Kiwis fail to take off

PUNE, October 1: After two days of rain-triggered despair, bright sunshine paved way for some cricketing activity at the Nehru Stadium th...

PUNE, October 1: After two days of rain-triggered despair, bright sunshine paved way for some cricketing activity at the Nehru Stadium this afternoon. And when the extended session of play ended at 6.00 pm, the India A unit had managed to grab a huge initiative from the visiting New Zealanders on Day Two of the three-day encounter.

Leading the honours for the Indians was Amit Bhandari, who gave an impressive display of fast bowling. The Delhi medium-pacer, who turned 21 today, maintained a tidy length and swung the ball both ways much to the discomfiture of the Kiwi batsman. The dismissal of opener Matt Horne highlighted the confusion Bhandari had managed to inject into the batsman, who shouldered arms to an incutter only to hear the death-rattle behind.

Bhandari, who headed the Indian bowling aggregates during the under-19 World Cup in South Africa early last year with 11 wickets in his kitty, claimed the other opener Matthew Bell too. Bell tried to make most of a rare widish delivery but ended up holing out to Wasim Jaffer at gully. And when Bhandari completed his spell (9-1-20-2) he had done enough to justify his selection before a motley crowd that also included national selectors Madan Lal and Anil Deshpande.

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Besides Nathan Astle (batting 29), the rest indeed appeared rusty and did little to infuse any inspiration into the batting department which has been a cause for worry. However, there were some bright sparks when Craig McMillan went after left-arm spinner Murali Karthik to collect two boundaries and a six. But that was it and the score of 135-6 in 173 minutes of play wasn’t quite encouraging for the visitors on their first day in office.

The New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming, however, indicated too much shouldn’t be read into his batsmen’s display today. “The important factor is that we got three hours in the middle. Coming after a month’s lay-off it takes time to get back into the groove. In a way, it was quite a positive day for us. It was a nice awakening for the challenge that is ahead of us.”

Scoreboard

Matt Horne b Bhandari 18 (31b, 44m, 2×4)

Matthew Bell c Jaffer b Bhandari 21 (37b, 54m, 3×4)

Craig Spearman b Karthik 9 (35b, 51m, 1×4)

Stephen Fleming c Jaffer b Siddiqui 16 (33b, 46m, 1×4)

Nathan Astle batting 29 (67b, 76m, 4×4)

Craig McMillan c Mudgal b Sriram 20 (34b, 37m, 2×4, 1×6)

Adam Parore c Siddiqui b Satpathy 11 (28b, 25m, 1×4)

Chris Cairns batting 1 (7b, 7m)

Extras: (9nb, 1w) 10

Total: (for six wickets in 44 overs, 173 mins) 135

Fall of wickets: 1-37 (10.2 overs, Horne), 2-47 (12.1, Bell), 3-67 (21.2, Spearman), 4-71 (22.2, Fleming), 5-115 (32.3, McMillan), 6-134 (41.2, Parore)

Bowling: Bhandari 9-1-20-2 (3nb), Siddiqui 9-1-41-1 (2nb, 1w), Karthik 13-3-52-1 (4nb), Sriram 9-2-13-1, Satpathy 4-1-9-1.

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