March 15, 2001
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The coach of the Australian team John Buchanan while complimenting the Indian team on a fabulous fight back, termed the fourth day's play has been the toughest day in his coaching career. Buchanan has been a key figure around which the Australian team has piled success after success of late in the international scene. Indian "domestic don" VVS Laxman (275 not out) became international at last with a performance that can only be termed as a miracle. Batting the entire duration of the day with able support from the stubborn Rahul Dravid (155 not out), the duo put India in a position to dictate terms in the second Test match at the Kolkata. Meanwhile it was a day of records galore at the Eden Gardens. Statistical highlights Former Indian captain and record holder for the highest individual Test score by an Indian batsman before VVS Laxman took over, Sunil Gavaskar described Laxman's knock as "truly wonderful". He hoped this would be just the first of many such knocks from Laxman. Meanwhile former Indian batsman and captain Mohammad Azharuddin said that he was proud of Laxman and was happy that a fellow Hyderabadi has done it. The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) announced a Rs 200, 000 award to VVS Laxman for his double hundred at the Eden Gardens. Laxman will also receive Rs 1000 for every run scored between 200 to 236 (the highest score by an Indian in Tests) and thereafter Rs 2000 for every run he scores. Laxman at the close of play on the fourth day is richer by Rs 314, 000 (about US$ 7000.00). The BCCI has planned to give Harbhajan Singh a felicitation on becoming the first Indian to take a hat-trick in Test cricket. The Secretary of the BCCI, Jaywant Lele said his hat-trick has been the silver lining in the Kolkata Test and deserves a fitting recognition. After Rahul Dravid's masterly performance in the Kolkata Test the selectors are likely to send him in as opener in the third Test at Chennai. S Ramesh's lack of application in the opening spot is likely to result in the talented opener being dropped. The seelctors who were to meet at the end of the fourth days play to pick the team for the 3rd Test at Chennai postponed the selection by on day saying they would like to view the final day's play before picking the team.  Sri Lankan umpire BC Cooray, who gave many poor decisions in the second Test at Kandy has been retained as the third umpire in the final Test at Colombo. Meanwhile former Sri Lankan leg-spinner Asoka deSilva will officiate along with South African Dave Orchard in the deciding Test. The South African Cricket Board has called for the setting up of a smaller professional umpiring panel to avoid the problems that have been arising out of umpiring of late. This statement comes in the wake of South African umpire Rudi Koertzen's involvement with the Sri Lankan umpire BC Cooray during the controversial second Test at Kandy. The South African Board felt that Koertzen, who they claim, is one of the few of the good umpires on the ICC panel has been unnecessarily dragged into an ill tempered war that was not his making. The rival captains Nasser Hussain and Sanath Jayasuriya decided to call a truce before the deciding Test at Colombo. The first two Tests of the series were marred by appeals, dissent and verbal confrontations between players of both sides. Indian match referee Hanumant Singh has accused both the sides of bringing the game to disrepute and warned the two captains of severe action if this is continued. Upbeat after the first Test win over New Zealand at Auckland a young Pakistan side enter the second Test at Christchurch in a confident mood. Pakistan won the toss and elected to bowl, in rather gloomy conditions that seemed helpful to bowlers, but the New Zealand openers survived the storm to remain not out at lunch with a score of 75. (At tea the home side was 157-1). Dashing batsman and equally flashy coach Javed Miandad sent a warning to the senior team members of the Pakistan side that they could no more take their places in the side for granted. The team that thrashed New Zealand by 299 runs in the first Test had four debutants all of whom contributed ably with the bat or the ball sending a warning to the veterans.
The now retired but still much loved English umpire Dickie Bird believes that the position of umpire will soon become obsolete with the electronic aids taking over. Bird said that he had been watching the Tests in Sri Lanka and said that series could probably be the final nail in the coffin for the men in white coats. Following the umpiring fracas in all the recent Tests being played in Sri Lanka, India, New Zealand and West Indies, the ICC president Malcolm Gray said the ICC would like to introduce a set of professional umpires and give them the power to dismiss players who may misbehave on the field as is in the case in football. The English domestic circuit is also like to see the introduction of a five run penalty for misbehaviour from the next season. Gray further added that next to the problem of corruption the umpiring is the next major problem on hand. BCCI secretary JY Lele said that India is unlikely to host the 2002 ICC knock out tournament due to financial reasons. He said that India had faced a lot of tax problems during the 1996 world cup and did not want that to happen again. Moreover the month of September is not really an ideal time for cricket since in most parts of the country the monsoon would still be on then. Former Australian batsman (and occasional under-arm bowler) Trevor Chappell is the new coach of the Bangladesh cricket team. He replaced former South African all-rounder Eddie Barlow, who had resigned as the coach of the Bangladesh national team after suffering a brain hemorrhage. Chappell has signed a one-year contract, which can be renewed on mutual consent.
