Yuvi claims 5 in draw

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The first warm-up match between India A and England XI may have ended in a dull draw on the third and final day here at the Brabourne Stadium but Yuvraj Singh will have little to complain about the result.

Required to bowl long spells in absence of any frontline spinner in the side, Yuvraj made a strong bid for a spot in the playing eleven for the first Test match with his maiden first-class five-wicket haul on Thursday. The 30-year-old, who had scalped Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell on Day two, added the wickets of Samit Patel (104), Matt Prior (51) and James Anderson (19) to return with figures of 5/94 in from 26.5 overs and to compliment his first innings score of 59.

The middle-order batsmen could have capped off a perfectly productive day had he shown a bit more interest while batting in the second innings. A lazy looking half-pull off Bresnan handed a simple catch to Bell at mid on, ending his stay in the middle for just 14.

With about an hour left for stumps, both captains agreed to call off the match when India A had scored 124/4 in 40 overs with captain Suresh Raina batting on 19 and Manoj Tiwary unbeaten on two. Resuming on overnight score of 286/4, England XI were dismissed in the seventh over after lunch for 426 with a lead of 57 runs.

Unbeaten on overnight score of 82, Samit Patel brought up his team’s second century. Batting for over four and half hours, Patel hit 14 boundaries in his knock of 104 runs.

Wicketkeeper Matt Prior came out with an attacking approach, hitting nine boundaries in his quickfire 51 from 52 balls before he was caught at first slip by Raina off Yuvraj. The left-arm spinner picked up his second wicket of the day in the same over when Patel was caught at covers by Vijay.

Earlier, Cook (119 off 269 balls) was the first to go when he got an edge to Wriddhiman Saha, off Dinda, resulting in the bowler celebrating wildly. With Steven Finn ruled out of the match, the tourists’ innings ended with the fall of Anderson’s wicket as Yuvraj completed his five-for.

In their second essay, India A lost opener Abhinav Mukund for three in just the third over. The left-hander got out tamely to Anderson when he mistimed his stroke to be caught at mid-off.

scorecard

India A: 369

England XI (1st innings): A. Cook c Saha b Dinda 119, N. Compton c Saha b Dinda 0, J. Trott b Raina 56, K. Pietersen c&b Yuvraj Singh 23, I. Bell c Raina b Yuvraj Singh 5, S. Patel c Vijay b Yuvraj Singh 104, M. Prior c Raina b Yuvraj Singh 51, T. Bresnan (not out) 33, G. Swann b Vinay Kumar 6, J. Anderson c Tiwary b Yuvraj Singh 19, S. Finn (absent hurt). Extras (b1, lb5, w2, nb2) 10.

Total (in 119.5 overs) 426.

FoW: 1-2, 2-97, 3-125, 4-133, 5-302, 6-367, 7-368, 8-395, 9-426.

Bowling: Pathan 19-4-61-0, Dinda 23-2-86-2, Yuvraj Singh 26.5-1-94-5, Vinay Kumar 17-1-48-1, Awana 12-1-60-0, Tiwary 4-0-23-0, Raina 16-2-43-1, Vijay 2-0-5-0.

India ‘A’ (2nd innings): A. Mukund c Bell b Anderson 3, M. Vijay c Swann b Anderson 32, A. Rahane c Anderson b Patel 54, Yuvraj Singh c Bell b Bresnan 14, S. Raina (not out) 19, M. Tiwary (not out) 2.

Total (for four wickets in 40 overs) 124.

FoW: 1-4, 2-69, 3-98, 4-118.

Bowling: Anderson 7-1-20-2, Bresnan 10-1-37-1, Patel 16-1-40-1, Swann 5-0-19-0, Pietersen 2-0-8-0.