Sehwag shines in Seniors win

India Seniors v India A
September 28 - October 1, 2004
M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore

Day 1

Sridharan Sriram, always within the fence of the selectors' houses for the last couple of seasons, if not knocking on the doors, was the highlight on an otherwise glum day for India A. The left-handed batsman accumulated a fine century, and remained unbeaten at the close of play, after his captain Dinesh Mongia won the toss and asked the Seniors to bowl first.

However, Sriram had to share the honours for the day with the Seniors' bowlers, especially the left-handed duo of Irfan Pathan and Zaheer Khan, who shared the new ball. The latter's immaculate figures of 3/1 in his opening spell of 7 overs troubled both the opening batsmen of the A side - Gautam Gambhir and Dheeraj Jadhav.

While Jadhav couldn't last long, Gambhir announced his bid to compete with either Yuvraj Singh or Aakash Chopra for an opening spot in the national side by scoring a classy 45, before being caught at fine leg to subsitute fielder Ambati Rayadu, off Pathan. Mohammad Kaif, considered mostly as an ODI specialist, composed a well-made 31 and looked well on his way to a big score, before being trapped plumb in front, off Pathan again.

A mini-collapse followed, however Sriram and Venugopal Roa steadied the innings with a 91-run stand, that ended only just before tea, to a returning spell from Zaheer. The pace man also removed Mahendra Singh Dhoni after tea, to end the day with three wickets. India A played out the day and closed at 282 for 7, with Sriram remaining not out on 110.

Day 2

India Seniors looked rusty with the bat, as they have been in ODIs, ever since coming out of hibernation a couple of months back. Only Sourav Ganguly, with an accomplished 65, gained some batting practice, one of the aims of such a match ahead of a difficult series.

Virender Sehwag, Chopra and - all three of them failed, to leave the management scratch their brains as to who will make the final cut as the two openers, with only one practice innings to go. A seemingly untroubled Rahul Dravid too couldn't carry on his bat to a huge score, falling to Joginder Sharma, one of the hroes of the day for India A. VVS Laxman too fell to the same bowler, leaving the Seniors at 68 for 4.

Ganguly needed to bat with the tail enders, reserving his extravagant play, and adopting a cautious approach to avoid utter humiliation. Though he obliged to begin with, he showed his true colours against the slower bowlers, twice stepping out to Murali Kartik, and lofting the ball over the boundaries for mammoth sixes.

Ganguly did fall though, with the Seniors at 155 for 9, still a huge margin fo 147 runs behind the A team's first innings score. It required Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh's 58-run partnership to avert humiliation. However, it was still a mediocre batting performance to be optimistic. Amit Bhandari and Kartik joined Sharma with three wicket a piece, to put doubts in the mind of the management, as to how the national team will counter obviously better bowlers in the likes of Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Shane Warne, not to forget Brett Lee.

Earlier in the day, India A were bowled out for 302. However they stretched the first innings lead of 89 to 136, as Jadhav played some good-looking strokes, and looked well on his way to a big one.

We're extremely sorry for the unavailability of detailed reports from Days 3 and 4.

INDIA A (1st innings) 302 all out
S Sriram 125, Z Khan 38/3, IK Pathan 61/2
INDIA SENIORS (1st innings) 213 all out
SC Ganguly 65, A Bhandari 56/3, Joginder Sharma 42/3, M Kartik 73/3
INDIA A (2nd innings) 297 for 5 decl.
DS Jadhav 113, M Kaif 103, SK Trivedi 52/2
INDIA SENIORS (2nd innings) 387 for 5
Yuvraj Singh 115, V Sehwag 146, D Mongia 39/3

India Seniors beat India A by 5 wickets.

Posted by Sudeep