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Kambli props Bombay

The Rediff team

The focus of interest, on day one of the Ranji Trophy final between Bombay and Hyderabad, lay as much off the field as on it. And centered on how the respective coaches read the pitch, and what teams they picked as a result of their individual reading.

Arshad Ayoob, helming Hyderabad, felt that the wicket was a greentop.

"And I am not surprised, because Bombay's attack is based on pace and seam. However, we also think that the soil is not smooth, so despite the green look, it should start turning from day two and that is why we picked two spinners in Venkatapahty Raju and Kanwaljeet Singh.

"I think the key to playing here is to bat for long periods -- whoever bats longer will win the game. Sachin Tendulkar is a big factor for us, but our strategy will be to keep him off strike as much as we can, to frustrate him.

"On the plus side, the fact that Azhar is part of the team has lifted the morale of the youngsters, the team rallies around him."

Bombay coach Ashok Mankad, speaking during the lunch break, said, "The wicket is quite quick, I think we lost too many wickets in the morning session which came as a setback. There was a lack of concentration on the part of the batsmen in the morning, which was the main reason. I thought Hyderbad used the conditions and bowled well in the morning, to claim three of our batsmen in the first session was good going."

Curator Nadeem Memon said the pitch will help seamers. "It won't take too much turn, but spinners will extract bounce from the wicket and that means the ball will carry off the edge to the slips, forward short leg and close in fielders. It is a sporting wicket, and should even suit bowlers like Faiyaz Ahmed of Hyderabad, who gets a lot of lateral movement even if he is not particularly fast. Batsmen who play well in the V will do well, Sachin, Kambli, Laxman and Azhar are examples, unlike some other Bombay batsmen who play away from the body and across the line."

Having balanced their attack with spin and seam alike, Hyderabad opted to bowl first on winning the toss -- the speculation being that the touring side didn't want to let Bombay's four-seam attack have first use of the seam-friendly conditions.

Even if -- as is speculated in some quarters -- the decision to bowl first was a defensive ploy, it paid positive dividends when opening bowlers Fiaz Ahmed and Narendrapal Singh, revelling in conditions where the ball did things off the seam, got rid of Bombay openers Sameer Dighe and Wasim Jaffer, and one drop batsman Jatin Paranjpe, in the first session to reduce the home side at one point to 51/2 and 72/3.

Of the three, Jaffer alone impressed to some extent, especially playing off the back foot, but curator Nadeem Memon, who has the advantage of seeing the Bombay boys at close quarters, was bang on with his prediction that their penchant to play across the line or away from the body would prove their undoing.

Skipper Samir Dighe was the first example, driving with bat away from body at an away seamer from Fiaz Ahmed and giving Azhar at second slip a simple take.

Jaffer seemed to be settling down nicely, but again, fell trying to drive off the back foot, bat away from body for the outer edge to carry it to point.

Jatin Paranjpe, who looked out of sorts, was trapped on top of his crease, playing with no foot movement and though the ball did strike above the knee roll, it looked a plumb case of LBW.

None of the first three batsmen countered seam with any degree of assurance, and it was left to Sachin Tendulkar to restore the balance between bat and ball.

This, the India star and former Bombay skipper did with a typically attacking innings. He started off quickly, with three fours inside his first 15 runs, then seemed to slow down a bit and adopt a more cautious attitude after the departure of Paranjpe.

Tendulkar played patiently through to the 29th over, when out of the blue he launched an assault on Venkatapathy Raju, taking a six over long off and two fours through blazing drives to long on in that over. Raju's next over saw two more of those off drives crashing into the fence, and the over after that saw Vinod Kambli emulate his old chum with a crisply driven four after Tendulkar had hit yet another four early in that over.

Raju had gone for 50 in his first 9 overs, and it seemed folly to persist with him. But Azhar, who has enormous faith in the left-arm spinner, did persist -- and Raju struck when, in his 10th over, the 39th of the innings, he got Tendulkar driving, attempting to hit through extra cover on the up, the arm ball however going through straight, taking a faint outer edge through to the keeper to end what seemed likely to be another huge innings.

With the departure of Tendulkar, some order was restored to proceedings.

Even Kambli, who was scoring freely at the other end, quietened down, seemingly settling down for a long innings. He however showed a semblance of prime form in his shot selection, mercilessly punishing any lapses in line and length on the part of the bowlers.

At the other end, Amol Majumdar started in his usual fashion, playing with a lot of circumspection. In fact, Majumdar just may have been guilty of giving the bowling more credit than due -- at that point, there was not much turn for the spinners, but Majumdar was content to defend for the most part, and this helped Raju and Kanwaljeet Singh settle down. The former, who had gone for 52 in his first 10, gave away only 12 more in his next five overs, and managed to take out Majumdar for a typically quiet knock of 14 off 34 deliveries. The batsman, quiet for long periods, suddenly came down the track, failed however to get to the pitch of the ball, and hit the drive straight to extra cover.

