VISAKHAPATNAM, MARCH 1: Board President's XI crawled to 223 for four against a disciplined Australian bowling attack on the first day of their three-day cricket match at the Municipal Stadium, here, today. But for Venkata Sai Laxman, the Board XI batsmen found themselves shackled by the tenacious Australian bowlers, among whom irrepressible Shane Warne emerged as the most successful with end-of-the-day figures of two for 58.Electing to bat, the young aspirants in the Board President's team found the task of scoring runs extremely difficult and their score progressed at an embarrassingly slow rate. No wonder, the day ended with utter disappointment for a crowd of over 10,000 people who were witness to excruciatingly drab cricket. Even Board XI skipper Rahul Dravid failed to enliven the proceedings. He got out to Warne, scoring only six runs.Laxman and opener Ramesh, who started to open out after a dour start, put on 62 runs for the second wicket. This was their best period of the day and the runs werescored at a reasonably quick rate. But once Ramesh (58: 204m, 145b 8x4) left at 105, cricket again became dull.The in-form Laxman (65: 113b, 165m, 8x4, 1x6) was undoubtedly the best of the batsmen on view today. He too looked uncomfortable in the beginning but once he smashed Warne for a six over long off, he was a transformed batsman. He struck Warne for two consecutive fours and hit off spinner Gavin Robertson twice in one over to the fence.Kanitkar and Vanka Pratap, put on 67 runs for the fourth wicket but they were too slow in scoring. Kanitkar, who hit Wanre for six over long on to open his account consumed 145 minutes and 108 balls for his unbeaten 33. Pratap too was cautious in his 120-minute stint at the crease. He was unbeaten on 25 by stumps.ScoreboardBoard President's XI (1st innings): Jai Prakash Yadav c Healy b Reiffel 10, Sadagopan Ramesh c Warne b Kasprowicz 58, Venkata Sai Laxman c Ponting b Warne 65, Rahul Dravid c&b Warne 6, Hrishikesh Kanitkar batting 33, Vanka Pratapbatting 28; Extras (b12, nb8, lb3): 23. Total (for four wickets in 90 overs): 223Fall of wickets: 1-43, 2-105, 3-136, 4-155Bowling: Kasprowicz 17-5-32-1, Dale 18-8-33-0, Reiffel 15-6-28-1, Blewett 3-0-11-0, Warne 20-5-58-2, Robertson 17-3-46-0
