by Wills Trophy Quarter Finals
Wills XI v Hyderabad
Municipal Corporation Ground, Rajkot, 1 November 1995
Tendulkar, Manjrekar & Khoda decimate Hyderabad - G. Viswanath
The ``Sachinomics`` of cricket held sway in the quarterfinal
match between Wills XI and Hyderabad in the Wills Trophy tourna-
ment at the Municipal Corporation`s Race course ground on Wednes-
day. The little dynamo of Indian cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, has
several times in the past overwhelmed rival bowling at various
levels of cricket, to influence the course of a match. Today, the
Wills XI captain, Tendulkar gave a new dimension to his aggres-
sive batsmanship. His 89-minute, 89-ball 121 with three 6s and 17
fours was sort of mayhem on the Hyderabad bowling. Tendulkar`s
``only ***`` attitude and approach, not only gave a clear in-
dication of which way the match was heading for, it also influ-
enced rookie batsman Gagan Khoda and Sanjay Manjrekar to tear the
Hyderabad bowling to pieces.
Tendulkar`s 121 was followed by a quick 103 by Manjrekar and in
the end Khoda remained unconquered on 121. Wills XI`s top
three batsmen`s feat ought to be some sort of world record in
limited overs games. Their joint effort came close to obliterat-
ing the world record, but in the end Wills XI put up an imposing
379 for three in 50 overs. This splendid effort erased all Indian
records in one-day cricket. And then the expected happened in the
afternoon session. Hyderabad did not really think of chasing a
massive target. It finished at 185 for six wickets to be beaten
by a huge margin of 194 runs.
Dubious decision
Kanwaljit Singh did not take a decision after he won the
toss. He sought advice from his team and manager on what would be
the best option and decided to field. Maybe he thought the shades
of green on the pitch would allow scope for someone like Javagal
Srinath to ***his top order batsmen. The tradition is you al-
ways decide to bat on winning the toss. Neither did Kanwaljit
have a menacing new ball attack, nor a solid batting line up. In
the circumstances he should have opted to bat first, but he chose
to field, which least to say was startling.
Hyderabad`s preference to field first pleased Tendulkar the
most. And he was right there in the middle with Rajasthan`s Gagan
Khoda. And sure enough, by the first drinks interval, Kanwaljit
would have had afterthoughts on whether his decision was right.
For, Tendulkar in that period of time from 9 to 10-15 a.m. had
given full expression to what he thought of the Hyderabad
bowlers, a few of them he may not have even heard before he went
out to bat today.
Wednesday`s knock by Tendulkar should rank second best to the
effort he made against New Zealand at Eden Park, Auckland in
February 1994. Then the target was small, but his rapid fire 82
had demolished the Kiwi attack, but on Wednesday his team was in
pursuit of setting a target and he ravaged the Hyderabad attack.
After his initial reading of the pitch which had always been a
batting paradise with a fast outfield, because of its rock base,
Tendulkar batted in a tone only he could do.
Pupil and master
Khoda, simply watched Tendulkar in action, and was attentive like
a pupil to the advice from a master in between overs. Tendulkar
had plenty of time to pick and place his shots against any bowler
who came up to bowl to him. Obviously he had decided to make the
most of the field regulations in the first 15 overs. There was
the backfoot and stepping out cover drives, the flick to square
leg, the lofted on-drive and whip to the long-on and mid-wicket
fence. To the 10,000 spectators at the Racecourse ground, Tendul-
kar`s dynamic display was a bonus, having been let into see some
cricket, gratis, by the Saurashtra Cricket Association.
After htting three 4s, Tendulkar stepped out to lift N.P.
Singh straight and beyond the sightscreen. He raced to his 50
from 35 balls with one six and seven 4s. The Wills XI 50 came in
seven overs and soon Tendulkar reached his 100 in 69 balls with
two 6s and 16 fours. It was stirring stuff all the way. With Kho-
da also joining to attack the bowling, Wills XI raced to 150 in
15 overs. Fortunately Hyderabad saw the little man walk back
after Tendulkar decided to steal a single off a fumble by Noel
David at extra-cover. Tendulkar was yards out when David threw
the ball back to the bowler Raju. Wills XI`s score was 169 in
18.3 overs when Tendulkar made his exit.
