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Hyderabad succumb to Bombay's attack

The Rediff team

"If we get 375, I will be happy," said Bombay coach Ashok Mankad at the end of the first day's play. "Anything above that will be a bonus."

Bombay scored 376 and with four frontline seam bowlers in their ranks seemed confident of skittling out the Hyderabad batsmen.

"This should be an easy game," said one of the senior players of the Bombay team as he watched Vinod Kambli get to his chanceless hundred after Sachin Tendulkar was back in the pavilion.

Paras Mhambrey showed his batting prowess after an injury lay-off with 75 runs to help Bombay reach 376.

Resuming at the overnight 303 for 6, Ajit Agarkar and Mhambrey took the score to 343 with Agarkar playing the aggressor and finding the boundary on two occasions before N P Singh trapped him in front for a well-made 30.

Southpaw Rajesh Pawar then edged one to the keeper from Singh in the same over and returned to the pavilion without disturbing the scorers.

Yet, Bombay managed to accumulate another 33 runs before Mhambrey was bowled for 75 and Santosh Saxena was caught behind off Raju.

Bombay batted for 113 overs and almost four sessions before folding up. For Hyderabad, Raju was the most successful bowler with four wickets from 37 overs for 110 runs.

Hyderabad in reply made a very poor start losing both their openers, Nanda Kishore and Daniel Manohar, for only 7 runs inside four overs. Manohar found Agarkar's pace too hot to handle as he mishit an attempted hook to the onside. Running back from forward short leg, Rajesh Pawar held a good catch.

Nanda Kishore followed soon after, edging Abey Kuruvilla straight to Tendulkar in the slips. At lunch on Day 2 Hyderabad were in major trouble at 20/2. But they had their most experienced batsmen, V V S Laxman and Mohd Azharuddin, at the crease.

Laxman carried off from where he had left off in the semifinal and treated the crowds to some scintillating shots through the covers. He also pulled the short-pitched stuff from the Bombay speedsters and raced away to 46 runs off a mere 62 deliveries finding the fence on eight occasions.

Hyderabad seemed to be on their way to a decent total, despite Azhar struggling to come to terms with the bounce, when the unfortunate run-out of Laxman turned the game into a one-sided affair. Azhar tapped the ball back to Mhambrey who got a hand to it but failed to collect. Sensing the opportunity for a run, the batsmen set off, but Mhambrey recovered, picked up the ball and threw it to wicketkeeper-skipper Sameer Dighe, who dislodged the bails and caught Laxman centimetres out of the crease.

Hyderabad failed to recover form that loss and from a healthy 96/2, began losing wickets at regular intervals.

Vanka Pratap walked in to join his skipper, but failed to last long, flashing hard at one spinning away from him from stocky left-armer Rajesh Powar. The ball found the edge on its way to the keeper and Azhar found himself in the company of Parth Satwalkar. The score 110/4.

Hyderabad went to tea at 128/4, with Azhar one short of yet another half-century and six wickets in hand.

But after a 50-plus stand between Azhar and Satwalkar, the latter was enticed by Powar into driving one straight into the hands of Saxena at mid-off for a steady 30 runs studded with four boundaries and a six.

Azhar followed soon after, making 76 painstaking runs, flashing at a wide delivery from Saxena for Dighe to hold on to a good catch diving to his right. Azhar's innings included six fours and a six and he stayed for almost three and a half hours at the crease.
Bombay then wiped out the Hyderabad tail in no time and at the end of the second day's play Hyderabad were back in the hut after scoring 195 runs, a deficit of 181 runs.
Agarkar and Powar were the most successful bowlers for Bombay picking up three apiece. Santosh Saxena got two.
Bombay now look well on course to wrap up the final after a disastrous last season where they failed to even qualify for the super league.

Scoreboard

Mumbai 1st innings                                      R   M   B  4 6
SS Dighe              c Azharuddin       b Ahmed        3  28  20  0 0
W Jaffer              c Raju             b Singh       32  76  59  5 0
JV Paranjpe           lbw                b Ahmed       10  84  48  0 0
SR Tendulkar          c Sheikh           b Raju        53 106  71  7 1
VG Kambli                            c & b Ahmed      108 225 158 15 0
AA Muzumdar           c Satwalkar        b Raju        13  41  33  1 0
PL Mhambrey                              b Raju        75 239 205  7 0
AB Agarkar            lbw                b Singh       30  95  66  5 0
RV Pawar              c Sheikh           b Singh        0   4   4  0 0
A Kuruvilla           not out                           5  38  23  2 0
SR Saxena             c Sheikh           b Raju         5  13  10  0 0
Extras                (b 8, lb 12, w 5, nb 17)         42
Total                 (all out, 113.2 overs, 478 mins)376

Fall of Wicket:
	 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),
         7-343 (Agarkar, 104.2 ov), 8-343 (Pawar, 104.6 ov),
         9-370 (Mhambrey, 109.6 ov), 10-376 (Saxena, 113.2 ov).

Bowling                      O      M      R      W
Singh                       21      6     74      3 (8nb, 1w)
Ahmed                       22      2     73      3 (5nb, 4w)
Raju                        37.2   11    110      4
Satwalkar                    9      3     28      0 (4nb)
Pratap                       2      1      8      0
Kanwaljit Singh             22      0     63      0


                                         
Hyderabad 1st innings                                  R   M   B  4 6
D Manohar             c Pawar            b Agarkar     6  10   6  1 0
A Nandakishore        c Tendulkar        b Kuruvilla   0  15   9  0 0
VVS Laxman            run out (Mhambrey/Dighe)        46  95  62  8 0
M Azharuddin          c Dighe            b Saxena     76 217 139  6 1
V Pratap              c Dighe            b Pawar       8  19  12  2 0
P Satwalkar           c Saxena           b Pawar      30  76  67  4 1
R Sheikh              c Tendulkar        b Agarkar    11  73  55  1 0
MF Ahmed                                 b Saxena      0  17  16  0 0
SLV Raju              c Saxena           b Pawar       6  30  20  0 0
NP Singh              not out                          1  10   3  0 0
Kanwaljit Singh                          b Agarkar     0   5   5  0 0
Extras                (lb 4, w 1, nb 6)                 11
Total                 (all out, 64.4 overs, 289 mins)   195

Fall of Wicket:
	 1-7 (Manohar, 2.1 ov), 2-7 (Nandakishore, 3.2 ov),
         3-96 (Laxman, 21.3 ov), 4-110 (Pratap, 24.6 ov),
         5-166 (Satwalkar, 44.6 ov), 6-178 (Azharuddin, 51.2 ov),
         7-184 (Ahmed, 55.4 ov), 8-192 (Sheikh, 62.5 ov),
         9-194 (Raju, 63.3 ov), 10-195 (Kanwaljit Singh, 64.4 ov).

Bowling                      O      M      R      W
Agarkar                     14.4    3     26      3 (1nb, 1w)
Kuruvilla                    8      0     37      1 (4nb)
Saxena                      13      1     46      2 (1nb)
Mhambrey                     8      1     38      0
Pawar                       20      5     44      3
Tendulkar                    1      1      0      0