da betsul： Skipper Yere Goud led from the front as Railways took a firm grip ontheir MRF Buchi Babu invitation cricket tournament first round matchagainst Maharashtra at the Southern Railway stadium in Chennai onMonday
Staff Reporter13-Aug-2001Skipper Yere Goud led from the front as Railways took a firm grip ontheir MRF Buchi Babu invitation cricket tournament first round matchagainst Maharashtra at the Southern Railway stadium in Chennai onMonday. Thanks to Goud and his 173-run partnership for the fourthwicket with Raja Ali (89), Railways finished the second day on 365 forfour wickets off 90 overs in reply to Maharashtra’s first inningstotal of 267.Resuming at seven for no loss, Railways lost Amit Pagnis for 15 at 37.They suffered another quick blow at 39 when Murali Kartik was run outfor zero. The other opener Vineet Saxena (51) and Goud then initiateda recovery process by adding 60 runs for the third wicket off 16 oversbefore the former was out for 51. During his stay of two hours at thecrease, Saxena faced 104 balls and despatched eight of them to theropes.Left hander Raja Ali joined the 29-year-old Goud and the two not onlycarried the Railways score past Maharashtra’s but also enabled theirside to take a stranglehold on the match. Both found run making easyduring their long association which lasted 46.4 overs. At 272, the 25-year-old Raja Ali was bowled by Mandar Sane, eleven runs short of ahundred. He faced 128 balls and hit 14 fours and a six. There was norelief for the Maharashtra bowlers – and skipper Abhijit Kale triedten of them during the day – even after Ali’s dismissal. For, Goud andSanthosh Sahu then added 93 runs for the unbroken fifth wicket off12.2 overs till close.At stumps, Goud, a prolific run getter in the Ranji Trophy last seasonhad batted 334 minutes. He faced 251 balls and hit 20 fours and twosixes. Sahu was unbeaten with 42 off 62 balls with five boundary hits.With Railways already having a lead of 98 runs with six wickets inhand, the last day’s play on Tuesday will just be a formality. Aboutthe only interest remaining in the game is how much the run hungryGoud, who averages 50 plus in his first class career, will finallyget.* Sridhar shines with bat and ballThe second day of the match between All India Associate Bank XI andTamil Nadu Districts XI in the MRF Buchi Babu All India InvitationTournament at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Monday, sawAIAB take their first innings score to 344 all out. By close of play,TN Districts XI had scored 164/4 in 79 overs. The main highlight ofthe day was a good show with the bat and ball by Ramakrishnan Sridhar.Resuming at 283/8, AIAB went on to add 61 valuable runs for the lasttwo wickets. Manish Majithia made 28 and was caught by Noorul Riaz offthe bowling of Subbiah Veeranan. Sridhar played a bright knock andwent on to remain unbeaten on 38, which included five boundaries and asix. The last wicket partnership between Sridhar and Narender PalSingh (17) added 32 runs. Ganapathy Vignesh with 4/54 was the best ofthe bowlers.TN Districts XI got off to a sedate start, Riaz and Mohamad Basha puton 125 runs for the first wicket off 55.1 overs. Riaz made 70 runs off171 balls with the help of five strokes past the ropes and was thefirst wicket to fall, caught by Pankaj Dharmani off the bowling ofMajithia. Masha (45) followed soon, caught by Sanjay Mohan off thebowling of Sridhar.Sridhar struck two more body blows to the TN Districts XI bydismissing Saravanan (8) and Kumaraguru (4) and reduced them to 151/4in the 70th over. In the last ten overs of the day just 13 runs werescored as Vijayakumaran Gautham (19 not out) and Rajagopal Sathish (4not out) played carefully. Sridhar, the left-arm orthodox spinner whoplays for Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy, finished with the excellentfigures of 18-8-17-3. All looks set for a keen fight for the allimportant first innings lead on Tuesday.