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A writ petition on behalf of 75 players representing the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) has been filed in the Rajasthan High Court in Jaipur on Tuesday

Nagraj Gollapudi18-Sep-2014A writ petition on behalf of 75 players representing the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) has been filed in the Rajasthan High Court in Jaipur on Tuesday. The appeal, the latest development in the administrative standoff between the BCCI and the RCA which has resulted in Rajasthan teams being omitted from this season’s domestic programme, indicated that the players were suffering “only for one reason, which is the grudge between BCCI and RCA”. It stated that the players were not being allowed to participate in any of the national tournaments being organised by the BCCI, and basically asked that the players be allowed to play.The appeal was signed by players from various teams (Under-19, Under-23, Ranji players and women cricketers). It was filed on behalf of “Nikhil Doru and others” by Jaipur-based advocate Sachin Mehta, and argued by senior advocate Sudhir Gupta. Doru, 35, is a wicketkeeper-batsman who last played for Rajasthan in 2009 Ranji Trophy.Justice MN Bhandari, hearing the matter, issued notices to the BCCI and the RCA, seeking responses from both within a week.Incidentally, even if Mehta claimed that he independently approached the court on behalf of the players, indirectly he was representing the RCA based on recent events. Last week, the players were told to report to the RCA office in Jaipur even as many of them were playing the Colvin Shield inter-district tournament. About 50 players, including Ranji cricketers and various age-group ones, gathered at the RCA office. It is understood that senior RCA officials addressed the gathering and read out a draft petition that they said would be filed and submitted in the court.It is understood that the RCA officials told the players they would be appealing to the court on behalf of the players, that they should be kept out of the issue as it was between RCA and the BCCI. The draft appeal was read out by a RCA official without being handed to the players.Although it was not made obligatory for them to sign the document, the players said they were confused. Some signed, but it is understood that four senior players – Vineet Saxena, Pankaj Singh, Dishant Yagnik and Ashok Menaria – opted out along with a few others.Various players whom ESPNcricinfo spoke with expressed helplessness and being caught in this muddle. An unnamed player said that he was reluctant to sign because he was not “sure of the consequences”. He said the players were not accustomed to legal issues. He also pointed that being the “sole bread winner” of his family, he did not want to take an unknown route, which he feared could prove fatal in the long run. “I did not think it would be wise of me to fall into this,” the player said.Another Ranji player said he decided to sign because “we are just cricketers”, who could not say no. According to him, he and his team-mates did not have a choice but “stick to the RCA”. He said that the RCA did not force them, but they had “no choice”. “Or do we?” he asked.That is a pertinent question. The players find themselves in a tight corner, where they have to just trust the RCA. The only other party that can help, the BCCI, has only reacted form a distance. The BCCI’s ad-hoc committee, appointed to oversee the game in the disputed states, has not addressed the players. Sanjay Patel, the BCCI secretary, had said that an umbrella team comprising teams from two disputed states (Bihar and Uttarakhand) could feature in the domestic season, but he pointed that that was only an option.Such vague responses do not help the Rajasthan players, who are anxious and verging on desperate. “We are totally stressed out mentally, because we do not know what our future will be. We don’t know what to do – whether to look for another state to play for as a professional or to just stay put,” a player said.As far as on-field activities are concerned, the RCA had carried out the process of organising trials and tournaments preceding the domestic season, as is routine. Now, the players are playing the Colvin Shield, which started September 10 and will go on till September 30.The saga dates back to Lalit Modi, the former IPL chairman who was banned by the BCCI for “committing acts of serious misconduct and indiscipline”, being declared the RCA president in May. Minutes after he was declared president, the BCCI suspended the RCA for allowing a banned individual to be a part of its affairs. Later, the BCCI omitted RCA from its domestic programme for the upcoming season.

