It was sweet revenge for Chemplast who trounced India Pistons by sevenwickets in the final of the Moin ud Dowlah Cup in Hyderabad today. Amammoth undefeated stand of 217 between Jatin Paranjpe and SujithSomasundar helped Chemplast make light of a target of 281 to canterhome with almost seven overs to spare in what finally transpired to bea ridiculously one-sided affair.JR Madanagopal added another sorry episode to his past with anotherfateful dropped catch to let off another Mumbaikar. A dolly miss atlong off from the bowling of Robin Singh relieved Paranjpe, then on 63out of a total of 177, who had already turned towards the pavilion, inall preparedness to walk off. Robin fumed, Madanagopal squirmed butChemplast just laughed all the way to the bank.It was not all hunky-dory for the victors in the morning after theleft-handed Hemanth Kumar pillaged a bustling century to lift Pistonsto an imposing 280/9. Yet to play in a first class match, Hemanthsurely on the evidence of his showing here, is just weeks away frombeing blooded by Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy this season.The match started on the hallowed lawns of the Gymkhana Ground onwhose precincts the first edition of the Moin ud Dowlah Cup had kickedoff in the season of 1930-31. In that year such exalted personages asJack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe opened the batting for theMaharajkumar of Vizianagaram’s XI and a few years later the WestIndian Learie Constantine gave a well rounded account of his multipletalents.Just outside the main entrance there is a plaque which pompouslyannounces the structure beyond as the Hyderabad Cricket AssociationStadium. Well, stadium it may not be but the ground still retains apicturesque charm, surrounded on three sides by wide open spaces suchas the Parade Ground, the Polo Ground and a Hockey Ground, and thepanoramic view from what masquerades as a press box is a real steal.From 70/3, Hemanth and Madanagopal added 65 for the fourth wicket,the two looking in control and firmly milking the singles with fivemen stationed on the boundary. Then Madanagopal played a foolhardyshot against the grain of play, lofting the ball in the air knowingfull well there was a fielder at sweeper cover. Robin walked in at135/4 and was warned for running onto the wicket almost immediately.He put that behind him and added a brisk 110 for the fifth wicket withHemanth. The latter grew more innovative in his stroke play in Robin’sreassuring company, stepping two inches outside off stump andpersuading the ball away on the leg side on more than one occasion.All hell broke loose in the 44th over bowled by Dinesh Mongia, whichwent for 20 runs including two sixes over midwicket, Hemanth movingfrom 90 to 110 in the space of five balls. Soon after, Robin holed outfor 44 (51 balls, 2 fours) to deep midwicket just after beingcautioned a second time for trespassing onto the pitch. The score atthat point was 245 but Hemanth coaxed another 30 runs in the companyof the tail, audaciously running byes more than once when the ball hadbeen collected by the keeper. When he was run out from the last ballof the innings, he had accumulated an effortless 134 (126 balls, 10fours, 2 sixes). Veeranan had the best figures among some badly mauledanalysis, taking 2/34 from seven overs, but Ganesh Kumar had done afine job too, bowling ten overs on the trot in the middle overs for ameasly 37, without taking a wicket.Having beaten Chemplast by eight wickets in the final of the KSCADiamond Jubilee tournament a few weeks ago, Pistons must haveexperienced a feeling of deja vu at this point. Sujit Somasundar andGanesh Kumar kept them on their toes with some fairly frenetic runningas the 50 came up in 40 minutes inside eight overs. Ganesh Kumar wasthe more adventurous of the two, once picking Shahabuddin overmidwicket for six.In the 11th over, Shahabuddin, who plays his cricket for Andhra in theRanji Trophy, had Ganesh caught behind by the keeper Vasudevan. Andthree runs later, in his next over, the disappointing Badrinath wasconsumed by first slip. Dinesh Mongia walked in with a weight ofresponsibility on his shoulders. Flailing wildly at one outside offstump, he was snapped up by Vasudevan for a fourth ball duck tocomplete a double wicket maiden for Shahabuddin, who had scalped threewickets in eight balls at this stage. Mongia’s fall must have sentpanic waves through the Chemplast dressing room and at 67/3, Pistonswould have been licking their lips in anticipation of the kill, whichhad been well fattened up.They had reckoned without one Jatin Paranjpe. He signalled hisintentions immediately by picking on R Satish, who had replacedShahabuddin from the Plaza end, for three boundaries in his firstover. Railways leg spinner WD Balaji Rao was generating good nip andbounce off the wicket with an action that exuded vitality but hecontrived to floor a return catch offered by Paranjpe with the batsmanon 44. To be sure, the ball was fiercely driven back at him and Raocould not close his fingers around the ball in a one-handed parry.To add injury to insult, he went off the field to receive treatment onhis finger. Then followed the kindergarten miss by Madanagopal and afrustrated Robin bowled a rank bouncer off the last ball of the over,promptly called no ball. Indeed the bowling and fielding completelywent to pieces in the end, with wides, no balls, byes, even a beamerfrom Shahabudin, and fumbles in the field abounding.Just outside the ground a group of 64 city probables were limbering upfor their forthcoming Under 19 tournament and Paranjpe scattered themwith two clean hits over midwicket that landed in their midst, almostdecapitating one unfortunate lad. He hit 21 off the over, the 36th, byMuthupandian and brought up his 100 off 81 balls with his fifth six,also in the same trademark fashion, this time off Balaji Rao.If Somasundar has been ignored for much of this chronicle, theoversight can be rectified here and now. Having accumulated his runswith stealth, Somasundar finally abandoned such a covert, eveninsidious, manner of run making for some more unabashed hitting. WhenRao tossed one up, he obligingly hit him over wide long off to enterthe nineties. Robin finally invited Hemanth for a bowl in a gesture ofsurrender. He bowled a short one that sat up and beseeched to be hit,Somasundar carted it way out of the ground to end the mismatch of acontest and take his individual score to 97 (129 balls, 9 fours and 3sixes). For his part Paranjpe had settled at a personal tally of 115(91 balls, 10 fours and 6 sixes).That brought down the curtain on a curious tournament in which neitherlast year’s winner MRF, nor runner-up, ONGC took part. The Moin udDowlah Cup was presented to Chemlpast captain D Vasu who promptlyraised it over his head with a violent gesture, only to watch inembarrassment as the cup rolled off its pedestal and plummeted to theground. But that was a minor and easily forgiven blemish in what wasotherwise a moment to savour for him and the entire Chemplast team.