Tendulkar had set the tempo and on a perfect batting pitch, Kho-
da and Manjrekar, although unable to match their captain`s
spellbinding effort, persevered to sustain the aggression, Khoda,
ever giving the impression of being restless, even on-drove
Kanwaljit Singh for his first six. The high point of the second
wicket partnership was the rotation of strike.
Manjrekar was his typical self, batting correctly and never los-
ing the opportunity to sweep Raju, Kanwaljit and David. With
the field well spread out there was never the danger of being
caught inside the ring. Khoda`s second six over long-on off
Kanwaljit saw him cross the half century mark and Manjrekar
quickly rattled up his 50. It was a morning which was thoroughly
dominated by Tendulkar, but from the team point of view, Khoda
and Manjrekar attacked with gusto to make sure their team would
put up a formidable total.
Manjrekar was the second batsman to reach his century in 89
minutes and 105 balls with one six and ten 4s. The second wicket
stand had added 188 runs when Manjrekar was caught at deep back-
ward square-leg. Pravin Amre was one batsman Hyderabad could
claim to have dismissed while defending. He was Venka Pratap`s
second victim in the end overs.
Rare feat
The opener Khoda completed his century and remained unbeaten on
121 (150 balls, 2 x 6s, 10 x 4s). It ought be a rare feat of a
team`s top three batsmen making centuries in one innings. But it
was Tendulkar`s fantastic offensive which helped Wills XI take
the initiative in the first hour of the match and direct the
course of the match. Wills XI`s 379 for three wickets took in its
path three one-day records: 342 for six by Maharashtra against
Gujarat in the 1994-95 Ranji one-day league match in Pune; 299
for eight (in 60 overs) by Karnataka against Uttar Pradesh in the
inaugural Wills Trophy tournament in 1977-78 and 297 for five (in
50 overs) by Wills XI against Tamil Nadu at Jamnagar in 1989-90.
The record in limited overs is 413 for four (in 60 overs) by
Somerset against Devon in the Natwest trophy. Somerset achieved
this feat at Torquay in 1990.
Early reverses
Hyderabad did not go for the tall target, especially after Sri-
nath and Mhambrey got wickets in their first overs.
Nandkishore and M. V. Sridhar added 60 runs for the third wicket.
Hyderabad was reduced to 105 for five after Sairaj Bahutule took
two wickets. Sridhar was dismissed after Amre took a fine catch
at cover, stepping backward and plucking the ball one handed fol-
lowing the uppish shot from the batsman.
With no point in chasing the target, Laxman batted sensibly for
two hours to show that he is one of the talented young batsmen in
the country. He forged a half century stand with N. P. Singh.
Laxman struck six 4s, all of them on the on-side. He kept his on-
drives down, picking most of them on the full. Laxman`s unbeaten
62 was the saving grace for Hyderabad, which was never in the
match after Tendulkar`s brilliant onslaught in the morning.
====> Scorecard
Toss: Hyderabad
Result: Wills XI won by 194 runs.
Umpires:
WILLS XI innings
SR Tendulkar run out 121
G Khoda not out 121
SV Manjrekar c Nand Kishore b Venka Pratap 103
PK Amre c Ashraf b Venka Pratap 0
R Dravid not out 6
Extras (lb 14, w 9, nb 5) 28
TOTAL (3 wickets, 50 overs) 379
FoW: 1-169, 2-356, 3-357.
Bowling O M R W
NP Singh 6 0 55 0
Vishnuvardhan 10 0 86 0
David 9 0 79 0
Venka Pratap 8 0 59 2
Kanwaljit Singh 7 1 44 0
Raju 10 0 42 0
HYDERABAD innings
A Shetty c Manjrekar b Srinath 0
Ashraf Ali Khan c Manjrekar b Mhambrey 1
Nand Kishore c Dighe b Robin Singh 33
MV Sridhar c Amre b Bahutule 20
VVS Laxman not out 62
Venka Pratap c Tendulkar b Bahutule 17
N David run out 5
NP Singh not out 22
Extras (b 5, w 14, nb 6) 25
TOTAL (6 wickets, 50 overs) 185
FoW: 1-0, 2-6, 3-66, 4-66, 5-105, 6-131.
Bowling O M R W
Srinath 5 1 14 1
Mhambrey 5 0 22 1
Robin Singh 6 1 33 1
Bahutule 10 2 31 2
Tendulkar 4 0 19 0
KVP Rao 10 2 33 0
Dravid 8 0 19 0
Amre 2 0 9 0
Source :: The Hindu