Solid start, shame about the pitch

Nonetheless, India’s off-colour batsmen took the chance to get among the runs. Openers Gautam Gambhir and Wasim Jaffer, captain Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar notched up the all-important half-centuries against an ordinary-looking Pak attack led by Umar Gul.

In the four wickets that India gave away, none was a result of any extraordinary spell from the Pakistan ‘A’ side. Instead, the dismissals came about when the Indian batsmen stepped up their aggressive batting. A flurry of boundaries straight from the middle of the bat remained the order of the day, which would have warmed those waiting in the pavilion. Indeed, the wind and temperature took away much of the advantage handed out by the pitch. ‘‘Batting in these conditions isn’t the easiest thing to do, no matter how much the pitch helps,’’ said Laxman who was unbeaten on 23 at stumps.

With conditions perfect for some early swing with the new ball, Gambhir and Jaffer — in competition for one Test slot — did well to see the shine away. Gambhir turned out to be the most attacking of all with a strike rate of around 70 while Tendulkar got his touch with a couple of classy cover-drives that have sadly become a rarity.

Regardless of whether India win the practice match or draw it, the team has decided to put as many as runs possible on the board and coach Greg Chappell expects another 200 to 250 runs in the total from the line-up that remains.

Brief scores

Indians 298/4 (Gambhir 53, Jaffer 58, Dravid 63, Tendulkar 74, Laxman batting 25, Yuvraj batting 11); Gul 1/40, Arafat 1/61, Irshad 1/44, Farhat 1/36) vs Pakistan A.