Kent 'heard nothing' of Sussex approach

Kent have said they were not aware of the recent match fixing allegations regarding their CB40 match against Sussex in 2011 until the claims were made in a newly published book.

Bookie, Gambler, Fixer Spy: A Journey to the Corrupt Heart of Cricket's Underworld, claims to reveal details of match-fixing in cricket, including an approach made to Sussex players to fix a CB40 match against Kent at Hove, which was televised live.

Sussex admitted their players were approached and a report was made to the ECB. An internal investigation was also held where no evidence of wrongdoing was found. Kent have stated the publication of the book was the first they heard of the incident.

"We'd actually heard nothing," chairman of cricket Graham Johnson said. "When it came out in the press that was the first Kent were aware of it. Sussex said they were looking into certain things and it was internal. We've said is there anything you need from us but they said it's internal and dealt with."

Commenting on the dangers of corruption in county cricket, Johnson added, "Obviously history tells us that if stuff starts getting televised in the subcontinent it raises the profile and the potential for that to happen."

Kent chief executive Jamie Clifford admitted the recent allegations had shown the dangers of match and spot fixing. "You've got the issues relating to players at Essex and now the revelations from Sussex about players being approached. Those are two of our neighbouring counties so I think we'd be naïve to say 'oh we don't think there's any problem'. We have to be alive to the dangers."

Clifford also explained the steps the club was taking against corruption. "Our staff, both playing and off-field are briefed regularly about the potential that exists in relation to match and spot fixing and urged to be extremely vigilant in that regard. They know very clearly that as a club there's no way we'd tolerate any involvement of any individual in something like that. The onus is on them if they're approached to make it clear to us at a very early stage that that has happened."

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Pandey, Ojha help Madhya Pradesh to safety

Madhya Pradesh 256 (Bundela 53, Rameez 54, Rajan 45, Pankaj 4-63, Rituraj 4-68) and 200 for 1 (Ojha 102*, Zafar 54) lead Rajasthan 379 (Parida 108, Bist 85, Khatri 47*, Pandey 6-92) by 77 runs
Scorecard

After being outplayed on the first two days in Jaipur, Madhya Pradesh ended the third in a better position by restricting Rajasthan's first-innings lead to 123, and then setting up a strong second innings. They may now escape with a draw, and not suffer outright defeat.

Fast bowler Ishwar Pandey and wicketkeeper-opener Naman Ojha made MP's recovery possible. Rajasthan were dismissed 379 due to Pandey's six-wicket haul, and then Ojha's unbeaten century took MP to 200 for 1 at stumps, ahead by 77. With the green wicket not offering much assistance to the bowlers, and without a quality spinner, Rajasthan may find it difficult to force a result on the final day.

Pandey had taken four wickets on the second day, including those of stand-in captain Vineet Saxena, Ashok Menaria and centurion Rashmi Parida. He claimed two more on the third morning. Resuming at 306 for 6, wicketkeeper Sidhant Yagnik and Madhur Khatri began the day well for Rajasthan, hitting four boundaries in four overs. But then Pandey settled into a nagging line to left-hand batsman Yagnik, who edged one in the ninth over of the day to keeper Ojha.

Before Rituraj Singh could get his eye in, Pandey put in some extra effort, and the additional bounce had Rituraj edging his delivery to Zafar Ali at second slip. Though Khatri, primarily in the side as an offspinner, played an effortless knock, he ran out of partners on 47 when Anand Rajan bowled last man Aniket Choudhury to earn his 100th first-class wicket.

Rajasthan's lead wasn't a small one, especially with more than a day and a half remaining in the game. After a disastrous performance by MP's top order on the opening day, when they were reduced to 71 for 5 in the first session, the openers had to come good to earn one point. Ojha and Ali learnt from their first-innings mistakes to put on 134 before Ali was trapped lbw by Rituraj.

Ojha, however, was the star of the day. In the first innings, he had poked at and edged a delivery that moved away from off stump. This time, Ojha didn't flash his bat outside off for the first hour. He preferred to leave as many balls as he could.

