England colts can take some pride even in defeat in their first oneday match against India Under-19 at Hyderabad on Friday

Santhosh S02-Feb-2001England colts can take some pride even in defeat in their first oneday match against India Under-19 at Hyderabad on Friday. Defending amodest score of 127, the English boys bowled and fielded well, puttingpressure on a complacent Indian side. The fielding and catching ofthis England side has gone up by leaps and bounds. They gave animpressive show, with Pratt taking an amazing catch in the gully toget rid of the dangerous looking Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan.India were almost made to pay dearly for not forcing the issue andletting England add 23 runs for the last wicket. Ajay Ratra made things lookbetter with a match-winning knock of 22 not out. And when theIndian three-wicket victory arrived belatedly, Amit Mishra was withRatra on two.Chasing a modest English total, India was made to struggle by a side living on high adrenalin. The pitch offered nothing to the English seamers with Robert Ferley not even required to turn his arm over.Gautam Gambhir and Vinayak Mane gave India a blazing start. Gambhirmade a quickfire 18 off just 11 balls. He struck four boundaries inthe first two overs. Mane played a powerful hook shot off the bowlingof Justin Bishop in the third over, for a huge six.Tremlett, who had Gambhir in some trouble outside the off stump in hisfirst over, reaped success with the first ball of his second over.Gambhir always fancies chasing the ball going outside the off. Hescores runs quickly when it hits the middle of his bat but in theprocess, he always gives the bowler the hope of an outside edge.Tremlett made Gambhir play a stroke outside the off stump and Wallace,falling to his left neatly took the catch. Gambhir made 18 runs off 11balls and hit four boundaries.Justin Bishop bowled Manvinder Bisla for six to reduce India Under-19sto 33/2 in the seventh over. Mane looked to be in tremendous touch ashe clipped one through square leg for four. Wallace made no mistake asMane offered a catch off the bowling of Tremlett. Mane made 12 runs off12 balls with one six and a four. Arjun Yadav made 12 runs off 12balls including two boundaries and was the next batsman to get out. Hewas brilliantly caught at gully by Nicky Peng off the bowling ofMcGarry in the 12th over. India colts were struggling at 61/4 at thatstage.Eight runs later, in the 15th over, Ian Pattison had Alind Naiducaught behind for 17. Maninder Singh joined his captain Ratra in themiddle and steadied the innings with some positive batting. Singh made17 runs off just 16 balls, before falling lbw to McGarry. At the fallof Singh’s wicket in the second ball of the 20th over, India coltswere 93/6. The home team lost their seventh wicket in the 24th over.Vidyut who came out to bat at the fall of Singh, blazed away to 15 offjust 14 balls. Vidyut then fell to Pratt’s catch at gully off thebowling of Tremlett. India were 115/7 at that stage still requiring 13runs to win.Ratra took India past the England colts total with a well timed stroketo the square-leg fence. He made an unbeaten 22 runs off 44 balls,including four boundaries. Amit Mishra remained unbeatenon two. Ratra held the batting together and saw India through.Tremlett was the pick of the bowling with the figures of 7-1-31-3.Earlier, opting to bat, England made a shaky start. John Sadler wasthe first batsman to be dismissed in the third over of the day. NitinAggarwal bowled him for one, when he tried to pull a good lengthdelivery. Nicky Peng and Ian Bell helped themselves to some easyboundaries as Aggarwal erred in line and length.Peng survived a very confident appeal for a caught behind off thebowling of Trivedi in the fifth over. He carried his good form withsome great shots, twice cover-driving Aggarwal into the cover fence inthe tenth over. Maninder Singh came into bowl in the 12th over,replacing Aggarwal. The first ball was pitched short and pulled oversquare leg for a four by Bell. Maninder over-pitched the fifth and wasduly dispatched over cover for another boundary.England colts reached fifty in the 13th over, when Peng flickedTrivedi over square leg for a four. Vidyut immediately replaced Singhwho went for 11 runs in his first over. Both batsmen lookedcomfortable, using their feet to tackle Vidyut’s left-arm orthodoxspin. The fifth ball of the over proved to be fatal for the Englishhopes of making a huge score, Bell went for a lap-sweep and the topedge was taken by Ratra behind the stumps. Bell made 27 runs off 35balls striking four boundaries. Bell and Peng added 56 runs for thesecond wicket.Trivedi bowled an impressive first spell of 7-2-17-0. Local lad ArjunYadav replaced him at the far end. The off-spinner did not disappointas he dismissed Gary Pratt for just two runs, leaving EnglandUnder-19s at 62/3. Peng drove one straight back to Vidyut in the 16thover, without any addition to the score. Peng made 28 runs off 44balls and struck five boundaries.Yadav found himself with the prospect of a hat-trick in his very firstmatch for India juniors. Having dismissed Pratt caught by Mane in theslips off the last ball of his first over, he dismissed the newbatsman Muchall for a duck with the first ball of his second over,Mane again taking a good reflex catch in the slips. The English boyswere reduced to 63/5 in 17 overs.Mark Wallace and Chris Tremlett were left with the task of revivingthe falling English innings. The 26th over brought more misery tothe English camp. Wallace took off for a non-existent single and wassent back by Tremlett. Wallace could not beat Gambhir’s throw to thewicket-keeper. England Under-19s were 78/6 at Wallace’s fall.Maninder Singh was brought back into the attack and claimed the wicketof Tremlett, caught behind by Ratra for six runs. This made England 88for 7, compounding their misery. Ian Pattison was the eighth man to bedismissed, lbw to Maninder Singh for three. Justin Bishop walked innext with the score reading 95/8. Instead of going for the kill,Ratra persisted with Amit Mishra’s leg spin from the pavilion end.Mishra bowled a flat line and length and never looked like getting awicket in his spell of 7-2-19-0.Maninder’s second spell read 4-2-2-2. Yadav, who replaced Maninder,struck immediately, removing Bishop caught behind for one. Englandwere 104/9 in 36.4 overs. Yadav bowled brilliantly to finish with10-2-18-3. Once Yadav completed his spell, Mishra was brought backinto the attack for his eighth over from the far end. The fast bowlerswere left to languish on the boundary.McGarry struck Vidyut through the covers for four in the 44th over, arare boundary after 101 balls in the faltering innings. McGarry seemedto enjoy his batting as he lofted Vidyut over mid on for a four in the46th, prompting Ratra to station a mid-wicket and a long on.Ferley patted back a return catch to Vidyut off the last ball of the46th over. His valuable innings of 27 came off 62 balls with oneboundary. McGarry remained unbeaten on 12. Vidyut finished withfigures of 10-0-26-3.