by Wills Trophy Quarter Finals
Madhya Pradesh v Punjab
IPCL Sports Complex, Baroda, 1 November 1995
Sweet revenge for Madhya Pradesh - P. R. Viswanathan
Chandrakanth Pandit and his enterprising set of cricketers gave
Madhya Pradesh a proud victory over Punjab in the first round of
the Wills Trophy tournament here today at the IPCL Sports Com-
plex.
Pandit, on the eve of the match, expressed his keenness to
avenge the defeat M.P. had suffered at the hands of Punjab in a
Ranji trophy knock-out tie two seasons ago. And he was proved
right today with M.P. winning by 58 runs and 5.3 overs to spare.
M.P. chose to bat and amassed 241 for six in 50 overs. The men
responsible for posting this total were the stylish left-
handed batsman Amay Khurasia, Chandrakanth Pandit, and later, D.
Nilose.
Pandit joined Amay with M.P. on 40 for two in 8.3 overs. The next
26 overs belonged to these two batsmen who never allowed the Pun-
jab bowlers to dictate terms. No doubt this pair did not set the
stadium alight through any fire-works, but then, they per-
formed with admirable temperament accumulating runs through sin-
gles and twos. Of course, occasional bad balls were treated mer-
cilessly.
Suddenly the pair lost its concentration. Pandit wanted a run
when the ball from Kapoor hit his arm and the trickled down to-
wards silly point which was untenanted and Amay responded. In
the meantime wicket-keeper Dharmani, picked the ball and broke
the stump at the other end with a direct hit to dismiss Pandit.
Pandit made 37 (69 balls, 88 minutes) in the 88-run stand.
Then Amay found an able partner in Dwivedi (20) but he himself
was out at 172 (39.4 overs) for a fine 89 (103 b, 141m, 5x4s,
1x6), when he chose to pull a full-toss from Amit Sharma, and the
ball landed into the hands of Kapoor at deep mid-wicket.
The final overs were dominated by D. Nilose (47 not out with
3x4s, 2x6s, 37 balls and 34 minutes). He and Rajesh Chauhan added
37 runs in the last 4.2 overs.
Punjab began on a disastrous note losing Vikram Rathore off the
third ball. The first two balls were wides by Nilose. But the
next ball was flicked by Vikram and Saif at square leg did no
mistake. Nilose struck again in the ninth over to send back Dhar-
mani who in the company of Sidhu looked settled for a big associ-
ation. Bhupinder junior was run out by a throw from mid-on by
Hirwani when Sidhu wanted a second run (44 for three), and, 12
runs later Sidhu was out when Pandit snapped up a catch off
medium-pacer Sodhi. Sidhu made 33 off 42 balls with three 4s.
With his exit (56 for four in 13.1 overs) M.P.`s confidence grew.
No doubt Amit Sharma played an inspirating role coming in at the
fall of the third wicket. But except Bhupinder senior (23), no
other partner was inspired by his gritty approach work. Amit was
the last man out for 62 (92b, 128m, 3x4s).
Amit and Bhupinder senior added 58 runs for the seventh
wicket to provide the lone bright spot in Punjab`s innings.
That was the period when Punjab looked likely to bounce back into
the game. At the end of the 40th over the score was 164 for six.
But once Bhupinder senior left in the fifth ball of the next over
it became a hopeless situation for Punjab.
Dwivedi (3) and Lahore (1) accounted for Punjab`s last four
wickets.
====> Scorecard
Toss: Madhya Pradesh
Result: Madhya Pradesh won by 58 runs.
Umpires:
MADHYA PRADESH innings
Kirti Patel c Dharmani b Obaid Kamal 17
JP Yadhav c Dharmani b Sandip Sharma 6
Amay Khurasia c Ashish Kapoor b Amit Sharma 89
Chandrakanth Pandit run out 37
P Dwivedi st Dharmani b Bharti Vij 20
D Nilose not out 47
Mohammad Saif c Bhupinder jnr b Sandip Sharma 0
Rajesh Chauhan not out 12
Extras (lb 9, nb 3, w 1) 13
TOTAL (6 wickets, 50 overs) 241
FoW: 1-23, 2-40, 3-128, 4-172, 5-203, 6-204.
Bowling O M R W
Bhupinder Singh snr 4 1 19 0
Obaid Kamal 7 0 37 1
Sandip Sharma 8 0 47 2
Ashish Kapoor 10 0 32 0
Bharti Vij 10 0 41 1
Manish Arora 6 0 27 0
Amit Sharma 5 0 29 1
PUNJAB innings
Vikram Rathore c Saif b Nilose 0
Navjot Singh Sidhu c Pandit b Sodhi 33
Pankaj Dharmani c Chauhan b Nilose 17
Bhupinder Singh jnr run out 0
Amit Sharma c Chauhan b Dwivedi 62
Aashish Kapoor c Hirwani b Lahore 15
Manish Arora st Pandit b Hirwani 9
Bhupinder Singh snr c Pandit b Dwivedi 23
Sandip Sharma c Nilose b Lahore 1
Bharti Vij c Khurasia b Dwivedi 2
Obaid Kamal not out 5
Extras (b 4, lb 4, w 8) 16
TOTAL (all out, 44.3 overs) 183
FoW: 1-2, 2-39, 3-44, 4-56, 5-92,
6-110, 7-168, 8-169, 9-177, 10-183
Bowling O M R W
Nilose 6 0 35 2
Sodhi 7 2 16 1
Lahore 9 0 45 2
Saif 1 0 10 0
Hirwani 10 1 35 1
Chauhan 7 1 15 0
Dwivedi 4.3 0 19 3
Source :: The Hindu