February 24, 2006	Friday	Muharram 25, 1427

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VADODARA, Feb 23: Fast bowler Munaf Patel ripped through England’s injury-hit batting on the opening day of the three-day tour match against the Indian Board President’s XI on Thursday.

The 24-year-old grabbed five for 59 as the tourists, facing fresh injury concerns over captain Michael Vaughan and Kevin Pietersen, were shot out for 238 in their first innings.

The home team, comprising India’s young talent, were 93-1 at stumps with Test opening contenders Wasim Jaffar (48) and Gautam Gambhir (33 not out) toying with the England bowling.

Jaffar was leg-before to Ian Blackwell off the last ball of the day.

Pietersen top-scored with 47 and Geraint Jones made 46, but none of the other England batsmen settled down in their last practice game ahead of the three-Test series.

Vice-captain Marcus Trescothick, who took charge of the tourists in Vaughan’s absence, was run out for 18 after winning the toss and electing to bat first.

The hosts removed Andrew Strauss (23), Ian Bell (17) and Andrew Flintoff (one) to reduce England to 72-4, before Pietersen and Jones boosted the total.

Pietersen, who suffered a rib injury on the Pakistan tour, pulled up after trying to avoid a bouncer from young pace bowler Vikram Rajvir Singh.

He was treated on the field and returned to hammer 22 runs in one over from Singh.

But it was evident Pietersen would not last much longer and even though he had Strauss to run for him, he retired hurt with England on 123-4.

Patel, who had dismissed Strauss and Flintoff, returned in the afternoon to bowl Jones and Matthew Hoggard off successive deliveries

Liam Plunkett denied Patel a hat trick but the pace bowler gained his fifth wicket by shattering Steve Harmison’s stumps.

Scoreboard

EMGLAND (1st Innings):

M.E. Trescothick run out 18

A.J. Strauss b Patel 23

I.R. Bell c Jaffar b Paul 17

K.P. Pietersen retired hurt 47

A. Flintoff c Singh b Patel 1

G.O. Jones b Patel 46

I.D. Blackwell c Rao b Powar 33

L.E. Plunkett c Jaffar b Paul 37

M.J. Hoggard b Patel 0

S.J. Harmison b Patel 4

M.S. Panesar not out 0

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-2, NB-9) 12

TOTAL (all out, 62.2 overs) 238

FALL OF WKTS: 1-24, 2-62, 3-64, 4-72, 5-182, 6-232, 7-232, 8-234, 9-238.

BOWLING: Munaf Patel 16.2-0-59-5; Vikram Singh 9-1-63-0; Paul 14-6-26-2; Powar 17-3-68-1; Raina 3-0-14-0; Venugopal Rao 3-2-7-0.

PRESIDENT’S XI (1st Innings):

Wasim Jaffar lbw b Blackwell 48

G. Gambhir not out 33

EXTRAS (B-12) 12

TOTAL (for one wkt, 24 overs) 93

FALL OF WKT: 1-93

TO BAT: D. Jadhav, Venugopal Rao, S.K. Raina, S. Badrinath, R.R. Powar, K.K.D. Karthik, Munaf Patel, S.S. Paul, Vikram Singh.

BOWLING (to-date): Hoggard 6-1-29-0; Harmison 5-3-10-0; Flintoff 5-1-20-0; Plunkett 2-0-8-0; Panesar 4-1-8-0; Blackwell 2-0-6-1.—Agencies