Dharmichand destroys England

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, JAN. 6. Mulewa Dharmichand bowled off breaks to rout England under-19 in the second warm up game at the MIG Ground on Saturday.

It takes lot of skill to take 12 wickets in a match. The Mysore- born off-spinner, who makes it a point to visit Erapalli Prasanna, whenever he goes to Bangalore, had figures of seven for 65 in the second innings, which made it unmistakable that without the 17-year old's fine stupendous effort, the Rest of India team would not have finished the match before tea on the third and final day.

The visitors made 155 in its second outing leaving Rest to make 45 to win and the openers, Arindham Das and Gagan Inder Singh scored these runs in 69 balls. The fact that it lost 19 wickets to spinners (Dharmichand 12, Khadkikar 5 and Saha 2) evoked anxious faces in the visitors camp.

Dharmichand had taken two wickets on Friday evening and added the wicket of left hander John Sadler, the batsmen falling to the temptation of the flight. It was an admirable effort by Steve Lazuras, who ran from the traditional mid off to extra cover, to take the skier.

After the fall of the third wicket at 25, skipper Ian Bell and Kadeer Ali added 32 runs. Both looked secure when Khadkikar sprang a surprise by inviting both to leave the crease and having them stumped. Khadkikar picked up another wicket but it was Dharmichand made the bigger impact.

The visitors appeared to be heading towards an innings defeat when left hander Robert Ferley used his feet within the crease and showed a little more enterprise in making 33 with five boundary hits. The last three wickets added 54, but in the end it was the name of the name of Dharmichand that figured prominently in the score sheet.

The scores:

England under-19 - 1st innings: 210

Rest of India under-19 - 1st innings: 321 for seven decl.

England under-19 - 2nd innings: J. Sadler c Lazuras b Dharmichand 8, G. Pratt b Dharmichand 0, A. McGarry lbw b Dharmichand 0, I. Bell st. Patel b Khadkikar 29, Kadeer Ali st. Patel b Khadkikar 16, I. Pattison c Khadkikar b Dharmichand 25, G. Muchall c Das b Dharmichand 13, M. Wallace b Khadkikar 9, R. Ferley st. Patel b Dharmichand 33, J. Bishop c Mishra b Dharmichand 14, M. Panesar not out 0, Extras (b-3, nb-2, w-3) 8, Total (in 68.2 overs) 155.

Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-6, 3-25, 4-57, 5-70, 6-88, 7-101, 8-117, 9-151.

Rest of India bowling: Gagandeep 6-3-9- 0, Dharmichand 26.2-6-65- 7, Saha 11-3-31-0, Lazuras 4-1-12-0, Khadkikar 21-10-35-3.

Rest of India under-19 - 2nd innings: A. Das (not out) 22, Gagan Inder Singh (not out) 24, Total (for loss in 11.3 overs) 46.

England bowling: McGarry 2-0-10-0, Bishop 3-2-11-0, Panesar 4-1-9-0, Ferley 2.3-0-16-0.

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