Morgan, Bairstow pull England out of trouble

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Unbeaten half-centuries from Eoin Morgan and Jonny Bairstow pulled England out of trouble in the post-lunch session on the first day of the thee-day tour game against Mumbai A on Saturday.

Tottering at 66 for 4 at lunch, the visitors advanced to 174 for 4 at tea, through a fast-paced, unbroken fifth-wicket partnership of 108 runs in 172 balls between Eoin Morgan (53) and wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow (51).

The unbeaten century stand between Morgan, who hit six fours and a six, and Bairstow, who struck six fours, dragged the team out of the woods in the second session.

England did not lose a single wicket in the second session after losing four top-order batsmen in the pre-lunch period.

Morgan and Bairstow took the attack to the enemy camp to add 56 runs in 14 overs in the first hour after lunch. In all, the visitors added 108 runs in 27.5 overs in the period between lunch and tea.

Morgan, unconquered on 0 at lunch, was the first to go on the attack mode immediately after the break as he danced down and hoisted rival captain Yadav for a straight field six, the first of the game.

The left-handed batsman from Middlesex then hooked a short ball from Javed Khan to the fence to bring up the 100 in the 34th over.

Morgan reached his half-century in 81 balls before Bairstow followed suit just before tea in 77 balls.

Mumbai A clearly lacked a fifth regular bowler with the decision to leave out leg-spinner Sagar Gorivale from the eleven and England eased their way out of trouble against Yadav and Shoaib Shaikh.

They also had to use irregular bowlers Yadav and Shikhar Dhawan to pep up the over-rate.

The post-lunch progress of the visiting team’s innings was in sharp contrast to the first session when they were rocked on the back foot by Mumbai’s second-string medium pacers.

Kshemal Waingankar, in particular, was impressive by maintaining a steady line outside the off stump in probing style to grab 2 out of the 4 wickets that fell before lunch.

Waingankar, Javed Khan and Yadav got among the wickets on a track assisting seam bowling to leave England tottering at the end of the session after the visitors opted to bat first.

Waingankar struck once each in his two spells to take the wickets of opener Nick Compton for 1 and Ian Bell for 4 while first change bowler Javed Khan dismissed Jonathan Trott for 28.

To make matters worse for England, Yadav struck in the last over before lunch to dismiss Joe Root caught at short leg for 28 to leave the visiting team innings in tatters.