Indians get off to a bad start in
match against Hampshire

Ashish Shukla in Southampton (England)

The Indians' preparation for the first Test against England next week suffered a blow when they were bowled out for a modest 236 in their first innings on the opening day of their three-day match against Hampshire in Southampton on Saturday.

The mighty Indian batting order danced to the tunes of a little-known off-spinner Shaun Udal who finished the day with five prized scalps.

Only vice-captain Rahul Dravid, who top-scored with 78, Virender Sehwag and V V S Laxman were able muster decent scores on an uneven pitch, which was exploited to the hilt by Udal with his unerring accuracy and deadly variations.

Sehwag, who replaced an out-of-form Shiv Sunder Das in this match, gave the Indians a fairly decent start with Wasim Jaffer (13) and also raised the chances of his coming in as an opener in the first Test starting on July 25.

He made a good-looking 41 with five fours and shared a 60-run second-wicket stand with Dravid before becoming Udal's first victim when the score was 99.

After that, Udal ran through the middle order dismissing Sachin Tendulkar (3), Sourav Ganguly (21), Sanjay Bangar (4) and Laxman (38) to script a memorable day for himself.

Udal had played 10 one-day internationals for England in the mid-90s before fading into oblivion.

The Indians could have been in a worse position but for as many as half-a-dozen chances going abegging, including one of Dravid who was dropped at 18.

In the morning, the Indians won the toss and elected to bat. The focus of attention was Sehwag who apparently has been chosen to open the innings at Lord's with Jaffer.

Sehwag did his cause no harm, playing an attractive knock, but the opening blues continued to haunt the Indians with Jaffer once again failing to put up a big score.

Jaffer looked well in control during his brief stay at the crease but threw it all away when he attempted an ambitious drive against James Thomlinson, only to edge it to the wicketkeeper. India lost the first wicket at 39.

Sehwag and Dravid had a good partnership going for the second wicket. Both of them played their strokes fluently although they did not always get optimum rewards for their shots due to the extremely heavy outfield.

Sehwag, who looked on course for a well-deserved half-century, was out when he played forward to Udal and the ball rolled on to the stumps.

Udal struck a bigger blow in a subsequent over when he sent back Tendulkar, caught by Dimitry Mascarenhas at short third man, for just three runs to reduce the Indians to 106 for three at lunch.

The Indians lost regular wickets after that.

Ganguly was the first to be dismissed when his painful stay in the middle ended with a catch to wicketkeeper Adie Aymes off Udal though the captain was not too happy with umpire Peter Willey's ruling.

Dravid pulled Mascarenhas twice in succession but then edged a catch to the wicketkeeper who was standing up to the medium-pacer.

He looked in brilliant touch and smashed 10 fours and a six in his knock, which spanned 150 minutes and 119 balls.

India also lost wicketkeeper Ajay Ratra before tea when he was ruled out leg before to medium-pacer John Hamblin.

Laxman alone held the innings together in the final session and batted nicely for his 38 runs from 99 balls with four fours before he edged a drive to slip off Udal.

The rest of the batting scratched around to add a few more runs, most notably Harbhajan Singh who was hit painfully on his hand by a rising delivery from Johnson and needed medical attention in the middle. He made 18 runs from 15 balls with three fours before giving a return catch to Tomlinson.

The pitch proved no less difficult for the Hampshire batsmen and the hosts were 33 for one in the eight overs they faced before the close of play.

Sanjay Bangar worked up bounce much beyond his ability and had opener Will Kendell edging a high catch to Virender Sehwag at third slip.

Neil Johnson (30) and John Crawley (1) were at the crease when stumps were drawn.

Scoreboard:
India 1st innings:
W Jaffer c Ames b Thomlinson 13
V Sehwag b Shaun Udal 41
R Dravid c Aymes b Mascarenhas 78
S Tendulkar c Mascarenhas b Udal 3
S Ganguly c Aymes b Udal 21
V V S Laxman c Johnson b Udal 38
A Ratra lbw b Hamblin 1
S Bangar c Crawley b Udal 4
A Kumble c Prittipaul b Johnson 8
H Singh c and b Johnson 18
T Yohannan not out 0
Extras (b-2, lb-5, nb-4) 11
Total (all out, 81.1 overs) 236
Fall of wickets: 1-39, 2-99, 3-103, 4-154, 5-164, 6-175, 7-184, 8-216, 9-222.
Bowling: Dimitry Mascarenhas 11-6-26-1 James Thomlinson 15.1-1-55-2, James Hamblin 13-3-41-1, Neil Johnson 11-2-45-1, Shaun Udal 29-5-59-5, Lawrence Prittipaul 2-0-3-0.

Hampshire 1st innings:
N Johnson batting 30
W Kendell c Sehwag b Bangar 0
J Crawley batting 1
Extras (nb-2) 2
Total (for 1 wkt, 8 overs) 33
Fall of wicket: 1-3.
Bowling: Bangar 3-0-23-1, Yohannan 3-1-3-0, Kumble 1-0-3-0, Harbhajan Singh 1-0-4-0.

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