AUSTRALIA IN INDIA 2nd Test at Kolkata (4th day) Australia: 445 (M Slater 42, M Hayden 97, J Langer 58, SR Waugh 110, JN Gillespie 46; Harbhajan Singh 7-123) India: 171 (VVS Laxman 59; GD McGrath 4-18) (following-on) 589-4 (SS Das 39, S Ramesh 30, VVS Laxman 275 not out, S Ganguly 48 Rahul Dravid 155 not out; J Gillespie 2-62) ASSAM v KARNATAKA 1ST PRE-QUARTER FINAL at Guwahati Assam: 321 (PK Das 95, S Saikia 49, Zakaria Zuffri 62, V Samant 55; D Ganesh 4-93, A Yalvigi 3- 92) 134 (Ganesh Kumar 50; D Ganesh 4-46, S Joshi 4-38) Karnataka: 312 (Arun Kumar 64, B Rowland 66, VST Naidu 40, S Joshi 33, A Yalvigi 38 not out; G Dutta 3-64, Javed Zaman 4-68) 144-3 (Vijay Bhardwaj 41, B Akhil 51 not out) Result: Karnataka won by seven wickets with two days to spare to reach the quarter final. BARODA v BENGAL 2ND PRE-QUARTER FINAL at Baroda (4th day) Baroda: 467 (C Williams 86, J Martin 103, TB Arothe 57, A Bhoite 54, M Mewada 62; LR Shukla 4- 119, U Chatterjee 3-88) 355 (S Parab 56, C Williams 32, J Martin 54, A Bhoite 50, R Patel 33, V Buch 50; LR Shukla 3-94, A das 3-47) Bengal: 247 (SJ Kalyani 48, RS Gavaskar 61, AK Das 32, U Chatterjee 52 not out; I Pathan sr. 4-59, I Pathan jr. 3-40) 353 (RS Gavaskar 125 not out, D Dasgupta 40, DJ Gandhi 62; A Bhoite 5-22) Result: Baroda won by 222 runs to reach the quarter final. PUNJAB v RAJASTHAN 3RD PRE-QUARTER FINAL at Mohali Rajasthan: 111 (R Jhalani 22; Vineet Kumar 4-25, RS Sodhi 5-40) 306 (G Khoda 40, R Kanwat 88, S Bhatia 53, Sanjeev Sharma 37; S Sanwal 3-127, Babloo Kumar 5-48) Punjab: 429 (RS Ricky 40, V Rathour 39, P Dharmani 101, D Mongia 75, RS Sodhi 55; Sanjeev Sharma 5-84, M Aslam 3-52) Result: Punjab won by an innings & 12 runs with two days to spare to reach the quarter final. MAHARASHTRA v RAILWAYS 4TH PRE-QUARTER FINAL at Pune Railways: 431 (A Pagnis 96, TP Singh 77, Yere Gowda 49, Abhay Sharma 59, S Khanolkar 76, KS Parida 32; MS Kulkarni 3-114; IR Siddiqui 3-90) 656-5 (S Bangar 80, TP Singh 42, K Parida 84, Y Gowda 221 not out, Abhay Sharma 188; Iqbal Siddiqui 2-85) Maharashtra: 308 (J Narse 40, H Kanitkar 124, K Aphale 37, IR Siddiqui 38; Harvinder Singh 5-95, S Bangar 3-58) Result: Match Drawn (Railways reach quarter final on the first innings lead) MADHYA PRADESH V HYDERABAD 5TH PRE-QUARTER FINAL at Indore Madhya Pradesh:489 (HS Sodhi 87, M Ojha 41, A Khurasiya 30, D Bundela 144, Abbas Ali 57, Jai Prakash Yadav 44; Kanwaljit Singh 4-95, Shivaji Yadav 4-114) 291 (HS Sodhi 36, N Ojha 40, A Khurasiya 35, Jai Prakash Yadav 48, CS Pandit 69 not out; Kanwaljit Singh 5-100, M Ghouse 5-97) Hyderabad: 382 (D Manohar 55, M Srinivas 107, Anirudh Singh 42, V Pratap 48; RK Chauhan 3- 84, Jai Prakash Yadav 3-88) 50-2 Result: Match Drawn (Madhya Pradesh reach quarter final on the first innings lead) TAMIL NADU V DELHI 6TH PRE-QUARTER FINAL at Chennai Tamil Nadu: 592 (S Badrinath 32, S Sriram 38, C Hemanth Kumar 121, S Sharath 58, J Madangopal 54, Robin Singh sr. 63, Reuben Paul 35, MR Srinivas 41, S Vidyut 115; Robin Singh jr. 3-96, AK Suman 3-93) 515-8d (Hemant Kumar 87, S Sharath 224, S Mahesh 71, S Vidyut 42) Delhi: 365 (R Sanghvi 31, M Minhas 58, P Chawla 30, V Shewag 106, H Chaudhary 60; MR Srinivas 4-111. S Mahesh 3-102) 149-1 (A Chopra 61, G Gambhir 69 not out) Result: Match Drawn (Tamil Nadu reach quarter final on the first innings lead) ORISSA V JAMMU & KASHMIR 7TH PRE-QUARTER FINAL at Cuttack (4th day) Orissa: 501 (RR Parida 220, PM Mullick 191; A Qayoom 3-79, Vijay Sharma 5-98) 299-4d (Suresh Kumar 55, S Raul 113 not out, P Jayachandra 41, D Mohanty 50 not out; Jagtar Singh 3-65) Jammu & Kashmir:151 (Kavaljit Singh 57, SK Sathpathy 4-39, J Das 3-15) 229 (Kavaljit Singh 67, V Taggar 33, DM Gupta 32, Shashi Kumar 39; D Mohanty 3-21, SK Sathpathy 4-51) Result:Orissa won by 420 runs with one day to spare to reach the quarter final Yesterday's News
Compiled by: Mohandas Menon
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