Tour match: Cook, Patel spare England the blushes

England skipper Alastair Cook scored a fine 112 against India A in England’s first warm-up match. At close of play, he had hit 13 fours off 251 balls as England reached 286-4 after 87 overs. But the bigger surprise for the England XI was the manner is which Samit Patel batted. His 82 off 145 balls included 12 fours and also helped the visitors recover from a tough situation. When the allrounder came in to bat, England were struggling at 133 for 4. The partnership between Cook and Patel is already worth 153 runs in 49 overs and England now trail by just 83 runs with 6 wickets remaining. The England skipper was dropped on 87 off Yuvraj Singh by wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha and has taken full advantage of the mistake. [caption id=“attachment_509795” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Cook’s century consisted of 12 fours. AP[/caption] Earlier, Kevin Pietersen scored a quickfire 23 runs from 24 balls including three fours and six before Yuvraj Singh caught him off his own bowling. The left-arm spinner also sent Ian Bell (5) back to the pavilion after the batsman edged one to the slips. Jonathan Trott, who scored a solid 56 was earlier bowled by Suresh Raina. After knocks from Manoj Tiwary, Abhinav Mukund and Yuvraj Singh took India A to a total of 369, Ashok Dinda was quick to send England opener Nick Compton back to the hut for zero. But Cook and Jonathan Trott  steadied the ship for the visitors with some smart batting before lunch. Trott in particular looked in good touch, smashing nine fours before he lost his wicket. At lunch, England were 79-1. India were bowled out on the first ball bowled on day 2 of the warm up match between India A and England at the Brabourne stadium in Mumbai— Vinay Kumar being the last man to depart for the hosts LBW to James Anderson. On day one, India A’s standout performer was Manoj Tiwary, who fell just seven runs short of a century— scoring 93 runs from 150 balls which included 12 fours. Abhinav Mukund made his credentials stronger with a quick 73 off 83 balls with 16 boundaries and Yuvraj Singh scored 59 before falling to Graeme Swann. The last first-class century by an Indian in a tour match at home vs Eng XI when Gautam Gambhir scored 108 for Board Presidents XI at Baroda in February 2006. England’s Tim Bresnan and Graeme Swann took three wickets each on the opening day, and England will now look forward to stick around and bat for as long as possible. They will, however, not have any practice against spinners because India A have not included a specialists spinner in the team.