March 12, 2001
|
Even as Harbhajan Singh was creating history at the Eden, another youngster was doing so too on the picturesque IIT Chemplast ground in Chennai. Tamil Nadu's Vidyuth Sivaramakrishnan (son of former Tamil Nadu batsman V Sivaramakrishanan) in the Ranji Trophy pre-quarter-final match against Delhi scored the first century (115) by a batsman in Ranji Trophy while batting at the number 11 position. At the other end keeping him company in a last wicket stand of 158 was MR Srinivas who 42. Tamil Nadu ended the day at 592. 
After two sessions of toil for the bowlers it was history that redeemed India's performance at the end of the first day of the second Test match between India and Australia and Kolkata. Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh took the first hat-trick in 69 years of Indian Test cricket. At close of play the Australians were restricted to 291-8. In a unique gesture the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) which had some weeks ago conducted an eye donation programme decided to repay the donors who were willingly come forward. Each and every one of them (all were over 65 years of age) was accommodated at a special stand at the Eden Gardens besides being provided, food, refreshments and a donor cap. Special buses were also organised from a vantage point in the city to the stadium, exclusively for the donors. Nearly 300 donors pledged their eyes in the cap organised by the CAB last month. After two matches being spoilt by crowd trouble at the massive Eden Gardens and a threat by the ICC that further crowd trouble could result in a ban of the largest stadium in the world, the authorities were taking no chances. Drinking water was practically non-existent inside the stadium. A blanket ban was put on carrying any kind of bottle including plastic bottles. Even the media covering the event were not spared as they were denied their supply of mineral water. The caterers pleaded helplessness saying they were denied by the police from bringing water into the stadium. Set to make 161 runs in the second innings to tie the series 1-1 England lived up to the challenge and scrambled to victory with 3 wickets to spare in the second Test at Kandy. All batsmen chipped in with small scores as Craig White (21 not out in 74 balls) and Ashley Giles (4 in 33 balls) slowly but surely guided them to victory. Pace bowler Darren Gough was later named man of the match Two former skippers of the English side, Michael Atherton and Alec Stewart, that won the second Test at Kandy have called upon the ICC to address the issue of umpiring. A series of questionable umpiring decisions that led to no love being lost between the two teams has overshadowed this exciting series. The two believed that it was the poor standard of umpiring that overshadowed everything else in the two Tests and said it was high time the ICC did something about it. Meanwhile the two Sri Lankan umpires on the ICC panel Peter Manuel and BC Cooray, who stood in the first two Test matches at Galle and Kandy will not be officiating in any of the forthcoming three match one-day international series between Sri Lanka and England after a number of dubious decisions in the first two Tests. The issue of umpiring raised its head yet again in the first Test between South Africa and West Indies at Georgetown. On the third day South Africa were dismissed for 332 to gain a slender lead of 28 runs. They were helped by a century (150) from Gary Kirsten and half centuries from Jacques Kallis (50) and wicket-keeper Mark Boucher (52). Kallis expressed unhappiness over the umpire's decision to give him out despite only a half hearted appeal from the bowler Nixon McLean and left the pitch rather reluctantly. Meanwhile, the home team in their second knock made 50 without loss.
New Zealand reached 105-1 at close on the fourth day while chasing 431 to win in the first Test at Auckland against Pakistan. They posted their best opening partnership in 20 innings and now need 326 runs more to overhaul India's record fourth innings score of 406 against the West Indies nearly 15 years ago.
News flash….
Pakistan won the first Test against New Zealand at Auckland by a massive 299 runs before lunch on the last day. The initial resistance by the Kiwi openers failed before some express bowling by debutant Mohammad Sami (5-36) and the guile of offie Saqlain Mushtaq (4-24). Resuming at 105-1, the last eight Kiwi wickets fell for just 10 runs as they folded up for just 131.
The ICC has provided Cricket Boards of India and Pakistan with alternate programes if the series between the two countries is cancelled due to political reasons. Both the countries have been given a list of countries who were free of commitments during that time and would be willing to play either of them. This follows Pakistan's protest that there was nothing in the ten-year schedule released by the ICC that prevented any team from pulling out of the planned schedule. As per the ICC schedule Pakistan and India are to play each other at home and away once four times in the next ten years.
