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Strauss works up
decent form ahead of first test |
The
three-day match between England Lions and the
Indians has ended in an expected draw. Andrew
Strauss, the Captain finally got amongst the
runs scoring a solid looking 80 and so did
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, finally finding some
success on this tour. Both sides got some decent
batting practice on the final day while the
bowlers struggled to take wickets. Just six
wickets fell in the day's play.
MS Dhoni who was the
overnight batsman with 44 to his name stretched
his score to 76. His innings also had two pull
shots off the fast bowlers for sixes. Dhoni's 76
came in 84 balls with 7 fours and those two
sixes. Indians were bowled out for 383 inside 87
overs with Stuart Broad celebrating his Test
Selection with a five-wicket haul.
The second innings of
England Lions saw half centuries from Strauss
and Owais Shah. Strauss batted nearly three
hours to get a well paced 80 from 103 balls with
14 fours before he was bowled to a bottom edge
in his sweep shot off Ramesh Powar. The Lions
declared their innings at 227 for 2 having
batted for 59 overs. Owais Shah remained
unbeaten on 77 from 157 balls with 6 fours and a
six with his partner being Jonathan Trott on 31.
The Indians had nearly
one and half hours of batting practice in their
second innings. The confident Dinesh Karthik
helped himself to a strokeful 51 from just 45
balls with 8 fours before getting caught at
covers off leggie Rasheed. Wasim Jaffer for once
didn't fail on this tour, playing out 48
deliveries watchfully to get a feel of the
conditions. He remained unbeaten on 22 and
Yuvraj also remained unbeaten; he got 6 from 28
balls as the match ended with Indians at 91 for
1 in 20 overs. Wasim Jaffer might just be
persisted with in the Lord's Test considering
his last test scores and not the two practice
matches where he has been woefully short of
runs.
England Lions 1st
Inngs 413 for 8 declared in 97 Overs (Tim Bresnan 126* Joe Denly 83
Stuart Broad 50 Ravi Bopara 29, Zaheer Khan 3/119 Sreesanth
2/76 Ramesh Powar 2/96 Sachin
Tendulkar 1/24) & 2nd Inngs 227/2 declared in
59 Overs (Strauss 80 Owais Shah 77* Trott
31*) drew with Indians 1st Inngs
383 all out in 86.4 Overs (Sachin
Tendulkar 171 Yuvraj Singh 59 MS Dhoni 76,
Stuart Broad 5/76 Graham Onions 3/90 Chris Tremlett 1/40)
& 2nd Inngs 91/1 in 20 Overs (Karthik 51
Jaffer 22*) at County
Ground, Chelmsford
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