Agarkar blasts India to three-wicket win against South Africa 'A'
Ajit Agarkar blasted India to an unlikely three-wicket victory over SouthAfrica A at Willowmoore Park in Benoni last night, hauling the tourists outof deep trouble with uninhibited display of clean hitting.Agarkar, in harness with Yuvraj Singh, carried the attack to the SouthAfricans after the Indians had stumbled and scratched their way to 156 forsix in the 37th over in reply to the home team’s total of 241 for six.The cause seemed all but lost when Agarkar joined Yuvraj, but the pair upsetthe South African rhythm and with HD Ackerman finding himself a bowler shortat one point, India capitalised. In the end, they won with five balls tospare.Less than an hour before, however, victory had looked only a remotepossibility for the Indians. Captain for the night Rahul Dravid and JacobMartin had put together 91 for the third wicket, but when Martin went for54, splendidly run out by Boeta Dippenaar’s direct hit, the innings startedto fall apart.Just a few overs previously Dippenaar had made a dreadful hash of a simplecatch to give Dravid a life on 31, but Dravid failed to take full advantageof this reprieve, hoiking wildly across the line against Roger Telemachus tobe bowled for 35.Reetinder Singh Sodhi and Deep Dasgupta came and went quickly and themomentum appeared to have drained away from the Indians, but Agarkar andYuvraj clearly had different ideas. Together they crunched 78 off just 69deliveries and although Agarkar fell for 49 off 43 balls, caught in the deepin the penultimate over, he had already done enough to win the match forIndia.The turning point, perhaps, came when Ackerman turned to Martin vanJaarsveldt’s occasional offspinners as he tried to protect Jon Kent who hadtaken punishment during his first six over spell. The ploy was hardly anunqualified success, Agarkar and Yuvraj hammered 20 off Van Jaarsfeld’s twoovers and the tide of the game had turned.Yuvraj hit the winning runs off the first ball of the final over to endunbeaten on 46 and the end might have come even earlier, but for a curiousincident. In Charl Langeveldt’s last over, Yuvraj crashed a straight driveback down the wicket at the bowler. The ball glanced off the bowler’s headand had been hit with such force that it carried on down to the boundaryropes.The umpires, however, had already signalled dead ball on the grounds thatthey believed Langeveldt might have been seriously hurt and the runs did notcount. Fortunately, he was able to walk off the field with an ice pack heldto his head and a rueful grin on his face.Earlier, the SA A innings had been built around a fine 117-run partnershipfor fourth wicket between Van Jaarsveld and Gerald Dros. The home side hadbeen given a useful start by Dippenaar and Jacques Rudolph who put on 62 forthe first wicket, but with Ajit Agarkar claiming the wickets of Dippenaar(34) and Ackerman (1) and Anil Kumble getting rid of Rudolph for 25, the Ateam were suddenly 75 for three after 19 overs.Van Jaarsveld and Dros, however, put the castle back together again, playingcalmly, picking up the ones and twos and taking advantage of shoddy Indianground fielding. Together they took the score along to 192 with seven oversremaining before Van Jaarsveld picked out Dravid at midwicket off HarvinderSingh to depart for 69.Dros picked up the pace in the closing overs, picking up Agarkar sweetlyover square leg for six and benifiting from a life on 80 when SS Das put himdown at deep backward square. He eventually went at the start of the lastover of the innings, but with the score eventually sneaking into the 240s,India would have known they had been set no simple task.The pick of the bowlers, by a distance, was the legspinner Anil Kumble,whose comeback after an absence of nearly a year because of injury continuesapace. Kumble’s first spell of seven overs yielded only five runs forRudolph’s wicket and he finished the innings with figures of 10-4-15-1. Itwas a masterly demonstration of control and economy and it augurs well forhis tour. He, and his fellow bowlers no doubt, might all appreciate a littlemore assistance from the fielders.