Goswami’s fifty in India’s cautious reply

By Paritosh Pramanik
NAGPUR, Feb 22

THE India Under-19 team has developed a knack of losing initiative. On the first day they managed to put England on the backfoot with three wickets in the morning session with one run on the board but failed to put them under pressure. On second morning of the Youth Test they again managed to take early wickets but still failed to wipe off the tail which added 95 runs as England managed to take the score to 375.
At stumps India were 153 for 3, still 222 runs behind England.
The hosts got a good start by the openers—Abhishek Goswami (58) and Utkarsh Singh (19) but this time too they failed to build on the partnership and lost wickets at regular intervals.
With the wicket getting slower, it was the duty of the openers to wipe out as much deficit as they could. But both returned in space of 10 overs to put the middle-order under pressure. Even captain Jonty Sidhu (17) perished three overs before the end of day’s play.
Indian colts negotiated 12 overs before tea to reach 40 runs. Goswami and Utkarsh Singh both lowered their guards and made sure they don’t lose any wicket in the second session. Goswami’s ball placement was beautiful. All his boundaries were placed in perfect gaps. If there was a first slip, Goswami opened the face of his bat to glide the ball to third man boundary. In one of the overs he spotted fine leg wide and cleverly swept the ball fine to the fence.
England would have tasted success immediately at the start of Indian innings had Delray Rawlings not dropped Utkarsh Singh in the second over at second slip. Utkarsh tried to build his innings and hit Liam-Patterson White for a straight six but failed to capitalise on the life and perished to the same bowler giving a catch at backward silly point to Harry Brook. 
Goswami, meanwhile, continued his innings with poise and hit nine boundaries before he pulled an Arron Beard’s delivery onto his stumps to bring an abrupt end to his innings.
Later, captain Sidhu and Saurabh Singh (43) managed to add 42 runs before Sidhu gave an easy catch at slip to Max Holden.
Earlier, England added 132 runs to their overnight score of 243. Rawlings (140) and Will Jacks (77) took the team past 300 with steady innings. Rawlings played with the same cool temperament. They added 150 runs for the sixth wicket. The pair was finally separated when left-armer Anukul Roy trapped Rawlings in front. His seven-hour long innings contained 19 boundaries and two sixes.
Spinner Daryl Ferrario immediately put brakes on England innings with two wickets from as many deliveries. He first removed Jacks and on the very next delivery sent White back caught by wicketkeeper Lokeshwar.
However, the England tail wagged as Beard and Henry Brookes added 50 for the ninth wicket. The partnership was finally broken after lunch by Roy who trapped Beard in front. Brookes and Daniel Houghton took the total to 375 with the former remaining unbeaten on 60.
Brief scores: England 1st inn 375 (D Rawlings 140, O Pope 42, W Jacks 77, H Brookes 60, R Bhagat 58-3, D Ferrario 90-3). India U-19 1st inn: (A Goswami 58, S Singh, A Beard 20-1).