at end of the day
VIKRANT GUPTA

CALCUTTA, DEC 17: West Zone skipper Amol Muzumdar, hands on his hips, would have wanted to know why his lethargic teammates were not putting their hearts in the Duleep Trophy final. He tried all that he could have; make quick bowling changes, switch his bowlers' ends and shout ``attitude, attitude'' to check the drooping shoulders of his team but nothing seemed to work for him or his team against arch-rivals North Zone.

Muzumdar gambled in taking the second new ball when it was due. And it paid off handsomely two scalps in the space of 13 balls. Fast bowler Iqbal Siddiqui dismissed Pankaj Dharmani and Reetinder Singh Sodhi with beautiful outswingers as North relaxed their grip from 250 for two to 263 for four when poor light stopped play earlier than scheduled on day one at the Eden Gardens.

The last 30 minutes of the day apart, West put up a disappointing show. Losing the toss on a placid wicket was a setback, but unimaginative bowling and pedestrian fielding did not make West's job easy.

The wickethad a bit of life in the morningn and West were pinning their hopes on their seamers to make early inroads. But the new ball bowlers sprayed the ball. And to aggravate matters, two important chances were spilled. The five National selectors watching the second-rung of Indian talent obviously must have been disappointed by the proceedings.

Openers Rathore and Ashu Dani capitalised on the easy pickings. Dani was off in a flash, cutting left-arm seamer Zahir Khan and Rathore was his customary self with elegant drives and punches off the backfoot. Dani, growing restless, gave left-arm spinner Nilesh Kulkarni the charge and lost his wicket after adding 87 runs with his skipper.

In walked teenaged-prodigy Reetinder Singh Sodhi. And the way he and Rathore were shaping up, things didn't augur well for the rivals. Rathore slammed Kulkarni over the straight sight screen for a six. But in trying to repeat the stroke, he mistimed and was fortunate to see Vinod Kambli at mid-on drop the simplest of catches. Sodhi wasthen reprieved by Wasim Jaffer in the slip off Siddique the pick of the West bowlers. Rathore had a hundred in sight when he drove uppishly and found Abhijit Kale at mid off. Rathore scored 74.

Scoreboard

North Zone (1st innings): Vikram Rathore c Kale b Kulkarni 74, Ashu Dani b Kulkarni 43, Reetinder Singh Sodhi c Patel b Siddiqui 67, Pankaj Dharmani c Jaffar b Siddiqui 39, Rajeev Nayyar batting 5, Navdeep Singh batting 6. Extras (b 3, lb 12, w 3, nb 11): 29. Total (for four wickets): 263
Fall of wickets: 1-87 (Dani), 2-175 (Rathore), 3-250 (Dharmani), 4-255 (Sodhi)
Bowling: Mhambrey 15-2-59-0, Zahir Khan 11-1-58-0, Siddiqui 15-4-48-2, Kulkarni 30-13-51-2, Mehta 12-1-32-0