England's Youngsters Impress As Hyderabad Thrashed

England's Youngsters Impress As Hyderabad Thrashed

Scott Borthwick took five wickets to bowl England to a handsome win over the Hyderabad Cricket Association XI

©Action Images / Andrew Boyers Livepic

England XI 367-4 (Bairstow 104no, Cook 85) beat
Hyderabad CA XI 114 (Borthwick 5-31) by 253 runs
Tour game, Hyderabad

England's young guns Jonathan Bairstow, Scott Borthwick and Stuart Meaker all turned in impressive performances as the tourists smashed a Hyderabad Cricket Association XI by 253 runs in a tour game.

Bairstow hammered an unbeaten 104 in 53 as England racked up a total of 367 for four and Hyderabad were bowled out for just 114 as Borthwick and Meaker shared eight wickets.

Leg-spinner Borthwick returned figures of five for 31 while pacer Meaker, making his first appearance as part of a senior England squad, took three for 63.

Bairstow, however, made the early headlines by smacking eight sixes - one from the final ball of the innings to reach his century - and six fours en route to a belligerent century that could have sealed his place in the team for the opening One-Day International on 14th October.

Alastair Cook (85), Craig Kieswetter (71) and Jonathan Trott (74) had set an outstanding platform for the Yorkshireman to come in and play his shots while only Kevin Pietersen, who fell for ten, failed to contribute.

Samit Patel added more gloss to the batting performance by carving an unbeaten 15 in eight balls at the death.

In reply, Hyderabad were found wanting and fell desperately short, for a long while looking as if they would fail to reach three figures.

After Akshath Reddy (37) and captain Dharaka Ravi Teja (27) had given them a solid start, England's spinners Borthwick and Patel turned the game decisively.

Durham man Borthwick removed both openers as well as Hanuma Vihari (0), Arjun Yadav (4) and Ahmed Quadri (0) while Patel had Neeraj Bist caught by Chris Woakes for four.

Meaker then returned to have wicket-keeper Ibrahim Khaleel (10) trapped in front and both Amol Shinde (8) and Ashish Reddy (0) bowled.

The rout was completed when Pietersen made up for a lack of success with the bat by having Mehdi Hassan - who had earlier had Cook, Kieswetter and Pietersen caught off his bowling - caught by Borthwick for 13.

© Cricket World 2011