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Cricket
The English rake up a commanding total
By Vijay Lokapally
England's Caroline Atkins (right) and Arron Thompson, who made an opening stand of 200 runs, cut a happy picture during their triumphant moments. - Photo: V.V. Krishnan
LUCKNOW, JAN. 15. The gloomy weather only reflected the state of the Indian camp as it took on a determined England in the one-off women's cricket Test at the K.D. Singh Babu Stadium here.
The English dominated the first day on Monday with the openers remaining unseparated in a stand of 150 runs. The association was extended to 200 today before the Indians made the first strike through a run out. It was a breakthrough on which the Indian girls did well to capitalise and restrict the opposition to 314.
At close, India was 21 for no loss when bad lights denied the English 45 minutes to make a dent.
The Indians hardly did anything right on the first day. Clumsy fielding heightened the woes of the Indian bowlers who had little control on line and length. The wayward bowling allowed the English openers, Caroline Atkins and Arron Thompson, to dictate terms.
``Very poor fielding,'' confessed the Indian coach, Tarak Sinha, who also felt that the bowlers had not done their job. Left-arm spinners Neetu David and Deepa Kulkarni made amends today with some discipline in their line.
Caroline and Arron showed good temperament to expose the inconsistent Indian attack and in the process also played some excellent drives. It was unfortunate that neither reached the century mark. Caroline dared Arundhati at mid off but failed to beat the throw. Her 90 was compiled off 388 balls and contained eight fours, the boundary having been reduced by ten yards.
Jane Cassar was caught at slip off the next ball and when Arron was bowled by off-spinner Bindeshwari Goel, the Indians had managed to come back into the game. Arron's responsible innings lasted 357 balls and included nine boundaries.
The partnership between Caroline and Arron was a high point for them as it erased the previous best for the wicket against India by the Australian pair of Belinda Clark and Belinda Haggerd, who put on 178 for the opening wicket in 1991 in Australia.
Caroline showed splendid spirit when she responded to the call by her partner and made no gestures at being run out.
On a pitch which behaved true, the Indian bowlers gained by sticking to a line on the off-stump and the English batswomen obliged with the middle order paying dearly for being hesitant. With the exception of skipper Clare Connor and Clare Taylor, the English did not show the will to grind the Indian attack, where David was the pick easily, claiming four wickets.
The Indian opening pair of Anju Jain and Amrita Shinde showed confidence during the 9.5 overs they batted with the latter being more aggressive.
The scores:
England - 1st innings: Caroline Atkins (run out) 90, Arron Thompson b Goel 85, Jane Cassar c Raj b David 0, Clare Connor b Kulkarni 40, Laura Newton b David 11, Kate Lowe c Amrita b David 0, Jackie Hawker b Shinde 13, Dawn Holden b David 11, Helen Wardlow (run out) 4, Clare Taylor b Kulkarni 27, Lucy Pearson (not out) 0, Extras (b-16, lb-13, w-3, nb-1) 33, Total 314.
Fall of wickets: 1-200, 2-200, 3-200, 4- 217, 5-217, 6-265, 7-275, 8-280, 9-314.
India bowling: Jhulan Goswami 19-9-26-0, Mamta Maben 9-2-19-0, Anjum Chopra 6-4-9-0, Neetu David 52-26-88- 4, Bindeshwari Goel 36-16-49-1, Deepa Kulkarni 34.3-10-70-2, Amrita Shinde 8-2-17-1, Mithali Raj 2-0-7-0.
India - 1st innings: Anju Jain (batting) 5, Amrita Shinde (batting) 14, Extras (lb-1, nb-1) 2, Total (for no loss) 21.
England bowling: Pearson 4.5-1-9-0, Taylor 4-1-9-0, Holden 1-0-2-0.
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