Ojha didn't go into a shell either; he chose the balls he wanted to score off. Soon after he reached his fifty, he went after the part-time spinner Ashok Menaria, hitting two sixes over long-off and cutting to the point boundary. In the next over, however, Ali was dismissed. With Pankaj Singh and Rituraj steaming in, Ojha, batting on 78, defended for the next hour.

Only in the last over of the day, when Khatri was brought on, did Ojha attack again. He stepped out to hit a six over long-off and then swept the next ball through square leg for a boundary to raise his ninth first-class century.

"[Ojha] was terribly disappointed after being dismissed in that manner (in the first innings)," MP coach Mukesh Sahani said. "We had a chat about it. He realised that he hadn't justified his position of being among the senior players in the team by getting out in that manner. It was heartening to see him rectifying it."

Despite playing first-class cricket for 12 years, Ojha has not fulfilled his batting potential "I haven't converted as many starts into hundreds as I should have but over the last few years, I have realised the need for scoring big hundreds and have been working towards it," Ojha said. "Since I came to the Ranji Trophy days after playing the Champions League [for Delhi Daredevils], it took time for me to switch into the first-class mode. But now that I have, I hope I can continue for the rest of the season."

After stumps, most of the MP squad played a game of football until the light faded, unlike other days. Though the team had conceded three points with the first-innings lead, their relieved faces indicated that their primary objective at the start of the penultimate day - to avoid being in a position to concede an outright victory to Rajasthan - had been achieved.

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Delhi lay ground for first-innings battle

Delhi 215 for 3 (Mohit 71, Unmukt 51) trail Baroda 561 (Rayudu 131, Chauhan 113, Panchal 80, Gagandeep 76, Awana 4-104) by 346 runs
Scorecard

Delhi laid the base for a strong reply to Baroda's 561, setting up a fight for the first-innings lead on the final day at Feroz Shah Kotla. Half-centuries by Mohit Sharma, who was playing his second first-class game, and Unmukt Chand led the hosts to 215 for 3 at stumps. They need 347 more to earn three points.

Having batted for 168 overs in two days, Baroda chose not to declare and played another 10 overs before being dismissed for 561. Resuming on 525 for 7, Ketan Panchal and Gagandeep Singh, who were batting on 72 and 70 respectively, added little to their overnight scores as seamer Parvinder Awana claimed their wickets quickly.

Opener Shikhar Dhawan started Delhi's innings aggressively, but Baroda captain Ambati Rayudu set a defensive field to counter it. When left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt bowled to Mohit, there was a long leg, a deep midwicket and long-on to stop the boundaries.

After fast bowler Murtuja Vahora dismissed Dhawan for 30, Mohit played patiently and added 87 with Unmukt. Unmukt played a lot of drives, but due to the presence of a sweeper cover, many of them were singles. The stand was broken when Bhatt got a delivery to pitch on middle-stump line and turn to clip the off bail. Unmukt seemed disappointed and reluctant to leave the crease.

Mohit added 78 runs with Mithun Manhas, playing smartly to take singles and doubles to negate the defensive field. Seamer Firdaush Bhaja trapped Mohit lbw 5.4 overs before stumps.

Delhi coach Vijay Dahiya wanted his batsmen to score more after getting set, because it will not be easy for the hosts to chase Baroda's score successfully on a slow pitch. With fading light not allowing the required number of overs to be bowled in the day, there is also a possibility of a draw without two completed innings.

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England to look at selection - Cook

Alastair Cook admitted England would have to reflect on the selection of their side after succumbing to a nine-wicket loss against India in the first Test in Ahmedabad.

England's bowling attack, with three frontline seamers and one specialist spinner, looked ill-suited for a Test played on a low, slow wicket, with the seamers claiming 1 for 254 in the match.

Their batsmen also struggled and, in eight innings between them, England's middle-order of Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell and Samit Patel contributed just 68 runs. By contrast, Cheteshwar Pujara scored 247 runs in the match without being dismissed and India's two spinners claimed 13 wickets between them.

While Cook admitted the problem, in part, was simply that several players had underperformed, he also conceded that the team management would have to reconsider the make-up and balance of the side ahead of the second Test which begins in Mumbai on Friday.

