If the Indians’ batting had a bad day at the office on Friday, hundredsfrom Northants openers Mal Loye and Niall O’Brien ensured that theirbowlers were run ragged on the second day
The report by Sharda Ugra in Northampton 06-Aug-2011
ScorecardNiall O’Brien’s century helped sink the lacklustre Indians at Northampton•Getty Images
If the Indians’ batting had a bad day at the office on Friday, hundredsfrom Northants openers Mal Loye and Niall O’Brien ensured that theirbowlers were run ragged on the second day of what has been quite atrying practice game.The Indians’ two-day match against Northamptonshirewas meant to be their warm-up for Edgbaston. If a result was to bedecided on the basis of which team contained the less red faces intheir dressing room, the Indians would not be the winners.Two-Day Tourist Matches
The playing conditions for three and four-day tourist matches shall apply to two-day tourist matches except where specified below. Numbering corresponds to Test Match playing conditions.
12.3 Test Match playing condition 12.3 shall not apply.
Matches shall be of 2 days’ scheduled duration and of two innings per side, and under Law 12.1(b)(ii) the first innings of the side batting first shall be limited to 100 overs or the close of play on the first day of the match, whichever is the later. The first innings of the side batting second shall not be subject to this restriction. If a side has scored more runs in its first innings than the opposing side scored in its completed first innings (refer Law 12.3), it shall be deemed to have gained a First Innings Win. If the number of runs scored by each side in their completed first innings is the same, this shall be deemed a Tie on First Innings.
The match ended in a draw that will be marked down as a ‘first-inningswin’ for Northamptonshire. After Northants lost seven wickets aftertea, their tailenders made use of the opportunity and theopposition’s lack of intensity to cross the Indians’ first-innings total of 352, and register the first-innings win under the ECB’s regulations, whichare meant to ensure that two-day tour games, while not first-classmatches, can still entertain the viewing public.India are far from entertained by what happened today: it began withthe announcement that Rahul Dravid had been called up to the ODI teamafter a two-year gap; which even took Dravid himself by surprise. Zaheer Khan then walked off the field after a three-over spellthis morning and questions about his fitness for Edgbaston grewlouder. All that he proved is that he can bowl off a full run-up butwhat is still not known is for how long he can sustain himself.Then there was the Indians’ performance in the field, which ended in Northants’ Nos. 7 and 9 running off the ground to celebratory cheering after adding 54 for the eighth wicket.Once the Loye-O’Brien 201-run partnership was ended just after tea,Northants lost wickets in a heap; six within 40 runs. Dave Burton andDavid Murphy had read their rule books and stuck on to see theteam past their first-innings target, against a fielding side whoseemed keen to leave the field when the last hour of play began.Gautam Gambhir and then MS Dhoni had frequent discussions with the umpires butplay continued. The farce reached its conclusion when the Indians took thenew ball and Dhoni bowled the second over with it.The heavy duties of last week may have caused the Indian bowling to gothrough mere motions for the better part of the proceedings. Yet,ideally, the world ‘s No. 1 Test team, even when bowling within itself, could beexpected to take a wicket before the 48th over against a county side.The Indians’ two hardest-working bowlers today were Amit Mishra, who bowled17 overs straight, out of his total of 25, and Munaf Patel who bowledten in a row before tea and seven in his second spell.There was very little that the Indians could consider minorvictories from this practice match. Harbhajan Singh’s injury putMishra onto centre-stage and in his 25 overs today, he was mostrespectfully handled by the Northants batsmen, their aggressionreserved mostly for the quicker men. The wicket did little, but ifMishra was advertising his wares as a pressure-builder rather thanstrike bowler, he did adequately. Until, in his 12th over, Loyestrolled down the wicket and hit him over long-on for six.Loye, a giant right-hander who is one of the senior-most pros incounty cricket, and O’Brien, a less industrial-sized left-hander whoalso keeps wicket for Ireland, put up a partnership of 201 before Loye was out four balls after he crossed his hundred. The Indians may have erred, but the Northants openers both played with the full attention required by the occasion and provided the entertainment required by their full County Ground. Loye’s trademark swept sixes and meatystrokes, and O’Brien’s general sense of daring were both out on fulldisplay.Zaheer Khan’s three overs began better than they ended, his firstcontaining two wides and the next two an alarming flood of 22 runs. Loyeswept him for six in the second, following through rakishly on hisknee, and O’Brien hit him for three fours in his third. After that, Zaheer walked off and was not seen again on the field. His performancetoday was not a stern examination of his fitness by the management.It was just a progress report on whether he can be risked at Edgbastonbecause he is still the man who can claim to own much of the keys, locksand doors that took India to the No. 1 Test ranking in the world.The match was meant to be a 12-a-side fixture with one extra batsman getting achance of a hit and one tired soul getting a chance to stay off thefield. Ishant Sharma found his name on the team sheet only to make theminimum number of 12. He didn’t bowl a single over and was only briefly on the field, as men came and went like the supportingcast of a long-running and somewhat-tired soap. Dhoni came on after lunchfor a spot of fielding and was replaced by Praveen Kumar. Virat Kohli,not a part of the touring squad at the start of the week, was sent out todo some menial duties a day after his first sighting. Dhoni thendragged himself back out again and was to be seen mostly in thewilderness of deep point or on the long leg boundary before he poppedup and decided to bowl a sprinkling of overs.The two-day practice match between the Indians and Northamptonshire shouldhave given out to neutral observers the signs of what was beingtackled after Trent Bridge. The sign came well before the first ballof the second day was bowled. Dravid had, once again, after a two-yeargap, made it to the ODI team. The team that has just won the World Cupneeded its second-oldest playing pro to hack it in England.