Border finished another wet day’s play at Buffalo Park with a 96-run lead after bowling Easterns out for 212 in their Supersport Series match on Sunday. A full day’s play was lost to the rain on Saturday, with not a single ball bowled.Easterns resumed on a total of 40 for four, chasing Border’s 244 allout. The visitors’ top-order crumbled quickly in the face of a tremendous onslaught from Border pace man, Vasbert Drakes.Drakes finished the day with figures of 4-48, while Geoff Love took3-63. But Mike Rindell stepped up to the crease and fired a quick 64 off only 90 balls to add some respectability to the Easterns innings. Rindell smashed 12 fours as he spearheaded the fight back.Pierre de Bruyn, who has been in fine form with the bat for his side this season, added a superb 53 runs himself, coming off 179 balls and including four fours. Together, the duo put on a valuable 92 runs for the seventh wicket before being bowled out just before tea.Border saw out the final session on 64 for two, with Kenny Benjamin claiming both the wickets of Dumisa Makalima (one run), and Stephen Pope (four runs), earning him figures of 2-28 when bad light finally forced play to be called off early.

There was a distinct smell of springtime around the County Ground at Taunton this afternoon where the sun was shining for one of the first times for several days.Head Groundsman Phil Frost who won the coveted Groundsman of the Year award for a record breaking number of times in 2001 was busy mowing and then rolling the square whilst one of his assistant’s was mowing the outfield.In another part of the ground a third member of his team was busy verti-draining the outfield with an elaborate piece of equipment that the club had hired from Torquay based Devon Garden Machinery.Phil Frost told me, “We verti-drain the field at this time of the year to aerate the outfield, and also to reduce compaction so that it will take any storms that we get in the season.”I asked Phil how things were progressing for the new season. He told me “It’s looking good for this time of year, and everything is taking shape but it’s still very soft so there is nothing worth covering up at the moment.”He continued, “This is the first dry day that we’ve had for three weeks, so I’m giving the square a light rolling which I always do at around this time of the year.I will then progress onto the heavier rollers, but you can’t rush these jobs, it’s all about time.”He concluded, “Assuming that the weather stays fine we should have everything ready for the one day friendlies against the Somerset Cricket League on April 8th and the Somerset Board Eleven on April 9th.”