"Clearly we're going to have to look at our selection," Cook said. "There are some good people making decisions in this England team and we thought we were doing the right thing for the side. The result showed we might have got it wrong. When you get beaten by nine wickets, you have a look at a lot of areas and we have to look at what we could have done better. There will be a lot to ponder. We'll have to look at our squad for the next game."

The omission of left-arm spinner Monty Panesar has been highlighted as a key error by many critics but Cook felt the failure of England's batting line-up in the first innings was more of an issue. He refuted any suggestion that England had been underprepared, but accepted that they would require far more of the team to contribute if they were to fight their way back in the series.

"Our batting, especially in the first innings, didn't deliver enough runs," Cook said. "I thought it was a very good cricket wicket. There was a little bit in it for the spinners, but if you applied yourself with the bat it held together probably better than we thought it would. It was turning, yes. But runs were able to be had out there, as we showed in our second innings.

"If we're going to win out here, everyone in the game has to contribute. We need everyone to stick their hands up at certain times. The lads who haven't performed as well as they would have liked in this game will be very disappointed. We showed a lot of character in that second half of the game. There are a lot of quality players in that dressing-room, with very good records who have scored hundreds against every attack in the world. They didn't deliver in this game, and they know that. The middle order didn't score enough runs. Everyone has to have a look at themselves if we want to take something out of this series."

The defeat means England have lost five out of six Tests in Asian conditions this year, leaving Cook to agree that mental scars might be as large an impediment to progress as technical deficiencies. "I'd say it's a bit of both. Clearly, there are always technical issues before the mental ones kick in. We're doing the right things. It's now getting it right out in the middle and trusting our method there. We can only continue working as hard as we are doing, and I can't fault the lads for that. It's a case of working as hard as we can in the nets, and trusting our method out in the middle."

Cook also said the result had soured the memory of one of his finest innings. "I'm very happy with the way I batted," he said. "To score any hundred for England is very special and to score one in that situation probably made it even more special for me.

"Technically, it might have been a good innings. But you always get more satisfaction when you do it in a winning cause or to save a game. Maybe the 230 in Brisbane, in a similar match situation, is a better innings. But the result is what really matters and we weren't good enough over the five days to win. I'd have been even prouder if I'd survived and dragged a draw out of it. I'm bitterly disappointed."

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Parida century gives Rajasthan the lead

Rajasthan 306 for 6 (Parida 108, Bist 85, Pandey 4-65) lead Madhya Pradesh 256 (Bundela 53, Rameez 54, Rituraj 4-68, Pankaj 4-63) by 50 runs
Scorecard

Rashmi Parida has been playing domestic cricket since the mid-1990s and during that time he has grown used to being the unsung hero. Whether for his home team Orissa or for the adopted Rajasthan, Parida's contributions in the middle order have usually been overshadowed by those of his team-mates.

When Parida was holding one end up for Orissa for 15 seasons, he was playing second fiddle to the likes of Pravanjan Mullick and SS Das. And when he joined Rajasthan as a professional, his two professional colleagues Aakash Chopra and skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar walked away with much of the credit for their rags-to-riches story in the last two seasons.

One of the few times Parida got his due was during the 2010-11 final, when his 56 and 89 earned him the Man-of-the-Match award. But even though he doesn't make headlines as much he should, Parida has been Rajasthan's go-to man over the last three years. And he did his reputation no harm by scoring his 16th first-class century on the second day of Rajasthan's Group A match against Madhya Pradesh at the KL Saini stadium in Jaipur.

With Chopra having ended his association with Rajasthan after two years, and the captain Kanitkar missing the game because of a calf strain, it was up to Parida to help Rajasthan overhaul MP's first innings total of 256 and keep them in the hunt for a much-needed outright victory. Along with contributions from his team-mates, especially Robin Bist who made 85, Parida did his job to near-perfection. He was dismissed for 108 in the penultimate over of the day, and Rajasthan finished on 306 for 6, ahead by 50 runs.

