Stupendous, indeed

AGARTALA, JAN. 25. It was a dream come true for Debasish Mohanty, the 24-year-old Bhubaneswar-based cricketer who became the 10th bowler in Asia and sixth in India to snare 10 wickets in an innings. ``It was a dream come true,'' said the genial pacer from Orissa. ``I was a little wary of the pitch initially and decided to stick to a good line and length. My achievement is a reward for my hard work put in over the years.''

What made his feat a memorable one was that the pitch was not very helpful for his kind of bowling. Lacking genuine pace, Mohanty had to rely on his line and movement off the wicket. His scalps included Rahul Dravid and Venkatsai Laxman, the two who scored a hundred and a double hundred respectively in the last game. When asked which wicket satisfied him most, Mohanty said he was really elated with the wicket of Laxman. ``He is one batsman who has been scoring big in domestic cricket.''

A junior officer with National Aluminum Company, Mohanty was discarded from the Indian team after its return from Australia in February 2000. He last played for India in the tri- series limited overs International Down Under with not much success.

The nine from Asia to achieve the feat before Mohanty: 1. F.A. Tarrant (Maharaja Cooch Behar XI) 10/90 vs. Lord Wellington's XI at Poona in 1918-19; 2. S.P. Gupta (President's XI) 10/78 vs. Combined XI at Bombay in 1954-55; 3. P.M. Chatterjee (Bengal) 10/20 vs. Assam at Jorhat in 1956-57; 4. Shahid Mahmood (Karachi White) 10/58 vs. Kherpur at Karachi in 1969-70; 5. Pradip Sundaram (Rajasthan) 10/78 vs. Vidarbha at Jodhpur in 1985-86; 6. Imran Adil (Bhawalpur) 10/92 vs. Faisalabad at Faisalabad in 1989-90; 7. Promodya Wickremasinghe (Sinhalese SC) 10/41 vs. Kulutara at Colombo in 1991-92; 8. Naeem Akhtar (Rawalpindi B) 10/28 vs. Peshawar at Peshawar in 1995-96; 9. Anil Kumble (India) 10/74 vs. Pakistan at Delhi in 1998-99.

- Our Special Correspondent

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