At Ranchi, appearance of MS
Dhoni was something to cheer ~ otherwise the Indian fan was disappointed. A good few minutes to lunch, Peter Handscomb joined Shaun Marsh amid a
Ranchi tumult. Their captain Steven Smith had just shouldered arms to let
Ravindra Jadeja bowl him, symptomatic of a tired mind, the over after Matt
Renshaw had also fallen. Sanjay
Manjrekar called it brainfade again ! - Australia were still 89 runs short of
making India bat again; the eternally optimistic Indian fan was hoping for
early conclusion.
At close of play, Handscomb
was still there and Marsh not long departed. The Test match was drawn, and the
Border-Gavaskar Trophy bout remained locked at 1-1. Through batting of
commendable calm and sure-footed technique, the Australian duo had thwarted
India in a manner that will be a source of enormous satisfaction to the
tourists. While Kohli felt that he had Aussies in a corner, Steven Smith
believes "momentum" is with Australia and India would be
"hurting" after a day-five resistance mission in Ranchi kept the
series level at 1-1.
Australia refused to
crumble on the final day - just like the pitch, despite some dire pre-Test
predictions - and their great escape was made possible chiefly by a fighting
124-run partnership between Peter Handscomb and Shaun Marsh. The pair had come
together at a precarious time for Australia, at 64 for 3 after Matt Renshaw and
Smith had fallen in the space of four balls towards the end of a morning
session. "I'm very proud. They had magnificent plans," Smith said.
"They backed their defence for a long period of time and to see the game
out for as long as they did, it was an outstanding performance. I'm really
proud of the way they did that.
But if only the pitch can sue or voice ! – it for sure
would ask those who doomed it as a mudbowl and that a match will not last 4
days !!! – where are the pundits ?
For those of us following, Dinesh
Karthik struck his 10th List A century as Tamil Nadu secured the Vijay Hazare
title with a 37-run win over Bengal at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. It was
Tamil Nadu's fifth one-day title, and their first in seven years since their
dual triumph in 2008-09 and 2009-10. Karthik's 112 helped Tamil Nadu recover to
217 after they were dented by Bengal's fast-bowling duo of Ashok Dinda and
Mohammed Shami, who took four wickets in his second match back from knee
injury. He hit speeds north of 140kph and also impressed with slower
offcutters. Tamil Nadu's bowlers, however, fought back and dismissed Bengal for
180. Seamer Aswin Crist took 2 for 23 and finished as this season's highest
wicket-taker with 20 scalps. Manoj
Tiwary was to blame the slow start given by his openers.
The win capped a dominant
three weeks for Tamil Nadu, whose 22-run defeat to Maharashtra in a Group B
clash in Cuttack was the lone blip. That despite them missing several key
players, with regular captain Abhinav Mukund, M Vijay and R Ashwin engaged with
the Indian Test team, and their new-ball duo of T Natrajan and K Vignesh having
sat out with injuries.
In neighbouring Pak, plans
for an international recall for former Pakistan captain Salman Butt have been
shelved for now, in light of the continuing fallout from the recent corruption
allegations emanating from the PSL. Butt has no connection to the PSL
corruption issue, but his role in the spot-fixing scandal in England in 2010,
for which he was banned, has forced a selection rethink ahead of Pakistan's
tour of the West Indies. The PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan had publicly cleared
Butt's potential selection earlier this year, but it appears he will have to
wait longer for a comeback.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
21st Mar 2017
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