North Group

Durham v Leicestershire, Chester-le-Street, 5.30Leicestershire head into a weekend double-header riding high after pulling off a remarkable heist – with a wicket from the final ball – to claim a tie against Yorkshire last week. They sit third in the congested North Group and have both O’Briens – Kevin and Niall – available before they join Ireland’s bid to qualify for next year’s World T20. Durham’s Scotland star Calum McLeod is also available before he heads off to the qualifiers.So crowded is the North Group that while Durham sit sixth, they are just two points behind second-placed Worcestershire and two ahead of table-proppers Derbyshire. As with the County Championship defeat to Yorkshire earlier this week, the injured Paul Coughlin is replaced in the squad by Jamie Harrison, who hopes to make his T20 bow three seasons after his maiden first-class and List A appearances for the club. Leicestershire face four Blast matches in ten days – as well as a Championship match against Kent – and have named a 15-man squad for this match, including youngsters Lewis Hill, Aadil Ali and Rob Sayer, as well as in-form former Durham man Ben Raine.Lancashire v Yorkshire, Old Trafford, 6.30The Roses clash, following one for the ages at Headingley last month which Jos Buttler’s outrageous 71 won for Lancashire, has a distinctly Australian feel, with Yorkshire’s Glenn Maxwell and Aaron Finch lining up opposite their World Cup winning team-mate James Faulkner. Lancashire have lost three of their four games since Buttler’s knock but still sit a point ahead of Yorkshire in the table – both are outside the top four – as they scramble for qualification. Finch will have fond memories of this fixture last season, when he smashed 88 in 55 balls to help Yorkshire to a five-wicket win.Aussies aplenty, but both sides are missing England stars, with Buttler unavailable for Lancashire and Adil Rashid joining Joe Root, Adam Lyth and Gary Ballance among Yorkshire’s absentees. Man of the moment Jonny Bairstow remains, but Liam Plunkett is injured, while spinners James Middlebrook and Karl Carver are called up in Rashid’s stead. Lancashire have named the eleven who lost by one run to Warwickshire last week, plus Tom Bailey and Saqib Mahmood.Nottinghamshire v Worcestershire, Trent Bridge, 6.30Seventh-placed Nottinghamshire can draw level with second-placed Worcestershire with a win but they will have to do without star men James Taylor and Luke Fletcher, who both picked up hamstring injuries in the Championship match between the two sides this week. Riki Wessels, playing his 100th T20 in England, will captain the side in Taylor’s place. Even with the group so tight, Nottinghamshire can barely afford another defeat if they are to continue their run of five consecutive home quarter-finals. Sam Wood and Will Gidman take places in the squad after missing out against Northamptonshire on Sunday. Worcestershire are hoping to win four away games on the bounce for the first time in this format.Birmingham v Derbyshire, Edgbaston, 6.30It is top plays bottom at Edgbaston as star draw Brendon McCullum makes his home debut for high-flying Birmingham Bears who have won six of their first eight matches and 12 of their last 14 in the format. They sit two points clear at the top of the North Group after their dramatic, traffic-defying, weather-beating one-run win over Lancashire last Friday. Birmingham have named an unchanged squad while Derbyshire – who are bottom of the group but just four points off second after an important victory over Nottinghamshire last week – have named a squad containing the 11 players involved in that game, as well as batsman Ben Slater.

