The Hindu : Gambhir in full flow

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 01, 2003

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Gambhir in full flow

By G. Viswanath

Gautam Gambhir wades into Mudalige on way to an unbeaten century on the second day of the second `Test' between India `A' and Sri Lanka `A' at Pune on Sunday. — Photo: Vivek Bendre

Pune Nov. 30. Gautam Gambhir seemed to have carried the batting manual with him when he went out to bat immediately after lunch on Sunday. After the persevering Amit Bhandari had knocked down the rival in the first two hours, Gambhir, far from resembling his timid partners, showed flair and finesse.

Those who took the free admission into the Nehru Stadium stands on the weekend holiday shared his pleasure of notching up a splendid undefeated 117 as India `A' made 203 for three in its first innings in reply to Sri Lanka's 340.

His opening partner on many India `A' tours in the recent past and also wearing the Delhi colours, Akash Chopra has marched a long way ahead and is now in Australia. At the moment, Gambhir is lagging behind and has a lot of catching up to do with his right-handed partner.

Gambhir cracked an excellent century in a commendable time of little less than four hours against an attack comprising three seamers and two spinners. He won his battle with fast medium bowler Lasinth Malinga hands down in the course of a fierce post-lunch skirmish. Compared to the West Indies fast bowler Fidel Edwards, Malinga is a tiny young man but the Sri Lankan whips his arm from the back of his body just like Edwards, who took six wickets against Zimbabwe at Harare on Saturday.

Gambhir had the full measure of Malinga in an over, brutally pulling two short balls to the fence, standing up on his toes to cut and also controlling a steer shot that truly electrified the proceedings. Stand-in captain Jehan Mubarak removed Malinga immediately, but neither off-spinner Chamakira Mudalige nor left-arm spinner Rangana Herath troubled Gambhir as he approached his century, playing a wide range of strokes.

After Gambhir and Mohammad Kaif added 93 for the second wicket, India `A' lost S. Sriram (playing at the expense of Hemang Badani who is down with food poisoning) at 138. Thereafter, Rohan Gavaskar offered support for 81 minutes to take the home team past the 200-run mark.

Nawaz rushes home

Nothing went right for Sri Lanka `A' in the morning. First, skipper Naveed Nawaz had to rush to Colombo to be with his two-year old son suffering from dengue fever. There was more agony soon after play resumed with the team at 255 for three. The second new ball claimed on Saturday evening was only a little over three overs old and Bhandari used it well to pick up four more wickets today. Murali Kartik chipped in with two at the cost of 17 runs, bowling 8.2 overs today.

The scores:

Sri Lanka `A' — 1st innings: P. Jayawardane c Gambhir b Bhandari 40; I. Daniel (run out) 111; J. Mubarak b Powar 64; N. Nawaz (retd.) 17; Lanka de Silva c Ratra b Bhandari 13; A. Pollonowita c Ratra b Kartik 23; K. Weeraratne lbw b Bhandari 0; R. Herath lbw b Bhandari 40; O. Wijesiriwardane st. Ratra b Kartik 14; C. Mudalige c Ratra b Bhandari 0; L. Malinga (not out) 1; Extras (b-4, lb-4, nb-8, w-1) 17; Total 340.

Fall of wickets: 1-100, 2-212, 3-236, 4-264, 5-264, 6-317, 7-332, 8-332, 9-340

India `A' bowling: Patel 18-5-49-0, Bhandari 28-11-70-5, Kartik 34.2-8-90-2, Powar 34-7-110-1, Sriram 3-0-8-0, Gavaskar 1-0-3-0, Gambhir 1-0-2-0.

India `A' — 1st innings: S. S. Das c de Silva b Wijesiriwardane 16; G. Gambhir (batting) 117; M. Kaif st. Jayawardane b Herath 28; S. Sriram (run out) 3; R. Gavaskar (batting) 26; Extras (b-2, lb-6, nb-5) 13; Total (for three wkts.) 203.

Fall of wickets: 1-37, 2-130, 3-138

Sri Lanka `A' bowling: Malinga 7-0-40-0, Wijesiriwardane 8-3-27-1, Weeraratne 15-4-50-0, Herath 19-3-49-1, Mudalige 11-1-29-0.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport