The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Laxman shows his class

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Wednesday, Feb 09, 2005

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Sport - Cricket

Laxman shows his class

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, FEB. 8. Virender Sehwag did not cut loose, departed in the fifth over leaving the scattered crowd, gathered for the Challenger series encounter against India seniors, disappointed. Sehwag did flick a four off Laxmipathy Balaji, but the latter who had bowled ten enthusiastic, but fruitless overs on Monday, came back strongly at the rival captain and added three more scalps later. Sehwag attempted to play a forcing shot and offered a straightforward catch to Yuvraj Singh at point.

The first session of the second match of the Challenger series seemed to be somewhat listless. However, V.V.S. Laxman with touch and timing and the fine efforts of S. Sriram and A. T. Rayudu helped their side reach a respectable total. The downfall of Gautam Gambhir, deflecting Ranadeb Bose on to the stumps, was another quick success for Sourav Ganguly's side aiming to make amends and looking forward to win vital points to stay in the series.

But removing the two openers capable of putting any attack to the sword, India seniors took control of the first session quickly and did not allow Laxman or Sriram to excel in the same rampaging vein as Yuvraj Singh did on Monday. Nonetheless, Laxman was just about perfect in whatever he did and nine of his shots scorched the outfield towards the ropes. Even in circumstances that would have compelled most batsman to be a little guarded, Sriram managed to put away Anil Kumble over midwicket for a six.

The third wicket stand had produced 96 runs in one and a quarter hours, when Laxman failed to make the ground while attempting a third run; the throw from Raina from the deep cover being accurate for Dhoni to collect it top of the bails and disturb it. Soon Sriram fell to Ganguly and wickets began to tumble and it required a splendid rearguard partnership from Ramesh Powar and Asish Nehra to take India `B' to a total that reiterated the high quality of pitch prepared for the four match series.

India `B': G. Gambhir b Bose 19, V. Sehwag c Yuvraj b Balaji 9, V. V. S. Laxman (run out) 67, S. Sriram b Ganguly 52, R. Gavaskar c N. Patel b Ganguly 14, A. T. Rayudu c Ganguly b Bose 45, Parthiv Patel c N. Patel b Balaji 7, J. Sharma b Kumble 1, R. Powar c Dhoni b Balaji 30, A. Nehra c Dhoni b Balaji 14, A. Bhandari not out 0 Extras (lb-5, w-10, nb-2) 17. Total (in 50 overs): 275.

Fall of wkts: 1-22, 2-55, 3-151, 4-161, 5-178, 6-199, 7-222, 8-228, 9-269.

India Seniors bowling: Balaji 10-1-66-4, Bose 10-0-51-2, Kumble 10-0-49-1, Ganguly 7-0-36-2, Pawar 10-0-55-0, Rao 3-0-13-0.

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