South Group

Somerset v Gloucestershire, Taunton, 5.30Gloucestershire’s dramatic last-ball defeat to Surrey at Kia Oval on Wednesday leaves them a point and a position behind sixth-placed Somerset, leaving plenty riding on this game as the group stages reach the business end. Gloucestershire boast the tournament’s joint leading run-scorer – Michael Klinger with 520 – and wicket-taker – Tom Smith with 20 – but captain Klinger said after the defeat to Surrey that they now need to win all of their remaining fixtures to qualify for the knockouts.Recent history, however, is not in Gloucestershire’s favour. Somerset have won the last five fixtures between the two teams, including last month’s five-wicket win in Bristol. For Gloucestershire, Liam Norwell – is replaced in the squad by Miles Hammond, while Somerset add Craig Overton and Lewis Gregory to the XI that were pipped by Glamorgan at Taunton on Sunday.Surrey v Middlesex, Kia Oval, 6.30The first London derby of 2015 takes place after the two bottom sides in the South Group enjoyed contrasting midweek home games. Surrey will be in confident mood; Azhar Mahmood’s last-ball six against Gloucestershire gave them their second win on the spin, and they’ve won seven of their last eight against their rivals from across town. Mahmood, meanwhile has 11 more T20 wickets against Middlesex than anyone else (32) and has dismissed skipper Eoin Morgan six times in the format. Only the seven times Zaheer Khan’s has snared MS Dhoni gives a bowler more dismissals of a single batsman in T20 cricket.For Surrey, Freddie van den Bergh has been added to the 13-man squad for the win over Gloucestershire, while bottom-placed Middlesex, seeking to avoid a sixth consecutive defeat, have overhauled the squad that was thrashed by Sussex at Lord’s on Thursday. Mitchell McClenaghan is out with a badly broken and dislocated finger, while experienced men James Franklin and Nick Compton make way, with Ryan Higgins, Nick Gubbins, George Scott and Gurjit Sandhu all vying for places in the side.Hampshire v Glamorgan, Ageas Bowl, 7.00pmThese two sides are jostling for position in mid-table in the South Group. Hampshire – who have qualified for the knockout stages for the last five seasons – are battling to avoid losing three consecutive T20s for the first time since 2007 and the only change to the squad for the defeat to a Jesse Ryder-inspired Essex last Friday is the absence of allrounder Liam Dawson, who has headed to Chelmsford on loan, while Joe Gatting is expected to make his first T20 appearance of the season in place of the injured Sean Ervine.Glamorgan’s hopes of qualification for the knockout stages took a boost with their outstanding win at Taunton last Sunday but in that game they bid farewell to South African Wayne Parnell, whose stint with the county ended. Graham Wagg misses out with a lower back injury, while England U-19 star Aneurin Donald – who is available after completing his A-Levels – is in line to make his T20 debut.Sussex v Kent, Hove, 7.00pmSussex thrashed Middlesex at Lord’s on Thursday – their fourth win on the spin – to go top of the South Group but Kent, who have played a game less, can overtake them with a win in front of a sell-out crowd at Hove.Kent will be without death bowling specialist David Griffiths for the rest of the campaign after he underwent surgery on his back this week, but they welcome back Sam Billings from England duty, as well as Matt Coles and Darren Stevens, who sat out their clash with the Australians with minor injuries. Stevens needs just eight runs to become the first man to 3000 domestic runs in English cricket, while Oxford MCCU captain Sam Weller – a 20-year-old pace bowler – is also named in the squad for the first time. Sussex have named an unchanged squad.

Glamorgan 271 for 8 (Salter 73*, Rudolph 68) v Gloucestershire
ScorecardJacques Rudolph scored a half-century to keep Glamorgan in the hunt•Getty Images

