Day 2, 16 Jan 95
Tendulkar blasts Baroda attack.
Kambli gets back in form.
The night-shift personnel at the Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertil-
izers plant never had it so good. Strolling round the sports
complex this morining, they were witness to Sachin Tendulkar in-
dulging in strokeplay after a long hiatus due to injury. Indian
cricket's brightest jewel unleashed a dazzling array of strokes
with a 140-ball knock of 175, embellished with 22 fours and eight
sixes.
A 160-run third-wicket stand with Vinod Kambli (55 off 57 balls),
who looked like coming out of a lean patch, saw Bombay amass 348
to gain a first-innings lead of 46 and assured them of atleast
two points on the second day of the four-day Pepsi West Zone Ran-
ji League tie.
Baroda openers Rakesh Parikh and Kedar Chavan batted carefully in
the last 57 minutes of the day, adding 20 runs. Earlier,
Baroda's left-arm spinner Valmik Buch, who claimed four wickets
for 104 to keep down Bombay's lead, had set the stage for a keen
match.
Baroda, who yesterday bemoaned the umpiring desicions that went
against them, today rued the one chance that got away off Kambli
when he was 23 in a score of 122 for three. Their skipper, Kiran
More, failed to stump him as the batsman left his crease trying
to hit Buch over the top. A point to note was India 'keeper Nay-
an Mongia fielded at slip and in the outfield all day.
Mongia took an easy catch at slip to send back overnight batsman
Sulakshan Kulkarni, who fended at a rising one from Sukhbhir.
Sanjay Manjrekar, who came in, retired soon after, complaining of
an upset stomach.
This gave Kambli the chance to get back in form with his school-
mate. By and large, he kept the ball along the ground, while
Tendulkar was severe on offspinner Arothe, slamming him for five
straight sixes which went bouncing onto the road beyond the
ground. They were as good as any of the drives played on the
golf fairways a furlong away. The best phase was the hour after
lunch which brought Bombay 99 runs, 69 from the wonderboy's bat.
Kambli had decided to play the foil role and it was ironic that
he should have fallen doing that - a tame defensive prod off Buch
was snapped at shortleg by Rakesh Parikh.
Manjrekar resumed his innings but fell to the sweep shot, which
he began playing too early and couldn't keep down. Manoj
Joglekar, after lofting one four, edged Arothe to slip. Tendul-
kar seemed to lose his rhythm because of the fall of wickets but
the return of Arothe got him going once again. He had already
got his highest Ranji score and was set to pass his first-class
best of 179 in the recent Nagpur Test when he was out.
Tendulkar tried to repeat a inside out lofted shot to extra cov-
er. The choice of shot was wrong for he had not quite moved in-
side the line. The result was a catch to long off where Narula
accepted gratefully. The shot was a rash one considering that
Bombay had not built up a sizeable lead to shut out Baroda in the
second innings.
But thanks to Sameer Dighe's unbeaten 34 and debutant Karnik's
lusty blows, Bombay have some sort of a lead which may not be
enough considering they have to bat last.
Day 3, 17 Jan 95
Mongia sustains Baroda.
Kulkarni's six-wicket haul sets up a humdinger finish.
Stellar performances by Nayan Mongia and Nilesh Kulkarni set up a
humdinger finish to the Bombay-Baroda Pepsi West Zone Ranji
league tie at the RCF ground, Chembur.
The 500-odd spectators saw wicket keeper Mongia sustain Baroda
with a four hour vigilant knock of 154, his second century of the
season and his sixth in the competition.
Nilesh Kulkarni, the left-arm spinner, claimed six wickets for
119 in 44.3 overs, 22.3 of them in a row to restrict Baroda to
330 in their second innings.
This left Bombay to score 285 for victory in 305 minutes and 15
mandatory overs. Bombay made six for no wicket in the last two
overs and need 279 on the last day.
Baroda desperately need a victory here. On the other hand Bombay
have ten points from three games with one remaining against Gu-
jarat this weekend. Baroda have two from three and need to win
to stay in the hunt, for they play their last match against Sau-
rashtra who also have two from three games.
Mongia today played mostly in the "V" making good use of his
feet. But he had an escape when on 30 - Kulkarni at midwicket
could not judge a catch off Sachin Khartade.
Kulkarni and Khartade, both of RCF, bore the brunt of the bowl-
ing. but the latter couldn't vary his line enough to trouble the
batsmen and he had to be content with only Tushar Arothe's wicket
whose mistimed pull ended in a return catch.
