Date:17/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/17/stories/2008091761341900.htm

Sport

Ronchi guides Australia ‘A’ to huge win

V.V. Subrahmanyam

Tait, Noffke have India ‘A’ in early trouble before Pathan, Nayar salvage innings

— Photo: K. Ramesh Babu

SUPERB KNOCK: Opener Luke Ronchi took the game away from India ‘A’ with an aggressive century.

HYDERABAD: Luke Ronchi held the centre-stage with a brilliant, unbeaten century as Australia ‘A’ found its groove to record a nine-wicket win, with a bonus point, over India ‘A’ at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Tuesday.

With rain curtailing play, the visitor had to have scored 152 from 36 overs to win, as per the V. Jayadevan System. When the skies opened up, Australia ‘A’ was on 168 for one off 27 overs and umpires Sanjeev Dua and Vishwas Neurukar awarded it the match.

It was a dramatic comeback by a team which was totally outplayed by New Zealand ‘A’ in its previous match on Monday.

Pursuing a modest 208, opener Ronchi (108 not out, 79 balls, 13x4, 3x6) and Phillip Hughes (47, 77 balls, 8x4) put on 129 for the first wicket. After that, there was no cause for panic. None of the Indian bowlers made any impact.

Every aspect of batting was on display as wicketkeeper-batsman Ronchi came up with a near-flawless display, making even Praveen Kumar and the leg-spinner Piyush Chawla look very ordinary. In one over from Chawla, Ronchi used his feet and first swung him for six, then lofted him down the ground before driving him straight for two more fours.

Ronchi reached his century in style with a six over deep mid-on off Chawla, past the outstretched hands of Ravi Teja.

Tait bowls well

Earlier, India ‘A’ rallied to make 207 after being rattled by the fiery Shaun Tait. After struggling against the Kiwis, Tait was at his best against the host, with a deadly combination of speed, line and length.

He first trapped Robin Uthappa on the shuffle, trying to play across. Then, Suresh Raina was beaten by a swinging yorker before captain S. Badrinath was lured into the drive only to snick to the wicketkeeper.

And, adding to the misery of the hosts was medium-pacer Ashley Noffke. His perfect, late in-swinger slipped through even before Rohit Sharma could get his bat down. Noffke also saw Dinesh Karthik play all over a good length ball which came back in to peg back his middle stump.

Yusuf Pathan was off to a shaky start — captain Cameron White failed to latch on to a straight forward chance in the covers off Noffke when he was on two — but rode his luck to put on 72 for the seventh wicket with southpaw Abhishek Nayar.

Pathan (54, 69 balls 3x4, 1x6) and Nayar looked more comfortable against spin; Pathan hit leg-spinner White over long-off and Nayar swung left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty over mid-wicket. It is this partnership which lent some respectability to the India ‘A’ innings.

Nayar perished chasing a Noffke delivery and edging it to the wicketkeeper.

White came back strongly in the 42nd over to pick up Chawla and trapping Pathan to leave India ’A’ at 160 for nine in 42nd over.

A 47-run stand for the last wicket between Praveen Kumar (31, 2x4, 1x6) and Kulkarni (15 not out, 1x6) saw the host cross 200.

The scores: India ‘A’: R. Uthappa lbw b Tait 2, S. Asnodkar (run out) 23, S. Raina b Tait 0, S. Badrinath c Ronchi b Tait 1, R. Sharma b Noffke 15, D. Karthik b Noffke 12, Y. Pathan lbw b White 54, A. Nayar c Ronchi b Noffke 30, P. Chawla b White 12, Praveen Kumar b Noffke 31, D. Kulkarni (not out) 15, Extras (b-1, lb-1, w-9, nb-1) 12; Total (in 49.4 overs) 207.

Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-5, 3-19, 4-39, 5-53, 6-68, 7-140, 8-159, 9-160.

Australia ‘A’ bowling: Tait 9-1-27-3, Geeves 10-0-41-0, Noffke 9.4-1-39-4, Doherty 10-0-40-0, White 8-0-43-2, Hussey 3-0-15-0.

Australia ‘A’: L. Ronchi (not out) 108, P. Hughes c Kulkarni b Pathan 47, D. Hussey (not out) 8, Extras (b-1, w-4) 5; Total (for one wkt. in 27 overs) 168.

Fall of wicket: 1-129.

India ‘A’ bowling: Praveen 5-0-24-0, Kulkarni 4-1-21-0, Nayar 4-0-30-0, Chawla 8-0-57-0, Pathan 6-1-35-1.