Half centuries from Jacques Rudolph and Andrew Salter rescued Glamorgan from trouble on the first day of their Championship Division Two encounter against Gloucestershire at Swansea.Glamorgan choose to bat after winning the toss but were soon in dire straits on 41 for 3 as Gloucestershire’s opening bowlers David Payne and Liam Norwell accounted for three of their top four inside the first 14 overs. But former South Africa international Rudolph gave some respectability to Glamorgan’s score with a knock of 68 before No. 9 Salter ensured their tail wagged with an innings of 73 as they reached 271 for 8 at the close.The match was just six balls old when Payne dismissed Will Bragg, who found a leading edge and was caught at mid-off, with just one run on the scoreboard. Rudolph and Colin Ingram added 40 for the second wicket but Gloucestershire were celebrating when Norwell removed Ingram and Aneurin Donald in the space of four balls – with both batsmen caught by Will Tavare at third slip.Shortly before lunch, Chris Cooke shouldered arms and was bowled by Benny Howell and when Graham Wagg drove Payne loosely to cover after the interval Glamorgan had stumbled to 106 for 5.Rudolph, however, remained steadfast, playing every ball on its merit and had scored his runs from 149 balls with 11 fours before nudging Jack Taylor’s offspin to slip, where Hamish Marshall held a sharp catch.Not for the first time this season, Glamorgan’s late order batsmen rallied to the cause with Salter and Mark Wallace adding 40 for the eighth wicket, before Salter found an unlikely ally in Kieran Bull, whose previous highest score was 12. The two youngsters, with a combined age of just 42, not only achieved career-best scores but also shared in the highest partnership of the innings as they put on an invaluable unbeaten 85 for the ninth wicket.The new ball came and went as Salter played some handsome strokes either side of the wicket and, as Glamorgan’s leading spinner, he would have been encouraged to see the ball turn more towards the end of the day.He has already struck eight fours, and when the second day gets under way his first objective will be to guide his team to a total in excess of 300 and score the 27 runs he requires for a maiden Championship century.

ScorecardChris Dent defied Leicestershire•Getty Images

Gloucestershire still needed 17 runs to avoid the follow-on, with two wickets remaining in their first innings, when bad light ended play early on the third day of their county championship match against Leicestershire at Grace Road.It was an impressive effort from the Leicestershire seamers, following on from a similarly determined showing from their batsmen in compiling a first innings score of over 400 on a wicket which, while slow, has also had plenty in it for the bowlers.Resuming on 22 for 0, Chris Dent and Will Tavare took the score on to 51 before Tavare, perhaps a little unfortunately, was given out caught down the leg-side by wicket-keeper Niall O’Brien off the bowling of Ben Raine.Heavy cloud made the light less than ideal, and Gareth Roderick appeared not to pick up the well-pitched up delivery from Wayne White that knocked out his leg-stump for 1. At 52-2, Gloucestershire were wobbling, but Chris Dent and Peter Handscomb steadied the visitors’ nerves with the first century partnership of the matchDent was dropped by Angus Robson at first slip off Raine on 34, a difficult chance high to the fielder’s left, but Rob Taylor, back in the side due to an injury to Charlie Shreck, and Clint McKay then picked up four wickets between them for just 30 runs to keep the Foxes in with a chance of enforcing victory.Handscomb had just gone to his 50, from 99 balls, when he pulled a short ball from Taylor straight into the hands of Rob Sayer at deep square leg, and the left-armer followed up by trapping first Dent (73 from 186 balls) and then Hamish Marshall (5) leg before wicket.McKay then induced Benny Howell to push at a delivery which swung away, and wicketkeeper Niall O’Brien held the edge. Jack Taylor got off the mark by launching off-spinner Sayer for a straight six, but after an hour’s break for bad light, when 11 overs were lost, attempted to loft McKay through the offside and was caught at cover.Raine bowled James Fuller with a well-pitched up delivery in the following over, but with five overs remaining, umpires Nick Cook and Nigel Cowley decided the light was again too poor to continue.Taylor said there was still enough in the wicket for the Foxes to go on and win the game. “There’s still a bit in it and we probably didn’t bowl as well as we should have done in the first session. The Handscomb wicket got us going, and after that we bowled pretty well. “We’re in a nice position now, and if we can get two quickly tomorrow morning we’re driving the game and in control.”Handscomb admitted he was disappointed with the manner of his dismissal. “I don’t usually play that shot, but Chris Dent’s innings was invaluable. The first 20 minutes tomorrow will shape how the game pans out.”

