Indians skittle Guyana out for 118

Guyana Board President's XI became easy prey to the guiles of Indian bowlers, who skittled out the home team for a paltry 118 runs on the opening day of the three-day game in Georgetown on Friday.

Contrary to expectation, the Indians decided to field a full-strength team against a depleted home team and the contest was never going to be even.

The slide started from the very first ball of the match when Javagal Srinath had opener Andrew Gonsalves caught by Deep Dasgupta, selected ahead of the other wicketkeeper in the side, Ajay Ratra, for nought.

Zaheer Khan claimed the second wicket in the next over, inducing an edge from the new batsman Narsingh Deonaraine, which was well taken by V V S Laxman at second slip.

Thereafter, wickets fell at regular intervals with off-spinner Harbhajan Singh finishing with four wickets for 37 runs.

Srinath, Zaheer Khan and leg-spinner Anil Kumble took two wickets each.

The Indian bowlers were somewhat frustrated only by a seventh wicket stand between top-scorer Homchand Pooran (41) and Reon Griffith (10). The two added only 21 runs between them but consumed 15 overs in the second session.

The partnership was finally broken by Zaheer Khan when Pooran edged a low catch to Dasgupta. Pooran batted for 143 minutes and hit three fours and a six.

India were 73 for two in reply.

Scoreboard:

Guyana President's XI first innings

A.Gonzalves c Dasgupta b Srinath 0
K.Arjune c Das b Singh 25
N.Deonarine c Laxman b Khan 4
T.Dowling c Das b Kumble 11
D.Dasrat c Das b Singh 0
H.Pooran c Dasgupta b Khan 41
V.Nagamootoo b Srinath 10
K.Basil c Kumble b Singh 12
R.Thomas lbw Kumble 1
R.Griffith c Tendulkar b Singh 5
H.Harinarine not out 5
Extras (3nb 1lb) 4
Total (all out) 118
Fall of wickets: 1-0 2-5 3-25 4-57 5-57 6-79 7-99 8-105 9-112
Bowling: Srinath 10-2-20-2, Khan 10-3-22-2, Kumble 14.3-7-28-2, Bangar 8-5-8-0, Singh 19-5-37-4, Tendulkar 1-0-2-0

India first innings:

D.Dasgupta run out 6
S.Das c Nagamootoo b Dasrat 20
S.Ganguly not out 40
S.Tendulkar 3
Extras (1nb 3lb) 4
Total (for two wickets) 73
Fall of wickets: 1-18 2-42
To bat: V.Laxman, R.Dravid, A.Kumble, J.Srinath, H.Singh, Z.Khan, S.Bangar
Bowling: Grittith 7-1-24-0, Thomas 9-4-28-0, Dasrat 7-1-12-1, Basil 3-1-6-0, Harinarine 1-1-0-0
PTI

Mail Cricket Editor