Van Dort shows his calibre

Published : Aug 25, 2001 00:00 IST

S. DINAKAR

AFTER the hustle and bustle of limited overs cricket, the Indians now had another battle before them. The Test series.

The three-day practice game against the Board XI side, comprising a few discards and a few who were knocking on the door, was vital to the team's preparation, ahead of the first Test at Galle.

It was also the only first class game before the encounter at Galle. Actually, the lone three-day contest of the tour. "We could have done with one more game," said Indian coach John Wright. He was right.

In the end, he had to do with just two days and one over of cricket, with the pitch playing the villain. However, as Indian captain Sourav Ganguly put it, "the side got at least one day of batting and bowling."

It was a bizarre scene towards the end really with the groundstaff at the P. Saravanamuttu Stadium engaged in a desperate bid to repair the cracks. It was a futile rescue operation.

The ball was taking off from spots near the press box end and Ganguly, who was in the middle as the pitch became progressively worse, was in no mood to take risks.

Both he and Dighe had taken blows on their body in the post-tea session of the second day, and when Dinusha Fernando made one climb nastily during the first over of the third day, Ganguly decided it was enough.

Actually, the laws of the game do not allow repair work on the pitch after a match has commenced, yet with India requiring valuable practice, and several of the players in the Board XI fighting for Test places, the two captains, Ganguly and Thilan Samaraweera requested umpires Messrs. Gamini Silva and Jayasundara to salvage the situation.

Except for the odd delivery that took off from just short of a good length, the pitch played well for most part on the first day, when the tall left-hander Michael Van Dort came up with a punishing hundred.

Indeed, the 21-year-old opener batted with refreshing freedom. Van Dort, was positive in his approach, and stroked fluently on either side of the wicket, picking the gaps with ease. Interestingly, he was picked just once, in his school first eleven, in five years, but has quite rapidly made up for lost time since then.

When Van Dort was eventually dismissed, trying to cut paceman Harvinder Singh and being taken by Ramesh at gully, he had scored 116 runs (19 fours) out of the 195 runs made by Board XI till that point.

Off-spinning all-rounder Thilan Samaraweera made a handy half-century too, striking the ball with power. Samaraweera enjoyed a wonderful series against Pakistan 'A' and his non-inclusion in the side for the Coca-Cola triangular series angered the Sports Minister, who initially refused to clear the team.

Veteran left-hander Hashan Tillekeratne, on a comeback trail, played a couple of pretty strokes, before attempting to cut left-arm spinner Rahul Sanghvi and nicking the ball to 'keeper Sameer Dighe. However, the Board XI's 326 was a good effort on a wicket that had not yet begun to break.

In the Indian attack, old soldiers, Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad, together again, bowled a probing line in their opening spells, getting both movement and bounce. And as Ganguly revealed later, this was the quickest he had seen Srinath bowl in a long time. Among others, Harvinder Singh operated too short and paid the price, while Rahul Sanghvi, provided far too many scoring opportunities to the batsmen.

When the Indians replied, openers Shiv Sundar Das and Sadagopan Ramesh put together a fine opening partnership, raising 135 runs for the first wicket, coping well with a handy Board eleven pace attack where left-arm paceman Ruchira Perera was the pick, firing them in at a sharp pace and hustling the batsmen with his bounce.

Ramesh and Das not only saw through a tense initial phase when the ball was fizzing around, but proceeded to play some crisp shots off the Board eleven pace attack, in which Dinusha Fernando and Suresh Perera supported Ruchira.

In the end, Ramesh made 63 (104b, 11x4) and Das 72 (121b, 12x4), and the two of them putting together a sizable partnership was a welcome sign before the first Test. The innings was especially important for Ramesh, who had a miserable tour of Zimbabwe.

It was equally crucial for Mohammed Kaif, Hemang Badani and Dinesh Mongia to be among the runs, with vacancies opening up in the Indian middle order on account of injuries to Sachin Tendulkar and V. V. S. Laxman, but the three youngsters, failed to get a decent stint in the middle.

It was skipper Ganguly (74, 112b, 8x4, 3x6) who cashed in on the opportunity, surviving a torrid spell from Perera and then taking on the spinners offie Thilan and left-armer Sajeeva Weerakoon, striking three huge sixes in the process. At the other end, wicket-keeper batsman Dighe (25), provided Ganguly useful support, the sixth wicket pair raising an unbeaten 78 runs. By this stage, the pitch has begun to play nasty tricks, making occupation of the crease dangerous for the batsmen. And on the third day morning came the abrupt end.

Board XI 326 (Michael van Dort 116, Hashan Tillekeratne 26, Thilan Samaraweera 76, Suresh Perera 27, Javagal Srinath three for 68, Rahul Sanghvi three for 143) drew with India 281 for five decl. (Shiv Sundar Das 72, Sadagopan Ramesh 63, Sourav Ganguly 74 not out, Sameer Dighe 25 not out).

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