Faizan Janjua, who was elected to his first term on the USA Cricket Association board of directors in March, has resigned from his post as vice-president after just over five months in the position. Janjua’s resignation was announced via Facebook on Wednesday night, and comes just five days after the USACA board was absent from the ICC’s town hall meeting for USA stakeholders in Chicago.”I knew from the get-go that it would be hard to work with the current regime of USACA,” Janjua wrote. “But I wanted to give it a shot. Now it is very evident that I can’t proceed with a very ill-managed organization. Therefore, I’m resigning as 2nd VP of USACA.”When contacted by phone on Wednesday night, Janjua told ESPNcricinfo: “There was no real effort to steer the organisation in the right direction. If you want to correct something, you have to recognise where you are doing wrong or where the problem is and they are not even willing to do that.”They think the whole ICC thing is being malicious toward USACA, which is wrong. Their responses to some of the questions raised by the ICC, they are not willing to answer them. They hide behind the USACA constitution and their answer to everything is, ‘We are governed by the USACA constitution.’ I think it’s very unlikely that they will be reinstated.” The ICC had suspended the membership of the USACA in June.According to Janjua, the USACA board’s absence from the Chicago town hall meeting run by the ICC on August 29 was an organised effort. Janjua says that during a USACA board meeting on August 25, the board decided not to attend the meeting because they claimed they were “informed of the town hall but not formally invited”. However, an ICC spokesperson denied the USACA claim that they were not invited to the town hall.”It is incorrect to suggest that the USACA was not invited to attend the Town Hall meeting,” an ICC spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo on Thursday. “The ICC wrote to the USACA president, inviting him and representatives of his board. This invitation was reiterated during ICC’s meetings with USACA in New York some weeks ago, and in correspondence following this meeting.”Separate from his USACA post, Janjua serves as president of the Northwest Cricket League and ran on the same ticket as Atlanta Georgia Cricket Conference president Suren Gandavaram in the 2015 USACA election and won a vice-president post that had been vacated by Michael Gale who chose not to seek re-election. However, Gandavaram’s bid against Dainty failed, leaving Janjua without a major ally on the board and as a result he says he ran into steady opposition during meetings.”In one of the meetings, all of them jumped on me because I was asked by the ICC about the ghost leagues,” Janjua said. “I told them what was true, what was happening in my area because I am familiar with it. One of the leagues called Seattle Cricket League is not an active league and they did not like it.”Janjua, 45, first came to attention on the US cricket scene in 2012 when he was part of a five-man league presidents committee appointed by the USACA to oversee the appeals process filed by the 32 USACA member leagues who were barred from voting in that year’s election after the completion of a member leagues compliance audit. After all appeals were rejected, Janjua blasted the process, calling it a sham in an email to all USACA members.Janjua also was part of the six-man league presidents committee formed after the 2014 USACA AGM to come up with revisions to a proposed new USACA constitution after a vote to ratify the document was deferred at the AGM. The group’s proposals were put forward to the USACA board in January and were rejected outright. As a result, the 2015 USACA elections went ahead under the USACA constitution that has been in place since 2008. When asked why he pursued a spot on the USACA board after these experiences, Janjua said he was hoping to be an agent of change from the inside.”I gave it a shot but it didn’t work,” Janjua said. “The current board, they do not have the vision or the capacity to change anything. It has to be a different group. If people are hoping that these people will change, it’s not going to happen. They’ve been around for long enough and they know how to control the organisation. The ICC or someone else will have to come up with a different group of people, those who have the right idea and the vision to change cricket.”ESPNcricinfo attempted to contact USACA president Gladstone Dainty for a response to Janjua’s comments. An email and phone message left with Dainty were not responded to.

ScorecardFile photo: Karun Nair’s unbeaten 119 ensured Karnataka had a lead to take into day three•K Sivaraman

