Abhijit Kale stands tall amongst the ruins

By Vijay Lokapally

JAIPUR, NOV. 27. He is 28, so that becomes a handicap because the selectors only talk of youth and nothing else. But then he compiled a century and that should put him in a special category because it came on a difficult track. For Abhijit Kale, it was a special day at the Sawai Man Singh stadium as he guided India `A' on the opening day of the three-day match against England here on Tuesday. Put in, India `A' reached 233 for nine declared and England replied with 37 for no loss at close.

The conditions were alien to Kale all the way. A seaming track was such a demon for a cricketer bred on the placid tracks of Mumbai and Pune and the pace of Andrew Flintoff was unsettling on a surface which saw the ball move and kick and some times crawl. In short, batting was a hard task and the top order of the India `A' squad discovered it the hard way when Richard Johnson sliced through the top half, claiming three wickets in six balls.

Vinayak Mane and Yere Goud lacked the technique to counter the seaming ball even as Gautam Gambhir got a rough decision. Rashmi Ranjan Parida wasted the opportunity by being hesitant and nicking the ball. It was the right stage for Gagan Khoda, who was `man of the match' when he last played for India. He chose the right time to show his determination and produced a responsible innings in the company of Kale as the two pulled India `A' out of the rut.

Khoda built his innings carefully. ``It was a tough pitch to bat on'' he admitted. Kale supported his partner and said ``the ball was keeping low at times and that meant we had to watch very carefully. The bowling was quick too but I concentrated on staying at the wicket.'' With these two batting sensibly, the India `A' innings managed to script a recovery which was rattled again, this time by Flintoff.

Johnson had picked the first three wickets and Flintoff the next three but India `A' had two batsmen in Khoda and Kale to give some shape to the innings. After Khoda (64 off 121 balls with eight fours) was foxed by a ball which kept low and Reetender Singh Sodhi fell cheaply, it was left to Kale and Ajay Ratra to stop the English seam attack from running through the lower half.

Ratra provided Kale enough support. Having walked in to a demanding situation, Kale gave an apt demonstration of his potential. He smacked off-spinner Richard Dawson for a six to midwicket to herald his century, his 18th in first class cricket. It was a flawless innings, paced deftly and crafted in a seasoned manner before Kale nicked the off-spinner to be caught at short leg. His 220-ball knock contained eight fours and a six and was certainly the highlight of the day.

For the Englishmen, there was good news in the rhythm that Johnson struck. The Somerset seamer admitted ``it was a good pitch to bowl on'' and he used the conditions well. With Flintoff working good pace, the pair managed to make dents in the India `A' camp.

The scores:

India `A'- 1st innings: V. Mane c Foster b Johnson 0, G. Gambhir lbw b Johnson 5, Y. Goud b Johnson 0, G. Khoda b Flintoff 64, R. R. Parida c Foster b Flintoff 0, A. Kale c Ramprakash b Dawson 122, R. S. Sodhi c Foster b Flintoff 2, A. Ratra c Foster b Giles 26, S. Joshi lbw b Dawson 0, D. Ganesh (not out) 0, Extras (b-3, lb-2, nb-9) 14, Total (for nine wkts decl.) 233.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-0, 3-7, 4-8, 5- 122, 6-134, 7-233, 8-233, 9-233.

England bowling: Johnson 15-3-56-3, Flintoff 17-4-47-3, C. White 14-3-32-0, M. Butcher 1-0-3-0, A. Giles 17-3-48-1, R. Dawson 11-1-38-2, Trescothick 2-1-4-0.

England - 1st innings: M. Butcher (batting) 32, M. Trescothick (batting) 5, Total (for no loss) 37.

India `A' bowling: D. Ganesh 5-2-19-0, I. Siddiqui 5-1-17-0, S. Joshi 1-0-1-0.

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