da dobrowin： A marvellous all round performance from Dinesh Mongia saw Chemplastgatecrash into the final of the Moin ud Dowlah Cup in Hyderabad onSunday
Sankhya Krishnan11-Sep-2000A marvellous all round performance from Dinesh Mongia saw Chemplastgatecrash into the final of the Moin ud Dowlah Cup in Hyderabad onSunday. After tightening the screws on the Pentasoft middle order witha haul of 3/22 and keeping them down to a modest 213, Mongia slammed arollicking century off 87 balls as Chemplast coasted through with morethan 14 overs to spare in this semifinal clash at the NFC ground.Sujith Somasundar and Ganesh Kumar provided the ideal foundation witha 54-run stand upfront. After Somasundar was caught behind off Satish,one drop Badrinath followed him back to the pavilion ten runs laterfor a duck, removed by Satish’s elder brother Mahesh. Ganesh Kumar(63, 77 balls, 7 fours) was in sizzling form early on although he waslater overshadowed by Mongia.Ganesh’s pet shot was the pull which he repeatedly played in the airto deep midwicket, kept vacant in spite of the batsman’s predilectionfor the stroke. Ganesh and Mongia added 96 for the third wicket andwhile the latter had seemed in sublime touch from the first ball hefaced, it was only after Ganesh’s fall that Mongia began to cut loose.In one glorious sequence of plunder, Mongia added an unbroken 54 withParanjpe in 4.5 overs, of which Paranjpe’s share was a princely four.The carnage began in the 32nd over by Kanitkar which went for 15 andat one point Mongia had hit three sixes in five balls. He duly crossedinto three figures with a pull to the square leg boundary off Mahesh,remaining not out on 112 (97 balls, 13 fours, 4 sixes) for his secondcentury of the tournament, the earlier one also having come on thesame ground against Vidarbha.A dominant win for Chemplast looked distinctly unlikely in the morningafter Pentasoft got off to a roaring start. Having won the toss andbatted, they surged to 121/2 in the 18th over with the run rate oversix and a half an over and a match winning total seemingly there forthe asking. Skipper Sadagopan Ramesh and M Arvind added 59 at the topof the order inside ten overs and after Arvind’s departure for 27, therate if anything quickened. Ramesh fell to medium pacer Veeranan for35 (38 balls, 3 fours) but the cleanest hitting came from the bat ofPawan Kumar who caned 46 off just 38 balls.The run out of Shiv Sunder Das in a mix-up with Pawan at 121 probablywas the turning point of the innings. Then a double strike in the sameover by Veeranan saw the Chennai based software firm slump to 136/5.Another foolish run out, this time of Hrishikesh Kanitkar, who cut LBalaji straight to the fielder at square third man and turned back fora suicidal second, virtually gave it away on a platter to Chemplast.Although Ravindran John and S Satish then added a gutsy 46 for theseventh wicket, they had to fight for every run against the doubleleft arm spin attack of D Vasu and especially Mongia. Balaji returnedto fire out Satish and the last four wickets fell for 25. Pentasoftwere bowled out with eight balls of their innings remaining unused.