Aravind makes solid debut, Santosh fights back
LAST 10 TESTS I am thrilled to complete this rally. Every stage was quite challenging, physically and mentally. But I managed to use all the training experience, especially while navigating, to stay in the race. This rally was a fantastic learning ground. Now, Dakar is next
in Kolkata, when India were placed at 200 for six in the first innings. Saha took charge and stitched a 30-run partnership with Ashwin and then Jadeja.
Saha remained unbeaten with a well-made 50 and took India past the 300-run mark.
In the second essay India had a lead of 112 runs, but gave New Zealand some hope after the top order collapsed to leave India at 106 for six. Saha provided support to Rohit, who was the set batsman struggling to find partners. Saha and Sharma took India to 209 before Rohit departed.
Saha remained unbeaten on
54 as he rallied with the tail to take India’s lead close to
400. With captain Virat
Kohli a little off-colour in the series, the load has fallen on others. While, the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit have turned in a few bright performances, it is the lower order which has made the match-defining contribution.
Their impact has been crucial, enabling India to bat deeper than they ever had in the last couple of years. As the third and final Test kicked off against New Zealand on Saturday, expectations were once again high from the consistent bunch. Scored unbeaten fifties in both innings in Kolkata to finish man of the match INNS RUNS AVG HS 100/50
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100/50 NEW DELHI: CS Santosh, who has ridden in the famed Dakar Rally twice, and KP Aravind, who is taking his first steps in international cross-country rallying, both faced their set of challenges at the OiLibya Rally Morocco.
However, with solid performances in the five legs of the Oct 3-7 event across the sand dunes and rugged trails of Morocco — displaying riding skills as well as grit and perseverance — the two Indians have enhanced their reputations on the world stage.
Aravind of Sherco-TVS Rally team, who consistently finished within the top-30 in all the legs, came 26th on Friday — a great show on debut in the event, which is the final round of the FIM Cross Country Rally World Championship.
Hero MotoSports rider Santosh, on the other hand, had blistering runs in the last two days — finishing 29th and 24th in legs 4 and 5, after starting from the back of the pack (65th). However, that didn’t help him climb up the overall standings, finishing 60th.
The 31-year-old rider from Bengaluru was in the top 25 after the first two legs, but lost out in the third leg on Wednesday when his bike stalled due to an electrical problem towards the end of the competitive stage.
COSTLY PENALTY
Though he restarted on Thursday, he was docked a time penalty and pushed to the back. That was a huge handicap for the rider as he got caught in the dust trails of the competitors ahead. Making up 40-odd places in a field of world-class riders is impossible, but that didn’t stop Santosh from trying.
“Overall, I feel I´m pretty solid looking at my learning curve,” he said. “I moved up a few places on leg 4 and pushed hard on leg 5 as well. The idea was to keep out of the dust as much as possible.”
LOT OF POSITIVES
Santosh is unhappy about the final result but should still be satisfied. His Hero teammate, Joaquim Rodrigues of Portugal, finished 16th, as per the provisional results.
Aravind, who is aiming to make his Dakar debut next year, is taking home a lot of positives. “I am thrilled to complete this rally,” he said.
“Every stage was quite challenging, physically and mentally. But I managed to use all the training experience, especially while navigating, to stay in the KP ARAVIND, on a solid performance in his first OiLibya Rally Morocco
race. This rally was a fantastic learning ground. Now, Dakar is next.”
Aravind’s teammates Juan Pedrero and Adrien Metge also had successful outings, finishing eighth and 11th respectively. The rally was won by Toby Price of Australia, riding a KTM.