da bet7k： The first match of the five match series between India ‘A’ andAustralia ‘A’ in the AXN America Challenge saw Australia drub India
Anand Vasu with Badri Seshadri16-Sep-1999The first match of the five match series between India ‘A’ andAustralia ‘A’ in the AXN America Challenge saw Australia drub India.On winning the toss, Adam Gilchrist put India ‘A’ in to bat. DoddaGanesh and Ashish Nehra opened the bowling for India ‘A’. AdamGilchrist and Campbell began cautiously and did not really take theattack to the opposition. The pitch looked underprepared, and theAustralians had to be watchful. Both Ganesh and Nehra bowled tidily,and with the pitch playing up, the Australians were 8 for no lossafter 5 overs. Campbell attempted to push the scoring rate ended upskying the ball into the off-side. Harbhajan Singh at mid-off coveredgood ground and took the catch safely. Campbell had made 8. Michael DiVenuto was came in at the fall of Campbell’s wicket. Di Venuto andGilchrist began to build a partnership. Harbhajan Singh came in to theattck first change, began poorly and was punished by Gilchrist. Singhhowever got revenge when Gilchrist edged a ball to Laxman at slipwho took a good catch, falling to his left. Gilchrist had made 19 off42 balls.The next man in was Damien Martyn. Di Venuto had spent some time outin the middle and began to play a few strokes. After driving Nehrawell to get three runs, Di Venuto attempted to go after HarbhajanSingh and payed the price. Di Venuto went after a ball that was welltossed up. The ball turned sharply off the pitch and took the edge ofthe bat. Rahul Sanghvi completed the catch and Australia ‘A’ were in aspot of bother at 45 for 3.Symonds joined Martyn out in the middle and the two handled the Indianspinners well, milking them for runs. Both Symonds and Martyn playedsensibly and pushed the score to 87 after 25 overs. After the 30thover, Symonds began to stroke the ball more freely, came down thewicket and lofted Sanghvi over long-on for six. Martyn then attemptedto pull Sanghvi, missed the ball completely and was bowled around hislegs. Brad Hodge came in at the fall of Gilchrist’s wicket and had tobe content playing second fiddle to Symonds. Symonds cut and pull infine style and began to notch up boundaries with regularity. The India’A’ captain Laxman, tried various bowlers including Shewaw to noavail.With only seven overs left to go in the curtailed 47 overs a sidematch, Symonds attempted to hit Ganesh out of the ground and ended upholing out to Devendra Bundela at long on. Symonds innings of 77 runsoff 84 balls included 3 boundaries and one huge six.Shane Lee breezed in and out of the ground and did not trouble thescorers in his essay of 0 off 1 ball. Lee hit a ball straight back toHarbhajan and was gone. Hodge then took on the mantle of seniorbatsman and made 30 off 40 balls before he skied a catch to MohammadKaif off the bowling of Ganesh. Young and Creevey batted out theremaining overs and helped Australia ‘A’ post a highly competitive 192off their allotted 47 overs.Brett Lee, reputed to be the fastest bowler in Australia today, cameout all guns firing on a wicket that aided the bowlers. Alongside him,Hansen bowled tidily and the Indians could not score freely. BothSriram and Gandhi looked out of their depth and struggled to put batto ball. In the 10th over Gandhi was trapped plumb in front by Hansenand his innings of 15 off 33 balls had come to an end. Laxman came inext and played a flick through mid-wicket that had “Azharuddin”written all over it. He followed that up with a cut that went to thepoint boundary. Brett Lee continued to trouble Sriram. After a painfulblow on the stomach that rattled Sriram, Lee struck Sriram on thepads. After thinking a bit, Yashpal Sharma decided that the ball wouldgo on to hit the leg-stump and gave the batsman out LBW.Mohammad Kaif was the next man in. Kaif scored one boundary soonafter he came to the wicket but fell after that, in attempting toglance Shane Lee. Gilchrist dived and snapped up the ball. There wassome doubt about whether the ball had come off the bat or off thepads, but umpire Jayaprakash had no doubt in sending Kaif back to thepavilion. India were in trouble at 58 for 3. Laxman followed soonafter, being bowled by with the score. At this point, theIndians seemed to give up any realistic hope of winning thematch. Virendra Shewag and Devendra Bundela did their best to protecttheir wickets. This negative approach did the Indians no good, and wicketsbegan to fall at regular intervals. The first to go was Shewag,attempting to drive Shane Lee through the covers. Shewag ended uppresenting Symonds with a simple catch and India were in deepertrouble at 79 for 5. The wicketkeeper Dighe and the Indian tail didnot offer any serious resistance and were knocked over without muchado. Sanghvi was run out, while Creevey picked up the wickets of Digheand Ganesh. India ‘A’ managed to muster up only 115 as they werebowled out for 34.1 overs. Australia ‘A’ won the match convincingly by77 runs.Symonds was deservedly adjudged man of the match, and a satisfied AdamGilchrist looked forward to the forthcoming matches.