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MELBOURNE, Dec 1: India held out for a draw on Monday after being given a fright by an inexperienced Queensland Academy of Sport line-up.
Set a near-impossible 305 to win in two sessions, the Indians crawled to 121 for four when the captains agreed to an early finish.
The Academy, made up of mainly part-time players with little first-class experience, declared at lunch on 208 for six with Lee Carseldine 109 not out, to go with his first-innings hundred.
India play Australia in the first Test starting at the Gabba on Thursday and Academy captain Aaron Nye predicted the tourists would struggle.
“You could see that they want to compete, which is pretty important, but they’re going to have to go the next notch up...because the Australian team don’t give you an inch to move,” Nye said.
“We worked out we probably didn’t lose a session at all. In general we felt we were pretty much on top.”
With 60 overs available, the Indians used their time to get some valuable batting practice.
They looked in trouble when they lost Virender Sehwag, Akash Chopra and Deep Dasgupta cheaply to slump to 32 for three.
But Indian skipper Saurav Ganguly and Sadagoppan Ramesh steadied the ship with a 57-run stand.
Scoreboard
QUEENSLAND ACADEMY OF SPORT (1st Innings 304-6 decl.
INDIA (1st Innings) 208-9 decl.
QUEENSLAND ACADEMY OF SPORT(2nd Innings, overnight 79-2):
D. Payne lbw b Sehwag 35
C. Simpson lbw b Pathan 5
L. Carseldine not out 109
A. Nye lbw b Kumble 16
C. Philipson c Ramesh b Pathan 11
S. Farrell st Patel b Kumble 2
C. Hartley c Sehwag b Balaji 8
R. Le Loux not out 12
EXTRAS (B-4, LB-1, NB-5) 10
TOTAL (for six decl, 52 overs) 208
FALL OF WKTS: 1-6, 2-73, 3-121, 4-142, 5-156, 6-194.
BOWLING: Agarkar 10-0-30-0; Pathan 13-0-54-2; Balaji 9-1-47-1 (4nb); Kumble 17-6-55-2 (1nb); Sehwag 3-0-14-1.
INDIA (2nd Innings):
A. Chopra c Farrell b Magoffin 11
V. Sehwag lbw b Dawes 4
D. Dasgupta b Jurgensen 8
S. Ramesh not out 37
S.C. Ganguly c Nye b Simpson 35
R.S. Dravid not out 20
EXTRAS (LB-6) 6
TOTAL (for four wkts, 52 overs) 121
FALL OF WKTS: 1-13, 2-28, 3-32, 4-88.
BOWLING: Dawes 7-5-10-1; Brant 7-2-11-0; Magoffin 9-2-21-1; Jurgensen 5-2-13-1; Simpson 14-4-22-1; Philipson 3-2-6-0; Le Loux 7-0-32-0.
RESULT: Match drawn.—Reuters