Karun Nair scored an unflustered hundred to put Karnataka on top against Bengal on a day that could have easily gone either team’s way in Bangalore. Karnataka were in slightly precarious positions a couple of times and Nair stitched two crucial partnerships to avoid any further hiccups for his team, as the hosts ended the second day with a lead of 10 runs and six wickets in hand. After Karnataka lost two wickets in the first session and two more in the second, Nair’s unbeaten 119 ensured the third went wicketless as he cruised along with Shreyas Gopal during a century stand.Nair’s first consolidating alliance came with Manish Pandey for a stand of 98 runs, after three batsmen had returned to the pavilion, including Shishir Bhavane retiring hurt. The bigger and more sedate partnership came with Gopal for 113 runs that saw Bengal’s bowling line-up run out of options.The Nair-Pandey stand was shorter but more entertaining and exciting. The pair came together at 76 for 2 in the second session after Bhavane had been injured, and the umpires had decided to take lunch. For a new session, Pandey and Nair brought out a new plan – they unleashed a flurry of boundaries and doubled the score in no time. They hammered nine fours together in a space of five overs by targeting the pacers in the beginning. Pandey battered Dinda for three fours in the 33rd over and Nair used his late cut effectively against Shukla to pierce the gaps. Manoj Tiwary brought on Sourav Sarkar and Pragyan Ojha immediately, but could not bring any respite.They weren’t treated differently. Sarkar conceded two fours in an over and Pandey drove Ojha inside-out in the next over for consecutive overs. As both batsmen neared their fifties, Tiwary now brought Veer Pratap Singh and he was dispatched for three fours in two overs. While Pandey used more power, Nair relied more on timing and the pace of the ball to place the ball in gaps. Bengal finally got a break soon after Pandey’s fifty, that featured nine fours, when the batsman pulled Shukla straight to midwicket.Shukla was the only bowler to ask questions of the batsmen with a tight line. He had earlier been denied Pandey’s wicket when the batsman was trapped in front of middle stump just after lunch, but the umpire had turned the appeal down. Shukla continued to toil after dismissing Pandey and made CM Gautam edge one but the keeper was up and the ball flew past him.As the runs dried up before tea, Pragyan Ojha picked his maiden wicket for Bengal by extracting extra bounce to have Gautam caught at backward point with an excellent catch from Shreevats Goswami. Bengal might have thought of picking up a few more quick wickets, but Nair and Gopal dashed their hopes.The two started slowly but steadily in the last session by nudging the ball around. The ball was over 50 overs old and Nair was already in his 60s. Tiwary brought himself on, Ojha started bowling outside leg, Shukla came back for another spell but Nair and Gopal negotiated each of them rather easily. Without any risks and aerial shots, they hauled the score past 300, their partnership crossing 100. Gopal stamped his authority by coming down to Ojha and pushing the ball firmly between mid-off and cover with sheer timing to inch closer to 50.However, the Karnataka dressing room applauded the hardest and the school kids whistled the loudest when Nair cut Ojha late to the third-man boundary for four to reach his century. Nair followed it with a handsome cover drive for the same result. That hundred and Gopal’s fourth first-class fifty soon took the hosts into the lead and a safe position.Earlier, the platform for crossing 300 was laid by R Samarth (30) and Bhavane (32) once Dinda bowled opener Robin Uthappa for 3 in the third over. The brought up a fifty stand as Bhavane left plenty outside off and Samarth drove nicely on either side of the pitch. But Veer Pratap soon drew Samarth’s outside edge as the ball held its line outside off to open up the batsman. The bigger blow came when Bhavane was hit on his right wrist by Dinda at the stroke of lunch against a rising short ball and was unable to drop his hands in time. Bhavane was declared fit by the end of the day and should be ready to bat on the third day.Bengal could not add anything to their overnight 312 for 9, as Dinda swatted Vinay Kumar and was caught at mid-on on the second ball of the day. The Karnataka captain finished with 4 for 80.

