Central beat South by 9 runs in final

NEW DELHI: Central Zone spinners, led by captain Piyush Chawla, weaved magic on a helpful track to steer the team to the Duleep Trophy title with a thrilling nine-run triumph over South Zone here on Sunday.

Chasing a victory target of 301, South needed 117 runs on the final day with nine wickets intact. But on a pitch that was offering substantial turn, South lost 7 wickets for 39 runs to hand over the trophy to Chawla and co.

From a relatively comfortable 252 for three, they were all out for 291 in 88.4 overs.

Spin troika of Chawla (3/83 in 20 overs), Ali Murtaza (3/59) and Jalaj Saxena (2/44) shared the bulk of the spoils but it was Pankaj Singh (2/45)'s morning spell that started turning the complexion of the game.

Out of 13 sessions of play, South dominated 10 but the three dominated by Central turned the course of the game. KL Rahul (185 and 130), despite a superb effort, ended on the losing side mainly due to inept shot selection by his teammates.

It was an exciting fifth morning where there was a good contest between bat and ball. It turned out to be the best 22-yard strip produced at Feroz Shah Kotla in recent times, by one of the youngest BCCI curator Ankit Datta.

The wicket lasted five days with something for everyone from batsman, pacers and spinners.

Starting the day at 184 for one, centurion KL Rahul (130) and Baba Aparajith (56) played out the first hour before Pankaj Singh struck with old ball.

He bowled one that landed on a crack and kept low getting Rahul plumb in-front. The youngster's innings had played 152 balls hitting 14 fours and five sixes. Dinesh Karthik (0) bagged a 'pair' , falling to Pankaj reducing South to 203 for three.

Aparajith was unduly subdued today when situation demanded him to play positively as Chawla and Jalaj bowled with a lot of control.

Ramaswamy Prasanna (29) showed a bit of intent by taking on Chawla and Ali Murtaza to inch closer towards the target. The duo added 49 runs as Prasanna was trapped leg before by a Jalaj straighter.

Chawla again got his googly right as he enticed Aparajith to come down the track and was promptly stumped. Hanuma Vihari (1) didn't last long offering a low return catch to Jalaj to become the sixth wicket to fall.

R Vinay Kumar (24) struck some lusty blows before Murtaza bowled him at the stroke of lunch as he played a cross-batted heave.

Pragyan Ojha (2) padded a Chawla flipper while Abhimanyu Mithun was cleaned up by Murtaza to make it 289 for 9.

Shreyash Gopal couldn't keep his cool as he jumped out to Murtaza to be stumped by Naman Ojha, sparking off wild celebrations by jubilant Central players.

Brief Scores: Central Zone 276 & 403. South Zone 379 and 291 in 88.3 overs (KL Rahul 130, Piyush Vhawla 3/83, Ali Murtaza 3/59).

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KL Rahul stamps his class yet again

NEW DELHI: KL Rahul is on a mission to prove he can bat in a different league.

If Robin Bist's crafty, unbeaten hundred on the fourth morning gave Rahul's first-innings score of 184 a run for its money, the South Zone and Karnataka batsman brought out an even better display of batsmanship to put Bist's century in the shade by stumps. When Rahul smacked Piyush Chawla into the stands at long-on to bring up his second century of the Duleep Trophy final, he pushed himself firmly into contention for a ticket to Australia for the Tests.

Rahul (batting on 121 off 132 balls) oozed authority and class after Bist had done all the hard work by batting with the tail and setting up a defendable target of 301 for Central Zone. Now, South just need another 117 runs with nine batsmen to follow.

Rahul maintained he had to concentrate harder to play out the initial moments of uncertainty in the second innings. His strike rate of almost a run-a-ball, though, sug gests a different story.

"I knew the first innings score of 184 was gone and concentrated harder. Both Pankaj Singh and Ishwar Pandey were bowling well with the new ball, and even with the reversing old ball on a pitch on which the cracks were widening.

