Guests overstay despite rude welcome

Guests overstay despite rude welcome

Nagpur, February 17: India A’s left-arm spinner Rahul Sanghvi’s haul of five wickets for 40 runs heralded a bad start to Australia’s cricketing sojourn which began here at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) stadium on Saturday.

Earlier it was medium pacer Ashish Nehra who took the wind out of Australians’ sail sending their top three batsmen Micheal Slater, Justin Langer and skipper Steve Waugh, back to the pavillion in his first three overs of the Aussie first innings.

Pathetic it looked when the world’s best batting line-up was seen tottering at 133/7. They, however, went on to reach 291 in the first innings, thanks to remarkable role reversal by the tailender specialist bowlers Michael Kasprowicz (92) and Jason Gillespie (57), who batted with authority to add 155 runs for the 8th wicket.

After containing the tourists, India ‘A’ opener Sadagopan Ramesh played some entertaining drives and cuts even as he suffered a blow from speedster Gillespie to take India to 71/1. At close, Ramesh was batting on 43. Skipper VVS Laxman (6) betrayed prudence by not resorting to anything silly since he had to take the guard just eight overs before the close of the day’s play. Opener SS Das was unfortunate to get run out when he was 12 before adding 36 runs for the opening wicket.

The morning saw Australian skipper winning the toss and as expected preferred to try their batting prowess. Openers Slater and Hayden played out Debashish Mohanty’s first over scoring six runs between them. In the very next over, Ashish Nehra clean bowled Slater off the first ball. In his second over, the medium pacer claimed Langer leg before wicket and then forced Steve Waugh cut through to wicketkeeper Nayan Mongia. Aussies had 25 runs on the board then.

And when it seemed the Australian innings would suffer more knocks, Hayden and Rikcy Ponting did the rescue act. Ponting attacked the India A bowlers mercilessly to score a quickfire 56 of just 52 balls (9x4). His fourth-wicket association with Hayden fetched Australia 91 runs in 17.4 overs. Ponting top-edged off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and was caught by Mohanty at short mid-off. After that the tourists lost three more batsmen Mathew Hayden, Damien Martin and vice-captain Adam Gilchrist.

Then Michael Kasporowicz and Jason Gillespie took charge of the situation hammering the India A bolwers all over. Kasporowicz must thank Mohanty for his big innings as the Orrisa player dropped a sitter when the Australian was batting on 20. Kasprowicz spared no bowler expect Sanghvi, who did not lose his line and kept the batsmen under constant pressure.

It was his fine spinning effort which wound up the wagging tail. He removed Gillespie, caught by himself off his own bowling, made Fleming hole out to substitute Mohd Kaif, and then tempted danger man Kasprowicz to attempt an uppish sqaure cut which landed straight into Dinesh Mongia’s hands. That was all over for the Aussies.

ScoreboardAUSTRALIA (1st innings):M Slater b Mehra 5, M Hayden c Mohanty b Sanghvi 49, J Langer lbw Mehra 8, S Waugh c Mongia b Mehra 0, R Pointing c Mohanty b Singh 56, D Martyn c S Das b Singh 6, A Gilchrist c Singh b R Sanghvi 5, J Gillespie c and b R Sanghvi 57, M Kasprowicz c D Mongia b R Sanghvi 92, D Fleming c sub (Kaif) b R Sanghvi 0, C Miller not out 0 Extras : 13, C (lb 4, nb 9). Total : 241, all out in 69.1 overs
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-24, 3-25, 4-116, 5-128, 6-128, 7-133, 8-288, 9-288
Bowling: D Mohanty 12-2-62-0 (1 nb), A Mehra 13-2-78-3 (8 nb), H Singh 20-3-63-2, R Sanghvi 18.1-8-40-5, Balaji Rao 6-0-44-0
INDIA ‘A’ (1st innings) SS Das run out 12, S Ramesh batting 43, VVS Laxman batting 6. Extras; 10 (lb 4, nb 6) Total: 71 for one in 18 oversFall of wickets: 1-36
BOWLING: Gillespie 5-2-10-0 (2 nb), Kasprowicz 4-0-14-0 (3 nb), D Fleming 5-1-17-0 (1 nb), C Miller 4-0-19-9