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Irani Cup: Poor umpiring stops Gujarat march

With 359 runs ahead and two second innings wickets in hand, Ranji Trophy champions in line to set Rest of India imposing target

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Captain Parthiv Patel is furious after being given out in Gujarat’s second innings at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday
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Despite having one of the premium seats at the Brabourne Stadium while the match is on, Prakash Dahatonde, statistician and Cricket Club of India librarian, was busy typing on the computer keys, unmindful of the 359-run lead that Ranji Trophy champions Gujarat took against Rest of India.

After taking only 14 minutes to separate Rest's last wicket pair of Pankaj Singh and Mohammed Siraj and bowl them out for 226 for a 132-run first innings lead, Gujarat made 227/8 in their second innings.

Seated right behind the umpire at the southern end of the Brabourne Stadium inside the second-floor air-conditioned library on Sunday, the third day of the ongoing Irani Cup, the 57-year-old Dahatonde was also shut out from the outside noises.

Loud pleas by Rest medium-pacer Pankaj Singh to umpire Abhijit Deshmukh for a possible caught-behind or leg before wicket were muted for Dahatonde.

Nor was he ears to the mouthful that Gujarat captain Parthiv Patel gave on way back to pavilion after an atrocious bat-pad decision by umpire Virender Sharma. The ball was nowhere near the bat as the left-hander shouldered arms to left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem shortly before tea.

Dahatonde, who has been contributing yearly to the UK-based Wisden Almanac for close to 25 years, was busy indexing the hundreds of library books with newspaper clippings collected from the 1930s and 1940s until the start of the century, and preserving it for the future.

Speaking about future, Patel considered that the dubious decision may have prevented him the chance to cement his place in the Indian team for the upcoming Tests, for the selectors' first choice wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha has proved his fitness and should take his 'rightful' Test place behind the wicket.

Parthiv was hard done by, by umpire Sharma as he was not only beginning to out-bat Saha, who failed to open his account in the first innings here, but also trying to help Gujarat score a rare double of winning Irani Cup to follow the Ranji Trophy triumph.

Patel's ire at the umpiring decision continued beyond the boundary when he immediately went up to the match referee Chinmaya Sharma and made known his displeasure in front of the alert photographers.

Umpire Sharma has been having a below-par game as, it may be recalled from Gujarat's first innings, he adjudged No. 9 Chintan Gaja not out on the opening day when the edge off Kuldeep Yadav deflected off Saha's pads on way to Manoj Tiwary at slips.

In the last hour of the day, Sharma wrongly adjudged Gujarat's No. 8 Mohit Thadani caught at first slip by Manoj Tiwary off Shahbaz Nadeem when actually the ball pitched under the bat before hitting the front pad and deflected to the wicketkeeper. It may have been out leg-before but definitely not caught as the bat was no where near the ball on way to Tiwary.

The Parthiv moment towards the end of the second session heated up an otherwise dull day in which Gujarat continued to dominate Rest. Test batsman Karun Nair dropped yet another sitter at first slip, this time Hyderabad's Md Siraj was the unlucky bowler. Gujarat's No. 3 Dhruv Raval was the lucky batsman as he fished Siraj outside the off-stump to offer Nair a regulation chance that was grassed.

The hard-working Siraj (2/39), who took 41 wickets for Hyderabad this season, was rewarded for his persistence outside the off-stump, inducing No. 3 Dhruv Raval to nick to Tiwary at second slip and No. 5 Manprit Juneja behind.

Pankaj was miserly in his short spells, beating the bat or being unlucky to get LBW, height being the factor. The rewards for all the hard work in Pankaj's third spell of 5-0-16-0 was reaped by his new-ball partner Siddharth Kaul, who induced top-scorer Priyank Panchal to nick behind after failing to connect an attempted pull down the leg-side.

First innings centurion Chirag Gandhi had no problems connecting, not wasting much deliveries to reach half-century and take Gujarat to a total beyond Rest.

But with the pitch looking good for batting as left-arm spinner Nadeem tirelessly bowling from the north end for his 4/53 in 23 overs, Rest can still chase it down successfully.

Last year's Irani Cup result at the same venue when Rest reached an imposing target of 480 in the fourth innings, and 380 on the final day, is still fresh in memory.
 

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