"I told myself that I needed to be more positive once I got in because, who knows, the pitch could play all sorts of tricks on the fifth day. We needed to get as many runs as possible today and not let any new batsman walk in," said Rahul.

So out came the sweeps and reverse sweeps, as if to assert he has got more in his repertoire than the clean text-books shots. "As I said, the ball was keeping compara tively low in the second innings.

It wasn't easy to drive or play the forcing shots with the straighter bat. So I swept a lot to get on top of the ball and get the scoreboard moving," explained Rahul.

By the end of the fourth day he had demonstrated that he can bully pacers like Pankaj Singh and Ishwar Pandey on a decent domestic pitch, and also take the spinners to the cleaners. For the record, he has hit more sixes in this match (7) than what he had earlier in his first-class career.

Brief Scores: Central Zone 276 and 403 in 105.5 overs (Bist 112 n.o., Fazal 72, Saxena 71, Murtaza 50; S Gopal 460) vs South Zone 379 & 184/1 (KL Rahul batting 121)

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Misbah equals fastest Test ton record

ABU DHABI: Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul Haq equalled the 28-year-old record for the fastest Test century when he hit one off 56 balls on the fourth day of the second Test against Australia in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

The record for the fastest Test hundred in terms of balls faced was set by West Indian legend Viv Richards, against England at Antigua in 1986, who also took 56 balls.

Misbah earlier smashed the fastest Test half-century record before lunch, reaching the figure off just 21 balls.

That beat the previous record held by South Africa's Jacques Kallis scored against Zimbabwe at Cape Town in 2004.

Misbah hit two bounadaries off paceman Mitchell Starc to reach his hundred, and punched the air in delight.

This is also the second fastest hundred in terms of time, behind Australia's Jack Gregory who reached a hundred after 70 minutes batting against South Africa at Johannesburg in 1921.

Misbah took 74 minutes to reach the mark. Misbah cut loose after Younis Khan fell for 46, hitting three sixes and a four off one Steven Smith over and then hit the spinner for his fourth six an over later. In all he hit four boundaries and as many sixes.

Misbah pushed Starc for three to complete the fastest Test fifty ever which took only 24 minutes.

The previous fastest fifty in terms of time was held by Bangladesh's Mohammad Ashraful who took 27 minutes for his fifty against India at Dhaka in 2007.

That helped Pakistan to declare their second innings at 293/3, setting a mammoth 603-run target for Australia to win the match.

Pakistan, who have not won a Test series against Australia since beating them 1-0 at home in 1994, won the first Test by 221 runs in Dubai.

The previous fastest Test half-century by a Pakistani batsman was by Shahid Afridi who took 26 balls to reach the mark, against India at Bangalore in 2005.

Majid Khan previously held the record for the fastest hundred by a Pakistani, scoring it off 74 balls against New Zealand in Karachi in 1976.

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Rahane & Dhawan power India to 363/5

CUTTACK: Openers Ajinkya Rahane and Shikhar Dhawan struck fluent centuries as India toyed with the Sri Lankan attack to post an imposing 363/5 in the first one-day international at the Barabati Stadium on Sunday.

Put into bat, Rahane struck 111 from 108 balls (13x4, 2x6) en route to his second ODI century while Dhawan returned to form with a 107-ball 113 (14x3, 3x6), his sixth overall, and first since his 119 vs West Indies in Kanpur in November last year, to set the tempo for the record total at this venue.

Capitalising on their respective dropped chances by veteran wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara, the duo complemented each other in a 231-run opening partnership.

Suresh Raina also did his bit by striking a quickfire 52 off 34 balls (4x4, 3x6) after being promoted to No.3 in his 200th match as it was one-way traffic for India.

Rookie left-arm spinner Axar Patel too impressed with his big-hitting skills as he spanked Dhammika Prasad for two sixes in the last over in his unbeaten 14 off four balls.

This was only the second time 300-plus was scored at this venue with the previous best being India's 301 for three against Zimbabwe way back in 1998.

