Tour Match: Indian Board President's XI v England XI at Hyderabad, 22-24 Nov 2001 CricInfo Live Report

Tour Match: Indian Board President's XI v England XI at Hyderabad, 22-24 Nov 2001
Anand Vasu

England XI 1st innings: Lunch - Day 1, Tea - Day 1,
: Stumps - Day ,
Pre-game: Toss & Teams,

RAMPRAKASH TON BRIGHTENS ENGLAND'S DAY

The final session of the first day’s play between England and the Indian Board President's XI at Hyderabad saw the two sides share honours. While the spinners managed to prise out wickets at fairly regular intervals, Mark Ravin Ramprakash stood tall among the ruins, notching up yet another first class century. England found their way to 297/9 at the end of the first day’s play.

For the home side, it was essentially a chance for the two spinners – Sarandeep Singh and Murli Kartik to showcase their wares. The two are in competition for the spot of third spinner for the home Tests against England and both gave good accounts of themselves.

Murli Kartik showed by far the better control of the two, ending the day with figures of 3/77. Sarandeep however showed he was a gutsy performer, often coming at the batsmen aggressively. His reward was figures of 5/98.

The latter part of the day belonged to Ramprakash. Speaking to pressmen just before the start of this match, the middle-order batsman said no one in the team, not even himself, was sure of his place in the side. Striking an unbeaten 105 (182 balls, 9 fours, 2 sixes) Ramprakash showed exactly the sort of character needed to bat in Indian conditions.

England will want him to go on for a bit yet when the second day’s play begins tomorrow.

SPINNERS PEG BACK ENGLAND AT HYDERABAD

Whatever the Board President’s XI spinners ate for lunch did wonders for them. Returning from the luncheon interval with just one wicket between them, the pairing of Murli Kartik and Sarandeep Singh bowled effectively in tandem, causing England to slump to 186/5 at tea.

In their turn, the visitors will be disappointed with their performance in the second session of play where 78 runs were added for the loss of 3 wickets.

Kartik, bowling his slow-left-arm orthodox with great control tied the batsmen down over after over. The pressure slowly mounted and predictably the England batsmen capitulated.

Graham Thorpe (13) was the first to go, trapped in front by Murali Kartik.

Nasser Hussain, who looked good for a half-century lost his wicket in a rush of blood that does not bode well for the England captain. Taking his eyes off the ball at the last moment, Hussain had a flamboyant flash at a ball turning away from him, only to spoon a catch to Rohan Gavaskar at point. Hussain’s 86 ball vigil yielded 46 runs.

Craig White, who hammered the spinners for five huge sixes in the course of a 72 ball unbeaten 70 at Mumbai learnt that Nilesh Kulkarni and Ramesh Powar are not indicative of the quality of spin bowling in India. After a few moments spent trying to sweep everything bowled at him, White missed a full delivery from Sarandeep and had his stumps disturbed. White did not trouble the scorers.

Mark Ramprakash, seemingly in no hurry stroked the ball around the park with ease, not attempting anything extravagant. Using his feet well against the spinners, Ramprakash kept the scoreboard ticking over. After getting his eye well in, the erstwhile Middlesex and currently Surrey batsman lofted Kartik effortly back over his head for a straight six.

James Foster was unconvincing yet remained unbeaten on 9 at tea while Ramprakash had 45 to his name.

ENGLAND COAST TO 108/2 AT LUNCH

If confirmation were needed that Marcus Trescothick and Mark Butcher should be England’s first-choice openers, Michael Vaughan provided it. After being asked to open the innings, the man many talk of as a natural successor to Michael Atherton played a rash shot early in the day and perished.

On seeing off opening medium-pacers Surendra Singh and Tinu Yohannan, Vaughan flashed hard at a gentle outswinger from all-rounder Sanjay Bangar, only to present Dinesh Mongia with a dolly of a catch in the slips. Having made 22, Vaughan departed with the England score at an even 50/1.

Steady batting from the dependable Butcher and a touch of aggression from skipper Nasser Hussain (37 not out, 7x4) saw England through to 108/2 at lunch on the first day of this three-day match.

After doing the initial hard work, as he had done in Mumbai, Butcher (41 runs, 71 balls, 4x4 1x6) threw his wicket away, hitting Sarandeep Singh straight to Surendra Singh at mid-off.

The score that England notched up, however, was more indicative of the state of the wicket rather than the form of the visitors. Offering little in terms of bounce for either the fast men or spinners to exploit, the pitch at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium is ideal for batting. Once set, there’s no reason why a batsman should not go on to make a big score.

After an initial period of tentative batting, Hussain has looked extremely comfortable batting in Indian conditions. Playing the ball late, Hussain has countered the spinners with soft hands. When in the slot, however, powerful drives have been quickly unfurled, to the utter dismay of bowlers who made the mistake of assuming Hussain was in a defensive frame of mind.

Tinu Yohannan, a promising young quick, was at the receiving end of a bit of a pasting. Running in hard and attempting to sneak under the bat, Yohannen was driven through the covers and the cover-point region time and time again.

Murli Kartik (3-0-5-0) and Sarandeep Singh (8-0-30-1) bowled as well as possible in the circumstances, extracting turn and bounce.

NASSER HUSSAIN ELECTS TO BAT AT HYDERABAD

Nasser Hussain won the toss and elected to bat first against the Indian Board President’s XI team at the Lal Bahudur Shastri Stadium in Hyderabad. A good batting surface welcomed the visitors and it sure was a good toss to win.

England coach Duncan Fletcher said in Mumbai that he was looking at using Mark Butcher and Marcus Trescothick to open in the Test series. However, taking no chances, the England team tried out the third opener in the squad, Michal Vaughan, partnered by Butcher.

Twenty-one year old off-spinner Martyn Ball gets his first game of the series, replacing Trescothick.

The Board President’s XI team seems to have good depth in batting and surely would have preferred to bat first. Wasim Jaffer, who made 99 against this England team at Mumbai will look to further state his claim for higher honours when he comes out to bat. With S Sriram, Dinesh Mongia, skipper Jacob Martin, Rohan Gavaskar and Pankaj Dharmani making up the Board President’s XI batting a run fest is on the cards.

The host’s bowling department too looks well stocked with pacers Surendra Singh and Tinu Yohannen making the beginning and Sanjay Bangar, Murli Kartik and Sarandeep Singh to follow.

England Team: M Butcher, MP Vaughan, N Hussain, GP Thorpe, MR Ramprakash, C White, RKJ Dawson, +JS Foster, MJ Hoggard, J Ormond, MCJ Ball.

Indian Board President’s XI team: W Jaffer, S Sriram, D Mongia, *JJ Martin, +P Dharmani, SB Bangar, M Kartik, RS Gavaskar, T Yohannan, Sarandeep Singh, Surendra Singh.