Hat-trick by Bahutule as West drubs East

By G. Viswanath

PUNE, FEB. 3. It was nothing short of cricketing irony; West Zone making 656 for seven in 164 overs in 10 hours and more and then East Zone getting shot out for 132 in 45 overs and two minutes over three and half hours and again for 161 in 47.5 overs and six minutes over three and half hours.

East Zone coach Pranab Roy, visibly agitated, and the captain, a gaunt looking Shiv Sundar Das, attributed their side's debacle to rank bad performance by its batsmen. Das' counterpart Sachin Tendulkar paid tribute to his bowlers, ``They bowled a disciplined line and never allowed the batsmen to relax. The seamers and spinners were at them all the time.''

Sairaj Bahutule became the second bowler in four decades of Duleep Trophy to perform a hat-trick. Kapil Dev's seven for 65 against West Zone came in the 1978-79 season; Bahutule emulated him 22 seasons later. His second innings analysis was 12.5-2-49- 6; the hat-trick victims being Sanjay Raul, Sukhvinder Singh and P. Jai Chandra.

Twenty wickets went down on the third day of the Duleep Trophy match on a pitch which was described by Roy as `good' and by Tendulkar as `not bad'. West beat East by an innings and 363 runs with a full day to spare. With eight points in the match taking its tally to 17, West finished runner-up to North in the inter- zonal championship.

East started the third day at 50 for no loss, but within 10 minutes lost the first wicket which triggered the fall of wickets. Ajit Agarkar pitched the ball up, bowled yorker length from one end and left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan just about followed the same line and length and bowled at good speed. The two medium pacers between them took seven wickets.

The spinners Bahutule and Ramesh Powar shared two wickets and Vinod Kambli accounted for the run out of Debasis Mohanty. Eight of the batsmen were either bowled or trapped leg before or held by the wicketkeeper, including Jacob Martin, who substituted for Nayan Mongia for a brief while, after the latter hurt his ankle.

East Zone's first innings ended exactly at the stroke of lunch which meant that 10 batsmen were dismissed in two hours. Agarkar's wicket-to-wicket line did the trick, getting him five wickets in 14 overs. He was on a hat-trick, after he dismissed Das and Sukhvinder Singh, but Utpal Chatterjee (who remained undefeated in both the innings at 18 and 17) denied him the feat.

Some of the spectators who came to the ground after lunch were surprised to see both Das and Zakaria Juffri in the middle, until they were told that Das and Juffri had come out to open East's second innings,

which lost its way after Powar held Juffri off his own bowling. Rashmi Ranjan Parida and Sanjay Raul put on 35 for the fifth wicket after which Bahutule ran through the East innings. Bahutule's first victim was left-hander Rohan Gavaskar whom he had at the stroke of tea.

Then he had Raul sweeping and top edging to Kambli at short fine leg, Sukhvinder bowled and then trapped P. Jai Chandra leg before. ``We did not realise it was a hat-trick because there was a break between the first two wickets and the third,'' said Tendulkar. ``And five runs were scored in between the 6th and seventh wicket,'' said Agarkar. ``I am batting, bowling and fielding up to my potential this season. There was a change in attitude after Tendulkar returned as captain. He told us this morning that we have to bowl to a very disciplined line, otherwise we would be on the field for two days. The seamers kept up the pressure and I had support from Powar. In Surat I was the only spinner,'' said Bahutule.

It was an extraordinary day's play with East outplayed by a determined bunch of players representing West which conceded first innings points to Central, North and South. On Saturday they clinched eight points. As Bahutule summed up, grinning from ear to ear, ``We still cannot believe that 20 wickets went down today.''

The scores:

West Zone - 1st innings: 656 for seven decl.

East Zone - 1st innings: S.S. Das c Martin b Agarkar 38, Z. Juffri c Mongia b Agarkar 27, R.R. Parida b Agarkar 0, S. Raul c Powar b Khan 4, R. Gavaskar b Khan 0, Deep Das Gupta lbw b Agarkar 2, P. Jai Chandra lbw b Bahutule 2, Sukhvinder Singh b Agarkar 0, U. Chatterjee (not out) 18, D. Mohanty run out 12, J. Zaman st Martin b Powar 1. Extras (b-22, lb-1, nb-5) 28. Total (in 45 overs): 132.

Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-56, 3-65, 4-69, 5-73, 6-88, 7-88, 8-88, 9-105.

West bowling: Agarkar 14-4-22-5, Khan 12-5-30-2, Powar 6-1-16-1, Siddiqui 7-2-17-0, Bahutule 6-2-24-1.

East Zone - 2nd innings: S.S. Das lbw b Siddiqui 15, Z. Juffri c & b Powar 7, R. Gavaskar lbw b Bahutule 18, Deep Das Gupta c Tendulkar b Khan 0, R.R. Parida lbw b Khan 41, S. Raul c Kambli b Bahutule 19, P. Jai Chandra lbw b Bahutule 5, Sukhvinder Singh b Bahutule 0, U. Chatterjee (not out) 17, D. Mohanty c Martin b Bahutule 17, J. Zaman c Martin b Bahutule 10. Extras (b-2, lb-4, nb-6) 12. Total (in 47.5 overs) 161.

Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-25, 3-33, 4-63, 5-98, 6-110, 7-110, 8- 115, 9-145.

West bowling: Agarkar 7-1-25-0, Khan 10- 2-34-2, Siddiqui 6-3-4- 1, Powar 10-3-34-1, Bahutule 12.5-2-49-6, Tendulkar 2-0-9-0.

* * *

Highest individual scores

PANAJI, FEB. 3. 320: Raman Lamba - North Zone v West Zone, Bhilai, 1987-88.

300 n.o.: Gagan Khoda - Central Zone v South Zone, Panaji, 2000- 01.

292: Surinder Bhave - West Zone v South Zone, Rourkela, 1994-95.

287: Arun Lal - East Zone v West Zone, Pune, 1986-87.

278: Sanjay Manjrekar - West Zone v Central Zone, Nagpur, 1987- 88.

275: Lalchand Rajput - West Zone v Central Zone, Nagpur, 1987-88.

274: Virender Sehwag - North Zone v South Zone, Agartala, 1999- 00.

264: Ajay Jadeja - North Zone v Central Zone, Baroda, 1993-94.

250 n.o.: W.V. Raman - South Zone v West Zone, Rourkela, 1994-95. Note: The previous highest score in the Duleep Trophy by a Central Zone batsman was the unbeaten 240 by Pravin Amre against North Zone at Visaphapatnam in 1989-90. - Mohandas Menon

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