Derbyshire vs India: Pre-lunch report

Pankaj Singh celebrates the fall of the 1st Derbyshire wicket in India’s 2nd tour game

Derbyshire won the toss and chose to bat in India’s 2nd and last practice game before the all-important Tests against England beginning on July 9th, with the focus very much on how the Indian bowling will fare. India had included all the 18 members of the squad for the 1st tour game against Leicestershire and decided to continue with that policy for this game.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who received a bit of tap against Leicestershire, opened the bowling for India alongside Pankaj Singh, who had impressed in the 1st tour game. Both the bowlers stuck to a nagging line and length and asked questions of the two opening batsmen for Derbyshire, Ben Slater and Paul Borrington. The consistency from the two opening bowlers was rewarded when Paul Borrington nicked Pankaj Singh to Ajinkya Rahane at 2nd slip for 0 off 17 balls in the 5th over of the day.

Chesney Hughes, skipper of Derbyshire for this tour game, then joined Slater in the middle, and both of them showed the respect the bowling deserved by being judicious in their stroke play and leaving balls outside the off-stump.

Bhuvneshwar and Pankaj, both of whom were given long opening spells, did their chances of playing in the 1st Test at Lord’s no harm with figures of 9-3-16-0 and 8-3-21-1 respectively. With the change in bowling from both ends, it was time for Ishant Sharma and Varun Aaron to keep up the pressure on the Derbyshire batsmen. But Ishant, the senior bowler on the tour, disappointed once again with a spell of 4-0-20-0, containing a number of no-balls and juicy half-volleys.

The two Derbyshire batsmen, Slater and Hughes, looked calm and assured throughout their innings and looked to be heading into lunch for the loss of just 1 Derbyshire wicket until Ravindra Jadeja, the left-arm spinner, clean-bowled the Derbyshire captain for a patient 23 off 60 balls in what was the last over before lunch, leaving Derbyshire on 79/2 from 26 overs.