Amit Bhandari and Sridharan Sriram on Tuesday came up with impressive performances to guide India 'A' to an advantageous postion on the opening day of the three-day cricket match against Surrey County at the AMP Oval in London.
Bhandari claimed five wickets as Surrey were skittled out for 173 in their first innings after electing to bat first.
Sriram, playing his first match on this tour, then struck a fine unbeaten 92 as India 'A' closed out the day at a healthy 235 for two, already 62 runs ahead.
It was another good show by India 'A' who have won four out of six matches on this tour so far, the other two ending in draws.
Bhandari finished with figures of 5-54 from 15 overs while Avishkar Salvi claimed three wickets and L Balaji and Amit Mishra took one each.
For Surrey, Rikki Clarke top-scored with 38 runs.
India 'A' made a strong reply with all the batsmen on show, except opener Wasim Jaffer, making handsome contributions.
Skipper Shiv Sunder Das scored 74 runs from 97 balls with 12 fours and a six. He put on 48 for the first wicket with Jaffer (21) and 102 for the second with Sriram before falling leg before wicket to Matthew Todd.
Sriram and Gautam Gambhir, who was batting on 43, then were involved in a fruitful stand.
Sriram has so far struck 16 boundaries in his 112-ball knock and is looking well set for a century when play resumes on Wednesday.
Scoreboard 1st innings:
Surrey:
S Newman c Salvi b Bhandari 27
J Batty c Patel b Bhandari 24
N Shahid c Gambhir b Bhandari 0
R Clarke c Patel b Balaji 38
A Brown c Patel b Salvi 0
J Benning c Das b Mishra 22
B Scott c Das b Bhandari 16
T Murtagh c Patel b Bhandari 12
M Todd not out 6
N Saker c Das b Salvi 5
J Dernbach c Das b Salvi 3
Extras (lb-4, w-2, nb-14) 20
Total (all out, 44 overs) 173
Fall of wickets: 1-55, 2-55, 3-73, 4-75, 5-122, 6-144, 7-144, 8-158, 9-164.
Bowling: Salvi 12-3-49-3, Balaji 9-2-50-1, Bhandari 15-4-54-5, Mishra 8-4-16-1.
India 'A':
S S Das lbw b Todd 74
W Jaffer c Batty b Dernbach 21
S Sriram batting 92
G Gambhir batting 43
Extras (lb-1, w-2, nb-2) 5
Total (for 2 wickets, 44 overs) 235
Fall of wickets: 1-48, 2-150.
Bowling: Murtagh 8-0-39-0, Saker 8-1-38-0, Dernbach 5-1-35-1, Clarke 7-2-16-0, Benning 5-0-42-0, Todd 7-0-41-1, Shahid 4-0-23-0.
