Munaf bowls Rest to a commanding position

Rest of India are in a commanding position after the second day’s play of the Irani Cup match at the IPCL Sports Complex in Vadodara. This was after Delhi collapsed to 177 leaving a crucial 75-run lead to Rest of India.

The Kumble-led team after getting the lead made sure that they consolidated their position by stumps by putting up 99 for 1 in the second essay. ROI batted for 36 overs in which both Rahul Dravid (34* from 111 balls with 2 fours) and S Badrinath (33 from 71 balls with 5 fours) have come through with decent starts to their knocks. The only loss for their team is Wasim Jaffer (21 from 36 balls with 3 fours), who departed off the bowling of Pradeep Sangwan but not before putting on a useful opening stand of 44 along with Dravid.

Earlier in the day, Delhi got off to a shocking start when overnight opening batsman Gautam Gambhir played a loose drive on the up to nick a warm-up delivery from Zaheer Khan into the slips. Delhi, however did comeback in the game through a superb partnership between Aakash Chopra and Captain Virender Sehwag. That partnership was all about some stunning singles that were stolen along with the usual smashing shots from Viru. But Anil Kumble was clever enough in the damage control by having men along the boundaries for Sehwag. Just when the partnership seemed to have been putting Delhi on top, came a moment when Sehwag got into a war of words with Munaf Patel, who as such was teased by the two batsmen taking him for granted for stealing singles infront of him in the 30 yards circle. Sehwag was heard on the stumps microphone saying something that meant ‘Munaf learn some manners’ which clearly didn’t go well to the laid back fast bowler. Munaf was now an angry young man and he decided to do the right things which was to make the ball talk.

Munaf Patel clocked speeds at nearly 140 kmph while getting the ball to come back sharply along with the odd delivery that held its line. Aakash Chopra, who had earlier survived a plumb lbw moment off RP Singh was finally dismissed as he had to nick one great delivery from Munaf. It was a great catch as well in the slips from Mohammad Kaif, who dived to his right to pull off a one-handed catch to his right. Chopra looked well composed in his 42 off 68 with 7 fours and it will be only hard luck if he doesn’t find a regular place in the Indian Test line-up in the near future. Meanwhile Munaf continued to give his everything with the Selectors watching the match closely. Very soon he had his second victim when an awkward short delivery was fended to the Keeper down the legside by Virat Kohli to get Delhi to 96 for 3. It was a disaster when Sehwag too perished in the next over after finding it difficult to handle the extra bounce in a Kumble delivery which he was trying to late cut. It was another fabulous catch, this time from Dravid to keep the high catching standards of the Rest team intact. Prior to that, it was turning out to be an excellent contest that was heating up between Sehwag and Kumble. India’s highest wicket taker in Tests had started off with a testing maiden but soon was smacked over his head for an arrogant six by Viru which was followed up a bit later by a whip to mid wicket for a boundary. Kumble did get the last laugh because of his ‘never-say-die’ attitude. Sehwag made 43 from 57 with 3 fours and a six.

All of a sudden, Rest of India were all over Delhi as the lesser known players came out in the middle. In the 15 minutes of play between 11:00 AM and 11:15 AM, Delhi lost three quicks and with that also the plot. Now it was all about the cleaning up job for the Rest bowlers and they did that with relative ease. The good thing for India was the way Harbhajan Singh was making the ball turn and bounce sharply which will give a lot of trouble to the Aussies in the upcoming series. Anil Kumble on the other hand seemed to have developed a new delivery in his armoury which looks to have been copied from Ajantha Mendis. Delhi got bowled out for 177 in 57 overs with all the bowlers except RP Singh chipping in with the wickets. Munaf’s anger certainly was the turning point of the day as he ended up with a destructive 9-0-41-4!

With already a lead of 174 and 9 second innings’ wickets standing, Rest are clearly in the driver’s seat. Batsmen like Dravid, Laxman know very well how to convert any advantageous position to winning ones. With the wicket starting to show signs of big turn and bounce, playing Kumble and Harbhajan in the second innings will be very difficult for Delhi.