Monday, November 26, 2007

It does't add up

Mumbai's players suddenly had a spring in their step and Abhishek Nayar soon increased the excitement by trapping Virat Kohli in front of middle stump. From 188 for 0, Delhi had slipped to 189 for 3; in a matter of minutes the balance had shifted towards Mumbai.

In the middle of all this Gambhir was treading the nervous nineties. Nayar had denied him a century in the first innings by getting him lbw when on 89. Gambhir was patient now, his primary responsibility was to bat for time given that Delhi had suddenly lost the momentum. He reached 99 with an on-drive off Nayar for his first boundary after lunch but couldn't manage a run for the next 22 balls, including three maiden overs from Ajit Agarkar who tested him with pace and movement. But Gambhir finally got the monkey off his back with a single off Powar to mid-off and repeatedly pointed towards the dressing room to show his relief.

Through the match Gambhir had had exchanges with a few Mumbai players but he showed his the other side of his temperament by staying at the wicket when all around him, on both teams, were losing their head.

The match had now become a contest in the mind. Mumbai's only intention was to defend at all costs and their bowlers, especially Ramesh Powar and Bhavesh Patel, had no qualms bowling a negative line. Gambhir and Mithun Manhas tried to force the issue initially, but settled down after a while.

Huh?

Batsmen Runs B 4s 6s SR



Mat Runs Ave


*G Gambhir (lhb) 137 278 13 1 49.28
striker


89 6992 53.78


M Manhas (rhb) 16 78 2 0 20.51
non-striker


86 4908 42.31


3/189 in 68.5 overs. 3/252 in 96 overs. Which means 63 runs were scored in 27.1 overs at the incredible rate of 2.33 runs/over. Negative line - Where? Forcing the issue - When?

What game was Nagraj Gollapudi watching?

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