New Zealand 'A' have one hand on the Trophy

Day 2 of the MRF Buchi Babu Tournament final on Wednesday at Chepauk saw New Zealand 'A' continue to dominate. First they piled up a mammoth 486/7 declared in their first essay. And then their bowlers reduced Cricket Association of Bengal to 74/5 after 31 overs.

In the morning, Lou Vincent and Hamish Marshall continued to dominate the Bengal bowling. They put on 127 runs before Vincent (101) was dismissed soon after he reached his ton. Marshall though refused to perish. The Bengal skipper Rohan Gavaskar dismissed Vincent with his slow left-arm orthodox bowling. Marshall remained unbeaten on 78 not out at Lunch after Oram (16) and Sulzberger (1) failed. Stumper Chris Nevin was new at the wicket and gave Marshall company.

After Lunch, runs started to flow at a more brisk rate, with Marshall and Nevin scoring comfortably. Half an hour before the Tea break, Nevin hit back a ball from Soumen Singh and was dismissed for 67 (7x4, 1x6) after adding a very useful 126 runs for the 7th wicket with Marshall. Marshall remained unbeaten on 124 when Matthew Bell decided to have a go at the Bengal batsmen and declared with the score on 486 for 7. Marshall was the man to watch through the day. The innings of New Zealand 'A' was entirely build around Marshall, though Vincent and Nevin made more than useful contributions.

For the CAB XI, Shukla and Lahiri picked 2 wickets each. None of the seven bowlers used by Gavaskar ended with economical figures.

New Zealand 'A' had a minor setback as Nevin was injured in the second over of the CAB XI's innings. Vincent donned the gloves from then on. To everyone's surprise, Vincent had four catches coming his way and he accepted all of them to put Bengal in a distressing position.

The highest scorer for CAB XI was their skipper Gavaskar with 27. He sent the ball six times to the fence and looked good but did not last long. Bond managed to get the better of Gavaskar as Vincent bagged yet another catch behind the stumps. CAB XI had lost half their side with just 64 on the board. Soumen Singh (12*) and Sanyal (3*) batted out the remaining four overs and live to fight tomorrow.

Oram sent down just four overs out of the 31 and picked up two wickets giving away a miserly eight runs. Bond, Drum and Sulzberger were rewarded with one wicket each at the end of the day.

New Zealand 'A' seem to have this match sewn up. Something miraculous would have to happen for the CAB XI team to stop the visitors. All it will take from here is some disciplined bowling and New Zealand 'A' should be able to wrap this up comfortably tomorrow.