da brdice： With the flick of a coin, Hyderabad ruined Mumbai’s best laidplans
da apostaganha： Anand Vasu19-Apr-2000With the flick of a coin, Hyderabad ruined Mumbai’s best laidplans. Mohammed Azharuddin began well, winning the toss and puttingMumbai in to bat. The preparation of the wicket and indeed their teamcomposition banked on the fact that Mumbai would get the first go withthe ball. Denying them this advantage, Hyderabad did well to restrictMumbai to 303/6 on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy final at theWankhede stadium on Wednesday, despite a fighting century from VinodKambli.Nevertheless, Mumbai had the batting to set up a good platform.Sameer Dighe and Wasim Jaffer took on Narendrapal Singh and Fiaz Ahmedin an interesting first few overs. Though the two Hyderabad mediumpacers generated good nip off the wicket, it took them six overs tobreak through.Dighe left his bat hanging limply in the air outside the off stump andedged a Fiaz Ahmed delivery straight to Azharuddin at slip. Azhar hastaken too many catches at that position to miss out.Jatin Paranjpe joined an increasingly confident Jaffer out in themiddle and pushed the scoring on. At the end of the 10th over, spin inthe form of Venkatapathy Raju was introduced into the attack. Rajubowled a tidy little spell but was taken off after he had completedthree overs conceding just four runs.Narendrapal had his first wicket when Jaffer slashed a ball from wideoutside off stump straight to Raju at point. Jafffer looked good formore but succumbed on 32.That short man with the stout heart and broad blade walked out to themiddle amidst rapturous applause from an adoring Mumbai crowd. SachinTendulkar was once again in command of the proceedings. Every looseball on offer was treated with generous servings of contempt. Drivingthrough the line with supreme power and ease, Tendulkar raced to 14including three boundaries.Having played solidly for 10 runs, Paranjpe found himself at the wrongend of an LBW appeal. Struck just outside the off stump, Paranjpelooked at the umpire in disbelief as the dreaded finger sent thesouthpaw on his way.School mate and long time friend Vinod Kambli joined Tendulkar out inthe middle and the two took the attack to Venkatpathy Raju. Smashinghim back over his head with regularity, the pair toyed with thebowling and dictated the field placement. Raju’s fifth over costHyderabad 15 runs. Medium pacer Vanka Pratap peppered Kambli withshort pitched stuff and was viciously pulled away to the mid wicketboundary on each occasion.The Mumbai hundred came up just before lunch. After the run feast inthe semifinal against Tamil Nadu, this was a rather sedate start.When Tendulkar slashed hard at an off spinner from Raju and was caughtbehind, the match seemed to lose all its fizz. The crowd quieteneddown, the pace of the game slowed down and that was that.Kambli assumed the mantle of senior batsman. The usually stylish AmolMuzumdar came down the wicket prematurely and was beaten in the air byRaju. He chipped the ball straight to Satwalkar at cover and it wasall upto Kambli and the Mumbai tail.Paras Mhambrey who has done a fair bit with the bat in this seasonalone kept Kambli good company. He played with a straight bat and waspredominantly defensive in his approach. At tea Mumbai were 238/5.Kambli, 83 at the interval, got to his hundred, a well deserved onegiven the circumstances. “I think it was a mature knock” he told thepress at the end of the day. An emotional Kambli was also quick to add”I looked up to the sky because I knew my mother would be watchingme. In the last match I could not make a hundred and wasdisappointed. This century I would like to dedicate to the memory ofmy mother.”The day ended with quasi all rounders Ajit Agarkar (14) and Mhambrey(38) at the crease. At this stage the match could go either way.