2nd Test at Kolkata (1st day) Australia:291-8 (M Slater 42, M Hayden 97, J Langer 58, Harbhajan Singh 5-66) 2nd Test at Kandy (5th & final day) Sri Lanka: 297 (M Jayawardena 101, R Arnold 65, T Dilshan 36; D Gough 4-73, A Caddick 4-55) 250 (K Sangakkara 95, K Dharmasena 54, C Vaas 36; D Gough 4-50, R Croft 3-40) England: 387 (N Hussain 109, G Thorpe 59, A Stewart 54, C White 39, R Croft 33 not out; M Muralitharan 4-127, S Jayasuriya 3-76) 161-7 (G Thorpe 46, C White 21 not out; C Vaas 4-39) Result: England won by 3 wickets (series tied 1-1) Pakistan in New Zealand 1st Test at Auckland (4th day) Pakistan: 346 (Yousuf Youhana 51, Younis Khan 91, Faisal Iqbal 42, Moin Khan 47;D Tuffey 4-96, C Martin 4-106) 336-5d (Imran Farhat 63, Yousuf Youhana 42, Younis Khan 149 not out, Faisal Iqbal 52 not out; D Tuffey 3-43) New Zealand: 252 (M Sinclair 34, S Fleming 86, C McMillan 54, A Parore 32; Mohd. Sami 3-70, Saqlain Mushtaq 4-48) 105-1 (M Richardson 59 not out; M Bell 28) Scores update (5th day): New Zealand 131 all out (M Richardson 59; M Sami 5-36, Saqlain Mushtaq 4-24) Result: Pakistan won by 299 runs SOUTH AFRICA IN THE WEST INDIES 1st Test at Georgetown (2nd day) West Indies: 304 (C Gayle 81, M Samuels 40, B Lara 47, C Hooper 69; A Donald 2-31, L Klusener 2-31) 50-0 South Africa: 332 (G Kirsten 150, J Kallis 50, M Boucher 52; M Dillon 3-64, D Ramnarine 3-105) ASSAM v KARNATAKA 1ST PRE-QUARTER FINAL at Guwahati Assam: 321 (PK Das 95, S Saikia 49, Zakaria Zuffri 62, V Samant 55; D Ganesh 4-93, A Yalvigi 3-92) Karnataka: 310-9 (Arun Kumar 64, B Rowland 66, VST Naidu 40, S Joshi 33, A Yalvigi 37 not out; G Dutta 3-64, Javed Zaman 3-66) BARODA v BENGAL 2ND PRE-QUARTER FINAL at Baroda Baroda:467 (C Williams 86, J Martin 103, TB Arothe 57, A Bhoite 54, M Mewada 62; LR Shukla 4- 119, U Chatterjee 3-88) Bengal: 1-0 PUNJAB v RAJASTHAN 3RD PRE-QUARTER FINAL at Mohali Rajasthan: 111 (R Jhalani 22; Vineet Kumar 4-25, RS Sodhi 5-40) 4-0 Punjab: 429 (RS Ricky 40, V Rathour 39, P Dharmani 101, D Mongia 75, RS Sodhi 55; Sanjeev Sharma 5-84, M Aslam 3-52) MAHARASHTRA v RAILWAYS 4TH PRE-QUARTER FINAL at Pune Railways: 342-5 (A Pagnis 96, TP Singh 77, Yere Gowda 49, Abhay Sharma 53 not out, S Khanolkar 28 not out; S Aradhye 2-67) Maharashtra:101-3(J Narse 40, H Kanitkar 43 not out; Harvinder Singh 3-45) MADHYA PRADESH V HYDERABAD 5TH PRE-QUARTER FINAL at Indore Madhya Pradesh:489 (HS Sodhi 87, M Ojha 41, A Khurasiya 30, D Bundela 144, Abbas Ali 57, Jai Prakash Yadav 44; Kanwaljit Singh 4-95, Shivaji Yadav 4-114) Hyderabad: 34-0 TAMIL NADU V DELHI 6TH PRE-QUARTER FINAL at Chennai Tamil Nadu: 592 (S Badrinath 32, S Sriram 38, C Hemanth Kumar 121, S Sharath 58, J Madangopal 54, Robin Singh sr. 63, Reuben Paul 35, MR Srinivas 41, S Vidyut 115; Robin Singh jr. 3-96, AK Suman 3-93) Delhi: 32-1 ORISSA V JAMMU & KASHMIR 7TH PRE-QUARTER FINAL at Cuttack (1st day) Orissa: 369-3 (RR Parida 194 not out, PM Mullick 147 not out) Yesterday's News
Compiled by: Mohandas Menon
|