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John Rogers comes up with a fine knock

S. Ram Mahesh

Ishant scalps three; VRV Singh and Pankaj fail to impress

— Photo: AFP

TIMBER: Ishant Sharma breaches the defences of ACT Invitational XI batsman Ed Cowan.

Canberra: Chris Rogers, tipped to partner Phil Jaques at Perth should Matthew Hayden not recover sufficiently, compiled 60, but it was his namesake — first name of John — who played the innings of Friday against the touring Indians here at the Manuka Oval.

John Rogers batted over four hours for an attractive 98 before anxiety got the better of him. He fell, slicing R.P. Singh to deep backward point, but by then he had taken the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Invitational XI to within reach of the Indians.

At stumps on the second day of the three-day game, ACT had scored 292 for eight in 93 overs, 33 behind on the first innings. Ishant Sharma was the best bowler on view, returning figures of three for 26 from 11 overs.

Harbhajan, who was hit above the right eye by a stray ball at practice on Friday morning, bowled a fine spell of 12 overs — controlled flight bowling at varying pace.

With R.P. Singh getting a wicket in each spell, the aggregated analysis of the three who played the first two Tests read: 33 overs, 74 runs, six wickets.

The others (part-timers included) combined for 60 overs, 218 runs, and two wickets. Neither V.R.V. Singh nor Pankaj Singh did enough to suggest he would tear the house down at Perth.

Both lacked rhythm: V.R.V. Singh over-stepped 11 times — worryingly, he decelerated as he reached his delivery stride; Pankaj was marginally better, although never really threatening.

Encouraging

Irfan Pathan bowled an encouraging first spell. He set the left-handed Ed Cowan up with a series of outswingers. He then defeated Cowan with one that didn’t curl.

It drifted down leg however. Pathan also swung the second new ball — away, interestingly, from the right-hander — but he looked mild in between.

Chris Rogers gathered a large portion of his runs behind square either side of the wicket.

The stroke that stood out in his 92-ball knock was a bottom-handed straight drive off Pankaj — the back leg kicked out and sideways to balance the stroke.

But, the compact left-handed opener missed a sweep off Harbhajan — “I tried to hit it on the full, but it hit me on the full, and that was probably out” — to return to the Bradman Pavilion.

Had he heard from the selectors? “No they keep it pretty close to their chest,” said Chris Rogers. “(If I am called up) I probably couldn’t script it better to be at the WACA, my home ground, with a home crowd. It would be pretty amazing I reckon.”

Ishant had broken through earlier on Friday. M.S. Dhoni, having tried Pathan, Pankaj and V.R.V. Singh for the first hour, threw the ball to the gangly seamer, who struck immediately.

Ishant strikes

Ed Cowan edged a loosener on to his stumps to bring Jonathon Dean to the middle. Dean had spent all morning in batting gear, chatting to a mate in the stands.

The mate wasn’t kept waiting: Ishant struck Dean in front of the stumps with a sharp in-ducker.

Ishant also had captain Mark Higgs caught behind, hooking a bouncer, before retiring to let the other seamers have a go.

“I didn’t bowl much today because the others needed to,” said Ishant.

“With the new ball, I tried to keep it up, which is what we are doing on this tour, and after that I bowled on a length.”

The 20-year-old John Rogers essayed several pleasing strokes — particularly pretty were cover drives off V.R.V. Singh and Pathan, the left-hander’s calling card.

He also pulled well, waiting as the ball, softened, sat up. He even advanced to Harbhajan, hitting the off-spinner straight for four.

But, he grew edgy on 98, and while it wouldn’t have counted as a First Class century because the game is twelve-a-side, he left bitterly disappointed.

The scores:

Indians — 1st innings: 325 for nine decl.

ACT XI — 1st innings: C. Rogers lbw b Harbhajan 60, E. Cowan b Ishant 14, J. Dean lbw b Ishant 0, M. Higgs c Karthik b Ishant 1, J. Rogers c V.R.V. Singh b R.P. Singh 98, R. Starr lbw b R.P. Singh 27, J. Crosthwaite st. Karthik b Sehwag 27, A. Ritchard b Pathan 15, R. Sherlock (batting) 11, L. Swards (batting) 4, Extras (b-10, lb-12, nb-11, w-2) 35; Total (for eight wickets in 93 overs) 292.

Fall of wickets: 1-41 (Cowan), 2-45 (Dean), 3-83 (Higgs), 4-100 (C. Rogers), 5-174 (Starr), 6-241 (Crosthwaite), 7-269 (J. Rogers), 8-285 (Ritchard).

Indians bowling: Pathan 18-3-56-1, Ishant 11-4-26-3, Pankaj 14-2-36-0, V.R.V. Singh 11-0-39-0, Harbhajan 13-1-32-1, Sehwag 11-1-37-1, R.P. Singh 9-2-16-2, Yuvraj 5-0-21-0, Dhoni 1-0-7-0.

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