However in the recent past, Kings XI Punjab piled 231/4 against Chennai Super Kings in the IPL in May this year in match that saw a total of 418 runs.

Much had been written about Sri Lanka's under preparedness for the series organised after the West Indies pull out from a full length series and it came to fore with their sloppy fielding and a depleted attack that lacked sting in the absence of Lasith Malinga and Rangana Herath.

Former skipper Sangakkara became the villain, dropping Dhawan on 10 and Rahane on 38 in what would have been routine diving catches behind the stumps, much to derail the promising start given by their two new-ball bowlers in Dhammika Prasad (0-60) and Lahiru Gamage (1-59).

The two Indian openers moved at snail's pace with 14 runs from first five overs and the first power play yielded just 43 with 44 dot balls but the Lankan attack started becoming wayward, while Sangakkara's two reprieves injected the spark the duo needed.

Rahane started stepping out and even pulled at ease with the Lankans bowling short while left-handed Dhawan too complemented his partner to give the Indian run-rate the much needed push.

Rahane completed his 50 from 61 balls, while Dhawan who was a tad slower struck two fours and one six to Suraj Randiv in a 21-run 21st over to reach his half-century in 64 balls.

India's third 50 came in just 31 deliveries as the run-rate jumped to six into the midway mark as the openers started toying with the Lankan attack.

Rahane completed his century with a gentle push to long-on in the 32nd over while Dhawan too got the monkey off the back, scoring his first century in 19 matches with a six over mid-wicket to Seekkuge Prasanna.

It was a relieved looking Dhawan, who celebrated with his trademark style of stretching both arms wide in the air to a cheering 45,000 capacity crowd.

Just when the duo looked unstoppable Ashan Priyanjan gave the first breakthrough when the ball went down Dhawan's knee and had enough pace to dislodge the leg stump bail.

Randiv might be expensive conceding 78 runs from his 10 over quota but he too was their most successful bowler with three wickets to his tally including that of Rahane and stand-in skipper Virat Kohli, who made 22.

Earlier, the Lankans observed one-minute silence for the landslide tragedy in the Meeriyabedda tea plantation about 200kms east of Colombo on November 29.

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Central in with a chance in Duleep final

NEW DELHI: Going into the third morning of the Duleep Trophy final, it was for South Zone to hold the initiative but they let Central Zone back into the game. As it stands at the end of Friday's play, Central are in with a shout for the first time in the match. They are leading by 111 runs and have six wickets up their sleeves with Robin Bist looking well set with Mahesh Rawat giving him company.

Central got a foothold in the game early in the morning with Piyush Chawla's customary googly finding its way through KL Rahul's (184) defence. However, the tale of the match remained one of missed opportunities.

The lack of maturity was summed up best by South Zone coach Hemang Badani. "Two dismissals — Rahul by Chawla and Arindam Ghosh by Vinay Kumar in the first innings — can be asserted as bowlers' wickets. Most of the other wickets were gifted away by the batsmen from both teams. Maybe one or two of Pankaj Singh's wickets can also be credited to the bowler," Badani said.

The culprit this time were Central openers Faiz Fazal (72) and Jalaj Saxena (71) followed by Naman Ojha, the man in form. After the spinners Ali Murtuza (459) and Chawla (295) wrapped up the South innings (379 all out), claiming six and giving away just 20 runs, Central would have fancied their chances of gaining the upper hand as Fazal and Saxena hit 12 boundaries going into lunch.

Things looked good for Central as the openers seemed to be in a hurry to wipe out the 103run deficit till Jalaj missed a straighter one from Pragyan Ojha to be caught in front of the wicket. The partnership was broken at 128.

Fazal's hook down to the throat of the long-leg fielder off a Vinay Kumar bouncer showed why Rahul's innings was special and a measured one. And when Naman, batting with authority on 27, guided Shreyas Gopal's leg-spinning short ball into the hands of Robin Uthappa at first slip, South had found enough encouragement to tighten the screws.

