by their side, bringing in young pace bowler Abey Kuruvilla in place of
spinner Kiran Mokashi. Haryana was going to replace Nitin Goel (son of old
U.P. hand Rajinder Goel, who sustained an injury against Bengal), but
today's news makes no mention of this..
Anyway, Haryana won the toss and elected to bat first, a decision that was
at the same logical and inspired, because they reached a very respectable
total of 290/3 after Bombay dropped 6 chances of varying difficulty.
Kuruvilla seemed almost charmed, having none of the opportunities off him
wasted, and ended up with all 3 wickets to fall today.
Most of the batting impetus for Haryana was provided by Deepak Sharma, who
was unbeated with a (somewhat shaky) 126, and Ajay Jadeja who was unlucky
to be dismissed at 94. In any case, he was the major beneficiary of the
general fielding sloppiness, receiving 3 lives (including a simple catch to
Pandit that was poached and dropped by Tendulkar, who also dropped another
easy one at square-leg from Sharma). Jadeja has never scored a Ranji
century in 3 seasons, though he has come close several times (scores of
70+, 80+ and 90+ in the playoffs this year alone).
Other catches were dropped by Kambli(2), Rajput and Hattangadi. Sharma
also played a ball from Rajput onto his stumps without dislodging his bails
at the end of the day..
The only player to play confidently was (as usual) Amarjeet Kaypee, who was
looking well set and confident when he fell to a brilliant one-handed catch
inches off the ground at square-leg by Tendulkar, trying to make amends for
his previous flubs.
Haryana (1st innings):
Deepak Sharma (batting) 126
Dhanraj Singh b Kuruvilla 4
Ajay Jadeja c Pandit b Kuruvilla 94
Amarjeet Kaypee c Tendulkar b Kuruvilla 45
Ajay Banerjee (batting) 1
Extras (B2,LB5,W2,NB11) 20
Total (for 3 wkts.) 290
Fall of wkts:
1-5, 2-181, 3-279.
Bowling (Bombay):
R. Kulkarni 12-3-46-0 A. Kuruvilla 20-5-72-3
S. Ankola 17-3-47-0 S. Tendulkar 6-0-16-0
S. Patil 23-2-60-0 L. Rajput 6-0-29-0
S. Hattangadi 4-0-13-0