Kaif at his best again

There seems to be no stopping Mohammed Kaif this season. After a successful Ranji season, he scored 160 in his last Duleep Trophy match.

There seems to be no stopping Mohammed Kaif this season. After a successful Ranji season, he scored 160 in his last Duleep Trophy match. Today at Motibaug, he began from where he had left off, helping Central Zone top 238/7 at stumps on Day One against England Lions. He made a strokeful 64, thereby making his claim back into the Indian team stronger.

The Central skipper walked in at 70/2 after being put in to bat on a pitch that returned consistent bounce throughout the day with some seam movements early in the morning and again towards the end of the day. The 27-year-old was hesitant to begin with, but once he opened his account with a boundary — a back-foot drive through extracover — off seamer Jon Trott, there was no turning back. Cover drives, pull shots, cuts were on display even as chief national selector Dilip Vengsarkar was cheering every shot.

He brought up his 50 in style dispatching into the mid-wicket boundary. The way he was wielding his willow, it needed a beauty to bring his end.

And the ball of the day was produced by Lions’ 19-year-old leggie Adil Rashid. Kaif attempted a sweep and the delivery turned off the rough, round Kaif’s legs to knock off the stumps.

“He played very well today. He is in very good form right through the season. Last match also, he played well and before that in Ranji Trophy,” said Vengsarkar.

During his 121-ball knock, Kaif found the ropes 13 times. He put on two half-century partnerships for the third and fourth wicket — first with Vineet Saxena (34) to stitch 54 runs and then with Sanjay Bangar (29) added 50 runs.

After the skipper’s departure at 179/4, the Lions seemed to have found a new lease of life as they took three more wickets. At stumps, Sanjib Sanyal and Praveen Gupta were unbeaten on 4 and 8 respectively.

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Brief scores: Central Zone 238/7 (Md Kaif 64, Faiz Fazal 37; Allan Richardson 2/32, Graham Onions 2/71) vs England Lions