At stumps, Central were 2144 after losing Ashok Menaria for a duck.

If Badani staked claim that South have a fair chance on a pitch which has started to play low by the day-end, that is probably more because Central have failed to grab the game by the scruff of the neck when it mattered most. "Chasing 220 would be par for the course. The ball has started to keep low and that has got the spinners into the game. We would do well to restrict them to that score," Badani reckoned.

Central skipper Chawla would be hoping for Bist (batting on 26) to improve upon his first innings score of 79.

Brief scores: Central Zone 276 and 214 for 4 (Fazal 72, Saxena 71) lead South Zone 379 (Rahul 185, Uthappa 80, Vihari 75, Murtaza 4-59) by 111 runs

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India A clobber Sri Lanka by 88 runs

MUMBAI: For a cricket purist, it was a delightful display of batsmanship. Put in to bat after Sri Lanka won the toss, India 'A' batsmen Rohit Sharma and Manish Pandey dished out an eye-pleasing brand of batting. The duo added 214 runs for the second wicket, riding on which the hosts piled up a mammoth total of 382/6 in the one day warm-up game at Brabourne Stadium on Thursday. The Lankans found the target too steep and fell short by 88 runs, managing only 294/9 in reply.

Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews called right but perhaps made the wrong decision to bowl first. India 'A' openers Sharma and Unmukt Chand putting on 96 for the first wicket. But, after Chand's departure (54; 64b, 8x4, 1x6), in walked Pandey. Sharma, who had by then got his eye in, chimed in with Pandey looking composed right from the first ball. The duo played some beautiful cricketing strokes, and at one point it was difficult to fathom who among the two was timing the ball better.

Sharma, who has not played in more than two months, never really looked in any trouble against an average Sri Lankan attack. For his part, Pandey, who has been doing the bulk of the scoring for Karnataka in Ranji Trophy and his franchise Kolkata Knight Riders in T20 competitions, looked in supreme form.

Just when it looked like they would breach the 400-run barrier, Sharma was run out to a direct throw from the deep by Lahiru Gamage. By then he had made a 111-ball 142. His knock included 18 boundaries and one six. Pandey remained un beaten with a 113-ball 135. He hit 15 boundaries and a six.

India 'A' coach Sanjay Bangar was satisfied with the team's performance, especially with the way the duo batted. "Rohit is a quality player. He didn't get a game because of the injury. His match fitness had to be assessed and that was the reason the selectors had dropped him. He gave a fantastic account of himself. He has been practicing really hard over the last 10 days at BKC. And he showed that he has completely recovered from the injury. He fielded throughout the 50 overs and these are good signs for the Indian team," Bangar said of Sharma Bangar had a word of praise for Pandey too. "Manish has been batting pretty consistently. Karnataka have won the Irani, the Ranji Trophy. And he has played an important hand in those victories. He had a fantastic IPL too, win ning the title for KKR.

He is always on the fringes and today's knock will do his con fidence a world of good because he came at a time when the wicket was expected to aid bowlers. So, from that per spective, it must have been very satisfying knock for Manish."

Chasing a mammoth total, Sri Lanka lost wickets as consistently as Sharma and Pandey were hitting the boundaries. Other than Upul Tharanga, who made a 75-ball 76, none of the Sri Lankan could do much.

For India 'A', Karn Sharma was the pick of the bowlers. He claimed the big wickets of Tharanga, Tillakaratne Dilshan (14), Mahela Jayawardene (33) and Angelo Mathews (3). The Lankans eventually ran out of overs and finished their innings on 294/9.

Brief Scores

India A 382 for 6 (Rohit 142, Pandey 135*, Chand 54) beat Sri Lanka 294 for 9 (Tharanga 76, Karn 4-47) by 88 runs.

