da bet sport： With India Pistons having taken a stranglehold on the final ofthe KSCA Diamond Jubilee tournament for the Coromandel CementTrophy at stumps on the second day at the M Chinnaswamy stadiumon Wednesday, the final day held out little interest
Partab Ramchand17-Aug-2000With India Pistons having taken a stranglehold on the final ofthe KSCA Diamond Jubilee tournament for the Coromandel CementTrophy at stumps on the second day at the M Chinnaswamy stadiumon Wednesday, the final day held out little interest. The onlyinterest was whether Chemplast would at least put up a fightbefore bowing to the inevitable.But it turned out to be abject surrender on the part ofChemplast. With the indisposed skipper Diwakar Vasu not in aposition to bat, Chemplast were all out for 125 in just 29.5overs. Left with the simple task of getting 53 runs in 40 oversfor victory, India Pistons raced home for the loss of two wicketsin 9.5 overs.The start of the Chemplast second innings was quite encouragingwith openers S Badrinath (24) and Ganesh Kumar (22) putting on 39runs in 7.5 overs. But the rest of the innings was a fairdisaster as medium pacer Shahbuddin and leg spinner WD Balaji Raopicked up the wickets at regular intervals. Only Jacob Martin putup some defiance by scoring 28 off 76 balls. The rest of thebatsmen succumbed meekly and the best partnership after theopening stand was 22 runs for the seventh wicket off 6.5 oversbetween Martin and R Ramkumar (16). Sahabuddin (4 for 67) andBalaji Rao (3 for 29) helped bring the Chemplast innings to aswift end.Left with a token task, India Pistons lost Satyajit Medappa (1)early but Vikram Rathour (27) and Hemant Kumar (14 not out) added40 runs for the second wicket off six overs. Rathour, who faced38 balls and hit three boundaries, fell with only two runsrequired and Hemanth Kumar and Pankaj Dharmani (1) applied thefinishing touches to a game which promised much but turned out tobe hopelessly one sided. Tinu Yohannan picked up both the wicketsin five overs for 29 runs.It somehow seemed fitting that Dharmani should get the winningrun for the Punjab player did a fine job earlier in the day.Keeping wickets for Reuben Paul, who had an injured thumb,Dharmani caught three and stumped one. Opening batsman AnandGeorge too was hurt, nursing an injured right index finger. Butthen India Pistons’ superiority was so marked that they neverreally had need of the two while coasting to victory.