After Vineet Saxena and Robin Bist had begun Rajasthan's recovery from 7 for 1, the stand-in captain Saxena was trapped lbw by Ishwar Pandey, who was the pick of the MP bowlers, around an hour before lunch. Two balls later Ashok Menaria fished at one that was pitched slightly outside off to offer a regulation catch to wicketkeeper Naman Ojha.

At 87 for 3, Parida joined his Air India junior Bist. With a rookie batsman, a wicketkeeper and a long tail to follow, Rajasthan needed significant contributions from both batsmen, and they delivered.

"The manner in which Paddy bhai [Parida] started off took all the pressure off me. He bats with such ease that it just makes you feel how easy batting is," Bist said. "He bats in a manner like, ball ko chot na lag jaaye [the ball shouldn't get hurt]."

Even after Bist was caught down the leg side off Anand Rajan, Parida continued to flourish. Puneet Yadav was getting a rare outing due to Kanitkar's injury and Rajasthan were still 85 runs adrift of the lead. Parida not only gave his young partner confidence but also took pressure off him by going after the bowlers a bit. After playing some fluent cuts, Yadav was dismissed against the run of play when Anand Singh caught at well-timed flick at forward short leg.

Though his partners kept changing, Parida continued towards a deserving century. And when he finally got there, with a push to mid-off for a single, Parida was cheered loudly and given a standing ovation by his team-mates. He had failed to score one last season, despite having scored more than 500 runs. "The fact that I couldn't score a century last season was playing on my mind all along," he said. "It's good that the monkey is off the back early in the season."

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Baroda continue to pile on the runs

Baroda 525 for 7 (Rayudu 131*, Chauhan 113, Panchal 72*) v Delhi
Scorecard

Baroda, led by centuries from captain Ambati Rayudu and Abhimanyu Chauhan, continued to pile on the runs against a listless Delhi attack, reaching 525 for seven at stumps on the second day. There were no signs of declaration and it now seems a foregone conclusion that the visitors will be playing for three points on a track that is getting slower. Baroda will back themselves, given Delhi's inconsistent batting over the last two games.

Rayudu and Chauhan laid the foundation for a big score, and were backed by important contributions from the lower middle-order batsmen. Gagandeep Singh entertained the small Sunday crowd with some big hits while Ketan Panchal also batted sensibly, putting on 126 runs for the eighth wicket. Together, Gagandeep and Panchal hit half a dozen sixes and 14 fours.

The eighth-wicket partnership further hurt the Delhi bowlers, who had been deflated by the benign Feroz Shah Kotla surface. Rayudu has been a consistent performer in domestic cricket and he notched up his 13th first-class century. Chauhan, who put on a 213-run stand with Rayudu, batted in a manner reminiscent of Wasim Jaffer, with his confident on-side strokeplay, and reached his second successive century this season.

For Delhi, it was a pity that seamer Parvinder Awana, who worked up brisk pace and used variations effectively, picked up only two wickets in 32 overs. The delivery with which he dismissed Rayudu was a beauty. It pitched on the leg and middle line and completely squared up the batsman, who lost his middle stump.

Rajat Bhatia was economical but his wicket-to-wicket bowling yielded just one wicket on the second day. Pawan Suyal strived for extra pace, and was targeted by Rayudu.

Manan Sharma's performance left much to be desired. His left-arm spin was taken on by Gagandeep and Panchal, who gave him the charge repeatedly. The ball was keeping low and one expected him to use the arm ball, but it seemed he didn't.

Baroda have a sizeable score and they could go on for more, but Delhi, too, have batsmen who can bat big and bat long. Shikhar Dhawan and Mithun Manhas are among them.

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Seamers caught us by surprise - Ford

Sri Lanka coach Graham Ford has said the swing New Zealand's seam bowlers generated caught Sri Lanka by surprise on the second morning in Galle. Tim Southee reaped three wickets for 18 from his first spell of seven overs, while Trent Boult took the wicket of Kumar Sangakkara at the other end. Both bowlers moved the ball considerably, with Southee, in particular, finding vicious swing in the air in addition to deviation off the seam.