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Classy Rahul leads South Zone's charge

NEW DELHI: The idea of scheduling the Duleep Trophy upfront in the domestic season was to give fringe players a chance to prove themselves for the higher level early in the season. Yet, the final between South Zone and Central Zone looked like turning competitive only on the second morning when South skipper Vinay Kumar gobbled up Central's tale.

And the momentum was carried forward by the talk of the day, KL Rahul and Robin Uthappa. The two in-form Karanataka batsmen came out with a clear intent of dominating the Central bowling led by medium-pacers Pankaj Singh and Ishwar Pandey.

While Uthappa would be rueing missing out on a big one after playing Jalaj Saxena's off-spinner across the line and getting trapped in front for 80, Rahul showed no mercy to the bowlers.

With national selectors watching the action, Rahul struck a classy, unbeaten 168 (205b, 18x4s, 2x6s), taking South into a position of strength. South ended the day with a 32-run lead with six wickets remaining.

Rahul summed up the significance of the knock nicely. "After batting on a difficult track in Lahli (in the semis), I realised that you need to score big once you are in on an easy pitch."

Rahul stayed true to his words and Central now have a mountain to climb in the game. While Rahul claimed he wasn't aware that the selectors were around, the big, lumbering frame of Pankaj Singh woke up rather late in the day. Trying to fight the 'unlucky' ghosts of England away, Pankaj triggered a mini middle-order collapse with a fine spell of reverse swing. Unfortunately for Central Zone, Pankaj got his rhythm going when the scoreboard was reading 2311. He found the edge of Baba Aparajith's bat before getting Dinesh Karthik (0) leg-before with an indipper. R Prasanna fell soon at 233.

"There wasn't much help from the pitch. Once the ball was old, I had to bend my back a lot more and put more pace so that it aides reverse swing," Pankaj said.

Brief scores: South Zone 308 for 4 (Rahul 168 n.o., Uthappa 80; Pankaj 3-55) lead Central Zone 276 (Bist 79) by 32 runs

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Virat Kohli focuses on playing spin

NEW DELHI: While the cricket critics have their eyes trained on Virat Kohli's movement outside the off stump against the fast bowlers, the batsman himself isn't losing much sleep over the issue. For him it is more important to not get bogged down against the spinners during the upcoming ODI series against Sri Lanka.

In fact, the designated Team India captain for the series has spent good four days in Delhi practising on slow and turning pitches.

"He went to Mumbai to practice with the India 'A' team which played the warm-up game against Sri Lanka on Thursday. Prior to that, he practised at his academy on slow turning pitches, against a lot of spinners," Virat's childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma told TOI on Friday.

Interestingly, the Delhi team for the Vijay Hazare trophy was also practising at the Ferozeshah Kotla but Virat opted instead to hone his skills at his academy with his coach.

The sight of Moeen Ali running through the Indian team during the England tour had a lot of people rubbing their eyes in disbelief.

"He isn't worried about his performances in England.

He has scored against seamers all over the world. He is just focusing on the next series against Sri Lanka. They have good spinners and are a strong team in the sub-continent conditions. The century in the last ODI against West Indies has given Virat a lot of confidence. He just doesn't want to let the good form slip," said Sharma.

He added: "He has made a plan to work on a few things before going to the World Cup. Preparing against spinners is just part of it."

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India A clobber Sri Lanka by 88 runs

MUMBAI: For a cricket purist, it was a delightful display of batsmanship. Put in to bat after Sri Lanka won the toss, India 'A' batsmen Rohit Sharma and Manish Pandey dished out an eye-pleasing brand of batting. The duo added 214 runs for the second wicket, riding on which the hosts piled up a mammoth total of 382/6 in the one day warm-up game at Brabourne Stadium on Thursday. The Lankans found the target too steep and fell short by 88 runs, managing only 294/9 in reply.

Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews called right but perhaps made the wrong decision to bowl first. India 'A' openers Sharma and Unmukt Chand putting on 96 for the first wicket. But, after Chand's departure (54; 64b, 8x4, 1x6), in walked Pandey. Sharma, who had by then got his eye in, chimed in with Pandey looking composed right from the first ball. The duo played some beautiful cricketing strokes, and at one point it was difficult to fathom who among the two was timing the ball better.

