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Prasad, Laxman excel against Lankans

It is perhaps ironic that the best peformances for the Board President's XI against the touring Sri Lankans came from players who are not part of the senior side.

Thus, V V S Laxman scored a stroke-filled, carefree century (112, 166 balls, 14 fours) and, yet again, underlined the fact that his ability to change gears from the defensive to the offensive as per the dictates of the game, coupled with the ease with which he fits into any slot in the batting order, make him a natural for the senior squad.

Meanwhile, Wasim Jaffar in rattling up 79 at the top of the order further underlined the growing feeling that he will, sooner rather than later, be opening the batting for India. Experts rate him a good player of pace bowling, with strokes off either front or back foot, and classical technique.

If the BPXI's composition was intended to give the selectors an index into current form and ability, it however fell a shade short of that purpose as regards the batting. For barring Laxman and Jaffar, none of the other under-trials -- Gagan Khoda, Sridharan Sharath (who suffered the indignity of being bowled first ball by spinner Jayantha Silva), Hrishikesh Kanitkar and M S K Prasad (the keeper-batsman) -- did enough to justify the hype that ranks them as India probables.

For Sri Lanka, the game threw up an interesting conundrum, in that the most successful bowler was Jayanta Silva with 5 for 55. The question is, how does Sri Lanka fit him into the playing eleven? The only option for Ranatunga -- assuming he wishes to play Silva -- appears to be to drop Kumara Dharmasena, which is a hard choice given that the off spinner is also a very good batsman to have coming in at number 8.

Rain admittedly took most of the competitiveness out of the match, yet it was interesting to see Venkatesh Prasad and Debashish Mohanty bowl with great fire against the Lankans on day three. While Mohanty concentrated on coming in and bowling as fast as he possibly could, Prasad slipped easily back into his pre-Sri Lanka mode, holding a lovely line on or around the off stump, and alternating the leg cutter with the one coming in to the right hander.

The most interesting battle of day three was between Sanath Jayasuriya and Prasad -- and the latter won the first round when, after a series of deliveries leaving the left hander, he bowled one on off stump line, inducing Jayasuriya to play for the one leaving him, and instead, bringing it back a long way to peg back leg stump.

After Prasad rested himself (not, however, before doing enough to indicate that he has now added the indipping yorker to his bowling vocabulary), the focus shifted to left arm spinner Rahul Sanghvi, who on a helpful Barabati Stadium pitch, bowled superbly to take four wickets for 60 runs. Sanghvi has an easy action, gets turn (it must be pointed out here that a final assessment of the bowler can be made only after watching him bowl to top quality batsmen on an unfriendly track) and shows good command of flight and loop.

The only Lankans who handled the pace of Prasad and Mohanty, and the spin of Sanghvi and to a lesser extent Sairaj Bahutule (2/40) were Hashan Tillekeratne, who made a fighting 77, and Dharmasena, who rattled off a rapid 39 inclusive of four boundaries and the only six of the match.

Much has been written about the value of young and hungry players in the side. And nothing exemplfied it so much as the performance of Debashish Mohanty. When bowling, he was flat out and trying all the time. And in the field, he raced around like it was a one day game, throwing himself at the ball and, in course of the Lankan innings, bringing off two outstanding catches in the deep.

For the likes of Laxman and Jaffer -- and, to a lesser extent, Sanghvi -- the fact of not being picked for the national side for the first Test against Sri Lanka must have come as a disheartening postscript to a heartwarming performance.

There is, however, a positive side to it -- and it was underlined by no less than Laxman himself. "Yes," said the Hyderabad batsman, "I am rather disappointed, I had thought after my century that I would be picked for the senior side. However, the team selected is only for the first Test, I am looking forward for a berth in the team in the remaining matches. I am sure I will get my chance very soon."