da betsul： A spectacular batting collapse, triggered in main by Iqbal Siddiqui(4/36), pushed England to 170 all out in their first innings
Santhosh S28-Nov-2001A spectacular batting collapse, triggered in main by Iqbal Siddiqui(4/36), pushed England to 170 all out in their first innings. India ‘A’thus took a valuable first-innings lead of 63 runs on the second day ofthe three-day match against India `A’ at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium inJaipur on Wednesday. By the close of play, India ‘A’ had moved to 75 forthe loss of three wickets.After restricting India `A’ to 233/9 declared on the first day, Englandmust have hoped to get some valuable batting practice ahead of the firstTest at Mohali. On a lively pitch, Marcus Trescothick and Mark Butcherhad negotiated the India `A’ bowlers for 11 good overs to reach 37 forno loss at stumps on Tuesday.But their good work suddenly seemed a distant memory on the secondmorning, which read more like a chapter from a gruesome horror story.With the 11th ball of the day, Siddiqui struck, claiming Mark Butcher’swicket. Butcher (37) could only add five more to his overnight scorebefore gifting a catch to Abhijit Kale in the slips.Trescothick (7) followed soon after, given out caught behind off thefirst ball of the next over by Dodda Ganesh. The batsman was distinctlyunhappy with the decision and stood his ground for some time beforemaking the long slow walk back to the pavilion.Michael Vaughan and Nasser Hussain then put together a scratchypartnership of 36 runs for the third wicket. Vaughan, who must by now bedesperate to get some runs under his belt, was lucky to be dropped byGautam Gambhir off the bowling of Ganesh. Hussain too enjoyed some luckthis morning, being dropped by Rashmi Ranjan Parida off Siddiqui.Vaughan struck five boundaries in his 22 before top-edging a pull offSiddiqui, only to give Vinayak Mane an easy catch in the covers.Mark Ramprakash and Andrew Flintoff both failed to open their account,gifting their wicket to Siddiqui. The medium-pacer from Maharashtra wassoon rewarded by the national selectors, who picked him for the firstTest squad. Craig White and Ashley Giles came and went, scoring two runseach. Hussain’s own defiant knock of 40 off 88 balls finally came to anend when he went for a wild heave off the bowling of his counterpartSunil Joshi. The English skipper hit five boundaries and a six to topscore in the innings.A clueless Richard Johnson (5) let through a ball from Joshi (3/39) onlyto find his stumps disturbed. England were in serious trouble at thatstage – 128/9. The last-wicket partnership of James Foster (32) andRichard Dawson (19), however, added 42 valuable runs for the lastwicket. Dawson was finally trapped in front by Reetinder Singh Sodhi(2/12) to mark the end of the English first innings. It was a remarkablylacklustre performance with the bat by the English players, especiallyconsidering that the first Test starts on Monday.In their second essay, India ‘A’ batsmen struggled to get the ball awayfor runs. The pitch was playing up badly, the ball keeping low andcreating all sorts of problems for the batsmen. A ball that stayed lowand shot through to hit the pads undid Mane, who must have been keen onimpressing the national selectors; he was given out lbw. Gambhir playedvaliantly to make 30 before being bowled by Craig White, who was puttingtogether a good spell. White tasted more success when he trapped GaganKhoda in front to claim all three wickets that fell in the evening(9-3-21-3).The match is very keenly poised now, with India ‘A’ leading by 138 runs.Brilliant bowling by the Indian bowlers has blown a big hole in theEnglish confidence. The tourists will be looking forward to an improvedperformance on the last day of the three-day match tomorrow.