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Apr-2013Sreesanth, the India and Rajasthan Royals bowler, has alleged the IPL withheld the “real video” of the incident between Harbhajan Singh and him in IPL 2008. In a series of tweets from his personal Twitter handle Sreesanth said Harbhajan had not slapped him but was a “backstabbing person”, and he received “no support whatsoever” from “selfish” people involved in the issue even though they knew “it was not my fault”.”I want the world to c it..Whn I went to shake hands afte the match..he had lost it..he had already planned to hit me(elbow me)all his anger,” Sreesanth tweeted. This tweet, along with several others, has since been deleted.Harbhajan refused to comment on the issue when he was approached in Mumbai by the media.He was scared to speak out earlier, Sreesanth said, but now wants the “world to know what happened”. The truth would be revealed by the video he said, which was kept “in hiding” by the IPL. He said Sudhir Nanavati, the BCCI-appointed commissioner who investigated the incident, knew the truth. He also said the “incident was planned by a few”.However, Sreesanth did not reveal his version of events. Footage of the actual incident has never been shown to the public.Meanwhile, Nanavati contradicted Sreesanth’s claims that he was elbowed saying that Harbhajan did slap him. “In the video footage, I have seen Harbhajan use the backside of his right palm to give him (Sreesanth) a slap on the right side of his face,” Nanavati told . “It was clear cut, it was there to be seen in the video footage.”What I have seen in the frame of the video was that Harbhajan, after giving him a slap, was coming back once again to hit him but at that time, two security personnel had stopped him.”The 2008 incident involved Mumbai Indians’ Harbhajan Singh hitting Sreesanth, his India team-mate who was then playing for Kings XI Punjab, during the routine round of handshakes after the game between the two teams in Mohali. The incident itself was not shown on camera but Sreesanth was spotted in tears after that. Harbhajan was banned for the rest of the tournament, while Sreesanth was let off with a warning. After the hearing by match referee Farokh Engineer, the then IPL chairman Lalit Modi said Engineer had found Harbhajan’s attack to have been “totally unprovoked”.The outburst was prompted by a report in Friday’s that said the Virat Kohli-Gautam Gambhir spat during the IPL game in Bangalore on Thursday was similar to “slapgate”. As Kohli was heading back to the pavilion after being dismissed, Gambhir ran past him on his way to celebrating with his team-mates. They appeared to exchange words and then charged at each other before the other players and one of the umpires separated them.Harbhajan and Sreesanth are due to meet on April 17 in Jaipur, when Royals play Mumbai Indians.

Queensland swept to victory over Western Australia on the final day at the WACA ground to clinch a place in the Sheffield Shield final, where they have the chance to defend last year’s title

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Mar-2013
ScorecardQueensland swept to victory over Western Australia on the final day at the WACA ground to clinch a place in the Sheffield Shield final, where they have the chance to defend last year’s title.James Hopes, Ryan Harris and Nathan Hauritz were the chief wicket-takers for the Bulls as WA never threatened their fourth innings target of 273. Both sides needed an outright win to clamber across a tightly packed Shield table and reach the final, and it was the visitors who were rewarded for fighting hard and well after a poor start to the match.Still catching up from their first innings dismissal for 164, the Bulls began the day with a narrow lead and only four wickets in hand, but half centuries from Michael Neser and Ryan Harris stretched the advantage so effectively that Hopes was granted the luxury of declaring at lunch.The Warriors quickly slipped to 5 for 71 and this time there were to be no late order heroics from the hosts, who had pushed themselves into contention for a spot in the final with a trio of remarkable comeback wins in the three rounds prior to this one.

Shane Watson has declared himself ready to tour India as a non-bowling batsman after a single innings of 30 in Sydney grade cricket, but Moises Henriques’ immediate international prospects have clouded over due to a badly infected right index finger

