Bangar's day in Hyderabad

By V.V. Subrahmanyam

HYDERABAD, NOV. 24. The England batting is suspect even against quality medium-pace bowling. Not just spin alone. This was the message at the end of the three-day match between Board President's XI and England which ended in a draw at Lal Bahadur Stadium here today.

For, Railway medium-pacer Sanjay Bangar, who pitched the ball up and swung the ball around, proved to be its tormentor on the final day with a splendid effort of five for 32, which saw England struggle at 163 for nine. Fortunately for the Englishmen play had to be called off after the seventh mandatory over.

Earlier, Board President's XI, resuming at 256 for two, declared at lunch at 339 for seven, with captain Jacob Martin (89) failing to score a century as he was bowled neck and crop by Matthew Hoggard early in the morning. Interestingly, it was Hoggard's pace and Martyn Ball's spin which checked the intentions of President's XI.

Sridharan Sriram again looked the best on view, playing some lovely strokes before he slashed away from his body to give a simple catch to wicketkeeper Foster off Craig White. In the second essay, the England batsmen disappointed. They found even the medium-pace of Tinu Yohanan and left-armer Surinder Singh too good to handle and the former had the delight of rearranging the stumps of Michael Vaughan (18) and Surinder Singh forced a snick from Mark Butcher with a beautiful, away swinger.

Soon, it was Bangar's show all the way, returning with the best ever figures by an Indian bowler at the venue against Englishmen in the last four decades. He stuck to the basics - pitched the ball up and made the batsmen play, swinging the odd ball appreciably.

The scores:

England XI - 1st innings: 320.

Board President's XI - 1st innings: S. Sriram c Foster b White 149, W. Jaffer c Foster b Hoggard 0, D. Mongia c Thorpe b Ball 44, J. Martin b Hoggard 89, R. Gavaskar c & b Ball 24, P. Dharmani lbw b White 5, S. Bangar lbw b Ball 2, M. Karthik (not out) 7, Sarandeep Singh (not out) 10. Extras: (2- b, 3-lb, 1-w, 3-nb) 9. Total (for seven wkts decl.): 339.

Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-66, 3-268, 4- 315, 5-315, 6-318, 7-322.

England XI bowling: Hoggard 23-4-51-2, Armond 15-2-46-0, Ball 27- 4-89-3, White 20-5-44-2, Dawson 25-2-97-0, Vaughan 2-0-7-0.

England XI - 2nd innings: M. Butcher c Dharmani b S.S. Singh 12, M. Vaughan b Yohanan 18, N. Hussain c Karthik b Bangar 38, G. Thorpe b Bangar 13, M. Ramprakash c Dharmani b Karthik 32, C. White c Dharmani b Bangar 4, J. Foster b Bangar 0, M. Ball (not out) 25, J. Armond (run out) 6, R. Dawson lbw b Bangar 1, M. Hoggard (not out) 0. Extras (3-b, 6-lb, 5-nb): 14. Total (for nine wkts): 163.

Fall of wickets: 1-29, 2-48, 3-80, 4- 116, 5-120, 6-122, 7-144, 8-157, 9-162.

President's XI bowling: S.S. Singh 10-4- 22-1, Yohanan 7-1-38-1, Karthik 15-5-29-1, Bangar 14-6-32-5, Sarandeep 6-0-33-0.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : Gibbs and Kirsten put South Africa on perch
Next     : Vaas, Muralitharan wreck Windies