Sri Lanka resumed on 9 for 1, after debutant left hander Dimuth Karunaratne had been trapped in front for a duck by a Southee inswinger the previous evening, and they were reduced to 50 for 5 inside the first hour on day two. The other opener, Tharanga Paranavitana was also dismissed for zero, and neither nightwatchman Suraj Randiv, nor Kumar Sangakkara made it out of single-figures.

"This morning they swung it considerably and more than we expected," Ford said. "It was a lovely clear morning and we didn't think it would move as much as it did, when they bowled. It perhaps did catch us a little bit by surprise."

Despite bowling which often bordered on unplayable, Sri Lanka found regular boundaries in the first hour and maintained a much better run rate than New Zealand did during their innings on day one. Ford said the hosts had not been too aggressive in their approach during the opening spell.

"It's always easy to say that they could have played tighter, sitting on the sidelines, but everybody who watched closely realised they did bowl very well.

"It's a fine balance. If you can get a few balls away, it changes their length and once they change their length they don't swing it much. You can't just be negative about the way you play. You've still got to look for scoring options. I think we stayed positive in our play."

Sri Lanka recovered through a 156-run partnership between Angelo Mathews and Mahela Jayawardene, as the pair saw out the swinging new ball and batted through the second session. When they were only five wickets down and 15 runs behind New Zealand's first-innings score, Sri Lanka might have had their sights set on a large first innings lead, but Mathews' demise heralded another poor period for Sri Lanka, and they finished only 26 runs ahead in the first innings.

"We would have been certainly happy for a bigger lead but again you can't be greedy when you are 20-4 and 50-5. At that stage you think you're going to be a little bit behind. We've got to be grateful for the work the guys did, and we've got to give credit to New Zealand who did bowl fantastically well up front and kept the pressure on the whole way through the innings.

"It was a brilliant fightback by Mahela and Angelo which has got us right into the game, and we've everything to play for in the morning. The game's very even at the moment."

New Zealand finished the day nine runs in the lead, with nine wickets in hand, and Ford said his side had not worked out a maximum target that it would like to chase in the fourth innings. "At this stage it's about making sure that disciplines and our skills are really good with the ball. We have to bowl really well and we have to make New Zealand fight really hard for every single run they want to set for us to chase. At this stage it's more about taking it one session at a time looking at the big picture."

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Bowlers lead Cobras to crushing win

Cape Cobras 95 for 0 (Levi 52*, Puttick 35*) beat Knights 94 (Kemp 4-20, Louw 2-13, Langeveldt 2-17) by ten wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

An impressive combined bowling performance by Cobras, led by allrounder Justin Kemp's four wickets, took them to a 10-wicket win against Knights in Paarl. After bowling Knights out for 94, opener Richard Levi struck a quick, unbeaten half-century to take them home in ten overs.

Cobras, after being asked to field, put their opponents under pressure from the first over itself through an effective spell of swing bowling in helpful conditions by seamers Charl Langeveldt and Johann Louw. Langeveldt struck in the first over, inducing an edge to the keeper off his third delivery. By the seventh over, two more wickets had fallen and Knights were struggling at 14 for 3.

Kemp started to make his presence felt when he was introduced in the 12th over. He immediately dismissed No. 3 Rilee Rossouw, and then ran through the middle order to crush the chances of a fightback by Knights. By the 28th over, Knights had lost their eighth wicket, that of Johann van der Wath. This was Knights' lowest total in List A cricket.

Openers Levi and Andrew Puttick played aggressively to go past the target in the 11th over. Levi scored 52 off 33 deliveries, with eight fours and two sixes.

With the emphatic win, Cobras gained a bonus point.

Titans 273 for 8 (Behardien 99, Morkel 66, Kuhn 59, Birch 3-53) beat Warriors 268 for 9 (Jacobs 63, Parnell 48, Thyssen 46, Richards 3-49) by five runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

In a tight contest in Port Elizabeth, Warriors put on a spirited fight in their chase of 274, but lost by four runs to Titans. Middle-order batsman Craig Thyssen scored 46 off 35 balls and was guiding his team towards the target in the final overs, but needing 6 off 2 deliveries for victory, he was caught at long-on. No. 11 Makhaya Ntini was run out amid confusion off the next ball. Left-arm seamer Rowan Richards bowled a miserly final over, conceding three runs.