Daniel Brettig26-Jan-2013Shane Watson has declared himself ready to tour India as a non-bowling batsman after a single innings of 30 in Sydney grade cricket, but Moises Henriques’ immediate international prospects have clouded over due to a badly infected right index finger.It was a contrasting tale for the two New South Wales cricketers on Sunday, Watson returning to the game following a calf strain and facing 50 balls for Sutherland against Campbelltown-Camden while Henriques was invalided out of the Sheffield Shield match against Western Australia at Blacktown Oval.If his innings was insubstantial, the sight of Watson merely playing the game will be a help to the national selectors as they sit down to finalise the squad for the subcontinent. While Watson will not play a first-class fixture before the squad is named, making do with a domestic limited-overs match for the Blues against Western Australia on Wednesday, he has continued to covet the opening spot currently occupied by Ed Cowan.”The opportunity to be able to take the first ball and take on the quicks with the new ball is something I do absolutely love,” Watson said, reiterating his desire to open. “A few balls were seaming around a bit [on Saturday] … which hopefully I’m going to have to get used to opening the batting in some form of games anyway.”Hopefully I can get back in the team as soon as I can. In a perfect world I do play in India as a batsman with an eye on slowly building up bowling to hopefully bowl some overs throughout the Ashes. But the world isn’t always perfect so we’ll see how we go.”Less encouraging was the news that Henriques’ finger was in such a bad way that he had to leave the Blues’ Shield match to have surgery on his finger, which had grown increasingly swollen and painful. Watson’s inability to bowl in India has opened the field for all-round options, with Henriques impressing recently during his ODI appearances for Australia against Sri Lanka, and making 71 at Blacktown.However his place in the ODI team to face the West Indies is now open to question, depending on his recovery from the finger problem, which is expected to stop him from playing or training for at least a week. The finger trouble was aggravated during his Shield innings by a couple of precisely-directed balls from Nathan Coulter-Nile, which struck Henriques on the gloves.”Due to concern over increasing swelling and infection Moises was reviewed by a Sydney hand specialist this afternoon and has undergone a minor surgical procedure,” New South Wales team physiotherapist Murray Ryan said. “Moises will be unable to play or train for at least one week. His availability for state and international cricket will be determined as the injury heals.”

For the first time in television history, South African domestic cricket will be commentated on in a local, African language

Firdose Moonda14-Feb-2013For the first time in television history, South African domestic cricket will be commentated on in a local, African language. The Twenty20 competition will feature Xhosa commentary on all broadcasts with 17 of the 32 matches shown live, including the playoff for the final and the final itself.SuperSport, the country’s satellite provider, has contracted former internationals Mfuneko Ngam and Monde Zondeki along with veteran media man and former selector Peter Bacela and umpire Zed Ndamane in a four-person team. They will be joined by former SA schools rugby captain and cricket enthusiast Kaunda Ntunja, who works on the channels’ rugby broadcasts.The move is part of an initiative to grow cricket, particularly in black African areas. Xhosa is one of 11 official languages in South Africa and is spoken by about 18% of the population, mostly in the Eastern Cape. That is the region that is considered the hotbed of black African cricket and rugby. SuperSport already offer Xhosa commentary for rugby and now see the time to extend that to cricket as right.”We’ve spent a lot of time preparing as this is something that can’t just be slapped together when the idea comes up. We will work hard to ensure the language is conveyed in the correct and proper manner,” Louwrens Rensburg, SuperSport’s senior cricket producer said.Terminology is one of the areas which had to be studied closely before making the commitment to Xhosa commentary. Bacela, who commentated on radio in Xhosa, has been one of the pioneers for coining cricket terms in Xhosa.”This is an important day,” Bacela said. “Xhosa people love to hear commentary in their own tongue. Cricket may be an English game, but Xhosas love to hear it in their words.” He explained how a few of the words have developed such as silly point, which directly translates to “fielding under the nose,” and short leg that becomes “behind the cow’s tail.”With cricketing vocabulary set to expand, Zondeki is excited about the possibilities this will be present. “It has never been done before and we hope to get to get more people to watch cricket for longer,” he told ESPNCricinfo. “We want to raise the profile of black African cricket and it will be interesting to see the numbers of people that tune in.”

A batting collapse from New Zealand women handed West Indies women a four-run victory and a 4-0 whitewash in St Kitts

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Sep-2014
ScorecardFile photo: Stafanie Taylor’s 66 laid the foundation for West Indies women’s innings•WICB Media/Ashley AllenA batting collapse from New Zealand women handed West Indies women a four-run victory and a 4-0 whitewash in St Kitts. Set 215 to win, New Zealand were comfortable at 176 for 2 in the 39th over, thanks to an opening stand of 114 between Suzie Bates and Rachel Priest. However, they lost their last eight wickets for just 34 runs and were bundled out for 210, with none of their last six batters contributing more than 7.Offspinner Anisa Mohammed claimed 4 for 41 to wreck New Zealand’s top order, while medium-pacer Shakera Selman chipped in with two late wickets and also effected the run-out of Morna Nielsen to secure the win for West Indies.After being inserted, West Indies had made 214 for 8. Their innings was built on Stafanie Taylor’s 66, and thirties from openers Kycia Knight and Natasha McLean. Regular blows from Georgia Guy and Nielsen (2 for 27) pegged West Indies back to 183 for 8, but Shanel Delay provided a late impetus by striking three fours during an unbeaten 29.