Sharma, who has not played in more than two months, never really looked in any trouble against an average Sri Lankan attack. For his part, Pandey, who has been doing the bulk of the scoring for Karnataka in Ranji Trophy and his franchise Kolkata Knight Riders in T20 competitions, looked in supreme form.

Just when it looked like they would breach the 400-run barrier, Sharma was run out to a direct throw from the deep by Lahiru Gamage. By then he had made a 111-ball 142. His knock included 18 boundaries and one six. Pandey remained un beaten with a 113-ball 135. He hit 15 boundaries and a six.

India 'A' coach Sanjay Bangar was satisfied with the team's performance, especially with the way the duo batted. "Rohit is a quality player. He didn't get a game because of the injury. His match fitness had to be assessed and that was the reason the selectors had dropped him. He gave a fantastic account of himself. He has been practicing really hard over the last 10 days at BKC. And he showed that he has completely recovered from the injury. He fielded throughout the 50 overs and these are good signs for the Indian team," Bangar said of Sharma Bangar had a word of praise for Pandey too. "Manish has been batting pretty consistently. Karnataka have won the Irani, the Ranji Trophy. And he has played an important hand in those victories. He had a fantastic IPL too, win ning the title for KKR.

He is always on the fringes and today's knock will do his con fidence a world of good because he came at a time when the wicket was expected to aid bowlers. So, from that per spective, it must have been very satisfying knock for Manish."

Chasing a mammoth total, Sri Lanka lost wickets as consistently as Sharma and Pandey were hitting the boundaries. Other than Upul Tharanga, who made a 75-ball 76, none of the Sri Lankan could do much.

For India 'A', Karn Sharma was the pick of the bowlers. He claimed the big wickets of Tharanga, Tillakaratne Dilshan (14), Mahela Jayawardene (33) and Angelo Mathews (3). The Lankans eventually ran out of overs and finished their innings on 294/9.

Brief Scores

India A 382 for 6 (Rohit 142, Pandey 135*, Chand 54) beat Sri Lanka 294 for 9 (Tharanga 76, Karn 4-47) by 88 runs.

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'Evolved' Robin Uthappa eyes new role

NEW DELHI: For Robin Uthappa, every domestic match is an opportunity to bang on the doors of national selection. With consistent performances with the bat for over a year now, many would have expected him to have got an India callup already.

On Monday at the Ferozeshah Kotla ahead of the Duleep Trophy final, Uthappa had his wicketkeeping gloves on too, and was busy honing his skills behind the stumps. He believes doubling up as a wicketkeeper-opening batsman will better his chances of making it to the World Cup squad early next year.

"Wicketkeeping and opening the batting makes a good combination for me in One-dayers. I have been doing it for Kolkata Knight Riders and I thought I should keep training. My aim is to do both successfully. I love wicketkeeping and take it very seriously," Uthappa said on the sidelines of the South Zone training session.

The runs have started coming in a heap and the 29-year-old says he has taken a cue from Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina, who have grown in stature as international batsmen.

"It's about staying true to your skills and fitting into the role your team wants. I saw what Virat and Suresh have done and even MS (Dhoni) for that matter. Today I understand when I am going out of my zone. I try to fulfill my role as an opener now," said the batsman, who is high on confidence after a century in the Duleep Trophy semifinal on a seaming Lahli pitch.

"Evolved" is the word that he likes to use while describing his batting. The 'gaps' - as Uthappa likes to call them - in his batting have been addressed. He claims the premeditation in his strokeplay is under check and power-hitting isn't necessary for his style of batting.

"Earlier, I didn't understand the value of my wicket as much I do now. I realized that if I could sustain my wicket then I can make a bigger impact. I have checked my problems with premeditation.I can say my batting has evolved." Seeking out the help of Praveen Amre has also helped his batting.

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