Warriors began their chase poorly, losing opener Michael Price for a duck off the second delivery of the innings. At 90 for 4, the captain and wicketkeeper Davy Jacobs, who scored 63, and Wayne Parnell put on a 98-run stand to keep their team's hopes alive.

Four wickets then fell quickly to peg them back. At 206 for 8, the contest looked to be over, but Thyssen, with a quick, responsible knock, almost took them to the target. He dominated the strike, with the No. 10 batsman Basheeru-Deen Walters at the other end. Needing 18 off 12, and then 9 off the last six, Warriors fell short in a tight last over by Richards.

Titans' innings followed a different pattern. After being reduced to 9 for 2 through seamer Andrew Birch's strikes, they reached 273 thanks to two big partnerships. Opener Heino Kuhn added 64 with captain Martin van Jaarsveld. But the bedrock of the innings was the 129-run partnership between Albie Morkel and Farhaan Behardien, who fell for 99.

Kuhn, who had scored a century against Knights in Centurion a week ago, is now among the highest run-getters of the competition.

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We needed to bat more positively - McCullum

New Zealand opener Brendon McCullum believed an early burst of wickets and tight bowling in the afternoon session from Sri Lanka's spinners cornered the visitors into reticence on day one, despite having suggested they would target Sri Lanka's bowling before the match. The captain Ross Taylor had said his side would look to employ a belligerent approach against spin in the first Test, but New Zealand were cautious throughout much of their innings, scoring at only 2.66 in the 82.5 overs they faced.

Shaminda Eranga dismissed Martin Guptill and Kane Willamson in the sixth over, before Taylor fell to Nuwan Kulasekara in the ninth to leave New Zealand at 40 for 3, leaving McCullum and Daniel Flynn little choice but to rebuild steadily. Their partnership of 90 - New Zealand's highest of the day - came in 198 deliveries, before scoring almost ground to a standstill in the second session after McCullum departed.

"Our mindset was still very much being aware of the fact that the ball was turning, and the game situation as well played on our minds as we were 3 for 60 when spin came on," McCullum said at the end of the day's play. "Until my dismissal we were going pretty well. At that point Rangana Herath, who is a very good bowler, managed to seize the initiative and prize out some wickets from us. They probably looked up at the scoreboard after I got out and saw an opportunity where it was pretty delicately poised and I think they stepped up really well during that stage and put a lot of pressure on."



Flynn and James Franklin progressed at less than a run an over during their 13-over association, with Franklin making 3 from 43 deliveries. None of New Zealand's batsmen who made more than a dozen runs had a strike rate of more than 60, and the highest economy rate among the Sri Lanka's bowlers was 3.66 for Angelo Mathews, who only delivered three overs.

"From our point of view, when we are under pressure, we probably need to be more positive and grab the situation rather than let the opposition dictate terms," McCullum said. "I thought Daniel and myself were efficient against them. We were picking them up nicely and attacking the balls that they did miss on. We were putting them under pressure for periods of time, we just weren't able to do that for long enough."



Herath and Randiv bowled 51 overs between them for 127 runs, inducing plenty of turn from the Galle pitch despite it being the first day of the Test. Randiv was instrumental in subduing Flynn and Franklin during their partnership, as he spun it sharply away from both left handers from around the wicket, and Herath finished the innings with 5 wickets for 65 - his fourth five-wicket haul in as many matches at the venue. McCullum however, did not fault the surface for a New Zealand batting performance he described as disappointing.

"Absolutely no blame on the pitch. At Galle when you win the toss and bat first, you're after a total in excess of 400. We weren't able to do that today, but I thought the pitch was good. It turned a lot more than we probably anticipated it would on day one of a Test match, but that's what you expect when you come over to the subcontinent. 


"It didn't turn and bite, it was slow turn and we expect that that turn will become quicker as the Test goes on and we've got Jeetan and a couple of other guys who can bowl spin. With our seamers, our ability to reverse swing the ball, which we saw from some of their guys today, will probably be our main weapon of attack."