Preview of the Twenty20 series between New Zealand and West Indies in Florida

The Preview by Sidharth Monga29-Jun-2012Match FactsSaturday, June 30, Start time 1500 (1900 GMT)
Sunday, July 1, Start time 1400 (1800 GMT)
Will the slow -and-low pitches handcuff Chris Gayle?•PA PhotosThe Big PictureAmericans have previously claimed PG Wodehouse is American. Over the next two days, the claim they’ll lay to a sport Wodehouse wrote extensively and endearingly on will be of a slightly different nature. It will mostly come from those who have moved to America from cricketing nations, and the Caribbean people have a big presence in Florida. Which is why it makes more sense to have New Zealand – a team committed to development of cricket in US – play West Indies, unlike the last time when Sri Lanka and New Zealand failed to draw big crowds in 2010.Also, unlike the last time, the organisers will hope for more encouragement from the conditions. New Zealand Cricket did send one of their best groundsmen to inject some life into the slow and low pitches that made for dull cricket the first time around. Jacob Oram, though, is of the view the pitch hasn’t changed much. It will obviously take them time to get pitch preparation right in Florida, but it is arguable how much dull contests – with stroke-making difficult and little help for bowlers – will help spread the game there.New Zealand won’t complain about the slow and low conditions, though, because they should level the playing field a little. West Indies are the clear favourites on paper, with Chris Gayle and the many allrounders in their squad. New Zealand, on the other hand, are without Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder and James Franklin. A slow and low pitch can help neuter the big hitters to an extent, and those saved and scampered singles will become more important if the T20s there from two years ago are any indication.This will also be one of the final chances for the two sides to identify their combinations for the World Twenty20 to be held in Sri Lanka.Form guide (most recent first)West Indies LWLLW
New Zealand LLWWWWatch out for…Sunil Narine didn’t have the best of Test debuts when English conditions and the absence of pressure to score eight-nine runs off his each over got the better of him. Batsmen also kept watching for the thumb sticking out as he entered the delivery stride, which was a clear sign he would bowl an offbreak. Twenty20 on slow and low pitches might be a different story yet again.Nathan McCullum is another man who’ll cherish these conditions. He has been adept at opening the bowling in both forms of limited-overs cricket. In his last Twenty20 in Lauderhill, McCullum bowled four overs for 15 runs and Kumar Sangakkara’s wicket. He is now the 10th-highest wicket-taker in all T20Is.Team newsGiven the conditions, legspinner Samuel Badree should make his international debut to give West Indies an extra spinning option. If he does get the nod, Fidel Edwards is the likelier man to miss outWest Indies (possible): 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Dwayne Smith, 3 Lendl Simmons, 4 Marlon Samuels, 5 Dwayne Bravo, 6 Kieron Pollard, 7 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 8 Darren Sammy (capt.), 9 Ravi Rampual, 10 Sunil Narine, and 11 Samuel BadreeNew Zealand will have to rely on atypical T20 batsmen like Kane Williamson and Dean Brownlie. Nor will these games feature sides that will start out in the World Twenty20 because McCullum, Daniel Vettori and Franklin will walk into that team. Tom Latham won the wicketkeeper race, and was ready to debut.New Zealand (possible): 1 Rob Nicol, 2 Martin Guptill, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Ross Taylor (capt.), 5 Dean Brownlie/Daniel Flynn, 6 Jacob Oram, 7 Tom Latham (wk), 8 Nathan McCullum, 9 Doug Bracewell, 10 Tim Southee, and 11 Ronnie Hira.Stats and trivia Statistical evidence points to a close match. Two of these sides’ three encounters have been ties and one won by New Zealand. The tiebreakers were split. This is the first time these times are playing a T20I against each other outside New Zealand.Martin Guptill is now the 10th-highest run-getter in T20Is, with 788 at an average of 35.81. Only six players have hit more sixes than his 67.Ross Taylor, with 29 catches, is the most prolific in T20Is.Quotes”I don’t think it’s going out there and trying to play any differently or showcase it just because it’s an American audience. First and foremost we’ve got to win. But I’d hope to say that we play a good brand of cricket anyway and we don’t need to worry about that. “

“It’s been a big change. It was a very cold and damp summer in England. We barely had four or five nice hot days in two months so to come here is a big change but for most of the West Indians I think they’re at home in this.”

