17-Dec-2008 85
With Gujarat already booking berth in quarterfinals and Orissa retaining their berth in the Elite Division, the seventh and last round match of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group-A match between the two sides, beginning at the East Coast Railway ground in Bhubaneswar tomorrow, has become an academic affair.
However, the four-day match is expected to witness some entertaining individual performance as there will be no psychological pressure to achieve victory or avoid defeat.
Considering the performance in the past six matches, Gujarat will be enjoying a distinct edge over hosts Orissa. Led by former India stumper Parthiv Patel, Gujarat is currently occupying the second position in the eight-team group `A` with 23 points from six matches, which include three wins, one defeat and two drawn games.
Their batting mainstay Bhavik Thakar is now occupying the fourth place in the list of leading scorers of the ongoing championship, behind Ajinkya Rahane (Mumbai), Cheteswar Pujara (Saurashtra) and Wasim Jaffer (Mumbai) with a total collection of 647 runs from 9 innings, including three centuries.
In the bowling department, Gujarat`s gangling medium-pacer Sidharth Trivedi has proved the second best in the championship, bagging 31 wickets, one less than leader Dhawal Kulkarni of Mumbai.
On the other hand, Orissa are lying at the seventh place with nine points, which came off one win and two drawn ties. Led earlier by Test discard Shiv Sundar Das, Orissa suffered three defeats mainly because of poor batting.
The team was dismissed four times within 120 runs and twice below 100 runs. None of the Orissa batsmen have been able to find a place among the top 20 leading scorers of the championship. Late entrant Pravanjan Mullick has saved the side from embarrassment by hitting the only century so far against Punjab.
The resignation of chief coach Venkatpathy Raju, injuries to captain Shiv Sundar Das and his fellow opening batsman Bikash Swarup Pati have compounded Orissa`s plight.
Both Das and Pati have been ruled out of the last match. In the absence of Das, all-rounder P Jayachandra will be leading the home team, while newcomer Natraj Behera and Paresh Patel are almost certain to open the batting.
But the hosts have the consolation that they are taking on Gujarat at a venue, which gave them the only victory (vs Punjab) in the past six matches and where Mullick scored the only century.
The impressive performance of the bowlers, especially that of experienced swing bowler Debasis Mohanty and his understudy Basant Mohanty is another factor, which should inspire the team to do well in the last match.
In the list of leading wicket-takers of the championship, Basant and Debasis are now occupying the fourth and fifth positions with a tally of 27 and 26 wickets respectively. The duo played instrumental role in the nine-wicket victory over Punjab and are expected to repeat their performance against Gujarat.
Though the pitch at the railway ground is not having as much grass as it had last time against Punjab, it is still expected to help seamers in the first hour of the match.
Teams (From):
ORISSA: Paresh Patel, Natraj Behera, Niranjan Behera, Subit Biswal, Rashmi Ranjan Das, Pravanjan Mullick, P Jayachandra (capt), Haladhar Das (wk), Debasis Mohanty, Basant Mohanty, Bibhudutta Panda, Sukanta Khatua, Dhiraj Singh, Alok Pradhan. Coach: Abakash Khatua.
GUJARAT: Rajesh Tabiar, Priyank Panchal, Bhavik Thakar, Niraj Patel, Nilesh Modi, Digant Popat, Parthiv Patel (capt, wk), Sidharth Trivedi, Amit Singh, Ashraf Makada, Iswar Choudhury, Mohnish Parmar, Timil Patel, Sunny Patel, Anupam Patel. Coach: Vimal Jadeja.
