In batting, Rest failed the test

The selectors took the first step by selecting the Team India bench strength and fielding it against Railways. When the Irani Cup 2005 ended...

The selectors took the first step by selecting the Team India bench strength and fielding it against Railways. When the Irani Cup 2005 ended today, however, it showed up the flaws in the personnel rather than the planning.

The match itself finished within the first hour of the fourth day. Railways knocked off the required 50 runs for the loss of one wicket but the Rest would look back and blame their own batting for the way the match shaped up.

Ironically, this was a strong Rest batting line-up, with several on the fringes of the national team. Given the fact that there are anyway too few spots or opportunities, one would have thought that they8217;d have made the most of this chance.

8216;8216;Irani has always been an important match for me, one Irani innings landed me straight into the Indian team8217;8217;, said Yashpal Sharma, national selector and Rest manager. 8216;8216;I told the boys this but they failed to cash in.8217;8217;

Surprisingly, the bowlers say it was a difficult wicket to bowl on. The bouncers just wouldn8217;t reach shoulder height; there wasn8217;t any swing after the shine went off 8212; the SG ball loses shine quicker 8212; and movement off the wicket was minimal. The spinners didn8217;t get much help either; the turn was slow and they all agreed the rough wasn8217;t a factor to be exploited much.

Still the Rest batsmen complained. There were a couple of shooters that went below ankle height but not enough to validate the excuse.

Few know this wicket better than Sanjay Bangar, who put the Rest collapse in perspective. 8216;8216;We call this a patience-wicket. Whether bowler or batsman, you need to have patience to be successful. It8217;s a wicket where nothing would happen for two session and then suddenly wickets will fall in a heap.8221;

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Only Romesh Powar and Dhiraj Jadhav showed resilience and reaped benefits. The off-spinner flighted the ball and kept probing on a particular line while Jadhav was concentration personified. Unfortunately, other batsmen, most of them in line for Test berths, lacked, rather failed to understand the need of the hour 8211; staying at the wicket.

8216;8216;This is a wicket where you need to bat like Yere Goud8217;8217;, Powar said. 8216;8216;Once the batsmen get their eye in, it8217;s difficult to get them out.8217;8217;

That8217;s what the Railway batsman did 8212; 8216;8216;He wouldn8217;t play any shot till it was right upto him8217;8217;, says Powar 8212; and the Rest failed to follow suit.

The match called for minor adjustments from the batsmen, the initial movement had to be forward to counter the lack of bounce. It wasn8217;t a wicket for strokeplay and the Rest batsmen fell into the trap. Add to this poor shot selection and the pressure the Railways bowlers put by drying up the runs.

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India are due to play a Test series at home a couple of months from now, where conditions wouldn8217;t be too different for these contenders. The pressure would be much more, stakes really high. One can only hope that the final results are better than this preliminary test.

Brief scores: Rest of India 223 and 137 lost to Railways 311 and 50/1 Amit Pagnis33