That left Kambli to carry the load with the help of the tail. And the southpaw, who in the semifinal earlier had looked in crackling form before falling to impetuous strokemaking, this time settled to craft a responsible innings, under the eyes of four of the five national selectors, and reached his century in the final session of play. At the other end, Paras Mhambrey produced a calm, competent performance to resist all attempts by the Hyderbad bowlers to break through.

The two added 81 runs, and took Bombay from a slightly precarious 202/5 to 283, before left arm medium pacer Fiaz Ahmed in the 82nd over got Kambli with a slower one that the left-hander played at too early to give the bowler a return chance. Fiaz, who had to react quickly, lunged to his right to wrap both hands around the ball and take a good one.

Azhar attacked new man Agarkar with four round the bat to the bowling of Raju, which stood out on a day when the field placing was mostly defensive.

But with the ball not taking much turn, the India all-rounder seemed untroubled. Agarkar on 14 and Mhambrey on 38 took Bombay through to stumps on 303/6, in the allotted 90 overs.

Raju, who was hampered by a tennis elbow in the semifinals, did the bulk of the bowling here (30 overs on the trot, out of 34 overall) and got the wickets of Tendulkar and Majumdar, but was however expensive. He was also a touch unlucky, with two catches being dropped off his bowling and also seeing the umpire turn down what looked like a dead certain 'caught bat-pad at forward short leg' appeal against Mhambrey. Hyderabad did its cause no good in the field, giving away 32 extras besides the two dropped catches.

Kanwaljit was tidy in comparison, but not particularly penetrative. Azhar for the most part kept Raju on at one end, using Fiaz, Narendrapal and Kanwaljit at the other. The field, too, was set with run-saving as its primary objective -- Azhar obviously working on the strategy of restricting Bombay in order to give his batsmen a fair crack at going ahead on the first innings.

For now, the game is nicely poised -- and if the remaining four wickets can add another 75, 100 runs for Bombay a fair reading would give the home team the advantage, since the conditions will favour its bowling attack even in the face of the in-form Hyderabad batsmen. The visiting team's best bet thus is to get rid of the Bombay tail early on day two, then settle down to sensible batting with the view, first, of taking the lead on the first innings.

Commenting on Kambli's 100, Mankad didn't sound too pleased. He said: "He played well but getting out immediately after 100 is not expected of him. Sachin stood there against Tamil Nadu despite getting to his 100.

"It's no point in getting a 100 if it does not help the cause of the team. After such a good effort Kambli failed to capitalize. Since it is the final and a big match he should have gone on to a 175-plus score." he said.

He pointed out at Paras's innings and said that Paras stayed there and applied himself.

"Had Kambli and Paras stayed till the end of the day's play it would have demoralised the Hyderabad team. Kambli's dismissal has given the Hyderabad team a respite. The game is now evenly poised. We have four seamers and we will bowl much better than they did."

Commenting on Sachin's dismissal, he said: "Sachin is human after all and even he should be allowed to err. And anyway a champion side like ours doesn't depend on one single player."

Mohammad Azharuddin felt his team has a good chance.

"Our medium pacers didn't bowl too well and after lunch they got a little complacent. The spinners did a fantastic job. Bowling is anyway not our strength. We should at wrapping the remaining wickets within 350 and give ourselves a chance," he said.

Commenting further on his team's bowling, he pointed out that in the semi-finals against Karnataka Hyderabad piled up 700-plus runs. "Had we made 600 we would have lost the match," he said.

Scoreboard

Bombay (1st innings)
S S Dighe c Azharuddin b Ahmed 3
W Jaffer c Raju b Singh 32
J V Paranjpe lbw Ahmed 10
S R Tendulkar c Sheikh b Raju 53
V G Kambli c & b Ahmed 108
A A Muzumdar c Satwalkar b Raju 13
P L Mhambrey not out 38
A B Agarkar not out 14
Extras (b 8, lb 8, w 2, nb 14) 32
Total (6 wickets, 90 overs) 303
To bat: A Kuruvilla, RV Pawar, SR Saxena.
Fall of wickets: 1-18 (Dighe, 5.6 ov), 2-51 (Jaffer, 16.4 ov), 3-72 (Paranjpe, 23.4 ov), 4-176 (Tendulkar, 38.5 ov), 5-202 (Muzumdar, 48.5 ov), 6-283 (Kambli, 81.2 ov).
Bowling: Singh 14- 4-54-1 (7nb); Ahmed 14-2-46-3 (4nb, 2w); Raju 34-10-100-2; Satwalkar 4-1-16-0 (3nb); Pratap 2-1-8-0; Kanwaljit Singh 22-0-63-0.

Hyderabad: D Manohar, A Nandakishore, V V S Laxman, Mohammad Azharuddin, V Pratap, P Satwalkar, R Sheikh, M F Ahmed, N P Singh, Kanwaljit Singh, V Raju.