The first Test began just five days after the limited-overs leg of the tour finished, but McCullum said the lack of time for a warm-up match had not affected New Zealand's batting greatly. 



"In this day and age you get used to having to chop and change between various formats. Over half our squad have been at home playing four-day cricket as well, so they're very well prepared. The rest of us are pretty adaptable in terms of having to change between formats." 



New Zealand picked three seam bowlers in their attack, and will rely on wickets with the new ball to prevent Sri Lanka from taking a first-innings lead. Tim Southee and Trent Boult swung the ball considerably in five overs near the close of day one, with Southee removing debutant Dimuth Karunaratne for a duck with a hooping inswinger. 



"We've got a big first hour in the morning to try and expose the Sri Lankan middle order and if we can do that, today's misfortune will be a little bit easier to handle," McCullum said.

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Pankaj and Rituraj run through Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh 256 (Bundela 53, Rameez 54, Rituraj 4-68, Pankaj 4-63) v Rajasthan
Scorecard

Pankaj Singh, 27, has been on the domestic circuit for nine seasons, while Rituraj Singh, 22, had played only nine first-class matches before Rajasthan's Group A game against Madhya Pradesh. The right-arm seamers complemented each other in Jaipur, like they did repeatedly last season, and took four wickets each to dismiss the visitors for 256 on the first day.

Rajasthan could have finished the day in a stronger position had Rameez Khan and Anand Rajan not added 88 for the eighth wicket after MP were 150 for 7.

Pankaj and Rituraj utilised the bowler-friendly conditions after stand-in captain Vineet Saxena chose to field, and they were ably supported by left-arm pacer Aniket Choudhary. Most of the wickets didn't come off exceptional balls; the accuracy of the seamers forced the MP batsmen into committing mistakes. While Naman Ojha and Jalaj Saxena, MP's aggressive batsmen, threw their wickets away by chasing wide balls, the two standout dismissals were those of Zafar Ali and the captain Devendra Bundela.

Both the Singhs hardly got the new ball to swing, but once the senior partner had a word with Rituraj after Ojha's dismissal, the younger Singh started bending his back. The result was some extra bounce, which induced an edge from Ali to the keeper.

In the second session, when Bundela and Rameez Khan had begun to form a partnership, Pankaj struck. Despite bowling an immaculate line and length, Pankaj gone wicketless in his first two spells, but moments after Bundela made his 36th first-class fifty with an edge through the slip cordon, Pankaj managed to get one in sharply and trapped Bundela lbw.

Rajasthan were primed to end MP's innings, but with the blazing sun taking its toll on the three seamers, who had bowled more than 50 overs collectively in the first two sessions, Rameez and Rajan dominated the final session.

The moment the second new ball became available after 80 overs, Saxena gave it to Pankaj, who had been resting while the part-timers were operating. Rituraj had taken three wickets in his first spell, and Pankaj did the same in his last, dismissing Rameez, Rajan and Ishwar Pandey to end MP's innings.

"The wicket did ease out after the early morning moisture evaporated but still, it was commendable on Rituraj and Aniket's part to keep asking questions of batsmen," Pankaj said. "After the kind of first session we had [MP were 90 for 5 at lunch], we would have ideally liked to dismiss them for 200, but nevertheless we have done our job."

Pankaj has been a successful bowler on the domestic circuit for the last five years and has had a bigger role to play in this game after the captain Hrishikesh Kanitkar was sidelined by a calf injury. "We discussed it in the meeting [ahead of the game] that I shall have to bear the additional responsibility of not just leading the bowling attack but also being more involved by interacting with the bowlers more than before. It is expected that it will take time to get accustomed to what a new captain is thinking and we managed it well, I think."

Rituraj was cramping after bowling an eight-over opening spell followed by a nine-over spell either side of lunch. Pankaj then told him to cut back a little. "Since he had bowled a long spell, I asked him to hold himself back a little and bowl in short spells," Pankaj said. "And anyway we had decided to rotate the three of us. As a result, while Rituraj bowled a long first spell up front, I bowled a shorter one and then bowled a seven-over spell after lunch. The more we interact with each other, the better we perform as a team."

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