India 'A' Defeat England In One-Day Tour Game

India 'A' Defeat England In One-Day Tour Game

Murali Vijay top scored with 77 as India 'A' beat England

©REUTERS / Action Images

India 'A' 224-4 (Vijay 77, Mukund 57) beat
England XI 185 (Bell 91) by 53 runs (D/L)
Tour game, Delhi

England were handed a comprehensive 53-run defeat on the Duckworth/Lewis method by India 'A' in their sole warm-up game ahead of the One-Day International series against India.

Half-centuries for Murali Vijay, Abhinav Mukund and Kedar Jadhav were followed up by three wickets for Ashok Menaria as England were bowled out for 185 in reply to 224 for four.

They were chasing a revised target of 229 but despite an aggressive 91 in 89 balls from Ian Bell, never looked like getting to their target having lost several early wickets.

Mohit Sharma and Jalaj Saxena grabbed two wickets apiece with Ishwar Pandey and Shanthakumaran Sreesanth taking one each as England lurched to 72 for six.

Kevin Pietersen (19) at least made double figures but Samit Patel (4), captain Eoin Morgan (4), Jos Buttler (6), Craig Kieswetter (0) and Chris Woakes (3) all failed.

Bell finally found some support from Tim Bresnan, who made 22, and then Steven Finn, who hit 15 and although the Warwickshire man was impressive, striking eight fours and two sixes, his efforts were in vain.

The Indians had earlier been in no mood to let England have things their own way and with the full team struggling against Pakistan, took full advantage of the opportunity to send a message or two to the selectors.

Mukund (57) and Vijay (77) opened together and put on 118 before Jadhav hit 51 not out in 49 balls.

Jade Dernbach grabbed two wickets for England while James Tredwell and Patel took one apiece.

Vijay faced 77 balls, hitting eight fours and two sixes, Mukund was more steady in making 57 in 79 while Jadhav hit six fours in his belligerent knock.

Menaria (17) and Saxena (2) fell cheaply but they would play their part with the ball as the game wore on.

The first of five ODIs between England and India is in Rajkot on 11th January.

© Cricket World 2013