The Hindu : Sport : Laxman carves a classy century

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 13, 2005

Sport

Sport

Laxman carves a classy century

Vijay Lokapally

LEADING THE WAY: V.V.S. Laxman played a captain's knock to guide India `A' to a challenging total. — Photo: V.V. Krishnan

MOHALI: : V.V.S. Laxman and Suresh Raina lent quality to the ongoing Kingfisher Challenger Series with innings of pristine composition. It was unfortunate for India `B' bowlers to have encountered two batsmen of strikingly similar nature on the same day and the result was pure entertainment for the sparse audience.

As India `A', put in, finished with 260 for eight, one suspected even the attack that suffered at the hands of Laxman and in Raina may have quietly enjoyed the punishment.

Laxman was enacting a familiar role while the left-handed Raina was stepping into a zone that would enhance his stakes in the bigger league. For Laxman, commanding respect from the attack was just an extension of an art he has come to perfect over the years while Raina drew motivation from his partner to showcase his immense potential as a batsman to watch for the future.

Record stand

Their 187-run third wicket stand was a record for the tournament but more than mere statistics it was the aesthetic touch that lifted the level of the game in the middle. The duo matching each other was a delight for the spectators and the wide range of strokes reflected their repertoire.

After Dheeraj Jadhav perished to Amit Bhandari to the second ball of the match and Gautam Gambhir fell to a casual steer, the pair of Laxman and Raina had a task at hand. For the second day, S. Sreesanth found his rhythm early in his spell and posed a threat to the batsmen with his ability to generate pace. He did manage to snare Laxman but it was only after the stylish Hyderabadi had knocked a classy century.

Once again Laxman ran his singles well and more importantly inspired the gifted Raina to play his natural game. The senior partner made batting look ridiculously easy and Raina picked up the cue to produce a knock, which should establish his credentials as an attacking strokemaker.

It helped Raina he had Laxman as the guiding partner in the middle. Both love to play their shots and gradually the India `B' attack was collared by these two in the brightest phase of the India `A' innings. Laxman's 110 came off 121 balls with 12 fours while Raina made his 97 off 124 balls with 11 boundaries.

Failing to capitalise

After Laxman drove Sreesanth into the hands of covers and Raina snicked behind, the India `A' innings, with batting order changes compelled by the need of the hour, failed to capitalise and lost direction to finish at 260.

Sreesanth was easily the pick of the India `B' bowlers as he bowled with lot of confidence to make an impression on the selectors, who have pencilled V.R.V. Singh of India `A' as a bowler worth investing in too.

The scores:

India `A': D. Jadhav lbw b Bhandari 2, G. Gambhir c Parthiv b Sreesanth 10, V.V.S. Laxman c Shukla b Sreesanth 110, S. Raina c Parthiv b Chawla 97, D. Kaarthick c Pathan b Bhandari 11, V.R.V. Singh lbw b Chawla 0, N. Patel (not out) 14, M. Tiwari c Chawla b Bose 9, L. Balaji c Uthappa b Bose 4, S. Nadeem (not out) 0, Extras (w-3) 3, Total (for eight wkts. in 50 overs) 260.

Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-30, 3-217, 4-233, 5-233, 6-233, 7-255, 8-260.

India `B' bowling: Bhandari 8-1-51-2, Sreesanth 10-1-44-2, Ranadeb 7-0-47-2, Y. Pathan 10-0-42-0, Chawla 7-0-37-2, Mongia 6-0-24-0, Sriram 2-0-15-0.

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