Rahane holds fort as wickets tumble

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Rahane holds fort as wickets tumble

England have come hard on India 'A' as the tourists rocked the home side early in their second innings at the Brabourne Stadium on Thursday.

Earlier, Samit Patel cemented his claims to a Test return by completing his maiden England century against India 'A'.
As this first tour match moved towards a near inevitable draw on the final day, England's priorities were exclusively to ensure best preparation for the four-match Test series ahead.

They have two more opportunities to do so, here in Mumbai in another three-day fixture and then in Ahmedabad against Haryana before the first Test starts there on November 15.

Patel (104) for one will move forward with confidence and hopes high, as will Yuvraj Singh - who took his wicket tally to five, after snaring his old adversary Kevin Pietersen on day two, as England reached 426-9 before declaring in reply to 369 all out.

Yuvraj, continuing his comeback to the world game after his recovery from lung cancer, added the wickets of Matt Prior (51), Patel and James Anderson.

Much was made of the home selectors' decision to pick no specialist spinner for this match, thus depriving England of the opportunity to attune themselves to the challenge which will await them courtesy of R Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha in the Tests.

But part-timers Yuvraj and Suresh Raina - both better-known as batsmen - nonetheless snared England wickets in an innings underpinned by a stand of 169 between captain Alastair Cook (119) and Patel.

That fifth-wicket partnership finally ended on the final morning when the captain succumbed at last, caught behind pushing forward at Ashok Dinda.

Cook batted for almost six-and-a-half hours, faced 269 balls and hit 14 fours.

There were the same number of boundaries in Patel's century, from 161 deliveries, a career milestone acknowledged by an understated raise of the bat in the direction of his team-mates.

Patel was by then joined by a typically fluent Prior, who produced a series of trademark cuts on his way to a run-a-ball half-century before edging an attempted drive at Yuvraj to Raina at slip.

Patel fell in the same over, nowhere near the pitch but going through with an attempted drive nonetheless and simply chipping a catch to cover.

Graeme Swann was yorked by Vinay Kumar, but Tim Bresnan and Anderson took the chance for some batting practice before the latter fell to hand Yuvraj his fifth wicket and prompt the declaration.