da bet7： At one stage, when Ajay Ratra and Dinesh Mongia were cantering alonguninhibitedly, Rest of India looked certain to overhaul Baroda’s totalcomfortably and establish a daunting first-innings lead
Staff Reporter15-Oct-2001At one stage, when Ajay Ratra and Dinesh Mongia were cantering alonguninhibitedly, Rest of India looked certain to overhaul Baroda’s totalcomfortably and establish a daunting first-innings lead. But then aBaroda left-arm orthodox spinner decided to leave his stamp on thematch. A Buch-mark, so to speak.Valmik Buch, who had found little success on Day Two, took four of thelast six wickets to fall, finishing with figures of 34.3-11-94-5. Hisperformance was significant; on a pitch that was hurriedly prepared inthree days, spin may decide the outcome of this match.Baroda broke the Mongia-Ratra partnership only at a score of 264 whenIrfan S Pathan had Ratra leg-before for his first wicket of the match.Sarandeep Singh offered a return catch to Buch to depart at 285 and,with Rahul Sanghvi falling and 299 and the tail dangerously exposed, acollapse looked imminent.Mongia, however, batted with assurance and a resolute Debasish Mohantyto register a century. His 125, when it ended, included 14 fours andthree sixes and, more importantly, helped Rest of India to hobble pastBaroda’s first innings total.When Mongia finally departed at 323, Buch snapped up Tinu Yohannan andShalabh Srivastava in rapid succession. The innings crumpled at 331,giving Rest of India an anaemically thin lead of 13 runs.Even though opener Satyajit Parab fell to Yohannan for 3, Barodamarched stridently forward in the second innings. Captain ConnorWilliams followed up his first-innings ton with another superlativeeffort; hitting 13 fours and a six, as he exploded to 83 off only 122balls. Williams found sedate support from Nayan Mongia, who scored anunbeaten 31.Day Three closed when Sarandeep Singh picked up Williams’ wicket.Baroda will thus start Day Four at 124 for two. On a badly preparedtrack that may crumble at any instant, every run that Baroda scoreswill count heavily against Rest of India in the final chase.