Fast bowlers Avishkar Salvi, Irfan Pathan and L Balaji came up with fine all-round performances as India 'A' pulled off a thrilling one-wicket victory against the Lancashire county in their one-day encounter at the Stanley Park in Blackpool on Sunday.
The three fast bowlers shared all the ten wickets between them to bundle out Lancashire for 191 in 47 overs before chipping in with vital contributions with the bat to carry their team through.
With India 'A' staring defeat after slipping to 133 for 8, Pathan, who had earlier finished with outstanding bowling figures of 4-19 from his ten overs, produced a crucial unbeaten 19 runs to see his side through.
He put on 22 runs for the ninth wicket with Balaji (18) and 37 for the last wicket with Salvi who was unbeaten on 20
The trio had earlier wrecked the Lancashire innings, which also made a late recovery thanks to a remarkable 130-run ninth wicket stand between Chris Schofield and Gregor Maiden.
Lancashire, which had been put in to bat, found themselves tottering at 61 for eight before Schofield (69 not out) and Maiden (62) gave some respectability to their total.
Salvi and Balaji claimed three wickets each. The good work of the fast bowlers was nearly undone by the batsmen as the entire India 'A' top order was back in pavilion before the score had touched 100.
But the tailenders rose to the ocassion and chipped in with important scores to take their side past the target with more than five overs to spare.
Lancashire
M Loye c Badani b Balaji 12
M Chilton c Gambhir b Salvi 2
M Currie b Pathan 11
A Swann c Gambhir b Balaji 0
T Rees c Gambhir b Balaji 0
C Schofield not out 69
J Haynes b Pathan 6
S Mahmood lbw b Pathan 0
J Wood b Pathan 0
G Maiden b Salvi 62
O Newby lbw b Salvi 0
Extras: (b-4, lb-2, w-20, nb-3) 29
Total: (all out, 47 overs) 191
Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-26, 3-30, 4-30, 5-37, 6-54, 7-54, 8-61, 9-191.
Bowling: Salvi 10-2-38-3, Pathan 10-1-19-4, Balaji 9-2-37-3, Kartik 9-0-42-0, Bharadwaj 4-0-21-0, Sriram 5-0-28-0.
India 'A'
S Sriram lbw b Newby 1
G Gambhir c Haynes b Newby 8
S Parab c & b Maiden 17
A T Rayudu c Chilton b Wood 21
H Badani b Maiden 20
R Gavaskar b Mahmood 3
V Bharadwaj c Chilton b Mahmood 23
M Kartik c Haynes b Mahmood 12
L Balaji c Rees b Mahmood 18
I Pathan not out 19
A Salvi not out 20
Extras: (lb-10, w-13, nb-7) 30
Total: (for 9 wkts, 44.4 overs) 192
Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-14, 3-45, 4-70, 5-82, 6-88, 7-115, 8-133, 9-155.
Bowling: Wood 10-2-34-2, Newby 10-1-60-2, Mahmood 10-1-28-3, Chilton 2-0-12-0, Maiden 10-0-36-2, Schofield 2.4-0-12-0.
