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Untitled Document
 India's warm-up match abandoned due to rain
19th Aug 2007 16:55 IST
Agencies
Rain gods played pranks again as India's warm-up one day cricket match against England Lions was abandoned on Saturday following heavy shower at the Northamptonshire County Club ground.
Batting first, England Lions amassed 296 for 8 from their allotted 50 overs with Vikram Solanki (60) and Luke Wright (56) notching up half centuries. Chasing a stiff task of scoring 297 runs for victory in 50 overs, India were 32 without loss after 6.5 overs when rains ruled out any further play.
Sourav Ganguly was 18 not out (29b) while Robin Uthappa was batting on 12 (12b). With the match being abandoned, Indian batsmen lost a precious opportunity to get into the one-day mode following their historic series win against Michael Vaughan 's men.
The Indians now move to Southampton for the first match of the seven-match one-day series to be played on August 21. Earlier, sparkling half-centuries by Solanki and Wright powered England Lions to an impressive 296 for 8 from their allotted 50 overs.
Wright's hurricane innings (56, 40B) and a responsible knock by captain Solanki (60, 65B) had given England Lions a good start before the Indians spinners pegged back the hosts. Off-spinner Ramesh Powar and leggie Piyush Chawla conceded 104 runs for their 20 overs collectively prizing out four wickets between themselves.
That effectively put the brakes on the Lions' scoring as they slipped from 108 for 1 in the 18th over to 149 for 5 in the 25th over.
However, Ravi Bopara (37) and Paul Nixon (39) did a good rescue job, adding 77 runs for the sixth wicket before Chris Schofield (35) and Tim Bresnan (32 not out) provided the necessary fireworks at the death scoring 61 runs in seven overs for the seventh wicket to boost their tally.
Both Zaheer Khan (7-0-57-0) and Munaf Patel (9-0-60-1) were off-colour on Saturday while Powar did well to claim 3 for 52 from his 10 overs. India, however, did not start too badly.
After Mahendra Singh Dhoni called correctly in his first match as India captain, Ajit Agarkar gave his side a perfect start removing Darren Maddy (6) as early as in the fourth over of the innings. But once Wright came to the wicket he made light work of the Indian bowling.
The tall right-hander from Sussex played some exciting strokes all round the park to dominate a second wicket stand of 96 runs off 81 balls with Solanki as England Lions motored along at six runs per over till the 25-over mark.
The 22-year old Wright signalled his arrival driving an unimpressive Zaheer Khan through the covers and pulling another short one for two boundaries in the first over he faced. He continued his onslaught smashing Munaf for three consecutive boundaries in the bowler's first over before hooking Agarkar for a six over fine leg.
Wright reached his 50 helping a full toss from Piyush Chawla to the mid-wicket fence. It took him just 34 balls in which he struck 8 fours and a six.
Just when England Lions looked like running away with the game, Powar removed the dangerous Wright in his first over as the batsman tried to flick one off his legs and the ball came off the face off his bat for Dhoni to take a one-handed catch.
Once Wright was dismissed in the 18th over, the Indians immediately seized the initiative claiming four wickets for 41 runs in 7.4 overs to reduce England to 149 for 5 in the 25th over.
Solanki was a bit subdued at the start as he watched Wright take the attack to the bowlers. But two fours off a Zaheer over kept him going. Another pull off a hapless Munaf and a lovely cover drive off Powar were fine shots too as the Lions captain brought up his 50 in the 20th over of the innings. It took him 54 balls and he hit 4 fours.
Chawla eventually deceived the batsman with a googly that trapped Solanki leg before for 60. He faced 65 balls and hit 4 fours. Ian Bell (21) looked to be in great hurry, hitting Powar over mid-on and extra cover for two consecutive fours as Powar tossed the ball up to him.
To his credit, the spinner displayed a big heart in again tossing up the next one that lured bell to play a false stroke that landed safely into the hands of Agarkar at deep mid-wicket.
In his next over, Powar picked up his third wicket on a trot when he had Owais Shah out leg before for just 1. It was the left to Bopara and Nixon to put the innings back on rails.
They put on a crucial 77-runs for the sixth wicket in 14.4 overs at just under five runs per over before Nixon was smartly stumped by Dhoni off Yuvraj Singh attempting a reverse sweep in the 40th over.
Chris Schofield (35 off 32 balls) and Tim Bresnan (32 not out off 26 balls) then threw their bats around at the death taking a heavy toll of Zaheer. India brought back Zaheer resting RP Singh while Dinesh Karthik and Rahul Dravid made way for Rohit Sharma and Sourav Ganguly. |
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