Strongly placed, Sourav scores sedate 43

Hyderabad, Sep 7 (UNI) Former team India skipper Sourav Ganguly's sedate 43 could not help Bengal as the side slumped to 191 for eight to leave Mumbai holding the psychological advantage at the draw of stumps on penultimate day in the pre-quarter finals of the All India Moin-ud-dowlah Gold Cup Cricket Tournament here today.

Chasing Mumbai's score of 286, Bengal slumped to 56 for three at lunch off 32 overs and eventually made 191 for eight in 75 overs.

Sourav scored a sedate 43 (80 balls,5 fours) and L R Shukla a fine 68 (131 balls, six fours, one six) even as wickets continued to fall.

In another match spearheaded by Sri Raghu, Karnataka gained a vital first innings lead against Maharashtra scoring 353 for nine in 90 overs, replying to 276 for 7. Raghu cracked a belligerent 100 (202 balls 22 fours, one six). Bharat Chipli (58, seven fours), Deepak Chougule (64, eight fours) and Devraj Patil (40, three fours, one six) also contributed singnificantly.

Chasing 190 runs off 40 overs, Vidarbha made 51 runs losing one wicket at the draw of stumps. Earlier Hyderabad XI gained a slender first innings lead of five runs by bowling out Vidarbha for 133 runs, an hour after lunch in 59.3 overs. Thge Vidarbha batsmen fell to Hyderabad medium pacers N P Singh and Kaushik Reddy who took seven wickets between them. Later, with the help of opener T.Suman and V V S Laxman steadied the Hyderabad innings with both scoring half centuries. Suman made 59 off 79 balls with the help of four fours one a six, while Laxman hit a brisk 52 off 57 balls with 5 fours. A T Rayudu scored 25 runs. Vidarbha bowlers Sameer Yawar took six wickets for 48 runs.

Tamil Nadu Colts gained a vital 48 run first innings lead scoring 190 off 74 overs in reply to Andhra's 142. Hemant Kumar made 52 off 95 balls with seven hits to the fence, while Ashwin made an unbeaten 51 off 119 balls with four fours. Andhra medium pacers Kalyan Krishna and Gnaneshwar Rao picked up three wickets each.

Andhra slumped to 137 for seven off 31 overs in their second innings at stumps. Varma made 31 off 40 balls, with three fours L N Prasad Reddy made 29 off 37 balls with three fours. Gnaneshwar Rao made 23 off 29 balls with two fours.For TN Colts, medium pacer Ganapathi took three for 50.

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