Patel, Chopra score centuries

And it was a tale of two men—Parthiv Patel and Aakash Chopra.

For the Baroda player, it was more an issue of pride. His centuries in Africa apparently did not satisfy his critics who felt that teams like Kenya and Zimbabwe were not worthy enough opponents.

So against South Africa A today, he silenced them with a quick fire 110, which included 17 fours.

Of course the best person to describe his innings would be Jason Ontong. The leggie was hit for four consecutive boundaries in his very first over by Patil. The spinner never really had a chance against the southpaw who smashed him through mid- wicket repeatedly.

That was in the 20th over of the innings and from there Patel never looked back and steam-rolled the bowling attack on way to a much-deserved century. Unfortunately, after getting his hundred, he was run out by Boeta Dippenaar, the South African skipper.

For Chopra it was a day of reckoning. The selectors had set the test and the local boy came out laughing although his game lacked the usual flair. However, despite a very slow first session, when he only scored 27 runs and got three lives—he was dropped thrice within nine balls when he was on 19—the opener came good with an unbeaten 137 runs and was involved in two century partnerships.

The first one was with Patel for the third wicket (149) and the second (an unbroken 176 runs) with S Badrinath for the fifth wicket.

Earlier, India A lost two wickets for just 13 runs when they lost opener Cheteshwar Pujara for 8. Skipper Mohammed Kaif disappointed after he got out for a duck.

SCOREBOARD

INDIA A: C Pujara c Tsolekile b de Wet 8, A Chopra batting 137, M Kaif lbw b de Wet 0, P Patel run out (Dippenaar) 110, M Tewary c Amla b Kleinveldt 2, S Badrinath batting 77

Extras (b3,lb5,w1,nb11): 20; Total (For 4 wkts; 89 overs): 354

Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-13, 3-172, 4-178

Bowling: Langeveldt 16-6-24-0, de Wet 17-2-56-2, Kleinveldt 16-3-70-1, Ontong 15-0-91-0, W Coetsee 23-2-96-0, H Amla 2-0-9-0