Nayyar slams another ton; brings North out of a shell

Nayyar slams another ton; brings North out of a shell
VIKRANT GUPTA

CALCUTTA, DECEMBER 18: Nilesh Kulkarni and Rajeev Nayyar held centrestage at the Eden Gardens on Saturday. Kulkarni took the bowling honours with his left-arm spin while Nayyar scored an unbeaten 105 to help North Zone set a challenging total on a wicket which is affording slow turn on the second day of the five-day Duleep Trophy final.

The persevering Nayyar found two unusual partners in his rescue mission Amit Bhandari and Robin Singh (Jr). Nayyar's 352-minute effort and the two pacemen's lusty blows helped North add 86 for the last two wickets.But for that onslaught, things would have gone very much West's way. North's unwillingness to come out of their shells gave West skipper Amol Muzumdar the opportunity to exert pressure.

Kulkarni, who recorded championship-best figures of 5-97, was Muzumdar's trump card. Not a single North batsman, Nayyar included, used the feet to counter his nagging line and length.

The only batsman in the history of world cricket to have batted for more than a 1000 minutesin an innings, Nayyar sometimes gives the impression of being selfish. But his working towards the set goal is a lesson for those lacking on temperament. At 28, Nayyar is near `veteran'. He was in the squad in '88-89 but had to wait till the 1995-96 season to make his Duleep Trophy debut. Coming from a weak cricketing state has taught Nayyar to value his wicket. And what a Duleep Trophy he is having!. He scored 118 in the quarterfinal against South Zone, 88 in the semi-final against Central and now a century again.

The morning session saw North crawl their way up. Nightwatchman Navdeep Singh reposed the faith shown in him by his skipper and defended his wicket for 136 minutes before Paras Mhambrey had him fishing outside the off stump. Much was expected from Virender Sehwag. Two neatly picked fours off his hips had the crowd in attention, but a diving Wasim Jaffer brought off a marvellous catch in the slips as Sehwag pushed at Mhambrey away from his body.

Dahiya scratched around for his 10 runs but becamevictim of a doubtful bat-pad catch off Kulkarni. All-rounder Nikhil Chopra, too went in a huff and it seemed curtains for North.

However, Nayyar saw to it that he was not denied his third Duleep Trophy ton.

scoreboard
North Zone (1st innings)
Vikram Rathore c Kale b Kulkarni 74
Ashu Dani b Kulkarni 43
Reetinder Sodhi c Pathik b Siddique 67
Pankaj Dharmani c Jaffer b Siddique 39
Rajeev Nayyar not out 105
Navdeep Singh c Patel b Mhambrey 23
Virender Sehwag c Jaffer b Mhambrey 13
Vijay Dahiya c Williams b Kulkarni 10
Nikhil Chopra b Zahir 2
Amit Bhandari c Kale b Kulkarni 20
R Singh (Jr) c sub (Bhatt) b Kulkarni 2
Extras (b 4, lb 21, w 5, nb 19) 49
Total (all out in 162.5 overs) 469
Fall of wickets: 1-87 (Dani), 2-175 (Rathore), 3-250 (Dharmani), 4-255 (Sodhi), 5-319 (Navdeep), 6-337 (Sehwag), 7-372 (Dahiya), 8-383 (Chopra), 9-428 (Bhandari)
Bowling: Mhambrey 28-4-103-2, Zahir 25-4-110-1, Siddique 32-9-102-2, Kulkarni 65.3-23-97-5, Mehta12-1-32-0
West Zone (1st innings)
Wasim Jaffer batting 4
Connor Williams batting 2
Extras (nb 2) 2
Total (for no loss, in seven overs) 8
Bowling: Bhandari 3-1-5-0, Robin (jr) 2-0-2-0, Navdeep 1-1-0-0, Chopra 1-0-1-0