Gnaneshwar puts Rest in command

MUMBAI, JANUARY 5: â€˜â€˜Is he YD or YG Rao ?,â€™â€™ queried a fellow ...

MUMBAI, JANUARY 5: â€˜â€˜Is he YD or YG Rao ?,â€™â€™ queried a fellow scribe, everyone seemed to have got his name wrong. But the young Andhra boy, Gnaneshwar Rao, did not have any such problem, his knock ensured that the Rest of India innings did not fritter away the advantage that the early batsmen had gained.

Gnaneshwar Raoâ€™s knock of 123 off 205 ball ensured that Rest of India could declare their innings at 321-7, with a lead of 111 to boot. The English colts in their reply were struggling at 10-2 on the second day of the three-day warm-up match against Rest of India being played at the MIG Cricket club here on Friday.

After resuming at their overnight score of 47-2, Rest of India seemed to be comfortably placed at 114-2 but sufferred a middle-order collapse and slumped to 120-5. However a 100 run partnership for the sixth wicket between Gnaneshwar and Maninder Singh (25), saved the day for the hosts.

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In a knock studded with seventeen hits to the fence and two straight sixes Gnaneshwar played both the seamers and spinners with ease and reached his century with a typical Indian â€˜â€˜flick off the legsâ€™â€™ boundary.

With the score at 321-7 Rest skipper Khadkikar decided to signal closure to the innings. For the visitors left arm spinner Robert Ferley was the most successful bowler with figures of 4-71.

Any hopes the English team would have had to play the day out without any losses were wiped away when first innings hero Dharmichand took two wickets, to leave the visitors still 101 runs behind, to avoid an innings defeat.

Scoreboard

England (U-19) (1st innings) 210
Rest of India (U-19) (1st innings) (overnight 47-2): Arindam Das c Sadler b Bishop 4, Gagan Inder Singh c Ali b Ferley 62, Mohnish Mishra c Ali b Bishop 1, Kashinath Khadkikar c Bell b Ferley 36, Parthiv Patel b Ferley 0, Gnaneshwar Rao not out 123, Maninder Singh c Wallace b Ian Bell 25, Gagandeep Singh lbw b Ferley 9, Steve Lazarus not out 20; Extras: (b6, lb8, nb23, w4) 41; Total (for 7 wickets declared in 98 overs in 399 minutes) 321
Fall of wickets: 1-7 (Das, 3.5 overs), 2-27 (Mishra, 9.5), 3-114 (Khadkikar, 36.4), 4-114 (Patel, 37), 5-120 (Gagan Inder, 38.3), 6-220 (Maninder, 79.4), 7-240 (Gagandeep, 83).

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Bowling: Andrew McGarry 16-1-57 (nb4); Justin Bishop 18-3-52-2 (nb7, w4); Ian Pattison 10-4-31-0 (nb2); Monty Panesar 20-9-59-0 (nb1); Robert Ferley 23-6-71-4 (nb2); Gordon Muchal 7-0-27-0 (nb7); Ian Bell 4-0-10-1.

England (U-19) (2nd innings): John Sadler not out 5, Garry Pratt b Dharmichand 0, Andrew McGarry lbw b Dharmichand 0, Ian Bell 2; Extras: (b2, w2) 4; Total (for 2 wickets in 8 overs) 11
Fall of wickets: 1-2 (Pratt, 1.3 overs), 2-6 (McGarry, 3.4)

Bowling: Gagan Deep singh 3-1-6 (w2); Dharmichand 4-3-1-2; Tushar Saha 1-0-2-0.