Cricket Career
Meher Baba made his debut against Mysore (now Karnataka) held on 8,9,10 January 1972 (3-day match)in Vijayawada. Meher Baba took his first wicket on 27 October 1972, against Kerala at Kurnool, this was his 4th first class match. Because of inconsistent debutant performances in the first 5 matches, Andhra's Captain B Mahendra Kumar dropped Meher Baba from the playing 11, against Tamil Nadu in Madras on 3 December 1972. Andhra however lost this match by 105 runs.
Under a new captaincy of B.Ram Prasad, Meher Baba was brought back into the playing 11 the next season, on 3 November 1973 against Hyderabad on Kottagurem. Batting first Andhra were all out for a low score 51, in which Meher Baba stayed not out scoring 14 runs. He bowled an excellent spell of 15 overs taking 5 wickets for 32 runs, in which he tore apart the Hyderabad batting line up of K Jayantilal, N Mehta, Mumtaz Hussain, ML Jaisimha and Abdul Hai. He complete the season with 11 wickets in 4 matches. Meher Baba scored his debut 50 (59 run out) against Karnatake on 11 November 1974. Meher Baba played a match winning role in the second innings against Kerala at Guntur on 16 December 1974, where Meher took 3 wickets for 22 runs in 11.2 overs. This victory by 22 runs against Kerala on 16 December was the first ever for Andhra since his participation in the Ranji Trophy Championship. Andhra went on to win another nail biting match by just 1 run against Tamil Nadu at Salem on 6 January 1975.
Meher Baba went on to captain Andhra in two Ranji Trophy matches in the 1982–83 season and represented South Zone in the Duleep Trophy and Deodhar Trophy on eleven occasions. He was also part of the South Zone team which took on the visiting England side in 1981–82 and also played against the West Indies team in a three-day match held in Hyderabad during the team’s tour during 1978–79
The gutsy all-rounder of yesteryears, who rubbed shoulders with some of the big names of Indian cricket including G.R. Visvanath, E.A.S. Prasanna and Salim Durrani, was one of the probables of the Indian team for the 1980 New Zealand tour. Meher Baba was widely rated as one of the hardest hitters in domestic cricket.
Read more about this topic: Danthala Venkata Meher Baba
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