The Hindu : Uniyal rocks the Plate-A boat

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Friday, Apr 11, 2003

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Sport - Cricket

Uniyal rocks the Plate-A boat

By Our Sports Reporter

CHENNAI APRIL 10. It takes a special effort to motivate oneself in an encounter that has no bearing on the championship race.

But then, for some, especially the younger lot, a Duleep Trophy contest, however inconsequential it might be in terms of title-tussle, is nevertheless an opportunity to make one's presence felt and hope the National selectors take notice.

Young left-arm seamer Amit Uniyal came up with his second five-wicket haul of the championship, which enabled Elite-B bundle out Plate-A for 135 on the opening day of the four-day final round contest at the Chidambaram Stadium, here, on Thursday.

At stumps, Elite-B was 87 for one in reply.

Opting to bat on a flat bed, the Hrishikesh Kanitkar-led team sailed fairly smoothly until lunch, at which point it was 102 for two, before Uniyal rocked the boat so hard that the innings came to an end half an hour before tea.

The 22-year-old Punjab lad picked up his last four wickets in the space of 11 deliveries while his eventful third spell read 4-2-5-4.

Rowland Barrington's dismissal set off the collapse. The opener from Karnataka notched up a neat half century, reaching the mark just before lunch with a pull off leg-spinner Sairaj Bahutule, but fell immediately after, failing to keep his on drive off Uniyal down.

Plate-A lost four more wickets at the same score of 105. First Bahutule had Rajeev Kumar taken smartly by Wasim Jaffer at slip. Then Yashpal Singh was caught behind (one of Prasad's four victims) down the leg-side off Uniyal, who, two balls later had Sunil Joshi leg-before with one that kept low. In his next delivery, Uniyal clean bowled Dodda Ganesh. Ananthapadmanabhan, however, denied him a hat-trick.

Elite-B opener Amit Pagnis retired hurt when a Tinu Yohannan delivery, which failed to rise, bruised his leading elbow when the batsman ducked. Jaffer and the other opener Vinayak Mane took the score past 50 before the former was dismissed to a low catch at short-cover. Jaffer, however, felt it was a bump-ball.

At close, Mane, whom left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi troubled quite a bit, and the attacking A.T. Rayudu, who hit Joshi for two straight sixes, were at the crease.

The scores:

Plate-A — 1st innings: R. Jaiswal c Prasad b Uniyal 20, R. Barrington c Bahutule b Uniyal 51, H. Kanitkar c Jaffer b Bahutule 26, Rajeev Kumar c Jaffer b Bahutule 5, Yashpal Singh c Prasad b Uniyal 0, T. Naidu c Rayudu b Harvinder 10, S. Joshi lbw b Uniyal 0, D. Ganesh b Uniyal 0, K.N. Ananthapadmanabhan st Prasad b Bahutule 13, T. Yohannan c Prasad b Harvinder 6, F. Shaikh (not out) 0, Extras (b-1, lb-1, w-1, nb-1) 4; Total (in 54.2 overs) 135.

Fall of wickets: 1-32, 2-86, 3-105, 4-105, 5-105, 6-105, 7-105, 8-128, 9-130.

Elite-B bowling: Harvinder Singh 14.2-4-31-2, A. Uniyal 11-5-21-5, R. Powar 8-1-29-0, S. Bahutule 19-2-50-3, R. Gavaskar 2-0-2-0.

Elite-B — 1st innings: V. Mane (batting) 20, A. Pagnis (retd. hurt) 27, W. Jaffer c Yashpal b Joshi 15, A.T. Rayudu (batting) 19, Extas (b-5, lb-1) 6; Total (for one wkt. in 33 overs) 87.

Fall of wicket: 1-57.

Plate-A bowling: D. Ganesh 7-2-24-0, T. Yohannan 9-3-19-0, S. Joshi 10-3-30-1, K.N. Ananthapadmanabhan 7-3-8-0.

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