England flounder as India recover

Cricket

THE irony will not be lost on the England A players that after the improvement in Indian umpiring standards the decision which had a major bearing on this one-day international at Indore was made in the officials room at lunchtime. The umpires decided that England had not bowled their 50 overs in the allotted three and a half hours and so, as punishment, would only be allowed 49 overs in return.

England lost by six runs. "It was a harsh decision by the umpires," Phil Neale, the team manager said. "We felt that most of the delays were caused by the Indian batsman, sending for helmets, having extra drinks breaks, and also two of their batsmen were injured and needed treatment. And we lost a lot of wickets because we were one over short."

The pitch was poor and of irregular bounce, which never allowed the batsman to feel really secure. Apart from the improvising Amol Muzumdar, the small crowd were starved of stroke play.

After Jason Gallian had helped send India reeling to 75 for four at the halfway stage, Mazumdar found a staunch ally in Rizwan Shamshad. And they set about rebuilding the innings, adding 70 off 91 balls. The locals sensed an overdue Indian win and cheered everything.

The clean-hitting David Hemp was sent in first to take advantage of the World Cup rules. All but two fielders had to be inside the 30 yard ring for the opening 15 overs but Hemp seemed to have left his timing in Calcutta and was twice dropped in one over from Atul Wassan.

At 70 for two, everything seemed under control but then the slow left- armer Utal Chatterjee started to weed out the middle order. He was devilishly difficult to get away, and with Samir Dighe in smart form behind the stumps England began to flounder. Mark Ramprakash, bouyant after his Perth efforts, fell to the off-spinner Kanwalgit Singh at the other end and Paul Weekes' gamble to clear long off only just failed as Dominic Cork emerged as the potential match winner.

Cork has hopes of being here 12 months hence with England's World Cup squad, but with 33 more needed he skied Chatterjee to extra cover and a repeat of the Third-Test heroics from the tail-enders was too much to ask. India had a win to savour but England will demand a resumption of winning service on Tuesday in Ahmedabad.

INDIA A

S S Dighe c Hemp b Cork 12

*V S Rathore c Nixon b Gallian 29

A A Muzumbar c Weekes b Chapple 79

R S Dravid b Stemp 5

S C Ganguly c Nixon b Gallian 0

R Shamshad c Stemp b Weekes 28

A S Wassan b Cork 18

U Chatterjee not out 7

P L K Mhambrey not out 2

Extras (8lb, 8w, 5nb) 21

Total (for 7, 50 overs) 201

Fall: 1-44 2-60 3-73 4-75 5-145 6-173 7-197.

Did Not Bat: S A Ankola, K Singh.

Bowling: Cork 10-0-53-1; Chapple 10-0-47-1; Johnson 9-1-33-0; Gallian 9-0-21-2; Stemp 10-1-34-1; Weekes 2-0-5-1.

ENGLAND A

J E R Gallian lbw b Wassan 1

D L Hemp b Wassan 26

M R Ramprakash c Dighe b Singh 36

*A P Wells c Dighe b Chatterjee 10

N V Knight c Dighe b Chatterjee 9

P N Weekes c Dravid b Chatterje 33

D G Cork c Rathore b Chatterjee 25

P A Nixon run out 20

G Chapple run out 6

R L Johnson b Wassan 0

R D Stemp not out 1

Extras (2b, 11lb, 8w, 7nb) 28

Total (49 overs) 195

Fall: 1-11 2-49 3-70 4-88 5-113 6-144 7-169. 8-183 9-186.

Bowling: Mhambrey 10 -2-35-0; Wassan 10-1-47-3; Ankola 10-1-33-0 Chatterjee 10-1-32-4; Singh 9-1-35-1.