Sanghvi takes day one honours

V Veerakumar in Nagpur

Left-arm spinner Rahul Sanghvi made a strong claim to the Test side with a five-wicket haul as India 'A' restricted the Australians to 291 in their first innings on the opening day of their three-day cricket match in Nagpur on Saturday.

Electing to bat, the strong batting line-up of the visitors crumbled before a disciplined bowling attack and they were reeling at 133 for seven before a fighting eighth-wicket stand between Michael Kasprowicz (92) and Jason Gillespie (57) added 155 runs to give some respectability to the score.

Sanghvi, who finished with five wickets for 40 runs, was ably supported by Delhi paceman Ashish Nehra (3/78) and Punjab off-spinner Harbhajan Singh (2/63) as Australian innings folded exactly one hour after tea.

In reply India were 71 for one at close with Sadgopan Ramesh unbeaten on 43 and captain V V S Laxman batting on six.

Shiv Sunder Das put on 36 runs for the opening wicket with Ramesh before being run out for 12.

Nehra gave India 'A' a dream start when he dismissed opener Michael Slater (5), Justin Langer (8) and captain Steve Waugh (0) with just 25 runs on the board.

Mathew Hayden and Ricky Ponting then stablised the innings somewhat with a 91-run fourth wicket stand in 17.4 overs before Ponting top-edged Harbhajan Singh to be caught by Debashish Mohanty at short mid-off.

The dismissal of Ponting, who scored a quickfire 56 off 58 balls with nine fours, saw another batting collapse.

Hayden, who missed his half-century by just one run, became the first victim of Sanghvi after Harbhajan Singh had dismissed Damien Martyn (6), smartly caught by Shiv Sunder Das at short leg, just after lunch.

Sanghvi had the dangerous Adam Gilchrist caught by Harbhajan for five and it seemed Australian innings was nearing its close.

However, Gillespie and Kasprowicz got into the rescue act and put up a defiant performance aided by some slack Indian fielding. Mohanty put down Kasprowicz's attempted pull off Harbhajan when the batsman was on 20 and total on 165 which cost the Indians dearly.

Kasprowicz, who had already hit Harbhajan for a six, made the most of his chance hitting two more sixes and 12 fours as he, in the company of Gillespie, frustrated the Indian bolwers for 162 minutes.

Sanghvi provided the much-needed breakthrough when he caught Gillespie (57) off his own bowling and had Damien Fleming caught by substitute Mohd Kaif off the very next ball.

He then capped his performance with the wicket of Kasprowicz who was caught behind by Mongia.

PTI

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