Vidyut vanquishes England

By G. Viswanath

MUMBAI, JAN. 12. Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan won a `Test' match for India in an age group where buds bloom off and on in Indian cricket to make an impact and curt a fresh notch in their career. Vidyut, who is the son of former Tamil Nadu opener Sivaramakrishnan and nephew of former Hyderabad off-spinner Ramnarayan, eclipsed his first innings haul of four wickets and transcended limits.

His performance must be deemed sensational because at one stage after lunch on Friday, England Under-19 had appeared to have made certain of a `no result' to the first of the three `Tests', but the left-arm spinner, sprang a surprise, running through the Englishmen to finish at 8 for 38 from 34.3 overs; the act of rout actually happening in his last spell of 18.3 overs in which he got seven wickets for six runs.

Everyone watching the fourth day's proceedings at the Wankhede saw the Test throb to life after tea break and after the visitors had appeared to be sailing in safe waters at 171 for 4 wickets. Openers Gary Pratt and Nicky Peng raised 60 runs for the first wicket before Vidyut struck the first blow having the Durham county opener caught by Ishan Ganda.

Thereafter it was a long wait, left-hander Gary Pratt and captain Ian Bell frustrating the Indian spinners with a combination of sound defensive play and aggression. Bell who scored a century in the first innings is one batsman who appeared to have had all the answers against the might of Indian spin of the left-arm spinner Vidyut and off-spinner Mulewa Dharmichand and Kashinath Khadkikar.

Pratt and Bell added an exact hundred runs for the second wicket when Dharmichand sent back the England captain. He won a leg before appeal against Bell. Peng had struck six fours and Bell two more to half a dozen.

Dramatic slump

The Indians got the breaks in a clutch either side of tea. The result of which was England descending from 160 for 1 to 183 all out. As was evident, the fielders, all around the batsmen, held seven catches and turned out be key allies to the chief destroyer. Wicket-keeper and captain Ajay Ratra, who kept an umbrella field in the last half an hour, and Gautam Gambhir took two catches.

Vidyut himself trapped two of the eight batsmen in front, Kyle Hogg and `Monty' Panesar, whose dismissal was most crucial because he was the last batsman in when there were barely ten minutes left for the conclusion of the match. In fact, Vidyut took India to a win in the 21st ball delivered after the 15 mandatory overs were gone through in a jiffy.

Having lost the first `Test' England will face the uphill task of squaring the series. On a featherbed of a pitch, its middle- order batsmen failed to put up even a modicum resistance. Pratt made 66, Peng 28 and Bell 48. Not a single batsman managed to get into double digit scores after Bell. And the last three went for blobs.

As the close in fielders' shadows lengthened, anxiety too gripped the England tail-enders. Mark Wallace defended stubbornly for 98 minutes, faced 91 balls to make five runs, but Andrew McGarry and `Monty' Panesar's nerves cracked under pressure. Panesar was in line with the stumps when umpire S.K. Sharma upheld a big and final appeal of the match. It marked the home team's triumph and raised Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan's left-arm spin from probing to the phenomenal, without clean bowling a batsman.

``He is capable of bowling better,'' said Hanumant Singh, who was Director of the National Cricket Academy (NCA). But, for sure, Sivaramakrishnan's 12 for 122 will be the talking point when they assemble at Chennai for the second `Test.'

The scores:

India Under-19 - 1st innings: 257

England Under-19 - 1st innings: 285

India Under-19 - 2nd innings: 378

England Under-19 - 2nd innings: G. Pratt c Gambhir b Sivaramakrishnan 66, N. Peng c Ganda b Sivaramakrishnan 28, I. Bell lbw b Dharmichand 48, K. Ali c Ratra b Sivaramakrishnan 2, I. Pattison c Mane b Dharmichand 3, M. Wallace (not out) 5, R. Ferley c Ratra b Sivaramakrishnan 1, K. Hogg lbw b Sivaramakrishnan 5, J. Bishop c Khadkikar b Sivaramakrishnan 0, A. McGarry c Gambhir b Sivaramakrishnan 0, N. Panesar lbw b Sivaramakrishnan 0, Extras (b-1, lb-7, nb-8, w-9) 25; Total (in 98.3 overs) 183.

Fall of wickets: 1-60, 2-160, 3-166, 4- 169, 5-171, 6-172, 7-180, 8-180, 9-183.

India Under-19 bowling: Sivaramakrishnan 34.3-20-38-8, Agarwal 6- 0-34-0, Trivedi 14-2-37-0, Dharmichand 29-15-46-2, Khadkikar 12-8-10-0, Rao 2-0-9-0, Ganda 1-0-1-0.

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