Lancashire face a mountainous task to save the match after closing three wickets down following on 360 behind against Warwickshire

Jon Culley at Edgbaston18-May-2012
ScorecardAshwell Prince made an unbeaten 87 in Lancashire’s first innings but fell for 1 second time around•PA PhotosLancashire managed to interpret the absence of outstanding individuals in their ranks as a virtue while they were winning the County Championship last season but in circumstances such as these it looks uncomfortably like a shortcoming.Winning cricket matches, as Lancashire proved, depends on individuals combining effectively as a team, especially the bowlers, but with 238 runs still needed to avoid an innings defeat against Warwickshire today, the statistics of Lancashire’s batting form are not encouraging.In 2011, for example, even winning the title, they managed only eight first-class hundreds, compared with 16 for both Warwickshire and Somerset, and 22 for Durham. Yet if there is one thing they need to have any hope of saving this match it is a proven accumulator of runs.What’s more, their best hope of any player stepping up to fulfill that role seems already to have gone. Ashwell Prince, whose unbeaten 87 in Lancashire’s first innings denied Warwickshire the opportunity to wrap things up inside three days, perished after facing only four deliveries in the follow-on.The South African was caught at slip going after a ball from Jeetan Patel with a stroke that contrasted so starkly with the patience of his near four-hour vigil earlier in the day it seemed almost as if it were another batsman. Coming moments after Karl Brown had gone for 45, ending a stand of 87 for the second wicket that appeared to have set up Lancashire nicely for a last-day rearguard, it was a bitter blow for Glen Chapple’s side and an enormous fillip for Warwickshire.Paul Horton, with whom Brown shared that second-wicket partnership, played soundly for two and a half hours to be unbeaten on 56, but will now need to do so for a good deal longer and hope for more of the gloomy conditions that came to their aid in bringing the third day to a premature close.As it was, Lancashire limped to 122 for 3 and Warwickshire remain well on course for the innings victory that will put them 15 points clear at the top of Division One with a game in hand on both Nottinghamshire and Somerset.Eight wickets in the day rewarded more impressive work from the Warwickshire bowlers on what has essentially been a good batting surface. Given that Lancashire had been 54 for 5 on Thursday, 197 all out in their first innings represented something of a recovery. Yet the total of 408 they needed merely to avoid the follow-on was never remotely likely.They lost only two more wickets in the morning session, their resistance almost entirely due to the efforts of Prince, who has four half-centuries in 10 Championship innings since he rejoined Lancashire. Only he, with the benefit of considerable experience, of course, produced the necessary resolve that was required to make Warwickshire work for their wickets.There was some, naturally, from Glen Chapple, batting despite the discomfort of the side strain that prevented his bowling for much of the Warwickshire innings. He survived 44 balls but even he was guilty of an injudicious choice of shot, caught behind trying to hook Chris Wright, falling for 14.Gareth Cross, shaping to pull Chris Woakes but failing to commit fully to the stroke, and Ajmal Shahzad, taking the aerial route against Jeetan Patel’s offspin, had both been wasteful earlier, although Jim Troughton, running backwards, did his best to let Shahzad off the hook, juggling the ball twice before grabbing it at the third attempt at long-on.Woakes, making an impressive comeback from the ankle injury that caused him to miss the early part of the season, finished with 3 for 20 and both he and Wright continued to produce moments of menace. Patel could not conjure much in the way of turn but he finished on a hat-trick when he dismissed Simon Kerrigan and Gary Keedy with successive balls, denying Lancashire even the consolation of a batting point.Woakes took his fourth wicket of the match when Stephen Moore edged a fine away-swinger to first slip in only the fifth over of the follow-on and for a moment Warwickshire had visions of a rapid conclusion.Horton and Brown had other ideas but just as some of the more pessimistic Warwickshire supporters were beginning to wonder if the declaration had been delayed too long on Thursday, two wickets in quick succession tipped the balance heavily back in their favour.First Brown, always looking to play shots, edged Wright into the gloves of wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose and then came Prince’s aberration. Horton, who has not made a Championship century since April 2010, has much weight on his shoulders.

