da betobet： Left handed all rounder S Sriram underlined his growing staturein Indian cricket on Monday
Partab Ramchand27-Dec-1999Left handed all rounder S Sriram underlined his growing staturein Indian cricket on Monday. With a fighting unbeaten 112 herescued Tamil Nadu from a poor start and helped the home team topost a very respectable score of 252 for four wickets at close ofplay on the first day of their South Zone Ranji Trophy tieagainst Hyderabad at the MA Chidambaram stadium.The full value of Sriram’s innings should be seen againstthe background of Tamil Nadu being eleven for two at the end ofthe seventh over. Sriram himself came in when Ashish Kapoor wasout for a duck to the first ball of the second over. He was caughtat gully by Venkatpathi Raju off MF Ahmed. A little later, AnandGeorge was leg before to NP Singh for four.Sriram, who performed commendably as a member of the India A teamwhich recently went to the West Indies, found an able partnerin another left hander Hemang Badani. The two initiated therecovery process with a third wicket partnership of 91 runs in30.5 overs. Badani dominated the stand with some fine strokes andwhen he was out for 52 off 93 balls he had hit five fours and asix. Sriram by this time was set for a long innings and heand Madanagopal consolidated the recovery by adding 119 runs forthe fourth wicket off 35.1 overs. Madanagopal was then run outby Nandakishore for 55. The in form youngster faced 112 balls andhit seven fours.Sriram, who was 30 at lunch and 63 at tea, turned on the heat inthe last session. In the company of skipper Robin Singh,Sriram proceeded to his century with a series of thrilling strokesand by close had batted 344 minutes, faced 275 balls and hit tenfours. The manner in which he paced his innings was exemplary.Robin, content to let Sriram hold centre stage by stumps hadfaced 51 balls to score seven runs.Orissa had the upper hand at the end of the second day of theirEast Zone Ranji Trophy league match against Bengal at theBarabati stadium in Cuttack on Sunday. Replying to Orissa’s first innings score of 370, Bengal were 53 for three at close.Orissa resumed at 219 for two and a century by P Mullick andhalf centuries by SS Raul (53) and P Jaichandra (64 not out)helped them to prolong their innings. Mullick and Raul added131 runs for the third wicket off 54.5 overs and then Jaichandraand S Satpathy (18) increased the score by 54 runs during aneighth wicket association. Mullick faced 246 balls for his 108,hitting ten fours and a six. Laxmi Ratan Shukla was the mostsuccessful bowler taking six for 86 off 32 overs.When Bengal batted, opening bowler A Barick quickly removedN Haldipur (15) and D Dasgupta (1) and then held the catch off Jaichandra’s bowling to dismiss S Kalyani for 2, leaving Bengalin some trouble at stumps.Valuable knocks by RVC Prasad (78) and IG Srinivas (85) helpedAndhra to take the first innings lead over against Karnataka intheir South Zone Ranji Trophy league match at Kakinada on Sunday. Replying to Karnataka’s 248, Andhra were 308 for six at close ofplay on the second day.The two batsmen came together when Andhra had lost four wicketsfor 83 but then proceeded to turn the innings around with afifth wicket partnership of 144 runs off 34.2 overs. While Prasadfaced 159 balls and hit nine fours and two sixes, the moreaggressive Srinivas faced only 119 balls and hit 13 of them tothe ropes. The innings was kept going by tailenders NM Khan (26)and YS Ranganath (26 not out). For Karnataka, Dodda Ganesh wasthe most successful bowler with four for 95 off 28 overs.Earlier a fine 83 by opener Mithun Beerala helped Karnatakarecover from a poor start to post a challenging total on theopening day. Karnataka lost three wickets for 48 but Beeralaflayed tha attack for a breezy knock. He faced just 96 balls andhit 17 fours. After his departure, the innings was kept going byVST Naidu (32), SN Shiraguppi (43) and AR Yalvigi (37 not out). Ranganath was the pick of the Andhra bowlers, bagging five for69 from 33.5 overs.