da brdice： The Duleep Trophy match between Elite B and Plate B, held at the Guru Nanak College Grounds, Chennai, turned out to be a veritable run-fest, with only the 18-run difference in first-innings totals giving the former five points and the latter three.
Staff Reporter17-Mar-2003The Duleep Trophy match between Elite B and Plate B, held at the Guru Nanak College Grounds, Chennai, turned out to be a veritable run-fest, with only the 18-run difference in first-innings totals giving the former five points and the latter three.Winning the toss, Elite B skipper Rohan Gavaskar opted to bat first, and his quickfire 42 (32b, 5×4, 2×6) was one of the string of middle-order knocks that spurred Elite B to a total of 350. Arjun Yadav made a steady 59 (172b, 7×4) and MSK Prasad 40 (58b, 2×4), but it was TP Singh’s knock of 64 (83b, 5×4, 2×6) that really lent backbone to the Elite B innings.The lower order of Elite B succumbed to the wiles of leggie Narendra Hirwani, who scalped six for 80 in his 27.5 overs, and the side was bowled out early on the second day. Plate B then proceeded to bat a day themselves, falling just short of Elite B’s 350 by making 332.Star of the Plate B innings was opener Sujith Somasunder, who made 116 off 226 balls, with 13 fours. But his knock alone would have hardly gotten his side close to the Elite B total, and it also took Sreekumar Nair’s 95 (150b, 10×4, 2×6) to take Plate B past 300. For Plate B, speedster Amit Uniyal took six for 92.The tour-de-force batting display was still to come, however. Batting for 540 minutes and facing 438 balls, Elite B opener Amit Pagnis dominated the second innings, making 184 and hitting 21 fours in his side’s total of 434. He was ably supported by Wasim Jaffer (59, 89b, 9×4) and later MSK Prasad (79, 134b, 8×4), but although Gavaskar delayed the declaration to give Pagnis a much-deserved double, he fell short by 16 runs.Plate B were thus set the hugely impossible target of 453 runs off a single over, and instead of trying to go for the target, makeshift openers SB Dahad and S Santh courageously played for the draw, getting it comfortably in the end.