Tags:
Journalism of Courage
CALCUTTA, DECEMBER 16: Till late in the evening, West Zone skipper Amol Muzumdar was in the dark about the status of three of his players — Jacob Martin, Sameer Dighe and Sitanshu Kotak. The trio returned from the India A tour of West Indies but are yet to land in Calcutta for the Duleep Trophy final against North Zone beginning at the Eden Gardens on Friday.
North have sent an SOS to seamer Amit Bhandari — another India A member — to replace the injured Ashish Nehra. However, left-arm spinner Rahul Sanghavi will not make it here.
North have chalked up 500-plus scores in both matches in the run-up to the final while West hammered 600-plus in their semi-final against East at the same venue. Batting, thus, would hold the key to the final.
The little grass on the wicket may be no more than an eyewash, but seamers can move the ball around in the morning due to moisture on the wicket and towards the evening when the sun descends early. The pitch had been relaid recently and batsmen will have to graft forruns.
Vikram Rathour, Ashu Dani, Reetinder Sodhi, Pankaj Dharmani, Virender Sehwag, Rajeev Nayyar provide depth to the North batting. Vijay Dahiya, who opens for Delhi, and all-rounder Nikhil Chopra, who got a hundred in the semi-final against Central, bat at numbers seven and eight, which speak for North’s added punch in the batting.
Though there was a thought of dropping opener Dani for an extra seamer, North might eventually play Bhandari and Robin Singh (Jr) with Sodhi’s medium-pace as a back-up. It is in the spin department that North feel a bit vulnerable with Chopra (off) and Navdeep Singh (left-arm) unable to make an impact.
Vinod Kambli is a potential match-winner for West with his ability to belt the bowling. But even Kambli would be under pressure as the West batting revolves so much around him. Also North’s seamers are a yard quicker than the inexperienced East bowlers, who were swept away by the Kambli hurricane.
Kambli apart, the spotlight would be on skipper Amol Muzumdar and thehighly-spoken of opener Wasim Jaffer. If they can hold the batting line-up together, West will fancy there chances. With Martin, Dighe and Kotak around, West’s batting would have been awesome.
Teams
North: Vikram Rathour (capt), Ashu Dani, Reetinder Sodhi, Pankaj Dharmani, Virender Sehwag, Rajeev Nayyar, Vijay Dahiya, Nikhil Chopra, Navdeep Singh, Amit Bhandari, Robin Singh (Jr), Dinesh Mongia, Shakti Singh, Mithun Manhas and Jasbir Singh.
West: Amol Muzumdar (capt), Wasim Jaffer, Connor Williams, Abhjit Kale, Nilesh Modi, Prakash Bhat, Vinod Kambli, Niraj Patel, Zahid Khan, Iqbal Siddiqui, Paras Mhambrey, Bhavin Mehta, Nilesh Kulkarni and Prakash Patel
Umpires: VK Ramaswamy and I Sivaram
Live telecast on: DD 2 (from 9.30 am to 12 pm, 12.40 to 2.40 and 3 to 4.30 pm).
