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Robert Ferley spins England Under-19s to victory

Robert Steven Ferley celebrated his nineteenth birthday today with a match winning bowling performance of 10-0-32-4, as England Under-19s completed their first win over the India colts on this tour

Santhosh S
04-Feb-2001
Robert Steven Ferley celebrated his nineteenth birthday today with a match winning bowling performance of 10-0-32-4, as England Under-19s completed their first win over the India colts on this tour. India were bowled out for 217 in the 48th over as England completed a 31 run victory in the second one-dayer played at Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation Stadium, Vijayawada on Sunday.
Set a target of 249 runs in 50 overs, the Indian U19s got off to a poor start. It was all scorching heat as Nadeem Malik came in to bowl the first over. With the fifth ball of the over, he clean bowled Arindam Das for a duck.
Gautam Gambhir once again fell to the trap outside off stump, caught behind by Mark Wallace off Malik for 14. Alind Naidu didn't do any better, caught behind as he chased a ball outside the off stump off the bowling of Chris Tremlett for just four. India were reduced to 59/3 in the 11th over.
Manvinder Bisla and Arjun Yadav added 94 runs in 18.3 overs and steadied the Indian innings. Robert Ferley and Gordon Muchall were outstanding in the field, making some brilliant diving stops. Yadav made 35 off 48 balls, before he was brilliantly caught by Ian Bell off the bowling of Ferley. Ajay Ratra fell to the very next ball, caught by Tremlett for a duck and the Indian innings was reeling at 153/5.
Bisla's innings of 93 was all about sweet timing. He faced 99 balls and decorated his innings with thirteen well-timed strikes past the ropes. Ferley claimed the prize wicket of Bisla, caught and bowled. India colts never recovered as wickets kept tumbling in quick succession. Mishra (1), Vidyuth (1) and Trivedi (3) were the batsmen to be dismissed, the Indian innings taking a tailspin to 182/9.
Maninder Singh with an unbeaten 31 off 44 balls and Aggarwal with 17 added 35 runs for the last wicket. Their effort came a bit too late in the day as Aggarwal was bowled by Ian Pattison at 217 in the 48th over.
Earlier in the day, England won the toss and elected to bat first. Gary Pratt made 15 and added 40 runs for the first wicket with Nicky Peng. Pratt pulled Aggarwal over the square leg fence for a huge six. Peng made a polished 60 off just 69 balls and gave the innings a strong foundation with Ian Bell as they put on 80 runs for the second wicket in 16.5 overs. Peng was given out stumped by the square leg umpire, off the bowling of Mishra in the 26th over. His innings was decorated with seven strokes to the boundary and a huge one over long off for a six.
Ian Bell was the mainstay of the English innings. He played a captain's knock of 91 off 115 balls, including six fours and a six. Ian Bell impressed one and all with his exquisite footwork against the spin bowlers. For once the Indian spin bowlers could not tie the English batsman down. Bell who looked set for a well-deserved hundred, tried to play on the rise to a slower ball from Aggarwal and gave an easy catch to Gautam Gambhir in the covers.
Kadeer Ali (24), Muchall (18) and Ferley (16) made valuable contributions, as England put up a decent score of 248/9 in 50 overs. English colts lost wickets in a hurry in the last overs of their innings. An impressive Trivedi bowled Muchall and Ian Pattison for 18 and one run respectively. He was easily the best of the bowlers with figures of 9-1-26-4.