West Zone crawl on a turner

Chennai, Dec 17: It's easy to tell the difference between butter and margarine. Watching Amol Mazumdar and Wasim Jaffer in action at the Ch...

Chennai, Dec 17: It’s easy to tell the difference between butter and margarine. Watching Amol Mazumdar and Wasim Jaffer in action at the Chepauk in the Duleep Trophy final on Wednesday one got the same feeling. The class difference between the two young batsmen was glaringly obvious to the connoisseur.

Muzumdar made batting look so easy before he became a run-out victim, thanks to the misjudgement of Hrishikesh Kanitkar! The `leg tied’ Jaffer, heavily hyped by the knights of the keyboard, on the other hand, seemed to be a strokeless wonder with just a leg glance in his repertoire. He scratched around, constantly failing to read a stingless Narendra Hirwani, who was bowling just leg spinners. Jaffer’s misery at the crease ended when medium-pacer Zakir Hussain bowled an incutter which crashed through his half-cock defensive prod, took the edge and rattled the stumps. West Zone suddenly lost three wickets quickly and looked in a hopeless position whereupon Jacob Martin (43 batting, 193m, 97 balls, 3×4) and Jatin Paranjpe (30 batting, 111m, 114 balls) played sensibly cricket to take their side to 196 for 4 by draw of stumps. The match got off to a 15-minute delayed start with the outfield slushy in some areas. There was an eight minute stoppage in the first session when rain threatened to leave its mark. The prayers of West Zone team, which was looking for celestial help in the matter of toss, were answered when captain Nayan Mongia’s call came right and he had no hesitation to bat first on the wicket.

The Chepauk pitch turned out to be a soft bed and had nothing much to offer to the mediumpacers. Sanjay Pandey and Zakir Hussain, both MRF pace trainees, bent their back to extract pace from the wicket but to no avail. Zakir produced a beauty of an outswinger, which took Mongia’s edge and Central captain Amay Khurasiya moved to his right to bring off a good catch. Zakir was yet again in the limelight when he greeted Amol with an incutter that crashed onto his pads. Surprisingly, the umpire rejected Zakir’s leg before appeal. It was a close shave for Amol, who went on to play a cameo innings that was cruelly cut short by an unmoving Hrishikesh as Amol drove to deep mid-on and ran. Zakir, stationed there, made no mistake with the throw to the keeper.

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Kulamani Parida was the best spinner on view. Surprisingly Karthik Murali and Hirwani did not make a major impact. Of course, Hirwani did harry Jaffer but his bowling was nothing sensational. He bowled the wrong one only once and towards the end of the play which beat batsman Jacob Martin and keeper Mudgal.

The West Zone’s progress was slow and brought yawns to the few spectators present. An Amol Mazumdar fan, who came all the way from Mumbai, was seen relieving himself of the boredom by doing push-ups near the sight screen. It was, indeed, a comical sight.

Scoreboard

West Zone (1st innings): Wasim Jaffer b Hussain 40, Nayan Mongia c Khurasiya b Hussain 10, Amol Mazumdar run out 43, Hrishikesh Kanitkar c Jyoti Yadav b Parida 8, Jacob Martin batting 43, Jatin Paranjpe batting 30. Extras: (b6, lb3, nb13) 22. Total: (for 4 wickets in 83 overs) 196

Fall of wickets: 1-22, 2-104, 3-107, 4-127.

Bowling: Pandey 15-1-50-0, Hussain 13-1-33-2, Karthik 17-6-25-0, Hirwani 19-4-34-0, Parida 19-4-45-1