Hove: India may have been outplayed in whites this summer, but dress them in blue and give them a slow, dead pitch to bat on and they can still play like princes. Virat Kohli, Parthiv Patel and Rohit Sharma, none of whom played in the Test series, each made a bullying half-century to give India their first win on this tour with 25 balls remaining.To the delight of a capacity crowd, five of the World Cup-winning team were playing, including Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, but injuries deprived India of five other players who beat Sri Lanka in the final in April.
Gautam Gambhir continues to complain about his vision after hitting his head on the outfield at the Kia Oval last week. Two MRI scans in London did not reveal anything of concern, but the batsman was rested Thursday and is not expected to play in the floodlit match against Kent Friday to be fit for the limited-overs sequence with England that starts on September 3.
Tendulkar came and went as India made a rapid start to their pursuit of 237. The veteran breezed to 21 off 17 balls before unusually scoop a ball from Chris Liddle straight into the hands of mid-off.
Patel, who toured England as long ago as 2002 when he was 17, has recently regained his place as Dhoni’s understudy after six years out of the team and batted competently enough in five one-day matches in the West Indies before this tour. He reached 55 before he misjudged the primary ball he faced from Chris Nash and was bowled.
Kohli, who may find some happy memories Friday of when he hit 123 at Canterbury for India Under-19 in 2006, joint a third-wicket stand of 104 in less than 18 overs with Sharma to ease any worries of defeat. Kohli was caught at mid-on for 71, half pull out of a drive, but Sharma saw India home with 61 off 65 balls. Having made 257 runs for twice out in the five-match one-day series in the Caribbean, he may be India’s danger man.
The match began half an hour late in light drizzle and the players went off twice in the first seven overs when it started to rain heavily, but when the clouds moved away, India began to take be in command of.
R.P. Singh led the attack with rather more verve than he had at the Oval, taking four wickets and getting decent movement off the seam, but Sussex were given quite a few runs by fairly half-hearted fielding. Perhaps if training sessions were not optional, India might look more lively.
Too many boundaries were given up when a more sprightly fielder would have kept the batsmen to two and there were a couple of dropped catches, the most damaging by the normally consistent Suresh Raina, who put down Matt Machan at mid-wicket when he was on 11. The middle-order batsman made a career-best 56 before being caught and bowled by Raina.
With Joe Gatting hitting 46 before chopping a ball from Ravichandran Ashwin on to his stumps and Ben Brown making 48, Sussex looked to have a defendable total but with Wayne Parnell, Monty Panesar and Michael Yardy left out of the side, they lack the bowlers to hold the Indians.
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