by time, and Pradeep Vijaykar. Just the report for now - the scorecard will
follow in the evening when I have some more time and I get a decent editor
:-)
Sadiq [ tired, sleepy and 3 hours behind schedule ] Yusuf
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Bharucha carries bat
By Pradeep Vijayakar
BOMBAY,October 13.
Zubin Bharucha emulated Sunil
tGavaskar by carrying his bat in
the Irani trophy match at the
***hede Stadium here today.
Thanks to his unbeaten 167 span-
ning almost nine hours, Bombay
scored 424 and had Rest of India
struggling at 142 for four at the end
of the second day's play.
Bombay were well served by
young legspinner Sairaj Bahutule
who captured two wickets and by
mediumpacer Abey Kuruvilla who
looked like claiming a wicket every
time he came to bowl. This was
creditable considering the slow
track.
No praise can be high for the
approach of Bharucha. He belongs
to the vanishing breed of batsmen
who can put their heads down for
hours on end. Yet he seldom
spared the bad ball, which was the
distinct trait of the man whom he
joined in the record books.
Gavaskar had scored 157 for Rest
of India against Karnataka at
Ahmedabad in 1975.
To his credit, Bharucha kept
looking for runs till the end taking
risks and missing out on the record.
The record was not destined to be
his as his drive off Sunil Subram-
naim was deflected off the bowler's
hand to the stumps, running out
last man Manish Patel.
Earlier, offspinner Ashish
Kapoor had pegged down the Bom
bay batting claiming the wickets of
Bahutule, Karanjkar and Mham-
brey. Bahutule was brilliantly
caught in the covers by Ajay Mehra
and the other two were caught bat-
pad.
The focus was on the prolific
Punjab openers when Rest began
their innings. Both were playing
inside the line against the new
ball.Rathore was adventurous,
playing the hook at first chance,
while Ajay Mehra, the son of for-
mer Test opener Vijay Mehra,
defended gracefully.
Mahesh Karanjkar, who got into
the side when leftarm spinner San-
jay Patil dropped out because of an
attack of haemorrhoids, providedc
the first breakthrough. The unsung
offspinner gave the ball air inspite
of being hit over tht top by the tall
Rathore. The batsman was caught
at midon trying to repeat the shot.
Then Bahutule took over. He
gave a good display of legspin
bowling on a an unhelpful track.
He turned one sharply to push
Shantanu Sugwekar on the back
foot and edge to Manjrekar at slip.
He then baited Praveen Amre into
hitting into the vacant midwicket
region only to get a leading edge
and a return catch. This was a
significant wicket, for Amre has
never failed in the Irani trophy.
Skipper Manjrekar had done
well to remove Karanjkar as Amre
is good against spin. He had
brought in Kuruvilla, who today
bowled better than he has done for
some time. The bowler who created
a sensation in 1991 with nearly 60
wickets, had only 13 last season.
Today he bowled straight and fast,
putting his five kilo heavier frame
into his action.
He almost had Amre legbefore.
A lovely slower delivery which cut
from the leg bowled the well-set
Ajay Mehra neck and crop. New
man Rahul Dravid had some tes-
ting deliveries before the close but
saw the day out with 'keeper Vijay
Yadav who was given a torrid time
by Bahutule.
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(BTW, Siddiqui had 4/106 off 30 overs. Kapoor 4/121 off 37.
Kuruvilla has 1/42 off 13. Bahutule had 2/38 off 16 :-)
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