Sriram shines

By V.V. Subrahmanyam

HYDERABAD, NOV. 23. Sridharan Sriram chose the perfect stage to be in the national reckoning for a berth in the national team, if there is any vacant slot, with an unbeaten 120 which helped Board President's XI give a fitting reply of 256 for two to England's 320 in the first innings at close on the second day of the three- day match against England XI at Lal Bahadur Stadium here today.

It was certainly good to see the chairman of selection committee, Chandu Borde, applaud alongwith the other four selectors the thoroughly-deserving century noted for abundance of caution in the first-half and for fine strokeplay in the second- half. A creditable performance indeed from this Tamil Nadu opener, after the early exit of the other opener Wasim Jaffer (0). The Mumbai batsman was squared up by a beauty on the off- stump by Mathew Hoggard only to give a simple catch behind the stumps of the third ball of the innings.

That Sriram spent 105 minutes to score his first boundary and his first 50 took him 133 balls compared to the second one which came of just 66 balls was a fair indication how he paced the knock.

* The scores:

England XI - 1st innings: Mark Butcher c S.S. Singh b Sarandeep Singh 41, Mark Vaughan c Dinesh Mongia b Sanjay Bangar 22, Nasser Hussain c Rohan Gavaskar b Murali Karthik 46, Graham Thorpe lbw Murali Karthik 13, Mark Ramprakash b Murali Karthik 105, Craig White b Sarandeep Singh 0, James Foster b Jacob Martin b Sarandeep Singh 9, Martin Ball c Rohan Gavaskar b Sarandeep Singh 28, James Ormond lbw Sarandeep Singh 5, Richard Dawson c D. Mongia b Sanjay Bangar 24, Mathew Hoggard not out 5; Extras: (4b, 1lb, 1w, 16nb) 22; Total (in 96.4 overs) 320.

Fall of wickets: 1-51, 2-104, 3-122, 4- 139, 5-149, 6-187, 7-239, 8-265, 9-292.

Board President's XI bowling: Surinder Singh 13-4-37-0, Tinu Yohanan 11-1-57-0, Sanjay Bangar 16.4-3-34- 2, Sarandeep Singh 24-0-98-5, Murali Karthik 31-7-84-3, Rohan Gavaskar 1-0-5-0.

Board President's XI - 1st innings: S. Sriram (batting) 120, Wasif Jaffer c Foster b Hoggard 0, Dinesh Mongia c Thorpe b Martyn Ball 44, Jacob Martin (batting) 83; Extras (2b, 3lb, 1w, 3nb) 9; Total (for two wkts. in 82 overs) 256.

Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-66.

England XI bowling: Hoggard 17-3-35-1, Armond 15-2-46-0, Ball 20- 3-71-1, White 12-3-29-0, Dawson 16-1-63-0, Vaughan 2-0-7-0.

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