England Under-19s could afford to sleep well tonight

Santhosh S20-Jan-2001
NickyPeng
Photo Paul McGregor
England Under-19s could afford to sleep well tonight. They have hadthe best day of the tour so far. Nicky Peng with a brilliant hundredled the English counter attack against the spin attack of VidyuthSivaramakrishnan and co. who had spun them to defeat in the firstTest. At close of play on Saturday in the second Test match againstthe Indian colts at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai,England colts were 286/3 in 95 overs.England made three changes to their team from the one that played inthe first ‘Test’. Kadeer Ali, Kyle Hogg and Robert Ferley gave way toGordon Muchall, Chris Tremlett and John Sadler. India made no changeto their playing eleven.On a clear sunny morning, English captain Ian Bell did his team morethan a big favour by winning the toss and electing to bat. Left handedJohn Sadler who had missed out on the first Test and Nicky Peng sawthrough the opening spell from the medium pacers with ease.The introduction of Vidyuth Sivaramakrishnan did not trouble theEnglish batsmen, Peng playing a glorious cover drive off him for four.Sadler and Peng had taken the score to 57 in the 24th over, whentragedy struck the English boys. Peng drove Dharmichand straight backat the bowler in the air; the catch was dropped and the ball disturbedthe stumps at the non-striking end. Sadler was found to be short ofhis crease backing up and was given run out. Sadler made 22 runs off77 balls before his unfortunate dismissal.Peng suddenly changed gears to step out and hit Dharmichand for acouple of huge sixes. Ian Bell was lucky to survive as Vinayak Manedropped him at second slip off the bowling of Trivedi in the 31stover. Peng reached his well-deserved fifty off 92 balls, in the 33rdover bowled by Trivedi. Peng struck hard, hitting Trivedi for threeconsecutive fours in the over. A couple of overs later Peng steppedout to loft him over long on for a huge six.Soon after lunch, Bell got into his elements, two fierce square cutsoff Sivaramakrishnan to the point fence raised the tempo a bit. Pengwas more than lucky to be dropped twice in a span of three overs. Thesloppy fielding and missed catches were to haunt the Indian side asPeng unleashed strokes all around the field. He was tied down for awhile in the nineties, but let the world know that he is a young manwith a lot of courage by playing an on-drive for four and then loftinga huge six off Dharmichand to reach his hundred.Bell and Peng shared a second wicket partnership of 142 runs in 34.5overs. When all seemed to be lost for the Indians, Bell tried a bigshot over the covers and gave a soft catch to the cover fielderDharmichand off the bowling of Ishan Ganda. Bell never looked to be introuble as he carried on with his good form. His innings of 67 cameoff 114 balls and included 11 well timed boundaries.The post tea session saw the loss of Nicky Peng for 132. Ishan Gandacaught him at short fine leg when he tried to go for a sweep shot offthe bowling of Vidyuth Sivaramakrishnan. Peng was the third wicket tofall at 251 in the 80th over. His innings was decorated with 11boundaries and 5 sixes. Peng was at the crease for 290 minutes andfaced 240 balls to play one of the best innings of the tour.Though the new ball was taken in the 91st over, it did not trouble theEnglish batsmen. Gary Pratt played a wonderful pull shot off thebowling of Aggarwal that illustrated the domination of the Englishbatting. At close of play Pratt was unbeaten on 39 with Gordon Muchallon 14.