Laxman, Das set the tempo

AHMEDABAD, FEBRUARY 13: After playing second fiddle twice in the tournament, VVS Laxman was again the second highest scorer of the game. T...

AHMEDABAD, FEBRUARY 13: After playing second fiddle twice in the tournament, VVS Laxman was again the second highest scorer of the game. The Sunday crowd at Motera which come to witness the final of the Hero Honda NKP Salve cricket tournament would agree that the India Senior opener’s 105 off 86 balls was attention grabbing.

The man who top scored was the other opener SS Das (114, 121b). This opening act meant India Senior scored 320-9 against India A team after Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to bat.

Coming into the match with scores of 53 and 43, Laxman seemed all ready to get over his mid-life crisis. Starting with the Hyderabadi special flick off the legs of Amit Bhandari, he followed it up with a straight as they come carpet drive off the other opening bowler, T Kumaran.

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The spinner Murli Karthik was greeted with a perfectly executed inside out six over the extra-cover fence. This trend continued till the 32nd over when Laxman played a tired shot to Ashu Dani on the long on fence off the bowling of Virendra Sehwag. The opening partnership put on 195 runs.

During this partnership, the bowlers had no respite as Das too was giving the selectors, who didn’t include him in the Board President’s XI squad, second thoughts. His 121-ball innings, which had one six over the mid-wicket fence off Aashish Kapoor, was laced with nine fours.

SCOREBOARD
India Seniors: SS Das c Kumaran b Bhandari 114, VVS Laxman c Dani b Sehwag 105, Rahul Dravid c Kartik b Bangar 35, Vinod Kambli c Dani b Bhandari 11, Robin Singh c Patel b Bhandari 8, Jacob Martin c Dani b Bangar 1, Sameer Dighe c Sehwag b Kumaran 12, Sunil Joshi c Sharath b Kumaran 1, Nikhil Chopra run out 8, Anil Kumble not out 12; Extras (b1, lb2, w7, nb2) 12
Total (for nine wickets in 50 overs) 320
Fall of wickets: 1-195, 2-244, 3-274, 4-276, 5-277, 6-296, 7-298, 8-298, 9-308.
Bowling: T Kumaran 9-0-59-2, Amit Bhandari 10-0-53-4, Murli Kartik 8-0-58-0, Sanjay Bangar 10-0-67-1, Ashish Kapoor 4-0-26-0, Virendra Sehwag 7-0-36-1, Niraj Patel 2-0-18-0.

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