JAMSHEDPUR, March 14: On Friday, Venkatesh Prasad said, ``I should have been there right now.with the Indian team.'' On Saturday, at the Keenan Stadium, he worked up some heat, got his leg-cutters talking, sent in a few sharp throws, but still had two national selectors wanting to assess his form and fitness further.The Australians tucked into the friendly helpings from Prasad's support cast, to lose just three wickets while rustling up 238 runs, in reply to India A's 216 for nine declared on the second day of this three-day show.It was an ideal work out for the Aussies before the Calcutta Test even as overnight rain cut off 52 minutes of the day's play, extending the final session to a little past 5.20 p.m. Skipper Mark Taylor got his first fifty on this tour (57), Blewett looked to have recovered from a sore right knee in his 57 and Steve Waugh is just starting to shift gears at an unbeaten 69. The only aberration was Michael Slater (26) who did lean into some cracking cover drives, whilestruggling to time the ball otherwise.Taylor, in his 57-ball knock, had nine fours and a six. After being tied down a bit by Prasad, he waded into the medium pacer's sixth over, picking up three boundaries and a six. One of them, the six, however, was a bonus from Daniel Manohar at fine leg as the ball bounced off his palms over the boundary line.Prasad did get back the next over, startling Taylor with some extra bounce outside the off-stump to give keeper Vijay Dahiya his first catch of this match.Slater followed soon, before Steve Waugh and Greg Blewett stitched out a 112-run tie-up for the third wicket.While off-spinner Nikhil Chopra never created a ripple, both Rahul Sanghvi and Anantapadmanabhan began well, only to run out of ideas against some straight batting.
