Indian bowlers make little impression

A make shift Indian bowling line up, bereft of two leading bowlers in Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble as well as the in form Ajit Agarkar made little impression as the Tasmanian openers put on 166 without loss off 58 overs at stumps on the second day of their four day game at Hobart on Saturday. This was in reply to the Indians' first innings total of 316 for nine declared.

Stand in captain Saurav Ganguly tried six bowlers in all, including himself, to break the partnership. But Dene Hills and skipper Jamie Cox came in undisturbed after having batted four hours and faced 58 overs in all. By stumps Hills had faced 182 balls and had nine fours in his 67 while the more aggressive Cox had faced 173 balls for his 88. He also had nine hits to the ropes. Incidentally Cox leads Somerset in the English county championship.

None of the Indian bowlers - Venkatesh Prasad, Mohanty, Ganguly, Kumaran, Harbhajan Singh and Vijay Bhardwaj - looked like taking a wicket as the Tasmanian duo dealt with them comfortably. On the slow wicket, neither the pacemen nor the spinners enjoyed success. Harbhajan, whose only other appearance on the tour was during a festival one day match in Canberra finished the day with none for 34 off 14 overs, the most sent down by an Indian bowler in the day. Mohanty besides being expensive - his 13 overs cost 49 runs - also sent down five no balls.

Earlier, resuming at 241 for six, the Indians declared at the lunch interval after an unbroken last wicket partnership of 47 runs in 95 minutes and off 26.1 overs between Venkatesh Prasad (17) and Mohanty (22). Left arm medium pacer Andrew Downton who took all the three wickets to fall on Saturday morning to reduce the tourists to 269 for nine, finished with five for 90 from 30 overs. Colin Miller bowled economically but finished wicketless after bowling 32 overs while conceding 43 runs.