| The Hindu – 30.5.2003 – Friday |
| MAC-TNCA First Division championship |
| Jolly Rovers has the last laugh despite Viswanathan’s
gritty effort |
 |
The Jolly Rovers team which won the MAC-TNCA First
Division championship on Thursday. Standing (from left):
P. Padmanabhan (trainer), C. Ganapathy, G. Jayakumar (asst. coach),
R.S. Murali, Vikram Kumar, D. Tamil Kumaran, J. Hariesh, S. Badrinath,
L. Balaji, V. Shankar, R. Ramkumar, K. Sivakumar, A.G. Srinivas, H.
Vatekar, Rahul and S. Arun (scorer). Sitting (from left): Ajay Kudua,
Hemang Badani, S. Sujith, Vijay Sankar (Director, Chemplast Sanmar),
Bharath Reddy (manager), D. Vasu (captain), Abdul Jabbar (coach) and
K. Ram Mohan (asst. manager). |
| Chennai, May 29. It must have been a shattering
experience for Sunil Viswanathan to see a chase he built so well crumble
in front of his eyes. |
| The gritty lefthander, who walked in at the fall
of opener S. Suresh to the sixth delivery of the day, had guided Vijay
CC to 240 for four in 66 overs at tea. At that point, upstaging Jolly
Rovers’s score of 357 was a simple equation of 118 from 24 overs at
4.91 runs per over. |
| It was certainly within striking distance considering
how charged up Viswanathan (119, 313m, 225b, 12x4) and Sunil Oasis
(51, 95m, 74b, 4x4), who put on 90 for the fifth wicket, were. |
| But Vijay’s last six wickets fell in the space
of 6.2 overs for the addition of just 33 runs, paving the way for
Rovers to clinch the Raja of Palayampatti Shield for the third straight
edition on the concluding day of the two-day (innings restricted to
90 overs) MAC-TNCA first division championship final at the Chidambaram
Stadium on Thursday. The victory margin was 74 runs. |
| Oasis’ dismissal, caught by Hariesh at mid-off
while trying to loft speedster Balaji in the third over after tea,
set off a collapse. |
| Thereafter, three run-outs with Viswanathan involved
in all of them before being the last man out—caught at deep midwicket
by Sujith off leftarm spinner Ramkumar—saw the side cave in. |
| Gokulakrishnan was run out by substitute Sivakumar
from covers after Viswanathan sent him back. Balaji, back for his
fourth spell after tea, then had Vignesh caught behind by Vikram Kumar.
This was followed by Raju’s run out by Tamil Kumaran at the non-striker’s
end from mid-on, going for a second run. |
| It was well and truly over a while later when
Rajesh Sharma was run-out to a direct hit by Sujith from mid-off while
backing up. |
| The sudden change in script had a lot to do with
the fact that Rovers, realising that the contest was slipping away,
tightened up its bowling and fielding. |
| Earlier, a bad start—41 for two in the 16th over—put
Vijay under pressure straightaway. Viswanathan’s partnerships of 55
for the third wicket with J.R. Madanagopal (31) and 64 for the fourth
with Sharath (29) enabled the side stage a recovery of sorts. |
| It was a tremendous effort by Viswanathan under
sweltering conditions. This was his third century of the season as
he finished with 721 runs. The only half-chance he provided was when
Tamil Kumaran at deep mid-off misjudged a hit on 77. |
| India-A vice-captain Hemang Badani sprained his
ankle while fielding in the morning and didn’t take the field thereafter. |
| The other leading run-getters for Vijay this season
were S. Sharath (808, three 100s) and Jesubabu Honeymen (770, three
100s) Rovers spinners D. Vasu and Ramkumar finished with 41 and 39
wickets respectively, S. Badrinath (762, two 100s) took the batting
honours. |