Had the DeLorean from been available to Australia’s pace bowlers in Brisbane, they’d have been about as disoriented by the sight of Ross Taylor’s double century as Marty McFly was by news the Chicago Cubs had supposedly won the 2015 World Series.Taylor’s monumental innings, described as “immense” by New Zealand’s batting coach Craig McMillan and “one of the best innings I have seen” by his batting partner Kane Williamson, was an achievement made all the more admirable by the fact he had started this tour in truly grim touch.In Brisbane, Taylor had battled through a truly tortured first innings, and looked only marginally more sure of himself in the second. A duck and 16 in his two warm-up innings were likewise scant indicators that Taylor had it in him to construct the highest ever score by a New Zealand batsman against Australia, and the only double hundred ever made by a visiting Test batsman at the WACA Ground.There is no doubt Williamson played a key role in showing Taylor the way forward, playing so fluently and assuredly both at the Gabba and here that others were shown how Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon could be successfully tackled on their home turf. But Taylor also showed his own development by scoring in zones his previously dominant bottom hand might once have cancelled out.Unbeaten on 235 at day’s end, Taylor will hope to take New Zealand into the lead and a position to pressure Australia – certainly Williamson and McMillan are hoping he can.”I think it would be one of the best innings that I have seen,” Williamson said. “The tempo that he batted and the length of time that he has been at the crease has been outstanding and moving our team’s position forward. I know it is a tough ask but hopefully he can keep going a little bit tomorrow, build a couple of partnerships would certainly help us a lot, but certainly an absolutely fantastic innings so far.”I thought he was really calm out there. He just went about his work in a reasonably aggressive way and that’s when he bats at his best I think. To get that momentum in his innings from pretty much the word go – there were certainly some tough periods but he was playing so well. It was such a nice thing.”McMillan was part of the New Zealand side that so nearly forced a match and series win over Steve Waugh’s powerful team at this ground in 2001, a performance built largely on a record stand between Nathan Astle and Adam Parore. Taylor’s union with Williamson eclipsed their record, before the former went on to heights McMillan said he had always been capable of reaching.”I think it was an immense innings and it had been brewing for some time,” McMillan said. “He’d been a little bit short of time in the middle and runs, but what do they say? Form’s temporary and class is permanent. That got shown today. His concentration in the first two or three overs of the day really set the tone for the way he was going to bat.”His tempo was superb, hitting straight down the ground was something he’s worked really hard on in recent times just to open up that area that probably hasn’t always been a strength of his, but some of those straight cover drives were some of the best you’ll see from any player in the world.”You’d have to rank it right up there as one of New Zealand’s best Test knocks, with the conditions, with the match situation, you throw all that into the mix and it’s one of the best. There’s still a lot more batting to be done. He can go as long as the concentration stays strong. We want more partnerships from that lower order, guys to hang in with him, bat as long as possible and see what happens from there.”Williamson and Taylor were both highly successful in picking off more or less every bad ball the Australians bowled, an efficiency that allowed them to dictate terms all day and prevent the hosts from gaining momentum. McMillan said he had encouraged his men to stay positive throughout, ensuring that the bowlers knew they would be hurt if they strayed from all but the most disciplined of lines.”They’re attacking bowlers who come after you, but the upside of that is there’s scoring opportunities,” he said. “One of the impressive things from our guys over the last two days is how efficient they’ve been when they’ve been offered a scoring opportunity. They’ve hit gaps well and they’ve really put anything loose away, which has put that pressure back on the Australian bowling attack.”That’s a key when you’re facing a good attack that’s got extra pace is that when they miss, you’ve got to make sure you hurt them, you’re not looking just to defend and survive, you’re actually looking to score, and obviously Kane and Ross in that partnership did that beautifully today but it flowed right through the partnerships in the order throughout the day, and that’s something we’ll continue to be looking for.”

Hyderabad managed to restrict Baroda to a slender first innings lead of12 runs and were 4 for no loss at stumps on the second day in theirgroup B match at the Gymkhana Ground in Secunderabad on Monday.Hyderabad still have two more days to pursue their objective ofan outright win to qualify for the knockout stage of the tournament.Earlier, Baroda resumed at 2 for no loss, and soon were 70 for 5. HRJadhav (84 runs of 224 balls in 315 minutes), who came in at the fallof the first wicket, played the sheet-anchor role for Baroda withthree valuble partnerships. Jadhav was initially helped by NR Mongia(21 runs of 44 balls), in a sixth wicket partnership worth 41 runs in12.5 overs. Then Jadhav was joined by AP Bhoite (42 runs of 85 balls)and the two put on 65 runs in 25.3 overs for the seventh wicket.Later, RB Patel and Jadhav helped Baroda to their first innings leadwith a eight wicket partnership of 32 runs in 11 overs. When Jadhavwas the ninth batsman out at the score of 211, he had made sure thatBaroda gained the vital 5 points from their slender first inningslead.For Hyderabad, Z Singh and Raju were the most successful bowlers with 3for 54 and 56 respectively, while Satwalkar and Kanwaljit Singh pickedup two wickets apiece.