Indians strike middling form

Sydney, Dec 4: The Indians made a charge for a morale-boosting victory ahead of the first Test against Australia with solid knocks from Sa...

Sydney, Dec 4: The Indians made a charge for a morale-boosting victory ahead of the first Test against Australia with solid knocks from Saurav Ganguly and all-rounder Ajit Agarkar on a controversy-marred penultimate day of their second tour match against New South Wales today.

The tourists batted nearly the entire day to make 331, leaving the hosts to score 286 from a minimum of 90 overs tomorrow for victory. At close, NSW were 64 for one.

Ganguly 81: 122b, 204m, 10215;4 and Agarkar 65 not out: 122b, 10215;4 were instrumental in guiding the visitors to a potentially winning total after opener S Ramesh8217;s 74 departure triggered a mini-collapse, leaving them struggling at 167 for five in the morning.

Ganguly, who came in ahead of Rahul Dravid in the line-up, went after the bowling with gusto in the second session, milking the fast bowlers at will with his trademark offside strokes.

Keeping the bowlers confused and the fielders busy by mixing aggression with clever placements, he put on 61 for the seventh wicket with Agarkar.

When looking good for a hundred, Ganguly was caught behind after playing too forward to a Don Nash delivery. Agarkar was in brilliant touch, displaying a wide repertoire of strokes as he added 71 runs for the last three wickets.Earlier, resuming at the overnight 110 for two, the Indians seemed to have plunged headlong into trouble on a grey day at the Sydney Cricket Ground when Ramesh and fellow left-hander Hrishikesh Kanitkar departed within 25 minutes for the addition of just 14 to the total.

Hesitant footwork undid Ramesh8217;s good work of the previous day as he edged Brett Lee behind the stumps with only four added to his overnight 70 143b, 194m, 13215;4.

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Kanitkar 13 padded up to an incoming delivery from Nash and was given the marching orders by Hair. Rahul Dravid then drove a Stuart MacGill delivery straight into the bowler8217;s hands to take India to lunch at 178 for five.Dravid8217;s scores of 0, 42, 21 and 7 from four innings on this tour are at the centre of India8217;s batting worries. Opener Devang Gandhi has managed just 56 0, 13, 15, 28 so far, and but for Ramesh8217;s 74 in this innings, his 43, 13 and 0 also do not amount to much. Vijay Bharadwaj, who was out in the slips off MacGill, has made just 31 5, 0, 16, 10.

For the hosts, Brett Lee 4-77 and MacGill 4-84 were the pick of the lot on a track which though cracked, did not seem to offer much assistance to the bowlers. NSW, who had taken a 46-run first innings lead, batted freely in the 19 overs they faced towards the end of the day. Openers Greg Mail and Greg Hayne put on 50 runs freely before Agarkar forced Mail 15 to spoon a catch behind to Dravid.

SCOREBOARD :

India 1st innings 185

NSW 1st innings 231

India 2nd innings
Devang Gandhi b B Lee 28
S Ramesh c Haddin b B Lee 74
VVS Laxman b B Lee 0
Hrishikesh Kanitkar lbw Nash 13
S Ganguly c Haddin b Nash 81
Rahul Dravid camp;b MacGill 7
V Bharadwaj c S Lee b MacGill 10
Ajit Agarkar not out 65
Anil Kumble c Haddin b B Lee 12
Javagal Srinath b MacGill 7
Venkatesh Prasad b MacGill 3
Extras b8, lb18, w2, nb3 31
Total 331
Fall of wickets: 1-89, 2-89, 3-119, 4-124, 5-167, 6-199, 7-260, 8-288, 9-323
Bowling: B Lee 30-7-77-4, Nash 21-7-67-2, S Lee 24-8-58-0, Robertson 6-3-9-0, MacGill 27.3-5-84-4, Mail 2-0-10-0.

NSW 2nd innings
G Mail c Dravid b Agarkar 15
G Hayne not out 36
G Robertson not out 5
Extras b4, lb3, nb1 8
Total for one wicket 64
Fall of wicket: 1-52
Bowling: Srinath 5-2-13-0, Venkatesh Prasad 5-1-20-0, Agarkar 4-1-12-1, Ganguly 2-0-4-0, Kumble 3-0-8-0.