da esoccer bet： It was sweet revenge for Chemplast who trounced India Pistons by sevenwickets in the final of the Moin ud Dowlah Cup in Hyderabad today
da wazamba： Sankhya Krishnan11-Sep-2000It was sweet revenge for Chemplast who trounced India Pistons by sevenwickets in the final of the Moin ud Dowlah Cup in Hyderabad today. Amammoth undefeated stand of 217 between Jatin Paranjpe and SujithSomasundar helped Chemplast make light of a target of 281 to canterhome with almost seven overs to spare in what finally transpired to bea ridiculously one-sided affair.JR Madanagopal added another sorry episode to his past with anotherfateful dropped catch to let off another Mumbaikar. A dolly miss atlong off from the bowling of Robin Singh relieved Paranjpe, then on 63out of a total of 177, who had already turned towards the pavilion, inall preparedness to walk off. Robin fumed, Madanagopal squirmed butChemplast just laughed all the way to the bank.It was not all hunky-dory for the victors in the morning after theleft-handed Hemanth Kumar pillaged a bustling century to lift Pistonsto an imposing 280/9. Yet to play in a first class match, Hemanthsurely on the evidence of his showing here, is just weeks away frombeing blooded by Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy this season.The match started on the hallowed lawns of the Gymkhana Ground onwhose precincts the first edition of the Moin ud Dowlah Cup had kickedoff in the season of 1930-31. In that year such exalted personages asJack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe opened the batting for theMaharajkumar of Vizianagaram’s XI and a few years later the WestIndian Learie Constantine gave a well rounded account of his multipletalents.Just outside the main entrance there is a plaque which pompouslyannounces the structure beyond as the Hyderabad Cricket AssociationStadium. Well, stadium it may not be but the ground still retains apicturesque charm, surrounded on three sides by wide open spaces suchas the Parade Ground, the Polo Ground and a Hockey Ground, and thepanoramic view from what masquerades as a press box is a real steal.From 70/3, Hemanth and Madanagopal added 65 for the fourth wicket,the two looking in control and firmly milking the singles with fivemen stationed on the boundary. Then Madanagopal played a foolhardyshot against the grain of play, lofting the ball in the air knowingfull well there was a fielder at sweeper cover. Robin walked in at135/4 and was warned for running onto the wicket almost immediately.He put that behind him and added a brisk 110 for the fifth wicket withHemanth. The latter grew more innovative in his stroke play in Robin’sreassuring company, stepping two inches outside off stump andpersuading the ball away on the leg side on more than one occasion.All hell broke loose in the 44th over bowled by Dinesh Mongia, whichwent for 20 runs including two sixes over midwicket, Hemanth movingfrom 90 to 110 in the space of five balls. Soon after, Robin holed outfor 44 (51 balls, 2 fours) to deep midwicket just after beingcautioned a second time for trespassing onto the pitch. The score atthat point was 245 but Hemanth coaxed another 30 runs in the companyof the tail, audaciously running byes more than once when the ball hadbeen collected by the keeper. When he was run out from the last ballof the innings, he had accumulated an effortless 134 (126 balls, 10fours, 2 sixes). Veeranan had the best figures among some badly mauledanalysis, taking 2/34 from seven overs, but Ganesh Kumar had done afine job too, bowling ten overs on the trot in the middle overs for ameasly 37, without taking a wicket.Having beaten Chemplast by eight wickets in the final of the KSCADiamond Jubilee tournament a few weeks ago, Pistons must haveexperienced a feeling of deja vu at this point. Sujit Somasundar andGanesh Kumar kept them on their toes with some fairly frenetic runningas the 50 came up in 40 minutes inside eight overs. Ganesh Kumar wasthe more adventurous of the two, once picking Shahabuddin overmidwicket for six.In the 11th over, Shahabuddin, who plays his cricket for Andhra in theRanji Trophy, had Ganesh caught behind by the keeper Vasudevan. Andthree runs later, in his next over, the disappointing Badrinath wasconsumed by first slip. Dinesh Mongia walked in with a weight ofresponsibility on his shoulders. Flailing wildly at one outside offstump, he was snapped up by Vasudevan for a fourth ball duck tocomplete a double wicket maiden for Shahabuddin, who had scalped threewickets in eight balls at this stage. Mongia’s fall must have sentpanic waves through the Chemplast dressing room and at 67/3, Pistonswould have been licking their lips in anticipation of the kill, whichhad been well fattened up.They had reckoned without one Jatin Paranjpe. He signalled hisintentions immediately by picking on R Satish, who had replacedShahabuddin from the Plaza end, for three boundaries in his firstover. Railways leg spinner WD Balaji Rao was generating good nip andbounce off the wicket with an action that exuded vitality but hecontrived to floor a return catch offered by Paranjpe with the batsmanon 44. To be sure, the ball was fiercely driven back at him and Raocould not close his fingers around the ball in a one-handed parry.To add injury to insult, he went off the field to receive treatment onhis finger. Then followed the kindergarten miss by Madanagopal and afrustrated Robin bowled a rank bouncer off the last ball of the over,promptly called no ball. Indeed the bowling and fielding completelywent to pieces in the end, with wides, no balls, byes, even a beamerfrom Shahabudin, and fumbles in the field abounding.Just outside the ground a group of 64 city probables were limbering upfor their forthcoming Under 19 tournament and Paranjpe scattered themwith two clean hits over midwicket that landed in their midst, almostdecapitating one unfortunate lad. He hit 21 off the over, the 36th, byMuthupandian and brought up his 100 off 81 balls with his fifth six,also in the same trademark fashion, this time off Balaji Rao.If Somasundar has been ignored for much of this chronicle, theoversight can be rectified here and now. Having accumulated his runswith stealth, Somasundar finally abandoned such a covert, eveninsidious, manner of run making for some more unabashed hitting. WhenRao tossed one up, he obligingly hit him over wide long off to enterthe nineties. Robin finally invited Hemanth for a bowl in a gesture ofsurrender. He bowled a short one that sat up and beseeched to be hit,Somasundar carted it way out of the ground to end the mismatch of acontest and take his individual score to 97 (129 balls, 9 fours and 3sixes). For his part Paranjpe had settled at a personal tally of 115(91 balls, 10 fours and 6 sixes).That brought down the curtain on a curious tournament in which neitherlast year’s winner MRF, nor runner-up, ONGC took part. The Moin udDowlah Cup was presented to Chemlpast captain D Vasu who promptlyraised it over his head with a violent gesture, only to watch inembarrassment as the cup rolled off its pedestal and plummeted to theground. But that was a minor and easily forgiven blemish in what wasotherwise a moment to savour for him and the entire Chemplast team.
