Chris Tremlett and Andrew McGarry took the honours on Day two in thesecond ‘Test’ between India U19s and England U19s, played at the MAChidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Sunday

Santhosh S21-Jan-2001Chris Tremlett and Andrew McGarry took the honours on Day two in thesecond ‘Test’ between India U19s and England U19s, played at the MAChidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Sunday.The tall English lad Tremlett played one of the best innings of hisyoung career with a commanding effort that earned him 61 runs. It wasa treat to watch the young lad play with such ease against the youngIndian spinners. He smashed six boundaries and two towering sixes, thesecond one to reach his fifty. He scored the bulk of the 45 preciousruns added for the last wicket with Monty Panesar, whose contributionwas just two runs.Chris saw two of his partners get run out just before lunch and kepthis concentration to score the valuable runs. Later in the day,Tremlett bowled well and picked up the wicket of the dangerous GautamGambhir. There was a happy face in the stadium, that of the Englishmanager, Tim Tremlett. He was delighted with his son’s remarkableperformance. Just before embarking on this Indian tour, Chris lost hisyounger brother in a tragic car accident. The Tremlett family will beproud of their son tonight.Resuming on 286/3, the English colts lost overnight batsman GJ Prattfor 30, edging a sharp rising ball to the keeper off the bowling ofAggarwal. Ian Pattison was lucky to be dropped by Mane in the slips,but did not last for long, bowled by SK Trivedi for 7. The ball kept ashade lower than what Pattison had expected it to bounce.In the meanwhile, Gordon Muchall played some crisp shots and tried tosteady the innings. Mark Wallace did not do himself justice by drivingoff the backfoot to a delivery from Dharmichand; the ball took thebottom edge and Ratra took the catch behind the stumps.Chris Tremlett came in at 312/6 and helped Muchall put on 42 for theseventh wicket. Muchall played the shot of the morning session,dancing down the track to the off spinner Dharmichand, lofting himstraight for a huge six. Muchall was unlucky to be dismissed on 49, adirect hit from the substitute fielder Mishra. His innings wasdecorated with five boundaries and a six.JE Bishop made the cardinal sin of not grounding his bat as he was runout for a duck by YG Rao to leave England at 354/8. At the same scoreMcGarry was trapped LBW by Aggarwal for a duck. England had undone allthe good work they did on the first day.Tremlett and Panesar got together at 354/9 and put on their brilliantpartnership to take England to 399 all out in 144.2 overs. Tremlettwas caught in the covers while trying to clear the infield, going forquick runs. Nitin Aggarwal bowled well to pick 19-6-46-2.Requiring 250 runs to avoid following on, India colts got off to aflying start. Vinayak Mane and Gambhir were in great touch, smashingthe ball for boundaries. Mane struck three fours in his innings of 12before being bowled by McGarry, as the batsman shouldered arms to aball that was coming in a little and removed the off stump.Gambhir played some astounding pull shots off the bowling of McGarryand Bishop in scoring 23 runs. Tremlett was brought in from the farend. In the fifth ball of the over, Gambhir went for a square drive,played it in the air and John Sadler took a good catch at point.The first ball after the tea break saw Gary Pratt drop Rao atmidwicket. The bowler to suffer was Panesar. Rao had added five moreruns and moved to 18 when Ian Bell floored an easy chance off thebowling of Panesar. The English fielding effort was not anywhere nearthe standards that they strive for.McGarry who had accounted for the dangerous looking Gambhir justbefore tea, dealt two telling blows in the 32nd over reducing thehosts to 103/4. He trapped YG Rao LBW with the fifth ball of the overand had Alind Naidu caught behind with the following delivery. Raomade 30 runs off 60 balls, which included six strokes past theboundary ropes.Panesar’s dreadful run of luck continued as Pratt again floored aneasy chance at midwicket. The batsman to benefit this time was Gandaon 42. Ganda as a matter of fact toyed with the young Panesar’sbowling, belting him for boundaries to the midwicket and cover fence.Ian Bell impressed with his astute captaincy, using his fast bowlersin short spells. At close of play India U19s had moved on to 122/4 in39 overs. Ganda and KR Khadkikar are the unbeaten batsmen with 45 (5fours) and 9 respectively. McGarry’s excellent show with the ballfetched him the figures of 9-1-29-3.