Duleep Trophy - England Lions vs West Zone

Following the English Lions in India....

Scorecard

After having won their encounter against the weaker Central Zone, the pride of English Lions stalking the forests of Indian cricket romped over to the Moti Baugh Stadium, Vadodra, to take on the stronger West Zone side.

West Zone comprises of players from Mumbai, Maharashtra, Saurashtra, Baroda and Gujarat. There are some interesting names in there who have been among the top performers of the just concluded Ranji Trophy 2008. Some veterans and plenty of young players itching for a ride.

The strength however lies mainly in their batting prowess, boasting of names like Jaffer, Parthiv Patel, Pujara, Yusuf Pathan besides Saahil Kukreja and Ajinkya Rahane who are prolific domemstic batsmen. The bowling, barring Jobantpura is not a fearsome attack.....and the Lions skipper and England international player, Michael Yardy, won the toss and immediately opted to bat.

Carberry left almost as soon as he began, LBW to Gujarat medium pacer, Makda. He has been the man in form for Lions.

Michael Yardy followed and what a knock he played remaining unbeaten on 151 at close of day one. Like Ed Joyce did versus Central Zone, Yardy held the innings together with important partnerships with Denly, Joyce, Trott and Onions. Onions is turning a useful all-rounder's hand.

Unfortunately, none kicked on after good starts to stay with Yardy. A huge score is necessary for the West Zoners will simply bat on and on. A first innings lead will give them points from this match, but Yardy may have done enough to deny West Zone the outright win needed to progress. The West attack is unlikely to capture all the English wickets on the final day unless Ramesh Powar finds his destructive domestic form.

Yusuf Pathan, Irfan's elder sibling, bowled 20 overs of tight off spin but without wickets to his credit.

On the second day, the innings wound up quickly and Adil Rashi, the exciting young leg-spinning attacking bat, was left stranded on just 9.

This was a creditable performance from the WZ side which, this year, isn't the most formidable. There are missing names too of regulars, Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Irfan Pathan and Iqbal Abdulla, who is on U-19 duty in Malaysia. Makda scalped three along with Dhruv.

Saahil Kukreja is one promising young opener in India according to me. I wrote about him in earlier posts and he had a fairly good season last year. He also began well this year with
the Irani Trophy opener but tapered away through the Ranji. He went back without causing any trouble to anyone off the second ball he faced. Young players must grab these chances to push forward their applications for greater glory. Onions it was who plucked him out.

Since then, Wasim Jaffer and Ajinkya Rahane have been batting endlessly. Rahane is on a well made 126 and Jaffer is on a secure 112. Both centurions look good for more. It must be disheartening for the Lions' bowlers to know that Pujara coming up next or a wicket later, is a hungry young man eager to break through this year itself. But before him will be Parthiv Patel marking out a comeback trail.

Latest...Rahane unbeaten 156 and Jaffer 141 no.

West will hope for Powar to shine. Difficult for them now.

Update

It was a spectacular slide of sorts for West Zone from 365-2 to 494 all out. But you have to consider that they had begun to flail their bats around to conjure up a win from here. Sending Yusuf Pathan, an attacking batsman, ahead of Parthiv Patel is a sign of that.

The fruit of all that effort was that the first innings top scorer for England Lions and their skipper, was picked up by Trivedi for 2. In the 12 overs possible for the Lions yesterday, they scored 14-1.

Adil Rashid picked up three wickets at the cost of 88 runs during the slog on day three.

Can the West Zoners, Powar mainly, use the fourth day pitch to pick up 9 Lions in good time today?