Vanka hits century as match meanders to listless end

With the competitive interest having long been put to rest, the Ranji Trophy semifinal between Karnataka and Hyderabad meandered to a listless conclusion in Bangalore today. Vanka Pratap's sixth Ranji century and his second this season was the only saving grace after Karnataka's resistance had terminated at 557 in the morning. VVS Laxman failed and Mohd. Azharuddin did not deign to grace the wicket with his presence as Hyderabad settled at a score of 236/6 to go ahead towards a summit clash with Mumbai in Mumbai beginning April 19.

Earlier Dodda Ganesh enlivened the proceedings with some big hitting on the final morning. Ganesh struck consecutive sixes over long on and mid wicket off Kanwaljit Singh while Mansur Ali Khan who had got off the mark earlier with a five, including two overthrows, played the two spinners with an admirably straight bat. The third new ball was due eight overs into the session but Azhar persisted with the two spinners and it was Raju who drove the final nail into the coffin when Ganesh charged at him with head high in the air and eyes off the ball, to have his stumps rearranged. His 76 was the sixth half century of the innings and if just one guy had played a longer hand, Karnataka would have got within sniffing distance of the Hyderabad total.

With a lead of 154 in the kitty, Daniel Manohar and Nandakishore resumed battle against the Karnataka seam attack. Ganesh bowled a short length to Manohar and was pulled away to the boundary on two occasions. But Ganesh persisted and took a good left handed catch to his intense delight as Manohar got an edge while trying to dismiss the ball from his presence once more. Off the very next ball, Nandakishore fell leg before to Prasad, playing forward but not enough to sow some doubt in the umpires mind. VVS Laxman and Vanka Pratap both got their first boundaries to the vacant third man area. With Sunil Joshi not taking the field, Vijay Bharadwaj was thrust into the role of lead spinner and in the second ball after lunch he uprooted Laxman's middle stump through the gap between bat and pad, with the batsman having taken his season's tally to 1258, just 22 short of Bharadwaj's record.

Parth Satwalkar kept driving into the midriff of silly point who was standing too close to hold anything but Bharadwaj finally snared him when he flicked one in the direction of midwicket where Akhil leapt to his right to hold a brilliant one hander. That left Hyderabad at 93/4 but Azharuddin still did not bother to make the effort to climb down one flight of stairs and enter the middle. Karnataka were bowling with enthusiasm and appealing spiritedly as they tried to make further inroads into the middle order although it was dubious whether this would serve any practical purpose.

Vanka Pratap's favoured routes for directing the ball to the fence were through the covers and to backward point as he got in some useful batting practice ahead of the final against Mumbai. After Riaz Sheikh presented a simple catch off Rowland Barrington's leg breaks to Prasad at short extra cover, Vanka and Fiaz Ahmed added 99 for the sixth wicket in the final session. Vanka was more adventurous as his innings progressed, taking the aerial route several times, to the long on and long off boundaries. Dropped on 94 by substitute KN Ramesh, he reached his hundred off 201 balls with an extra cover drive off A Vijay. And when he holed out to long off where Ramesh made amends with a neatly judged catch off the very next ball, the match was called off with Hyderabad at 236/6 in the 73rd over.