Mongia nips Laxman's innings in the bud

nagpur: the devil has to be given his due, said former india stumper sadanand viswanath (now vidarbha coach) as nayan mongia took a brilliant catch to dismiss rest of india skipper vvs laxman. the rest of india xi skipper laxman (13 with three fours) threatened to stamp his authority on the irani trophy against baroda here on sunday after akash chopra (delhi) and vinayak mane (mumbai) put on 53 runs for the first wicket.he started with two electrifying fours off irfan pathan sr. followed a caressing cover-drive off left-arm spinner valmik buch which would have warmed even the severest critic of laxman. however, he went for a cover drive off the same bowler, beaten for length, and mongia swallowed the edge in a flash, waist-high on his right with both hands. buch couldn't hide his joy, jumping up and down, reminding one of men in the trees. mongia's party was foiled in the last over of the day when he spilled a difficult chance offered by haryana keeper ajay ratra (35 not out) off buch. ratra and punjab southpaw dinesh mongia (47 not out, 135m, 11b, 5x4s, 1x6) have put on invaluable 87 runs for the fifth wicket. after two days of ordinary cricket, its even stevens in the five-day irani trophy game at the vidarbha cricket association here, thanks to a below-par effort from the rest of india and baroda's fighting spirit. having bowled the ranji champs out for 318, rest of india were 179 for four at stumps on sunday. if ratra was lucky to survive, tiny mane seemed to have got a marginal leg before decision against him. showing superb composure (reading the swing early and knowing his off-stump), mane compiled a neat 48 (160m, 7x4s, 1x6) before falling to 16-year-old irfan pathan jr, who looks promising. the left-armer got one to move in but whether it did enough to hit the off-stump is debatable though test umpire v k ramaswamy was convinced. however, mane has done a decent job and his immaculate pulled six off speedster rakesh patel was the shot of the day. in the morning session, it was patel (44, 66b, 84m, 6x4s, 1x6) who showed there was nothing to fear in the rest attack after the fall of skipper connor williams (143). williams did well to give patel short spells. the nca boy used his pace and ability to extract bounce to a good effect as test discard hrishikesh kanitkar (2) fended off to gully. at 92 for four, the rest of india looked in grave trouble. but one-day discard and ranji triple-centurion dinesh mongia did not buckle under pressure. his defence wasn't sound and his stay on the wicket not convincing. but whenever he hit the ball, it was clean and hard. on an encouraging track for bowlers, very few have been able to make lasting impressions. the batsmen too haven't done much. indeed, the hard work lies ahead for both teams. baroda (1st innings) (overnight 265 for six): s parab c chopra b mohanty 7, c williams c ratra b yohannan 143, n mongia c laxman b sarandeep 31, r parab run out 1, t arote c ratra b yohannan 18, h jadhav c ratra b sarandeep 43, u patel hit wkt b sarandeep 0, v buch lbw b sarandeep 1, r patel c kanitkar b sarandeep 44, irfan (sr) c srivastava b sanghvi 0, irfan (jr) not out 0. extras: (b-2, lb-6, nb-22) 30. total (all out, 107.2 overs) 318. fall of wickets: 1-21, 2-92, 3-96, 4-131, 5-255, 6-259, 7-286, 8-295, 9-318. bowling: mohanty 28-2-78-1, yohannan 27-5-95-2, sarandeep singh 35.1-10-78-5, s srivastava 4.5-0-12-0, r sanghvi 12.2-1-47-1. rest of india (1st innings): a chopra c buch b irfan (jr) 22, v mane lbw b irfan (jr) 48, v v s laxman c n mongia b buch 13, h kanitkar c williams b r patel 2, a ratra batting 35, d mongia batting 47. extras: (lb-1, nb-11) 12. total: (for 4 wkts, 78 overs) 179. fall of wickets: 1-53, 2-72, 3-91, 4-92. bowling: r patel 14-2-33-1, irfan (sr) 9-1-28-0, buch 19-7-49-1, irfan (jr) 15-5-45-2, u patel 9-4-11-0, t arote 4-0-12-0.