Kulkarni began with the wicket of opener Parikh, who was lbw and
finished with the scalp of Mongia who gave a return catch. In
between he removed Kiran More, Raju Naik, Mukesh Narula and
Rashid Patel.
More had looked set for a long stand with Mongia when he padded
up to one that came, in and off bat and pad the ball bounced into
Dighe's gloves.
Naik was beginning to stroke at will throught the covers and to
midwicket when Kulkarni had the batsman hurrying back with an
overpitched armer that shattered his stumps.
Narula was brilliantly caught by Joglekar at sillypoint. Patel
was stumped attempting a heave. Kulkarni, 20, had claimed ten in
the match after eight in the previous one against Saurashtra.
Bombay were well served by debutant seamer Ravi Gadiyar who moved
the ball both ways with an element of surprise. He had Kedar
Chavan caught by Khartade at midon. A lovely lifting outswinger
caused Jacob Martin to nick to the keeper just as he was about to
prosper in the company of Mongia with whom he had added 90 for
the fourth-wicket, the best stand of the innings.
The other debutant, Bharat Karnik, didn't bowl after his morning
spell, as Bombay plugged one end with Kulkarni. The tall spinner
kept trying all variations. He pitched short at time and the one
to feel the heat was substitute Rajesh Sutar, who was hit on the
back, shin, and calf while fielding at silly point. However, the
RCF player, who had done well in the one-dayer, did not flinch.
This attitude should take them through against one of the the
most competitive sides in the country on the crucial day tomor-
row.
Day 4, 18 Jan 95
Bombay win as Joglekar slams century.
Manoj Joglekar made skipper Tendulkar's experiment to make him
open the innings an unqualified success today. His maiden
unbeaten century and the skipper's own deceptively dominating
knock of 97 saw a below-strength Bombay team beat Baroda by five
wickets to move to the top of the Pepsi West Zone Ranji league
table at the RCF ground today. Bombay chasing a target of 285
achieved it in less than even time, thanks to the 180-run third-
wicket stand between these two.
Bombay have 14 points from three games. Maharastra, who beat
Gujarat by an innings in Pune, finished with 10 from four.
Bombay and Maharashtra have made the knockout. Baroda and
Saurashtra will clash this weekend for the third place. Both
have two points from three games. Gujarat are last with no
points from three games.
Nearly five thousand people turned up at the RCF sports complex
expecting a keen finish. The portents were there when Bombay
lost two wickets for 44. Opener Sunil More was lbw to Rashid
Patel who claimed his 100th Ranji wicket and Sanjay Manjrekar was
out the same way to Sukhbir Singh playing back, alway dicey on a
fourth-day wicket.
The situation was ideal for Sachin Tendulkar to perform his
magic. In the first innings he had blasted his way through the
crisis. Today he crept up on his opponents like a cobra. No one
realized he had got his fifty off 57 balls for one just didn't
hear the gunshots from his bat as in the first innings.
Joglekar played the foil role admirably. But he needed luck to
survive. When 35 in a total of 95, he found himself at
Tendulkar's end and was lucky substitute fielder Prayan Dave from
point threw at the wrong end. When 45 Joglekar turned left-arm
spinner Buch to Dave and the ball went in and out of the
fielder's hand at shortleg. How Joglekar must have been grateful
for this act of charity from one who played under him on the
India under 19 team's tour of South Africa, two years ago.
Joglekar kept a cool head as Baroda players, especially skipper
Kiran More, shouted themselves hoarse appealing for anything and
everything. He had got a century, opening the innings in the
on-dayer against Saurashtra at Bhavnagar, and there is talk of
him opening with Sameer Dighe for the next match against Gujarat.
Joglekar first had to get runs to allow for this experiment. The
youngster rose to the occasion. He just had to hang in there.
After lunch, Tendulkar missed his chance to get a century in each
innings for the first time, falling three short of the mark. He
checked a lofted shot and was caught by Sukhbir in the deep off
Arothe who had his revenge after being hit for five sixes in the
first innings. There was some excitement as birthday boy Vinod
Kambli hit a six and a four but was caught at long on attempting
another six off Arothe, and Sulakshan Kulkarni was bowled padding
up to a ball from Arothe.
However, Sameer Dighe prevented any further slide with forthright
methods, while Joglekar dazzled with shots to reach a maiden
century. It will mean a lot for this shrewd cricketer in his
attempt to cement his place in the team.
(Thanks : Pradeep Vijayakar, TOI)
Contributed by murari (venka@*me.utexas.edu)