Johan Botha, the former South Africa spinner who’s now playing for South Australia, has had his bowling action cleared by Cricket Australia

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Oct-2013Johan Botha, the former South Africa spinner who’s now playing for South Australia, has had his bowling action cleared by Cricket Australia. Botha had undergone biomechanical analysis of his action after he was reported by the umpires in a domestic one-day match in early October.The analysis, conducted under CA and ICC testing procedures, required Botha to bowl six balls each of the various deliveries in his repertoire – an offspinner, a quicker ball and a flicker. The analysis found that all of those deliveries fell within – or equal to – the allowed 15 degrees of flex that is deemed legal by the ICC.Botha was cited by umpires Simon Fry, Michael Graeme-Smith and Geoff Joshua in the Ryobi Cup match between South Australia and Victoria in Sydney on October 4. He was eligible to continue playing, though, and would have only been suspended from bowling if the analysis proved his action to be illegal.Botha has had problems with his bowling action throughout his career. He was reported first soon after his debut Test in January 2006 and was subsequently banned from bowling by the ICC. Another examination in August that year found his action to be illegal once again and he was cleared to bowl only in November. In 2009, following an ODI against Australia in Port Elizabeth, Botha was reported once again and this time the ICC ruled that his action while bowling the doosra was illegal and he was banned from bowling it. His other deliveries, however, were found to be within permissible limits and since then Botha had no problems with his action until now.Cameron White, the Victoria batsman, who had faced Botha during the match in which he was cited, and said he did not think any doosras had been delivered during the spells he faced.

Piyush Chawla was run out off what turned out to be the last ball of a dramatic final, as India Red matched India Green’s score of 238 to share the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Oct-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsIt was a day for spinners to play starring roles with the bat•AFPPiyush Chawla was run out off what turned out to be the last ball of a dramatic final, as India Red matched India Green’s score of 238 to share the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy. India Red were out of the game when they lost their fifth wicket in the 23rd over with just 102 on the board, but Chawla held the lower order together and whittled down the target. When Bhargav Bhatt was ninth out, they still needed 26 off 16 balls, and Chawla’s dare-devilry almost got them over the line.The match boiled down to the last over with Chawla chasing 17 off left-arm seamer Samad Fallah, who was enduring a horrid night. A dot ball, a slogged couple and a wide reduced it to 14 off 4, with Chawla having to hit a boundary to stay in the game. He responded by lofting Fallah over mid-off to make it 10 off 3, before pushing two more through long-on. Fallah’s penultimate ball was fuller on off stump, and Chawla launched it over the sightscreen for a six that made India Red favourites for the first time in the last quarter of the game.With two needed off the last ball, Chawla was set on running, regardless of what happened. As it transpired, Fallah bowled a wide down the leg side. The non-striker Jaydev Unadkat rightly declined the single but Chawla had charged across to the bowler’s end, allowing CM Gautam to break the stumps and tie the game. The ending was reminiscent of the finish to an India-Zimbabwe ODI in 1997, when Robin Singh was the last man out off a wide, which left the scores level. The finish also had similarities to the famous tie involving Lance Klusener and Allan Donald in the 1999 World Cup semi-final against Australia.That such an electric denouement was possible was down to Chawla’s second score in the 90s in a century-less List-A career. By the time he took guard, Abhimanyu Mithun and Harbhajan Singh had made incisions through the top order to push the chase into freefall. Chawla kept fighting, though Iqbal Abdulla kept striking at the other end. Chawla worked the fields to move to 40 off 48 balls by the end of 40 overs before stepping up. His first six came off T Suman in the 41st over, and he began to target Fallah towards the closing stages, picking up two fours in the 46th over. Bhatt’s exit in the 48th left India Green a wicket away from victory, but Chawla forced them to share the trophy.India Green’s batting effort was an equally up-and-down affair on a pitch that offered spin and bounce. S Anirudha and Mohammad Kaif were the only top-order batsmen to come to terms with the surface, before a triple-strike from the seamers in the middle overs reduced India Green from 134 for 3 to 151 for 6. Harbhajan Singh hauled his side out of the doldrums with a responsible innings, where he overcame his propensity for flashy strokes.Tail-enders Sumit Narwal, Abdulla and Abhimanyu Mithun played around Harbhajan, who made an unbeaten 49 off 54 balls despite not slogging till the very end. The headlines, however, were stolen by the batting efforts of an opposition spinner.