At the fag end of the day,Chris Gayle came on to bowl. The motley crowd,who were eager to see the big man in action,greeted him with loud cheers. Almost every ball that Gayle bowled in his two overs was applauded,notwithstanding the fact that the part-timer was bowling an innocuous variety of off-spin. The superstar left the field with a smile,after the days play. Day Two of the tour game between Uttar Pradesh and the West Indians at the Jadavpur University ground on Friday,however,was not about the Jamaican celebrity. Instead,it was about a shy and unassuming Uttar Pradesh medium-pacer who played four years of club cricket in Kolkata. Imtiaz Ahmed returned with figures of 5/117 as the visitors,starting at an overnight 333/4,folded for 466 in their first innings,at the stroke of lunch. Imtiaz bowled unchanged for more than an hour in his first spell and accounted for both overnight not out batsmen,Shivnarine Chanderpaul (112) and Narsingh Deonarine (94). He returned for his second spell and took his fifth wicket by deceiving captain Darren Sammy with a slower delivery. Imtiaz is just medium pace,with his stock ball clocking around 122kph. But hes a skiddy customer off the surface and can hurry the batsmen into their strokes. He also has a good away-swinger,but here he used the dampness of the pitch to his advantage. Chanderpaul,who reached his century with a cover drive,was beaten by a delivery that jagged back sharply off the seam and caught him plumb in front. Deonarine,who missed his ton by six runs,was also out leg before,with his bat coming down a little late. In Chanderpauls case,the ball kept low. Cricket is the only road to prominence for the 28-year-old Imtiaz. The Aligarh boy comes from a humble background and is the sole earning member of his family. Cricket is the only thing I can bank on. I came to Kolkata and played for Town Club for four years because they gave me a good contract. But Ive learned a lot during my stint at the Kolkata maidans. Now Im fortunate to have Venky Sir (Venkatesh Prasad) as our (UP) coach. Ive become a better bowler under him, Imtiaz said. Imtiaz took 37 wickets in his last Ranji season and was rewarded for his performance with a call-up to the India A side who played New Zealand A. We missed out two frontline seamers,Praveen Kumar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar,last season,but I was very impressed with the way he (Imtiaz) responded to the challenge, Prasad said. What Imtiaz managed to do here was to create uncertainty in the West Indian batting ranks. They didnt handle the movement off the pitch very well,when the ball skidded from a good length. That they still managed a very good total was due to the fact that Veerasammy Permaul (46 not out) and Tino Best (35) stitched a 67-run partnership for the ninth wicket. When UP batted,Best and newcomer Sheldon Cotterell worked up good pace and took a wicket apiece to remove the openers. Permaul took two wickets with his left-arm spin. At 96/4,UP looked uncomfortable but Parvinder Singh batted beautifully for his 78 not out (11X4,2X6) and his 107-run partnership with Prashant Gupta (39) for the fifth wicket brought some belief back to the home dressing room. UP finished the day at 206 Brief scores: West Indians 466 in 103.3 overs (S Chanderpaul 112,N Deonarine 94,V Permaul 46*; Imtiaz Ahmed 5/117,RP Singh 3/86) vs UP 206/5 in 53 overs (P Singh 78*,M Dagar 42; Verasammy Permaul 2/61).
