Tour Match: India 'A' v England XI at Jaipur, 27-29 Nov 2001 CricInfo Live Report

Tour Match: India 'A' v England XI at Jaipur, 27-29 Nov 2001
Samanth Subramanian & Santhosh S

England XI 1st innings: Lunch Day-2, Tea Day-2,
India 'A' 2nd innings: Stumps Day-2,
Live Reports from previous days

INDIA 'A' STRUGGLE TO SCORE RUNS IN JAIPUR

India 'A' batsmen were soon in trouble in their second innings, which got started soon after the Tea break. In the 38 overs bowled in the post-tea session, India 'A' scored 75 runs losing the wickets of Vinayak Mane (15), Gautam Gambhir (30) and Gagan Khoda (0).

England could take heart from the bowling of Craig White, who claimed all the three wickets. On a wicket that has been keeping low as the game progresses White finished the second day with the figures of 9-3-21-3. Vinayak Mane was distinctly unlucky, the ball shooting on to hit his pads, trapping him leg before.

At close of play Yere Goud was unbeaten on 13 and Rashmi Parida on four. The full report will be on in a short while.

ENGLAND CONCEDE 63 RUNS FIRST INNINGS LEAD

England scored 70 runs for the last three wickets and were bowled out for 170 in the post lunch session. Hussain was the first man to be dismissed after the luncheon break, bowled by Sunil Joshi after making 40 runs. Hussain paid the price for playing a wild swing across the line.

Six runs later Richard Johnson (5) did not offer a shot and was bowled by Joshi. England were in a precarious position of 128/9 at that stage. James Foster and Richard Dawson showed a lot of determination and kept adding runs. Skipper Joshi was keen on bowling himself and Dodda Ganesh, which let the batsmen off the hook. Ganesh was guilty of not applying pressure, bowling with a lot of width to allow the batsmen to add 42 valuable runs for the last wicket.

Sodhi broke the last wicket partnership by trapping Dawson in front of the wicket. Dawson made 19 runs off 40 balls with the help of two boundaries. Foster made a gritty unbeaten 32 off 99 balls, striking three boundaries. Strangely there has been a pattern of the ball keeping low on this lively track. Foster and Dawson did well to negotiate such deliveries. India 'A' took a valuable 63 runs first innings lead, blowing a big hole in the English confidence.

ENGLAND IN DIRE STRAITS IN JAIPUR

A spectacular batting collapse triggered by Iqbal Siddiqui (4/36) pushed England to a hopeless position of 100/7 at lunch on the second day of the three-day match against India ‘A’ at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, on Wednesday.

After restricting India ‘A’ to 233/9 declared on the first day, England must have hoped to get some valuable batting practice ahead of the first Test match to be played at Mohali. On a lively pitch, Marcus Trescothick and Mark Butcher had negotiated the India ‘A’ bowlers for 11 good overs to reach 37 for no loss at stumps on Tuesday.

But their good work suddenly seemed a distant memory on the second morning which has read like a chapter from a gruesome tale. With the 11th ball of the day, Siddiqui struck, claiming Mark Butcher’s wicket. Butcher (37) could only add five more runs to his overnight score, before gifting a catch to Abhijit Kale in the slips.

Trescothick (7) followed soon after, given out caught behind off the first ball of the next over bowled by Dodda Ganesh. The batsman was distinctly unhappy with the decision and stood his ground for a little while, before making the long slow walk back to the pavilion.

Michael Vaughan and Nasser Hussain then put together a scratchy partnership of 36 runs for the third wicket. Vaughan, who is desperate to get some runs under his belt, was lucky to be dropped by Gambhir off the bowling of Ganesh. Hussain too enjoyed some luck this morning; dropped by Parida off Siddiqui. Vaughan struck five boundaries while making 22 runs, before getting a top edge, trying to pull a short ball from Siddiqui to give Vinayak Mane an easy catch in the covers. England were 82/3 at that stage.

Mark Ramprakash has been in good form on this tour and English hopes were pinned on him. He though did not trouble the scorers, fooled by an off-cutter from Siddiqui to be trapped right in front of the wicket.

Andrew Flintoff’s first innings in India on this tour did not last long. He too was dismissed for a duck, caught by the wicket-keeper Ajay Ratra off the bowling of Siddiqui.

Craig White, the other English allrounder in contention for the Mohali Test, too joined the procession after making just two runs before Reetinder Singh Sodhi disturbed his gate with a sharp in-cutter.

Ashley Giles came in and went back to the pavilion in no time. He was at the crease for three balls, made two runs and was caught by Gagan Khoda off Sunil Joshi. Nasser Hussain is unbeaten on 28 and James Foster is yet to open his account.